277: Chapter 277 Deceiving Xiao Guang

Nie Ning returned to the city and checked into a new inn.

He placed Xiaoguang on the bed and, recalling the events that had just transpired, many illogical things flooded his mind.

"Are those above the Seventh Rank really that powerful?"

Nie Ning could not help but furrow his brows.

Although he did not know who the Bone Soul King was, the mere ability to manipulate the emotions of the Transcendent beings in the city was a feat far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

As for that Belen, he was very likely the Seventh Rank wizard of the Yishi Mansion.

Nie Ning took a deep breath, feeling quite a headache coming on.

"Forget it, time to sleep. I will think about it tomorrow."

He was truly too weak right now and needed a good sleep to relieve the stress on his body and mind.

Before long, Nie Ning fell into a deep sleep.

Seeing this, Xiaoguang jumped onto the windowsill and looked up at the moon in the night sky...

...

This sleep lasted for two full days.

Over the next month, Nie Ning barely stepped outside.

Every day was spent in the inn recovering from his injuries, while also boosting the energy within his second god-forbidden ring and researching the Brand Witchcraft needed for his promotion.

Because the Brand Witchcraft had been modified so many times, it differed significantly from conventional witchcraft.

While it looked like a single spell, it was actually more like an elemental fusion device.

The last modification had been done together with Heloise.

Now that Heloise was gone, he had to complete the experimental steps on his own.

Thinking of Heloise, Nie Ning felt a twinge of discomfort in his heart.

Although they often bickered, Heloise had been a great help to him, and without her, he had to do many things alone.

He was no genius, and he did not have that much energy.

Compared to the wizards in the city, aside from his faster cultivation speed, he had almost no advantages at all.

There was even a huge discrepancy in the wizard knowledge he had learned.

In this world, the saying "knowledge is power" was not just a figure of speech.

It looked like he only needed to maintain his cultivation speed, but in reality, he had a lot to keep busy with.

Not to mention the Brand Witchcraft, his cultivation as a Rune Knight had also reached its peak.

Rune Knights had specific requirements when it came to choosing runes.

Because he had never learned it systematically, Nie Ning did not even know which runes could be used on a human body.

"It seems I still need to find a helper."

Nie Ning looked at the books on the table and scratched his head in distress.

What was worse was that Sensen and Heloise were both gone.

Given Sensen's learning talent, if trained well, it would definitely be a great asset.

Just then, Nie Ning caught a glimpse of Xiaoguang basking in the sun on the balcony.

Xiaoguang, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly felt a chill down its spine.

It looked up and saw Nie Ning staring at it with a strange expression.

"Annoying human!"

Xiaoguang rolled over, intending to go back to sleep.

But at that moment, a pair of hands grabbed Xiaoguang and lifted it up.

"Beautiful exotic girl, are you interested in learning witchcraft and becoming a Transcendent exotic that everyone looks up to?"

Nie Ning's seductive voice rang in Xiaoguang's ear.

In reality, exotic beasts could also practice witchcraft, but because their own magic power was too violent, ordinary Runic Formulas could not support it.

Additionally, the Spiritual Power of exotic beasts was relatively chaotic, and their control over Spiritual Power was inferior to that of wizards.

Therefore, if one wanted an exotic beast to learn witchcraft, it required the beast to have a smart brain and for the witchcraft to be appropriately modified.

There was one final step.

By utilizing the exotic beast's special constitution to engrave the spell into its bloodline, that was the origin of bloodline skills.

Upon hearing this, Xiaoguang gave a disdainful look, opened its mouth, and fired a small light explosion at Nie Ning's face, blasting his face completely black.

"I don't need it!"

It already possessed bloodline spells, which it could master as its strength grew.

"Do you have no ambition?"

Nie Ning shook the Xiaoguang in his hands, looking sincere: "If you continue like this, you can at most grow to the Sixth Rank. You are so smart, you should know the difficulty of bloodline promotion."

Hearing this, a thoughtful look appeared in Xiaoguang's eyes.

Recently, it had seen quite a few wizards, so it naturally understood matters regarding bloodlines; in fact, such information was even encoded within its bloodline.

When a bloodline reached its limit, one could either purify the existing bloodline or trace the bloodline back to its source.

Although they seemed similar, the former strengthened oneself, but the future changes would not be too great.

Tracing the bloodline source meant advancing into a superior form of the exotic beast of one's own bloodline.

"But what does this have to do with learning witchcraft?"

Xiaoguang looked at Nie Ning with slanted eyes.

Seeing this, Nie Ning smiled slightly: "Think about it, if you take the path of purifying your bloodline, you must strengthen your existing spells."

"Instead of slowly comprehending them in the future, why not start learning runic knowledge directly now?"

Xiaoguang curled its lip: "Then wouldn't it be better if I just go straight to tracing the bloodline source?"

"Actually, I don't think either of those paths suits you."

Nie Ning suddenly said in a mysterious, rambling tone.

Hearing this, a look of confusion appeared in Xiaoguang's eyes.

"Why not focus all your potential on shapeshifting during your next advancement?"

"When you transform into a human form, with your intelligence, if you take the path of a wizard, it will definitely have more potential than simply following the bloodline path."

Nie Ning's true intentions were revealed, but he forced himself to explain with a kind smile.

Exotic beasts could shapeshift, but they needed to be at least Third Rank or higher.

Normally, exotic beasts would not consider this because their brains did not meet the requirements for shapeshifting.

Only those with good brains who were at their wits' end would choose this path.

Just as he said, bloodlines had limits, similar to how wizards could not break through bottlenecks; in such situations, exotic beasts might choose to take the path of shapeshifting.

...

After hearing Nie Ning's words, especially the phrase 'with your intelligence', Xiaoguang actually began to think about it seriously.

Now she was still young, and taking the path of shapeshifting was indeed not bad.

Especially after witnessing the power of human wizards earlier.

If she only followed the bloodline path, her potential would eventually run out one day, and it would be difficult to improve further at that point.

Seeing that Xiaoguang was wavering, Nie Ning began whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

He instilled all sorts of benefits of becoming a wizard, while omitting any mention of downsides, such as how easily wizards died.

Shapeshifting meant the physical body would become weaker; without physical support, one had to find a way to stabilize the violent crystal core energy, which would, to a certain extent, weaken the abilities one originally possessed.

Of course, one could change back, which was equivalent to having dual forms.

However, shapeshifting would consume one's own potential, making it difficult to recover, and one might even fall into a 'weakened' state for a long time.

Furthermore, it was useless for dull-witted exotic beasts to shapeshift; they could only follow paths like the Knight path which relied on the physical body.

But if one was only going to follow the physical path, then why bother shapeshifting?

...