Chapter 76 — The First Step of Art

"Hold on, never mind how the identification runes work for now," Gao Yang interrupted Hedy's self-criticism. This eldest granddaughter was fine in every way, except that the moment she believed the Xuanmai Sect was displeased, she would immediately sink into a state of self-criticism and soul-searching that gave one a headache. She was clearly built for the imperious queen route, yet before him she acted as though she were forever being bullied. "I saw the annotation you wrote here... You say this array differs from conventional magic arrays—that rather than releasing the energy from the crystal outward to produce the explosion, it detonates the energy inside the crystal itself, making the crystal part of the explosive?"

Hedy blinked, then nodded. "Yes. Similar arrays ordinarily channel the energy out of the storage crystal to take effect in the outside world, but because this array's purpose is self-detonation, it skips the channeling step and detonates the energy directly within the storage crystal. The exploding crystal fragments are also highly lethal. To be honest, I had never encountered an array like this before. Simple as it is, I doubt any mage in his right mind would use it—it destroys a precious storage crystal outright..."

Hedy trailed off. Clearly she was no fool, and she had swiftly grasped the use of such a thing.

She and Gao Song turned their eyes, as if by unspoken agreement, to the ruby vessel on the lab bench. To them, the trace of crystal dust within it seemed to glow anew.

That was the radiance of art (confirmed).

"The mana extracted from those crystals turns instantly into waste energy, but while it's stored inside the crystal, its state is stable..." Gao Xi said slowly. "So why not just skip extracting it altogether and detonate it right there inside the crystal?"

Hedy echoed just as slowly: "Indeed. After all, this kind of 'crystal' is refined from stone, and it isn't worth much anyway..."

No mage in his right mind would use a detonation array that blows up the storage crystal along with it, because storage crystals were valuable, and all they needed was to add an energy-output structure to the detonation array to release the blast spell while preserving the crystal. Since the effect was exactly the same, why destroy a crystal?

But what if there were a kind of crystal whose stored mana could not be drawn out at all—and which was itself utterly worthless?

Then the thing was practically made for self-detonation. Its nature was as blunt and bullheaded as that of its inventor.

A host of thrilling, audacious ideas flashed through Gao Yang's mind, every one of them accompanied by brilliant firelight and stirring thunder. They were the future, they were hope, they were the sword and shield defending the people and the land, they were a ray of light piercing the gloom left by the failed trial batches of gunpowder...

They were art.

Art of a caliber that simply couldn't be beat—the Louvre tier.

Gao Yang reined in those exhilarating ideas and suddenly asked, his expression turning odd, a very practical question: "How exactly do we engrave a detonation array onto a crystal the size of a grain of rice?"

Hedy calmed down as well and gave the question serious thought, then said with some uncertainty: "Perhaps... it needn't be engraved on the crystal at all, because this is an 'interference-type' array."

(Good heavens—going on the shelves the day after tomorrow!)