Ji Xun had a photographic memory. Since he suspected someone might come looking for him soon, he had been closely observing the surroundings of the dormitory.
Normally, only a few Corpse Collectors from Team Five used these stairs, and he remembered nearly every detail.
Yet now, an unfamiliar set of footprints had appeared in the dust on the ground.
No.
He had noticed them back in the courtyard.
Threaded dark-star non-slip soles. They looked like monk shoes made by the Mole Leather Factory in East District Five. A style favored by middle-aged men around forty, priced far beyond what ordinary people could afford. The owner of these prints probably had a respectable job.
And such expensive shoes were not work shoes for Corpse Collectors. No one in the entire branch office wore them.
Size 42. The left heel was worn down, and the stride length was average. Based on the usual height = 6.876 × (shoe size + 10) / 2 formula, the owner of the footprints was likely between 173 and 178 centimeters tall, and his left foot turned slightly outward when he walked.
Judging from the depth of the prints in the soft mud of the courtyard, he weighed around 60 to 65 kilograms.
Overall, he was not particularly burly.
That almost immediately ruled out a melee-type Spell Card Master.
After all, muscle strength was proportional to mass. A melee-type Spell Card Master of that height would definitely weigh more than 80 kilograms.
A spellcaster type or Mystic Type?
Then it was most likely not an assassin from the Cao Family coming for him.
Ji Xun immediately realized something: something had happened at that Tailor Street cellar.
That made sense.
They were looking for something, not trying to kill anyone.
A Mystic Type Spell Card Master with special abilities was obviously more suitable for the job than some hulking brute who only knew how to fight and kill.
And when he reached his dormitory, Ji Xun became even more certain that someone had entered his room.
Mm.
Perhaps that person was inside right now.
Waiting for him, Ji Somebody, to return.
After all, only he and the chubby kid had gone down into the cellar. Their rooms would retain a stronger scent.
The instant Ji Xun noticed the anomaly, he had already made his choice.
If the other party was an expert, running now would be useless. Any unnecessary movement would only arouse suspicion.
If they were not an expert, Ji Xun did not think the other party would necessarily have the upper hand.
Since he had dared to take such a scalding-hot treasure, he naturally had to bear the risk. He had long since accepted that.
But now that the stolen goods had been devoured, he was not afraid of being caught red-handed.
What he was gambling on was audacity and carefulness.
Before he was exposed, Ji Xun was merely an ordinary Corpse Collector.
He should not show any vigilance beyond what that profession called for.
His thoughts turned in an instant. Without showing the slightest hesitation, he pretended to be drunk as he opened the door.
At the same time, the hand in his pocket had already activated the Clown Mask card.
From what he currently understood, Spell Card Masters were not omnipotent either.
Other than the supernatural abilities they specialized in, they might not know much about other areas.
At the very least, the intruder had not concealed the footprints, making him a rather incompetent scout.
He had probably been sent in a hurry after they discovered the item was gone.
Or perhaps that half-baked evil organization simply had no one skilled at tracking traces in the first place.
Ji Xun had already formed a fairly accurate psychological profile of the visitor.
The instant he opened the door, Revelation appeared: "You have resisted a mental hypnosis."
Just as expected.
Ji Xun stared blankly at the bright silver pocket watch before him.
He had been hypnotized many times in his previous life, both successfully and unsuccessfully. Because of his unusual mental state, he had proactively studied and learned a great deal about it, so he knew very well what a hypnotized person was supposed to look like.
Inside the room stood a figure in a black cloak, their face hidden from view.
Ji Xun acted as though he had not seen them. His pupils were unfocused as he stood there blankly.
The heavy smell of alcohol on him was not because he liked drinking. Irritating gases greatly interfered with olfactory-type Spell Card Masters, and the liquor stains on his clothes had also been deliberate. Even if traces of some medium's aura had remained on him before, they would be difficult to detect now.
And it was hardly strange for a Corpse Collector to get thoroughly drunk on a day off.
The cloaked figure frowned upon seeing the "drunken" Corpse Collector before them.
Thinking the hypnosis had worked, they asked directly.
"Were you the one who collected the bodies from the cellar at 17 Tailor Street yesterday?"
"Yes."
"Did you find anything unusual?"
"I collected a lot of bodies."
"What else?"
"Seems... seems I can't remember. I only remember there were a lot of bodies."
Hearing that vague answer, the cloaked figure did not press further. Instead, they felt that it should be so, muttering to themselves, "So his memories really were wiped."
That was also why Ji Xun had dared to come upstairs and face the danger directly.
Normally, once the item went missing, the person behind it should have first sought out the two Field Agents from Golden Oak Security Company.
But since they had come here now, they must have already looked for those two agents.
In other words, they certainly knew that Golden Oak Security Company had a "memory erasure" procedure.
They had only come to confirm it because they were unwilling to give up.
There was no point in killing anyone.
There was even less point in killing a lowly Corpse Collector.
They had come looking for something.
The cloaked figure had no interest in wasting time here. After asking a few questions, they left the dormitory directly.
Only after the unfamiliar visitor had left did Ji Xun's unfocused eyes slowly regain their sharp, clear light.
At the same time, he released the pull ring hidden in his sleeve.
With this hurdle passed, the hidden danger from the Tailor Street cellar was finally completely removed.
Ji Xun shut the door, feeling no great emotional upheaval.
As for moving somewhere else because someone had come looking for him?
There was no need.
After all, nowhere in the city seemed particularly safe to him now.
On the contrary, knowing someone had already searched the dormitory made him feel more at ease.
That Fourth Young Master Cao was probably searching the entire city for him right now. The Corpse Collectors' dormitory building was remote enough to be safer.
Thinking of that, Ji Xun took out the nameless Golden Breathing Method from his Storage Ring and began studying it carefully.
What he needed to do now was raise his strength as quickly as possible. Once he truly became strong, he would not need to live in constant fear.
With the Demon Feast, growing stronger was only a matter of time.
Now, he had a compatible Breathing Technique as well.
Everything was in place.
Ji Xun could practically see the "path of the brute" beckoning to him.
Just like that Adamantine Demon Ape he had encountered on the train—if anyone dared to hypnotize him in his face again, he would punch them out one by one!
The thin booklet seemed to possess endless magic. As Ji Xun read, he quickly became immersed in it.
His extraordinary comprehension gradually allowed him to understand those line after line of descriptions about the mysteries of breathing.
The more carefully he pondered them, the more stunned he became.
"The difference is this absurd? The gap between the Great Dark Breathing Method and this fragmentary Breathing Technique is actually this huge? No wonder that shopkeeper said this was a fragment of a Breathing Technique related to ancient demon gods."
The more Ji Xun read, the more unbelievable it seemed.
He had attended classes before and learned some common knowledge.
Breathing Techniques had two primary functions. The first was to breathe in the free-floating elements of the void and condense them into one's own curse power. The second was to create a "water tank" within the body to hold curse power.
Generally speaking, the better the quality of the Breathing Technique, the greater the condensation efficiency and the larger the water tank it created.
The ranks of each Card Master Apprentice were not the same as their Curse Power Value.
According to the rank descriptions for an ordinary Breathing Technique like the Great Dark Breathing Method, the rough Curse Power Values for Card Master Apprentice stages one through nine were 100, 150, 230, 360, 540, 810, 1200, 1800, 2700, and 4000 at full capacity.
Each stage increased by roughly 1.5 times.
The later the stage, the greater the gap.
Black Iron Breathing Methods and Silver Breathing Methods generally had respective tiered increases of 20 to 70 percent in these values. They were also usually affected by Demon Marks, Professional Sequences, environment, medicine, and other factors, so even practitioners of the same Breathing Technique could have different values.
But according to the description in the booklet before him, once this fragmentary Golden Breathing Method reached Stage Six, it would already exceed 4000 Curse Power Value!
If it reached Stage Nine, would that not make it several times stronger than an ordinary Card Master Apprentice?
It might even rival a formal Spell Card Master.
And that was only for ordinary people learning it.
Ji Xun's situation was different from that of an ordinary person learning this Breathing Technique!
The demon contract he had fused with was the exceptionally special JOKER.
And Breathing Techniques had another hidden threshold: individual tolerance.
Put simply, it was the curse power tolerance that Elemental Affinity gave the body.
The higher one's affinity, the more curse power the body could contain.
Elemental Affinity could be improved through later cultivation and certain materials, and it was usually directly related to Demon Marks.
That was why spellcaster-type Spell Card Masters grew more abundant in curse power as they aged.
Although Ji Xun's affinities for the various elements were not high at present, he could devour them from corpses!
Fusing with JOKER had given him growth in affinity for every element. As long as he had enough high-quality corpses, he could raise every kind of Elemental Affinity to an extremely high level.
What did that mean?
It meant that if he truly cultivated it under his own conditions, his Curse Power Value could even far exceed the theoretical data in the booklet.
"Just what kind of secret art is this?"
Ji Xun had not even encountered a Black Iron Breathing Method before, so for the moment, he had no idea just how powerful the Breathing Technique in his hands really was.
But the values he had estimated in his mind were already outrageous.
Paired with JOKER, its effect was not something a Silver Breathing Method merely one tier higher could compare to at all.
It was not one grade higher, but many!
And this was only a fragment.
From what that shopkeeper had implied, this Breathing Technique seemed to have quite an extraordinary origin?
Which meant there might be others in the city cultivating its later formulas?
Ji Xun was already beginning to anticipate what the complete Breathing Technique would be like.
But the six-stage formula was enough for now.
For a long time to come, Ji Xun would not need to worry about Breathing Techniques.
Besides, if he truly reached Curse Power Stage Six, would his Curse Power Value not already be at the peak of Card Master Apprentice?
Ji Xun had known before that the JOKER Mark he had fused with was powerful, but only at this moment did he once again experience its outrageously hidden amplification!
Soon, Ji Xun had finished reading through the fragmentary Breathing Technique once.
He had already memorized every formula in it.
And his extraordinary comprehension made his brain seem like a computer. Once those code-like formulas had been input, it was as if everything began running on its own.
Analysis, enlightenment, understanding, mastery.
After pondering it for several hours, Ji Xun felt that he had gained some grasp of it.
At least, he had learned the first section of the formula.
The outrageous Curse Power Values he had calculated still left him somewhat doubtful.
The Curse Power Value cultivated by the first level of the formula alone exceeded 1000?
Golden Fragment Stage One ≈ Great Dark Breathing Method Stage Six?
That ridiculous gap kept making him feel that he had overlooked something or calculated incorrectly.
Without thinking further, Ji Xun began putting it into practice.
He sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, and entered a meditative state.
Following the breathing formula in the booklet, he began trying to inhale and exhale the various elemental particles in the air.
Once he closed his eyes, nearly an hour passed.
At a certain moment, the feeling of a complete circulation of energy brought Ji Xun out of that utterly focused state of elemental breathing.
He opened his eyes.
It had taken an hour for his curse power to complete a single cycle, twice as slow as the Great Dark Breathing Method.
Yet Ji Xun's eyes shone brightly.
Because—
The increase in Curse Power Value was more than ten times greater!
Ji Xun clearly remembered that his Curse Power Value before meditation had been 115.
Now, it was 119.
It had risen by a full 4 points.
What did that mean?
With his previous Breathing Technique, it would have risen by at most 0.3!
And according to the calculations of the previous Great Dark Breathing Method, his value of 100 had already put him at Curse Power Stage One.
After reaching that value, one would feel a kind of saturation in breathing. Using that formula to absorb elements would become far less efficient, even stagnating entirely.
That was when the second level of the breathing formula was needed to raise the "water tank walls," increase its capacity, and continue cultivating.
However.
This incomplete Golden Breathing Method was different.
Just the first-tier mantra alone did not give him that "brimming water tank" feeling at all.
This mantra had formed an outrageously huge "tank bottom" for him. Even at the same first stage, his spell power capacity was ten times what it had been before!
Only after Ji Xun tried it himself did he realize that this Breathing Technique was indeed far stronger than he had expected.
The reason its efficiency was so astonishing was that it could draw in enough elements.
Previously, he could only absorb the Dark Element.
Now, he could inhale, absorb, and convert all kinds of elements into spell power at once.
The Great Dark Breathing Method had once been like drawing out a single black thread from a field of colors.
But this incomplete Golden secret art was like a whale swallowing the sea, devouring every free-floating elemental particle around him in one gulp.
Feeling the changes brought by switching Breathing Techniques, Ji Xun felt that his earlier adventure in Dark Rain Street had been entirely worthwhile.
It could save him more than ten times the meditation time.
"Damn, this Breathing Technique is insanely powerful."
Having experienced its benefits, Ji Xun was stunned for a moment before closing his eyes and beginning to meditate again.
As long as he had enough time, the path of a Spell Card Master would be smooth sailing.
The little mishap he had encountered in Dark Rain Street now seemed worthwhile in an instant!
Before you continue