Translator: CinderTL
When he shared these thoughts with Lin Ran, Lin Ran shook his head solemnly.
"Don't underestimate yourself. You're selling yourself short."
Noticing his skepticism, Lin Ran continued with a smile:
"Brother Qi, do you think you've reached this point only because of people like us? Do you even believe the mission chose you because you had me, your teacher Wang Jinsheng, Mu Qing, and others by your side?"
Hearing this, Feng Qi pondered for a moment before nodding.
He had often thought this himself.
In terms of innate talent, the gap between him and Lin Ran was an unbridgeable chasm.
Throughout history, he was just an insignificant nobody.
But Lin Ran, Wang Jinsheng, Liu Yue, and the others had all left indelible marks on human history, becoming legendary figures.
Sometimes he wondered if the mission had chosen this era, and him, because he had experienced this pivotal period that could reshape history, and because he had encountered those super geniuses capable of altering its course.
Seeing Feng Qi nod, Lin Ran suddenly punched him lightly on the chest, laughing:
"Brother Qi, you've never truly recognized your own greatness."
"Let me give you some examples. If you look back at history before the cataclysm, you'll find that most of Liu Bang's core team came from Pei County. Have you ever wondered why such a small place produced so many talented individuals?"
"Similarly, Liu Xiu's inner circle largely hailed from Nanyang and Yingchuan. How did tiny Yingchuan manage to gather the majority of the talents who would eventually shape the empire?"
"And then there's Zhu Yuanzhang's team, most of whom came from Huaixi. Again, why did this small region produce so many brilliant generals and statesmen?"
At this point, Lin Ran grinned at Feng Qi.
"You just haven't recognized your own brilliance yet. But in my eyes, you've always been the brightest star. Neither Senior Mu Qing nor anyone else shines as brightly as you do. You're the backbone of our group."
As expected of your devoted fanboy, Ran! This flattery leaves me speechless. Brilliant!
Seeing Lin Ran's beaming smile, Feng Qi couldn't help but smile back.
Wei Wei had said similar things to him before.
It wasn't that he lacked confidence; he simply felt that his innate talent paled in comparison to theirs. But he had never underestimated his own abilities.
Hearing Lin Ran's words, Feng Qi felt a surge of relief.
He realized that after 1,500 years, Lin Ran's flattery skills had improved exponentially.
As they chatted casually, they continued exploring forward, Feng Qi occasionally asking the Narrator if there were any signs of the Three-Tailed.
After advancing some distance along a road littered with architectural ruins and rubble, Feng Qi spotted a domain creature fleeing in panic.
"It seems the aura you emit has a deterrent effect on these domain creatures," he remarked dryly. "Many of the more perceptive ones have been fleeing before we even come into sight."
"But once I see them, they can't escape!" Lin Ran grinned, reaching out with a grasping motion.
Instantly, a torrent of gray mist erupted from his body, coalescing into a misty hand that shot forward.
In the blink of an eye, it overtook the frantically fleeing domain creature, enveloped it, and dragged it back.
As the gray mist dissipated, Feng Qi saw a brightly colored domain creature resembling an armadillo.
Its back was covered in a thick layer of armored scales, and its claws gleamed with a chilling sharpness.
But now, it was completely immobilized by the gray mist, unable to move even a muscle.
"Brother Qi, let's go!"
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and threw a punch.
As he pummeled the domain creature's head, he attempted to activate his "Poison" innate ability.
A thin, green mist immediately enveloped his fists.
With each subsequent punch, poisonous mist surged into the armadillo-like domain creature's body.
However, it was clear that the Poison ability wasn't as potent as he'd imagined.
At least, he couldn't detect any visible changes in the creature's appearance.
Amid the armadillo-like domain creature's frantic struggles, he unleashed dozens of punches before finally killing it.
As the Blood Mist Cluster flooded into his body, he felt his physical attributes being enhanced.
Opening his status panel, he discovered he had acquired a brand-new innate ability:
[Claws (Non-Upgradable Prefix Title)]:
[ Innate Ability Description ]: The hardness of your fingernails has been significantly increased. The enhancement scales with your overall physical strength.
Last time it was Adamant Fangs, this time it was Claws.
Compared to the former, he felt the Claws were significantly more effective.
After all, his combat style primarily revolved around close-quarters brawling, with only a rare chance of him biting someone.
He instinctively extended his hands, and in an instant, his fingernails grew about an inch longer at a visible speed.
However, the color of his nails remained unchanged.
Next, he decided to test the Claws' strength.
Approaching a large rock by the street, he swung his claw down with force.
In a flash of cold light, the meter-tall rock was cleaved into several pieces, with only a slight resistance felt.
After retracting his nails to their original length, a smile spread across his face.
This ability perfectly suited his close-combat style.
In battle, he typically used his fists as weapons.
While fists were more akin to blunt instruments, the addition of Claws essentially granted him a sharp weapon as well.
In future battles, he could experiment with switching between fists and Claws, potentially achieving unexpected results.
Overall, he was quite satisfied with this ability.
Hah... A real man settles things with his fists. Only weaklings scratch with their nails. The raw, bloody heat of hand-to-hand combat is the path to true growth you should be pursuing.
Ignoring the Narrator's snide remarks, he turned to Lin Ran.
"All done. This new ability is pretty good."
"Keep it up! If we can't find the Three-Tailed, we'll just slaughter every domain creature in this Abandoned City area and use your innate ability to fully arm you," Lin Ran said, giving him a thumbs-up.
A smile spread across Feng Qi's face.
Having a companion in the Dream Realm made the experience so much more enjoyable.
The two continued eastward.
Lin Ran's aura seemed to deter domain creatures; they rarely encountered any along the way. Those with strong senses of danger fled before the pair even approached.
However, every domain creature that crossed their path was invariably captured by Lin Ran and added to his innate ability collection.
After acquiring the "Claws" innate ability, Feng Qi obtained two more.
Among them, the "Resilience" innate talent leveled up to LV8 after killing a domain creature resembling a death worm.
Upgrading his resilience made Feng Qi realize something crucial:
Improving an innate ability didn't require killing domain creatures of the same species that granted him the ability in the first place.
Domain creatures with similar characteristics could also bestow comparable abilities, allowing him to level up his innate talents.
The two subsequent innate abilities he obtained were Boiling and Daze.
Feng Qi considered Boiling utterly useless.
Its effect was to consume a massive amount of qi blood to temporarily enhance his physical attributes.
This ability's mechanics closely resembled Blood Source.
When he tested its power, he found that despite consuming the same amount of qi blood, Boiling's physical enhancement was less than one-fifth of what he gained in the Blood Origin State.
Like Blood Source, Boiling required manual activation. In Feng Qi's eyes, it was even worse than the utterly useless Sluggish, now firmly claiming the bottom spot on the innate ability rankings.
(End of the Chapter)
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