"Let's go!"
Leilin kicked the nearly dozing Misi.
"Hmm? Where are we going?" Misi hunched his shoulders, his eyes still blurry with sleep.
If given a choice, he would certainly prefer to stay here and sleep. It was brutally hot outside, enough to make someone faint.
"Move it!" Leilin raised an eyebrow, and Misi immediately stood up, leaving Leilin somewhat speechless.
"Alright! Alright! We're going to the logistics department first. This month's assignments should be coming down soon, and we can check on—"
"Fine! Fine! Who told you you're the boss?" Misi shrugged.
Ever since the last incident, Leilin had been swiftly promoted to squad leader of the special task force, and Misi had conveniently been assigned under him as a subordinate.
As for that Locke fellow, no one knew what strings he'd pulled. Though he hadn't been promoted at the time, he'd racked up considerable merit afterward and had been promoted to squad leader a few days prior, now on equal footing with Leilin.
** The special task force's logistics department was not far from the residential area. The staff members all looked plump and well-fed, like fattened pigs, utterly lacking the characteristic lean grace of the Fire Feather Clan. This always drew complaints from Leilin and his subordinates.
"Bring me all my special rations for this month! And add a redemption list!" Leilin addressed a large, bald-headed man with a oily smile behind the glass counter.
"Yes! Captain Lei!" The fat man returned a ingratiating grin, his demeanor cautious.
Leilin's reputation had long spread throughout the task force. He'd advanced to the eighth layer of the Fire Feather Technique at such a young age, marking him as a Sky-level powerhouse! His future was boundless!
More importantly, he was known to have a life-saving favor towards Instructor Shi Ke. Everyone knew that man was notoriously well-connected, skilled, and fiercely protective.
Therefore, Leilin's continued upward trajectory was a certainty.
Squad leader was definitely not his endpoint. Some even speculated he might one day achieve the rank of Marshal in the Federation and earn a Marshal's star!
For such a figure, the fat man dared not be negligent. He promptly provided Leilin's full resource allocation without any deductions.
Leilin took it casually. This was a benefit every task force member enjoyed.
The Atlan Federation largely recruited its wandering powerhouses by offering resources and noble titles.
He tossed the supplies to Misi, who stood behind him like a lackey. Leilin then opened the redemption list.
At the very top was the content for the Fire Feather Technique, covering everything from the first to the ninth layer, complete with a wealth of practical application experience and personally developed killing moves—truly comprehensive.
However, there was no tenth layer involving the Morning Star level, which made Leilin frown.
Having been here a while, he now knew the task force was the Federation's intelligence agency. Though its reputation wasn't stellar, its members enjoyed frightening levels of clearance. Even his current rank as squad leader was equivalent to a Major General within the Federation.
Yet even with his current standing, he couldn't access the tenth layer of the Fire Feather Technique. This somewhat discouraged Leilin, as he was quite interested in the subsequent parts of this technique.
It was a path of power that perfectly integrated Knight and
Furthermore, with people like Shi Ke as a reference, his Chip could only deduce the Fire Feather Technique up to the ninth layer. The tenth layer's Morning Star content required immense computational power and vast amounts of time, clearly exceeding Leilin's current capabilities.
"The path of power becomes truly clear only at the Morning Star rank. The first nine layers of the Fire Feather Technique are merely novel... I wonder what the true path will look like..." A glint of yearning flashed in Leilin's eyes.
In Fire Feather Clan legends, they were all descendants of the Phoenix, but Leilin clearly didn't believe it. He had long since attempted to find any genetic fragments of ancient bloodlines within these Fire Feather people and found none.
Yet, when the Fire Feather Technique was pushed to higher layers, it undeniably had some connection to the Phoenix. This was a point of puzzlement for Leilin.
"Forget the Fire Feather Technique for now. I need to find Fire Source Stone!"
Leilin scrolled down, and soon an image of a fire-red mineral appeared before him: "Fire Source Stone! Can accelerate Fire Feather Technique cultivation progress and even assist breakthroughs! Top-tier treasure! Redemption cost: 100 noble points per gram! Restricted to squad leader rank and above!"
"One hundred noble points per gram?" Before Leilin could speak, Misi beside him had already shouted in disbelief.
"Something this expensive? I couldn't afford it even if you sold me!" Misi licked his lips.
The Atlan Federation held its nobles in high esteem, and the vetting process was extremely strict. Aside from earning noble points within the task force, the only way to become a noble was probably through the bloody battles at the
Thus, task force members guarded their noble points as carefully as they would their own eyes.
Seeing such an exorbitant price, Misi's first reaction was rejection.
"Hehe... this is Fire Source Stone! A resource only the Federation's top echelon can enjoy! Just one gram could help you break through to the sixth layer of the Fire Feather Technique!" the fat man behind the glass chuckled, his tone tinged with mockery.
"The sixth layer?!" Misi's eyes widened. The breakthroughs between layers of the Fire Feather Technique were incredibly difficult. The sixth layer had been a bottleneck for him for a long time. Once he advanced to the sixth layer, he would become an Earth-level powerhouse, and his status would be incomparably higher. That was a different matter entirely.
But... Misi glanced at the price tag again, still reluctant. Noble points were precious too. He'd scraped and saved to get this far, and he couldn't bear to spend them all like this.
"Mmm! I'll redeem all my points!" Leilin nodded, causing Misi to immediately shout in a daze, "Captain! Are you crazy?"
"Of course not! I'm perfectly calm and clear-headed!" Leilin shook his head. He was ultimately from another world. To him, what were these noble points here? Even if given for free, he'd have to think about it. Naturally, it was better to exchange them for rare resources.
"Wait... Sir! Your redemption exceeds my authorization limit!"
The fat man behind the counter couldn't sit still either. Beads of greasy sweat rolled down his forehead, and he wiped them with a white handkerchief.
With his authority, he could only process redemptions for one or two grams of Fire Source Stone at most, which clearly wouldn't satisfy Leilin's request.
Soon, another large man, also portly, received the news and arrived before Leilin.
He radiated Sky-level energy fluctuations, even touching the threshold of the Morning Star rank.
"Department Chief!" Leilin and Misi bowed slightly. The newcomer was the logistics department chief, his military rank higher than Leilin's.
"Mmm! Lei! Your noble points are enough to redeem the title of Baron. Are you truly certain you wish to use them all?" The fat chief looked at Leilin, his expression showing regret.
He was quite optimistic about this prodigy.
"Yes!" Leilin's expression was resolute. "Compared to a title, I value my own strength far more! As long as my strength is sufficient, I will inevitably obtain more and higher positions in time!"
"Well said!" A voice boomed from the side with applause. Unbeknownst to when, Shi Ke had arrived next to Leilin.
"Just let him redeem it!" Shi Ke nodded to the fat chief, a sigh in his voice. "If I'd had the same mindset when I was younger, how could I have achieved so little by now?"
"Oh, alright! I can't out-argue the two of you..."
The fat chief also pulled out a golden handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his face. "Follow me! Noble point redemption isn't that simple, but with Shi Ke here, everything's manageable..."
...
After a very troublesome series of verification procedures, Leilin finally obtained the Fire Source Stone as he wished. After thanking Shi Ke and the chief once more, Leilin returned to his own residence.
"Fire Source Stone!!!" Leilin slowly opened his palm, revealing a fire-red mineral within. It seemed as if molten fire still flowed inside it.
The entire mineral was only the size of a fingernail—this was all the Fire Source Stone Leilin could redeem with his current noble points.
Don't be fooled by the small amount. Acquiring it had required considerable effort from the logistics chief earlier, even arranging for it to be transported from elsewhere just to barely meet the demand.
Whoosh! The phantom of a fire phoenix emerged from behind Leilin, letting out a joyful cry.
Leilin had a premonition that once he used this Fire Source Stone, his Fire Feather Technique, already at the eighth layer, would see a tremendous surge in progress. There was even a slight possibility he could break through directly to the ninth layer.
But what truly caught his attention wasn't the Fire Feather Technique's reaction, but the Chip's alert sound.
"Ding! Detecting the exotic treasure Fire Source Stone! Composition analysis in progress!"
After a lengthy series of tests and simulations, the Chip's mechanical voice finally came through.
"Soul-type exotic treasure Fire Source Stone! Can enhance the Wizard's core, increase spiritual power, magnitude unknown!"
Seeing the Chip's notification, Leilin's eyes shot wide open!
Increase spiritual power!!! This Fire Source Stone actually had such a heaven-defying effect?
A Wizard's progress began to be intimately linked to spiritual power. Levels one through three were about training spiritual power, and after advancing to Morning Star, it involved the soul.
The soul was the most elusive and unpredictable thing. Even many top-tier Meditation Methods couldn't claim to fully understand its laws. They only comprehended one aspect of soul enhancement and continuously advanced along that path, grinding it out over time.
For many top Meditation Methods, enhancing spiritual power required at least centuries.
Leilin's situation was even more dire. His fourth-layer Comos Eye didn't even touch upon how to cultivate the soul; he could only keep relying on luck. (...)