Master of Kaidan
Chapter 101 Secrets Hidden in the Secret Manual

Chapter 101: Chapter 101 Secrets Hidden in the Secret Manual

"Abandoning my once hometown~Wearing a ghostly mask upon my face~To bask in the sunlight~What does it matter if it’s despicable~~"

Walking through the desolate wilderness, Feng Xue dragged a wheeled cardboard box, humming a strange tune, following a small river with leisurely steps as if on a suburban outing.

Although from time to time there would be ominous creatures lurking and suddenly attacking by the roadside, in Feng Xue’s eyes, wearing the Feminization Filter, these creatures, which should have slowly become beast-like to survive in the wild and developed camouflage, stood out starkly as they crouched in the bushes or atop tree branches.

Eyeing the plump rear in the grass, the Monster’s distinctive Mosaic Sphere also materialized before him. Feng Xue rolled his eyes, unconcerned, and strolled past, then, just as a fruit woman whose original form was unknown made a pouncing gesture, he swiftly slashed her head off with a knife.

However, these were just ordinary Monsters; if he encountered a butcher like the one vomited—(Chen Xiyao: It’s vomit! It’s thrown up!)—by Chen Xiyao, he would still have to evade.

As for how to assess the strength of Monsters, one glance at them with the Golden Finger was enough; looking at how many elements materialized within the huge Mosaic Sphere on them made it clear. The more elements there were, the stronger and more freakish the Monster’s power. Feng Xue could easily deal with Monsters showing two or three elements with the help of the Holy Mother dismemberment skill. Four would take some effort, and more than five meant a tough battle. Upon encountering one with more than six elements, Feng Xue would activate his stealth ability and flee.

Perhaps due to the more powerful Monsters having a greater need for Identity, the closer to the center of Infinite City one got, the weaker the Monsters became. After walking more than seventy kilometers, Feng Xue initially encountered some that required a bit of thinking to deal with, but now, they were mostly so weak that a single slash was enough to take them down.

Bending down to Refine the fallen female corpse, he gained several thousand polluted Identities, still without dropping any elements. As for the legendary Phantom Objects that could burst forth from Monsters, he hadn’t even seen a shadow of them.

Sometimes, Feng Xue truly questioned whether the claim that Monsters could burst Phantom Objects was just a rumor—at least since his arrival, having slain not quite a hundred but at least fifty Monsters, he’d never once encountered a Phantom Object.

After disposing of the corpse without a trace, Feng Xue pulled out his work ID and checked his current location.

"Still have about ten more kilometers. At a conservative estimate, it’ll take another three hours. Time for a break," Feng Xue said, glancing at the sky already turning dark. He reached into his Storage Bag at his waist and pulled out a branch about the length of a forearm and thrust it into the soil by the riverbank. Seeing no effect, he adjusted its position slightly.

Immediately afterward, a peculiar power began to spread. Although there were no tangible changes, a sense of security enveloped an area of several tens of meters.

Name: Phantom Object·Hometown Tree

Elements: [Home], [Plant], [Camp], [Construction]

Description: In ancient Yan Country, it was said that when people had to leave their home villages, they would gather tender branches from easily survivable trees. Upon reaching a new settlement, they’d plant the branches. If the sapling took root, the settlers would build their homes around it. Inserting this branch into the soil near a water source, if the environment was suitable, a habitable region could be established.

Note: It only makes the area habitable, not invincible, especially be wary of your own kind.

...

This Phantom Object was something Feng Xue had casually reforged from a locust tree branch in the Real World, initially treated as nothing but a novelty Tool. However, he only realized how vitally important "habitable" could be once he began his wilderness travels.

Within the area where the tree sapling unfolded, the temperature, humidity, and even the hardness of the soil all became very conducive to living, making setting up tents much easier than under normal circumstances.

Moreover, Feng Xue discovered that as long as he stayed in this area, even those evil omens would not attack at night. Of course, as the notes had mentioned, this anti-surprise attack ability probably only worked against those without much intelligence.

Casually using Santa Claus’s sackcloth to set up a small tent, Feng Xue started a bonfire and took out the "Supreme Martial Arts" and the secret manual he had previously copied halfway to continue writing.

The [Money Printer] tag greatly increased his transcription speed. Though it was still far from real printing, his current efficiency in handwriting had already surpassed his previous life’s speed using a keyboard as a writer.

As each character landed on the paper, Feng Xue felt as if his inner strength cultivation had increased.

Copying itself was also a reading process. The "Steps to Heaven Song" secret manual not only provided him with a boost to his inner strength but also unlocked the Taiwu System’s reading and achievement systems for him. With the days of transcribing the manual, his ability to understand various martial arts also continuously grew.

This wasn’t as simple as being able to understand content he couldn’t before; he could see many details he had overlooked in the manuals, such as a small detail about this supreme martial arts manual that had always been ignored—

Each martial arts manual contained within it was a hand-copied version.

This hand-copied version wasn’t the counterfeit practice version used for piracy in the Taiwu trial version; on the contrary, it was a vast treasure.

By comparing the different handwritings in each secret manual, Feng Xue finally confirmed—thanks to his enhanced martial arts insight—that each manual was indeed transcribed by the cultivator, and even the original creator of the corresponding cultivation technique. He hadn’t realized this during his earlier copying, but as his martial arts insight deepened, he could discern a hint of the essence from the senior cultivators of these techniques.

This essence was very mystical; even with his near-perfect reproduction (with Money Printer enhancement), he couldn’t replicate this feeling, and he suspected that even photographs and photocopies would probably fail to reproduce it.

That essence was like a special effect accompanying this phantom object, impossible to replicate unless with the same phantom object.

"However, it doesn’t really matter. For general cultivation, these essences not only offer no benefits, imitating them blindly might even affect a cultivator’s own path. Only when one has reached an impasse do these essences have the effect of offering enlightenment," he mused.

After days of reading and grasping many martial arts truths, Feng Xuexin silently lamented and decided not to pay heed to those essences. Instead, he quietly filled the role of a copyist. Once he finished copying a secret manual, he would close the book, refresh it, and then copy the next one.

In this continuous cycle, dawn arrived once again.

Stretching lazily, relaxing his body that had maintained the same sitting position all night, Feng Xue straightened up and started binding the previous night’s work.

However, at that moment, his brows furrowed slightly as he muttered to himself in surprise,

"How odd, why has the [Demon] tag suddenly generated revenue again?"