"Stealth Talent?"
"I actually gained an ability like this too?"
Even Li Chen had not expected this. He glanced down and could not help being overjoyed.
What he had originally wanted to show Old Hou and You An was merely the formidable defense of the Tiger Demon's hide.
The Puppet Masters of this world revered the Great Dao, but held even more firmly to the principle that the Dao followed nature. They regarded nature as an all-knowing, all-powerful creator, and everything born of nature owed its existence to the power of creation.
Melting metal into blades and shaping earth into vessels were both foundations of the Art of a Hundred Crafts. At their core, they involved understanding and transforming nature, making this a true art of the Great Dao.
Li Chen had already expected this Tiger Demon hide to possess the qualities of copper skin and iron bones, and the test results matched his expectations exactly.
But the stealth talent clearly required the Tiger Demon's innate bloodline abilities to make the markings on its hide produce an effect akin to Dao-pattern restrictions. Ordinary Skin-Painters had no way of exploiting this.
Li Chen could roughly guess that this was because the hide prepared through Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting possessed the quality of being "alive."
It possessed a certain mysterious vitality, whereas hides treated with the ordinary Skin-Painting Art possessed no such vitality. This was the most fundamental difference between the two!
Li Chen had once watched Artisan Lei prepare a Pig Demon hide with his own eyes. The methods he had used were precisely those Skin-Painting Arts commonly circulated on the market.
Li Chen had originally thought that channeling spirit essence through a hide to produce a defensive effect with Gang Qi was already the limit of skin-painting. He had never imagined that his own secret art could even capture innate divine abilities.
Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting truly deserves to be called a Creation-Promotion Secret Art. It already carries a faint hint of reaching directly into nature's workings of creation. It seems it's far more powerful than I imagined.
But that's perfect. I wanted to improve myself by refining this thing in the first place...
As Li Chen marveled inwardly, he suddenly recalled the Tiger Demon Chief's first appearance. Its chilling method of stealth and hunting style might offer something worth learning from.
Li Chen glanced back at the two men, and his figure gradually faded.
He activated the restrictions on his Puppet Master's Robe. Although the effect fell short of the complete invisibility available at the Master Artisan level, it complemented the Mechanism Beast Fang Tiger beneath him remarkably well!
You An's eyes immediately widened, while Old Hou stared toward Li Chen as though he had seen a ghost.
Li Chen's figure disappeared into the grass ahead, becoming almost impossible to distinguish.
Old Hou exclaimed in admiration, "Brother Li, even in broad daylight, we can barely see you! At night, you'd probably come and go without a trace!"
Li Chen asked tentatively, "Brother Hou, I'm not good at finding prey. How about you handle that? Once you've found something, You An and I can cut it off from the front and rear, then hunt it down together. What do you think?"
Old Hou said, "That works too. With your ability to move unseen through the woods, ordinary prey will have a hard time spotting you. You'll surely catch them as easily as reaching out your hand."
With that, he took the lead and entered the woods to search for signs of prey.
For a band of Demon Hunters, finding prey was the first priority.
Without a veteran skilled in this work, they might have to run aimlessly all over the mountains, hoping for the luck of a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse before they could bring anything back.
Old Hou was an experienced hunter, and he readily took on this task.
But once the prey was found, the person responsible for making the kill also played a crucial role.
Now that Li Chen had volunteered to shoulder this task, Old Hou also wanted to see whether he was up to it.
Li Chen and You An waited where they were. After somewhat less than an hour, Old Hou's voice finally came through the Message-Transmitting Ring again. "I've found a roe deer over here. Follow the route marked on the image slate."
The image slate he mentioned was a communication artifact refined using the principles of divine sense interaction and remote sensing through magical power.
To the people of this world, it ought to belong to the same category as the Divine Sense Jade Slip. But through the eyes of Li Chen, who had lived two lives, it was plainly an electronic tablet controlled by thought.
It should have fallen within the domain of the Dao of Formations, but amid the struggle between Dao Paths, with each staking out its territory, Puppet Masters had also put it to use.
Li Chen had finally acquired one himself. Old Hou had prepared it for him while shopping at the Market Fair the previous day. It was already linked to Old Hou's and You An's artifacts, with the surrounding terrain and their travel routes clearly marked.
With such a veteran leading the way, Li Chen no longer had to wait by a stump for a rabbit to stumble into it, as he had on his first solo hunt. He soon rode the Mechanism Beast Fang Tiger through the mountain woods, bounding along until he reached the designated location.
The innate divine ability granted by the Tiger Demon Chief's hide displayed its power once again. To his delight, Li Chen discovered that he truly made no sound as he rode the Mechanism Beast. The hide came with thick, padded paws that silenced its movements.
Even when it stepped on loose stones, dead branches, or fallen leaves, a strange force field seemed to linger around it, preventing any sound from escaping.
Like an invisible ghost, Li Chen easily approached to within thirty feet of the roe deer from behind.
Seeing that his prey still looked relaxed and utterly unaware, he suddenly charged and pounced on it, knocking it to the ground.
"Well done!"
Old Hou, crouching behind a low slope in the distance, exclaimed in admiration. He had witnessed Li Chen's attack firsthand, and the roe deer had failed to react from beginning to end.
After finishing off the fallen roe deer with his hunting knife, Li Chen still found it somewhat hard to believe.
It had been far too easy. With this ability alone, he could roam the mountain forests like a roaring tiger and hunt nature spirits without difficulty!
Seeing this, Old Hou also said, "They say one polished trick can feed you anywhere under heaven. Brother Li, this ability alone is enough for you to hunt down most nature spirits at the Qi Refining stage!"
Li Chen said, "I wouldn't dare take the credit for that. If you hadn't found the prey, Brother Hou, I'd still be wandering aimlessly all over the mountains!"
The two exchanged a smile, both feeling that an understanding had begun to form between them.
Working together now benefited them both. Comparatively speaking, however, Old Hou depended less on Li Chen. Even without Li Chen, he could hunt Demon Beasts himself, whereas without Old Hou, Li Chen might not even get his hands on a single beast hair.
Still, Li Chen was confident that when they encountered powerful, troublesome Demon Beasts, the advantages of his youth, strength, and greater reserves of hidden trump cards would become apparent. Given time, once he advanced to Master Artisan, Old Hou would have to depend on him instead.
This time, he had finally found a way to demonstrate his value.
"It's still early. Let's keep going!" Old Hou said immediately after their laughter subsided.
He ventured deep into the woods again to search for wild beasts. Even after finding a suitable target, he did not attack rashly. His hunting method required him to bury mechanisms and set up an ambush beforehand. Not only did this take time and effort, it also carried a considerable risk of failure.
Li Chen, by contrast, relied solely on his ability to conceal himself and move unseen, making the hunt as easy as plucking something from a pouch.
It was as though he had become the king of beasts, possessing a hunting style identical to that of the Tiger Demon Chief.