Chapter 444: Chapter 441: The Mysterious Silver Needle

In Feng Hao’s opinion, three of Xiyue Frost’s four talents were the [Genetic Secret Techniques] type.

That made finding talents of the same origin rather difficult. Fortunately, the Yao Girl had already collected them; otherwise, it would have been nearly impossible to gather everything in such a short time.

Inside the Sea of Consciousness Space, all was void and still...

Feng Hao’s bloodline energy acted like a great, invisible hand, deftly manipulating the steps to graft onto the Genetic Tree.

Soon, the first-tier branch was successfully grafted, then the second-tier, and then the third-tier.

Astonishing scenes unfolded one after another within Xiyue Frost’s consciousness. Though her eyes were tightly shut and her mind was open, the shock she felt internally was a tumultuous storm.

After an unknown amount of time, a completely new set of branch talents manifested in Xiyue Frost’s Sea of Consciousness:

[Physique: +6 Magic Power]

[Burst Power: Adds bonus to Speed attribute]

[Each point of weapon weight increases Destructive Power by 1]

[Boiling Blood (For every 100 Qi Blood lost, gain 1 point of vitality)]

Combined with her four original branch talents, the change in Xiyue Frost’s strength could only be described as earth-shattering.

When she opened her eyes, Xiyue Frost remained lost in a daze for a long time. Feeling the miraculous changes in her Genetic Tree, she felt as if she were in a dream.

"How... How did you do that?" Xiyue Frost’s eyes were filled with utter disbelief.

As for Feng Hao, he was completely exhausted. Not only was he mentally and physically drained, but his Basic Qi Blood had also dropped from 11,450 to 11,050. Though it had cost him 400 points from his maximum Qi Blood, the results were perfect.

Seeing Xiyue Frost’s stunned expression, a smile touched Feng Hao’s weary face. "This is my true bloodline ability: [Graft Talent Tree]."

"Bloodline ability?" Xiyue Frost asked in astonishment. "Isn’t your bloodline [Black Pupil]?"

"It mutated," Feng Hao replied with a faint smile.

Hearing this, Xiyue Frost nodded blankly, still in a complete daze. It couldn’t be helped; what had just happened was simply too unbelievable. ’Graft Talent Tree... what a terrifying ability!’

After all, the greatest disparity between Mages lay in their branch talents. For this very reason, a saying was popular in the Mage World: challenging someone of a higher level isn’t hard, but challenging someone of a higher tier is.

Within the same tier, a difference in level was merely a matter of a few dozen [Gene Points]. But crossing into a new tier meant gaining an entire branch talent—a gap that was incredibly difficult to overcome!

’And now, I actually have four more branch talents than other people. How could I not be shocked?’

"Does that mean... you have eight branch talents too?" Xiyue Frost asked, looking at Feng Hao with shocked suspicion after a long, dazed silence.

"That’s right." Feng Hao nodded with a grin. "Now you know why I’m so powerful, huh?"

Xiyue Frost nodded blankly, clearly still reeling. In her daze, a thought seemed to strike her. "Is Yaoyao the same?"

Feng Hao just chuckled, saying nothing.

"No wonder," Xiyue Frost said with a knowing smile, her tone deep with meaning. "Yaoyao sent you, didn’t she?"

Feng Hao faltered for a moment, then quickly shook his head in denial. "No, no, no, it has nothing to do with the Yao Girl. I came on my own. Yep, that’s right. That’s how it was."

Xiyue Frost gave a slight smile, clearly seeing through his lie. She closed her eyes again to feel the changes in her Genetic Tree.

The atmosphere suddenly grew awkward.

After a long silence, Xiyue Frost suddenly spoke. "Thank you... little thief."

"Heh, I haven’t heard you call me that in a long time," Feng Hao said with a dry chuckle, scratching his head awkwardly.

A complex emotion flickered in Xiyue Frost’s eyes. She seemed to struggle to look away before suddenly standing up and drawing her greatsword. A bright smile graced her usually cold face. "Let’s go to the old spot for a match."

Feng Hao paused, then chuckled and nodded. "Alright."

...

Same place. Same people. Same fight. Same result.

After the Graft Talent Tree procedure, Xiyue Frost’s power had multiplied, but she still couldn’t defeat Feng Hao.

The difference was, this time Xiyue Frost wasn’t dejected as she used to be. Instead, she sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Feng Hao on the roof of his Mansa, and they gazed up at the sky, sharing stories and reminiscing about the past.

It was evening by the time they returned to the general store. When the Yao Girl learned that her sister’s grafting had been a success, she was so happy she acted like a complete fool.

When the Yao Girl was happy, Feng Hao was happy too. So, the two of them hit it off, and things got a little steamy.

「In the days that followed, life returned to its peaceful rhythm.」

Feng Hao went about his usual routine: looking after the general store, buying some porn, tinkering with his mechanical research, and practicing his forging skills in his spare time. Life was sweet.

Meanwhile, Xi Yueyao spent her days immersed in the ocean of [Demon Pattern Arrays], sharing her progress with Feng Hao from time to time.

At the same time, under the leadership of City Lord Zhong Yuntao, Five States City was gradually returning to the order it had before the disaster. The month-long public security mission for the disciples of the five Great Sects was also drawing to a close.

Additionally, the Five Provinces Academy was gearing up for its annual Grand Tournament.

After the trial by fire of the recent disaster, this year’s Grand Tournament promised to be quite a spectacle.

But Feng Hao’s attention was elsewhere. For the past few days, he had been poring over the mysterious syringe that Lu Wen Jie had slipped him, even conducting research on it with Sun Yaowen.

Their research revealed that the syringe’s ability to weaken demonic beasts wasn’t due to any special properties of the silver needle itself, but because of a unique energy substance coated on it.

This substance was harmless and had no effect on humans, but it had an extremely potent weakening effect on demonic beasts.

This completely stumped Feng Hao and Sun Yaowen; they couldn’t find a single clue as to what it was.

"Forget it." Feng Hao sighed and put the syringe away. "I’ll just have to ask Lu Wen Jie directly next time I see him."

He cleaned up the workbench before him, stored it in his Spatial Ring, and decided not to dwell on the syringe problem any longer.

A glance at the time showed it was just noon. Feng Hao decided to head to a nearby diner to grab a bite to eat.

Just as he was about to head out, he received a Stone Listening Communication from the Thief Master. "Xiaofeng, come to the academy. I’m leaving."

"You’re leaving so soon?" Feng Hao asked, taken aback.

"I have no choice. There are still many matters at the Grand Hall that I need to handle."

Feng Hao nodded in understanding. "Alright, I’m on my way."

With that, Feng Hao couldn’t be bothered with lunch anymore. For a Mage, skipping one meal was hardly a death sentence. He simply hopped into his Mansa and flew toward the academy.

He thought he was just going to see off the Thief Master, but he was startled by the grand scene that greeted him upon arrival.

The entrance to the academy was packed with people. The heads and Elders of various departments were all gathered, and to his surprise, even the elite disciples of the five Great Sects were present.

The Thief Master and Elder Yun were surrounded in the center. A group of academy Elders was tearfully trying to persuade them of something.

"Elder Yun, you mustn’t leave! If you go, who will protect the academy?!"

"That’s right, Elder Yun! The academy has only just been designated a top-tier Advanced Academy. Your departure would be a huge blow to our reputation!"

Faced with the Elders’ tearful performance, Elder Yun couldn’t help but feel reluctant to leave, her still-graceful face a mask of indecision.

The Thief Master, however, was growing impatient. "I said, are you juniors done being annoying yet? So the academy can’t function without Little Yunyun, is that it? Cut the crap. I’m taking her with me. If you have a problem with it, you can go complain to the Student Union Headquarters."

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