The Strongest Gene

Chapter 554: Energy Shroud

Genetic Union.

Within a certain laboratory, the Chen Feng that was constantly on the deputy president’s mind was contemplating the future of spirit arts. Should he research all by it himself? That wasn’t possible. Time Quicksand alone had exhausted 1,000 luck value. If he insisted on proceeding with the research himself, he could force himself to create two additional abilities before exhausting all his luck value, but that would be it—game over. This was simply behaving like a wastrel. Although these spirit arts appeared extremely powerful, it was still not acceptable to waste so much luck value.

Even if he was able to create three different spirit arts, Chen Feng did not feel like he would be able to earn sufficient points. Apart from wasting his luck value, it was pointless. As such, what should the second spirit arts be, then? Flame? Lighting? Stone? Mhm…

Chen Feng pondered for a long time yet noted that all these ideas were unreliable. A pure spirit art or something similar to Time Quicksand would be pointless to create. If so, should he create something everyone could utilize, then? Something even an E class could use? The advantage of creating such a spirit art was the fact that it would have a huge target audience. There were only a hundred-something beyond A classes in existence currently. As for a spirit art that everyone could use, it might result in several hundred million people buying the ability from him.

If the created ability was powerful enough…

Chen Feng thought of it yet ultimately shook his head. That was not feasible. Even if such an ability could achieve high sales volume, the earned points from it would still be too low. Ultimately, it wouldn’t be any better than Time Quicksand.

“Let’s try and see if I can produce a basic version of anything.”

Chen Feng started trying.

Shua!

Light swirled around. With his Luck Aura activated, Chen Feng started his research. Using his Luck Aura purely to select a proper direction to follow without a need to think too deeply about it, Chen Feng only needed to focus on improving on what was selected.

After a long time, a brand-new improved ability appeared. Energy Shroud: Absorbs 1% of the opponent’s energy.

Chen Feng: “…”

Shua!

What was the point of this thing? In short, this new spirit art extracted another’s energy instead of time? The version used by Gou Li’s group was a spatial shroud that extracted space itself. As for Chen Feng’s Time Quicksand, it was a time shroud and extracted time. And now, there was this energy shroud. What other abilities could result from this?

“Absorbing the opponent’s energy during battle?”

Chen Feng pondered. Star-Sucking Skill?[1] 1 Not reliable.

This damnable ability could only absorb 1% per attempt. One would need at least 100 attempts to absorb all the energy of one’s opponent. So long as the opponent wasn’t a complete idiot, after two attempts, the opponent would no longer fall for it.

“What to do?”

Chen Feng sank into contemplation. Indeed, he had created the basic version of a new ability. But the biggest questions were how to further improve it and what to do with it. This was especially true since this ability was one that seemed rather useless and would only work on idiots.

Mhm…

Chen Feng pondered deeply for an entire day and finally managed to think of something. If so…

“Spirit, prepare,” Cheng Feng stated faintly.

“Do you really want to do that?” Spirit’s gentle voice was filled with a trace of oddness as well. This idea Chen Feng had thought of was truly…

“Mhm,” Chen Feng answered resolutely. “This is my only option.”

At the same time, at the headquarters.

“Li Lei.” The deputy president called Li Lei over. “Apart from Time Quicksand, is Chen Feng researching any other spirit arts?”

“Nope.” Li Lei shook his head. “At that time, Chen Feng told me that researching Time Quicksand alone had already cost him greatly. At most, he will be able to create one or two more abilities, nothing more.”

“That’s good, then.” Finally, the deputy preside heaved a sigh of relief. If so, one great worry could be erased from his heart. However, the deputy president didn’t get to remain in his joyful mood for long, as just one week later, a piece of news that shook the entire world appeared: Chen Feng had created the second spirit art.

“If it’s the second version, so be it. What’s so special about it?”

“Yeah.”

The deputy president was still calm and collected. “Even if he creates one per week, it won’t change anything.”

“No, that’s not the case.” The employee that was reporting to him wiped his sweat. “This spirit art is rather special. It can’t even be classified as proper spirit art.”

“What are you even talking about?” The deputy president shook his head. Seeing how the employee couldn’t explain clearly even after a long while, he decided to take a look himself. However, after a mere glance at this new spirit art, he blanked.

This… is this still a spirit art?

Rather than labeling it a different spirit art, this thing might as well be labeled as merchandise. Along with the ability itself, a long user manual was attached.

Name: Master Spirit Trainer

Classification: Spirit art.

Function: By using an appropriate training method, one can increase one’s spiritual energy permanently.

Exhaustion: Same amount of energy exhaustion used during regular spirit training methods.

Conversion Rate: Free.

Right Holder: Chen Feng.

“What in the world is this? A permanent increase of spiritual energy through an appropriate training method? This is unlikely, right?”

“How is it unlikely? Even the lowest-level spirit gene reagent is capable of granting such an effect as well. The problem here is the price he set.”

“Price…”

Shua!

All their gazes landed on the price, and they were greatly alarmed. Only now did they realize that this new spirit art was actually free! That’s right, free. A powerful new ability was actually being given out for free? This indeed shocked everyone. Indeed, nowadays, quite a number of kind and grand experts existed. However, if they were to give things out for free, they would most probably starve to death. Were they supposed to become a kind and grand beggar instead? This Chen Feng fellow…

“Let’s first see what exactly this thing is.”

“True. This might be an incomplete product. Chen Feng might have merely released it as an introduction for the public.”

“That’s possible.”

They all agreed on such a possibility. Since this was a free ability, everyone started purchasing it.

Shua!

Purchase completed. Numerous mystical seals surged out. Everyone followed the circulation route as listed in these seals and circulated their energy. Soon, light swirled around their bodies, and ultimately, a crude illusion made of blue light appeared.

“This seems to be some sort of illusion?”

“Mhm. The composition of this illusion isn’t too complicated. It only consists of lines. It’s something anyone willing to learn can complete. This is the simplest of all abilities.”

They all started reviewing this new ability while trying it out. As for the contents of this illusion…

Before their eyes, numerous blue balls of light hovered. A huge amount of them were sealed by a gray seal, with only the first ball of light shining brightly. This was the ball representing the so-called Master Spirit Trainer.

“It’s this thing here?”

They nodded subconsciously.

Shua!

Light swirled around. Instantly, their surroundings changed into that of a massive arena.

“Greetings. Welcome to the start of Master Spirit Trainer. By defeating the opponent in front of you, your spiritual energy will increase,” an ice-cold voice prompted.

“So simple?”

They tried fighting the opponent before them.

They noted that the opponent they faced was someone whose strength was similar to their own. After several exchanges and gaining a clearer understanding of the abilities of their opponents, they were able to defeat their respective opponents.

“Congratulations. Your spiritual energy has been increased.”

Shua!

A clear breeze surged out. At that instant, all of their eyes widened as they realized that their spiritual energy had indeed been increased.

“Holy shit!”

“It has actually increased for real.”

“Even if the increase is rather low, it is truly a permanent increase.”

They were all stupefied. They had never seen such a mystical ability. They had indeed seen a lot of abilities capable of granting an increase in spiritual energy, yet none of those had increased their energy with such a method or so directly. What was the price for this? Nothing. Was anything exhausted in exchange for this? No. It seemed like one only needed to activate this spirit art and one would definitely have their spiritual energy increased?

“Perhaps this is similar to those minor abilities that only offer a one-off increase?”

Just as this thought surfaced…

Shua!

Once again, the voice prompted.

“Congratulations on completing the challenge. You have obtained 1,000 points of spiritual energy.”

Ding.

“Due to your current access level being F class, the maximum limit of your spiritual energy increase per attempt is one point. As such, you have obtained one point of spiritual energy. (999 points of spiritual energy has overflowed.)”

“F-class Master Spirit Trainer has been fully unlocked. One point of spiritual energy increase will be obtained for every opponent you defeat. After reaching the maximum capacity of F class, your access level will be promoted to E class. After promotion, the limit per attempt will be upgraded accordingly as well.”

Shua!

A shiny item appeared. A closer look revealed that this was actually blue energy paper with the following words written on it: F class, 5/100.

Bang!

Everyone’s eyes widened. Something like this was possible? In short, the only reason for the small increase was due to the F-class access level, resulting in the user obtaining an F-class increase. After all, for an actual F-class warrior, if their spiritual energy were suddenly increased excessively, they might explode. For B classes and C classes like them, this was naturally a rather small amount. However, the increase was actually upgradable.

“We only need to complete 20 challenges and we will be able to advance to the E-class access level.”

“Correct.”

“The limit for those with an E-class access level will be much greater. At that time, we can continue progressing until our access level reaches D class, C class, B class, and so on. At that time, our spiritual energy will greatly increase after each victory.”

“What a powerful ability!”

“If we are able to increase our access level to that of our actual class…”

“If we can obtain all the overflowing spiritual energy…”

At the thought of this, they all became so agitated they started shuddering. Perhaps they only needed several dozen challenges to increase their access level to their actual class? This spirit art was truly incredibly powerful!

“What if we fail a challenge?” someone asked, curious.

1. Star Sucking Skill is a skill of Ren Woxing able to absorb the internal energy of others in The Smiling Proud Wanderer.