leonardwarren Chapter 86 The Mysterious Pocket Watch, Changes in the North District
Chapter 86 The Mysterious Pocket Watch, Changes in the North District
Chapter 86 The Mysterious Pocket Watch, Changes in the North District
The night was deep and dark, and the moonlight was like water.
Lin Ze didn't return to his apartment until late at night.
The moment I opened the door and stepped into the living room, the Winter Solstice, the Awakening of Insects, and the Frost's Descent all turned to look at me.
Lin Ze's gaze first fell on Dong Zhi.
The latter was standing in front of the balcony, the bright moonlight shining on him, which made him look even more noble and mysterious.
Even though she had just gone through a fierce battle during the day, Dongzhi had no wounds or dirt on her body, and exuded an aristocratic elegance and poise.
A satisfied smile flashed in Lin Ze's eyes.
The battle during the day had already proven Count Scarlet's strength.
Even when facing two level 6 professionals working together, including Qin Lie, who was at the peak of level 6, Dong Zhi still completely crushed them.
From this perspective, the Winter Solstice undoubtedly possesses combat power comparable to level 7.
This is just the beginning. Once the other four attributes reach level 6, even ordinary level 7 professionals will probably be no match for Dongzhi.
"It's a pity that Qin Lie and Tong Linyuan were still a bit too weak and couldn't fully test the combat power of the Crimson Avatar."
Lin Ze felt a little regretful, but when the light fell on the mountain of storage marks piled up on the coffee table in the living room, his mood immediately brightened.
"What a bountiful harvest!"
He immediately began to take stock of the spoils.
Besides the spoils seized from the corpses, everything in the Blood Eagle warehouse was also emptied by Jingzhe and Shuangjiang.
All that was left for the Northern District Detachment was ruins.
After taking stock, the most numerous spoils were, unsurprisingly, various extraordinary materials.
However, the quantity was much less than what was seized during the Gangquan era.
That's normal, since Bloodhawk doesn't control an entire instance like Gangfist does.
Secondly, there were cards. The number was also nearly half less than back when it was Gangquan, but the quality gave Lin Ze a pleasant surprise.
More than twenty excellent-grade cards!
The vast majority of them came from the cliff.
"As expected of the number one guild in Crimson Lotus City, each and every one of them is incredibly wealthy."
Lin Ze nodded secretly.
As far as he knew, Cliff had more than one copy.
With such abundant dungeon resources, their card reserves naturally far exceed those of other guilds.
Members also find it easier to acquire cards than other guilds.
Moreover, the group that came this time consisted of elite members of the Cliff, including cadres and candidates for the highest rank, so it's not surprising that they seized a lot of spoils.
These twenty-odd high-quality cards alone are already a great harvest.
More importantly, there were two of them that he needed.
The first one is [Psionic Expansion]
Excellent-grade talent cards.
The effect is to greatly expand the range of psionic extension.
It is a very useful talent for spiritual seekers or similar professions.
However, for Lin Ze, the greatest value of this talent lies in the fact that it is one of the core talents for synthesizing psionic echoes.
The prerequisite talents for advancing to the Infinite Blade Spirit include Psionic Echo and Long-Range Slash.
Both are of the highest caliber, and given Lin Ze's current situation, he will most likely only be able to obtain them through talent synthesis.
The prerequisite talents for synthesizing psionic echoes are psionic expansion (excellent), precise perception (excellent), and energy vision (excellent).
Now we've completed one-third of it all at once.
The second image is about [kinetic energy transfer].
It is also a high-quality talent card.
The effect is to master special power-generating techniques, which allow the force of a slash to be transmitted through a weapon or energy medium, transferring some of the power without direct contact.
This talent has rather limited uses.
This is generally needed by professionals who have mastered sword aura skills, as it can alleviate the problem that the power of sword aura gradually decreases with distance.
It's worth mentioning that kinetic energy transfer is also one of the core talents for synthesizing long-range slashes.
Kinetic energy transfer, visual anchoring, and air blade extension.
Lin Ze has now acquired two of the three talents for the Synthetic Long-Range Slash.
Only one rare visual anchoring technique remains to be mastered.
"Precise perception, energy vision, and visual anchoring—these are the three talents I'm missing to complete the prerequisites for advancing to the Infinite Sword Spirit realm."
Lin Ze secretly made his plans.
Precision perception and energy vision are alright, they're just excellent-level talents, so they're relatively easy to deal with.
Visual anchoring is much more difficult.
It's not just because visual anchoring is a rare talent, but also because it's very difficult to master through training.
The effect of visual anchoring is that when the gaze is focused on a target, the strike will be automatically corrected and deflected in the direction of the target.
This kind of talent, which is somewhat conceptual, is the most difficult to train.
Moreover, visual anchoring lacks suitable lower-level talent.
Lin Ze estimated that with precision perception and energy vision, it would take at most four or five months to train and master them.
But visual anchoring... it might take two or three years to see any results.
The best way is to acquire the corresponding cards.
However, this method is also quite difficult.
After pondering for a moment without success, Lin Ze shook his head, temporarily putting the matter aside, and used two cards, which increased their attributes a bit more.
Besides these two talent cards, the remaining excellent-grade cards also include many rare and useful ones.
Lin Ze plans to stay, as it might come in handy for future job changes and advancements.
He then sorted and categorized the cards, placing them into a special storage container for storing cards.
With over two hundred more cards added at once, his card collection became much richer.
Next comes the equipment.
It contained both stock from the Bloodhawk warehouse and items seized from corpses.
The former are mostly enchanted weapons mixed with extraordinary materials, with ordinary equipment making up only a very small number, and there are not a single fine-grade one.
From this perspective, Bloodhawk's equipment is clearly far inferior to that of Steel Fist.
This once again proves the importance of dungeons to guilds.
The latter is of much higher quality.
Those weapons that Dongzhi noticed and specially collected and took away were at least ordinary-grade weapons, numbering in the hundreds.
In addition, there are more than ten high-quality weapons.
Most of them came from the cliff.
Lin Ze simply checked the equipment once and then put it away.
Both Frost's Descent and Awakening of Insects already have their own excellent-grade weapons, so unless they get better rare-grade weapons, there's no need to replace them.
As for the Winter Solstice, with the powerful talent of Blood Domination, there's absolutely no need to use weapons.
Lin Ze then took stock of the final spoils, which were the rare items.
The most numerous are naturally the storage marks.
Besides these, there were only two other strange items.
However, their effects did catch Lin Ze's eye.
【Mist Pocket Watch】: Excellent grade. When worn, it has a permanent effect: all prophetic, location-based, and detection skills targeting you will be greatly reduced. The higher the wearer's spirit attribute, the greater the reduction.
The Mist Pocket Watch is an egg-sized bronze pocket watch with a case engraved with blurred stars and distorted clock patterns.
The dial has no numbers, only a constantly changing, unfocused, foggy texture.
The internal movement is silent when it turns, but when you hold it in your hand, you can feel a slight pulsation, like a heartbeat.
This item was found in Qin Lie's storage mark. Lin Ze never expected that Qin Lie had such a good thing in his possession.
It is important to know that there are professionals in this world such as fortune tellers and astrologers who can obtain information about others and even locate their positions by using skills such as divination, astrological observation, and prophecy.
There are quite a few strange objects with similar functions.
For example, the tracking device that Tang Wangyan used to locate him.
Of course, the use of both skills and artifacts is affected by many factors.
For example, the user's own strength, skill quality and level, the quality of the artifact, the target's own profession level and mental attributes...
However, in this world where extraordinary powers exist, hiding one's information is not an easy task.
To shield oneself from others' prying eyes, one must either possess exceptional personal strength or have a unique item or skill with shielding capabilities.
Lin Ze had actually suspected before that his clone might have a remarkable effect in weakening the effects of such spying skills.
Therefore, neither the Northern District branch nor the major guilds were able to pinpoint the location of the clone, let alone the original body.
Even so, Lin Ze still couldn't be completely at ease.
He had long wanted to acquire a rare item that could block spying abilities.
However, such rare items are extremely rare, and they are not even on the internal exchange list of the North District branch, so the goal has not been achieved so far.
But they didn't expect to succeed with Qin Lie.
"As expected of the highest-ranking candidate cadre on the cliff, he certainly has a lot of good stuff at his disposal."
Lin Ze put the pocket watch into his pocket with satisfaction.
With this, both he and his clone can act with greater peace of mind.
He then looked at the second strange object.
【Truth-Telling Incense】: Excellent grade. When lit, it emits a truth-telling fragrance that will put the inhaler into a hallucinatory state, making them honestly answer all questions posed to them.
The appearance of Tuzhen Incense is that of a slender gray incense stick, and when you get close, you can smell a light herbal scent.
The tip of this incense stick has black char marks from burning, indicating that it had been used before and some of it had been consumed.
"A consumable artifact similar to Truth Potion?"
Lin Ze raised an eyebrow.
If nothing unexpected happens, the people from the cliff carry this item with them, probably intending to use it on the person from the Heavenly Time.
They believed that as long as they captured any member of Tianshi, they could extract information about Tianshi by using the True Essence Incense.
What they didn't know was that even if they captured the person, they wouldn't be able to obtain even the slightest bit of information.
They couldn't even get the body.
However, this thing is also quite practical, and it could probably play a significant role in a critical moment.
Lin Ze gladly accepted it and stored it in his storage mark.
After finishing the inventory, he stretched and a genuine smile of joy appeared on his face.
This time the gains were far greater than when Gangfist was destroyed.
The main reason is the addition of the cliff.
Putting everything else aside, those two excellent cards and two rare items alone made his efforts in planning this "fisherman's operation" worthwhile.
Coming back to his senses from his joy, Lin Ze looked at the three clones in front of him.
The power of the Winter Solstice naturally means that the main body and other clones will also become powerful simultaneously.
He can now be said to possess the combined strength of four level 7 combatants.
If we really went all out without any scruples, we might not be without a fighting chance against an 8th-level professional. "This is only a two-star professional. If I and all my clones were to advance to three-star professional status, I estimate that we could fight against opponents two or three levels higher without any problem."
A strong sense of anticipation welled up in Lin Ze's heart.
The Crimson Earl's upgraded three-star class is [Crimson King].
Besides the Crimson Earl, another prerequisite two-star class is the Spirit Contract Master.
However, after thinking for a moment, Lin Ze decided to advance to the next level of the Boundless Sword Spirit.
After all, it concerns the user's combat strength.
The advancement of the Blademaster requires fusion with the Spirit Master class.
But there's no rush. We can prepare after we've met most of the other advanced requirements.
With Lin Ze's current strength and experience, changing to a one-star profession is no longer difficult.
As he grows stronger and accumulates more experience, the difficulty of advancing to a two-star profession will inevitably decrease significantly, so there's no need to rush.
"Just upgrade the attributes and skills required to advance to the next level of the Unbreakable Sword Spirit step by step."
"Regarding prerequisite talents, we will first begin training in precision perception and energy vision."
"As for visual anchoring, we'll figure out a solution later."
Lin Ze then looked at the soul crystal deep within his mind.
Today's battle absorbed a large amount of soul energy.
In particular, the soul energy provided by Qin Lie and Tong Linyuan, both level 6 professionals, increased the solidification progress of the soul crystal by about a quarter.
The soul crystal has now solidified more than halfway, leaving only a small, illusory part.
Lin Ze estimated that as long as he killed two or three more level 5, or more than twenty level 3 or 4 evil professionals, he should be able to solidify completely.
Thinking that he would soon trigger the third soul baptism and obtain a fourth clone, Lin Ze couldn't help but smile.
Although the guild forces in the North District have been wiped out, it is difficult to find large-scale criminal professions anymore, leaving only a few scattered freelancers.
However, it cannot be found in the North District; there are other districts as well.
Just send your clones to other zones to continue hunting.
As for the North District...
Lin Ze's eyes flickered slightly as he fell into deep thought.
From the outside, Tian Shi appears mysterious and unpredictable, possessing a well-established organizational structure and a large workforce.
But only he knew that the actual number of people in Tian Shi was a pitiful four.
Without grassroots support, even if the northern district is pacified, the vacated territory cannot be controlled.
Honestly, Lin Ze was unwilling to hand over the territory he had worked so hard to conquer to the legion or other guilds.
Considering future development, the North District is definitely a must-take.
"We need to find a way to expand the workforce at the grassroots level."
Lin Ze pondered for a while and came up with a plan.
Turning to look out the window, the night was as dark as ink, and moonlight shone through the thin clouds onto the windowsill, spreading a cool halo.
"Such a big thing happened in the North District, I wonder what the branch's reaction is?"
Let's wait and see how things develop.
Turning away from his gaze, Lin Ze walked towards the bedroom.
The next morning.
As soon as it was light, Lin Ze got up and washed up.
After a night's rest, the fatigue from yesterday's fierce battle has been completely gone.
After changing into his military uniform, Lin Ze pushed open the door and went out, intending to fill his stomach first.
However, walking down the familiar breakfast street, he quickly noticed something different.
Compared to the past, there seems to be a more relaxed atmosphere on the streets.
Many people wore relaxed smiles, chatting in twos and threes, their expressions revealing a hint of joy and celebration.
Lin Ze seemed to be deep in thought as he walked into a breakfast shop he frequented.
The restaurant was already quite full, with people eating and chatting in a lively atmosphere.
Sure enough, as soon as he sat down, he heard people at the surrounding tables talking about the destruction of the Blood Eagle.
"When I saw the announcement on the official website this morning, I didn't believe it. I went to the Blood Eagle headquarters to take a look. It has now been taken over by the military. It seems that Blood Eagle is really gone."
"That's great, the security in the North District will definitely be much better from now on."
"I told you those guys in the guild would get their comeuppance sooner or later, and now it's come true."
"The detachment is capable of getting things done. As long as they are willing to take action seriously, wiping out those guilds will be a piece of cake."
"Hehe, you overestimate the detachment. I've heard that it was the right timing that took down those guilds; the detachment was just there for show the whole time."
"Really? Who told you that?"
My uncle's classmate's cousin's boyfriend works in the North District branch of the police force.
'
The topic of the Blood Eagle's destruction has become the hottest topic today.
Although the detachment remained tight-lipped about the role Tian Shi played in the destruction of Blood Eagle, and even ordered its soldiers not to spread the word, given the detachment's control over the northern region, it was impossible to completely suppress the matter.
The relevant information has already been widely circulated.
Standing on the corpses of guilds like Blackrock, Bloodhawk, and Ironfist, Tian Shi's reputation among the people soared to new heights.
Lin Ze calmly finished his breakfast, paid, and left.
As I walked out of the store, I overheard someone behind me sighing.
"No matter who did it, they did a great thing, and we won't have to live in fear anymore."
Lin Ze paused slightly, a smile appearing on his lips.
Indeed, for ordinary people in the North District, the destruction of the guild's power meant the disappearance of oppression and an improvement in their lives.
This was another outcome he hoped to see, besides obtaining soul energy, when he made up his mind to hunt down evil professionals.
The location of the North District Detachment.
Because the main force was still at Blood Eagle headquarters cleaning up the mess, the number of soldiers guarding the gate was reduced by more than half, and the guards were much more relaxed.
However, in the North District now, there is no need to worry about any force attacking the base.
The only force capable of attacking the base is the one that even if the entire detachment were deployed to guard the gate, it wouldn't be enough to stop them.
Upon seeing Lin Ze approaching, the soldiers guarding the gate immediately brightened up, instinctively straightened their bodies, and gave a standard salute.
"Good morning, Team Leader Lin."
'
...Good morning."
Noticing the undisguised admiration and respect in the soldier's eyes, Lin Ze paused slightly and nodded in return.
The leading sergeant even came over and greeted Lin Ze with a big smile.
When he was promoted to warrant officer last time, the sergeant was enthusiastic but still a little reserved. But now he was all smiles and eagerness.
Having finally shaken off the sergeant, Lin Ze breathed a slight sigh of relief and headed towards the office building.
However, he soon discovered that many soldiers were secretly looking at him along the way, their eyes filled with curiosity and amazement.
"Is that Lin Ze, the leader of Group Eight? The one who single-handedly killed the cadre at the cliff yesterday?"
"I heard he's only level 4, yet he managed to kill a level 5 opponent. That's ridiculous."
"Tsk tsk, this strength is comparable to that of the two vice-captains."
"Wow, that's amazing! They're the same age as me, but they're so much better than me. It's so frustrating to compare yourself to others."
Whispers could be faintly heard.
Lin Ze pretended not to hear and quickened his pace toward the office building.
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