Liang Wei's senses flared as thick fog rolled across the battlefield.
"Hard Strike!"
He swung into the mist.
Ting!!!
An iron grasshopper collided with his blade.
He pivoted around it, footwork light and precise.
"Heavy Hit!"
He stacked the second skill, sending the creature spinning off course before ducking beneath another lunging body.
Swooshhhh!!!
The Pondside Pelican made its move.
Dive.
It plunged downward, beak wide, swallowing its prey in a single gulp.
Ripple.
The ground beneath shimmered like disturbed water as the pelican sank into the shadow cast by its own fall.
Swish.
Within the darkness, it swam through liquid shadow. Bubbles slipped from its beak as if it were truly underwater.
The grasshopper struggled violently inside its mouth.
Exactly as intended.
The pelican opened its beak and released the insect into the murky depths. The grasshopper thrashed, kicking to escape, while the great fowl flapped backward through the shadow-water.
Its neck twisted toward the pale silhouette of Liang Wei above—a streak of white light cutting through the darkness.
It surged toward the surface, abandoning its prey, and burst from Liang Wei's shadow in a splash of spectral lake water.
"Grrhh… gronk… urrk."
It sprang back into the air.
Zzzzzzz!
[Thorn-Drinker Spirit Bees, Lv 14]
Yellow-and-black lights swarmed into view, each bee nearly the size of a grasshopper.
Cling… Cling!
Liang Wei spun his chain, carving through the incoming swarm and scattering fireflies in streaks of light.
His Nine-Desert Horned Toad fixed its gaze on the aggressive bees. Its tongue snapped outward, snatching one from the air.
Crock.
It leapt toward the swarm, throat swelling.
Fwshhhhhh!!!
A blast of scorching sand erupted from its mouth.
"Beetle Rush!"
Xuyue sent her construct forward to intercept the bees.
Swish—
[Mist-Silk Phantom Spiders, Lv 18]
The mist revealed a hidden threat as massive spiders launched silken webs, intercepting several of her beetles mid-charge.
The ground shook where the toad landed. Then the soil bulged.
Twisted mandibles burst upward, snapping at its legs.
The toad leapt clear, tongue striking into a fresh burrow and dragging out a massive ant. It swallowed the creature without hesitation.
[Iron-Mandible Burrow Ants, Lv 16]
A wave of fifty ants erupted from the earth.
Crock—
The toad shot its tongue into the ground and pulled itself into the center of the swarm.
It slammed down with explosive force. Orange sand burst outward.
Soil dried instantly. Leaves crumbled. Grass withered into grains.
A miniature desert formed where it stood.
The Seven-Colored Chameleon observed from its perch.
"Tsssshh…"
Its eyes rotated toward the woods—bees, spiders, ants—all arriving at once.
Too coordinated. Something was wrong.
They felt anchored… drawn by an unseen force.
The fireflies.
The chameleon turned toward the only non-aggressive lights hovering nearby.
Then it closed its eyes.
Even through its eyelids, the glow burned bright. Intrusive. Growing stronger.
Understanding dawned.
The fireflies were not harmless. They were signals. Beacons calling the swarm.
That was how the ants had surfaced so quickly. That was how the insects converged with such precision.
The fireflies had to be eliminated. All of them.
The chameleon lowered its body against the tree, jaw unhinging beneath sealed lips. Its tongue muscles tensed, then released.
Swish.
Its tongue lashed toward a cluster of unsuspecting fireflies, striking dozens before they could scatter, sweeping them into its stomach.
Its body shimmered as it shifted position, camouflaging with the terrain before snapping up another mouthful.
Xuyue, meanwhile, dealt with the spiders.
"Winter Cavalry Illusion."
Frosted weaponry shot forward—daggers, spears, arrows.
"Huhhhh!!!"
She cleaved through a lunging spider.
With her other hand, she formed a spear and thrust it through another.
Hiss.
One spider inhaled the gray mist around it. When it had drawn enough in, it shrieked and spat a jet of purple-clear poison.
"!!"
Xuyue turned to her next target—and met the venom head-on.
Her arm rose, forming a simple shield that blocked the acidic spray. She shook the poison off and stabbed through the attacker.
"How can you be so cowardly?" she snarled, mild hatred burning in her voice. "Do you creatures only know how to strike from behind?"
Her eye narrowed, glowing blue as her axe flared. She slammed it into the ground.
Ice spikes erupted outward, splitting the earth.
"So be it. I'll make sure you never repeat that cowardice."
Icicles tore through the swarm near her. She lifted her axe and spun.
"Die!"
A grasshopper launched at her like a cannonball.
She raised her shield. Her boots carved trenches through the soil as she was pushed back, forced to deflect the creature into the ground.
Her spear twisted in her grip and drove forward, piercing its reverting iron eye.
Crunch!!
The blade punched through its eye socket and into its brain. She left it skewered without hesitation.
Fastening her axe to her back, she raised her shield arm again to block incoming poison jets. Xuyue closed her eyes and flung the captured venom into the air.
The liquid gathered, mixing with ink and ice Qi drawn from her shield.
[Feral Grade: Mist-Silk Venom Set]
Type: Attack Items
Quality: Grade 1
Effects:
• +15% Poison Damage
• +19% Bleeding Effect
• +14 Agility & Quickness
Bonus Effect: +2 Cold Resistance
Flavor Text:
"Crafted from the venomous properties of Grade 1 Mist-Silk Phantom Spiders."
Purple sabers condensed from the sky. She caught them and dashed toward the nearest spider, slicing through its silk before stabbing through the thorax.
Liang Wei was no less relentless. He battled all three swarms at once.
"Huhhh!"
He cleaved a grasshopper in half, then spun his ring blade. Embers flared along its edge, burning through bees and crashing into spider-covered trees.
"Ember Blade…"
1 Spirit Residue (Ice Type)
Swishhhh—!
He spun the chain faster, embers dancing wildly.
"It failed," he muttered, hurling the weapon through three venom blasts and into their casters.
He yanked the chain back, dragging the blade skyward.
Buzz—buzz—slash!
It carved through a line of bees.
Come on. I need this to work.
Liang Wei tightened his grip on the chain, feeding ice wisps into it.
-4 Spirit Residue (Ice Type)
He could feel the chains channeling ice into the Crescent Glaive—but there was no outlet.
In the game, Spirit Residue could only activate stored skill fragments in his saw and cleaver.
He cut down another grasshopper.
But he couldn't shake the feeling there was another way to use Spirit Residue. There had to be a way beyond one-time skills.
That restriction had been imposed to nerf his extraction ability.
If he could steal and reuse skills indefinitely, the game would collapse in days.
If he were truly free, what would stop him from stacking stun-, poison-, and bleed-based skills? Making him a walking curse to anyone who encountered him.
He could even hunt a high-rank Lv 50 player with a massive Class AoE and kill him through endless recasts—as long as he had Spirit Wisps to fuel them.
It would be that simple.
The fight would end before his opponent could even move.
Then Liang Wei would steal his moveset.
Giving himself a better edge to hunt the next high-ranking player on another server. Then hop to another server, and another after that, hunting those with unique and powerful skills.
Leveling endlessly.
That was why each stolen skill could only be used once. Why he could only equip three at a time. Why Spirit Residue expired after three days.
It created balance.
But that was in the past.
What about now?
"Huhh! Slash!"
Some rules carried over from Dao's Rising.
"Stab! Stab!"
He impaled one ant, then another, then another clawing from its burrow.
He leapt back from the widening hole as his toad croaked and snapped, using its tongue like a grappling hook to drag ants into its maw.
Some rules remained. He couldn't stack skills without synergy.
But here… he had.
He couldn't activate unequipped skills in the game. But here? It was visualization & Intent.
If he wanted to strip the ember effect from Ember Blade and replace it with ice—he could try.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
He roared, spinning the chain.
- 7 Spirit Residue (Ice Type)
- 23 Spirit Residue (Ice Type)
His demonic saw blade and cleaver pulsed.
He committed. His heart chilled. His limbs paled. Sweat froze along his skin.
- 40 Spirit Residue (Ice Type)
- 1 Blood Memory Fragment (Confinement Skill Trait: Frozen Dominion)
It was time to go big—even if it meant sacrificing a skill he would never recover.
His shadow rippled.
From it, the pelican emerged once more.
Ding—
Confinement Skill:Frozen Dominion + Ancient-Silk Banner + Aquatic Dive... Synchronizing…
The ground trembled as water surged outward. The battlefield rippled like disturbed oil—then froze solid beneath a spreading sheet of frost.
Trees dipped as if sinking beneath a forming surface.
Liang Wei drew back his spinning ring blade.
Notification: Congratulations on creating a personal confinement skill.
Thirteen Provencal War Banner: Pale Depths of Endless Frost
The message rang out as he drove his blade into the frozen water below.
Fissures split the ice. Sheets shattered.
Spiders. Ants. Grasshoppers. Even Xuyue and his summons trembled as whirlpooling water dragged everything beneath the frozen surface.
In seconds—everything turned cold.
Liang Wei, Lv 21 → Lv 24
On the first day inside the testing arena, he became the first to forcibly initiate a Realm Break category skill—
Rewriting the world in his own digital code.