Chapter 71: 71. You Can’t Bully a Friend’s Artifact
“You seem happy?”
Xia Feng looked confused. The old man’s reaction was something he truly hadn’t expected. Shouldn’t he be upset that his Spirit Artifact was copied? It was like his wife was copied and then…
“Tsk~” The old man patted the dust off his clothes and slowly stood up, his hoarse voice filled with mockery. “Stupid kid, it seems you don’t know yet that your life has entered a countdown.”
As he spoke, he held up three fingers and slowly lowered them one by one, counting down with a grin: “3—”
“2—”
“1—”
As his fingers fully lowered, the old man frowned and said again in a deep voice, “1!”
“…”
Black and white figures had already reached him.
Cold sweat ran down his face: “1!!”
A cold wind gently blew through the dark forest. Under the blood moon, a flock of crows flew slowly across the horizon, like a line of black dots.
Xia Feng seemed to understand something and smiled kindly. “You’re not waiting for me to be devoured by the Calamity Force within the Demonic Armor, are you?”
“…” The old man’s face stiffened, his mind in a daze. What in the world was going on! He wasn’t a Calamity Eater, yet he showed no reaction to such a high concentration of Calamity Force?!
Damn it! His murky eyes suddenly sharpened, and his bloody light flashed with afterimages, appearing directly in front of Xia Feng.
“Do you really think I, a Third-stage Spirit Master, am a pushover!” he sneered inwardly. His figure instantly transformed into eight blood-colored figures, each holding blood-red lightning, surrounding the man and woman in the center from all directions. In the blink of an eye, eight became sixteen, and then thirty-two, completely sealing off the entire space.
“If you don’t let me go, you two bastards won’t have it easy either!”
“Die, all of you!” A vast sea of blood-red lightning flashed in the dark forest. Amidst the old man’s mocking low roar, the impending explosion of light – suddenly stopped!
The forest instantly returned to darkness. The old man stood there stunned, his surrounding clones turning into sparks of light with popping sounds and disappearing one by one.
He felt his spirit pressure plummet and his whole body collapse as if he were in a trance, falling to his knees.
He made a terrified probe and discovered that his connection with the B-grade Spirit Artifact was gone! The disappearance of the Vermilion Bird Demonic Armor caused his Spirit Pressure to drop back to the Second-stage level, paralyzing him completely.
“What happened?! Where’s my Spirit Artifact?” he realized something and looked up in anger, “Where did my Spirit Artifact go?!”
“How did it disappear? Naturally, because your Spirit Artifact was fake~” Xia Feng patted the fiery red armor etched with a vermillion bird on his chest, smiling. “And mine is the real one!”
“…” The old man’s mouth slowly widened. “I’ll be damned…”
In his thirty-plus years of life, he had never encountered something so outrageous! This Xia fellow’s ability wasn’t replication at all! It was plundering?!
Plundering the Spirit Artifact of another’s Spirit Artifact… How could such a perverted Spirit Artifact exist in this world?!
The old man was utterly stunned. His Vermilion Bird Demonic Armor was an extremely rare existence even among B-grade Spirit Artifacts! Yet, it was snatched away just like that?!
Mu Qingtong, standing beside him, was also surprised. She tilted her head and looked at Xia Feng thoughtfully.
She hadn’t expected that Xia Feng’s Spirit Artifact abilities, besides replication and optimization, also hid such a perverted capability. A Spirit Artifact that possessed three outrageous abilities before even reaching Holy Solution stage, even an S-grade couldn’t achieve this level.
“So, Mr. Xia’s Spirit Artifact is very likely, like mine, an Alpha-grade that simply doesn’t exist in the grading system!”
Mu Qingtong blinked and stared seriously at the man beside her, her elegant golden eyes curving slightly. After awakening her Spirit Artifact, she had consulted countless historical records but found no information about Alpha whatsoever. Even the highest combat power in the empire now only possessed S-grade Spirit Artifacts. It was as if S-grade was the pinnacle for humans. But her Spirit Artifact’s information clearly indicated Alpha. She had thought she was the only special one, but after meeting Xia Feng, she finally understood… Geniuses were mass-produced, and Xia Feng and she were clearly from the same batch.
“Round six, Spirit Artifact levels are neck and neck.” She smiled faintly, nodding thoughtfully. The score was now 6:5, I’m slightly behind him.
Sensing the burning gaze beside her, Xia Feng glanced at the black-dressed woman. “Why are you staring at me like that again?” Mu Qingtong smiled without answering, but the fervor hidden in her crescent-shaped beautiful eyes grew even more intense. However, on the surface, she still looked at Xia Feng with a cool and gentle gaze, as if trying to see through his handsome face.
After a moment, she suddenly asked, “So, is your ability plundering?”
“What plundering, don’t put it so offensively. I call it removing the false and preserving the true!”
Mu Qingtong couldn’t help but be curious. “Can you plunder my Spirit Artifact?”
“How can you ask such a question? You are my friend.” Xia Feng shook his head, righteous and eloquent. “A friend’s artifact cannot be bullied. I, Xia Feng, am a gentleman and never plunder my friends’ Spirit Artifacts!”
Mu Qingtong: “…”
Completely ignoring Xia Feng’s nonsensical words, she made a judgment. “So you can’t plunder. It seems there are indeed level restrictions.”
The old man, completely paralyzed, stared blankly at the two chatting. He was filled with despair. He should never have helped Lister with this. Damn Lister! If it weren’t for this punk Earl’s incomplete intelligence, how could he, the Eighth Master of the God’s Calamity Society, have ended up in such a state? He had originally intended to casually chop off this Xia fellow’s head, but he hadn’t expected this guy to have so many outrageous trump cards, which was truly despicable.
“Alright, old man, time to send you on your way.” Xia Feng held the blood knife horizontally at the old man’s neck.
“Wait, wait!” The old man frantically tilted his head back, shouting in terror. “I’m still useful! Really, I can tell you the usage techniques for the Vermilion Bird Demonic Armor, and this armor has many side effects, I can tell you all of them!”
“Side effects?”
Speaking of this, Xia Feng suddenly remembered that the Vermilion Bird Demonic Armor had a very evil side effect: it would make people age and shrink. He figured this old man had become like this due to the side effects. Youth and length are a man’s capital. Xia Feng didn’t want to lose the capital he prided himself on. Well, he was mainly proud of his moderate height.
After thinking about it, he focused his intent, held the armor on his chest with anticipation, and whispered, “Optimize.”
The optimization ability would evolve in the direction of his wishes, but he couldn’t control the specific details of the optimization. He could only hope for the desired outcome. With anticipation, he received new information.
[Optimizing—]
[Selected Spirit Artifact: Vermilion Bird Demonic Armor]
[Optimization successful!]
[Description: Death is rebirth]
[Level: B (Optimized Version)]
[Spirit Unsealing · Armor → Vermilion Bird Armor: Upon wearing, your combat intuition, strength, neural response, and movement speed will increase by 200%. Two vermillion bird fire feathers will grow from your shoulder blades, granting a 300% high-speed flight capability. In a fire element field, movement speed will increase by 301%~400%. The armor’s form can also be freely transformed.]
[Spirit Unsealing · Rebirth → Nirvana Rebirth: After your physical body dies, you can choose to reconstitute your body at any location within a hundred meters, temporarily inheriting all attribute bonuses of the ‘Vermilion Bird Armor’, and your Spirit Pressure state will jump up one tier (cannot jump to Venerable), lasting for thirty minutes.]
[Note 1: After using ‘Nirvana Rebirth’ once, a 30-minute interval is required before it can be used again; it cannot be used forcefully.]
[Note 2: Each time ‘Nirvana Rebirth’ is used, you will briefly fall into a state of complete paralysis, recovering normally in about 30 seconds.]
