As Garbage Day's sweeping cleanup operation came to an end, the tense atmosphere in the Landfill Area gradually eased. The people from the Cross Sword Guild seemed to have given up, and the lackeys who had nearly surrounded Feng Xue's original residence had become far fewer.
However, Feng Xue knew very well that the Cross Sword Guild had not given up. Instead, it had adopted a more covert search strategy—for example, having those appraisers hide their professions and Tags while wandering aimlessly through the streets.
He realized this after a Chance Encounter with the appraiser he had seen before, only to discover that the man no longer had a Tag above his head.
Still, this was not much of a problem for Feng Xue, because he had already planned to seclude himself and practice forging artifacts during this period.
"I've finished reading it!" Feng Xue raised his eyebrows as Chen Xiyao handed back the Butian Ge Secret Manual.
"You learned it?"
"Mm. Do you really not have any similar mathematics textbooks?" Chen Xiyao asked unwillingly. It was a little more troublesome than that CD that could teach someone a skill after being pressed against their forehead and playing a sound effect, but even if she had to read it once before learning it, it was still incredibly powerful, all right?
"I really don't." Feng Xue shook his head, but instead of immediately rolling up the Butian Ge Secret Manual, he said, "Copy this manual once. Focus mainly on the later sections, and preserve the original formatting as much as possible. Understand?"
"The later sections... those incomplete passages that I can't even understand?" Although Feng Xue had said that reading only the General Outline would be enough, how could Chen Xiyao possibly not flip through the rest?
It was just that everything in the Butian Ge Secret Manual apart from the General Outline was incomplete. She considered herself lucky if she could make out roughly ten percent of the writing in the later sections.
"This manual itself combines illustrations and text. Your foundation in astronomy is too poor, so you can't tell. Copy the contents above according to their formatting. After you return, you can combine them with astronomical knowledge from the outside world and try to complete them. Then you'll be able to produce a complete manual."
"Can I really go back?" Chen Xiyao had asked this question more than once, but this time, she had gained at least a little confidence.
"Mm. Cross Sword lowered the defenses slightly on purpose to find you, but that's also an opportunity. When the time comes, we'll charge in with the Fog Field active. As long as you touch that door, you'll be able to go back."
Feng Xue stated this expressionlessly, as if he were merely talking about something unimportant. At the same time, however, he kept dismantling cards one after another, then either pulling out a page, creating some strange Phantom Object, or continuously adding more material until the page collapsed into a black sphere.
When the useless Phantom Objects accumulated to a certain number, he would pull that Unspeakable Rod-shaped Object from his pocket and subject them to the harshest punishment of heavenly retribution—
This was a method of recycling Phantom Objects that he had discovered by accident only recently. As long as he destroyed them with a Phantom Object possessing sufficient Destructive Power, the Phantom Objects would lose their un-smeltable property. After smelting the residue, there was a chance of recycling some of the elements.
As for how exactly he had discovered this...
Well, it all started yesterday, when he had just returned and lost control of his emotions after forging a "True Unspeakable Rod," then grabbed a crowbar and smashed it down.
In any case, although this method was quite wasteful, it at least counted as a way to minimize his losses.
Chen Xiyao actually felt somewhat reassured by Feng Xue's indifferent attitude. Without any unnecessary chatter, she immediately picked out five sheets with the fewest words and began making rubbings and copying them. The paper used for bootleg books was mostly of poor quality, but it was also correspondingly thin and translucent, which gave her a considerable advantage when making rubbings of the incomplete passages. Holding a charcoal pencil, Chen Xiyao continuously traced the legible characters on the fragments, then used black to represent the ink and left the blank spaces to show the parts stained by grime or blurred by water damage.
At that moment, Chen Xiyao thanked her parents for the first time in her life for enrolling her in traditional Chinese painting classes when she was young. Although her skill had been mediocre, she could at least convey some of the "artistic conception" belonging to the manual's "illustrations."
Even a little was better than nothing.
"Damn it, if I'd known, I would've stolen my phone! If I had a camera right now, it would be better than anything!" Chen Xiyao couldn't help complaining inwardly, but she immediately gathered her thoughts again and tried her best to comprehend the shapes of the incomplete pages. The positive emotions she had felt when she first crossed over had long since worn away. Now, merely thinking of home was enough to make her eyes redden.
"Huh?!"
Just as Chen Xiyao was about to secretly wipe away her tears, a strange cry immediately drew her attention.
She had heard this sort of sound many times over the past few days. Without even thinking, she knew that the guy had made something strange again.
What was it this time?
Chen Xiyao turned her head, but she did not see the strange toys from the previous times that had made her blush or feel embarrassed. Instead, she saw...
A mirror?
No, that didn't seem right either. It looked more like some kind of lens...
"What is this?" Chen Xiyao had grown used to speaking her mind directly. Seeing that it was not some strange object, she immediately asked out of curiosity. Feng Xue's expression, however, was extremely odd. He merely raised his hand and stuffed the mirror into the Storage Bag without giving her a direct answer, offering only a perfunctory reply:
"Just a useless thing."
"If you don't want to say, then don't." Chen Xiyao pursed her lips at his reply, bent over again, and resumed copying the Butian Ge Secret Manual. Feng Xue, meanwhile, temporarily suppressed the thought of having produced something strange and gathered together the inspiration he had just had.
He discovered that he seemed to have pieced together some incredible combo...
"No, this comedian-like thing might not be as powerful as it looks. I still need to test it." Having made up his mind, Feng Xue decided to try it out on those Omens that night, then took out one item after another and continued his Reforge work.
This sort of life continued for three full days, until Feng Xue had transformed more than eight hundred pages of paper into Phantom Objects, [Shi], and black spheres. Only then did he finally stop this dull yet surprise-filled work.
To be honest, Feng Xue felt that Reforge really was a lot like drawing cards in a mobile game or opening loot boxes in an online game. If you had only a few draw tickets, every pull was filled with tension and surprises. But if you decided to open hundreds of boxes and make thousands of draws in a row, then apart from the instant when something good appeared, everything else was merely calm indifference.
Not to mention that Feng Xue could not skip the opening process with a single click. After opening boxes continuously for three days, he had become somewhat numb. But when he lined up the dozen or so Phantom Objects he had ultimately kept, he suddenly realized: Wow! When had he accumulated so many?
However, perhaps because of limitations imposed by the base, or perhaps because of the composition of the elements, the effects of this batch of Phantom Objects were all awkward. He could not say they were completely useless, but not a single one was impressive enough to make someone's eyes light up.
"But it's enough!" Feng Xue reviewed his plan once more. After confirming that there were no problems, he finally stood up and said to Chen Xiyao:
"Are you ready? Tonight, I'm sending you home."
Before you continue