Master of Kaidan
Chapter 121: Encirclement

Chapter 121: Chapter 121: Encirclement

Evil omens possess an instinct similar to that of wild beasts, a fact well known to Feng Xue, and beyond instinct, they also have certain tendencies based on their "type."

These tendencies are somewhat akin to the corrupt gods poisoned by faith in novels read before traversing, simply put, "What they are rumored to be, they become."

For instance, if undead creatures are universally believed to loathe the living, then undead omens will show intense hostility toward living people; similarly, if giant dragons are thought to covet treasures, then dragon omens will take valuable items they see back to their nests, even though they can’t understand the true worth of these items.

However, playing dead is different because it involves "proactivity" and "choice."

Although dragon omens will take treasures they encounter back to their lairs, they do not actively seek out treasures as if hunting, which reflects whether they are proactive.

Omens inherently lack proactivity and the ability to choose, which was mentioned by Old Li when he was explaining the characteristics of omens.

But now, facing a fatal wound, this omen did not, like a wild beast, follow its instinct to fight desperately or submit, nor did it flee immediately; instead, it chose to place its hope of survival on "playing dead," which seemed quite strange.

Even if it were not for the Mosaic Sphere on its head, he might even doubt whether this creature was truly an omen or just a resident of Garbage Mountain disguised as an omen to attack outsiders.

Maintaining great caution, Feng Xue gripped the hem of his cloak in his left hand and circled the mud-like monster, picking up the Suffocation Blade and the indescribable stick again; after careful thought, he still chose not to approach this "muddy beauty" as hunting omens wasn’t his main source of phantasmal items, and picking more garbage might be more profitable than risking killing this creature.

With some disgust, he glanced at the red crowbar; although it did not show any signs of dirtiness due to the phantasmal properties, Feng Xue felt that he probably wouldn’t have the courage to hide it in his mouth again for a while.

"Anyway, I probably won’t have the chance to go to the real world soon." Feng Xue slipped the indescribable stick into his sleeve, re-equipped the Suffocation Blade, and then took off the filter.

Just now, while he was fighting that "muddy beauty," he discovered a somewhat terrifying issue—

As the saying goes, settings matter more than anything else; the effect of this filter was not just about making targets appear female in Feng Xue’s eyes, it wasn’t an illusion but a real "rewrite of cognition," and perhaps in other worldviews, rewriting cognition and creating illusions might be equivalent, but in Infinite City, cognition equals reality.

Initially, this filter was just a trigger mechanism for the buff of Holy Mother’s disassembly to Feng Xue, but now, as he began his martial arts training, the filter had an even more terrifying enhancement:

It allowed treating all non-human entities as "human."

In other words, martial arts techniques like joint locks, which are "for people," could be used against any enemy when the filter was equipped.

However, this advantage also posed a difficult question for Feng Xue: if he grew accustomed to this style of combat, it would undoubtedly increase his dependence on the filter, and without it, his combat effectiveness could greatly decline, or he could even be vastly disadvantaged if he encountered an opponent with abilities that counter the filter.

To avoid this terrible future of being unable to fight without the filter, Feng Xue decided to carefully consider his future standard combat methods.

In the process of transcribing supreme martial arts, the quality of the "selected excerpts" from the Steps to Heaven Song steadily improved, and it’s believed becoming a supreme inner strength master isn’t difficult.

Basic swordsmanship gave him the most elementary combat literacy, rather than just relying on inner strength to exert brute force.

Designed to grow through slaughter, Life-taking Fifteen Sword was the supreme martial art best suited for cultivation in Infinite City.

Besides that, there was the Sunflower Acupoint Hand, a conceptual skill that allowed one not only to perform acupoints from a distance but even hold non-human entities. Even though it lacked in mobility, the short cooldown instantaneous skill from the Opera Phantom Suit compensated well enough, making it a well-rounded setup.

So, what was missing before becoming a part of Kaidan?

As Feng Xue walked, he pondered over this question. The answer was quite apparent—he lacked the ability to attack groups.

"If I could find an ’All Swords Return to One’ or ’Endless Moksha’, that wouldn’t be bad either, but the former demands self-destruction of martial arts, and the latter has strict requirements on one’s fate..."

Feng Xue just thought about it and then gave up on the idea of seeking answers from the ’Supreme Martial Arts.’ After all, martial arts are all about "Martial" and require cultivation. He had only just started with the Sunflower Acupoint Hand and Life-taking Thirteen Swords; even if there was a martial AOE art, he lacked the energy to train in it.

"If I could directly forge a Secret Manual from the magic system, that would be ideal, but considering the fusion rate of Golden Finger... I’ll check the auction house later to see if there are magic weapons with area attacks..."

Feng Xue murmured in his mind, prying open a palms-sized box from a pile of trash with a crowbar. After seeing that there was nothing else inside, he melted it on the spot.

Actually, when it came to magic, Feng Xue had other ideas, particularly concerning the ’Demon’ tag that he bore.

As a demon, knowing some magic seemed reasonable, right?

But now, just having the ’Identity’ tag supply stability to him was already more than Feng Xue expected. Relying on it to further enhance seemed a bit far-fetched.

"Right, the next time I go out, I could expand on the Demon tag. For instance, deliberately show some magic capabilities to create the impression of a magic-using Demon. Speaking of which, Huo Mu mentioned an organization selling passes for ’gates’; I might ask about it when I return. Now, with the ’Nowhere to be Found’ skill, I am not worried about being ambushed by dozens of guns anymore."

Thinking of this, Feng Xue got increasingly vigorous, swinging his crowbar with more force.

This was not only because he had a new goal but also because, in the vision of Golden Finger, an interesting element emerged—

[Divine Punishment].

Feng Xue wasn’t sure what kind of item would carry this special element.

"A Divine Artifact with a punishment feature? A super series mecha named after a god? Or perhaps a Yu-Gi-Oh card?" Feng Xue swung his crowbar actively, continuously scraping out trash. Given the vast and fragmented nature of the garbage, which included cans and balls of paper, millions of dollars could probably melt a significant hole; otherwise, it would have been easier if Feng Xue just used Golden Finger to refine everything.

However, after the frenzied excavation, Feng Xue finally located the target attributable to this element—

It was a two-handed sword that looked ordinary, with the majority of it buried in garbage, revealing only a small part of the blade and a dusty handle. Previously, a small section of the handle had been exposed outside, and the Golden Finger had captured it; now, as the surrounding trash was cleared away, Feng Xue could finally confirm that the [Divine Punishment] tag indeed belonged to this sword.

Name: Divine Punishment Sword

Elements: [Divine Punishment],[Sword], [Weapon]

"Divine Punishment Sword? Is it a sword used by a deity to administer divine punishment, or has the sword’s owner suffered divine punishment?" Feng Xue tugged at it and found the object was quite firmly fixed. After thinking for a bit, he aimed the Golden Finger’s cursor at the handle—

It didn’t matter if it couldn’t be pulled out; just melting it would suffice.