The 007 talent truly lived up to its name, representing both insane working hours and world-renowned top-tier agents. This time, the talent enhancement bestowed upon the Black Knights struck exactly the right chord in Chen Xu's heart.
With Heroes in My Grasp, the Black Knights gained the ability to load identity templates. Through these templates, they could directly load experts from the history of the Myriad Worlds who had once reached the Eternal Rank.
This single talent alone compensated for the Black Knights' shortcoming of mediocre combat power. Even if they had a bout of bad luck and loaded a template that wasn't particularly strong, they could format the template after a hundred years and reload a new one.
In short, as long as they pulled enough cards, they were bound to hit a legendary one eventually, even without a pity system.
The second talent, Best Partners, improved the coordination between the Black Knights. Originally, as the exclusive butlers of the Lord of the Undead, their coordination was already quite good, and they shared a mental connection. With the talent's enhancement, their synergy would become even more seamless.
This was a very rare quality among high-tier experts. As everyone knew, the higher the realm, the fewer the friends. Countless former companions turned into handfuls of yellow soil, vanishing in the ruthless flow of time.
At the Eternal Rank, finding someone to coordinate with was harder than obtaining an Eternal Rank Dao artifact.
The Dao Lord siblings, Qingming and Huangtian, were rising stars, but it was precisely their mental connection that made others wary of them.
In addition to improving coordination, Best Partners also granted the Black Knights a combined attack skill. According to the description, the more participants involved, the higher the damage the skill would deal.
Chen Xu wondered just how terrifying a killing move a combined attack skill released by one hundred Eternal Rank Black Knights would be.
As for the final talent, Professional Butler, it could only be described as better than nothing. Compared to the first two talents, it felt like a bonus gift—buy two, get one free; buy two cups of Sprite, get a can of Thunder Sprite.
After reviewing all the talents, Chen Xu could no longer suppress his excitement. He was very eager to see how many legendary results the first wave of card pulls from the one hundred Black Knights would produce.
Thus, Chen Xu withdrew his hand from Xuan Chu's shoulder and signaled for him to stand.
Then, he immediately gave the order.
"Everyone, begin the draw! Uh, no, begin loading identity templates!"
In the next moment, a phantom of a belt appeared around the waist of every Black Knight. In the center of the belt was a black skull with a neat, rectangular slot on its forehead.
Following that, the Black Knights reached forward with their right hands, as if grasping for something in the air. When their index fingers and thumbs closed in a gripping motion, a card suddenly manifested in each of their hands.
Then, as if receiving some sort of guidance, the hands holding the cards traced a semicircle in the air. Their upper bodies twisted along with the movement, and their legs spread wide in an incredibly exaggerated pose.
The Black Knights then raised their right hands high and slammed the cards downward, inserting them into the skulls in the center of their belts.
"Kachak!"
A crisp clicking sound echoed as the cards connected with the skulls. The skulls' mouths fell open, and a blinding light burst from their eye sockets and mouths.
White, blue, purple, gold, orange, red, and even iridescent rainbow light—various colors shot out from within the Overlord's Castle.
...
In the distance, at the Undead Heavenly Crafts base, Ghost Axe and Chen Yan had just finished forging another secret treasure base. They stepped out of the furnace workshop to catch their breath.
At that moment, their gazes were simultaneously drawn to the multicolored lights emanating from the distant Overlord's Castle.
"Master Ghost Axe, why are there so many rainbow lights coming from Father's castle?"
"Hmm, the lights are dazzling and the colors are vibrant... it looks a bit like a dance hall or a bar."
"A dance hall? A bar? What are those?"
Seeing the curiosity in Chen Yan's eyes, Ghost Axe realized he had messed up. In a slip of the tongue, he had brought up adult topics. If Lady Sindragosa found out, his old bones would surely be torn apart by five dragons.
More likely, he would be torn apart and then stitched back together, over and over again, until Sindragosa's rage was completely spent.
Thus, Ghost Axe quickly changed the subject to prevent Chen Yan from pestering him further.
"Oh, right, Young Master Yan, I just remembered there's a forging technique I forgot to teach you earlier."
As expected, Chen Yan's attention was immediately captured by the forging technique.
"Really? Master Ghost Axe, quick, teach me!"
Chen Yan grabbed Ghost Axe and pulled him back into the sweltering furnace workshop.
...
Inside the Overlord's Castle, the radiating light finally subsided, and Chen Xu dispelled the pair of sunglasses he had temporarily manifested. The Heroes in My Grasp talent was truly extraordinary; if nothing else, its special effects were top-notch.
As the light faded, the auras of the Black Knights changed. They went from being perfectly uniform to distinct from one another.
Among them, fourteen Black Knights had relatively weak auras. Compared to before, their strength hadn't increased much—one could even say there was almost no improvement. These fourteen had emitted white light from their skulls; it seemed white represented the lowest tier of the Eternal Rank.
Next were twenty-six Black Knights radiating blue light. Their auras were significantly stronger than the white ones, by about thirty percent. Above blue was purple; there were twenty Black Knights emitting purple light, and their auras felt somewhat profound and unpredictable.
One could say that the white and blue tiers were standard rogue Eternal Rank experts, while purple marked the threshold for experts from major factions. The aura of a Purple-tier Black Knight was already comparable to an Angel Priest.
Unfortunately, there were only nine in the gold tier following the purple, which was a bit pitifully few. The aura of a Gold-tier Black Knight was only one level stronger than the purple ones, but according to Chen Xu's perception, the Dao principles they had mastered were all rare ones, such as space, curse, and war.
Beyond gold, the auras of the eighteen Orange-tier Black Knights were even more formidable. The two Dao principles they possessed gave these eighteen knights boundless confidence. An Orange-tier Black Knight could already be compared to Alifa from before; Alifa before he obtained the Title of Time was only at this level.
Finally, the ten emitting a deep red light and the three radiating rainbow colors were the highlights of this draw. Furthermore, among the three Rainbow-tier Black Knights, the leader was Xuan Chu, who was closest to Chen Xu and had followed him the longest.
Filled with anticipation, Chen Xu looked at Xuan Chu and swept his mental strength over them to perceive the status of this group of Black Knights. The auras of the Red-tier Black Knights were surging and powerful, perhaps capable of going toe-to-toe with a single-lineage Kunpeng.
However, these were only preliminary perceptions at the soul level; no one could accurately determine the actual combat outcome. But the Rainbow-tier Black Knights were different; their auras alone were not in the least bit weaker than top-tier combatants like Kunpeng and Sindragosa.
Thus, Chen Xu spoke directly to Xuan Chu.
"Xuan Chu, you and the other two Black Knights radiating rainbow light—solidify your identity templates immediately."
"As you command, my Lord."
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