A few days later.
Qimeng was taking a stroll around her territory.
“Yay! Today is another incredibly fruitful day~”
Since the Wood Elves had arrived, her territory had undergone a complete transformation.
The once-barren forest was now organized with impeccable order.
Exquisite natural treehouses were built among the giant trees, and the paths were lined with magical flowers and herbs emitting a soft, gentle glow. Not only were there new orchards and fields, but the entire territory was filled with a warm, comforting sense of order.
And it had to be said, the benefits brought by the blue magic stones were immediate!
With this batch of magic stones serving as an abundant source of mana, the Wood Elves had completely upgraded their original defensive spell, the 【Hidden Gate spell】.
They had deployed a brand-new 【Forest Gate Labyrinth】 around the perimeter of the territory!
Now, anyone wishing to find and enter the Tree Court had to first navigate this forest labyrinth woven from natural mana.
Regular patrols of Wood Elves were also stationed inside the labyrinth.
For harmless creatures who accidentally wandered in, the patrolling Wood Elves would quietly guide them toward safety.
But the moment they encountered suspicious individuals harboring hostility, the labyrinth would link up with the 【Black Thorn Legion】 and instantly activate a lethal forest array! Under the cover of secrecy, they would eliminate the threat at the outer edges of the territory!
Qimeng walked through the labyrinth a few times to familiarize herself with the routes.
Although the labyrinth couldn't trap her for even half a second given her perception from her Root Domain, she still let a little patrolling Wood Elf hold her hand, experiencing the sense of ceremony of being escorted in and out of the territory like a lady with her butler.
Strolling through it, Qimeng felt exceptionally refreshed.
After all, with a defensive system of this caliber, unless an 【Extraordinary Rank】 or higher magical beast arrived in person, they would only hit a brick wall.
And even if they did encounter an 【Extraordinary Rank】 opponent... in this forest that served as her home turf, they might not even be her match!
Since the grand construction of her territory was thriving and her pockets were lined with gold, she decided to treat herself.
That right! It was time to research some long-awaited composite skills!
“Hmm... Where should I start this time?”
Qimeng fell into deep thought.
Speaking of which, when she devoured that demon camp previously, she had acquired quite a few fragmented memory shards.
Since demons were a highly intelligent race, the volume of residual memories was massive.
To prevent those dark, bloodthirsty memories of slaughter from eroding her sanity and turning her into a mindless, rampaging beast, Qimeng had consciously avoided them.
However...
It shouldn't be a problem to analyze a little bit of the 【Dark Spells】 within them, right?
“Oh... So this is how the logic of Dark Spells operates...”
Qimeng pondered as she pieced together the fragments of the demon's memories.
“Pfft, what a drag! Activating this kind of spell requires specialized dark mana. I am a pure, natural Demon Tree. There's no way I can generate such gloomy mana!”
Unless... she could borrow the power of the demons themselves?
“Wait a minute!”
Qimeng's eyes suddenly lit up, and she slapped her thigh!
“Didn't I just harvest a bunch of magic stones?!”
She quickly opened her private vault to take inventory.
【Extraordinary Black Magic Stone】 ×1!
【Advanced Black Magic Stone】 ×6!
Though one of them was a slightly damaged, defective piece.
These were cores condensed after the death of demons, containing pure, non-attributed mana!
“If I use this non-attributed mana to simulate it...”
Qimeng pulled out the cracked, damaged magic stone she had nearly broken when devouring the thousand-year Mother Tree.
“Using this as a test subject is perfect!”
She guided the mana within the damaged magic stone, circulating it according to the pathways of the Dark Spell.
Buzz!
In the next second, a clump of blackish-red mana emitting a ferocious aura suddenly condensed in her petite palm!
“Whoa!!”
Staring at the clump of demonic mana in her palm—which felt as authentic as it could possibly get—Qimeng couldn't help but gasp.
“Th-this mana structure... it's literally identical to a real demon!”
Could it be... that I am actually an absolute magical genius?!
“Hehehe~ This is huge!”
Qimeng's eyes gleamed.
“Doesn't this mean I have an excellent demon alt account?! If I want to do anything bad in the future... cough, cough, I mean, carry out a righteous sneak attack, I can totally disguise myself as a demon and shift all the blame onto them! Perfect! Simply perfect!”
Now that the mana attribute issue was solved, it was time for the main event.
【Demonic Traits】!
Traits were different from regular magic spells; they were unique, bizarre abilities exclusive to magical beasts and demons!
Having devoured the demon camp, Qimeng had managed to obtain three highly practical rare traits in one go!
【Demonic Eye Illusion】 could project mental hallucinations through sight or mana, deceiving the enemy's senses or even allowing for mental manipulation.
【Blood Boiling】 significantly boosted physical explosive power and movement speed for a short duration.
【Magic Reversal】 could disperse the enemy's mana structure upon taking a hit. If she was familiar enough with the spell, she could even reflect the opponent's magic right back at them!
“Hmm... Each of these is a decent ability on its own.”
“But if I fuse them together, they should become even more practical.”
Qimeng molded these new traits together, combining them with her own abilities. Before long, a brand-new composite derivative skill of Myriad Manifestations was officially born!
Once she entered actual combat, Qimeng would have plenty of new tricks up her sleeve.
Next, she reviewed the magical beast traits she had absorbed recently, which were far more numerous than what she had obtained from the demons.
After all, with millions of magical beast species out there, she had already collected over a thousand traits from this forest alone. However, many were repetitive or low-grade, so she had filtered them out accordingly.
Qimeng selectively retained a few excellent traits, conjuring them in her mind alongside her Wood Core, Water Core, and other skills.
“Put the offensive ones together... keep the defensive and utility ones on the sides... integrate them, and mold!”
Rumble!
The mana inside Qimeng's body surged violently!
Utilizing the all-encompassing complexity of her self-created Myriad Manifestations, several completely different skills clashed, simulated, and fused within her mental world!
An unknown amount of time passed.
Qimeng opened her eyes, which shone with two brilliant beams of light!
A set of composite skills fully integrated with the latest magical beast traits had officially received a massive upgrade.
【Myriad Manifestations: Shadow Fang Blade】
A weapon upgrade, discarding the dual-bladed scythe that required both hands.
Qimeng extracted the fang-blade trait of the Shadow Blade Wolf, condensing her mana into a slender single-edged blade interwoven with pitch-black and emerald-green colors!
【Myriad Manifestations: Hazy Moon Step】
A movement upgrade.
Her original Shadow Step could only traverse through shadows, which came with too many restrictions.
This time, she fused the refractive stealth of the Moon-Shadow Demon Leopard with the targeted blinking of the Gale Lizard.
With a light tap of Qimeng's toes, her body would shift like a watery reflection of the moon. She could silently blink to any location, leaving behind several seconds of afterimages along her path!
Rate on N.U.
