The moment the screaming chicken on his body started shrieking, Yanqing gave up resisting—because he knew that if Pei Guang had been using a real weapon instead, he'd already be long dead.
What? Hearing constant "Aaaaah! Aaaaah!" from himself was a little embarrassing?
Yanqing admitted that, if this had been the old him, he definitely would've felt utterly humiliated. But ever since being tainted by Dan Heng, his resistance to such things had been steadily increasing.
"I… lost…"
Yanqing admitted defeat without hesitation. Once he conceded, Pei Guang stopped his actions.
But before Yanqing could say anything, Pei Guang reached out and started patting around Yanqing's body.
In that instant, Yanqing blushed. "H-Hey? Sir? What are you…??"
Pei Guang: "Yo? You're blushing? What the hell are you blushing for?!"
Feeling Pei Guang's hands roaming over his body, Yanqing didn't understand why he was being touched like this. Could it be that he—!!!
Yanqing's face turned even redder. "Mr. Pei Guang, please… d-don't… don't do this…"
Pei Guang: "Quit it with those thoughts. I'm not into men. I'm looting my spoils of war!"
Yanqing: "…Huh?"
Yanqing had seen… certain things before, so when Pei Guang started touching him, his thoughts went off-track.
But the truth was, Pei Guang had zero interest in men. Even though he was rifling through Yanqing's clothes, he was just searching through pockets—pants, jacket, whatever.
The only difference this time was that Yanqing was still conscious.
Usually, the ones he looted were unconscious.
To Pei Guang, this counted as defeating a strong NPC. He didn't expect to get anything amazing, but even basic materials or items would make him happy.
But fate had a surprise in store.
As Pei Guang kept patting around, he actually found something. And when he pulled it out, both Pei Guang and Yanqing were dumbfounded.
"When did I start carrying this around?"
From Yanqing's pocket, Pei Guang pulled out a book even bigger than the pocket itself.
The book was radiating a golden glow, and not just the kind of "gold" that meant rarity, but also literal, brilliant golden light.
Looting a gold gold-tier item from Yanqing? That was something Pei Guang never expected.
"You can drop gold, too?"
Pei Guang was completely thrown off.
So far, he'd gotten gold-tier drops from four NPCs: Sampo with his quirky effect items, Kafka who dropped the synthesis pot, Ruan Mei with her synthesis materials, and now Yanqing, who dropped a skill book.
Regardless, he was ecstatic. Pei Guang glanced at the glowing golden book and got visibly excited.
[Skill Book: Put Your Faith in the Holy Light]
[Effect: Grants the special skill "Holy Light." After learning it, the player can release Holy Light within a 10-meter radius to increase nearby allies' recovery rate, strength, vitality, and efficiency. Cannot be used on oneself. Skill lasts up to 10 seconds; the same target cannot be affected again for 10 minutes. Minimum duration is not zero. Players can choose whether to display visual effects for the Holy Light.]
[Note: When using Holy Light, please act like a human. Specific effects and costs are up to the player to explore.]
The skill description was blunt and straightforward.
The moment Pei Guang saw it, he felt spiritually uplifted.
Two new skills in a day, one of which was a gold-tier ability on par with March 7th's divine meteor attack—and it could restore HP? This was basically a perfect haul!
After all this time, he'd finally gotten a real healing skill.
Still, when he looked at the stat-boosting effects, Pei Guang felt it didn't quite live up to the gold-tier rarity. Honestly, he thought it was weaker than his existing healing items.
But a skill was a skill, and it was one he'd been dreaming of. He learned it on the spot without hesitation.
Watching Pei Guang pull a book out of him, Yanqing was stunned. "Sir… how did you get that from me…?"
Pei Guang: "You dropped it. Anyway, how do you feel now?"
Pei Guang had just used the skill. Ten meters didn't sound like much, but the range was actually quite decent, enough to hit most allies nearby.
Yanqing: "I feel… I feel full of power. The fatigue in my body is gone, and I think my strength has increased significantly. I even feel a little hungry… I can't quite quantify the boost. Huh? It's gone now."
For a moment, Yanqing felt like his body was brimming with energy, like he could fight a hundred more battles back-to-back.
But ten seconds later, the buff faded.
Seeing Yanqing suddenly flushed and excited, Pei Guang nodded. "Looks like it works. But if this is the extent of the boost… then at best, this thing should be purple-tier. Ten seconds of effects? Doesn't even beat aura skills."
Pei Guang had a purple-tier aura skill, which let him and his allies extend the duration by jumping while using it.
But this Holy Light? Just ten seconds, no attack buff, no combat stats, only increased health recovery and "vitality."
He had studied that "vitality" effect a bit. Basically, in real-world terms, it boosted metabolism and cell activity.
Was that good or bad? Hard to say.
If someone was already on the verge of death and you used this to accelerate their metabolism, wouldn't that just kill them faster? Someone bleeding out? Just boost their efficiency! Boom, they bleed out in seconds.
Still, one advantage of the skill was its low cost. Compared to Savory Truefire, which practically required a buffet of recovery items to sustain, this one was far more economical.
Take that fight with the giant True Sting, for example: by the end, Pei Guang had zero blood left in his body.
It was all recovery items.
But this new skill consumed so little that, in a 1v1, if the Savory Truefire lasted 10 minutes, Holy Light could easily run for several hours in that same time, and it burned energy at a consistent, balanced pace.
Not only that, it was just as accurate: once Pei Guang locked onto a target, it wouldn't miss.
Still, even with all this, Pei Guang didn't feel like it deserved gold-tier status. He didn't mind getting "garbage skills" per se, as long as they were useful in some way.
"Wait a second…!"