Cheat Absorption

Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also give your opinions on something I should change or add. 

Note: Added a couple of lines, which I had originally forgotten about to write, to the previous chapter between the part where it's talked about Feng levelling up the 7LR's Auras and the system notification about killing the Infant Silver Dragon. 

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On the battlefield, though, a few dozen items still remained. 

The aura that the Infant Dragon's loot radiated was very pressuring, and even ordinary Tier 3 players would normally have to expend a lot of effort just to approach the items. Thanks to being ghosts without a proper physical form, however, Salvage Corp's ghosts were mostly unaffected by the pressure, and only the remaining items which possessed powerful Divine Might could stop their collecting. 

Considering this, the items which had been left alone by the ghosts would definitely be extraordinary. 

Since his Stamina had recovered slightly during this time, Feng walked towards the remaining drops in an attempt to collect them. However, due to him being in a Heavily Weakened state after using Twofold Berserk and the items radiating Divine Might along with their intense pressure, Feng was having difficulty approaching the drops; finding that moving towards them was tiresome.

Noticing the trouble he was having to even get near the loot in his current condition, Feng opted to use Blinkstep and teleport to the spread around items, five yards at a time.

Only when he was standing right next to an item did Feng expend some effort to bend down and pick up the Infant Silver Dragon's drops which the ghosts had not been able to collect.

Meanwhile, each of the items was greatly valuable, from powerful Fragmented Legendary items that could be upgraded to Legendary rank, high-ranking Designs and Recipes, a Peak grade Dragon Origin Crystal with a 96% bloodline density and a few with lower density, God Crystals, Tier 5 Magic Scrolls, a few Tier 4 Skill and Spell Books, a Tier 4 Mysterious Flame, multiple Inferior Divine Artifact rank materials, and so on.

On top of the loot collected through the Salvage Corp, this was undoubtedly the greatest haul obtained from the hunt.

Among the Legendary rank materials were two that Feng greatly valued. Two Magic Stars, items necessary for repairing the Heavenly Dragon's Breath.

Without hesitation, Feng chose to allow his Ring to absorb the golden orbs. 

[Heavenly Dragon's Breath] (Ring, Fragmented Legendary Rank)

Equipment Requirement: Strength 500, Agility 500, Intelligence 350

Attributes will be adjusted according to user's level. (Level 99)

All Attributes +700

When Equipped:

Strength increased by 70%

Agility increased by 65%

Intelligence increased by 50%

Endurance increased by 80%

Movement Speed increased by 60%

Attack Speed increased by 45%

Ignore Levels +18

All item level requirements reduced by 10 Levels. 

Additional Passive Skill: Dragon's Domination 

Increases the Basic Attributes of all allied Dragons by 10% while suppressing the Basic Attributes of all enemy Dragons by 15%. Every Dragon within a radius of 500 yards will increase the user's Attributes by 350 points.

Additional Active Skill 1: Dragon's Authority 

Suppress all enemies in the surroundings with the might of the Heavenly Dragon, inflicting the Fear status onto enemies within a 60-yard distance, reducing their Attack Power by 50%, Attack Speed by 50%, and Movement Speed by 50% for 2 minute.

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Additional Active Skill 2: Dragon Breath 

Inflicts 15X damage in a 80*5 yard line in front of you. There is a 35% chance to induce the Fainted state for 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Additional Active Skill 3: Heavenly Dragon's Power 

Allows the user to temporarily possess the power of the Heavenly Dragon, increasing HP by 600%, Strength by 180%, Agility by 80% and Defense by 500%, and grants immunity to all controlling effects for 3 minutes.

Cooldown: 3 hours

The Dragon Slayer Mekaseru once owned the Heavenly Dragon's Breath. It was originally a Legendary Ranked Item possessing the suppressed strength of the dragon tribe. Due to damage resulting from a war between Gods, its might has greatly decreased. However, the Heavenly Dragon's Breath possesses an incomparably strong magic power and possesses the potential to restore itself. Its past glory may be restored with one Dragon's Heart. Current restoration (3/4).

The Heavenly Dragon's Breath's power had greatly increased with the Magic Stars' addition. Moreover, Feng also knew of how to obtain a Dragon's Heart within a short period of time, meaning his first Fragmented Legendary item would soon reach Legendary rank once more.

As for the remaining items, Feng decided to place the equipment and weapons into the Guild Warehouse and allow Zero Wing's restored members to purchase them, while giving the materials and stuff for Lifestyle Players to Melancholic to organize and distribute.

Although there was plenty of great loot among the Infant Silver Dragon's drops, much of it currently couldn't be used by them due to requiring either stuff for much higher levels, high tiers to use, or usually a high level of control over Mana that players without a Mana Body could not achieve. This also went for a large amount of items obtained from the many Superior Mythic and other powerful monsters.

So, except for some few exceptions, most of what they could use at the moment was only the equipment and materials, which also needed a sufficiently high rank in Lifestyle Classes in order to utilize.

One such item that was too much for Tier 1 players is the Tier 4 Mysterious Flame dropped by the Infant Silver Dragon.

Usually, players would have difficulty absorbing a Mysterious Flame of a similar tier as them, especially among higher tiers like Tier 4, and even apex experts would find it nearly impossible to absorb such a flame while being at just Tier 4 themselves without using any special means; let alone below it.

Even Feng, being the cheat-like player he is, and having experience in absorbing multiple Tier 4 Mysterious Flames, along with a Tier 5 Mysterious Flame, during his time in the Greater God's Domain, would find it impossible to absorb the Tier 4 Burning Argent Flame at his current standard.

If Feng wished to absorb the Burning Argent Flame while at Tier 1, he'd have to massively increase his-... Or would he? 

Taking a moment to consider his current situation, Feng realized his original assumption when he had acquired the Tier 4 Mysterious Flame was wrong, and the entire thing might be much easier and simpler than what it seemed like at first glance. 

However, there were some other things which he first needed to do before Feng could test out his theory. 

With the hunt wrapped up, Feng told everyone to go on with their original plans, with them all returning to White River City, along with Black Flame, who Feng had told to upgrade Candlelight's current 2-star Shops to 3-star status, as they now possessed more than enough 3-star Shop Promotion Orders to turn the potential Shops on all the Lands they owned to 3-star Shops, but refrain from using the 4-star Shop Promotion Order for a little bit longer; before he goes back to forging Intermediate Mana Armor Kits. 

When all of them left, only Feng and Celestina were left remaining on the charred and broken apart battlefield. 

"Are you not going to return to that city?" Celestina opened her resting eyes and asked Feng in confusion after noticing everyone else had already left, but Feng remained for some reason. 

"I will in a moment, but first, I have to test something else." Feng said as he took out the Spectral Animacell out of his bag "Oh, and you'll be going back to the Pandemonium Lashblade for a bit." 

"What!? I thought we agreed that I'll remain in the physical world for most of the time, so why are you immediately locking me up again?" Instantly standing to her feet upon feeling her minimal freedom disappearing, the Demon Goddess demanded answers in a ferocious manner. 

"Relax. This won't take too long, as I just want to see something, and you'll be released in a short moment after I'm done." Paying no heed to the panicking Celestina, Feng's eyes flashed with a faint blue light as he used his Soul Manipulation ability to control her soul out of the crystal ball, while giving her a wink "Try not to get too lonely without me." 

Before the Demon Empress's expression could completely contort or she gave could give a retort, the physical body housing Celestina's consciousness shattered into sparks of light upon her soul being taken out of the Spectral Animacell. 

Feng didn't delay and immediately controlled the Infant Silver Dragon's soul out of the Pandemonium Lashblade, placing it into the Spectral Animacell, while Celestina's soul was returned to the Demon Sword; the two Tier 4 creatures' souls switching places. 

The originally murky black interior of the Spectral Animacell was now replaced with violent silver flames that thrashed about. Activating the Fragmented Legendary Tool, a silver beam exited the crystal ball and flew a couple dozen yards away from Feng before taking on the shape of a silver-scaled creature that was over a hundred meters long. 

Looking at the Infant Silver Dragon, Feng noticed that its information remained the same as before, while the aura it radiated as a Tier 4 Infant Dragon of the Silver Dragon tribe remained unchanged. However, the look in the dragon's eyes was different now, and seemed a bit dull. 

"What's your name." Feng probed to see how much of the Infant Silver Dragon's intelligence remained. 

"I have no name, master." An emotionless voice spoke in the language of the dragons, but Feng could understand what the words meant from his connection with the Infant Dragon through the Spectral Animacell. 

After some other tests, and Feng having it crush a couple of passing by Great Lords, he concluded that although its strength and abilities remained intact, its combat power had decreased due to loss of intelligence and memories. [1]

With it already having been weaker than Celestina when alive, this Infant Silver Dragon definitely couldn't provide him help close to what the Demon Empress was capable of. There was also the fact that, except for a rare few special monsters, the monsters summoned through the Spectral Animacell using a soul couldn't level up, meaning the Infant Silver Dragon would stay at Level 90 forever. 

Still, Feng could find some uses for the Infant Silver Dragon, either in situations more suitable for it than Celestina, or using its soul for a variety of purposes, one being feeding his new demon servant. 

Finishing with the experiments, Feng recalled the Infant Silver Dragon and removed its soul from the Spectral Animacell, placing it into the Pandemonium Lashblade while returning Celestina into the physical world. 

She seemed glad upon stepping onto solid ground again, and even somewhat relived Feng had released her from the chain sword's soul storage so quickly. 

Since she had recovered a bit during this time, Celestina had enough Mana to use teleportation spells again, so Feng took out a Guild Transfer Scroll in order to not waste the demon girl's energy on teleporting him as well, with her merely following after Feng's coordinates which she could sense through their contract. 

Feng then left her to rest in one of the Guild Residence's Private Rooms, as she was still greatly exhausted from using Millionfold Hellwhip, while he headed to the Candlelight Trading Firm, and had Cocoa bring the Book of Creation to him. 

Around five or so minutes of Divine Providence still remained, so Feng was planning to attempt to upgrade the Levellume Capsule Forging Design to Fragmented Legendary rank with Blessing of Creation, whose cooldown ended recently. 

Although he could attempt to upgrade the Broken Steel Forging Design as well, using Blessing of Creation on the same Design or Recipe a second time would greatly diminish its effects, and might even be impossible to upgrade its rank. 

Meanwhile, considering that the Levellume Capsule's Forging Design was an item Feng obtained from a Legendary Treasure Chest with this type of Luck, the technical difficulty of upgrading its rank would perhaps be on par with the Broken Steel Set Design. 

There was also the fact that if the Broken Steel Set Forging Design was to reach Fragmented Legendary rank, even with the huge amount of rare materials Feng had just acquired from his hunt, disregarding the difficulty of forging it at all, he would still not have enough of the necessary materials to forge the Equipment Set. 

The Fragmented Legendary Levellume Capsules, on the other hand, would still be manageable, and the EXP storages would be of immense use not only to Feng, but to the entire guild. 

Cocoa soon arrived and passed him the Book of Creation. With only a minute to spare, Feng activated Blessing of Creation and selected to upgrade the Levellume Capsule Forging Design, a golden light enveloping the parchment. 

Just as Divine Providence's duration was about to run out, the blinding light subsided, while the Design fell back into Feng's hands; and he immediately checked its information. 

[Levellume Capsule Forging Design]

Able to create a Fragmented Legendary-ranked Levellume Capsule, capable of storing 500,000,000,000 EXP. 

Not only has it been upgraded to Fragmented Legendary rank, the amount of EXP it was capable of storing has increased by many times, while the materials necessary for the Levellume Capsule's creation have not increased by much, only requiring a few more and one rare extra material. 

Seeing as production of a large amount of Levellume Capsules was possible, Feng handed the Forging Design and Book of Creation, along with some other Forging Tools acquired from the hunt Zero Wing's Main Force had just been on, to Cocoa for her to begin making them, with forging the EXP storages being her new main job. 

Although he could have also chosen to learn the Design and make the Levellume Capsules himself, Feng had too many things to do, while Levellume Capsules would be needed by many of the restored members, so he couldn't restrict the guild's acquisition of the valuable EXP banks to himself. 

Not to mention he wasn't planning on wasting his time in this timeline doing too much forging, as there were plenty of other things he needed to do. The only reason he was currently having Black Flame continuously forge Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, and why he planned on joining him soon in the endeavor, is because of the potential astronomus profits they could make from the Kits, while the Book of Magic is bound to them. 

As Candlelight's Chief Forger, Cocoa should be more than capable of forging a Fragmented Legendary item, since she had already become a Master Forger some time ago, being the first player to reach such a rank in their God's Domain and obtaining rewards that help in her forging, along with the Book of Creation, the Silver Meteorite Flame Feng had left at her forging station, and her other Forging Equipment, Cocoa's success rate with forging the Levellume Capsules was quite good when paired with her techniques and experience, and she'd make the losses in materials minimal. 

Leaving Cocoa to take on the forging of EXP storages, Feng went on with another task, as he took out a blood red stone and a silver gemstone from his bag. The blood stone was none other than the Alchemy Treasure, the Philosopher's Stone, while the silver gemstone was a God Crystal obtained from the Infant Silver Dragon's loot. 

God Crystals have an incredibly slim chance of dropping from some special monsters, most being Superior Mythic or some other powerful monster like the Infant Dragon. However, the monsters that could drop God Crystals were all high into Level 100, usually over Level 150, and very few below those thresholds could actually drop a God Crystal. 

This was shown by the fact that despite killing around two hundred monsters during his hunt, Feng had obtained only twelve God Crystals. Still, it was an impressive haul, and no other player with such a low level and tier could achieve it. However, way too many things required God Crystals, and a huge amount of Fragmented Legendary items among the ones Feng has obtained could be upgraded to Legendary rank using them; so one could never really have enough. 

To increase his stockpile of God Crystals, Feng was going to attempt to double his current volume of the crystals using the Philosopher's Stone's Elemental Cloning. From its description and Feng's testing, one could clone anything as long as it is a material using Elemental Cloning, and as God Crystals are classified as materials by the Main God's System, it should theoretically work. 

Though, considering the uniqueness of God Crystals, Feng wasn't as sure. Feng had even managed to clone Legendary rank materials before as long as he spent enough Magic Crystals, but God Crystals aren't of any particular rank, and are simply called materials, though their value should be around similar to Legendary materials. However, due to God Crystals being crystallization of a God's power, there was no guarantee the Philosopher's Stone would be able to replicate such a thing. 

Selecting the silver gemstone, Feng chose to use Elemental Cloning on it, causing a completion bar to appear. Thinking it was plausible, Feng started injecting Magic Crystals into the Philosopher's Stone, however, his expression changed when he noticed the completion bar was barely inching forwards even after a dozen Magic Crystals had been absorbed by the blood stone. 

Only after Feng had fed the Philosopher's Stone one hundred Magic Crystals did the completion bar reach 1%. By the looks of things, he'd need to spend 10,000 Magic Crystals to copy this God Crystal; but all things considered, that was fairly cheap, so Feng continued stuffing Magic Crystals into the Philosopher's Stone. 

When Feng injected the ten thousandth Magic Crystal, the completion bar for the required energy to commence the cloning reached 100%. Unexpectedly, however, Feng didn't receive the usual option to clone the material, but a system notification telling him there wasn't enough God's Power in the Philosopher's Stone appeared, along with a second completion bar. 

'It wants me to use God Crystals in order to clone a God Crystal?' Feng couldn't help but think to himself as he looked at the system notification, wondering if the Main God's System was fucking with him. What would be the point of spending God Crystals to give the Philosopher's Stone God's Power so that it could clone the God Crystal? 

Nevertheless, Feng decided to try it anyway and see what happens. It shouldn't be trying to screw him over, right? 

As he took out another of his twelve God Crystals, Feng pressed it against the Philosopher's Stone, causing the God Crystal to be enveloped in a blood-red liquid coming from the Alchemy Treasure, before it was absorbed. In the next moment, the second, golden colored completion bar was instantly filled to 100%. 

The button to complete the Elemental Cloning process finally appeared as well, which Feng pressed curiously, causing the blue completion bar for energy to be instantly emptied, while the golden completion bar dropped by 20%. 

To the side, a red blob separated from the Philosopher's Stone, before it took the shape and color of the silver gemstone Feng had previously selected for Elemental Cloning, the Cloned Item giving the exact same feeling as the original, and even radiating some faint Divine Might the same as a regular God Crystal. 

Feng quickly understood how Elemental Cloning works for these cases, and took out another four God Crystals, using the remaining God's Power in the Philosopher's Stone to clone them all. Instead of the original twelve ordinary God Crystals, Feng now had eleven God Crystals, on five of which Elemental Cloning has been used, as well as five Cloned God Crystals. Using one of those Cloned God Crystals, Feng filled up the golden completion bar to the brim once more, and cloned another five of the original God Crystals. 

Through such a process, Feng's twelve God Crystals had grown into twenty. Although it wasn't exactly doubling, thanks to Elemental Cloning, his collection had increased by around 67% at the cost of one hundred thousand Magic Crystals, which was a decent portion of the amount in his Warehouse. Though, Feng wasn't much concerned about such a number of Magic Crystals, since he'll soon have an opportunity to get much more than even the amount acquired from the Holy Cavers' treasury. 

And he still had one God Crystal which hadn't yet been used to get a Cloned God Crystal. 

Pondering for a moment, Feng decided to try another experiment, as he took out an Inferior Divine Artifact material obtained from the Infant Silver Dragon and selected it for Elemental Cloning. After spending even more Magic Crystals than for any of the previous Legendary rank materials or God Crystals, the Inferior Divine Artifact material was successfully cloned. 

But upon closer inspection, one would realize something's off. The aura around the Cloned Item wasn't as strong as the one around the original, not at all befitting of an Inferior Divine Artifact rank item. In fact, when checking the cloned material's description, it was revealed that the material was currently only at Legendary rank. 

Even though it was most likely one of the strongest Legendary rank materials in existence, it had not qualified to reach the standard of an Inferior Divine Artifact rank material. 

This was because, although Inferior Divine Artifact and Divine Artifact rank materials didn't have a complete Law on a mastered level within them nor could they grant someone the power to control it like for the cases of weapons and equipment of the same rank, they did have some portions of Laws within them, with Inferior Divine Artifact materials not even having complete ones, only shattered fragments of Laws within them; while Divine Artifact rank materials had complete Laws within them, but couldn't really be utilized unless the material was used for equipment production. 

It was those shattered fragments of Laws, though, which made Inferior Divine Artifact rank materials be many times stronger, tougher, more valuable, and more useful than Legendary rank materials. 

However, the Philosopher's Stone was unable to clone those properties, which were beyond the realms of Legendary level. But Feng's experiment wasn't done yet. 

Placing a God Crystal and ten thousand Magic Crystals into the Philosopher's Stone, Feng cloned the God Crystal which had not been used for cloning yet, bringing the number of God Crystals back up to twenty, while 80% of a God Crystal's God's Power still remained unused within the Philosopher's Stone. 

Taking out a second of the five Inferior Divine Artifact rank materials obtained from the Infant Silver Dragon, Feng selected it for Elemental Cloning as well, injecting the required number of Magic Crystals into the blood stone, before clicking at the "Clone" button; except this time, Feng had selected the golden completion bar as well for the cloning process, which he hadn't even been sure if it would be possible to do such a thing. 

Different than last time, the reddish liquid which had separated from the Philosopher's Stone now had a faint golden glow around it, and as the liquid took the shape and color of the Inferior Divine Artifact rank material Feng had selected for Elemental Cloning, a powerful pressure surrounded it. 

Checking the material's information, it had indeed achieved Inferior Divine Artifact rank, and the Philosopher's Stone had managed to replicate the fragments of Laws within that material, even if it was at a much worse capacity and quality. Meanwhile, the God's Power within the Philosopher's Stone dropped to 30% of the golden completion bar. 

After having completed his experiments, Feng stored the Philosopher's Stone and all of the materials, leaving only the twenty God Crystals spread out on a table as he considered on how to go about with using them. 

There were simply too many things that needed God Crystals, both now and, much more importantly, for in the future. Thankfully, Feng knew how he'll be able to obtain a very large amount of God Crystals, even more now thanks to Elemental Cloning, in the near future, so he wasn't too stressed about it; but it would be a shame to just let them remain unused. 

He could use them to upgrade some of the Fragmented Legendary items suitable for him, but nearly all Legendary rank equipment and weapons have tier requirements, with Tier 3 being the lowest. Meanwhile, even the piece of equipment among the ones collected with the lowest requirement for God Crystals to be upgraded needed five, let alone other items which were stronger and more suitable for him. 

Unless Feng already knows which items would not possess tier requirements when they reach Legendary rank, his only option was to gamble, but Feng didn't like the odds and refused to waste God Crystals in such a way, but there was no better method for the equipment and weapons. 

Thankfully, Feng was already in possession of a powerful Fragmented Legendary item which he knew had no tier restriction at Legendary rank, and could be upgraded with the current God Crystals he had on hand. 

System: Sufficient God Crystals detected. Do you wish to let the Nightwalker's Cape absorb them?

"Absorb!"

Feng agreed to the prompt without hesitation.

The seven God Crystals in Feng's hands gradually disintegrated into seven streams of light that lingered around the Nightwalker's Cape, then merged with the cape's tattered divine runes, repairing them.

When the seven God Crystals were gone, the Nightwalker's Cape's divine runes suddenly lit up. A layer of black fog then appeared around the ordinary-looking cape, reducing Feng's presence significantly and preventing others from inspecting his information. Now, Feng could even erase his presence completely if he wanted to. 

Apart from the cape's hidden effects, its statistics had also undergone earth-shattering changes.

[Nightwalker's Cape] (Cape, Legendary Rank)

Equipment Requirement: Strength 8,000, Agility 5,000

When equipped:

All Resistances increased by 300%;

All damage received reduced by 60%

Strength increased by 150%

Agility increased by 120%

Endurance increased by 120%

Ignore Levels +80

Movement Speed increased by 100% 

Attack Speed increased by 100%

Reaction speed increased by 100%

Additional Passive Skill 1: Nightwalker 

When the cape is equipped, no information about the player can be examined. Physique improved by 60%.

Additional Passive Skill 2: Divine Speed

Player's starting Movement Speed increased to 100% of player's maximum Movement Speed.

Additional Passive Skill 3: Void Walk

Players can freely enter the void and traverse it. Void Walk significantly weakens the oppression exerted by the void.

Additional Active Skill 1: Divine Steps

Summons 36 doppelgangers before a maximum of 36 targets for five seconds. Doppelgangers do not possess any attack capabilities and are invulnerable to attacks. Player can switch positions with any doppelganger freely. Maximum cast range of 2,000 yards.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Additional Active Skill 2: Void Shield

Forms a shield with an HP ten times the player's maximum HP for ten minutes. As long as the shield exists, the player's HP recovery speed increased by 500% and Movement Speed increased by 300%. Damage from Tier 5 sources or below is reduced by 90%, and damage from Tier 6 sources is reduced by 60%.

Cooldown: 15 minutes

The Blacksmith God Bayer crafted this cape for the Tyrant of Destruction. It possesses the power to traverse the void.

With the upgraded Nightwalker's Cape, Feng's attributes increased by a large margin once again, while his survivability skyrocketed. Now any creature below Tier 5 shouldn't even think of killing him; unless it's someone like Celestina who could rip him apart with her Mana Techniques. Even regular Tier 5 creatures won't be able to do much to him unless they are many levels higher than him. 

As for the remaining God Crystals, Feng decided to save them for now until he obtains more before distributing them properly. Finished with that, Black Flame soon arrived after Feng had contacted him through his conscience. 

Feng immediately used Data Synthesis, since Black has only gained a bit of EXP during this time of forging, as making Intermediate Mana Armor Kits no longer granted him Forging Proficiency Points after he became a Master Forger during the time Feng's group had been hunting, using one of his former original Designs to reach the Master rank once again. 

Before he had joined Feng's group, Black Flame had spent nearly the entire time forging Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, with the exception of making a custom Master rank item to become a Master Forger, as well as making some Advanced Mana Armor Kits, whose Design became unlocked once his Forging rank reached Master level, for Feng and the Main Force member who could bind them to their Fragmented Legendary equipment. 

At the time, Feng had downloaded Black Flame's new info, becoming a Master Forger as well, before he had updated his clone. This time though, that was unnecessary, and Feng spent around 15,000 units of Seven Luminaries Crystals to update the clone, Black Flame reaching Level 99 with all the boosts and his Nightwalker's Cape upgrading to Legendary rank. 

Settling the information exchange, the Tier 4 Mysterious Flame which they had obtained from the Infant Silver Dragon was taken out of Feng's bag, as he handed it to Black Flame. Since they had the same mind and knew each other's thoughts, there was no need for Feng to explain anything, and Black Flame immediately took it and began the absorption process of the Burning Argent Flame. 

As soon as Black Flame chose to absorb the Burning Argent Flame, the dark-gray flame in his palm turned into streaks of light that merged with his body. Meanwhile, Black Flame's eyes became glossed over, as if his mind had been turned off and the body became soulless. 

This was the effect of Feng shutting down the Perfect Clone's conscience, something he had discovered was possible to do after some experimentation. Through the Ethereal Replicant Core, Feng could chose to suppress the clone's conscience until it's off, at which point he could either place a part of his own conscience into the Perfect Clone's body and use it as if it was his own, or control it like a puppet. 

At this instance, though, Feng was using it to achieve something else. 

By completely shutting down Black Flame's conscience, the insufferable pain caused by the powerful Tier 4 Mysterious Flame's fusion would become irrelevant; since there won't be anyone to feel it. 

Normally, doing such a thing would not only be useless, since the absorption process would stop if a person's conscience was to completely shut down, but the pain would immediately awaken the person's conscience if it wasn't shut down in its entirety, it would also be stupid because a Tier 4 Mysterious Flame's resistance to being absorbed wasn't limited to physical pain. 

At Tier 4, a flame like the Burning Argent Flame would attack a person's Sea of Consciousness, and not being conscious to protect it would not only result in failure, but also death. 

Someone could try to turn their consciousness off for most of the fusion process, and just automatically return to being conscious somewhere in the middle of the absorption in order to avoid most of the pain, but then they'd have to face the Tier 4 Mysterious Flame absorption's full, impossible to endure without Concentration high into Tier 4, pain, without anytime to gradually adapt to it; and if someone was able to endure that, there'd be no need to use such a roundabout method in the first place. 

But Feng has thought of a way to counter this problem. By turning off Black Flame's mind, he could keep the clone's conscience awake, yet off at the same time, causing the Burning Argent Flame to fuse with his body, but Black Flame to not be conscious to feel the pain from the fusion. 

As for when the Mysterious Flame attempts to assault Black Flame's Sea of Consciousness, Feng could use his own conscience to defend Black Flame's against the mental attacks, without being burdened at all. 

In the next moment, a loading bar showing Black Flame's fusion progress with the Burning Argent Flame appeared before him. The loading bar filled up at a snail's pace, increasing by only 1% every dozen seconds or so. 

3%... 10%... 30%... 

As the fusion progressed, its rate of increment gradually slowed down. Even after over an hour had gone by, the fusion bar had reached only 60%. 

When it did, the Burning Argent Flame within Black Flame began radiating powerful mental assaults every second, battering his Sea of Consciousness. 

Upon noticing the change, Feng began applying a defense technique against the Mysterious Flame's mental assaults. Controlling Black Flame's unconscious mind to steel into a single point through the Ethereal Replicant Core, Feng protected his clone's Sea of Consciousness. 

Through such a method, Feng continuously blocked the Burning Agent Flame's mental attacks without burdening himself at all or having to endure any pain. 

While this technique worked fairly well initially, after the fusion progress reached 80%, the Burning Argent Flame seemingly noticed the employed trick. Immediately afterward, the Mysterious Flame began releasing mental assaults at a much higher rate, going from once per second to twice per second, then even increasing to three, four, five times per second...

The frequency of the mental assaults continuously escalated, the Tier 4 Burning Argent Flame adamant in breaking Black Flame's mind. 

Faced with these high-frequency mental assaults, Feng remained relaxed as he defended Black Flame's Sea of Consciousness. To him, not much effort was expended as he simply sensed where the mental attacks were coming at and thought of where to tighten the defenses by using his clone's mind and energy to actually do everything; neither him nor Black Flame feeling the suffocating and painful experience of fusing with a Tier 4 Mysterious Flame. 

Not to mention, with his experience, dealing with the task was remarkably simple, and instead of it being a dangerous operation in which he was supposed to protect his clone from a Tier 4 Mysterious Flame, to Feng, the entire thing felt more like playing a video game. 

He simply sat back, munched on a Chocolate Stick, and enjoyed playing a game of mental reverse Whack-A-Mole. [2]

83%... 87%... 92%...99%...

System: The Burning Argent Flame's fusion is complete. The Burning Argent Flame is now bound as Player Black Flame's personal property. 

System: Congratulations! You have been tempered by the Burning Argent Flame. All Basic Attributes increased by 200 points, all Basic Attributes increased by 10%, physique improved by 30%, reaction speed improved by 20%, mental control improved by 40%, Fire Resistance +100, and control over fire-type Mana improved by 10%.

Feng stopped controlling Black Flame's mind and awakened his consciousness upon seeing the system notification appearing in front of Black Flame around four hours after the fusion process begun. 

After Black Flame came to, he could feel the Burning Argent Flame's energy spreading throughout his body. His originally depleted Concentration from Feng using his mind to defend against the mental assaults also began recovering crazily.

At this moment, Feng, who had already downloaded the Burning Argent Flame from Black Flame for a decent amount of Seven Luminaries Crystals, was experiencing the changes brought about by the Tier 4 Mysterious Flame. His Basic Attributes might not have increased by much after absorbing the Burning Argent Flame, but his acuity of the world of God's Domain had undergone a drastic change. He felt as if he had stepped into a whole new world.

His Concentration standard, in particular, had increased by a huge margin and reached near the Tier 4 Intermediate standard thanks to the Mysterious Flame and some of his other means that increased its strength. 

Aside from the improvements to his mind and body, the Burning Argent Flame's active power was similarly astonishing. 

[Burning Argent Flame] (Tier 4 Mysterious Flame)

When activated, improves destructive power by 80% and effects of fire-type Skills and Spells by 100%, grants attacks a 150% mental assault modifier, and increases the success rate of forging, alchemy, and cooking by 30%.

The Tier 4 Burning Argent Flame was a heaven-defying tool for both combat and Lifestyle players.

The Mysterious Flame's ability to add mental assaults to attacks was especially amazing, far more amazing than purely physical or magical attacks. After all, there was no clear Attribute for mental assaults in God's Domain. Likewise, there were no in-game methods for resisting mental assaults. Players could only rely on their own minds to withstand such assaults. 

Players lacking in mental fortitude could lose control over their bodies after suffering just one strike. And even if they didn't, they would still feel disoriented and their bodies uncomfortable. 

Now that Feng had the Burning Argent Flame in his possession, along with the Legendary Nightwalker's Cape and his other powerful stuff, he dared to confront even Superior Mythic monsters of the same level directly. 

Once they both adapted to the change, Black Flame went back to forging Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, while Feng made a trip to Cocoa's private Forging Room. 

Walking in, Feng could see Cocoa working on forging a Levellume Capsule with immense concentration. After a few minutes, it became obvious how difficult forging a Levellume Capsule, despite it only being a Fragmented Legendary rank item, is to Feng with his own experience as a former Advanced Grandmaster Forger. 

When Cocoa finally finished with the Levellume Capsule, she breathed out in relief, only seeming to sense Feng's presence now as she turned to him with a look of surprise. 

"Guild Leader, are you here to see how the Levellume Capsules' production is going?" Guessing the reason for Feng's visit, as it was the most logical one to see how things were going after four hours have already gone by, and that Feng was probably curious about an item like the Levellume Capsule since they had never heard of an item with such an ability, or at least not to this huge of an extent, Cocoa reported "I'm afraid the production is much more difficult than what we initially thought." 

Cocoa then told Feng about the production process of the Levellume Capsules, and Feng was surprised by the complexity of the entire thing. This level of necessary knowledge, techniques, skills and requirements of a Forger were way too onerous for just a Fragmented Legendary rank item, and even most Legendary items wouldn't be this difficult to forge. 

Aside from needing an extremely high demand of skills and experience as well as the proper tools, a decent mastery over the space element was also needed for forging the Levellume Capsules; not to mention adequate Concentration to pull off the process. 

If not for Cocoa being a former Craftsman Forger, and having experience in forging space-type items, along with the Tier 3 Silver Meteor Flame and other special tools and help items acquired through her promotion or Feng's and Zero Wing's grinding, there was no way she would have been able to pull off even properly attempting to forge a Levellume Capsule. 

Still, after four hours of research and nine attempt of trial and error, Cocoa had managed to forge only one Fragmented Legendary rank Levellume Capsules. 

Though, of the remaining eight, only three were complete failures, while two of them resulted in Epic rank Levellume Capsules that could hold 100,000,000 EXP, and three in Dark-Gold rank EXP storages that could hold 25,000,000 EXP. 

It was obvious the Levellume Capsule was no ordinary item, and made sense a Forging Design for its Epic variant would appear in a Legendary Treasure Chest, while Feng guessed there was something even more to the EXP storages. 

"I see." Feng nodded upon hearing Cocoa's words as he inspected the six Levellume Capsules, before a dark-grey flame appeared on his palm "Perhaps this will be of some help to you." 

"A Tier 4 Mysterious Flame?!" With her vast experience, Cocoa easily deduced the Burning Argent Flame's rank. 

But her shock was just that much greater due to being aware of the difficulty of even acquiring a Tier 4 Mysterious Flame and what someone would have to accomplish, let alone being able to fuse with it like the one before her, especially the impossibility of it happening at this stage of the game with barely any Tier 1 players. 

Yet, Feng managed to do such a thing. 

'As expected of the Guild Leader!' Cocoa's admiration of Feng only grew higher, this being even more impressive than many of his other feats in the Greater God's Domain due to the limitations current players faced. 

Following which, Feng left a part of the Burning Argent Flame in Cocoa's work station to assist her in forging, while he grabbed the Fragmented Legendary rank Levellume Capsule and left. 

Normally, players could only use one Mysterious Flame at a time for their work, but there were some Forging Techniques in the Greater God's Domain that allowed for Forgers to combine the effects of multiple Mysterious Flames. Of course, they were very difficult to learn, not to mention implement, while the number of flames possible to use at one time and their efficiency would be limited depending on the technique's rank and user's capabilities and Concentration. 

However, in her previous life, Cocoa had mastered a Craftsman rank Forging Technique for combining the effects of Mysterious Flames, and while what she was currently capable of is very limited due to her low standard, it should be doable to partially make use of the technique to increase her forging capabilities through the Silver Meteor Flame and Burning Argent Flame; to a certain extent, at least. 

---

Feng made a trip to Black Flame's forging room with the newly acquired Levellume Capsule, wanting to see to what extent it could be used in combination with the Ethereal Replicant Core. 

After arriving, Black Flame soon finished producing an Intermediate Mana Armor Kit, and engaged in another experiment with him. 

Pouring a bit of his EXP into the Fragmented Legendary Levellume Capsule, Feng filled up around a third of its capacity and dropped a few levels in the process, before using Information Uptake to reach Level 99 again. He then did the same thing, filling up another third of the Levellume Capsule, it holding around 340,000,000,000 EXP now, and used Information Uptake to recover his level again. 

But when he did so and wanted to fill up the Fragmented Legendary EXP storage to the brim, he noticed only around seventeen billion EXP remained in it, the previous amount he had put inside having disappeared. 

Curious, Feng placed some EXP into the Levellume Capsule again, and then watched its contained EXP carefully as he activated Information Uptake with a thought. Immediately, his level returned to 99, while he witnessed as the EXP he had just put inside the capsule vanished. 

This confirmed Feng's guess that EXP copied through the Ethereal Replicant Core could not be stored, but using the method to upgrade stuff like the Seven Luminaries Ring's Auras worked. The only thing left was to check if the level of a learned skill would remain in existence after he recovers his level through Information Uptake. 

Regardless, it would seem like using such a cheating method to simply store billions of EXP, and either give it to his guild members or sell it, was, unfortunately, impossible. Nevertheless, such a feature could still be abused to certain extents. 

Following which, Feng left Black Flame's forging room and went to his own, beginning to make a large batch of Intermediate Mana Armor Kits, only stopping when it was morning of the next day, and the time for the Big Dipper Competition had arrived. 

---

It was already daytime in the real world, with the sun shining brightly in the sky. 

After Feng ate and was about to rest while waiting, his quantum watch rang. 

"Mister Shi Feng, I am Mister Xiao Yu's assistant. Your competition today is scheduled at 5pm. I have come to pick you up in advance; the car is already waiting downstairs." The young and beautiful woman who appeared in the video call said, smiling. 

"Alright, I'll be there in a moment." Feng replied before disconnecting the call.

--- 

Meanwhile, on the ground floor of Feng's apartment, a maglev limousine was currently parked outside the building. A man and a woman stood quietly beside the car, waiting.

The woman wore a black dress. She had fine black eyelashes and a glamorous face with skin as white as snow. Her long hair was draped over her shoulders. Overall, she had a bright and beautiful appearance. As for the man, he was tall and ferocious. Wearing a black suit and a pair of sunglasses, he was like a ferocious beast, his entire body radiating a hostile aura that made others consciously distance themselves from him out of fear.

When the residents of the community saw this scene, they thought that a big shot had come visiting. 

"This guy sure knows how to take his time." The female assistant, Liang Jing, looked at her quantum watch. In an impatient tone, she grumbled, "Just what does Chairman Xiao see in him to actually have us come fetch him?" 

She was the Head Assistant for Big Dipper Training Center's Chairman. Yet, now, she was actually sent to escort a youth. 

The man standing beside her right now was also no ordinary character. He was called Lu Zhihong, and he was the personal bodyguard of Chairman Xiao. Lu Zhihong's strength was simply amazing; he could easily deal with seven or eight ordinary people simultaneously. Even if he participated in the city's fighting competition, he would have no problem obtaining a good ranking. 

"At the moment, the company lacks the support of a martial arts master. Chairman Xiao is naturally trying to create a grander scene." Lu Zhihong replied indifferently.

"He's just slightly over 20. How could he possibly be a martial arts master?" Liang Jing had noted Feng's appearance through the video call just now. No matter how she looked at it, she could not relate Feng to those 30- to 40-year-old masters. "I hear that his opponent this time is quite amazing. Even Master Chen Wu has referred to that person as a fighting genius. That person has even defeated several martial arts masters before. I really cannot understand why Chairman Xiao still insisted on holding the competition this time around. The result of this competition is so obvious; he could clearly just choose that person, instead." 

She had personally seen martial arts masters before. Even from afar, every one of these masters gave off an imposing air that made others feel reverence for them. However, Feng did not possess such a feeling. If not for Chairman Xiao personally confirming that Feng was indeed a martial arts master, she really dared not believe that such a youthful master actually existed.

While Liang Jing and Lu Zhihong were conversing with each other, Feng came downstairs.

When Liang Jing saw Feng's blue sports attire, however, she was immediately stupefied. How was this a master? Whether in terms of temperament or power, he was clearly just an athletic youth! At this rate, he would simply be seeking his own death by challenging a martial arts master!

Contrary to Liang Jing's reaction, however, the bodyguard standing beside her revealed a completely different expression. Despite the faint smile Feng had on his face, Lu Zhihong felt as if he was staring at a dormant beast. 

Lu Zhihong could not sense anything from Feng's every action.

That was right. He could not sense anything at all.

For a seasoned bodyguard like himself, there was nothing more dangerous than being unable to pick up anything from someone's action.

It was as if someone were pointing a gun at his head, and he still thought the other person was joking. 

If Feng were to take action, Lu Zhihong felt that Feng could easily defeat him in just a few moves. His assumption was wrong, though, as it would barely take half a move. 

Before the female assistant could even speak, the previously silent Lu Zhihong hurriedly opened the car door, respectfully saying, "Master Shi Feng, please, get in. We will take you to the venue immediately."

"Thanks." Feng smiled as he entered the car.

However, the female assistant, Liang Jing, was stupefied.

What was this situation? 

She had never seen Lu Zhihong act so respectfully to anyone before. Not even Chairman Xiao received such a treatment. 

--- 

Big Dipper's central assembly hall.

Although the sun was blazing, an endless stream of guests entered the hall.

At the bright red carpet, well-known upper-class personages descended from luxury cars, one after another, and slowly walked into the assembly hall. Big Dipper's assembly hall was very lively today; it was even livelier than when the city's fighting competition was held.

"Quite a small number of people."

Seated inside the limousine, Feng swept a glance at the assembly hall's surroundings, noticing that the people who came to watch the competition were all well-known characters in Jin Hai City; there was not a single commoner present at all.

Logically speaking, by holding the competition this time, Big Dipper should be promoting itself to increase its popularity. In order to recover from its downward spiral, it would definitely want to widely publicize the competition this time around.

Internal force experts were rare, and exchanges between internal force experts were even rarer. Countless people wished to feast their eyes on such a fight.

However, when Feng looked at the scene before him, it did not seem as if Big Dipper had done any promotion at all. Otherwise, the venue would've been completely swamped with people.

"Mister Shi Feng, it is like this: the other master wishes to hold this competition in private; he does not wish it to be known by everyone in the world. Hence, the company has not made any attempt to promote the competition, and has only invited a few well-known figures. But even so, that master was not happy about it. If Chairman Xiao had not offered sufficient compensation, the number of people attending this match might be less than half the current head count," Liang Jing said as she looked at Feng, her lips curled up in a mesmerizing smile. Charmingly, she continued, "If Mister Shi Feng thinks that this event is too small, after this competition is over, we can definitely arrange for your name to be known by all in Jin Hai City."

As the Head Assistant of Big Dipper's Chairman, observing another person's every mood was Liang Jing's specialty. After seeing Lu Zhihong's respectful performance before, even if she was a fool, she would have realized that Feng was not as simple as he appeared to be.

With such a great achievement at such a young age, Feng would definitely become a dragon among men. If she could narrow the distance in their relationship slightly, the familiarity would be of tremendous help to her future.

Naturally, she could not pass up this opportunity sitting before her right now.

"That person sure likes to keep a low profile, but it's fine. I don't like being watched by too many people, either." Feng simply answered, already very familiar with the situation, and simply chit-chatting to pass the time out of boredom. 

Feng naturally didn't care much for the fame, as he had always preferred to be as low profile as possible for as long as the situation permitted. And if he didn't, God's Domain was the quickest way to fame, so doing something in real life was unnecessary and much more inefficient. 

Soon, Feng followed Liang Jing to the backstage of the assembly hall to rest there as he quietly awaited the start of the competition.

---

Currently, the competition hall inside Big Dipper's assembly hall was already packed with people. Every one of these attendees held considerable status in Jin Hai City. Plenty of well-known figures from other cities had also turned up this time around. Meanwhile, seated inside the VIP room on the second floor were the few titans of Jin Hai City.

At this moment, Xiao Yu was entertaining these VIPs.

If Feng were present in this room, he might be able to discover a lot of people he was familiar with here if his brain could be bothered with such irrelevant information.

Seated in the center of the room was none other than Jin Hai University's Headmaster and Chairman, Xu Wenqing. Seated beside him were Zhao Jianhua of the Zhao Group, Master Chen Wu of Jin Hai City's number one dojo, and many more high-profile characters of Jin Hai City.

"Little Xiao, you've surely given me a big surprise this time. You were actually able to invite two martial arts masters to conduct a competition with each other. This is a first for our Jin Hai City," Xu Wenqing said as he stroked his white beard. A little excited, he said, "I wonder if you can introduce me to the two masters you've invited this time around?"

The other VIPs promptly nodded their heads at Xu Wenqing's words.

In this day and age, fighting competitions were the most popular event in the world. The status of martial arts masters was naturally extraordinary, more so that of internal force experts. Normally, one could not see such experts in an ordinary city like Jin Hai City. Even high-profile characters like the VIPs present would not be able to easily meet such experts.

"Old Man Xu, you must be joking. How could I possibly be able to invite two masters to conduct a competition with each other? The two of them just happened to want to compare notes with each other, so they allowed me to arrange this competition," Xiao Yu said, laughing. Currently, his heart was filled with an indescribable sense of joy. "The two masters are currently resting and preparing for the competition later. It would not be convenient to invite them over right now, but I'll definitely arrange for a meeting afterwards."

"I hear that the two masters competing this time are very young. Is that true?" Xu Wenqing asked curiously.

"Yes, the two of them are indeed very young. Both haven't even reached the age of thirty yet." Xiao Yu nodded, then added proudly, "In particular, Master Chen Wu has also met the master that we've specially invited this time. Although he is only twenty-seven years old, his strength is very frightening. He has already defeated several well-known masters. During this period, I heard that he is planning to join the qualifiers for an international fighting competition, and that he has a high chance of obtaining a good result."

"Indeed, that Master Lei Bao is really a prodigy. I've compared notes with him before. Unfortunately, I was easily subdued in just a few moves. Now that Master Lei Bao has undergone over a year of intense training, his current strength should be even more frightening. When I met him before, I even felt chills running through my body." Chen Wu nodded as he sighed in admiration.

Lei Bao was definitely the most powerful internal force expert he had met. A martial arts prodigy. In the future, it was highly possible that Lei Bao would become a martial arts grandmaster. At that time, Lei Bao would probably be able to defeat him easily even without using internal force. If Lei Bao used internal force, instead of just losing the match, he might even lose his life in a single move.

Everyone found it inconceivable when they heard that Jin Hai City's famous fighting champion, Chen Wu, had been easily defeated, and that this had happened over a year ago.

Not a single person present did not know who Chen Wu was. He was a character known by all in Jin Hai City.

In his early days, Chen Wu had fought many martial arts masters. Although he was defeated in those exchanges, the martial arts masters that fought him also did not have easy victories. One could say that Chen Wu was a martial arts expert who was very close to becoming a master. Hence, everyone in Jin Hai City referred to Chen Wu as Master Chen.

Currently, Chen Wu was still of a relatively young age, and he maintained his strength at its peak. Logically speaking, he should have already taken half a step into the ranks of masters. Yet, he only managed to last several moves against the martial arts master named Lei Bao. One could just imagine how powerful Lei Bao was.

"Oh? There's actually such a talented character. Little Xiao, you must introduce him to me after the competition. Although this decrepit old man has spectated international fighting competitions before, never once have I had the opportunity to chat with such a master." Xu Wenqing's eyes glowed with anticipation upon hearing Chen Wu's words.

Seated at the back of the room, Zhao Ruoxi, who had come along with Zhao Jianhua, remained indifferent as she half listened to the conversation, mostly being preoccupied with her own thoughts.

'What to do?' Zhao Ruoxi's heart was in distress. 

Even until now, she had still not made up her mind about how to proceed with the relationship between her and Feng, and time's a wastin'. 

Originally, Ruoxi had thought that once Aqua returned, she'd take charge and decide how to best go about with the situation considering Fire's and Violet's actions, but unexpectedly, the First Vice Guild Leader still has not taken any actions or said anything, while there didn't seem to be any problem or some kind of argument happening. 

The situation was right back to normal like nothing had ever happened, causing Ruoxi to remain unsure of what to do. Regardless, staying silent and simply letting everything develop on its own was unacceptable to Ruoxi anymore. 

That was what she had done in her previous life when her feelings for Feng first blossomed, and what had caused everything to develop in the direction it did. 

A repeat of anything like that must definitely not be allowed to happen, and Ruxoi didn't wish to go back to normal where she and Feng were just guildmates. Preferably, she'd be able to achieve a similar relationship to him as Fire and Violet, the rule breakers. 

Unfortunately, that would mean going against the agreement, something Ruoxi also didn't wish to do. Breaking it without the other girls even being present felt wrong to her. However, does the agreement really even matter anymore? 

It's already been broken, while the chances of it going back into effect and of things returning to how they were before became zero the moment Feng said 'fuck it' in his mind and slept with Fire; so was there a point in still upholding it? 

Ruoxi just could not make up her mind while staying at home and distracting herself with God's Domain, so she had decided to come along with her uncle, hoping that seeing Feng in person would help her settle the turmoil in her mind. 

Time passed little by little. Very quickly, the arranged time for the competition arrived, and the excitement inside the assembly hall reached the boiling point.

This was the first time a competition between martial arts masters would be held in Jin Hai City. Usually, such competitions could only be seen on the international stage. Meanwhile, the majority of the people present here today had only ever watched an international competition through TV broadcasts; they never had the chance to personally witness such competitions.

Just as the crowd was wondering what kind of people the two masters were, white smoke started emerging from the two passages leading to the arena. Meanwhile, the two people who had walked out from the white smoke were none other than the two protagonists of today's event.

Lei Bao and Feng.

When the audience personally saw the true appearance of the two masters, every single one of them was rendered speechless. They never expected the two masters to be so young. In particular, when the spectators inside the VIP room saw Feng, they were all shocked.

"Shi Feng? Why is he here?" Xu Wenqing rubbed his eyes. For a second there, he even thought his eyes had gone blurry. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

1. Now that I think about it, the Spectral Animacell is kind of like a Poké Ball

2. Couldn't find a better game example even with Chat GPT's help. If you have a better one, please comment.