117: Retreat ends

Lin Yu slowly opened his eyes.

The luxurious suite was already a mess.

The expensive carpet was scorched with large black marks from the overflowing energy, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of elemental instability.

But his Sea of Consciousness was clearer and more serene than ever before.

Even with a heaven-defying leveling tool like the Primordial Snap, this period of arduous cultivation had consumed a tremendous amount of his mental energy.

His closed-door training was temporarily over.

With a thought, Lin Yu brought up his skill panel.

Rows of skill icons, originally just white, blue, or even gold, now had a multitude of dazzling and mysterious red glows.

“Light of Redemption (Primordial)”

“Stone Shield (Primordial)”

“Slow (Primordial)”

“Blink (Primordial)”

...These basic or advanced skills, after countless iterations of proficiency, had undergone a fundamental qualitative change in their effects.

The instant-cast Primordial-tier Light of Redemption contained such vast and boundless life energy that it could forcibly drag a dying person, on their last breath, back from the underworld, and it was even more stable and controllable than the previous self-detonating Vitality Nourishment.

The Primordial-tier Slow was no longer just a simple reduction in enemy speed; instead, it could warp the flow of time within a small area, plunging enemies into a stagnant hell where time was infinitely stretched.

And the Primordial-tier Blink allowed him to instantly move within a thousand-meter range, ignoring spatial laws, almost equivalent to a short-distance spatial jump.

But this was not his biggest gain from this closed-door training session.

His attention finally landed on two brand new, equally powerful skills that had reached the Primordial tier.

“Divine Corpse Armor (Primordial)”

This was a purely defensive and melee skill.

Once actively activated, a set of grim battle armor, composed of pure energy and shimmering with divine radiance, would instantly cover his entire body.

Its effects were terrifying.

Firstly, it granted immunity to all known crowd control effects.

Secondly, it provided a massive amount of fixed damage reduction and percentage damage reduction, enough to allow him to tank attacks far exceeding his own level.

Thirdly, and most crucially, this battle armor could, according to his will, condense temporary weapons of any form: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, yue, hooks, forks... all eighteen types of weapons, all-encompassing and all-proficient.

This was the ultimate armament, born for pure slaughter.

However, what truly surprised Lin Yu was the unique passive ability unlocked when this skill ascended to the Primordial tier.

“Clear Mirror, Still Water.”

This was a passive effect.

It granted immunity to all mental attacks, immunity to most basic illusions, and permanently and significantly strengthened his mental stability.

Lin Yu carefully felt his Sea of Consciousness.

It was as solid as an ancient bedrock, as clear as an undisturbed ancient well.

The fatigue and stinging pain, which felt like he could tear apart at any moment due to prolonged use of the million-fold amplification, had vanished without a trace.

In its place was an absolute calm and control.

He even felt that he had completely broken free from his dependence on mental stabilizers.

A purely physical armament skill, its ultimate, peak characteristic, was actually absolute defense on the mental level.

This was truly... a huge unexpected pleasant surprise.

This meant that his biggest weakness had been completely remedied.

Lin Yu's thoughts turned to another skill, an equally interesting existence.

“Eight Desolations Return to Origin (Primordial)”

At first glance, it seemed like an unremarkable all-attribute buff skill.

When activated, it granted a massive damage bonus to various elemental attributes such as wind, fire, lightning, and electricity, while also significantly increasing attack speed and movement speed.

But its most powerful aspect was its ability to freely convert any of Lin Yu's attacks into any attribute he desired.

Light, dark, space, and even spirit.

All attributes, full coverage.

This meant that he no longer had any so-called attribute weaknesses.

No matter what type of enemy he faced, no matter what strange resistances they possessed, he could instantly find a way to counter their attacks.

And its Primordial characteristic made Lin Yu somewhat amused.

“Footprints in Snow, No Trace.”

This was also a passive effect.

Effect one: Greatly increased movement speed out of combat.

Effect two: Granted a permanent “Stealth” effect, making him extremely difficult to detect by detection skills.

Effect three: When walking on any terrain, he would not trigger trap-type skills, and could even be immune to some environmental damage.

Effect four: Provided a massive effect bonus to all stealth and assassination skills.

A furious combat skill that encouraged practitioners to directly engage in frontal assaults and unleash myriad elemental changes.

Its ultimate destiny, however, was to teach one how to be a top-tier 'old six'—to engage in sneak attacks and assassinations.

The skill tree was indeed a bit skewed.

It also gave Lin Yu more to think about; this skill system was probably not as simple as he imagined.

Lin Yu closed the skill panel and slowly stood up from the messy floor.

His character attribute panel showed no change in the numbers representing strength, constitution, and spirit.

But he knew very well that his overall strength was more than ten times greater than before his closed-door training.

“Origin · Vitality Nourishment.”

“Primordial · Stone Shield.”

“Primordial · Clear Mirror, Still Water.”

“Primordial · Divine Corpse Armor.”

With four layers of protection stacked, Lin Yu even had the confidence to stand still and let an army bombard him with heavy firepower without suffering the slightest harm.

This was absolute defense.

And with “Primordial · Slow,” a snap of his fingers could create an absolute slow field covering thousands of meters, from which no one could escape.

Area-of-effect crowd control, check.

The combination of “Primordial · Blink” and “Footprints in Snow, No Trace” brought his mobility to an incredible level.

If he wanted to leave, probably no one in this world could stop him.

Mobility, check.

The dual enhancement of “Eight Desolations Return to Origin” and “Divine Corpse Armor” could instantly boost his basic damage to a terrifying level.

Attack amplification, also check.

Now, he was an all-around hexagonal warrior with no blind spots.

The only regret...

Lin Yu's fingertips gently tapped the armrest, making a rhythmic sound.

He still lacked some sufficiently powerful offensive skills that could fully unleash the amplified power of “Eight Desolations Return to Origin” and “Divine Corpse Armor.”

He also lacked a truly hard crowd control skill that could instantly strip enemies of their ability to act.

Though “Slow” was powerful, it was ultimately just “slow,” not “imprisonment.”

However, there was no rush for these things.

Lin Yu slowly stood up, feeling the surging yet docile power within him, almost overflowing.

He was very eager to fight now.