I Can Give Talents

Chapter 222 – New Talents

It felt more unsettling because, all this time, he had been absolutely sure that he had been acting of his own free will. He was confident that he wasn't controlled by anyone.
Was it the talent bead?

He didn't think so. All the benefits he received from the talent bead were unrelated to the coincidences that led to what happened to his core.

If someone were arranging all of these coincidences for this to happen, wouldn't it mean that his new core was special? The idea tugged at his mind, raising both curiosity and suspicion.

What the heck? Am I being targeted now? But wait, that doesn't feel right either. Why didn't that someone just do it themselves then? They could just train a disciple or something.
The more Leyvi thought, the more confused he became.

More importantly, how could he be on the path that someone prepared if he had acted under his free will all this time? That just didn't make sense. Was it possible to predict all of his actions?

So, were they really just coincidences? He hoped so.

After staring at the ceiling for hours, Leyvi decided to let it go. The decision felt like peeling off a stubborn weight clinging to his mind.

If he kept thinking about it, he might actually be controlled already.

As long as he kept acting under his free will, who cares if he followed the path that a strange person behind the scenes meticulously prepared anyway? It just meant that they were quite good at predicting his behavior. A fellow weirdo, perhaps.

But if everything was a coincidence, please let more good coincidences fall into his lap. He admitted that it helped him a lot. His new core looked special, after all.

"Hahaha! Let's inspect my new strange core!" Leyvi sat in a meditation position again to inspect, but he suddenly felt pain all over his body. He only seemed fine outwardly because all of his injuries were internal.

"Ouch, ouch! That's right, I'm still injured." Leyvi took out a top-grade Medium Healing Elixir and drank it.@@novelbin@@

Leyvi waited but moments later, he realized that the healing wasn't that effective anymore. After five minutes, the healing effect disappeared, but most of his injuries remained.

Leyvi scratched his head. Even a top-grade Medium Healing Elixir couldn't heal him that much anymore. When he was in the Foundation Building realm, any injuries he sustained would be fully healed before the effect disappeared.

"Oh well. Time for another product then." Leyvi took out a middle-grade Major Healing Elixir.

This would be the first time he tried a Major Healing Elixir. Anda had advised him to use this sparingly because, unlike the Minor Healing Elixir and Medium Healing Elixir, the ingredients for Major Healing Elixir were far harder to procure.

Leyvi sighed. He only had less than fifty of the product in his internal storage room compared to the thousands of the other two weaker versions. It seemed that he couldn't act as recklessly as he used to when training his body anymore.

Leyvi stopped thinking and drank the Major Healing Elixir. He could instantaneously feel a greater healing effect from it, even though it was just a middle-grade product.

His injuries were healed completely at the four-minute mark, but the healing effect stayed until the tenth minute. Leyvi wasn't surprised. It was a higher-tier alchemy product, after all.

His body felt comfortable again after the pain disappeared. After that, Leyvi spread his spiritual sense inwardly to the core, continuing what he initially intended to do.

"Ah, it's a pity. My white core is completely gone but this one is beautiful too. It's small, but it feels like I have endless energy. Amazing!" Leyvi exclaimed. He finally had a clear view of his new core.

His core was no longer the solid white sphere he had painstakingly formed for a week. Instead, it became transparent, nearly invisible, as if it existed on the edge of reality. At its center was a single point of light, impossibly small yet brilliantly radiant.

The light wasn't blinding but pure, steady, and serene. It pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat, sending out soft ripples that spread through his dantian. Each ripple seemed to resonate within him, touching every corner of his being in a way that felt both comforting and profound.

Leyvi wasn't sure what exactly had happened in his dantian, but at least he had prevented the worst-case scenario, which was dying. He never knew that a collapsed core could cause something extreme like that.

He had heard stories about cultivators failing to form their core, but at most, they would only lose their cultivation, not be ground to death like what almost happened to him.

"Hmm...this really feels like I have endless Qi. I can't judge the limit at all. Maybe I should test my Qi with Scary Void. I can estimate how much Qi I have depending on how big the vacuum is. Hahaha! I'm a genius!" Leyvi laughed, praising his brilliance.

"Wait, what if the vacuum is too strong and sucks the mansion? Gulp." Leyvi suddenly felt horrified thinking about it. His mind conjured an image of the entire mansion collapsing into a swirling void.

"No, no, no. I need to test it somewhere else. It would be bad if the vacuum is too strong." Leyvi shook his head.

Leyvi decided to go elsewhere to test the extent of his power later.

The next moment, he spread out his spiritual sense and stretched it as far as he could. This time, he was much more careful not to intrude on private places.

As a model gentleman of Bara City, he shouldn't do things that a gentleman wouldn't do.

As expected, his spiritual sense had extended again. It had been 30 kilometers just before his breakthrough, but now it was 40 kilometers away.

Isn't that a bit too ridiculous? The sheer range was exhilarating, like standing atop a mountain and gazing at the world below.

Wouldn't that mean he could monitor cultivators freely in the Mystic Realm later?

"Hahaha! Nobody can ambush me anymore! I can see anyone coming from far away!" Leyvi felt confident.

But suddenly he remembered something, and his expression changed as he said, "No, no, no. I can't be careless. There might be artifacts and methods that can hide one's presence. The best example is Stripey! I still can't find him with my spiritual sense when he uses his stealth talent."

Leyvi was sure there would be people who could hide from his spiritual sense. He kicked out overconfident Leyvi and brought back careful Leyvi.

"Oh right! The talents!" Thinking about Stripey's talent reminded him that he hadn't checked on the talent bead for a long time.

Previously, he decided to wait for more talents to be listed so he could make a better distribution. Leyvi figured there should be enough talents to give the four maids, Nala, Selene, and Sawi now. It had been seven years, after all. If there were extras, maybe he could give them to Bana and his nephew, Jojori, too.

"I want my toy!" Leyvi said loudly.

A menu that he hadn't seen for a long time popped up.

[Talent Bead | Level 9 | EXP 56911/500000]

[Talent list: Taming, Stamina, Heal, Control, Morph, Sound, Soft, Luck]

[Recipient: Anda | Alchemy and Fragrant | 100/100]

[Recipient: Stripey | Steal and Stealth | 90/100]

[Recipient: Tal | Chess | 99/100]

[Recipient: Tasya | Cooking | 95/100]

[Recipient: Bellion | Formation | 40/100]

[Recipient: Mr. Bison | Sturdy | 84/100]

[Recipient: Lilian | Gardening | 92/100]

[Recipient: Scarlet | Dig | 90/100]

[Recipient: Valenia | Sword | 95/100]

[Recipient: Layla | Clone | 99/100]

[Host benefit: Tree Climbing Expert, Dual Mind, Universal Language, Formation Dismantler, Daily Qi Refill, Fire Immunity, Five Element Affinity]

"Level 9! It was level 6 previously. So that means I got 6 new talents. Aw, that means it won't be enough for Bana and Jojori. Well, maybe next time," Leyvi said as his eyes moved toward the talent list.

"Heal, Control, Morph, Sound, Soft, and Luck." Leyvi pronounced the new talents one by one.

"Huh? Luck? Is that supposed to be a talent? Where can luck be useful? Hmm...oh yeah, gambling! Don't tell me one of the ladies is going to be a Goddess of Gambling in the future? No, no, no. This isn't good. If she keeps being lucky and winning, people will think she's cheating somehow and resent her."

Leyvi's eyes then returned to the Soft talent, his eyebrow raised. "What is this talent supposed to do? Is this going to make their boobs and buttocks even softer?"

A few seconds later, Leyvi thought of a possibility and became horrified by it.

"What the heck! Don't tell me it can make my ding-dong soft? Oh god, please no. Will I lose the Night Battle Campaign by default like this? This is cheating! They can't win like this! Toy spirit! Please change this talent right now!"

"..."

There was no response from the toy spirit.

"No response...I wonder if the toy spirit is still around. I haven't heard its voice in a while. Maybe it's broken now," Leyvi speculated.

[Your brain is broken.]

Leyvi was dumbfounded. The toy spirit is still here! And it only replied to make fun of him! What a petty toy spirit. He knew the toy spirit was going to be silent again, so he didn't ask it anymore.

Leyvi then looked back at the other talents and felt that they were quite reasonable talents.

Suddenly he noticed something.

Mr. Bison's feeling point had dropped by one! It was 85 last time!

"This lawnmower, did he really think I am a villain he has to beat? His protagonist syndrome is getting worse! Should I pretend to lose to him when we spar next time? Nope. Why should I? He can keep being delusional." Leyvi shook his head, the corners of his mouth twitching in mild irritation.

Leyvi's eyes went lower and he saw that Layla's feeling point had reached 99, almost maxed. It must have risen when he let her become the city lord. It was probably her dream ambition or something.

"So now...how should I distribute these new talents?" Leyvi made a thinking face while staring at the talents.