In his previous fight with Xiyue Frost, he had to rely entirely on speed and skill just to hold his ground. If they were to fight for real, he obviously couldn't win. The gap in their gene levels was simply too large.
Simply put, he could dodge her attacks, but he couldn't beat her.
After grafting the new talent, Feng Hao's damage output had completely surpassed that of Mages at his level. If he were to face Xiyue Frost now, he definitely stood a fighting chance.
...
He spent the night cultivating as usual.
The next day, he was inevitably pestered by Xi Yueyao. "Hey, have you finished making that pill for rapidly increasing strength?"
"I failed," Feng Hao replied casually as he was getting ready to head back to the Miao Medicine Tower.
"Oh, really?! You're just putting me off again, aren't you?" Xi Yueyao was instantly displeased, saying through gritted teeth.
Feng Hao broke into a cold sweat and blustered, "Come on, Class President, do you think developing a new pill is that simple?"
"I don't care. You have to figure it out," Xi Yueyao said, puffing out her cheeks and muttering, "Everyone else is starting to catch up to my level."
"That's because you're too lazy to train, isn't it?" Feng Hao retorted irritably.
Having spent some time with her, Feng Hao now truly understood the meaning of laziness. The girl would rather sit and stare into space than train. She was level thirteen when school started, and she was still level thirteen.
Xi Yueyao looked annoyed. "Nonsense! This class president is not lazy at all!"
"Then what are you standing around for? Go back and train!" Feng Hao said with a sneer.
"Hmph!" Xi Yueyao snorted, her confidence wavering. Pouting, she asked, "Where are you off to?"
"I'm heading to the Miao Medicine Tower for a bit," Feng Hao answered truthfully.
"I want to go too."
"..." Feng Hao turned to her, his expression darkening. "Do you want your sister to hunt me to the ends of the earth?"
"But I want to go out and have fun, too!" Xi Yueyao whined.
"Just be a good girl and go back to training. I'll bring you a present when I get back, okay?" Feng Hao knew her personality; a little coaxing was all it took.
A sweet smile appeared on Xi Yueyao's face. She pouted and said, "Now that's more like it."
...
Business at the Miao Medicine Tower was booming, so much so that it was lifting the commercial prospects of the entire street.
Inside the shop, the Shopkeeper, Wang Gui, was gleefully calculating his earnings, occasionally shouting a word of encouragement to the clerks. When he saw Feng Hao return, he immediately dropped everything and rushed over to greet him. "Great Proprietor, what brings you back today?"
"I'm back to refine some pills," Feng Hao replied offhandedly, then asked, "Has everything been alright with the shop lately?"
"Everything is normal, aside from a little trouble with the Beixing Clan," Wang Gui answered.
Feng Hao's brow furrowed. "What happened?" he asked in a low voice.
"It all started at an auction about half a month ago. Rumor has it the Beixing Clan was targeted by the other three families working together. There are also whispers that several Sixth-rank Elders have emerged in the Dongfang, Xiyue, and Nanyuan Families." Wang Gui had clearly investigated the matter, as he spoke smoothly and without hesitation.
Feng Hao nodded in understanding. He quickly put the pieces together.
'Before the auction, the Beixing Family probably only knew that the other three Patriarchs had advanced to the sixth rank!'
In reality, after getting the Experience Pills, Xiyue Feng and Dongfang Wuji hadn't selfishly kept them. Instead, they distributed them to the Elders in their families who were stuck at level fifty-nine.
For one, those Elders only needed one or two Experience Pills to break through to the sixth rank. For another, it was for the sake of their clans' overall strength.
'By my estimation,' Feng Hao thought, 'with five Experience Pills per family, the three of them could produce at least three Sixth-rank Mages each. No wonder the Beixing Clan is getting anxious!'
"I understand now. With the three great families providing protection from the shadows, the shop should be safe enough," Feng Hao said with a slight nod. "If the Beixing Family does make any major moves, be sure to find a way to notify me."
"I understand," Wang Gui said solemnly.
Feng Hao nodded in satisfaction, then plunged into the Alchemy Room and began his work.
His main purpose for returning was to refine a batch of Qi Recovery Pills and restock the shop's inventory. He was, after all, the mysterious Alchemist behind the Miao Medicine Tower.
...
Ever since being targeted by the other three families at the auction, the entire Beixing Clan had been on high alert.
In the clan's secret meeting room, facing a barrage of questions from his elders, Beixing Kuang gave a dejected, bitter smile. "All of you here are my seniors. Please, speak your minds freely."
"I just want to know how those old coots broke through to the sixth rank!" a coarse-featured Elder with a thick beard and sideburns boomed.
The other Elders glanced his way, clearly wondering the same thing.
"Regarding that, I can only speculate for now," Beixing Kuang said bitterly. "A while ago, our mole inside the Xiyue Family sent word that they had obtained a type of pill that could directly raise a person's gene level. Furthermore, after Xiyue Feng's second daughter had just awakened her magic foundation, she took one and shot straight to level six."
"What?!" All the Elders' eyes widened, their shock plain to see.
"In the following days, our moles in the Dongfang and Nanyuan Families sent similar reports about this pill," Beixing Kuang added.
The Grand Elder at the head of the room looked grave. "Are you saying that the other families' Elders breaking through to the sixth rank is related to this pill?"
"According to the mole's initial report, the pill seemed to only be effective on Mages below the second rank, with a maximum dosage of five. However, it now appears that higher-grade versions of this pill must exist," Beixing Kuang reported.
HISS! A collective sharp intake of breath echoed through the secret room.
The coarse-featured Elder asked impatiently, "Have you tracked down the source of these pills? The very survival of our clan is at stake!"
Beixing Kuang had anticipated this reaction. He smiled bitterly and said, "The pills come from the Miao Medicine Tower."
"The Miao Medicine Tower? Didn't that young fellow Miao Qing die?" an Elder asked, surprised.
"The pills weren't refined by Miao Qing, but he is connected to it." Beixing Kuang sighed wistfully and recounted the entire story from the beginning.
After listening to Beixing Kuang, the Elders' expressions flickered between shock and anger. They all realized the gravity of the impending crisis.
"Is there truly no room for negotiation?" the Grand Elder asked grimly.
Beixing Kuang shook his head, a bitter smile on his face.
"We'll deal with the matter of Xiaoran later. The critical issue now is how to weather this storm," the Grand Elder sighed, his eyes filled with disappointment. "The other three families have built up considerable resentment over the years. If a conflict breaks out, the consequences will be unthinkable!"
A relatively young, middle-aged Elder in the corner mused, "Letting things continue like this is not an option. We have to eliminate that Alchemist."
"That Alchemist has never shown their face, and they're under the covert protection of the other three families. I doubt that approach will work," another Elder mused.
"Then there's only one option left," the middle-aged Elder said after a pause, gritting his teeth. "If we can't have it, then no one can. If we leak the news about these pills, I'm sure many major powers will become very interested!"
"If all else fails, that's our only recourse," Beixing Kuang nodded helplessly.
...
In the Alchemy Room of the Miao Medicine Tower, after two days of non-stop work, Feng Hao finally accomplished his goal.
Countless pills of identical size and texture were piled inside his Spatial Ring. They were all high-grade Tier Five Qi Recovery Pills. If not for the sake of efficiency, refining them to the supreme grade wouldn't have been difficult.
He sent his Divine Sense into a pill to examine it and quickly grasped its basic information. This was how the natives of this world observed things—the stronger one's Divine Sense, the stronger their perceptive abilities.
'It's not as detailed as a game interface, but this feeling of personally discovering an item's stats is still pretty cool.'
[Qi Recovery Pill]
Rank: Tier Five
Effect: Restores 25 Magic Power per second for 10 minutes.
Ordinarily, a supreme-grade Tier Four Qi Recovery Pill would have been enough to fuel the consumption of [Dark Force Slaughter], but refining supreme-grade pills was too inefficient. To save time, Feng Hao opted for high-grade Tier Five Qi Recovery Pills instead.
'Tsk, tsk. Using Tier Five Qi Recovery Pills just to grind skill proficiency... I was never this extravagant, even back when I played the game!'
Feng Hao sighed. What could he do? It wasn't his fault he was loaded now.
'Sometimes I really wonder if this is a game world. There are so many similarities, yet so many things are completely different.'
'And what am I? A Transmigrator? A player? Or just some NPC?'
He shook his head with a wry smile and stopped dwelling on it. Overcome with exhaustion and doubt, he fell asleep.
In his dreams, he seemed to return to Earth. Everything was so familiar, yet so foreign...
「The next morning. Rongcheng Academy, Monster Simulator Room.」
Instructor Niu opened the door as usual, ready to start a new day, only to be startled by Feng Hao's sudden appearance. "Huh? Kid, what are you doing here so early?"
"To rent the equipment, of course," Feng Hao retorted with a shrug.
"You don't have to be in such a rush!" Instructor Niu gave Feng Hao a speechless look and led him to Monster Simulator Number One. "For how long?"
Feng Hao thought for a moment. "I'll start with a month. I can add more time later if it's not enough."
"How long did you say?" Instructor Niu was dumbfounded, his jaw nearly hitting the floor.
"A month. What's wrong?" Feng Hao asked, frowning.
"You planning on moving in or something?" Instructor Niu asked, his expression darkening.
"Is that a problem?" Feng Hao retorted.
Instructor Niu was speechless for a moment. "Fine, fine, fine... One month is thirty days, so that's 72,000 Magic Crystals. Auditors pay double, so we'll call it 140,000 for you."
"Thanks, Instructor Niu." Without another word, Feng Hao tossed out fourteen Level 2 Magic Crystals.
Instructor Niu skillfully operated the equipment, inserted eight of the Magic Crystals into the Energy Storage, and pulled out a charcoal-black card. "This is your access card. Don't break it."
"I know," Feng Hao said with a small smile as he took the card. This wasn't his first rodeo, after all.
"By the way, what kind of Secret Technique takes a whole month to practice?" Instructor Niu asked curiously.
Feng Hao turned and walked through the hatch, tossing a casual reply over his shoulder, "The Dark Force Basic Secret Technique."
'Are you kidding me? A Basic Secret Skill takes a month to master?' Instructor Niu's first instinct was that Feng Hao was pulling his leg. But then it hit him. 'What Secret Technique could a level-fifteen Dark Force Mage even have? And this kid doesn't look like the kind of idiot who'd dump all his initial [Gene Points] into his meridian system, does he?'
After puzzling over it for a long time, Instructor Niu's eyes snapped to Simulator Number One. He clicked his tongue. 'Holy crap, he's not actually planning to spend a month practicing a Basic Secret Skill, is he?!'
At that thought, the corner of his mouth began to twitch uncontrollably...