Chapter 98 Owl Hunting Form, Level 6

Chapter 98: Chapter 8: Owl Hunting Form, Level 6

In the mirror appeared a suit of armor similar to the "impure" Armor Form of the Blood Owl Hunter that Feng Yin had fought. Its overall color was a grayish-black. Compared to the frenzied and ferocious Wolf Slaughter Form, this new Armor Form was simpler and lighter. If the Wolf Slaughter Form was Medium Armor, then this Owl Hunting Form leaned more toward Light Armor.

The biggest difference between the two lay in the shape of the helmet. The Wolf Slaughter featured a Wolf Head Helmet, whereas the Owl Hunting’s helmet resembled a bird’s head, complete with a sharp beak jutting forward and hooking downward. At the back of the helmet, a thick plume of grayish-black horsetail hair fluttered outward.

"Pretty handsome," Feng Yin remarked, giving his reflection a fair assessment.

The Canfeng Sword was still slung across his back. He took it down and swung it a few times in his new Armor Form. In terms of feel, there was no obvious difference from the Wolf Slaughter Form. Its strength was slightly lower because the Wolf Slaughter Form boosted his base Attributes by six points, which was three points higher than the Owl Hunting Form. However, in terms of total Attributes, the reduction wasn’t overly noticeable; his Four Dimensions had merely dropped from 21 to 18.

Yet, given the Traits of the Owl Hunting Form, its practical combat effectiveness at this stage was more useful than the Wolf Slaughter’s. The Wolf Slaughter’s first Trait was health regeneration—a powerful sustain ability—but unless he was farming a horde of monsters, it was essentially a wasted ability in combat. In contrast, the Owl Hunting’s first Trait was Automatic Block. Whether he used the Heavy Arm Armor or a weapon to Block, it granted him extra blocking precision and Skew damage immunity. As long as he was facing a physical attack, he could practically fight blindfolded and remain completely unscathed. For the early game, it was practically a rookie’s joy form.

Furthermore, Shadow Flash, which corresponded to the Wolf Leap Step, was also a variant Positional Skill that altered the form of the Stealing Step. The Wolf Leap Step sacrificed movement Speed in exchange for the Trait of being able to perform other actions during high-speed displacement. Shadow Flash, on the other hand, was an Enhanced version of the Stealing Step. At the cost of consuming one extra point of Secret Energy, it achieved a faster Speed than the Stealing Step and could even leave behind afterimages to confuse opponents. Put simply, at Level 2, the Owl Hunting Form was much better suited for one-on-one duels than the Wolf Slaughter Form.

Feng Yin unequipped his armor and checked the time. It was almost midnight. It was time to sleep and clear the level.

He set up a simple contraption by his bed and lit a long incense stick. The setup was rudimentary—just a tilted stick held in place by a string. Once the incense burned down and snapped the string, the stick would fall onto him. He intended to use this to verify exactly what state he was in when he "entered." He positioned his phone and hit record.

Lying on his bed, Feng Yin briefly reviewed the events of the past few days before drifting off. In truth, not much had changed. After challenging and defeating Nie Fei of the Absolute Blade Sect, Ding Qi had extended an invitation, which Xie Jingyuan approved. For the next few days, Feng Yin and Xiao Yu had gone to the Absolute Blade Hall to undergo special training with Nie Fei.

Just as Feng Yin had predicted, his subsequent win-loss ratio against Nie Fei was quite peculiar. Simply put, if he didn’t use the Wolf Leap Step to interrupt his Fixed Forms, the win rate was forty-sixty. Forty percent for him, sixty percent for Nie Fei. But if he used the Wolf Leap Step, the win rate shifted to eighty-twenty—eighty percent for him, twenty percent for Nie Fei.

Aside from this daily sparring, Feng Yin and Xiao Yu’s training focus was on practicing the Third Secret Sword, "Di Lie Dragon Roar," under Xie Jingyuan’s guidance. This part of their training did not go smoothly. As Xie Jingyuan had mentioned, this move—the final Cyan Dragon Secret Sword technique learnable within the Fierce Upper Level—was an extremely difficult special Fixed Form. In just three to five days, not even the most monstrously talented genius could master it.

Even with Feng Yin’s extraordinary talent, he had only just passed the introductory phase: further Enhancing his cardiopulmonary output on top of the Dragon Transformation State to unleash an effect similar to an "Enhanced Dragon Transformation." He had tested it on a training dummy. In his normal state, his Slashing power was roughly a 4. In the Dragon Transformation State, it reached about 4.5. And if he entered the preliminary stage of the Di Lie Dragon Roar, his Slashing power could hit 5. As for Xiao Yu, because her foundational physique hadn’t yet met the requirements, she currently couldn’t even complete the first step of the Di Lie Dragon Roar.

Amidst his thoughts, Feng Yin smoothly drifted off to sleep as usual. About half an hour later, the blood-red Double-headed Trident symbol slowly lit up on the back of his right hand.

Falling, sinking—

Inside the familiar carriage.

Feng Yin stood up and walked toward the White Crow.

The White Crow stood on its perch and squawked, "Hurry, hurry! I can sense that there’s still one more Life Wedge inside the Monastery. It is time to go and pull it out."

———————

Proceed to the next location? [Yes/No]

———————

[Yes]

[Proceeding to destination: Monastery·Central Church]

The fog dissipated.

Feng Yin appeared behind the Divine Statue in the forbidden room where he had killed the Chief Judge and the Blood Owl Hunter last time. Before him was an open doorway, inside which lay a spiraling staircase leading up. He looked back. The forbidden room behind him was filled with thick fog, meaning he could not return to the previous "map."

The White Crow flew out of the fog and landed on his shoulder, reciting a long exposition.

"Inside the mysterious underground forbidden room, the Chief Judge and the Blood Owl Hunter, both coveting the Divine Power of the armor, turned into impurities and were slain by the invincible armor.

"The spiral staircase leading directly to the central church winds upward. What exactly awaits the Sealing Armor within?"

Several messages condensed from the fog appeared before his eyes.

[Destination reached. Mission begins.]

[Objective: Eliminate the "Impure Sacrificial Moon Bishop" and extract the "Life Wedge".]

The messages before his eyes scattered. Feng Yin’s heart remained calm. He had finally reached the last level of this Monastery Line. Just like the Prison Line he had already cleared, the final level was a Leader battle. After killing this true Leader, much like with the Mad Beastman, he wouldn’t get any "drops," but he would be directly rewarded with a "new mechanic." And to a certain extent, this new mechanic was even more important than the Heavy Arm Armor.

Feng Yin recalled silently that with the Moon Treasure Bottle, his currently stretched-thin Secret Energy Reserve would finally be alleviated.

While he was lost in thought, the White Crow took flight from his shoulder, leading the charge toward the spiral staircase in the secret door ahead. Feng Yin immediately hurried after it, soon following the stairs into an empty room.

The wall of this empty room, which should have been sealed by a mechanism door, now had a gaping hole in it, clearly exposed. The White Crow stood on the broken stone bricks of the hole and looked back at him. "Over here, over here! I’ve already spotted the guy!"

Feng Yin squeezed through the hole and arrived at the end of a second-floor corridor. Waves of collective, low-pitched prayers echoed throughout the space. He stealthily sidled up to the corridor railing and looked down, taking in the massive space he found himself in.

It looked quite similar to the interior of a grand cathedral from his impressions. Beneath a multicolored circular central dome, the floor was paved with large white stone bricks. A broad red carpet stretched all the way from the tightly shut main doors to a towering Divine Statue at the far end.

In the central hall, about thirty figures dressed as Monks were kneeling on the ground, uniformly striking poses of prayer toward the towering Divine Statue. The prayers Feng Yin had just heard were coming from these Monks. Beneath the Divine Statue they were facing, a figure in ornate Bishop’s attire stood with his back to the main doors, gripping a Gemstone Staff corrupted by an impure evil aura.

Feng Yin surveyed the scene, carefully recalling the key points of this level. Clearly, the figure in the Bishop’s attire standing beneath the Divine Statue was his target this time, the Sacrificial Moon Bishop. And the group of praying Monks below were definitely not just background decorations either. If left alone, they would fire Blood Flame Fireballs at him from the perimeter while he fought the Bishop. But if he killed too many of these mobs before the Leader battle, he would fall into another trap.

Having carefully thought it through, Feng Yin made up his mind. He found a nearby staircase and swiftly made his way down to the first-floor hall. Lightening his footsteps, he slowly crept up behind the last few praying Monks and began swinging his Canfeng Sword, backstabbing them one by one.

[Impure Monk banished. Gained 2 units of Spirituality.]

A few minutes later, having killed all but three of the thirty Monks, Feng Yin fired a Crossbow Arrow directly into the Bishop’s back. The Bishop stumbled forward, then slowly turned around, revealing a bizarre, skeletal face ravaged by the corruption of impurity.

"Heretic..." He raised the Scepter in his hand and slammed it against the ground. A massive Blood Flame Fireball materialized out of thin air and shot toward Feng Yin.

Feng Yin swiftly dodged it, gripped the Canfeng Sword tightly, and sprinted forward. Behind him, the three Impure Monks he had deliberately spared also rose from their prayers. Muttering incantations, they launched three Blood Flame Fireballs at Feng Yin simultaneously.

The battle had begun!