Strength Improved, an Unexpected Surprise

As Rhine heard the whisper in his mind, one new talent after another immediately appeared in the rewards section of the system panel.

At that moment, the bones and flesh throughout Rhine's body gave off wave-like sounds, as though power were surging within him and washing over his body like a tide.

He subconsciously clenched his fist. With a light squeeze, a low, muffled boom rang out in the air.

Rhine took a deep breath, feeling vast power billowing within him, as though he could part the ocean and hold up mountains.

Of course, he understood that this was merely an illusion brought on by the sudden surge in strength.

His previous Bronze Skin and Iron Bones talent had already raised his physical strength to a level ordinary people could not comprehend, but that talent mainly enhanced his defense. The increase in strength had only been incidental.

But now, thanks to the Innate Divine Strength talent obtained from Harry, Rhine's physical strength was skyrocketing.

By his conservative estimate, his physical strength had increased more than threefold in this short time.

Before, he could tear apart tigers, leopards, bears, and other beasts with his bare hands. Now, Rhine felt that even a dragon would not have a pleasant time after taking one of his punches!

Bronze Skin and Iron Bones combined with Innate Divine Strength gave him both offense and defense, raising Rhine's strength by a great deal.

And this transformation was far from over.

The changes to Rhine's mind were no less significant than the changes to his body.

The Lotus Body Protection talent allowed Nezha to ignore all soul- and mind-related spells during the Primordial Fengshen era. One could easily imagine how domineering its mental defense was.

Naturally, that was also related to Nezha being reborn from a lotus.

When this talent fell upon Rhine, it was naturally not as absurdly powerful as it had been for Nezha, but it still far exceeded his expectations.

If Bronze Skin and Iron Bones had previously given him a sense of physical security, as though almost nothing could destroy his body—

Then now, with the Lotus Body Protection talent, Rhine felt a sense of security on the spiritual level.

No method could spy on or influence his mind!

If Rhine had possessed Lotus Body Protection earlier, the Sorting Hat would not have been able to glimpse anything within him. It would have seen only emptiness!

Naturally, Legilimency, the Imperius Curse, even the Stunning Spell, as well as the mental influence of Voldemort's Horcruxes, would all be unable to affect Rhine.

With double protection over both body and mind, leaving aside his offensive abilities, Rhine's defensive capabilities alone likely had no equal in the entire wizarding world. His margin for error had been completely maxed out.

Then Rhine's gaze fell upon the two talents he had obtained from Ron: Soaring Wind Dance and Wing-Beating Wind and Thunder.

The former granted him bonuses in the air no weaker than those on land, while the latter increased his flying speed and enhanced his control over wind and lightning.

Rhine could not test anything related to flight at the moment.

But he immediately felt the effects of his control over wind.

With a stretch of his hand, air currents surged around Rhine, howling like fierce gusts.

This was far stronger than the Wind Riding Talent he had obtained from the owl Roberts. As expected of a talent from Lei Zhenzi, an aerial combat expert rarely seen even in the Primordial Fengshen era.

Unfortunately, Ravenclaw was the only one of the four houses that lived in high towers. Otherwise, Rhine could have walked to the windowsill right now and experienced the feeling of "the wild wind obeys my command."

If he used the Five-Colored Stone technique to throw stones again, then with the Wind Riding Talent and Wing-Beating Wind and Thunder, he could probably throw one from Hogwarts Castle all the way to the other side of the Black Lake.

Besides that, the talents obtained from Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew also gave Rhine some unexpected surprises.

For instance, the effects of the Conceal Qi and Hide Mechanism talent greatly pleased Rhine.

Both his earlier test of physical strength and his test of wind control had made some noise.

Yet the others in the dormitory were still sleeping soundly. None of them had even turned over, as though they had heard nothing at all.

Rhine also tried leaving the dormitory and taking a stroll through the common room and even the corridor outside.

There were several upper-year Gryffindors in the common room, along with the Weasley brothers. It seemed that on the very first day of school, they could no longer suppress their urge to sneak out at night and were discussing an adventure.

Yet they completely ignored Rhine, who had deliberately concealed his presence, as though he had already merged with the surroundings.

Even the portraits in the corridor showed no reaction when they saw Rhine walk past.

A smile curled across Rhine's lips.

"This talent is a divine skill for sneaking out at night!"

"At critical moments, it can also be used to escape or ambush someone."

"Maybe even Voldemort or Dumbledore could get caught off guard!"

But Rhine's most unexpected surprise had actually come from the reward obtained from Malfoy.

There was no need to say much about the Twin Axe Chain talent. It merely improved the coordination of both hands, making it utterly useless to Rhine.

But the Flying Tiger Military Strategy reward exceeded Rhine's expectations.

It contained not only methods for training soldiers, but also methods for refining Tiger Leopard Pills, Flying Tiger Armor, and Flying Tiger Spears.

Although these were the lowest-grade standardized pills and equipment in the Primordial world, where any somewhat renowned pill or piece of equipment could crush them with ease—

You might disdain them in the Primordial world, but this was the wizarding world!

A Tiger Leopard Pill could increase spiritual energy and physical strength, greatly boosting one's power. If a Potions Master could brew such a thing, who would dare provoke them?

Then there were the Flying Tiger Armor and Flying Tiger Spear. One could defend against spiritual energy attacks, while the other could amplify spiritual energy and unleash spear light. They were equivalent to permanently having Protego and Sectumsempra.

Even a first-year wizard wearing this set of equipment could beat most Aurors with ease.

More importantly, the materials needed to refine these pills and equipment were not particularly precious. Rhine felt that he might be able to try refining them himself.

If he truly could make them, they would be greatly beneficial to him.

But this was not what Rhine valued most. What delighted him most was that the Flying Tiger Military Strategy contained a simple cultivation method meant to be taught to an army.

Through this method, one could draw in spiritual energy!

This was precisely the resource Rhine lacked the most.

Relying solely on the Feast on Wind and Drink Dew talent to passively obtain spiritual energy from heaven and earth was truly insufficient. But with a method for drawing in spiritual energy, even if it was only the most rudimentary kind, the results would be incomparable to before.

What was more, given the conditions of the wizarding world, Rhine felt that even if he were given cultivation methods such as the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts or the Great Celestial Immortal Art, he might not necessarily be able to cultivate them successfully.

On the contrary, such rudimentary methods would be much easier to cultivate.

That way, Rhine's physical body and magical strength could both improve faster under the nourishment of spiritual energy.

Before obtaining a truly profound cultivation method, this could at least serve as a foundation.

This harvest left satisfaction in Rhine's eyes.

His strength had improved considerably compared to before.

However, as he looked at the densely packed information in the rewards section, where some talents had already become completely useless to him, Rhine turned his gaze toward the talent fusion function that had appeared after the system upgrade. A determined expression appeared on his face.

"Turn complexity into simplicity. Discard the dross and preserve the essence."

"System, refine them immediately!"