Apocalypse: Master of Soul Beasts

Taking advantage and then retreating—Wen Yu’s approach this time truly blew Tang Haofei’s mind.

Tang Haofei watched Wen Yu casually leave, abandoning his own room to him and Mo Xuan. Then, City Lord Mo Xuan once again produced the 208-clause treaty he had previously set aside. At that moment, Tang Haofei felt utterly devastated!

Old Tang remained silent for a long while, looked towards Mo Xuan with a wry smile, then once again accepted the 208-clause treaty.

At least he’d traded an Esoteric Level skill for some technology. Um, although he still had to agree to the conditions of the Universe of Immortals and Heroes’ native inhabitants, it wasn’t a loss. Um, definitely not a loss...

Right now, Old Tang could only try to console his wounded heart with forced optimism.

「 」

After leaving everything to Mo Xuan to handle, Wen Yu was in an absolutely fantastic mood.

Skills were the very essence of a professionist; the value of Esoteric Level skills and Esoteric Level items simply couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath.

Having finessed an Esoteric Level skill out of them in just a day, Wen Yu felt that the sky in the Heavenly Palace seemed much bluer.

”Awesome!”

Wen Yu inwardly roared with exhilaration. Then he turned and summoned a servant.

”Reassign me another room.”

”Yes, Sir.”

「 」

In another secret room within the City Lord Mansion, Wen Yu dismissed the servant and once again took out the Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs skill scroll.

Gazing at the skill scroll before him, which emitted a white light, stirred something inexplicable within Wen Yu.

He had easily acquired an Esoteric Level skill, and one that was an exceptional match for him no less. If Wen Yu were to claim he wasn’t inwardly thrilled, he would be fooling no one but himself!

The benefits brought by the identities of ”Young Master of Heavenly Palace” and ”Son of the Heaven-reaching Immortal Emperor” were strikingly evident at this moment.

Shaking his head, Wen Yu dispelled the excited thoughts from his mind, then looked fervently at the Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs. This would be his third Esoteric Level Skill!

「 」

Wen Yu rummaged through his space ring and, before long, retrieved a skill forgetting scroll.

In Wen Yu’s view, an Esoteric Level skill like Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs, which relied on accumulation, was naturally best learned as early as possible.

However, just as Wen Yu was about to tear open the skill forgetting scroll, intending to erase Dislimning (S-Class, Active Skill), the Almighty Demon Vine suddenly sent a spiritual fluctuation to Wen Yu.

”Wait, don’t rush.”

Wen Yu’s hand paused.

”Don’t learn the Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs skill yet. The light source in the Heavenly Palace isn’t stellar light, so if you learn this skill now, it won’t be of much use here.”

Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs had to absorb stellar light to accumulate energy and generate Spirit Runes; this was detailed in the skill description.

However, this wasn’t the primary reason Wen Yu would consider postponing learning Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs. Dislimning was already almost useless to him. Now that he had mastered darkness, he could achieve the same effects as Dislimning using his darkness abilities—and with even greater lethality.

Besides, it was an Esoteric Level skill! Learning it and making it his own was surely better than leaving it in the space ring. If someone managed to kill him, at least they’d get one less Esoteric Level skill from his corpse!

Perhaps realizing its words weren’t convincing enough, the Almighty Demon Vine added in a peculiar tone, ”Learning Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs when you reach Level 7 will be soon enough; there’s no need to rush. Besides, how can you be sure there isn’t an Esoteric Level skill in the upper levels of the Heavenly Palace that could provide a greater boost to your current combat power?”

The spiritual fluctuation from the Almighty Demon Vine made Wen Yu fall silent.

After a while, Wen Yu cautiously asked the Almighty Demon Vine, ”Are you saying you know there’s something good waiting for me up there?”

Since entering the Heavenly Palace, all the benefits Wen Yu had reaped came via the Almighty Demon Vine. From its actions, Wen Yu was certain the Almighty Demon Vine was following a plan. Its current words clearly implied it knew of even better things waiting for him in the upper levels—at least another Esoteric Level skill, and one that offered a greater pure combat power boost than Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs, which was already akin to an undying body!

”Guess?”

Wen Yu chuckled drily and promptly put away the Photosynthetic Spirit Motifs skill scroll.

「 」

Wen Yu did not continue to participate in the negotiations between Mo Xuan and Tang Haofei.

However, judging by the fact that Cathay’s military dispatched a negotiation team and numerous scientific personnel the very next day, the talks appeared to be progressing smoothly. So, my Esoteric Level skill scroll wasn’t obtained for nothing, Wen Yu thought. It seems Mo Xuan must have made some concessions.

Mo Xuan did visit Wen Yu at one point to report on the strategic cooperation plan between the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance of the Universe of Immortals and Heroes and Cathay’s military. It boiled down to the Universe of Immortals and Heroes providing technology and treasures in exchange for some trivial support from Cathay’s military in the Lower Heavenly Palace.

For the people of the Universe of Immortals and Heroes, whose physical bodies were gone and whose world was destroyed, they had nothing left to lose. This was less an alliance or trade and more like the handover of an entire world’s legacy and will.

So, overall, Cathay’s military gained technology from this alliance, Wen Yu gained a skill, and the Universe of Immortals and Heroes only made a series of unilateral sacrifices.

「 」

In just two days, the various matters of the alliance were finalized through negotiations between Mo Xuan and the delegation from Cathay’s military. Wen Yu didn’t involve himself much in the details, as he spent this time ”experiencing the local customs” of Ling Yun City within the Universe of Immortals and Heroes.

In reality, this cheapskate Wen Yu was just ceaselessly scavenging through Ling Yun City, afraid he might miss out on any benefits.

However, the results weren’t particularly good for Wen Yu. While the Treasure Pavilion, Ling Yun City’s largest shop, did have some leftover items, even the high-level ones were merely better than nothing in Wen Yu’s eyes.

The Pavilion Master of the Treasure Pavilion did, however, present Wen Yu with an A-Class skill that barely managed to catch his eye.

Strengthen (A-Class, Passive ability): Comprehensively improves the host’s physical attributes by thirty percent.

After giving this skill to Faceless, Wen Yu’s acquisitions in Ling Yun City came to a temporary halt.

This was both an advantage and a disadvantage of being an independent hero.

A single person’s effective use of resources could never compare to that of large organizations.

But precisely because of his status as an independent hero, Wen Yu didn’t require vast amounts of resources. To put it simply, he only had himself to feed.

Compared to the gargantuan Cathay’s military, Wen Yu’s appetite indeed seemed minuscule.