After what Xi Yueyao said, Xiyue Frost's gaze locked onto Feng Hao once more. She felt a vague sense of familiarity.
Feng Hao stood frozen in place, cold sweat pouring down his back.
Xi Yueyao pulled him over in a huff and introduced him of her own accord. "Sister, look! He's that medicine kid from the Miao Medicine Tower!"
"Oh, is that so?" Xiyue Frost looked surprised, frowning as she sized up Feng Hao. "Why are you covering your face?"
"It's nothing, nothing," Feng Hao replied awkwardly.
Xi Yueyao grew even more annoyed. She yanked Feng Hao's hand away and said with puffed cheeks, "It's not like you're ugly. Why are you covering your face?"
Feng Hao wanted to cry but had no tears. Now completely exposed before Xiyue Frost, he could only offer her a strained smile and a nod.
"It's you?!" Xiyue Frost's expression changed in an instant. Without another word, she drew her sword and lunged.
This sudden development left everyone dumbfounded. No one could understand why Xiyue Frost had suddenly flown into a rage.
Facing Xiyue Frost's attack, Feng Hao was prepared. He easily parried her strike with his Dark Moon Dagger and used his superior speed to continually retreat, but Xiyue Frost latched onto him like a mad dog, refusing to let up.
"Miss Xiyue, can you please listen to my explanation?" Feng Hao said as he fended off Xiyue Frost's onslaught, clearly feeling his Qi Blood depleting.
"Die, you little thief!"
Xiyue Frost attacked Feng Hao with frenzied abandon, her eyes filled with bloodlust. She looked as if she wanted to tear him to shreds.
The two fought with furious intensity, while the faces of the surrounding crowd gradually filled with disbelief. After all, Xiyue Frost was a Second Order Mage, yet Feng Hao was managing to hold his own against her for so long.
"Incredible combat skills! Teacher Yue, is this kid in your class?" Instructor Niu exclaimed.
Yue Linglong was equally stunned. She stared at the fight in disbelief and said distractedly, "He's this year's auditing student."
"An auditing student?" Instructor Niu's eyes widened. "With skills like that, you're telling me he's an auditing student?"
"It must be because his aptitude is too poor," Yue Linglong said.
"What a shame," Instructor Niu sighed, his gaze fixed on the battle.
By now, the equipment room was packed with students. Most were just there for the spectacle, but a handful wore serious expressions, carefully studying Feng Hao's every move.
The fight had been going on for over ten minutes, yet Xiyue Frost still couldn't defeat Feng Hao. This left many of the onlookers completely stunned.
Was this a joke? Xiyue Frost was one of the top experts among the third-years, and she couldn't even defeat a level-fifteen Mage!
Xiyue Frost also sensed that something was off. Feng Hao was clearly faster than her, and his strategy was obvious: he refused to clash with her head-on, making it incredibly difficult for her attacks to land.
"Stop fighting!" Xi Yueyao, still completely in the dark about what was going on, could only rush forward to break them up.
As it turned out, the girl was good for something. The fight between the two finally came to a halt.
Xi Yueyao asked with a pout, "Sister, why did you two start fighting?"
"Ask him," Xiyue Frost said in a grim voice.
The next moment, all eyes fell on Feng Hao.
Feng Hao said awkwardly, "It was all a misunderstanding. I'm innocent."
"Keep playing innocent! Go on!" Xiyue Frost snarled through gritted teeth.
"..." Feng Hao was at a loss for words. There was simply no way to explain this situation.
Just then, Yue Linglong stepped forward at the perfect moment to mediate. "It seems you two have some sort of conflict. How about this? From today on, why don't you both agree to bury the hatchet?"
"Impossible!" Xiyue Frost refused without a shred of hesitation. "I'll never be on good terms with him!"
"What on earth did Feng Hao do to provoke you?" Yue Linglong asked with a curious frown.
"He stole... something from me."
She had almost blurted out the word "underwear." Thankfully, she caught herself in time. Otherwise, the incident would have become the talk of the entire school, and she would have been too ashamed to ever show her face at Rongcheng Academy again.
Yue Linglong was taken aback for a moment, then turned her gaze to Feng Hao. "You stole something from her?"
"No," Feng Hao denied, shaking his head. He hadn't been the one to steal it—even though he had plenty of the stolen goods on him.
"And you still won't admit it!" Xiyue Frost seethed.
"What exactly did he steal from you? Was it something important?" Yue Linglong asked curiously.
Xiyue Frost remained silent, seething with a shame and fury so intense she wanted to rip Feng Hao to shreds.
"See? She can't even say what it was. I told you it was just a misunderstanding," Feng Hao said, quickly seizing the opportunity to defuse the situation. He then turned to the surrounding crowd. "Everyone, you can disperse! It was all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"
The equipment room returned to normal, but the atmosphere had become somewhat awkward, especially for the group led by Yue Linglong.
The Monster Simulator was now available. Under Yue Linglong's direction, the students of Class One began taking turns going in to try it out.
Facing Xiyue Frost's murderous glare, Feng Hao felt utterly helpless. 'This misunderstanding will probably never be cleared up!'
"Yaoyao, stay away from people like him in the future," Xiyue Frost said to her sister, Xi Yueyao, with a very serious expression.
Xi Yueyao looked baffled. She puffed out her cheeks and said, "But I think that medicine kid is pretty nice!"
"You know his face, but not his heart. That guy is a shameless, despicable pervert!" Xiyue Frost said resentfully.
"Is it really that bad?" Xi Yueyao asked, puzzled.
"Trust your big sister, you won't go wrong!"
Xi Yueyao nodded thoughtfully, then asked with curiosity, "By the way, sister, did he really steal something from you?"
"He did. And he has an even more shameless accomplice!" Xiyue Frost confirmed with a nod, gritting her teeth.
...
Feng Hao was the last one to enter the Monster Simulator, and he found the experience to be pretty decent.
The Monster Simulator could create all sorts of monsters. While they couldn't compare to the real thing, they were more than sufficient for grinding the proficiency of a Secret Technique.
After an hour-long session, Feng Hao had been mindlessly spamming [Dark Force Strike], and he had unknowingly raised its proficiency to 20 points!
When he emerged from the simulator, most of the other students had already left, which he found rather annoying.
'This place isn't half bad. I'll have to stock up on supplies and come back again.'
Perhaps it was a bad habit he'd picked up from gaming, but Feng Hao subconsciously wanted to grind the skill's proficiency to its maximum level, especially with a convenient tool like the Monster Simulator at his disposal.
As for the cost, that was no issue at all! He could easily afford such a small fee.
Meanwhile, rumors about Feng Hao, the auditing student, began to circulate throughout the academy. It was said that he had fought Xiyue Frost for over ten minutes without being defeated, which caught the attention of many students.
But an auditing student was, at the end of the day, just an auditing student, and many people scoffed at the rumors.
Feng Hao paid no mind to these rumors. He followed his daily routine, attending classes when he had to and cultivating when he had time. Miao Feng would occasionally stop by to ask for his advice on matters of pill concoction, and so his days passed rather comfortably.
「In a small grove on the mountain behind the academy.」
Feng Hao was diligently instructing Xi Yueyao on her combat techniques.
'Strange... this girl actually likes using a whip. It suits her arrogant personality, I guess!'
"Hey, medicine kid, are you even teaching me properly?" Xi Yueyao demanded, swinging her long whip in frustration.
"Relax," Feng Hao said with a casual smirk.
'I don't know much about whips, but combat techniques are universal. As long as this girl learns these skills, her strength is bound to rise to a new level.'
After all these days of training, Xi Yueyao had no idea what she was even practicing. The only change she noticed was that her strategic thinking in a fight was much clearer than before!
"Let's call it a day. Your sister's probably looking for you again," Feng Hao said with a light laugh.
Xi Yueyao stopped and shot him an annoyed glare. "My sister was right, you really are a jerk!"
"How am I a jerk?" Feng Hao asked, confused.
"You just are! You won't teach me any real techniques!" Xi Yueyao huffed, then turned to leave.
Feng Hao shook his head, exasperated, and quickly called out to stop her. "Don't be in such a hurry to leave. I need to borrow something from you."
Xi Yueyao turned back, her eyes full of confusion. "Didn't we agree that you would only borrow the dagger after you finished teaching me?"
"It's not about the dagger." Feng Hao gave a mysterious smile, leaned closer, and said, "I need to borrow a drop of your blood."
"What do you want my blood for?" Xi Yueyao asked, looking at him warily.
Feng Hao already had his excuse ready and began to spin a tale. "I'm currently researching a new type of medicine, and I need your blood to act as a catalyst. If I'm successful, it will have some unbelievable effects!"
"But... I'm really scared of pain," Xi Yueyao said timidly.
"Don't you want to get stronger as quickly as possible?"
Sure enough, the moment she heard she could get stronger, Xi Yueyao's eyes lit up. She held out her small, fair hand. "Then what are you waiting for? Hurry and take my blood for your research! If it's not enough, take more."
"One drop is enough." Feng Hao didn't waste any more words. He took out a special syringe and drew a small amount of her blood.
After he was done, Xi Yueyao left in high spirits, eagerly looking forward to the pill Feng Hao would create to help her get stronger quickly.
In reality, Feng Hao only wanted her blood to Graft a Talent Tree; he had no intention of researching any new medicine. He could just tell her the research failed later, and there would be no trouble.
Rushing back to his dorm, Feng Hao eagerly began the attempt to Graft a Talent Tree.
He activated [Mutated Black Pupils]. A mysterious bloodline energy coursed through his body, and his eyes instantly turned completely black.
He squeezed a drop of blood from the syringe and pressed it to the center of his forehead. Transformed by the mysterious bloodline energy, the blood quickly permeated his skin and entered Feng Hao's sea of consciousness!
The blood that entered his sea of consciousness transformed into a dim Genetic Tree. 'That has to be Xi Yueyao's Genetic Tree,' he thought.
Though surprised, Feng Hao didn't stop. Following the steps described in the talent's information, he slowly broke off a section of a branch from his own Genetic Tree, then severed one of Xi Yueyao's Talent Branches and grafted it into place.
Bloodline energy began to surge wildly toward the graft point. His blood flow accelerated drastically, and the familiar pain washed over him once more. All Feng Hao could do was grit his teeth and endure it!
Over ten minutes later, nourished by the bloodline energy, the two Talent Branches had grown together perfectly, leaving no visible trace of the graft.
At the same time, the dim Genetic Tree that had been formed from the blood suddenly shattered, and a new stream of genetic information flooded his mind:
[Dark Force Fifth Layer]: Dark Force deals five layers of damage. The damage of each subsequent layer is reduced by 20%!
"Hahaha... It worked!"
Feng Hao's eyes flew open in delight. Feeling the unique power welling up from deep within his genes, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.
'My Dark Force's double damage combined with the Dark Force Fifth Layer is equivalent to six times the base damage! Add the bonuses from the Dark Moon Dagger and [Dark Force Strike], and there's probably no Mage of the same rank who could withstand that kind of punishment.'