Master of Kaidan
Chapter 42: The Cushion Knife Always Seems to Sell

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: The Cushion Knife Always Seems to Sell

Although from Feng Xue’s era’s perspective, it wasn’t strange for girls to enjoy male-targeted harem literature or for men to read female-targeted Nantong Wen, the era Chen Xiyao lived in seemed a bit more ancient.

This could be seen from the style of the book’s binding and its contents.

As a former practitioner, he could easily deduce the age of the book through the writing style, the descriptions of certain events, and the common phrases and jokes used.

He had only casually flipped through a few pages when he saw a plethora of terms like Jade Pillar and White Rabbit, almost definitely confirming that this was a piece from the early days of web fiction.

Of course, considering that the development history of web-fiction in Chen Xiyao’s world might differ from his own, he hadn’t made a definitive judgment. However, given Chen Xiyao’s embarrassed demeanor, it seemed that Yan Country also wouldn’t ignore the exaggerated plots found in web novels.

Therefore, after ruling out the option of the girl having peculiar tastes, Feng Xue felt he was getting closer to the truth.

Of course, none of this was important. Feng Xue’s teasing was merely to deepen his impression in the heart of the young girl.

Apparently, his approach was quite successful. With just a single sentence, the girl immediately felt defeated, muttering incomprehensible phrases like "Why can’t a girl imagine herself as the male protagonist?" and "Desire drives behavior."

Feng Xue did not wish to argue with her, so he took out the Holy Mother and, under the terrified gaze of the girl asking "What are you going to do?", carefully dismantled the glued binding of the hefty book.

In Infinite City, every single page was extremely precious and not to be wasted carelessly.

Considering the utilization rate of the pages, he first took out one sheet, carefully divided it, creating a palm-sized pocket book. He then wrapped another sheet around a stick to make a simple scroll, and finally, he cut a sheet into a long strip and folded it, attaching wooden boards on both sides to make a book similar to a memorial.

Chen Xiyao didn’t understand what Feng Xue was doing, but as long as he didn’t mention her taste in novels, she didn’t mind anything else.

Just like this, one working and one watching, soon there were three experimental books in front of Feng Xue.

"Now, it’s time to check the results!"

Feng Xue took a deep breath and frowned at the items, forcefully suppressing his desire to absorb the "Identity."

After they had been dismantled from their original form, the items initially indistinguishable from Pseudo Artifacts finally revealed their True Object nature. To Feng Xue, they were like a sumptuous feast placed in front of someone on the verge of starvation. Even though consuming them might burst him, make him sick, or choke him to death... he still uncontrollably wanted to pounce on them.

These items likely had the same nature as Wheat Bran Bricks. If he absorbed their "Identity," he would evaporate completely, just like someone who had lost all their "Identity." In Infinite City, everything essentially boiled down to consultation. Draining the consultation that maintained an existence meant that whether it was a True Object or a Pseudo Artifact, it would all vanish.

However, for Feng Xue, distinguishing between True Object and Pseudo Artifact didn’t require checking whether the "Identity" could be absorbed because in his Golden Finger panel, True Objects were directly marked as unrefinable.

"First, the usual cushioning step," Feng Xue took another deep breath and focused on the "scroll," its form making him think of the Eastern Country.

After some thought, Feng Xue chose a few inexpensive elements from his panel. Since it was just cushioning, he didn’t insert them one by one to stop losses like he usually would; instead, he threw several elements like "Fog," "Blindness," and "Concealment" all at once.

Elements like "Blindness" could easily be found on corpses, while "Concealment" was the result of hunting Malicious Omens recently—the weaker Malicious Omens didn’t exhibit these elements, but after death, elements such as "Concealment" and "Silence" could still be refined from their bodies. However, Feng Xue couldn’t be sure whether this was due to the Malicious Omen’s lifestyle or if their corpses absorbed other elements because of the cause of death, just like how corpses in the "Nothing" category do.

As for "Fog," Feng Xue had been intentionally collecting it. With the Holy Mother in hand, merely having a method to produce fog, even smoke grenades, during the nighttime could greatly enhance the Holy Mother’s combat capability, especially if the opponent happened to be a living female entity; it could become a decisive move.

Having input these elements, what Feng Xue wanted was self-explanatory—

He wanted to see if he could combine them into a Skill Book for the "Fog Concealment Skill."

What? Fog Concealment Skill is a skill?

Joking aside, there are many Naruto games ranging from GBA to PS4, including mobile and fan-made games. So what’s wrong with a skill book appearing?

Besides, the ability to produce fog wasn’t uncommon in various games, always associated with obscuring vision and hiding presence. Even if the result wasn’t the optimal Fog Concealment Skill, a skill like "Manufacturing Fog" would still be acceptable to Feng Xue. This was a cushioning action anyway; even if nothing came out, he wouldn’t be surprised.

With that mindset, Feng Xue boldly gambled a thousand "Identity" to test the waters. Due to the vast amount of "Identity" found in Kaidan corpses, his Golden Finger stored overwhelming contaminated "Identity," which could only be used as fuel during refining or recasting.

Having selected his elements, the scene in Chen Xiyao’s eyes was quite different; she watched as Feng Xue created three unsightly items, toyed with them a bit, and then the makeshift scroll began to glow.

As the light pulsated, the ugly scroll in Chen Xiyao’s view also began to transform—it turned into...

A CD!

Wait, a CD?

Chen Xiyao stared dumbfounded at this utterly nonsensical occurrence, vigorously rubbing her eyes.

Then she confirmed — the thing made from the stick and paper that barely counted as a scroll had indeed turned into a very common CD!

Actually, not just Chen Xiyao, even Feng Xue was perplexed. He couldn’t understand why recasting a scroll would result in a CD!

He didn’t even have a computer with a CD drive, let alone a player!

Feng Xue sighed. Although the result was unexpected, the item was still an illusion. After a brief moment of confusion, he finally directed his Golden Finger’s Identification panel towards the CD...