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Chapter 165: The Blessing of the Phoenix

Xue Nuo and Charlotte’s argument ended peacefully in the end.

Roy was ready for a full-blown brawl, but he didn’t expect everything to wrap up so smoothly, like a pleasant dream.

Every time he saw the girls getting along—sharing the same room without getting into a fight—Roy couldn’t help but smile like a fool.

As a player of “Angel Dance,” it would be a lie to say he didn’t long for the four female leads.

To be able to date all four of them at the same time? That’s an ending even “Angel Dance” didn’t have!

If this were a game, we’d probably be rolling credits and listening to the ending theme right now.

Unfortunately, reality isn’t a game. There’s no final curtain call.

The imperial royal family still posed a huge threat.

Even though the Winter Empress issued a statement and quickly distanced herself from Wente, even a fool could guess that Wente’s collaboration with the Demon Race and Cultists had the Empress’s backing.

Right now, the academy’s army was stationed at Snow Wind Fortress under the pretense of supporting the defense line, and even the imperial family didn’t dare to risk a mishap at this critical moment, openly opposing all of humanity.

But this was just the calm before the storm.

No border noble believed the royal family had any good intentions. With this mindset, Xue Nuo began to prepare the border army and actively mobilized the entire imperial border for war.

Due to the royal family’s obstruction, Xue Nuo was still just the duke’s heir and hadn’t officially taken office.

In the Winter Empire, every frontier duke needs the current Empress’s acknowledgment.

But what if she didn’t acknowledge it?

After reclaiming Snow Wind Fortress and repelling the Demon Race, Xue Nuo’s prestige as a frontier duke had already taken root in people’s hearts; the title of duke was practically irrelevant.

In a sense, without the achievement of stabilizing the border chaos, Xue Nuo might not be able to consolidate the border forces, but this turmoil had given her a chance to showcase her strength.

With the support of a count and countess from the Andevis family, Xue Nuo didn’t need to worry about governing the border.

While accompanying a few girls, Roy fortunately began to familiarize himself with his new abilities.

From low-tier to mid-tier, there would be a qualitative change in his extraordinary bloodline. Only reaching mid-tier Sequence 6 could he be considered a strong person in the broader sense of Veszyra, said to be worth a thousand men.

And the higher the bloodline rank, the more apparent the enhancement of power with each qualitative change.

For example, Charlotte, in the lower sequence, could barely handle two or three silver-level foes of the same rank at once.

Now, Roy suspected she could take on ten.

Keep in mind that a Sequence 7 cult priest, bolstered by divine power, was far stronger than your average Sequence 6, yet he couldn’t hold out for ten minutes against Charlotte, proving just how absurd golden-level bloodlines were.

In any case, for extraordinary beings, the leap from low-tier to mid-tier was an exhilarating moment!

Still, in reality, he was already strong enough to match mid-tier and had long heard from his dad, Karl, about the capability of Iron Blood; thus his inner excitement was quite limited.

Well, he was still a bit happy.

Iron Blood: Sequence 6

Weapon Projection: Project your weapon into the air, throwing it with your mind or having it orbit around you.

Becoming a Sword: Transform into a beam of sword light, allowing high-speed movement between the projected weapons within your line of sight.

Weapon Projection was a pretty good ability.

It was one of the few ranged attack abilities of Iron Blood; with this skill, he wouldn’t need to toss spears like a caveman anymore!

However, this move had quite limited lethality without the support of Blood Condensation.

Even if it was a mithril longsword, throwing it only meant stabbing once; it couldn’t compete with simply conjuring fireballs, right?

As for Becoming a Sword, moving quickly was great, but the range was evidently limited.

Moreover, fast movement wasn’t teleportation.

Karl once mentioned that he got knocked down by a dragon’s claw while moving.

This skill was a double-edged sword; the upper limit was high, but the lower limit was also low. If you knew how to use it, you’d be a teleporting swordmaster, killing opponents left and right. If not, you’d be like a sheep in front of a tiger—easy prey.

But all things considered, after being promoted to Sequence 6, his strength, stamina, mental energy, reflexes, and extraordinary power had all received significant boosts.

These foundational strengths were what he truly needed.

He was done getting bullied by those mid-tier and high-tier folks!

Anyway, as a silver-level bloodline, Iron Blood’s ceiling was about there. If he really wanted to test extraordinary abilities, he’d need to check out the False King!

False King:

Phoenix Princess’s Blessing:

Weapon Projection: Soul Fire: Materialize your soul power into a weapon, countering spiritual creatures; it can forcibly absorb weaker spiritual beings, devouring their soul power.

Flame of Rebirth: Burn life force to forcibly awaken soul potential. The closer you are to death, the stronger your stamina, mental energy, and extraordinary power become. This burdens both life and soul, and its duration is short.

Soul Fire: The immortal phoenix’s soul fire possesses pure, nature-related power that can burn the souls of opponents, particularly effective against spiritual beings. It can also protect one’s own soul.

Soul Insight: Insight into spiritual beings and soul fluctuations.

Embers Burning the Plain: Can add divine power to a group you acknowledge, activating soul potential and greatly enhancing extraordinary power and mental energy. The number and range of affected individuals depend on bloodline rank.

Phoenix Blade: Fiery Splendor: The apostle’s exclusive divine weapon that ignores physical defenses and has the power to sever souls.

Sunblaze: A blade attack that burns the soul, allowing him to ignore bloodline rank and significantly injure his opponent’s soul.

Just look at what true extraordinary power looks like! This is what extraordinary is!

No need to emphasize the potency of the King’s Blade; while Flame of Rebirth is a double-edged sword, its potential is massive; in a short time, it could even surpass Evil Dragon Blood Armor.

The closer one is to death, the greater Flame of Rebirth’s value; it’s the ultimate trump card in critical moments—what a thrill!

Oh, you think I’m about to kick the bucket? Sorry, I’m still heating up, saving my strength for a big move!

Roy suspected that under Sequence 5 conditions, he might be able to try breaking through into high-tier with this move!

Weapon Projection: Soul Fire and Soul Fire were both offensive and defensive against spiritual beings, allowing him to handle next encounters with those ethereal entities without being caught off guard.

It didn’t have much use in everyday life, but at critical moments, it could turn the tide.

Soul Insight gave him the ability to observe spiritual beings so he wouldn’t have to worry about being sneak-attacked by soul-related attacks anymore. He could also monitor soul fluctuations, which still needed some research to see its usefulness.

If it weren’t for his Phoenix’s Blessing, he wouldn’t have had much of a handle against that Necromancer’s soul attacks back then.

Though Roy felt the guy was just there for laughs, he now felt a bit nervous about it.

But what truly excited him was Embers Burning the Plain.

Not for any other reason, but because it was a group skill!

Soul attack and defense was already a pretty rare ability, but group skills were even more scarce!

As far as Roy knew, only the Holy Light Church possessed similarly extraordinary abilities.

This skill could instantaneously turn the tide on the battlefield! From a tactical perspective, it could easily compare to the King’s Blade!

If he had enough strong allies around him, it would almost equate to a no-cost Flame of Rebirth, helping their strong ones rally back!

In fact, the decisive battle between the Third Era and the Demon Race, as well as the fight against the Undead outside Snow Wind Fortress, had already proven the potency of this ability.

The Sage wasn’t lying to him; the Phoenix’s Blessing was indeed awesome!