The Strongest Talent Tree

Chapter 124: Chapter 121: Moon Wheel Dance Upgraded

Shocked as she was, Xiyue Frost still had to face the battle before her. Over thirty Iron-Backed Yaks were stampeding toward them all at once. The sheer power and destructive force were immense, leaving no room for carelessness.

RUMBLE...

The herd of yaks charged and trampled like a great wave, their dark brown horns glinting like sharp blades.

"Your leather armor’s durability is too low. Let me take the front." Xiyue Frost leaped in front of Feng Hao, her eyes filled with earnestness.

Feng Hao was slightly taken aback. He hadn’t expected the withdrawn girl to show concern for others—a rare sight indeed. But she was right. The Ghost Wolf Hide Armor had low durability and could easily be pierced by the horns of the Iron-Backed Yaks.

But Xiyue Frost was different. As a Heavy Sword Berserker, her equipment was primarily made of metal, offering much higher protection and durability.

"Try to use wide-area Secret Techniques. Prioritize finishing off any that are low on health," Feng Hao shouted his commands.

With Xiyue Frost tanking at the front, the pressure was significantly reduced. He unleashed Dark Moon Slaughter and Moon Wheel Dance in rotation on the yak herd, dealing impressive damage. It was just a pity that Moon Wheel Dance had a 12-second recast time, or the effect would have been even better.

Behind the front line, Houhuiyao healed from a safe position. His primary healing target had also shifted from Feng Hao to Xiyue Frost.

It had to be said, Xiyue Frost was an excellent front-line unit. Her defense and damage were both impressive, especially the unique knockback ability of her heavy sword, which allowed her to safely withstand the charge of the yak herd.

"Brother Feng, help me!" Houhuiyao’s cry of alarm startled the two fighters in the midst of battle.

An Iron-Backed Yak was charging straight for Houhuiyao. Completely lacking any combat ability, Houhuiyao was powerless to resist and scrambled in a panic toward the other two.

Feng Hao’s expression changed, and he rushed to the rescue. "You hold them off for a bit! I’m going to save Houhuiyao."

"Okay." Xiyue Frost nodded grimly. She swung her heavy sword in wide arcs, once again unleashing her Ice Lotus Sword Qi, which instantly enveloped the yak herd.

The lone yak chasing Houhuiyao had less than half its health and was instantly killed by Feng Hao. To prevent this from happening again, they had no choice but to pull Houhuiyao into their circle and fight around him.

It couldn’t be helped. Reality wasn’t like a game. In games, monsters had clear aggro mechanics, but in reality, demonic beasts and Spirit Beasts had intelligence.

"Don’t panic. Just focus on healing. As long as we’re here, they can’t touch you."

Feng Hao offered a few words of comfort as his Su Mu Dagger flashed back and forth, its dim, crescent-shaped energy reaping through the low-health targets in the herd.

Although Houhuiyao was still a bit flustered, he managed to pull through. He kept his Divine Sense focused on the changes in his two companions’ Qi Blood, repeatedly casting his self-made Healing Technique on Feng Hao and Xiyue Frost.

"Whoa, we’ve already killed half of them?" Houhuiyao couldn’t help but exclaim in between healing.

Before they knew it, half of the thirty-plus Iron-Backed Yaks had fallen. The pressure on Feng Hao and Xiyue Frost lessened until, by the end, they no longer needed Houhuiyao’s healing at all.

Wielding his Su Mu Dagger, Feng Hao weaved freely between the dozen or so remaining yaks. With every round of attacks, another yak would fall.

’Huh, did Moon Wheel Dance level up?’

Just as Feng Hao was cleaning up the stragglers, the Secret Technique Mark for Moon Wheel Dance suddenly changed. It felt as if his Ren and Du Meridians had been cleared; the entire Secret Technique circuit became much smoother.

And it wasn’t just Feng Hao; Xiyue Frost felt it too.

The dozen or so remaining Iron-Backed Yaks were all killed under their joint assault. The entire patch of grassland was a complete mess, littered with yak corpses.

Staring at the vast number of Spirit Beast corpses around them, Xiyue Frost was still in a state of deep shock. It was hard to imagine that three people could wipe out a herd of yaks in such a short time. She turned to give Houhuiyao a long look, breathing a little heavily as she asked, "Who taught you that Healing Technique?"

"I figured it out myself, but it was all thanks to Brother Feng’s guidance," Houhuiyao said with a shy smile.

Xiyue Frost froze, then subconsciously looked at Feng Hao. "How did you think of this method?"

"Heh, so now you see the value of a Healing Mage, huh?" Feng Hao asked with a smirk.

"You still haven’t answered my question," Xiyue Frost said with a frown.

Feng Hao wiped his dagger with a faint smile and said calmly, "Every Mage has their own role and value, and Treatment Magic Masters are no exception. Let’s just say you all focus too much on combat power and neglect other elements of battle."

’Is that so?’ Xiyue Frost lowered her head, lost in thought, her mind in turmoil.

Feng Hao chuckled, walked over to pat Houhuiyao on the shoulder, and then opened his game panel to check the stats for Moon Wheel Dance.

[Moon Wheel Dance]

Secret Skill Soul: Dark Moon

Proficiency: 45

Mana Cost: 50

Effect: Gathers Dark Moon Power and unleashes it in a spinning motion, forming a revolving Moon Blade that deals two instances of 145% dark-force damage.

Attack Range: 3.5 meters

Mark Recast: 11 seconds

Channeling Time: 0.8 seconds

’It jumped straight to 45 proficiency? Not bad, not bad.’

Feng Hao was pleasantly surprised. With its proficiency raised to 45, Moon Wheel Dance was even more powerful. Not only was its damage much higher, but its mark recast time had also dropped from 12 seconds to 11.

The only thing that exasperated him was Dark Moon Slaughter. Ever since its proficiency reached 100, it hadn’t changed at all, which was a real pain.

Closing the game panel, he saw that Xiyue Frost was still staring blankly into space while Houhuiyao had already started eagerly digging out the essences. Feng Hao didn’t stay idle either; he brandished his Su Mu Dagger and quickly extracted the thirty-plus essences from the Iron-Backed Yaks.

Using his Crystal Eye in tandem with his Divine Sense, he easily inspected the essence’s enhancement stats:

[Infinite Essence]

Quality: Intermediate

Defense Bonus: 109

Protection Bonus: 9

An essence that increased defense and protection was relatively rare, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a good fit for the three of them.

When Xiyue Frost finally snapped out of her thoughts, Feng Hao and Houhuiyao had already cleaned up the battlefield. "Stop zoning out. Let’s keep moving."

"Right." Xiyue Frost nodded lightly and led the team forward. The only difference was that the way she looked at Houhuiyao had changed.

They continued onward in the same direction, but the edge of the grasslands was still nowhere in sight.

...

Three whole days passed, and Feng Hao’s group still hadn’t made it out of the grasslands. Along the way, they encountered many Spirit Beasts—some solitary, others in groups—but all were wiped out without exception.

After three days of training, the one who had changed the most was undoubtedly Houhuiyao. Under Feng Hao’s guidance, he now had a clear understanding of his role and had become a qualified support healer.

"Brother Feng, when are we ever going to get out of these grasslands?" Houhuiyao asked, his face a picture of misery.

"How should I know?" Feng Hao shot him an annoyed glance. Noticing Xiyue Frost frowning as if sensing something, he couldn’t help but ask, "Did you find something?"

Xiyue Frost looked down at the ground in confusion. "There seems to be some kind of special mineral below us," she said, uncertain.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s start digging," Feng Hao said, his interest piqued. He quickly armed himself with a full set of mining tools.

However, he was met with strange looks from Houhuiyao and Xiyue Frost. Then, to his dumbfounded amazement, they each took out a futuristic-looking mechanical mining device.

"What the—a portable Automatic Mining Machine?!" Feng Hao exclaimed. He glanced down at his own mining outfit and felt utterly pathetic.

Xiyue Frost placed the cardboard-box-sized mining machine on the ground. While sensing the location of the mineral vein, she adjusted the machine’s settings. Her movements were as fluid as flowing water—the very picture of professionalism. "Houhuiyao, go twenty meters away, diagonally. It’ll be more efficient."

"No problem." Houhuiyao patted his chest and moved to his position. He expertly set up his mining machine and began to calibrate it.