Chapter 17 Five Major Skills

Looking at the manticores that had surrounded him, a sharp glint flashed through Li Mingxing’s eyes. He took a slight step back, his body half-crouched, and asked, "What, are you planning to resort to outright robbery?"

"What about it? Do you still intend to resist? Don't think that just because Xiyada is backing you, you can act without a care in the world. We aren't afraid of you at all," one of the manticores declared.

Hearing this, Li Mingxing instead shifted his gaze deep into the cave toward Xiyada. Having witnessed such a scene, Xiyada showed no reaction whatsoever, simply continuing to sleep soundly. A quick thought later, Li Mingxing understood the reason behind Xiyada’s inaction. He stared at the manticores before him and asked, "What, do you really intend to take this meat?"

"Of course. Hand the meat over honestly, and considering the meat, we might let you pass inside. Otherwise, don't even think about setting foot half a step into this cave."

Hearing the arrogant barking of these manticores, Li Mingxing’s lips split into a grin. With a heave of his front paws, he flung the chunks of meat strapped to his back straight out of the cave entrance, shouting, "If you want it so badly, pick it up if you've got the ability!"

Seeing Li Mingxing throw away all the meat, the manticores leaped up in anger. "Punk, are you courting death?"

To their surprise, Li Mingxing’s reaction was even fiercer than theirs. He let out a roar at the manticores and bolted forward like lightning, shouting, "Even if I'm to die, I'll drag three or five of you down with me!"

Before the manticores could react, Li Mingxing had already charged right in front of the manticore closest to him. He raised a claw and slashed directly at its eyes. The manticore never expected Li Mingxing to take the initiative to attack and failed to react in time, allowing Li Mingxing to claw its eyes open.

All the manticores were stunned into silence. They had never anticipated such a reaction from Li Mingxing. Apart from the injured manticore, the others involuntarily took a step back.

Believing that he had lost face, the injured manticore let out a furious roar and lunged straight at Li Mingxing. Li Mingxing had already prepared himself before making his move. As the manticore pounced, his body flickered to the side, and he raised his head to snap at the manticore's throat. At that moment, the manticore displayed the battle-hardened traits of a manticore instructor. Once he became serious, Li Mingxing’s simple attack was entirely beneath his notice. As Li Mingxing lunged forward to bite, the manticore instructor’s front paw shot out faster than lightning, slamming straight into Li Mingxing’s open mouth and driving his head down into the ground with a single downward press.

In that instant, Li Mingxing felt a tremendous pressure surging from the manticore instructor’s front paw, robbing him of all strength to struggle. Just as the manticore instructor opened his jaws to bite down on Li Mingxing, a piercing chill from afar locked onto his body. Raising his head, the manticore instructor saw a black wyvern descending from the sky toward them, carrying a woman. In the woman’s hands, she wielded a trident emanating a chilling frost.

The manticore instructor let out a cold snort and raised his other front paw, intending to intercept the woman's attack. But right at that moment, Li Mingxing’s tail stinger thrust directly toward the instructor's front paw.

Without even glancing at Li Mingxing, the manticore instructor simply tightened his grip, causing his front paw to swell by more than double, attempting to rely on sheer muscular force to block the tail strike.

However, Li Mingxing’s tail stinger swerved right in front of the manticore instructor, extending outward beyond the mouth of the level cave. At that exact moment, the woman from outside had flown right up to the cave entrance. All the manticores suddenly realized that Li Mingxing’s true intention was never to attack, but rather to catch what the woman was carrying.

That large bundle of items appeared to be none other than the fish meat Li Mingxing had casually tossed out of the cave just moments before. In the blink of an eye, Li Mingxing’s scorpion tail retracted and flicked upward, tossing the large package of fish meat from right in front of the dumbfounded manticores straight to Xiyada, while LiMingxing remained pinned underneath. Li Mingxing called out, "Have you accepted it?"

As soon as Li Mingxing uttered those words, Xiyada, who had been sleeping soundly, leaped up from the ground and shouted loudly, "Alright, Milyudo, let go of my disciple! Didn't you realize he was plotting against you from the very beginning?"

"I saw it long ago." The manticore instructor named Milyudo casually released Li Mingxing. The moment he let go, Zheng, riding the black wyvern, soared out from the cave. Li Mingxing nimbly sprang up from the ground and strutted swaggeringly over to Xiyada.

Xiyada glanced at the smug Li Mingxing and said indifferently, "While using yourself as bait is the most effective method, it is also the most foolish. If you wish to learn my Art of Sacrifice, you must adopt the mindset of using your subordinates as primary bait. If you ever pull a stunt like this again, go learn suicidal tactics from that fellow over there instead."

Hearing this, Li Mingxing lowered his head. Tracing back his actions, he realized how foolish his entire plan had been. If anything had gone slightly wrong, he would have sacrificed himself while his subordinates remained completely unharmed—which completely defeated his original purpose in learning the Art of Sacrifice.

Chastened by this, Li Mingxing became much more obedient. He stood respectfully before Xiyada, listening as his mentor explained the skills required for the Art of Sacrifice.

Because Li Mingxing had brought back an ample supply of sea fish, he learned all the skills in one go. Looking at his newly acquired Level 0 Zealous Aura, Leadership, Deception, Macro Tactics, and Equilibrium, Li Mingxing grinned from ear to ear.

Level 0 Zealous Aura: A fanaticism-type mental skill. Each use consumes 45 experience points to form a 50-meter-radius halo. Within the halo, all allied soldiers are affected by the zeal, inducing a state of high morale and increasing their attack power (halo duration: 30 minutes).

Level 0 Leadership: A command-type passive skill. Automatically generates an inspiring sense of security (grants 5 followers per level; Light-faction humans grant 6 followers per level) and utilizes various tones to boost the morale of subordinate troops (increases morale by 10% per level; Light-faction humans gain a 15% increase per level). Can be stacked with high-ranking auras such as Emperor's Aura and Dragon's Aura.

Level 0 Deception: An evil-faction action-type skill. Utilizes various gestures, movements, and tones to persuade others to believe whatever is said. Tied to charisma; higher charisma yields better deception effects.

Level 0 Macro Tactics: A command-type passive skill. Permits grand-scale planning for overall campaigns while offering limited control over minute details. However, it allows the user to observe whether the current progression of warfare aligns with their preconceived strategies. This is an intelligence-based skill; the more details one comprehends and the higher one's intelligence, the clearer their grasp of the big picture.

Level 0 Equilibrium: A command-type passive skill. A sensory skill that quantifies subordinate troops and current situations, comparing them against one another to determine whether certain actions are cost-effective. This is an intelligence-based skill; higher intelligence results in finer precision when converting data.

After teaching him all these skills, Xiyada did not let him leave immediately. Li Mingxing was currently pondering how to elevate all five skills to Level 3. He knew that advancing from Level 0 to Level 1 merely required sufficient experience, but progressing from Level 1 to Level 2 strictly required completing tasks assigned by his mentor, let alone reaching the milestone of Level 3.

When Li Mingxing voiced this question, Xiyada glanced at him and said, "Sometimes I really don't understand what goes on in your head. How could you expect to raise these five skills to Level 3 in such a short time? Even back in my day, it took me five years and countless completed quests to reach Level 3. Abandon such unrealistic thoughts; they will only destabilize your foundation and ultimately turn you into good-for-nothing trash."

"Then I can't possibly stay here for five years. I still have other missions to carry out."

"It doesn't matter. Whenever you meet the requirements, you can come back and find me," Xiyada said indifferently. "I'll always be here anyway, and I certainly won't die anytime soon."

Hearing this, Li Mingxing finally breathed a sigh of relief. Afterward, seeming to recall something, he inquired about the two manticore elders he had previously offended and the youth trial.

Xiyada showed no favorable expression toward those two individuals, instead cursing aloud, "Pay no mind to those two shameless wretches. They're utterly useless. Back in my day, they actually resorted to running away while under my command. Having them around is an embarrassment."

Li Mingxing broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing this. In his view, completing Xiyada’s tasks meant he had to be fully prepared to be sold out and used as cannon fodder by Xiyada, making the act of fleeing seem like no big deal at all.

On the contrary, the fact that those two managed to survive under Xiyada’s command was already quite remarkable. Having offended them this time, he would definitely need to tread carefully; Li Mingxing certainly did not want them transferring all their resentment toward Xiyada onto his own head.