Chương 133: Conflicting Mana Reaction

Li Qinwu sprinted at top speed toward the recruit training grounds. By the time he arrived, all military drills had been suspended. The new recruits were huddling under every available scrap of shade, drenched in sweat and devoid of all physical strength. The recruit battalion commander escorted Li Qinwu to the corpse of a newly fallen recruit, speaking in an anxious tone: "Boss, it's truly not that we're failing to enforce military discipline! Look at this—this soldier literally got baked to death under the sun!

Several others passed out cold. This weather is just so unnaturally sweltering!" He wiped a continuous layer of sweat from his forehead as he spoke, reaching up to violently scratch at his neck. It looked intensely itchy; he had already scraped off multiple layers of skin, leaving raw, red marks. Li Qinwu remained silent for a long moment before issuing a direct operational order: "From now on, suspend all static standing drills and physical conditioning during midday.

Shift those items to early morning and late evening. During the noon hours, keep the troops inside the barracks out of the sun. Use that time to have the officers lecture them on musket maintenance, infantry tactics, and military anthems." He cast a long glance across the parade grounds. The intense heat radiating off the dirt was producing visible, rippling heatwaves into the air. It's preposterously, abnormally hot.

"Increase water distribution immediately. Every single soldier must consume at least two canteens of water per day." After finishing his inspection of the recruit camp, Li Qinwu rushed back to the battlements along the perimeter walls. He needed to maintain unceasing surveillance over the primary human host stationed to the west—the moment they initiated a tactical movement, he would lead his forces out to strike. Another day slipped by. Lying on his cot in the command tower, Li Qinwu's eyes suddenly snapped open.

"Fuck! Why is it so damn hot?!" He bounded up off the bed, his body completely soaked in sweat. The mattress beneath him was thoroughly drenched, looking as if someone had dumped an entire bucket of water over the bedding.

"Something is wrong! This is way too hot!" Li Qinwu wiped his face frantically, gasping for breath. The simple act of breathing felt like inhaling searing hot air into his lungs. He yanked the door open to search for fresh water. The moment he stepped outside, he saw the guard posted at his door drop his musket onto the stone floor, frantically tearing at his own neck. The guard had completely unbuckled his torso armor, clawing at his exposed skin in a frenzy.

Catching sight of Li Qinwu stepping out so abruptly, the guard nearly jumped out of his skin. He hurriedly snatched up his musket and snapped to attention, but his physical frame trembled uncontrollably. His eyelids twitched violently as he fought to endure an overwhelming internal torment. Li Qinwu's gaze locked onto the guard's neck—the flesh was scraped raw, weeping blood and fluid.

"Itches?" Li Qinwu asked, his brow creasing deeply. The guard's eyes were filled with pure agony.

"Boss! It itches so badly! And it's burning up inside!" Li Qinwu's heart sank like a stone. He was one hundred percent certain now—this was an unnatural anomaly! But... what could it be?

"Soldier, stand at ease." The guard let out a long gasp of relief. Setting his musket aside, he began scratching himself wildly, completely disregarding Li Qinwu's presence as he tore off the rest of his armor plating to claw at his torso. Within seconds, his skin was covered in vivid crimson lacerations. A cold, spine-tingling sensation crept up Li Qinwu's back. He sprinted along the battlements to inspect the other guard posts.

Every goblin soldier he crossed was suffering from the exact same severe, agonizing itch and intense thermal distress. Only a handful of company commanders were faring slightly better, exerting absolute willpower to keep their movements in check. Watching his soldiers suffer in such agony, Li Qinwu felt an overwhelming wave of restless agitation surge through his mind. The sensation made his own neck feel uncomfortably itchy; he raised a hand to scratch at it automatically.

"Boss!" Gobu-Mao suddenly came sprinting up the stairs of the gate tower, his face pale with panic.

"Boss! We have a crisis—the new recruits in the barracks are all bedridden! They can't get up!" Li Qinwu felt a sharp jolt. He sprinted straight for the recruit camp. Over a thousand new recruits were lying prone across their cots, their breathing faint and ragged, looking as though they were on the absolute brink of death. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"What in the hell is going on here?!" Li Qinwu's chest tightened. He could feel an invisible danger closing in, yet he had zero idea what was causing it, let alone how to counter it.

"Boss! What do we do?!" Gobu-Mao was panicking even harder than he was. He kept reaching up to scratch at his own neck, which was similarly scraped raw and bloody.

"Don't lose your head! Stay composed!" Li Qinwu snapped. He had to say it—his own mind was a chaotic mess, but as the supreme commander, he could not afford to show a single shred of vulnerability.

"Boss! Terrible news!!" Before he could process a viable plan, Gobu-Gong came sprinting into the compound as well.

"Boss, over at the livestock pens—every single pregnant animal just suffered a sudden miscarriage!"

"What?!" Li Qinwu's heart dropped. He sprinted straight for the livestock quarters to verify the report. Sure enough, every single pregnant beast had aborted its draft, covered in bloody discharge. However, the host animals themselves had not perished; they were all still alive. The goblin embryos had died inside the womb, but the host animals survived. Why? He felt as though he had just grabbed hold of a critical thread.

"Go fetch Doggo-Witch, Hana, and Leo! Get them over here right now!" A short while later, the three were brought before him. Doggo-Witch actually had to be carried over on a stretcher—his canine tongue was lolling completely out of his mouth as he clawed frantically at his own furred body, whining in misery:"Woo-woo! It itches! It burns! Arf! Woof woof!" Because he was covered in thick fur, the intense itch and thermal effect impacted him far more severely.

He appeared completely incapable of standing on his own feet. Recognizing that the dogman might actually die if this continued, Li Qinwu barked an immediate order to the nearby soldiers: "Shave off every scrap of his fur! Clean to the skin!" He then whirled around to face Miss Hana and Knight Leo.

"You two—are you experiencing any abnormal physical sensations? Do you feel intense heat or uncontrollable itching?" The two looked entirely bewildered by the line of questioning, though they clearly understood a massive crisis had materialized. Hana hurriedly replied: "It's... a bit warm, certainly, but nowhere near the point of collapsing! It feels like a standard summer day. As for itching? None at all." Li Qinwu was now one hundred percent certain. The enemy! This has to be the work of the enemy!

He immediately tracked down the Ogre, Dang-Dang. The massive creature showed zero signs of discomfort, munching on his rations with complete gusto. Next, Li Qinwu went to inspect the four Mount Spiders. Every single one of them was dead! Gazing down at the limp corpses of the giant arachnids, Li Qinwu's mind raced at hyper-velocity. Humans and Ogres experienced zero abnormal symptoms. Goblins, Kobolds, and Mount Spiders, however, were suffering severe physical distress or dying outright. Why?

He searched for the common denominator connecting Goblins, Kobolds, and Mount Spiders. They all belong to the Dark attribute! Ogres possessed the Earth attribute, while Humans were fundamentally Attribute-less—capable of acquiring alternate elemental affinities later through specialized training or cultivation.

"Dark attribute... Dark attribute... Dark attribute..." Li Qinwu muttered under his breath, breaking into a rapid sprint toward the Governor's Manor. The manor currently functioned as an auxiliary recruit camp. The recruits quartered here were similarly lying prone across the floor, and several corpses had already been covered in linen sheets. Li Qinwu swept his eyes over the scene before diving down into the third subterranean level beneath the manor. He threw open the door to the innermost research chamber.

"Oh? You've arrived?" The moment he pushed the door open, a soft voice floated out from the interior. The wraith-form of West-Hayden was currently directing a handful of novice mage apprentices as they adjusted various glass apparatuses. These apprentices were the young children Li Qinwu had captured and subsequently spared when he dismantled the local Mage Tower.

Because West-Hayden possessed zero capacity to directly interact with the physical world in his spectral state, conducting arcane research required mortal hands to execute his directions. He had raised the matter with Li Qinwu previously, and Li Qinwu had simply assigned the young apprentice mages to his care. West-Hayden gestured for the apprentices to halt their work, floating over to Li Qinwu's side. Observing Li Qinwu drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, a grave look settled into his ghostly eyes.

"At first, I merely harbored a strong suspicion, but seeing you in such a state now confirms my thesis." Li Qinwu wiped a heavy sleeve across his sweaty face.

"What do you know about this situation? Speak quickly!" It was baffling—this was the third subterranean level beneath the earth, yet the air down here was still sweltering. West-Hayden floated in a slow circle around Li Qinwu before stopping directly in front of him.

"There is no mistake. This is a Conflicting Mana Reaction." Li Qinwu stared at him in tense silence, waiting for the explanation. Recognizing the absolute urgency of the moment, West-Hayden accelerated his speech: "To put it simply: in every corner of this world—within the water, the soil, the very air we breathe—mana exists continuously. More specifically, all elemental mana types coexist simultaneously: Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Light, and Dark." Li Qinwu cut in: "Coexist simultaneously?

Water mana and Fire mana can exist in the exact same space without reacting?" West-Hayden nodded.

"Intelligent goblin, you've picked up on the core principle. In nature, the baseline concentration of ambient mana is relatively low; thus, the coexisting elements will not naturally trigger a violent reaction—unless an artificial method is deployed to dramatically spike the concentration of a specific elemental mana within a localized region."

"Even then, a reaction won't necessarily occur under normal circumstances, because as the concentration of one elemental mana rises in a given area, the alternate elemental manas are simply pushed outward and displaced."

"However," West-Hayden reached out a ghostly finger, pointing directly toward Li Qinwu's chest, "there are certain environments where mana cannot be so easily displaced. The physical body of a living organism is, in essence, the most sophisticated natural magic array in existence. It locks a specific balance of mana inside its flesh and blood. This internal mana is structurally stable and cannot be pushed away by external forces."

"When the ambient concentration of a specific elemental mana in the outside environment is artificially forced to extreme levels—and that element happens to be fundamentally conflicting with the internal mana locked inside a creature's flesh—it triggers a remarkably rare, catastrophic phenomenon: a Conflicting Mana Reaction!"