Chapter 173 - 142: Extraordinary Branch Traits, Observations Outside the Camp

Chapter 173: Chapter 142: Extraordinary Branch Traits, Observations Outside the Camp

Following the distribution of the Advanced Member badges, the entire Baijiang City and the area surrounding the Lighthouse Camp remained very peaceful over the next few days.

Not many gray fog tides battered the city, and there were no traces of active Pseudo-Men. It was as if they had all vanished without a trace.

For the past few days, the Countermeasures Bureau captain who intended to break through to the Extraordinary Realm was still preparing. This preparation had already lasted for over a week. Shi An understood. Cases like his ghost employees, who hurriedly began their Extraordinary Breakthrough the moment they touched the Extraordinary Ceremony, were in the extreme minority. Failing an Extraordinary Breakthrough meant death; one could never be too cautious.

"Li Feng has been studying his Extraordinary Ability these days," Shi An muttered, stroking his chin. "He has also tried to make a move in the Nightmare World. As long as he isn’t trying to clear Low Level Nightmares, even if he uses his Extraordinary Ability, he won’t necessarily attract the attention of an Extraordinary Ghost."

It felt as though... the rules of the Nightmare World had imposed restrictions, preventing Transcendents from bullying weaklings. If an Extraordinary Powerhouse wanted to clear a Nightmare, they had to tackle those high-level Nightmares guarded by Extraordinary Ghosts. Naturally, while Li Feng was stronger than the Pseudo-Man Ghost from before, he had just entered the Extraordinary Realm; among Extraordinary Ghosts, he was still just a small fry. Shi An wasn’t sure if the Tower Ship Ghost they saw that day was at Extraordinary Perfection or even higher.

"Li Feng’s Extraordinary Talent is ’Curse Armor’, or to be more precise, ’Curse Pattern’. This Curse Pattern possesses the traits of Sharpness and obliteration. After piercing a ghost, it can directly shave off a massive amount of the ghost’s Life Force, making it difficult for the entity to recover," Shi An pondered. "If the Curse Pattern covers a set of armor, it doesn’t have any special effects, merely making the armor a bit harder."

He knew the reason behind this. It was because Li Feng was currently only at the Extraordinary Realm Early Stage, meaning his Lifebound Talent only had one branching trait.

He pondered, "Rumor has it that breaking through to the Extraordinary Realm Middle Stage and Late Stage requires satisfying a few conditions. First, Curse Power must be abundant. Second, the development of the Talent must reach a critical threshold. And third... developing a second branching trait for the Talent!"

For normal, newly ascended Transcendents, the actual area of effect their Talent Ability could cover was extremely small. When Chen Jianghuai first stepped into the Extraordinary Realm, his Earth Transformation could only cover an entire fist. Only through slow Cultivation and development did he manage to spread the Earth Transformation across an entire arm.

Li Feng likely had too abundant of a foundation prior to his promotion. After all, his foundation was built upon Manager Shi using cheat-like system advantages to level him up. Naturally, it wasn’t something those peak experts who stumbled along through their own Cultivation could compare to. If compared to others, Li Feng was already at the Peak of Extraordinary Realm Early Stage. But in reality, he probably hadn’t reached that point yet.

"As Li Feng absorbs Dream Crystals for Cultivation, the Curse Power in his body continues to rise, and the lines of his Curse Pattern are deepening. Clearly, he’s still far from the point where he can break through this minor bottleneck. This is only natural, as he just got promoted not too long ago," Shi An reasoned.

Meanwhile, Little Blood, Zhuo Ling, and Nether Robe had yet to catch a glimpse of their opportunity to reach the Extraordinary Realm.

However, the Safe Zone’s other Transcendent, the Lighthouse Camp Guardian Chen Jianghuai, had recently made a breakthrough.

"HAAH!"

Inside the Training Ground, Chen Jianghuai’s Earth Transformation continuously spread across his body. After covering his entire arm, it expanded to encompass half of his torso. Not only that, but in the past, his transformed body resembled a clod of earth covered in cracked fissures with very poor defensive capabilities; it simply served as a substitute for flesh and blood to absorb damage and recover. Now, however, his earth-transformed body no longer had a single crack. Instead, fine and dense patterns ran across it, making it look as though he had donned a set of earthen-yellow armor.

"This is my second branching trait, ’Hard Soil’!" Chen Jianghuai declared. "My first branching trait, ’Shattered Earth’, is actually more suited for offense, whereas ’Hard Soil’ is far better suited for defense or trapping enemies."

That day, the Earth Barrier he raised was shattered by a single punch from the Pseudo-Man Extraordinary. On one hand, this was because the Pseudo-Man Extraordinary also possessed some Shattered Earth capabilities and was inherently skilled at smashing boulders. On the other hand, it was because the Earth Barrier Chen Jianghuai had erected simply wasn’t hard enough. It couldn’t be hard. At the time, he lacked the capability. But now, the earth he controlled could switch between Shattered Earth and Hard Soil. This was the Extraordinary Realm Middle Stage! Compared to the Extraordinary Realm Early Stage, he was stronger by leaps and bounds!

"Not only that..." Shi An murmured, stroking his chin. "Rumor has it that between the Extraordinary Early Stage and the Extraordinary Middle Stage, there is a massive difference in the effective radius for controlling one’s ability."

Previously, Chen Jianghuai’s limit for shattering the earth and raising boulders was roughly thirty to forty meters. Beyond that range, he could no longer freely control his Extraordinary Talent. He could cause the ground to crack for a hundred meters, but he couldn’t control the shattered earth a hundred meters away to form boulders. But now, it seemed Chen Jianghuai’s maximum control distance for his Extraordinary Talent had extended to fifty or sixty meters.

"The Extraordinary Middle Stage is terrifyingly formidable!" Shi An mused. "I still underestimated Old Chen a bit. Then again, during the previous battle outside the Lighthouse, Old Chen had been corroded by the Pseudo-Man Extraordinary for many days, so he was already in a weakened state. The same went for that Pseudo-Man Extraordinary."

The power that the man and ghost had unleashed that day was indeed at the Extraordinary Realm level. However, they could not be used as a standard reference for Transcendent power.

Little did Shi An know, Chen Jianghuai was also sighing in amazement.

"To think that I would so easily step into the Extraordinary Middle Stage—the realm I’ve dreamed of for over a year!" he thought.

It was the profound nature of the Training Ground that had allowed him, who had already accumulated an abundant foundation, to cross that final half-step.

Most importantly...

"To break through to the Extraordinary Middle Stage, one needs to develop and verify the second branching trait of their Lifebound Talent. However, the slightest misstep in developing this trait will result in a backlash against oneself!"