The Miracle of Three Sticks of Incense (2)

Chen Zhou suppressed the thoughts in his mind and integrated the final trace of the Evil-Slaying Sword Manual's sword intent into his soul.

He reached out, palm facing upward, and a faint wisp of sword qi rose from his hand. The ash-gray light flickered unsteadily, radiating a sharp, piercing sword intent.

The Evil-Slaying Sword Manual was now fully mastered.

Chen Zhou withdrew the sword qi and glanced at the tens of thousands of talent light orbs floating in the void, his mind becoming active.

Xuandu had only said that one needed to choose three talents to comprehend, but he never explicitly stated that one could only choose three.

Three talents were likely the limit for an average person.

Furthermore, one could play it smart.

By choosing three talents that countered each other or three that offered little help in combat, the subsequent divine sense challenge would be much easier.

For instance, one could pick Vajra Iron Bone for defense, the Evil-Slaying Sword Manual for offense, and a light-body footwork technique for survival. With this combination, one could use the countering talents to challenge the corresponding divine senses with steady progress.

Or, one could simply choose the three most obscure and niche talents, making the corresponding divine sense challenges relatively simple.

Chen Zhou felt that Xuandu designing the rules this way was a test in itself.

Chen Zhou naturally understood the principle that biting off more than one can chew was unwise. For an ordinary genius to comprehend three talents within the time of three incense sticks was already a brilliant feat.

But he was no ordinary person.

To him, anything he could greedily snatch was pure profit.

Xuandu Ghost Emperor had lived for countless millennia and had stripped and collected tens of thousands of talents, each one representing the life's work of a prodigy. With such an opportunity before him, to only pick three?

What a joke.

Chen Zhou sat cross-legged once more, expanding his Ghost Domain. He raised his right hand, fingers splayed, and made a grasping motion toward the light orbs in the void.

Over a dozen clusters of talent mist were instantly drawn to him, hovering and slowly rotating around his body.

First, Chen Zhou mentally reviewed his own skill system. Based on his current understanding, all his skills could be roughly divided into three categories.

The first category consisted of ordinary skills.

For example, his bone spikes were condensed purely from death qi. Their power depended on the quality of the death qi—simple and direct, but with a limited ceiling.

The second category consisted of skills enhanced by divinity. For instance, his Hatred Fire was empowered by the divinity of hatred, allowing it to ignore defenses. His Withering Venom was enhanced by the divinity of venom, continuously weakening the target.

There was also his Ghost Domain, which was enhanced by the divinity of decay, serving as both a domain and a means of simultaneous offense and defense.

The final category was roughly at the level of divine techniques.

These generally required the consumption of the Source of Divine Power to activate, such as his Sinful Karma Punishment—convicting or pardoning with a single word.

The strength of these three categories was clear: divine techniques were superior to divinity-enhanced skills, which in turn were superior to ordinary skills.

And the talents provided by Xuandu did not reach the level of divine techniques.

To put it bluntly, even if he mastered these talents, they were merely icing on the cake. Without a corresponding specific divinity to enhance them, they wouldn't actually boost his combat power significantly.

But precisely because of this, Chen Zhou felt more at ease.

Since these talents wouldn't become his core combat strength, he didn't need to worry about an offense-defense system. He could pick and learn whatever he wanted.

His gaze swept across the tens of thousands of light orbs as he formulated a plan.

If he was going to be greedy, he would be greedy to the extreme.

He didn't need many offensive talents; he already had enough means of attack and defense.

What he wanted to pick were the niche talents—fields like Alchemy, Talismans, Arrays, Smithing, Beast Taming, Divination, Puppetry, and Curses. These were areas where he was lacking; he might not need them usually, but they would be incredibly useful when the time came.

Chen Zhou raised his hand, and a cluster of mist glowing with cyan fire drifted over.

【Pill Fire Heart Sutra: An alchemy talent that allows one to condense pill fire to refine medicinal ingredients and increase the success rate of pill formation. At mastery, one can produce ten pills per furnace, and every pill will be top-grade.】

Chen Zhou's divine sense delved into it. The methods for condensing pill fire, the techniques for refining ingredients, and the skills for controlling the heat—countless pieces of information flooded his mind.

In less than half a stick of incense, the comprehension was complete.

Without stopping, Chen Zhou grabbed another cluster of light mist covered in runes.

【Twelve Strokes of the Heavenly Talisman: A talisman-dao talent that uses spiritual power as ink and death qi as paper, ensuring drawn talismans do not dissipate. At mastery, one can form a talisman with a single stroke without needing a physical medium.】

After another short interval, a third cluster of mist drifted over, its interior swirling with countless tiny array patterns.

【Universal Array Explanation: An array-dao talent that allows one to see through the meridians of an array at a glance and locate its core. At mastery, one can break or set up arrays with a mere flick of the wrist.】

Chen Zhou was like a tireless machine, comprehending one talent after another.

【Hundred-Refining Hammer Method】, 【Clear Beast Heart】, 【Star Orbit Deduction】, 【True Explanation of Puppetry】, 【Curse Killing Art】.

One after another, Chen Zhou's comprehension speed grew faster and faster.

At first, it took about half a stick of incense to fully master a talent, but later, a hundred breaths were enough.

Among the tens of thousands of talent mists, more and more light orbs were drawn to Chen Zhou. The mist surrounding him grew from eight clusters to over twenty, then from twenty to over thirty.

Across the eight fields of Alchemy, Talismans, Arrays, Smithing, Beast Taming, Divination, Puppetry, and Curses, Chen Zhou picked two to three of the most refined talents for each, ensuring he had something substantial in every direction.

For Alchemy, he chose the 《Pill Fire Heart Sutra》 and the 《Hundred Herbs Spirit-Refining Art》—the former for refining medicine, the latter for refining poison.

For Talismans, he chose the 《Twelve Strokes of the Heavenly Talisman》 and the 《Five Thunders Talisman Explanation》—the former for drawing talismans, the latter for offensive lightning techniques.

For Arrays, he chose the 《Universal Array Explanation》 and the 《Dragon-Trapping Grand Array》—the former for breaking arrays, the latter for setting them up.

For Smithing, he chose the 《Hundred-Refining Hammer Method》 and the 《Spirit Forging Technique》—the former for tempering, the latter for enchanting.

For Beast Taming, he chose the 《Clear Beast Heart》 and the 《Manual of Ten Thousand Beasts》—the former for communication, the latter for control.

For Divination, he chose the 《Star Orbit Deduction》 and 《Peering into Heaven's Karma》—the former for deduction, the latter for glimpsing fate.

For Puppetry, he chose the 《True Explanation of Puppetry》 and the 《Soul Puppet Art》—the former for construction, the latter for soul control.

For Curses, he chose the 《Curse Killing Art》 and the 《Blood Curse True Explanation》—the former for long-range assassination, the latter for claiming lives.

Sixteen talents, sixteen distinct fields, plus a few other strange talents.

Chen Zhou felt as if a library had been stuffed into his brain. All sorts of knowledge poured into the depths of his soul like it was free.

The heat control of Alchemy, the ink flow of Talismans, the pattern drawing of Arrays, the rhythmic hammering of Smithing, the mental communication of Beast Taming, the celestial deductions of Divination, the joint construction of Puppetry, and the medium-based triggers of Curses.

Chen Zhou embraced them all, refusing nothing. He was like a sponge dropped into water, absorbing everything frantically.

Once all the talents were fully comprehended, Chen Zhou exhaled a breath of turbid air and opened his eyes.

He looked up at the time.

The first incense stick had burned out, and the second had just begun to burn.

Chen Zhou estimated that this was enough. Although he had learned many talents, they were all in niche directions and weren't very suitable for combat. However, he didn't intend to rely on these talents to handle the divine sense challenges anyway.