Chapter 109 - 95: Precious Treasure and Inherited Witchcraft

Chapter 109: Chapter 95: Precious Treasure and Inherited Witchcraft

Chen Shang walked forward.

Nebula Plaza actually had nothing to do with a plaza. It was a vast expanse of irregularly shaped stone slabs suspended in the Void. They varied in size—the largest spanned hundreds of square meters, while the smallest could only hold a single person.

With no physical connections between them, the stone slabs were separated by distances ranging from a few meters to dozens of meters. People navigated them through short-distance flights or leaps.

A powerful barrier encompassed this massive cluster of stone slabs. This barrier warded off the erosion of the Void, allowing the entire area to drift safely through it.

Chen Shang’s boots landed on a stone slab with a dull thud. He looked around.

Above him lay the pitch-black Void. There was nothing—only an endless, despair-inducing abyss. The same was true below. Beyond the edges of the stone slabs was nothing but the Void, so profoundly deep that merely looking at it made one feel as if they were plummeting into it.

Dozens of apprentices were scattered across the plaza, sitting in twos and threes on various stone slabs. Some sat cross-legged with their eyes closed in Meditation, some lay on the slabs gazing into the Void, and others engaged in hushed conversations.

When Chen Shang arrived, a few gazes swept over him, lingered for a moment, and then withdrew.

Nebula Plaza was not a place for socializing. Everyone here knew exactly what they needed to do.

Chen Shang’s gaze swept past the apprentices, suddenly pausing for a moment. He had spotted an acquaintance—Evelyn.

She wore a grayish-white robe, her hair tied into a ponytail. Spotting Chen Shang, she stood up from a larger stone slab and waved at him.

"Chen, I didn’t expect you to qualify to come here so soon," Evelyn said, a hint of surprise in her tone.

"I just met the requirements and came to give it a try." Chen Shang walked over and sat down on the stone slab beside her. "How is your Cultivation progress?"

Evelyn shook her head and leaned against the stone wall behind her. Her tone was flat. "Average. Solem persisted for two years without much gain, so he gave up and started preparing for Thunder Specialization instead."

She lifted her chin toward several stone slabs in the distance. "The few dozen remaining here are considered the most outstanding Second Level Apprentices in the Starfall Laboratory. Quite a few of them have Wizard elders in their families and have been nurtured through various methods since childhood, so they can barely manage to make some progress."

She pointed at an apprentice sitting alone in the center of the largest stone slab in the distance. "That’s Virgil. Word is he’s close to completing Force Touch Perception. He’s the most outstanding in this batch, without a doubt."

Chen Shang looked over. The person had his eyes closed, and faint silver-gray ripples of light flowed across his body.

Evelyn then pointed at a young girl crouching at the edge of a stone slab, followed by a figure huddled in a cloak in a corner. "Eliza, Ryo. Those two are making decent progress as well."

She lowered her voice. "These three should be the fastest among the remaining apprentices. The rest... including me, are honestly just average."

Chen Shang made a mental note of them and nodded. "Then I won’t disturb you anymore. I’m going to see if I have any talent for this."

Evelyn said nothing more, closing her eyes to resume her Meditation.

Chen Shang stood up and began to pace, feigning aimlessness. He hopped from one stone slab to another, wandering from the edge of the plaza to the center, and then back out to the edge.

His pace was unhurried, his demeanor natural—just like a newcomer searching for a suitable spot. However, his gaze continuously swept over the others as he opened his interface.

Every time he passed an apprentice, the interface would ping.

[Extractable Attribute Detected: Affinity for Force Fields - Fragment (White), Completeness: 31%. Extract?]

[Extractable Attribute Detected: Affinity for Force Fields - Fragment (White), Completeness: 28%. Extract?]

[Extractable Attribute Detected: Force Field Perception - Fragment (White), Completeness: 17%. Extract?]

Evelyn was right. The apprentices who managed to stay behind all possessed some level of talent.

And so, like a diligent bee, Chen Shang wove his way through Nebula Plaza for quite a while. White attributes entered his inventory one by one. Their completeness ranged from the low teens to the thirties—none exceeding forty percent—but he wasn’t picky.

Once the final fragmented piece of Affinity for Force Fields was collected, Chen Shang walked to a deserted corner. With a mere thought, he commanded, "Fuse."

Numerous white motes of light drifted out from the attribute inventory, converging and condensing in the center of his interface.

Then, with a flash of green light:

[Attribute Acquired: Affinity for Force Fields (Green)]

[Affinity for Force Fields (Green). Completeness: 62%. Effect: Grants a certain degree of sensitivity toward the Repulsive Force and Gravity between the stars.]

Chen Shang took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and extended his Spiritual Power outward.

This time, he indeed felt something different. It wasn’t wind. It wasn’t Energy. It was a sense of presence.

It felt as if something was continuously nudging him, while something else was slowly and irresistibly pulling him.

The push and pull came from the same direction, yet simultaneously seemed to come from all directions.

Chen Shang opened his eyes and took another lap around the area. This time, bolstered by the green attribute, he could finally sense the varying levels of completeness of the Force Touch Perception on the apprentices.

[Extractable Attribute Detected: Force Touch Perception - Fragment (White), Completeness: 17%. Extract?]

[Extractable Attribute Detected: Force Touch Perception - Fragment (White), Completeness: 36%. Extract?]

...

To outsiders, his behavior of searching for an ideal spot seemed like a futile endeavor, but only he knew the true harvest of this little stroll.

Before long, Chen Shang sat back down. His expression remained unchanged as he continued the fusion process.

After several flashes of white light, a notification lit up on the interface.

[Attribute Acquired: Force Touch Perception - Fragment (Green)]

[Force Touch Perception - Fragment (Green). Completeness: 72%. Effect: Clearly perceive the distribution of Repulsive Force and Gravitational Fields in the surrounding space, capable of distinguishing the superposition of Force Fields from multiple directions and sources.]

Chen Shang finally couldn’t help but smile, though he quickly suppressed it. He found a stone slab in the most secluded corner, sat cross-legged, and pretended to close his eyes in Meditation.

He hadn’t expected to gain such a massive advantage right off the bat. In just half a day, he had crossed the threshold of Force Touch Perception and gathered one of the prerequisites for the Repulsive and Attractive Dual Force.