Chapter 257: Mengmengxiang Has Revived Inside My Body

A defective product?

A fake?

No.

The belt was genuine, and the memory unit had no issues whatsoever. Yet, at the very last moment when power connected with him and transformation was about to complete, it exploded.

And the reason this happened had absolutely nothing to do with his micro-manipulation.

The next moment, Lin Guang shoved his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a crimson gem pendant.

At this moment, that little goldfish-like sakura-red shadow was still in a blissful slumber, while Lin Guang wore an utterly speechless expression.

The culprit had been found.

Mengmengxiang had revived inside his body.

The principle was actually quite simple. Lin Guang understood it the instant things spiraled out of control just now.

It wasn't that [Soul Link] or [Precision Operation Engine] had failed. It was simply that the transformation mechanism itself conflicted with his power.

The memory unit and the driver essentially functioned like establishing a temporary contract, then injecting spells and memories through that contract to overlay them onto the user.

Does that sound a little familiar?

The answer is...

On Lin Guang's body, that spot was already occupied by Mengmengxiang.

Because of their contract, the two of them were already one body with twin souls. Their power, their souls, and even their True Transformation Elements were all shared.

The moment any new external spell was injected into the soul, Mengmengxiang, who was fast asleep inside the Soul Gem, would also be injected with it, and then feel uncomfortable.

There wasn't any great danger. The sensation was probably similar to being tickled.

But the problem was...

For Mengmengxiang, who could never seem to wake up, the moment she got tickled, she would instinctively reject it, mobilize her power to expel it, and consequently cause the injection to fail.

Lin Guang let out a deep sigh, his eyes filled with sorrow.

In other words--

The belt he had been looking forward to for so long was actually unusable. He couldn't transform!

At least not until she woke up!

Of course, the spell intensity within this memory unit wasn't high, and the structure of this driver was completely transparent to him.

From just that brief glimpse earlier, Lin Guang had already more or less figured it out.

So it wasn't that he couldn't perfectly cosplay it using the Spirit Outfit field and embryonic Domain...

But what difference was there between that and fooling himself?

This bit of power was indeed useless to the current Lin Guang, but... this was his dream!

It looked so cool!

With his dream shattered, Lin Guang stood there in silence for a long time, stroking the Soul Gem like a lonely old man, then vented his frustration by continuously poking the girl connected to him with his magic power.

Aw, damn it, Mengmengxiang was so wicked!

[Heehee... that tickles... stop poking me... wahhh...]

Only when the slumbering girl groggily let out soft, adorable pleas for mercy, babbling as if blowing bubbles, did Lin Guang finally let her go.

He collected himself, and put the memory unit back into the silver briefcase.

--Whatever. At least it wasn't broken.

Looking on the bright side, once she woke up, there would still be a chance.

The next moment.

Lin Guang's gaze fell upon that small wooden figure from earlier.

Cursed tool [Stand-in Body].

By injecting curse power, one could obtain a wooden doppelganger.

Lin Guang reached out, grabbed the wooden figure by its round head, and shook it in midair, then tried injecting a wisp of crimson magic power from within himself.

Red light flowed through his fingertips and surged into the wooden body.

Like a withered seed receiving the nutrients needed for growth, the wooden torso let out a series of fine creaking sounds as wood fibers rubbed together, and then, at a visible speed, it sprouted branches, grew larger, and stretched out slender limbs.

Its color grew whiter and whiter, and its texture became closer and closer to that of a real person...

Lin Guang raised an eyebrow, but the next second, his eyes widened slightly.

Wait a minute!

To his shock, strands of sakura-red long hair actually sprouted from its head, and the curves of its body softened as well, subtly revealing some feminine features.

What the hell, again?!

A rare, gritted-teeth expression appeared on Lin Guang's stoic face, and the next instant, a red flash flickered in his eyes.

Change back!

Under Lin Guang's forceful domination, those features that had just emerged on the wooden figure instantly receded, and its body swelled even as it underwent another transformation.

This time, it finally settled into the appearance of a dark-haired young man, and even the material and style of the clothes it wore became identical to what Lin Guang was wearing at that moment.

Lin Guang felt an extra set of five senses added to himself.

It was like wearing some kind of holographic glasses. A new world appeared within his perception, allowing him to clearly see the "self" standing across from him from another angle.

The new senses overlapped with the old ones, creating that marvelous feeling of being able to observe the world from both first-person and third-person perspectives simultaneously, which made him feel quite fascinated for a moment.

Lin Guang tried controlling the wooden doppelganger across from him to raise its hand, then rotated its ankle.

After getting familiar with it for a while, he roughly figured out the ins and outs of this thing.

No wonder Luo Xi said this thing required a fairly high level of operational skill to handle properly.

This [Stand-in Body] had no self-awareness inside at all. Every single movement required Lin Guang to divert his own mental focus to control it.

For an ordinary sorcerer, maintaining two perspectives simultaneously might be manageable for daily activities like eating or walking, but once high-intensity combat was needed, or other tasks requiring deep concentration, movements would easily become uncoordinated.

However--

For Lin Guang, there was no problem whatsoever.

He possessed the talent [Precision Operation Engine], allowing him to perfectly control every bit of force exertion and magic flow in his body.

And since this doppelganger was also humanoid, the talent applied to it as well.

Control couldn't be described as stumbling along; it could only be described as flowing like water, utterly without friction.

As for the maximum distance for control and connection...

Lin Guang raised the hands of both bodies simultaneously and rubbed their chins, and a similar tactile sensation came through.

This time, it was [Soul Link]'s turn to shine.

It felt like at least dozens of kilometers of range with zero latency.

It might work at even greater distances, but without actual testing, he couldn't be sure how far it could go.

As long as the injected magic power didn't run out, it should be able to maintain movement indefinitely.

Lin Guang let out a breath, and the expression on his face finally relaxed a bit.

This thing was surprisingly practical for him.

It was a genuinely good item.

Not bad!

Although it had no spells and limited magic power, and couldn't transform into a magical girl, with Lin Guang's operational ability, it was already a decent combat asset and scout. Disguised as his main body to maintain a normal life was more than sufficient.

It could even handle things like attending school in his place.

Not only that, but at certain special moments, this doppelganger could stay behind to cover for the main body, performing a double act!

This was the doppelganger alternate-identity method!

This technique was also documented in who knows how many spiritual energy resurgence works, and no matter how you looked at it, it was extremely well-suited for the current Wind Capital.