The Blade-Testing Seems to Always Yield Goods

From Feng Xue's era's perspective, it was common for girls to read male-oriented harem novels, and even for men to read male-male romance novels aimed at female audiences. However, the era Chen Xiyao belonged to seemed even more ancient.

This could be seen from the binding style and content of the book.

As a former practitioner, he could easily determine the book's publication date from its writing style, descriptions of certain things, and common phrases and memes.

After a casual flip through, he saw numerous terms like "jade pillar" and "white rabbit," leading him to believe it was from the early days of web novels.

Of course, considering that the history of web novel development in Chen Xiyao's world might not be the same as his own, he didn't make a hasty judgment. However, judging by Chen Xiyao's shy demeanor, it didn't seem like Yan Country would overlook overly explicit content in web novels.

Therefore, ruling out the option of the girl having peculiar tastes, Feng Xue felt he was close to the truth.

Of course, none of this was important. Feng Xue's teasing was merely to deepen his impression in the girl's heart.

This approach was clearly quite successful. With just a single sentence, the girl immediately broke down, muttering incomprehensible things like "Why can't girls identify with the male protagonist?" and "Lust is human nature."

Feng Xue didn't intend to argue with her. He took out the Disassembly Madonna and, under the girl's terrified gaze of "What are you going to do?", carefully dismantled the large, glued book.

In the Infinite City, every page was a precious commodity and could not be wasted.

Considering the paper utilization rate, he first took a page and meticulously divided it, creating a palm-sized pocketbook. He then wrapped a page around a wooden stick to make a simple scroll. Finally, he cut a strip of paper, folded it, and attached wooden boards to both sides, creating a style similar to a memorial.

Chen Xiyao didn't understand what Feng Xue was doing, but as long as he didn't bring up her reading preferences, she didn't care about anything else.

As he made one and then looked at another, three experimental books soon appeared before Feng Xue.

"Next, it's time to check the results!"

Feng Xue took a deep breath, frowned at these items, and forcibly suppressed the desire to absorb the [Knowledge] within them.

After their original forms were destroyed, these items, which had previously looked no different from False Things, finally revealed their True Thing essence. In Feng Xue's eyes, they were like a lavish feast placed before a starving person. Even if eating them might lead to overeating, getting sick, or choking to death... the urge to pounce on them was still irresistible.

These things should have the same properties as Bran Bricks. If he absorbed the [Knowledge] from them, he would completely evaporate, just like someone who had lost all [Knowledge]. After all, in the Infinite City, everything was ultimately just information. Once the information sustaining existence was drained, whether it was a True Thing or a False Thing, it had to disappear.

However, for Feng Xue, judging True Things and False Things didn't require checking if the [Knowledge] was absorbable. His Golden Finger panel would directly mark True Things as "Cannot be smelted."

"First, the usual warm-up." Feng Xue took a deep breath and turned his gaze to the "scroll." This posture of a book made it hard not to think of the Eastern Country.

After some thought, Feng Xue selected a few inexpensive Elements from his panel. Since it was a warm-up, he didn't invest them one by one to minimize losses as before. Instead, he directly threw in several Elements like [Mist], [Blindness], and [Stealth] all at once.

Elements like [Blindness] could easily be found on corpses. [Stealth] was the result of Feng Xue's recent hunting of Omens. Although weaker Omens didn't have these apparent Elements themselves, their corpses often yielded [Stealth] and [Soundless] after death. However, Feng Xue couldn't be sure if this was due to the Omens' way of life or if their corpses, like the corpses of [Void], became contaminated with other Elements after death.

As for [Mist], Feng Xue was intentionally collecting this Element. After all, with the Disassembly Madonna in hand, as long as it was night and there was a means to generate mist, even a smoke bomb could elevate the Disassembly Madonna's combat effectiveness by one level. If the opponent happened to be a living female, it would become a deadly move.

After inputting these Elements, Feng Xue's desire was self-evident--

He wanted to see if he could combine a "Mist Concealment Technique" Secret Manual.

What? Mist Concealment Technique is a skill?

Don't be ridiculous. There are so many Naruto games, from GBA to PS4, with mobile games and fan games in between. What's wrong with a skill book appearing?

Besides, the ability to create mist isn't rare in various games, and it's usually linked to obscuring vision and hiding oneself. Even if the re-forged item isn't the optimal Mist Concealment Technique, Feng Xue wouldn't mind getting something like Mist Creation. Moreover, this was just a warm-up attempt, so he wouldn't be surprised even if nothing came out of it.

With that thought, Feng Xue generously threw in a thousand [Knowledge] to test the waters. Due to the large amount of [Knowledge] contained in the corpses of Supernatural Tales, Feng Xue's Golden Finger had an overflow of [Knowledge]. Of course, this [Knowledge] was heavily contaminated, so it could only be used as fuel during smelting or re-forging.

While Feng Xue was selecting Elements, Chen Xiyao saw things differently. She watched Feng Xue create three ugly-looking items, fiddle with them casually, and then the item that could barely be called a scroll actually began to glow.

As the light pulsed, the scroll, which Chen Xiyao found unsightly, began to change. It transformed into...

A CD!

Huh? Wait, a CD?

Chen Xiyao stared dumbfounded at this event that defied all common sense, rubbing her eyes vigorously.

Then she was absolutely certain that the thing made of a wooden stick and book pages, which could barely be considered a scroll, had now truly become a common CD!

It wasn't just Chen Xiyao; even Feng Xue was completely bewildered at this moment. He couldn't possibly understand why re-forging a scroll would result in a CD!

And he didn't have a computer with a CD drive! Let alone a computer, he didn't even have a disc player!

Feng Xue sighed. Although the result was unexpected, this item was, after all, a Phantom. After a brief moment of confusion, he finally aimed the Golden Finger's appraisal panel at the CD...

The principle by which True Things can remain hidden in the Infinite City is connection. Simply put, the [Knowledge] of True Things in the Infinite City dissipates because their connection to the real world is severed, making the [Knowledge] unstable. However, for items carried by Outsiders, there is a stable connection through the Outsider, which stabilizes the [Knowledge] within the item.

When an Outsider forgets an item, or when the item is destroyed and is no longer the original item, it is no longer recognized by the Outsider. The connection of [Knowledge] is broken, and it then becomes floating and absorbable.