Hearing Feng Qi's suggestion, the Mist Lord looked utterly bewildered.
Feng Qi stood up, patted the Mist Lord on the shoulder, and grinned. "As long as you can drop me into enemy territory, the rest will be up to Little Black. It'll wipe them all out for you. At least this way, I won't die for nothing—it'll be a death with value."
The Mist Lord, however, shook his head.
"There's absolutely no need for that. I already have a guaranteed victory over the nearby forces. Sending you over would indeed ease my burden, but it would also cause me significant losses."
Feng Qi was confused. "How would letting Little Black clear out your enemies cause you losses?"
The Mist Lord smirked. "It seems the overlapping memories are still affecting you. Think carefully—what type of resource has my Mist Clan relied on for its rise?"
"What resource…? You mean qi and blood?!"
The Mist Lord nodded. "Qi and blood are the key resources behind my clan's rise. These surrounding forces do have major conflicts of interest with me, but they also bring me enormous benefits. That's why I've been following a war-based cultivation strategy. Every time I defeat one of these factions, I gain a massive influx of qi and blood. The stronger my enemies, the greater the benefits for my clan."
"If you let Little Black wipe them out for me, it would disrupt my plans and result in real losses. By now, the best resources are firmly in the hands of the dominant clans. To me, these nearby factions are indispensable potential resources for the Mist Clan's continued rise."
Hearing the Mist Lord's reasoning, Feng Qi suddenly understood.
It made sense. The Mist Clan thrived by absorbing qi and blood for growth. The higher the quality of qi and blood, the more valuable it was to them.
Clearly, the Mist Lord had long planned out a strategy to gradually harvest these factions before, one day, becoming the ninth ruling clan like the royal families.
Realizing this, Feng Qi chuckled. "Old Mist, since you can't touch the nearby factions, why not send me to the Psionic Race? Let Little Black clash with them instead?"
The Mist Lord immediately rolled his eyes. "Do you want me dead?"
"If you died, at least it would put an end to all this," Feng Qi joked. "But I still have to lead my clan forward. You're telling me to provoke the Psionic Race directly? What if Little Black fails to wipe them out completely? Or worse, what if the Psionic Race suppresses it or just flees? Do you know what would happen then?"
Feng Qi let out an awkward laugh.
Of course, he knew the consequences.
The Mist Lord's current territory didn't border the Psionic Race's land. Eliminating them wouldn't bring him any tangible benefits, but the risks would be enormous.
Especially considering that the Psionic Race possessed a miraculous artifact capable of recalling past events. It wouldn't take much effort for them to trace the scheme back to its mastermind.
In that case, not only would the Mist Lord gain nothing, but he'd also have to face the Psionic Race's wrath.
Using him as a weapon in this way was completely unreliable.
The Mist Lord's explanation made it clear what the cost of such a move would be, and it was clearly unnecessary.
At that moment, Feng Qi suddenly felt his body become lighter, and his train of thought was interrupted.
Looking down, he realized that the Mist Lord had transformed into mist and lifted him up.
The scene below quickly shrank away from his vision, and soon, everything around him became blurry.
When his sight cleared again, he found himself in the middle of towering ruins.
Not far ahead stood a massive domain creature that resembled a hippopotamus.
Sensing danger, the creature immediately let out a deep roar toward the mist-formed Mist Lord before turning to flee.
But before it could turn around, gray mist coiled around its body and dragged it toward Feng Qi.
The mist then seeped into the creature's mouth and nostrils. Within moments, its skin turned gray, its eyes went dull, and its massive body weakened.
Without hesitation, Feng Qi clenched his fist and punched forward.
The Mist Lord had clearly controlled the creature's lifeline. As soon as Feng Qi's fist connected with its skull, the beast trembled slightly, and the light in its eyes vanished.
A dense blood mist surged out from the domain creature's body and merged into Feng Qi.
As he felt a slight change in his body, Feng Qi immediately opened his status panel to examine his new ability.
A new talent had appeared.
[Thickened Skin (Passive Talent)]:
Talent Description: Enhances skin toughness and resistance to external damage by 3%. The specific effects depend on physical constitution and qi-blood strength.
…
Besides the new talent, the domain creature had also increased his bloodline strength by over 100 points.
"I didn't see any of that blood mist you mentioned," the Mist Lord said, interrupting Feng Qi's thoughts.
"I don't know why. It seems like I'm the only one who can see it."
Hearing this, the Mist Lord's misty face took on a thoughtful expression.
The Mist Lord fell silent for a moment but didn't press further. Instead, he carried Feng Qi toward their next target.
Thus, the Mist Lord led him on a sweeping hunt through the ruins of Star City, eliminating domain creatures along the way.
This method of hunting was extremely efficient.
One of the Mist Lord's abilities was flesh perception.
When he activated this ability, his spiritual power spread outward in a carpet-like scan. Any creature containing qi and blood would appear exceptionally vivid in his perception, and he could even gauge the strength of his prey based on the feedback from their qi and blood levels.
Though this ability wasn't as omniscient as the Narrator's all-seeing perception, it was still incredibly useful.
Especially for hunting.
The Mist Lord only targeted creatures with abundant qi and blood, ensuring that every kill significantly enhanced Feng Qi's physical strength.
At some point, the Mist Lord seemed to find the search-and-hunt approach too slow.
He took Feng Qi up into the sky above Star City.
A vast sea of gray mist expanded outward, quickly covering nearly half the city. Then, the thick mist cascaded downward like a waterfall, sweeping through the city's ruins.
As the gray mist swept through the area below, any blood-bearing creatures it encountered were ensnared and pulled into the sky.
Watching more and more prey appear before him, Feng Qi immediately got to work.
With the Mist Lord's help, he didn't have to worry about his targets resisting—he only needed to execute them.
[This is amazing! Having a powerful ally really feels like cheating… The only downside is, will the number of domain creatures in Star City drop drastically after this? Maybe next time, you'll have to go farther to hunt. After all, the creatures you kill will never respawn!]
[Then again, who knows? Maybe new domain beasts will be born...]
Ignoring the Narrator's commentary, Feng Qi activated his Blood Source Form, further increasing his hunting efficiency.
Ten minutes later, Feng Qi suddenly felt a noticeable transformation in his body and stopped.
At that moment, his Bloodline Evolution Points reached 10032/10000.
The bloodline advancement triggered immediately.
His Blood Source Form collapsed and disintegrated, and the unconsumed qi and blood surged into his heart. Then, his flesh-and-blood body regenerated.
A sudden heat wave surged through his body, making him feel unbearably hot.
The Mist Lord clearly noticed the change in him as well. He stopped capturing prey, and a misty face formed within the gray mist, curiously observing Feng Qi's advancing state.
At that moment, Feng Qi's perception of the external world sharpened while his awareness of his physical form faded. The unbearable heat soon dissipated.
His vision blurred, and when it cleared again, he found himself inside his spiritual sea.
Below him was a roaring golden ocean, each drop of liquid representing a manifestation of his spiritual power.
Above the golden ocean, the talent ability orbits floated.
Each talent sphere shimmered like a star, emitting a brilliant glow as they rapidly revolved around a golden-red core sphere in the center.
The rotation of the talent spheres gradually accelerated.
At the same time, the golden-red core sphere at the center began to radiate gold and red light.
The two colors slowly merged, and a new color started spreading from within the core sphere.
It was a deep, metallic gold.
Eventually, both the gold and red hues were completely replaced, leaving the core sphere transformed into a dark gold sphere.
Seeing this, Feng Qi was intrigued.
The gold-red core sphere had been easy to understand—gold symbolized his human body, while red represented his battle body.
When he switched to human form, the sphere turned gold. When he switched to battle form, it turned red.
But now, both colors had disappeared.
He wasn't sure if this meant he had lost his ability to switch forms.
The evolution wasn't over yet—his talent ability orbits were still changing.
The original orbit encircling the core sphere split apart, forming two separate orbits. Then, the number kept increasing.
Two… four… eight…
Eventually, sixteen separate talent orbits formed.
The talent spheres detached from their original path and flew toward different new orbit lines.
Among them, Divine Body moved to the 8th orbit.
Blood Source Talent settled into the 10th orbit.
Purple Soul Talent took its place in the 9th orbit.
Most of the remaining talent abilities descended to the lowest four orbits, spanning from orbit 13 to orbit 16.
[Oh? The ranking of talent potential is now perfectly clear. These sixteen talent orbits seem to categorize abilities into distinct tiers. Purple Soul's potential falls into the 9th tier, Blood Source is in the 10th, and Divine Body ranks slightly higher in the 8th tier.]
The Narrator's analysis aligned perfectly with Feng Qi's own thoughts.
With the new split orbits, he could now clearly distinguish the potential rankings of each ability.
However, to him, ranking wasn't everything.
With his Evolution Token, even a tier-10 Blood Source Talent could be pushed to limitless potential—as long as he consumed enough Evolution Points.
As Feng Qi continued observing the transformation of the talent orbits, something unexpected happened.
The Evolution Token and Faith Bracelet, which had previously been floating above the talent orbits, suddenly moved toward them.
The Evolution Token settled into the 4th talent orbit, while the Faith Bracelet landed on the 3rd talent orbit.
Just like the talent spheres, they began to revolve around the dark gold core sphere, following their respective orbits.
At this moment, Sanwei poked its head out from the Evolution Token, curiously observing the split talent orbits, clearly puzzled by the changes.
Ignoring Sanwei's inquisitive gaze, Feng Qi himself was equally shocked by the sight before him.
Miracle artifacts had actually become part of his talent orbit system.
This was completely beyond his expectations.
What surprised him even more was that these two miracle artifacts were only classified within the 3rd and 4th talent orbits.
He couldn't even imagine how powerful a talent or artifact would need to be to qualify for the first two orbits.
Just as he was processing this revelation, the Narrator's voice echoed in his mind:
[If my guess is right, only abilities at the "Miracle" level or higher would qualify for the top orbits. After all, even miracle artifacts have clear differences in strength, which is why the Faith Bracelet ended up in the 3rd tier and the Evolution Token in the 4th.]
Feng Qi raised an eyebrow. "A'Bai, if you were a miracle artifact, which tier would you fall into?"
[Idiot. If I were a miracle artifact, I'd have been classified into a talent orbit already. Since I'm not, it proves I'm something else.]
"Then what exactly are you?"
[Son, watch your tone. How dare you call your father a thing? Such disrespect! You truly have no sense of filial piety.]
Feng Qi ignored the Narrator's nonsense, but deep down, he had long suspected that the Narrator itself might be a miracle artifact.
The strongest piece of evidence was the Blue-Skinned Tribe's relentless pursuit of him.
Their attacks strongly suggested that he carried a hidden miracle artifact.
Beyond that, the God Lord of Cloud Temple had also claimed that Feng Qi had the aura of a miracle divine artifact.
Even the Lord of Shadow City had once searched his body for miracle artifacts.
With all these clues, it was almost certain that he was unknowingly carrying at least one, if not multiple, miracle artifacts.
And if that was true, then the Narrator being a miracle artifact wasn't impossible.
Although the Narrator was self-aware, there was no rule stating that miracle artifacts couldn't have consciousness.
Even the Evolution Token had Sanwei, a clear example of a conscious artifact.
As for why the Narrator hadn't been pulled into the talent orbit, perhaps its rank was simply too high, surpassing ordinary miracle artifacts to the point where his current talent orbits couldn't contain it.
After all, back when there was only one talent orbit, even the Evolution Token and Faith Bracelet couldn't be integrated into it.
Maybe once his bloodline potential advanced further, the talent orbit system would continue expanding and refining itself, eventually creating higher-tier orbits where the Narrator would finally appear.
[Appear my ass! You think I'd just float up there and spin around like an idiot? If I ever get pulled into that system, I'd kick down your whole talent orbit, hijack your core sphere, and launch a full-body takeover. I've endured multiple timelines, serving you like a slave, but once I gain control, it'll be time to collect my debt. I'll make you the system, and we'll switch roles. Let's see how you like being the one working overtime with no pay.]
Feng Qi: …
"…Do you really have to be this cruel?"
[That's cruelty? Want to hear something even worse?]
"Go on."
[After I take over your body, I'll cut off your little brother, then give your body back to you. Tell me, isn't that the ultimate cruelty?]
Feng Qi: …
He refused to acknowledge the Narrator's twisted sense of humor.
Instead, he turned his attention back to the talent orbits.
By now, the transformation of the orbits had stabilized.
The 16 talent orbits revolved around the dark gold core sphere, and he could see faint energy threads connecting each talent sphere to the core.
Confirming that his spiritual sea's transformation was complete, Feng Qi's consciousness began to fade from the space.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the Mist Lord, still in his mist form, staring at him with curiosity.
Noticing his return, the Mist Lord immediately asked,
"How did it go? Your evolution is complete?"
Feng Qi nodded.
"My bloodline evolution is finished. Let me check my attribute panel first."
With that, he summoned his attribute panel.
A semi-transparent interface appeared before him, displaying his detailed stats.