Chapter 1590: Bleeding arms

The next day.

Sam still didn't get up from the spot and he has the heavenly wine gourd on the side.

He still kept on shifting the cube. But now his body is in partial shadow elemental fusion and his eyes are glowing with shadow energy as well.

He is using a variant of his energy vision. He enhanced it with shadow elemental energy so it would more sensitive to the shadow energy. Particularly the lump in the cube that is fluctuating with every change in the cube patterns.

Sam just turned the cube on a whim. He just observed the energy flow of the cube carefully with his energy vision. Soon he got a hang of this observation and also started to understand what the pattern on each section is doing when energy is flowing from inside of it.

He is currently looking at each section like an individual machine.  A machine that gives out a certain output when the energy enters it in one state.

So all he needs to do to solve this whole cube mechanism is to figure out what kind of nature or state should the energy reach so that the cube's lock would be gone and the lump would be stable.

After thinking up till this point, Sam suddenly had new ideas.

Since he cannot just leave this up to iterations, he decided to eliminate some of the options he had and decided to reverse engineer the whole thing.

He started randomly moving the cube to create different patterns as he observed the change in the energy lump.

He took mental notes of all the results he could possibly get at that time. After he understood what kind of state the lump should be constantly in for him to successfully unlock the cube, he then started thinking of iterations to do so.

He cannot just magically resolve this whole thing. But he could see that he is getting somewhere.

At least as he eliminated one possibility after another, the number of possibilities is becoming lesser.

The only problem is the side effects of every wrong iteration he did. The lump kept on chaotically attacking him with every turn. He couldn't just endure it no matter how much he tried. The full elemental fusion with shadow energy is taking too much energy out of him.

Even though it helped him reduce the pain of the invading energy, he still has to use the same amount of energy as he did for the partial fusion to eliminate it.

The only difference is that the partial fusion is a lot more painful to endure the shadow elemental energy that was invading him.

But he didn't care. He just endured the pain as he proceeded with it.

So, currently, Sam is maintaining his partial fusion, injecting the energy into the cube so that he study and understand each runic pattern on every section of the cube, expelling the foreign energy that is hurting him and on top of all of that, he is calculating dozens of iterations at a time in his head.

And he did this without a change in expression. The only time he slightly diverted his attention from the cube is when he had to take a sip of heavenly wine.

The next day.

This is already the third day and by now, the beasts are a bit concerned. It is not abnormal for Sam to get lost while studying something. He did that many times and it is considered a very normal occurrence by now.

But the problem is just fixated on this one thing and didn't even bother to move.

There are no crazy thoughts that used to come out loud. There are no crazy experiments that Sam used to do, there are simulations, and large scrolls with calculations he did by hand.

They are all used to watching this, but now that everything is happening inside Sam's head, they couldn't help but be confirmed.

If not for Gail's repeated insistence, they would have just beaten Sam back to his senses. They were that worried about him.

But Sam seemed to have not noticed any of these changes. He just sat there, unmoving like a rock as if he is the only person left in the world.

The only silver lining to the situation is that Sam started muttering something by that evening. He is slowly talking about some principles, calculations, and energy flow.

If anyone saw him now they would think he has gone crazy, but the beasts are actually relieved. This means, Sam is just in his usual research mode and there is some progress happening. Just staying silent about what bothered them.

The next day.

When the powerhouses came back to see Sam, they were dumbfounded. Because they could see that Sam's arms are bleeding. There are some deep cuts here and there on his arm as a bunch of very thick dark strands came out of the cube.

They looked like hair strands in a way, but they are clearly not. They are from the lump within the cube.

Demon soul swordsman looked at Sam and felt surprised. He is also a bit concerned. Looking at him, Gail also got a bit confused and went to ask him.

"What happened, sir? Is something wrong? Will Sam be alright?"

"He is alright. For now at least.

But as for what happened, even I don't know. I have messed around with that cube for a while, and I have seen my friend do that all the time, but I have seen the lump extend out like this and damage the person who is using the cube.

This is the first."

"So, this was not supposed to happen?"

"No."

"Then maybe, he is on verge of solving it."

"Have you seen the puddle of blood at his feet? Do you really think he is on verge of solving it?"

Gail didn't know what to say about that.

"So, how long does he need to endure the pain."

"From a pure time point of view, he needs to stay for another day. But his pain is obviously more than what a normal person would suffer by now. If I have a choice, I will consider this a pass."

"What do you mean, if you have a choice? You conducted the test. You can just consider this a pass."

"I can't. The cube has a very special mechanism. Particularly for this test. It only calculates time and unless the cube has been in his hands for enough time, it won't consider it as a pass. Unless the cube passes, there is nothing I could do."

"The cube should pass him?"

"Yeah, it doesn't calculate the pain, just the duration. So, it is impossible for me to intervene and pass him now."

"Is there no other choice?"

"There is. Making him give up. Do you think it will work?"

Gail looked at Sam and sighed as he shook his head.

There is no way Sam would just give up after this. He is just working way too hard with this and just from his expression, anyone could guess that is way too involved in this situation.

That sheer involvement is something that he cannot wrap his head around. Because he was never obsessed with something so much.

He could only watch and see how things go.

That night, everyone went back to rest or cultivate. Sam is just sitting there even then and is still working on it.

At this moment, the corrosion of this external shadow elemental energy started spreading into his body and there are lines dark enough to be visible even on top of his body that is under partial shadow elemental fusion.

Sam's eyes are wide open as he endured the pain and looked at the cube.

Currently, he is not rotating any side of the cube, rather he is just looking at the cube as he rotated it in his hands.

The lump is extremely chaotic. It is almost on the verge of breaking out of the cube and the most interesting part is, that there is not a single complete inscription on any side of the cube. All the faces are currently just lumped with runic patterns that don't make any sense and the energy flowing through them is just being neutralized and expelled out of it.

Sam smiled after confirming this.

Because the only time something like this happened is when the cube was given to him.

Except for that, the whole cube always had at least one inscription on any of its sides. But now they are all gone and the patterns are not in the same position as they were in when the cube was given to him.

He quickly calculated a few things and started writing them down with his finger on the floor. He just manipulated the shadow a bit and carved it on the stone floor. He created something that looked like a flow chart that covered the whole area he was sitting in and he focused on the first one as he started moving the cube according to it.

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