Five-Star Recipe!

Chen Feng returned home, and only when he stepped into his rented apartment did he finally breathe a true sigh of relief.

He was finally safe!

He had never imagined that what had begun as an ordinary Entrusted Task would end up like this. He had narrowly escaped death and almost failed to return. Long Yue, the principal, Wang Yao—every one of them was far stronger than Chen Feng. Danger lurked at every step; one misstep could have meant death!

"Still too weak."

Chen Feng clenched his fists.

He had to grow stronger!

He must grow stronger!

In this era, only the strong could truly establish themselves!

However, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. Chen Feng's gains from this trip were also quite substantial.

First and foremost, the thing that excited him most was that he had obtained the Sea Dragon Essence Blood. The fact that even the aged principal had fought for it without regard for his dignity showed just how priceless it was. Once the uproar died down, quietly retrieving the Sea Dragon Essence Blood would be his greatest reward!

Second, his gene-searching ability had improved dramatically.

By maintaining the Multi-dimensional State continuously, breaking through high-difficulty restrictions, and with the massive supply of Mental Recovery Reagents provided by Xu Fei, Chen Feng's gene-searching speed was now more than twice as fast as before. This improvement would also greatly benefit his gene production.

Finally, there was the primary objective of this mission—the Five-Star Recipe.

After the mission was completed, this Five-Star Recipe had finally fallen into Chen Feng's hands. Though he had not yet had time to examine it, he trusted that Xu Fei would not cheat him.

"Let's take a look at this Five-Star Recipe first."

Chen Feng turned over the chip in his hand.

That was right. Data for Five-Star Recipes was generally compressed into chips, which were also the standard storage medium for recipe transactions.

"Click."

Chen Feng connected the chip to his Wristband.

"Whoosh!"

A terrifying flood of data surged madly into the Wristband. After a long while, a Five-Star Recipe file appeared in Chen Feng's personal storage, while the chip gave a faint crack and was already destroyed.

Golden Ant Gene Recipe

Difficulty: Five Stars

Type: Special

Effect: Permanently increases mental power by 10–20 points

Restriction: F-Class Gene Warrior; may only be used once.

Introduction: A special Gene Reagent created by using Desert Mad Ant Essence Blood as its core and refining and cultivating it with various precious materials.

Five stars!

It really was Five Stars!

Chen Feng's mouth went dry.

His day of risking life and limb had not been in vain. With this recipe, along with the recipe gifted by the Gene Association, Chen Feng's originally distant goal of twenty stars had suddenly been half achieved!

As long as he mastered these two recipes, he would have ten stars.

Chen Feng's heart surged with excitement.

And most importantly, this recipe's effect!

"Twenty points of mental power..."

Chen Feng finally understood why Wang Yue's mental power had suddenly soared after graduation, surpassing his own. He must have taken a similar Gene Reagent. Those wealthy heirs of great families walked a completely different path from people like them!

However, Chen Feng did not belittle himself.

Since those family heirs all improved themselves this way, then this thing should be quite valuable, right?

Chen Feng's eyes lit up.

He checked the information on the Golden Ant Gene Recipe. Material cost: 150,000 yuan. Average transaction price: 200,000 yuan.

"This price..."

Chen Feng was too speechless to complain.

A scam.

An absolute scam.

For ordinary Producers, this was practically a bottomless pit!

Even though Chen Feng's production skills had improved considerably, he still felt that this Five-Star Recipe was a bottomless pit. If one used this sort of Five-Star Recipe to advance to Intermediate Producer, they would definitely lose their shirt! High cost, high difficulty, and such a tiny profit? It would not even cover the losses from failed production attempts.

But for Chen Feng, it was actually the most cost-effective option!

Because of the Luck Aura, he was following a path that was utterly impossible for ordinary people!

Selling at a loss?

That simply didn't exist!

Chen Feng took a look. There were not many Gold Ant Gene formulas in the trading section.

There was no helping it. Gold Ant Gene production was too difficult. Most people capable of producing formulas of this difficulty were Intermediate Producers or even higher-level producers. When they made Gold Ant formulas, it was probably more for research than profit. Making money? They could earn plenty just by selling high-level genes.

And that was Chen Feng's business opportunity!

No promotion, no price cuts. As long as he listed it, it would definitely sell!

Then...

He would make one first!

Chen Feng was fired up.

Yet just as he began researching it, Chen Feng discovered a very serious problem. The most crucial material for producing the Gold Ant Gene, Desert Mad Ant Essence Blood, was not sold in any Virtual Community stores!

"Could it be an extinct mutated beast?"

Chen Feng's heart pounded wildly.

He hurriedly looked it up and only then found the issue.

Not all essence blood could be sealed and preserved. Some essence blood would lose its genetic energy shortly after leaving the mutated beast's body, particularly spirit-type essence blood. Desert Mad Ant Essence Blood was one such case, with a storage period of only three days!

There were only two ways to obtain this essence blood: hunt it himself, or hire someone to hunt it!

"This is a little troublesome."

Chen Feng frowned. He did not want to waste time gathering materials.

Remembering that Desert Mad Ants did not seem to be particularly powerful mutated beasts, Chen Feng directly contacted Xu Fei to see whether they had time. Unexpectedly, though, Xu Fei's line was continuously busy. Who knew what they were occupied with?

"Looks like I'll have to handle it myself."

Chen Feng shook his head.

He looked through the information on Desert Mad Ants.

They were E-Class Mutated Beasts born in Black Cloud Continent, mutated from a species of giant termite. They possessed powerful spiritual strength and were extremely dangerous.

"Black Cloud Continent?"

Chen Feng pondered for a moment.

He did not want to waste too much time on this. Before his strength improved, Chen Feng had a very clear understanding of his position—a Beginner Producer! He generally would not involve himself in combat-related matters, at least not openly. But if he was merely collecting essence blood...

"It's not like there's no way."

Chen Feng quickly made his decision.

However, he did not go out that day. In order to obtain the Sea Dragon Essence Blood, he had nearly exhausted all his Luck Value! He had to wait until he had accumulated a certain amount before daring to leave. There was no helping it; he was too weak. Until he became a true powerhouse, he had to remain cautious.

What Chen Feng had not expected was that, that evening, he suddenly received a communication from the Craftsman Association.

"Hello, Mr. Chen."

A gentle female voice spoke from the other end. "I am a staff member of the Craftsman Association. We recently detected outside individuals attempting to access your records and personal information. We suspect that someone may act against you in the near future. Please be sure to take precautions."

The staff member spoke softly.

"Thank you."

Chen Feng expressed his gratitude, though his first reaction had actually been that it was a scam call. Then he remembered that, in this world, hardly anyone would dare impersonate the Gene Production Association to commit fraud. His furrowed brow immediately relaxed as he calmly asked, "Do you do this for every producer?"

"No."

The staff member answered truthfully. "The Craftsman Association gives different degrees of attention to different producers. You have not yet reached that level, but Senior Zhang Wei asked us to pay closer attention to you."

So that was it.

Chen Feng chuckled. Zhang Wei? It seemed he would have to thank him properly in the future.

But who was investigating him?

Wang Yue? Wang Yao?

No.

Chen Feng shook his head. They knew everything about him. There was no need for them to investigate. He thought it over and over, but still could not figure out who else might have taken an interest in him recently.

"Who could it be?"

Chen Feng murmured thoughtfully.

He was not afraid of someone making a move against him. In this world, what he feared least was assassination. With the Luck Aura, assassination posed the lowest threat to him instead. What he feared was encountering an enemy like Long Yue—someone whose strength crushed him and whose background ran deep. That was truly impossible to deal with!

"Long Yue..."

Chen Feng suddenly thought of something.

Someone looking into his information did not necessarily mean they intended to assassinate him. What if they had another purpose, such as the matter of the Sea Dragon Essence Blood?

That was what worried him most.

"It seems I'll need to be more careful lately."

Chen Feng's heart turned cold. Although the Sea Dragon Essence Blood had been hidden away, it would still take some time before he could retrieve it. During that period, he absolutely could not let anyone discover it. Otherwise...

There would be only one path left: death!

Late at night.

Chen Feng looked at the city lights and sank into thought. "It seems tomorrow's plans will need some changes."