Chapter 82 - 71. Friends should not be deceived.

"You seem very happy?" Xia Feng looked puzzled. The old man’s reaction was something he truly never anticipated. Shouldn’t he be upset about his Spiritual Artifact being copied? It’s like his wife was copied and then ****ed... "Tsk." The old man patted the dust off his body and slowly stood up, his hoarse voice filled with mockery, "Silly boy, it seems you still don’t know that your life has already begun its countdown." As he spoke, he extended three fingers and slowly lowered them one by one, simultaneously baring his teeth and counting downwards, "3—" "2—" "1—" As all fingers folded down, the old man furrowed his brows and spoke again, more gravely, "1!" "..." Two figures, one clad in black, the other in white, had walked up close to him. He was sweating profusely, "1!!" A cold breeze fluttered through the Dark Forest, and under the Blood Moon, a line of crows lazily flew by in the sky, resembling a row of black dots. Xia Feng seemed to understand something and smiled amiably, "You’re not waiting for the Evil Power inside the Demon Armor to devour me, are you?" "..." The old man’s face stiffened, and he was utterly bewildered. What the hell is going on with this guy! He’s clearly not Evil, yet he has no reaction to such a high concentration of Evil Power?! Damn it! His murky eyes suddenly sharpened, and with a blood trail and a ghostly flicker, he appeared directly in front of Xia Feng. "Do you really think I, as a Third Rank Spirit Master, am a pushover!" he sneered inwardly as his figure instantly split into eight blood-red silhouettes, each holding crimson lightning, converging from all directions onto the man and woman in the center. In the blink of an eye, the eight became sixteen, and then thirty-two, completely sealing off the entire space. "If you don’t let me go, you two bastards won’t get off easy either!" "Die, all of you!" The Dark Forest lit up with a vast sea of bloody electric light, and amidst the old man’s mocking low shout, the explosive glory—suddenly stopped! In an instant, the forest returned to its somber darkness, and the old man stood agape, frozen in place. The clones around him went ’pop pop pop,’ turning into streaks of electric light and disappearing into thin air. He felt only a momentary daze in his spirit, as the Spiritual Pressure inside his body plummeted and his whole body fell to the ground as if drained of strength. In shock, he sensed around him and discovered that the connection between him and his B-Level Spiritual Artifact was gone! The disappearance of the Vermilion Bird Demon Armor caused his Spiritual Pressure to fall back to Second Order, leaving him paralyzed. "What... is going on?! Where is my Spiritual Artifact?" Realizing something, he looked up angrily, "Where did my Spiritual Artifact go?!" "Why is it gone? Naturally, because your Spiritual Artifact is a fake,~" Xia Feng patted the fiery red armor engraved with the Vermilion Bird on his chest, smiling, "And this one is the real deal!" "..." The old man’s mouth slowly opened wide, "I ***...." He hadn’t encountered something this outrageous in over thirty years since birth! This man surnamed Xia’s ability wasn’t about copying at all! It was... theft?! Sёarᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. A Spiritual Artifact that steals others’ Spiritual Artifacts... How could such a twisted Spiritual Artifact exist in this world! The old man was numb; his Vermilion Bird Demon Armor, even among B-Level Spiritual Artifacts, was an extremely Rare entity! But now it had just been stolen like that?! Mu Qingtong, standing nearby, was similarly astonished, and tilted her head as if deep in thought, glancing at Xia Feng. She hadn’t expected Xia Feng’s Spiritual Artifact to have an ability aside from copying and enhancing, and also harbored such a twisted power. To have an Artifact, not yet Holy Released, with three outrageous abilities, not even an S-Level could reach this extent... "Therefore, Mr. Xia’s Spiritual Artifact could very well be like mine, an alpha-class that simply doesn’t exist within the ranking system!" Mu Qingtong blinked earnestly as she stared at the man beside her, her delicate golden pupils gently curving. After her Awakening Spiritual Device, she had scoured countless historical records and had not found the slightest information about alpha class, even the highest combat power of the Empire today only possessed an S-Level Spiritual Artifact. As if S-Level was the pinnacle of humanity. But her Spiritual Artifact information distinctly displayed alpha. She had thought she was the only special one, yet after meeting Xia Feng, she finally realized... Geniuses also have a production line, and evidently, Xia Feng and she were from the same batch. "Round six, the levels of the Spiritual Artifacts are pretty much equal," she said with a faint smile playing on her lips, nodding thoughtfully, now the score is 6:5, I’m slightly behind him. Feeling the intense gaze beside him, Xia Feng shot a glance at the woman in the black dress, "What are you staring at me for again?" Mu Qingtong smiled without speaking, the fire in her crescent-shaped eyes growing more intense, yet her exterior remained cold and gentle as she watched Xia Feng, as if trying to etch his handsome face into her memory. After thinking about it, she suddenly asked, "So, is your ability to snatch things?" "What snatch? Don’t put it so crudely; I call it preserving the genuine!" argued Xia Feng. Mu Qingtong couldn’t help but feel curious, "Then can you snatch my Spiritual Artifact?" "How can you ask such a thing, you’re my friend." Xia Feng shook his head, speaking with conviction, "One must not deceive a friend’s trust, I, Xia Feng, am a gentleman who would never snatch a friend’s Spiritual Artifact!" Mu Qingtong: "..." Automatically ignoring Xia Feng’s nonsensical talk, she roughly deduced, "So you can’t snatch it, seems like there really is a level restriction." The paralyzed old man watched the two chatting idly with dead-fish eyes, feeling utterly hopeless. If only he had known better than to do this favor for Liszt. Damn Liszt, if it hadn’t been for that shitty Prince’s incomplete intelligence, he, as the eighth elder of the Divine Evil Association, would not have fallen to this sorry state. He had planned to simply chop off the head of this Xia person but didn’t expect this guy to keep pulling out unbelievably annoying tricks. "Alright, old man, it’s time to send you on your way," Xia Feng said as he placed the bloodied blade beside the old man’s neck. "Wait, wait!" The old man leaned his neck back desperately, shouting in panic, "I still have a use! Really, I can tell you how to use the Vermilion Bird Demon Armor, and it has many side effects too; I can tell you all of them!" "Side effects?" At this point, Xia Feng also recalled that the Vermilion Bird Demon Armor had a very evil side effect; it caused people to age and shrink. This little old man must have turned into this state due to the side effects. Youth and height are a man’s assets, Xia Feng didn’t want to lose what he took pride in, well, he was mainly proud of his moderate height. Thinking it over, he focused his thoughts and with hope in his heart, he whispered to the armor on his chest, "Optimize." The optimization ability would evolve towards the direction he hoped for, but he couldn’t control the specific details of the optimization. He could only hope for the desired outcome. Holding onto that hope, he received new information. [Optimizing——] [Selected Spiritual Artifact: Vermilion Bird Demon Armor] [Optimization Successful!] [Description: Death is a new beginning] [Level: B (Optimized version)] [Spiritual Unsealing · Armor→Vermilion Bird Armor: When worn, your Combat Premonition, strength, neurological reaction, and mobility speed are boosted by 200%, sprouting two Vermilion Bird fire feathers on the shoulder blades, granting 300% high-speed flying capabilities. In a Fire Element field, mobility speed gets a 301%~400% increase. Furthermore, the armor’s shape can freely transform.] [Spiritual Unsealing · Rebirth→Phoenix Rebirth: Upon physical death, you may choose to reconstitute your body within a hundred-meter radius at any location, temporarily inheriting all attribute boosts from ’Vermilion Bird Armor’, and spiritual pressure level jumps one class (cannot ascend to Venerable), with a time limit of thirty minutes.] [Note 1: After using ’Phoenix Rebirth’, there must be a 30-minute interval before it can be used again, with no possibility of forced use.] [Note 2: After each use of ’Phoenix Rebirth’, one will temporarily fall into a full body paralysis state, recovering normally after around 30 seconds.]