290: Chapter 291 The Incredible Bond Effect

Before attempting to combine Auras and explore the possibility of ignoring level requirements to enter secret realms, the first things that came to Lin Muyang's mind were several special Auras he had used before, or ones he possessed but had never utilized in actual combat.

Among them, "All Beings Are Equal" was an Aura he would occasionally activate when facing high-level monsters in his early days. Its effect was simple and brutal: it caused all hostile monsters within the Aura's range to have their levels treated as equal to Lin Muyang's own level when calculating damage and skill effects. This meant he could ignore level suppression and deal full damage to enemies far exceeding his own level, making it an artifact for challenging opponents above his rank.

Similar in function but opposite in effect was an Aura called "Restart." The effect of this Aura was to forcibly treat the levels of all hostile units within range as level 1 during relevant calculations. He had almost never used this Aura because when facing powerful enemies, while treating them as level 1 could make damage calculation easier, certain high-level-specific skill effects and attributes would not disappear, making it less practical than "All Beings Are Equal."

There was also a more unique Aura: "Mountain Shatterer." The effect of this Aura was somewhat contradictory; it would treat the hostile target's level as twice the caster's level, thereby providing the target with a 10% increase to all attributes. In exchange, however, all damage Lin Muyang dealt to targets affected by this Aura would be doubled. This was a classic high-risk, high-reward Aura, trading a temporary strengthening of the opponent for an extreme boost in his own burst damage. Since Lin Muyang had always overwhelmed others with his attributes, he rarely needed to rely on doubled damage to secure a victory, and he preferred to avoid pointlessly strengthening enemies, so this Aura had remained on ice.

But now, with the Bond System, Lin Muyang realized that these seemingly independent, and even somewhat contradictory, Auras might just be the key to solving the problem of entering low-level secret realms!

"Let's start by trying 'All Beings Are Equal' and 'Restart.'" Lin Muyang muttered to himself, his consciousness sinking into the Bond System interface as he selected the icons for these two Auras.

Hum— Invisible ripples radiated outwards with him at the center. First, the pale golden Aura ripples representing "All Beings Are Equal" spread out, followed immediately by the milky-white halo symbolizing "Restart," enveloping both him and Alice beside him.

The moment both Auras took effect simultaneously, Lin Muyang clearly felt two completely different rule forces colliding and intertwining. In the end, it wasn't that both took effect simultaneously, nor was one completely suppressing the other; rather, the effect of "Restart" gained the upper hand! He, Alice (who was covered by the Aura), and theoretically all units within range had their levels forcibly marked as "1" at a core calculation level!

The effect of "All Beings Are Equal" did not disappear; it seemed to integrate into this forced calculation process, ensuring the stability of the level 1 result and neutralizing any potential rule conflicts.

More importantly, when these two conflicting Auras were forcibly combined and activated, the Bond System was triggered! A brand-new Bond connection, shimmering with chaotic-colored light, lit up between the two, and a line of arcane rune annotations appeared in Lin Muyang's perception:

"Rank Regression": This Bond is triggered when "All Beings Are Equal" and "Restart" are activated simultaneously. The Aura holder and their friendly units will have their levels constantly treated as level 1 in all rule calculations involving "level" (including but not limited to secret realm entry conditions, skill learning requirements, certain equipment wearing requirements, experience gain calculations, etc.). This effect has a very high priority and does not affect their true attributes, skills, or combat capabilities.

"It worked!" A sharp light flashed in Lin Muyang's eyes.

This was exactly the effect he wanted! At the rule level, he was treated as level 1, which meant he could enter any secret realm with a level requirement higher than 1—theoretically including those level 22 epic-grade secret realms, level 42 legendary-rank secret realms, and even level 80 mythic grade secret realms! Yet his true level 100 attributes, skills, and combat power were fully retained! This was simply a tailor-made universal key for secret realms!

Not only that, but this effect also brought an unexpected surprise: since he was treated as level 1, killing level 1-3 monsters should theoretically grant experience points. Although the experience from killing low-level monsters was a drop in the bucket for what was needed to level up at level 100, if he could find a way to efficiently and massively farm equipment... This thought made his heart rate accelerate slightly.

"If this effect can be stabilized, my development speed will undergo a qualitative change!" Lin Muyang was excited, but he quickly calmed down.

In the past, he didn't take Shen Muyao, Su Qingyue, and the others to level up quickly; besides the limited resources of secret realms, the more important reason was that multi-player parties would split the experience, seriously affecting his own leveling efficiency. But now...

He immediately cast his gaze toward the other two permanent experience-type Auras: 10x Experience Gain and 10x Origin Skill Experience Gain. He had always kept these two Auras active; they were the cornerstone of his rapid leveling and the improvement of his Origin Skills.

"Let's try combining these two." Lin Muyang operated the Bond System again, attempting to activate the connection between these two experience-type Auras.

When the golden Aura representing a vast torrent of experience and the light purple Aura symbolizing Origin enlightenment lit up simultaneously and resonated, yet another brand-new Bond effect was activated! Its description made even Lin Muyang, who had seen his fair share of storms, hold his breath.

"Experience Resonance": This Bond is triggered when 10x Experience Gain and 10x Origin Skill Experience Gain are activated simultaneously, and there is at least one teammate present.

Experience Replication: The experience points gained by any member of the party killing an enemy will be shared in full with all other members of the party in the form of replication, rather than the conventional splitting. The total experience points gained by each member will be equal to the experience points they would have received had they killed the enemy alone.

Origin Sharing: When any member's Origin Skill gains "Origin Experience" through kills, special events, etc., the Origin Experience gained that time will be simultaneously replicated and evenly distributed to every Origin Skill possessed by all members of the party (regardless of whether that skill gained experience from that specific kill).

"This... is too heaven-defying!" Lin Muyang was shocked. This meant that from now on, leading his team to grind levels would no longer be a burden, but a true mutual benefit! The massive experience he gained from killing monsters would be perfectly replicated to every teammate, and he would not lose a single bit himself.

And even more terrifying was Origin Sharing—assuming he brought nine teammates, and each teammate had an average of three Origin Skills, then if he killed a monster and one of his Origin Skills gained 100 points of Origin Experience, those 100 points would be replicated into 1000 points and then evenly distributed among everyone's total of perhaps thirty Origin Skills! Although the amount each skill received after splitting wasn't much, the high efficiency and wide range made up for it! This was equivalent to binding the growth speed of the entire team's Origin Skills together and advancing them all with unbelievable efficiency!

"Wait... Origin Experience... replicating kills..." A more insane, more efficient thought flashed through Lin Muyang's mind like lightning, making him tremble.

"Who said a monster can only be killed once?"

He thought of Gui Wanwan. This Yama Maiden not only possessed "Yamas Life Extension," which could briefly resurrect the dead for questioning, but her core abilities were inherently related to life, death, and the soul. Deep within her skill library, did there exist a skill capable of truly allowing enemies to die repeatedly, thereby repeatedly providing experience points and Origin Experience?

Even if Gui Wanwan didn't have it currently, given the unique nature of her abilities, it was highly likely she would awaken or learn such a skill in the future. At worst, in the vast Atlantis World, it wasn't impossible to find a skill book or item with similar effects!

"If I can infinitely resurrect monsters in a secret realm..." Lin Muyang seemed to see a golden path ahead, "Then, I just need to find a suitable secret realm with enough monsters, and I can farm in there until the end of time, until my level exceeds theirs by 3 levels, at which point I can no longer gain experience from them!"

This idea was simply the ultimate cheat tailor-made for him! Combining "Rank Regression" to enter low-level high-rank secret realms, combining "Experience Resonance" to carry his team without loss, and then combining it with the potential for infinite monster farming... his level and the strength of his entire team would experience explosive growth in a short period!

As his excitement subsided slightly, Lin Muyang pulled his attention back to the present. He had just tried the combination of "All Beings Are Equal" + "Restart" and obtained "Rank Regression." Now, he wanted to see what would happen if he added a third variable to this combination: the "Mountain Shatterer" Aura, which had always been viewed as a useless chicken rib.

He took a deep breath and, in the Bond System, simultaneously lit up the icons for the three Auras— "All Beings Are Equal," "Restart," and "Mountain Shatterer"—and attempted to link them into a triangular closed loop.

Hum—!!! This time, the tremor emitted by the space was far more violent than the previous two times. The gold, white, and dark red light representing the three Auras intertwined and rotated frantically, as if resisting, or perhaps undergoing some kind of intense fusion. Lin Muyang could feel the overbearing rule of "Mountain Shatterer," which strengthened enemies, clashing violently with the absolute rule of "Rank Regression," which forced levels to be treated as 1.

The Bond System ran frantically, countless arcane runes flickering within the tricolor light mass, as if performing extremely high-load calculations.

Finally, the light gradually stabilized and grew restrained. A brand-new, more complex, and brilliant Bond rune slowly took shape at the center of the three. The information it contained surged into Lin Muyang's consciousness like a torrent.

"This..." After reading the description, Lin Muyang was silent for a few seconds; then, an indescribable ecstasy welled up in his heart.