Lord of Enigma

In the room by the window on the second floor, Tang Qi watched Stana leave.

The tall and beautiful female sergeant had secretly stolen and hid two of his furnace bullets. Of course, Tang Qi knew about this right from the start.

When the Dugong sea monster first launched its sneak attack, Tang Qi took the sergeant to hide under the table, quickly devising his strategy. He had just made nine furnace bullets. Six were inserted into Blood Python No.1, and the rest went to Stana.

The shot that bought them some time consumed one.

The remaining two naturally ended up in Stana's hands.

Furnace bullets were very precious. After all, it was produced by soaking it in his fresh blood. But to use it for goodwill and as a form of preparation for his subsequent plans, it was worth it.

What Tang Qi really cared about was the treasure map that he used to send Stana away.

[Mysterious Object: Treasure Map of the Confessor]

[Information Fragment 1: This is a map depicting the monasteries and churches built by one of the twelve saints, Holy Confessor Martin Smith. It is rumored that a certain monastery contains Smith's legacy. This treasure map which was soaked in the holy water of the Holy Light Church may have a chance to activate that legacy.]

Whoever saw this information fragment would know that this was a precious treasure map.

However, Tang Qi sent it away without hesitation for a simple reason.

Apart from the first information fragment, there was another.

[Information Fragment 2: This map is numbered 42 and can be sensed.]

This was why Tang Qi sent the map away despite knowing that the map was real.

A numbered treasure map?

Even a simple person could detect something was wrong.

Moreover, Tang Qi immediately smelled the trace of a conspiracy.

At this point, he already had a vague deduction.

Perhaps the legacy of that confessor was hidden within the Holy Thorns High School.

Apart from the treasure map, the more important evidence was the diary.

The diary of Old Morgan clearly recorded the incident of his mother, a strong practitioner of high-level black sorcery, who almost fell from a high spot when she was exploring Thorns High.

Unfortunately, knowing this was not very useful to Tang Qi.

In fact, as early as the first day of enrollment, Tang Qi had been following Pastor Simbani, roaming around the campus on the pretense of renting a house. Among the possible places he had visited were the church and the history showroom of the school.

Unfortunately, he found nothing.

This was nothing usual. Tang Qi believed that a legendary power would not be found easily.

After all, in various legends and records, the fighting power of the Holy Confessor, from what Tang Qi understood, was probably similar to that of gods.

After seeing the numbered map now, Tang Qi was more certain.

He was sure that there must be more than one person or force looking for the legacy of the confessor.

Behind this, there might be a huge web of conspiracy that was slowly expanding, and the people dominated by greed would be trapped by it, unable to free themselves.

However, he was not in it.

Tang Qi quietly thought to himself.

After Stana left, Tang Qi completely relinquished the first floor to the police who were here to clean up the mess and moved some of his more important things along with the workbench to the study on the second floor.

Before what happened tonight, Tang Qi would have normally performed his daily practice and then manufactured bullets after that.

But it was different now.

In addition to those two supernatural battle loot, Tang Qi would need time to slowly digest his harvest from the Dugong sea monster.

Putting everything away, Tang Qi placed a little warning on the stairs of the second floor and locked the door. He then directly entered into a state of cultivation.

The order of Tang Qi's practice, naturally, was to perform the Golden Furnace Meditation Method first. This was his only option before he gained other cultivation methods. Its majestic spiritual power gave Tang Qi a clear mind and continuously increased the power of Furnace's Eyes.

For the remaining methods, Tang Qi was still trying to get a feel for them.

The second was the Chaga Fighting Technique. However, in order to make rapid progress, he would need to go through actual battles.

As usual, for the meditation method which had become a skill, Tang Qi could simply immerse himself in it with just a single thought.

The outline of the golden sun that was produced by thought hung in the dark void as all kinds of strange and unusual things surged forth like moths to flames. They were then burned by the golden flames into golden ashes which entered into the gray foggy space in Tang Qi's mind.

It was like this since the beginning and was no different from his past practice.

According to this routine, after an hour, Tang Qi would feel the burning sting in his mind. That was the time he had to stop his practice.

However, it was different this time.

An hour later, Tang Qi did not feel the sting. Instead, an unexpected change materialized in his mind.

Boom!

Suddenly, Tang Qi's practice routine was broken by a surge of strange and unusual light.

When practicing meditation, Tang Qi would see all kinds of strange apparitions, such as black mist, roaring beast shadows, and strange seas of flowers… Although it was different every time, their numbers were maintained at a certain level.

But this time, that level skyrocketed.

The previous cultivation experience could be described as followed: A sun, which was Tang Qi's embodiment, would hang in an enclosed space, with only a little gap that opened up to the strange universe. Those strange apparitions would pour in through that gap.

However, that gap has expanded now.

The number of strange apparitions that gushed forth was twice as much as in the past.

In an instant, Tang Qi felt as if he had fallen into the black hole of time and space. He saw the strange apparitions of the past and also saw more and more frightening apparitions such as twisted auroras, blood-drenched giant mouths, wriggling tentacles, tempting whispers… Any one of them could strike fear into ordinary people and make them scream wildly.

Although he experienced a sudden change, Tang Qi knew very well that he could not scream, let alone fall into fear. Otherwise, the consequences would be very serious.

Tang Qi tried his best to stay calm. He imagined that he was a primitive youth in ancient times. He held a stone, and his fingers were stained with golden muddy water. He made several strokes, sketching a dazzling pattern, and looked up from time to time to feel that warmth and that scorching heat.

Following his gestures, the golden sun in the dark void suddenly spewed more golden flames. They had a kind of innocent contour, primitive and natural, burning all the monsters that were rushing over into nothingness, leaving only fluttering ashes of golden light.

Bang~bang bang.

Tang Qi did not notice that the mental space in his mind began to expand again. The number of golden spots that were floating like fireflies in the gray foggy space unknowingly increased by more than half.

When he woke up after experiencing that stinging sensation, a ray of sunlight fell on him.

Another night had passed?

Tang Qi was surprised and immediately looked at his sea of spirit.

The expanding area of golden light spots immediately reflected in his eyes. The fight that caused him to suffer heavy injuries last night did not have any long-lasting undesirable effects. Rather, it had improved his abilities.

At this moment, he was full of energy and could feel it without looking at the mirror. He was afraid that his eyes could even give off light.

As he retracted his gaze and looked at himself, a special interface displaying personal attributes appeared.

The skill column produced another change.

It still had three skills: Golden Furnace Meditation Method, Furnace's Eyes, and Chaga Fighting Technique.

But as Tang Qi's gaze swept across, detailed information immediately jumped out

[Furnace's Eye: Derived skill, activated by eyes, possesses stunning and tranquilizing effects, can continue to improve. Stage: Elementary, Progress 0.1%.]

[Chaga Fighting Technique: Primitive ancient fighting technique. Stage: Elementary, Progress 0.15%]

These two skills were the same as before.

What really shocked Tang Qi was his main skill, the meditation method.

As he glanced through it, what jumped out prominently was:

[Golden Furnace Meditation Method: Extremely ancient meditation method, it can provide you power beyond imagination. Stage: Elementary, Progress 0.3%. ]

The progress had directly increased by 0.2%.

This was the result of just one night of cultivation.

Before consuming the Dugong sea monster, Tang Qi had practiced hard and even swallowed the vengeful soul of the Visage Canine. Yet, his progress was only 0.01%.

After devouring the sea monster, his progress had increased by 20 times.

After last night's practice, it went up by another progress point; thus, it was not surprising that Tang Qi was amazed.

At this time, Tang Qi had an impulse to take a break from school and put all his efforts towards his practice.

Luckily, logic and reason suppressed the idea.

In his mind, he recalled the scenes last night when he practiced the Meditation Method. Those strange apparitions that surged forth made Tang Qi vaguely understand something, feeling like a thread of a heavy idea that unknowingly crept up.

"As I progress further into this Meditation Method, the rewards will be greater, but it will be more dangerous as well?"

"Or could it be that the huge changes in this world cause it to become like this?"

"That time, had I succumbed to fear, what would I encounter…?"

Tang Qi did not make a guess, but he knew that if he fell into fear and confusion during meditation, he would definitely encounter something terrible.