Feng Xue's face darkened as he flipped through the so-called fragment, only to find that it was much better than he'd expected.
First, it was clear that this manual came from the full release of The Taikoo Scroll, not the test version. How could he tell? It consisted of one General Outline and five volumes, rather than the ten pages of the test version.
As a Phantom Object, this book was also different from an ordinary book. It contained specific information and text, but it also had the supernatural power to teach its techniques directly, so long as the reader finished the General Outline.
The Bu Tiange technique was a sixth-rank technique of Jieqingmen, an assassin sect. It could be called an "Extraordinary Skill." It certainly couldn't compare to those immortal techniques of "Divine Grade" or "Supreme Grade," but in the Wuxia Novels of the Jin or Gu schools, it would still qualify as the secret art of a first-rate sect.
Unfortunately, it was incomplete.
Unlike the test version, where one could simply read the text as it was, the full-release technique came with a troublesome set of rules for completing it. Just as the note said, Feng Xue would have to write the missing parts himself.
He had to use his own knowledge to fill in the gaps and make the technique whole. Only then could he cultivate the inner art to mastery. Otherwise, he could develop Internal Force, but wouldn't be able to enjoy the many wonders the technique offered.
Fortunately, Bu Tiange was quite different from other techniques—or rather, Jieqingmen's techniques all shared this trait. They relied not only on the meaning of the characters, but also on their shapes.
Put simply, although the manual was made entirely of text, a nearsighted person who took off their glasses and looked at it would see a star chart. That was what the phrase "images hidden in the lines, forms revealed between the words, whether abundant or sparse, lacking nothing and adding nothing, thus rendering the stars of the heavens in written characters" meant.
To put it more vividly, it was like those emoticons—or giant text-art pictures—made from characters that were common online.
So although every page looked as though water had blurred the ink, if he held the book farther away, he could make out a rough star chart. From there, all he had to do was fill in the appropriate text according to the chart, then revise it based on the characters' meanings.
This fill-in-the-blanks exercise was still a pain, but it was far easier than writing a whole book from scratch.
And even without the rest of the manual, the General Outline alone was enough for Feng Xue to clearly feel how much Internal Force could help him.
He'd only learned the basics. He hadn't yet cultivated Internal Force, nor improved his mastery through "training," but he already felt as if he'd gained a Mad Face (Note 1)—even if it didn't let him suck blood.
"To write this thing, I'll need mathematical skills... or, in plain terms, astronomy and math. Maybe even something like the I Ching. I don't have Tags for any of that right now." Feng Xue sighed in frustration, then rolled up the manual and stuffed it into his Storage Bag.
He needed to keep it safe. Even if he couldn't complete it someday, it would still be useful for training his subordinates.
After this promising start with the manual, Feng Xue turned his attention to the remaining cards. But given his skills, he probably couldn't make another "book" out of them, so he simply Smelted all the ones with elements like [Item] and [Toy] in one go. Then he began thinking about the two biggest gains he'd made that day.
Compared to the unexpected inner art manual, the real prizes were undoubtedly the [Perpetual Motion Machine] and [Fate] elements.
That was also where the problem lay. Unlike elements like [Death] and [Time], which sounded grand but often had plenty of possible vessels, Perpetual Motion Machine and Fate were exceedingly rare. The former was manageable: now that he knew the Landfill Area dropped D Wheel Engines, he could keep farming until he got one. But Fate...
He'd picked up at least eighty Fate Cards in the Garbage Dump, but this was the only Opportunity Card among them with the [Fate] element.
Because it was so rare, Feng Xue had to consider one thing—
Smelting could fail.
From his experience Smelting large batches so far, an item had about a thirty-percent chance of yielding an element, with the odds rising based on how many elements it contained. But no matter how many elements an item had, Smelting it only yielded one.
That meant this card, which had the [Opportunity], [Fate], and [Fortune] elements, had no more than a one-in-ten chance of yielding [Fate] if he Smelted it.
So if Feng Xue wanted to preserve the [Fate] element as much as possible, his only choice was to use this card as the base.
There were plenty of cards with the [Fate] element—not too many, but certainly not too few. Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Destiny HEROes, for example, were a huge archetype. Still, after all the trouble of getting the [Fate] element, using it to make a Destiny HERO summon card felt like a waste.
Of course, if he could get a Destruction Phoenix Man or Blood Demon D out of it, that would be pretty sweet.
Feng Xue spent half the day wavering over it. He didn't make up his mind until he'd gotten so caught up in his indecision that he'd Smelted the D Wheel Engine on a whim—
"Better one bird in the hand than a flock in the forest! Even if I cling to the [Fate] element, it won't lay eggs. Besides, the Landfill Area connects to the Monopoly World. If I'm willing to look, I'm bound to find another one!"
With that in mind, Feng Xue took a deep breath and laid the card flat on the table. Then, rather timidly, he began choosing which elements to add.
But just as he started thinking about what elements he'd need to make a Destruction Phoenix Man, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him. He'd just realized there was another item tied to Fate that was also a card!
"The Blasphemous Card is a card too!"
Once the thought occurred to Feng Xue, he couldn't let it go. The Blasphemous Card was only a recipe, but it also benefited from the Law of Aggregation, a trait that drew together Extraordinary materials. He wouldn't have taken the chance in any other world, but this was a "Garbage Dump." Who knew? Maybe the main ingredient for a potion had fallen into some corner of it.
People had to have dreams, didn't they?
Feng Xue had clearly gotten carried away—or rather, this was classic gambler's thinking—
If he had to gamble and was prepared to lose, why not make a bigger bet?
"The Wheel of Fate. I'll bet on this one!"
Feng Xue took a deep breath and picked out some suitable elements from his element pool.
"[Mystery], [Luck]... Hmm, should I add [Machine] or [Monster]?"
Muttering to himself, Feng Xue began his Smelting. But he soon had no need to agonize over the choice. The moment he put in the first [Mystery] element, the card's elements and Garbled Code began spinning wildly...
"Fuck!"
Note 1: Mad Face, or "Mask of Madness," is a Dota item. In addition to passive lifesteal, activating it grants increased attack and movement speed.
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