95: Chapter 95: The Effects of the Enhancement

Facing the Yama Maiden's invitation, which carried a hint of anticipation and cunning, Lin Muyang waved his hand and said with a crisp tone, "Ahem, no rush. Let's try it on Lilia first."

"Master~ Why don't you go first?" Gui Wanwan's beautiful eyes, which seemed to contain gray mist, blinked, revealing an expression of pleading.

She tilted her head slightly, her pale face striving to make a coquettish expression.

This girl's appearance was already extremely impactful, and right now, this deliberate display of softness possessed significant lethality.

However, Lin Muyang remained unmoved.

Gui Wanwan wrinkled her petite nose slightly and had no choice but to turn her gaze toward the Elf Princess Lilia, who was watching curiously from the side.

"Blehh, Brother Muyang, have you become a coward?" Lilia said with a touch of smugness, as if she had grasped something interesting.

Her emerald eyes curved into crescents; it seemed she had finally found an opportunity to "tease" Lin Muyang a little.

However, Lin Muyang's refusal to be the first to accept "Yamas Fate Alteration" was not because he was worried about anything going wrong.

In fact, according to his previous understanding and Gui Wanwan's own explanation, the effect of this ability was mainly divided into two aspects: first, it significantly strengthened the target's existing talent effects; second, it would randomly attach a negative status.

But if one was unsatisfied with the result of the modification, it could be completely revoked.

In other words, it was a reversible process, and the worst outcome would merely be wasting the boss soul that Gui Wanwan had stored for casting the spell.

The reason he arranged it this way was that during the interval of clearing the Dungeon, he had already carefully studied the details of this ability.

Because his own talent was an extremely special god-tier talent, every time "Yamas Fate Alteration" was cast on him, the number of boss soul required was as high as ten!

Therefore, considering efficiency and resource conservation, he decided to let the other members of the team complete their enhancements first, and deal with himself last.

Unfortunately, this plan, which was based on overall considerations, was simply understood as "cowardice" by the Elf Maiden.

"Then Lilia, wait a moment. Qingyan, you go first." Lin Muyang didn't even look at the pouting elf, instead signaling directly to the Dragon Maiden Ao Qingyan, who was standing quietly to the side.

"???" Lilia's beautiful big eyes were instantly covered with a layer of aggrieved moisture, and her voice carried a delicate, soft sob: "Brother Muyang, I was wrong~! Wuwu..."

She finally deeply realized that "singing a different tune" to Lin Muyang usually didn't bring any benefits.

However, in Lin Muyang's view, it was probably difficult for this girl to completely change her nature of liking to "mess around" from time to time.

He really didn't know who she learned it from.

This time, Lin Muyang did not change his mind because of her admission of fault; he still signaled for Ao Qingyan to step forward.

Upon seeing this, the Dragon Maiden Ao Qingyan's cold and stunningly beautiful face flashed with a nearly imperceptible trace of helplessness, but for her, the order didn't really matter.

She stepped forward as instructed and stood still in front of Gui Wanwan, her posture upright and her temperament calm.

Gui Wanwan stopped playing around, her expression becoming a bit more serious.

She extended her slender, fair fingers and began to trace in the air.

Invisible power was invoked, the light in the living room seemed to dim and flicker for a moment, and an indescribable, mysterious Aura, as if existing between "life" and "death," quietly permeated the area, enveloping everyone present.

Ao Qingyan bore the brunt of it.

She clearly felt as if she were enveloped by an indescribable, mysterious power.

That power was not violent; instead, it carried a peculiar, gentle warmth that permeated through in wisps, as if quietly nourishing her soul origin, causing it to slowly and firmly become more solid and powerful...

This process lasted for about a minute.

When a sharp, bright white color suddenly flashed through Ao Qingyan's originally clear and calm dragon eyes, her entire being seemed to undergo a subtle change.

It was not a change in appearance, but a sublimation of her inner spirit, faintly revealing a kind of indifference and depth that had seen through a bit of the essence of life.

Lin Muyang saw this, and his heart couldn't help but be even more surprised.

This Yama Maiden... her methods were truly bizarre and unpredictable.

No wonder her initial skills included a strange ability that could temporarily "resurrect" the dead; could she really be the kind of existence that could connect the two worlds of Yin and Yang?

Of course, what Lin Muyang was most concerned about right now was what Ao Qingyan's talent had been transformed into.

He walked up to Ao Qingyan, his nose catching the faint, cold fragrance unique to her, like ice and snow pine branches, while he focused his attention on checking her updated attribute panel.

【Talent: Divine Dragon Bloodline (SSS-Rank · Yamas Fate Alteration), your meditation cultivation speed is increased by 2.7 times! After transforming into a dragon, all attributes are increased by 10→24 times!】

【Negative Effect (Highlighted in red): The cooldown time of Dragon Transformation is increased by 42%.】

Cultivation speed greatly increased!

The all-Attribute Amplification after Dragon Transformation reached a staggering twenty-four times!

But the corresponding negative effect was that the cooldown time for the powerful ability "Dragon Transformation" increased from the original twenty-four hours to about thirty-four hours.

The effect of this modification... could be said to be quite formidable!

The key was that the impact of this negative effect, under Lin Muyang's team configuration, was actually not serious.

After all, Lin Muyang possessed the God-Tier Aura "Infinite Firepower," which could extremely significantly shorten the cooldown time of all skills, and Ao Qingyan's original cooldown for Dragon Transformation was already compressed to be very short.

Moreover, in the near future, it didn't seem she would need to frequently enter the Dragon Transformation state to fight.

Therefore, a longer cooldown time was completely acceptable.

Regarding this change to her talent, which could be called a transformation, even the cold-natured Ao Qingyan had a trace of disbelief flash in her eyes.

This effect... the magnitude of the improvement was just too large.

"Cultivation speed increased by 2.7 times..." She whispered to herself, her cold voice carrying a trace of imperceptible fluctuation, "It is equivalent to me cultivating for one day now, the effect is comparable to nearly three days in the past..."

She raised her eyes again, looking at the Yama Maiden who had a somewhat lazy smile in front of her.

In those ice-blue eyes, a clear look of admiration rarely appeared.

At the same time, her internal assessment and recognition of Lin Muyang's ability to summon such an existence could not help but be raised to a higher level.

Lin Muyang was only level fifty now, yet he could summon such a unique helper; when his level continued to rise in the future, what kind of power could he gather? It was simply unimaginable.

"I... want to go try the cultivation effect first." Ao Qingyan was a bit impatient; this leap in efficiency was a huge temptation for her, as she was obsessed with cultivation.

"Mm, go ahead." Lin Muyang nodded, his gaze appreciatively sweeping over her pair of straight, slender, snow-white legs, and watched her walk upstairs with light steps.

After the Dragon Maiden's figure disappeared around the corner of the stairs, Lin Muyang finally turned his gaze toward the Elf Maiden Lilia, who had been left on the side and looked pitiful, and beckoned to her: "Come here."

The Elf Princess's eyes lit up immediately; the slight grievance from just a moment ago was instantly cast to the nine heavens, and like a nimble little deer, she carefully nudged up to Lin Muyang's side.

Looking at her cute appearance, Lin Muyang reached out and rubbed her soft golden hair, asking deliberately: "Are you aggrieved?"

"Mm-hmm~" Lilia nodded repeatedly, her big green eyes blinking, striving to make a pitiful expression.

"Alright then, try it on her." Lin Muyang turned his head to say to Gui Wanwan, his tone carrying a bit of helplessness.

This Elf Princess, her lively and restless nature was probably hard to completely correct...

However, as a pure support-type priest, her role in the team was crucial and could not be ignored.

Lilia's various powerful buff skills were one of the key links that allowed Lin Muyang's God-Tier Aura effects to be multiplied and exert earth-shattering power.

Therefore, in the sequence of talent modification, Lilia's priority was undoubtedly very high.

Hearing this, Lilia immediately stood still obediently, even solemnly closing her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling slightly, as if welcoming some sacred ceremony.

When Gui Wanwan walked in front of her with an interested expression, she seemed a bit nervous, her slender fingers intertwining unconsciously.

The Yama Maiden extended her excessively fair, almost bloodless, slender fingers, once again tracing those complex and mysterious spell patterns in the air.

In the darkness, that mysterious power between life and death was invoked again, turning into an invisible fluid, gently and tightly wrapping around Lilia's petite and graceful body.

Her pair of pointed elf ears trembled slightly uncontrollably, revealing the slight nervousness in her heart.

Soon, the ceremony ended.

When Lilia opened her eyes again, everyone felt that her entire being seemed to have undergone a subtle change.

It was not a change in appearance, but rather, there seemed to be a layer of faint, soft halo around her, making her temperament appear more ethereal and transcendent, untainted by worldly smoke and fire, truly like an elf fairy descended to the mortal world from legend.

She checked her talent information immediately.

【Talent: Light Element Affinity (SSS-Rank · Yamas Fate Alteration), when releasing healing and support skills, the effect is increased from 150%→300%.】

【Negative Effect (Highlighted in red): All damage you deal is reduced by 50%.】

"Ah, this..." Lilia's eyes widened suddenly, her small mouth slightly agape.

Her SSS-Rank Talent effect had actually doubled! This was too amazing, right?

But... all the damage she dealt was cut in half? This negative effect, for a priest who occasionally needed to use Holy Light Punishment on enemies, seemed a bit troublesome, right?

However, the result of her modification this time was, in Lin Muyang's view, extremely successful.

As the team's core support, what did it matter if the damage was reduced by half? It could almost be ignored.

The key was that her healing and support effects were directly doubled!

This was equivalent to allowing all the God-Tier Aura effects that Lin Muyang applied to the team to have their basic efficacy indirectly doubled as well!

This was the truly strategically significant, heaven-defying level of improvement!

At this moment, Lin Muyang took a look at Gui Wanwan's status.

The two spells just now had already used up the boss soul she had stored.

Currently, she only had the last ten souls left.

"Elena, Elabess, your talents will be modified next time after collecting enough souls." Lin Muyang thought for a moment and made a decision, "I'll test the waters with the remaining ten."

"Mm." The Angel Maiden Elena nodded submissively, the light wings behind her gently folding.

Beside her, the Dragon Maiden Elabess also nodded slightly, indicating no objection.

Elena was always the most obedient, and Elabess took Lin Muyang's will as the yardstick for everything, so she would never raise an objection.

Judging from the two modifications just now, although Gui Wanwan's "Yamas Fate Alteration" had extremely domineering positive effects, the randomly appearing negative effects did indeed need to be considered, as they sometimes brought minor or moderate trouble.

But regardless, the huge improvement it brought was worth the risk.

"Then... Master, it's your turn this time, right?" Gui Wanwan's moist eyes, which seemed capable of snatching souls, lingered on Lin Muyang, a smile playing on the corners of her mouth.

She extended her equally pale but beautifully shaped fingers, and with a hint of teasing, lightly traced two lines across Lin Muyang's chest, bringing a trace of cool touch and a bit of itchiness in his heart.

With her movements, that unique mysterious power in the surroundings was invoked again, and Lin Muyang felt his soul being gently wrapped and permeated by a layer of warm and heavy invisible force.

Just at this moment, a situation completely different from the others appeared—a system prompt clearly rang in Lin Muyang's mind:

【Please select the specific Aura you need to receive the "Yamas Fate Alteration" effect!】

Upon hearing this prompt, Lin Muyang couldn't help but be stunned.

What was going on?

Others' talents were modified and strengthened as a whole, so why was it that for him, not only did one modification require consuming a full ten boss soul, but it could only be targeted at one single Aura?

Could it not cover everything at once?

"Then let's select 【Rapid Growth】 first." Lin Muyang thought quickly and made a decision soon.

Currently, his direct combat power was already quite considerable, and his shortcoming lay in the speed of leveling up.

Therefore, prioritizing the strengthening of the 【Rapid Growth】 Aura, which could provide a ten-fold experience bonus, was undoubtedly the most cost-effective choice at the moment.

As his intent was confirmed, a more peculiar feeling surged.

He felt as if he had penetrated a layer of invisible and soft film, stepping into a level where perception was slightly different, and the scenery in his field of vision seemed to be covered with a very faint, flowing grayish-white Aura.

"This is a normal feeling." Gui Wanwan had approached him at some point, almost leaning against his chest, looking up with her small face, and lowering her voice mysteriously, "This means that your soul has briefly touched the rules of the 'Otherworld,' and is a little bit closer... to eternal slumber."

These words were said in a ghostly, cold manner, carrying a bit of eerie ghostly Aura.

However, Lin Muyang was not afraid of this at all.

Not only did he not retreat, but he suddenly extended his arm and pulled this girl who always loved to act mysterious into his arms, his palm pressed against her back, and even pressed down gently.

"Tsk, don't you also have body temperature?" Lin Muyang raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise, "It's warm, about the same as mine, around thirty-seven degrees, right? Why do you make yourself look like a lifeless porcelain doll all day long?"

Gui Wanwan had not expected him to suddenly do this at all, and she froze instantly, looking bewildered.

Her cheeks, which were pale all year round, quickly flushed with two faint, real blushes at a speed visible to the naked eye.

She struggled a bit, not using much force, her voice carrying a bit of embarrassment: "I, I am of the Ghost Race! Of course I am alive! It, it's just that our Ghost Race has a naturally special constitution, possessing a long lifespan, and... we can just borrow part of the power from the other shore of the Underworld..."

"As long as you are alive, that's fine," Lin Muyang laughed, but he didn't loosen his arm; instead, maintaining this posture, he used his mind to open the detailed description interface of the 【Rapid Growth】 that he had just finished modifying, "Otherwise, it always feels a bit strange."