Xiong Tianfang’s skill in Artifact Refining was undeniable. He quickly finished crafting the Loli Battle Armor, and Feng Hao was extremely satisfied with the result.
It was already late when he bid farewell to Xiong Tianfang. However, Feng Hao didn’t head straight back to the pharmacy. Instead, he returned to the Power Department to find Xiyue Frost, planning to give her the Loli Battle Armor.
When he arrived at Xiyue Frost’s dorm, that moron Man Tiaotiao still hadn’t returned, which saved him a lot of trouble.
Xiyue Frost accepted the Loli Battle Armor, a rare smile gracing her lips as she nodded sweetly. "This is a beautiful set of armor. Yaoyao will be thrilled with this gift."
"Of course she will," Feng Hao said with a smug grin, pulling out a Communication Jade Scroll. "Here, this is for her too."
"Can I read the message inside?" Xiyue Frost asked, slightly curious.
"Don’t, don’t, don’t! It’s just a bunch of cheesy stuff. It’s better if you don’t look," Feng Hao said, shaking his head frantically.
Xiyue Frost was taken aback for a moment, then nodded lightly. "Don’t worry. I’ll make sure Yaoyao gets both of these items safely."
"Mm," Feng Hao nodded, satisfied. Then, on a sudden impulse, he took out the ring of stolen goods he’d gotten from Lin Luo. "Oh, right. This is for you. As for what’s inside... you should probably wait until after I leave to look."
"For me?" Xiyue Frost took the Spatial Ring in surprise, a hint of secret delight in her eyes.
"Ahem... Well, I’ll be going then," Feng Hao said with a guilty expression, then hastily turned and fled.
Watching Feng Hao leave, Xiyue Frost looked at the Spatial Ring in her hand with confusion. Then, full of anticipation, she extended her Divine Sense into it.
The next moment, her expectant expression completely collapsed. It was replaced by endless mortification and rage, and her body began to tremble. ’You shameless little thief! Don’t you ever let me see you again!’
The mere thought of what her personal underwear might have gone through in Feng Hao’s possession was enough to overwhelm Xiyue Frost with shame and indignation.
Strangely, however, she didn’t have the slightest urge to go and confront Feng Hao.
Perhaps it was a girl’s shyness, or perhaps she didn’t want to lose a close friend...
Meanwhile, Feng Hao had already made it back to the pharmacy. His heart was pounding as he locked the door, terrified that Xiyue Frost was about to hunt him down.
’My brain must have short-circuited. Why on earth did I give her the ring?’
Leaning back against the shop door, Feng Hao wore a wry smile. To be honest, he’d regretted his decision the moment he stepped out of Xiyue Frost’s dorm.
’Forget it. What’s done is done.’
Feng Hao shook his head helplessly, sighed, and went upstairs to his room. Closing his eyes, he sat cross-legged on his bed and resumed constructing his stealth Secret Technique.
Watching the matches earlier that day had lit a fire under him, intensifying his desire and pursuit of greater strength.
Within his ethereal Sea of Consciousness, countless intricate Demon Pattern lines crisscrossed in a chaotic mess, resembling balls of yarn that had been mauled by a kitten.
His task was to untangle these patterns and then attempt to connect two different Demon Patterns. If a connection failed, he would have to start over from scratch. This was the most difficult part of constructing a Secret Technique.
Every line within a Demon Pattern had its own unique properties. Only lines with identical or very similar properties could connect successfully, allowing two Demon Patterns to fuse into a circuit and form various Secret Techniques.
Comparatively, auxiliary Secret Techniques were much simpler to construct because they didn’t require a core Demon Pattern.
However, Feng Hao was using two Inheritance Demon Patterns at once, which massively increased the difficulty of construction!
Connect. Fail.
Connect again. Fail again.
...
Time trickled by as he tried again and again. Finally, his perseverance paid off: the "Shadow" and "Silence" patterns successfully connected.
Feng Hao breathed a silent sigh of relief. Connecting the ordinary Demon Patterns would be much simpler. Through his previous attempts, he had already figured out the correct connection method.
After a series of careful connections, the previously dim Secret Technique circuit flared to life. It then quickly contracted and condensed, imprinting itself onto his Genetic Tree.
"Phew... It’s finally done!" Feng Hao’s eyes flew open, filled with delight. He hurriedly pulled up his game-like panel to inspect it.
[Unnamed]
Proficiency: 20
Sustained Cost: 5 points per second
Effect: Utilizes Shadow Power to camouflage the user, blocking normal visual detection. Eliminates all noise produced by the user, blocking all auditory detection. Ignores 100 points of Divine Sense detection. The effect is less potent against targets with stronger Divine Sense.
Mark Recall: None
Channeling Time: 1.8 seconds
"Haha... I’ve finally become an Assassin!" Feng Hao laughed, ecstatic.
’The effects of the two inheritances from the Thief God Hall are beyond my imagination,’ he thought. ’Judging from the description, this Secret Technique is practically invisibility. It’s an absolutely god-tier Assassin skill.’
’Now that I have this skill, I can pretty much be considered an Assassin. I have stealth and burst potential. All I need to do now is grind the proficiency for ’Moon Stab’ and this new skill, and my power will jump to a whole new level.’
’The only headache is the cost. Five points of Magic Power per second is terrifying. With my current 1572 Magic Power, I can only sustain it for about five minutes, and that’s not even counting the cost of other skills.’
Fortunately, the Demon Jade Talisman from Yu Xiaoxiao had a +2 energy-gathering effect, which would reduce the net cost to three points per second.
’As for the name, I’ll just use Shadow Meld from the game ’Mage’. I’m used to calling it that anyway.’
And just like that, the new stealth skill was named "Shadow Meld."
Feng Hao was extremely satisfied with Shadow Meld’s effects, especially its ability to ignore Divine Sense. Combined with his high aura-concealment stat, it was almost ridiculously powerful. While it could only ignore 100 points for now, once he ground up its proficiency, he could effectively become invisible to lower-level opponents. All in all, it was well worth the time he had spent.
’Twenty proficiency gives 100 points of Divine Sense negation, so that’s five points per proficiency point. If I grind it to 100 proficiency, that will be 500 points of negation. Looks like I’ll have to find a Monster Simulator to train on,’ Feng Hao mused, his brow furrowed in thought.
That would be tricky. As far as he knew, Monster Simulators were monopolized by the Academic Federation, making them very difficult for outsiders to access.
Now that he had left the Five Provinces Academy, finding a Monster Simulator would be extremely difficult—unless he swallowed his pride and went back to rent one from the academy.
’I’ve heard that many large-scale private clubs have similar equipment. I’ll ask Houhuiyao tomorrow. That kid should know something about it.’
Having decided on a course of action, Feng Hao stopped worrying about it. The sky was already beginning to lighten, so continuing to cultivate wouldn’t be worth the effort.
So, he set up his Alchemy Equipment and refined some commonly used pills to replenish the stock in his Spatial Ring, especially Qi Recovery Pills. After all, grinding skill proficiency burned through a lot of mana potions.
The sun gradually rose, and Feng Hao finished his refining. Before long, Houhuiyao arrived right on schedule.
"Brother Feng, hop in! Let’s go check out some cars at the dealership," Houhuiyao said with a grin, pulling open the car door.
Feng Hao chuckled, turned to lock the shop door, and expertly slid into the Nightingale 360. "Where’s the dealership? Far?"
"Not far. About a half-hour drive," Houhuiyao replied as he started up the flying car.
"Oh," Feng Hao nodded in understanding, then looked up and asked, "By the way, do you know where I can rent a Monster Simulator?"
"A Monster Simulator? The academy has them," Houhuiyao answered subconsciously. Only after speaking did he realize Feng Hao’s situation and hurriedly corrected himself, "Ahem... If I remember correctly, the Iron Hand Martial Arts Hall has one. It’s right near the dealership we’re going to."
"Perfect! Take me there for a look after we’re done car shopping," Feng Hao said, pleasantly surprised.
"No problem."
PS: The power went out halfway through writing this Chapter. Thank god for autosave, or I would’ve been royally screwed. Thanks for your patience, everyone.