The Strongest Talent Tree

Feng Hao nodded in satisfaction, studying Three-second Fire seriously. He asked, "So, uh, how many Magic Souls would it take to evolve you to your intermediate form?"

"Not many, not many. Just two or three thousand," Three-second Fire said with a pout.

"..." Feng Hao was instantly speechless.

’Is it kidding me? Magic Souls are rare treasures. An ordinary person would be lucky to get one or two. But this little guy just casually asks for two or three thousand. Where the hell am I supposed to get that many?’

’I was thinking about investing some money to try evolving it to the intermediate form, but it looks like I’ll have to forget about it for now.’

Although he could afford two or three thousand Magic Souls with his current assets, they weren’t something you could just conjure out of thin air. You needed not only the money but also a supplier, and you couldn’t buy many through normal channels.

Unless he went and robbed all the major sects, gathering two or three thousand Magic Souls was just a daydream.

But then again, Three-second Fire really lived up to the name "Fire Seed." He had previously assumed the damage listed in its stats was the total over three seconds, but he never expected it to be the damage *per second*.

’32,540 fire damage per second... that’s pretty impressive.’

Putting everything else aside, based on Feng Hao’s current health, he’d be dead after getting burned for just two seconds.

...

After settling things with Three-second Fire, Feng Hao and Yao Girl got intimate. Three-second Fire was kicked out of the bedroom to go play happily with Xiaohai.

The next day, early in the morning, Feng Hao was woken by excited shouting.

"Xiaofeng, oh, Xiaofeng! You really weren’t kidding! The tickets for the Five Provinces Theater show sold out last night!" Qian Sanduo was grinning from ear to ear. "You have no idea how many people pulled strings to find me last night, just for one ticket! Haha! After all these years in the Thief God Hall, this is the first time I’ve ever seen those high-and-mighty types come begging me for a favor."

"Is that so?" Feng Hao gave a faint smile. To be honest, this was all within his expectations.

Qian Sanduo nodded excitedly. "Right, what’s our next step? Should we add more shows? At the current ticket price, we could recoup our costs in just five more performances."

"No, no, no. The rarer something is, the more it piques people’s curiosity." Feng Hao shook his head with a smile. "Our top priority right now is to make sure next week’s show is perfect and, while we’re at it, add some more fuel to the fire."

Qian Sanduo’s eyes lit up as he quickly understood Feng Hao’s meaning. He asked, "How do we add that fuel?"

"Here’s the plan. First, find a group of shills to spread the word. Have them hype up how incredible the show is—the more they exaggerate, the better." Feng Hao said with a wicked grin. "Also, find another group of shills who ’bought’ tickets and have them show off at all the major venues. Then, have them drive up the ticket prices like crazy. The goal is to create the feeling that a single ticket is priceless and impossible to get."

"Er... are people really that gullible?" Qian Sanduo asked, looking stunned.

Feng Hao nodded meaningfully. "Trust me. There are always more idiots in this world than smart people. And even among the smart ones, plenty of them will pretend to be idiots."

"Alright then. I’ll go make the arrangements," Qian Sanduo said with a thoughtful nod and turned to leave.

After seeing Qian Sanduo off, Feng Hao began to focus on his cultivation.

After waking up, Xi Yueyao couldn’t sit still for a moment. She drove her Bumblebee to the academy, taking Xiaohai and Three-second Fire with her.

With no one to disturb him, Feng Hao’s cultivation progressed steadily.

Aided by the Life Spirit Pill and a Level 4 Magic Crystal, his cultivation speed was extremely fast. By evening, he had successfully broken through to level 41.

After this breakthrough, Feng Hao began to adjust the allocation of his Gene Points. He spent all ten points at once, putting them into his Strength Root.

Not only that, but Feng Hao planned to allocate all his Gene Points to the Strength Root until he reached level 50.

That way, by level 50, his Strength Growth Value would be exactly 150 base points. Afterward, it would naturally increase by 1 point per level, reaching 200 base points at level 100—enough to meet the Strength requirement for [Light Weapon Specialization].

After allocating his points, Feng Hao specifically checked his Root data on the game panel. So far, the Growth Values for his ten Roots were as follows:

Strength: 51

Divine Sense: 41

Meridians: 214

Physique: 83

Spirituality: 41

Sinews: 41

Tenacity: 41

Agility: 121

Perception: 81

Stealth: 114

Although the return from investing 100 Gene Points into the Strength Root was small, if he could activate the [Light Weapon Specialization] talent, the payoff would be far greater than the maximum benefit those 100 points could otherwise provide.

Besides, Feng Hao wasn’t lacking in damage output right now, so this small loss was nothing to him.

’The Meridian Root definitely needs to reach 500 base points, and Agility needs to be at least 300. At my current rate, I’ll have 500 Gene Points left after level 50. Of those, 227 will go to Meridians and 120 to Agility, leaving 153.’

’From that 153, I still need to give 50 points to Perception, which means only 103 points will be left for the Stealth Root. The final Stealth Growth Value will be 226, which isn’t even enough to activate its second-stage effect.’

At this thought, Feng Hao’s head started to ache. ’Should I just reallocate the points for Perception to Stealth? No, no, that’s only 50 points. It’s still not enough to reach 300 base points.’

’Sigh, if only I could take back the Gene Points I already put into the Physique Root,’ Feng Hao thought with a wry smile.

And this was just the current situation. If he awakened or grafted other attribute-based talents in the future, his plan would need even more adjustments.

No wonder the Thief Master told him to plan ahead back then. Looking at it now, his stat allocation was already a bit of a mess.

He wouldn’t be able to fix it unless he reached level 100, achieved Enlightenment, and obtained Enlightenment Gene Points. But Level 100 Enlightenment was still a long way off. Besides, even reaching level 100 didn’t guarantee he would get those points. After all, Enlightenment was a mysterious thing.

Some people remained stuck at level 100 for their entire lives without ever achieving Enlightenment, while others succeeded shortly after reaching it.

In short, there was no definite timeline for Enlightenment. It could take a year, or it could take a hundred years.

This meant that for a long time before his Level 100 Enlightenment, Feng Hao would be at a disadvantage due to his stat allocation. This was something he didn’t want to see, and something he couldn’t accept.

’Are you kidding me? A top-tier gaming expert messing up his stat points? If word got out, people would laugh their heads off!’

’Damn it, if only I could respec,’ Feng Hao grumbled to himself.

Unfortunately, it was just a fleeting thought. After all, reality wasn’t a game; there was no such thing as a respec. Even the original "Mage" game hadn’t had a feature like that.

’Oh well, what’s done is done.’

Feng Hao sighed helplessly. He glanced at the sky outside and decided to head to the academy to check on Yao Ying’s training and pick up Yao Girl.

But just as he got downstairs, he heard a series of three fast and three slow knocks on the door, and he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

’Well, looks like business is here again.’ Feng Hao shook his head in resignation and went to open the shop door.

Three lavishly dressed, middle-aged men stood outside, their faces full of knowing smiles. Upon seeing Feng Hao, their eyes filled with respect. "Little brother, we’re back. Dare we ask if you have any good new films recently?"