Chapter 218: New Member! Hongye's Talent!

"Luo!"

While Qin Chuan used up his personal points, Yue Li's call came from the other side.

Seeing Yue Li waving from afar, Qin Chuan walked over with a smile, "What's up?"

"I chatted briefly with Hongye and decided to recruit her as the guild's fifth member," Yue Li said with a smile. "What do you think?"

"Your opinion is my opinion." Qin Chuan spoke without hesitation.

"Okay." Yue Li nodded and proactively sent a guild invitation to Hongye.

Not long after, a line of text appeared in the guild channel.

【Player Hongye joined the guild】

Tie Chui, who had just finished his exclusive subjugation, strode over with Yi Fu Lin, gave Hongye an enthusiastic smile, and said, "Welcome to the guild—from now on we're companions."

"Wel~come~you~" Yi Fu Lin spoke in somewhat awkward Chinese, her gaze toward Hongye also kind, since they had gotten along pleasantly over the past two hours.

"Thanks, everyone!" Feeling the guild members' enthusiasm, Hongye blushed and said, "I'll definitely work hard to catch up to everyone's strength!"

At this stage, she is the weakest member of Luo Yue Guild.

Tie Chui, also an official-rank player, at least has two spirit beasts, while Hongye has only one.

"Hongye, Luo Yue is a second‑tier guild; compared to first‑tier guilds it has some new functions you can explore," Yue Li said softly, then gave Qin Chuan a look.

The two walked aside in tacit understanding, and Qin Chuan lowered his voice: "What's up?"

"Our luck is pretty good," Yue Li said with a bright smile. "We turned down a player with a red talent, yet the new member who joined also has a red talent."

"Oh?" Qin Chuan raised an eyebrow, glanced at Hongye not far away discussing the guild's new functions with Tie Chui, and asked, "Is Hongye also a red‑talent holder?"

"Yes, and she just recently broke through to official‑rank player without telling anyone at Long Men Camp," Yue Li said, her smile deepening. "If the people at Long Men Camp found out, we'd definitely lose out to the Special Affairs Group."

Qin Chuan was speechless.

Although he has a cooperative relationship with the Special Affairs Group, in the matter of recruiting guild members they are also competitors.

Hongye, this slipped‑through‑the‑net fish, happened to be in Long Men Camp—the place he chose for picking up items—and coincidentally she didn't pick any of the 26 guilds inside Long Men Camp, instead coming straight to Luo Yue Guild…

All we can say is, letting Yue Li handle the interview was absolutely the right call.

"Although I didn't ask Hongye about her specific talent, she volunteered the information," Yue Li said with a narrowed‑eye smile. "Red Talent·Ling Pan."

"Huh?" Qin Chuan's face instantly showed surprise. "It's actually this talent."

Since the Dream World's descent, over two months have passed; even the strongest golden talent cannot fully conceal its mysterious veil, let alone red and lower‑rank players' talents.

After all, these talents can be drawn repeatedly, and multiple people can possess them at the same time.

Even if you stay hidden, other players who drew the same talent as you might expose it.

By now, simply telling others the name of your talent basically means its effect is already known.

Red talents number 32 in total.

These talents differ in focus, but their overall strength is comparable.

However, a few of these talents have large strength fluctuations—sometimes they seem absurdly strong, other times they seem ridiculously weak.

Ling Pan is one of them.

Its first talent effect is a buff: it lets a designated spirit beast gain a species value equal to the highest‑species‑value spirit beast among the user's contracted spirit beasts, with a maximum increase of up to 100% of the target spirit beast's species value, lasting 5 minutes and cooling down for 10 minutes.

Its second talent effect is a debuff: it can reduce a designated spirit beast's species value to match the lowest‑species‑value spirit beast among the user's contracted spirit beasts, with a maximum reduction of up to 50% of the target spirit beast's species value, lasting 5 minutes and cooling down for 10 minutes.

Its strength depends entirely on the power gap between the target and the user, fluctuating greatly.

For the first talent: if the user is weaker than the designated spirit beast, the effect is zero; if the user is far stronger, it can directly double the designated spirit beast's species value.

For the second talent: if the user is stronger than the designated spirit beast, the effect is zero; if the user is far weaker, it can directly halve the designated spirit beast's species value.

In unsuitable situations it can even be worse than the worst white talent, but in suitable situations its strength is not much weaker than a golden talent.

"Yeah, this talent is really not bad," Yue Li chuckled, then sighed. "Too bad talents can't be used in secret realms."

Whether it's Shen Zhu's third‑talent effect that nullifies equipment affixes, or Ling Pan's current powerful debuff that halves species value, neither works in secret realms.

Otherwise, if we teamed up these two, not to mention an A‑rank 1‑star secret realm, even an A‑rank 5‑star secret realm would be a breeze.

"No problem," Qin Chuan laughed. "Even if we can't use it now, we'll surely have a chance to use it in the future."

Player talent, as one of the most important abilities for a player, will not so easily become useless.

"That's right," Yue Li nodded.

When the two turned their heads again, Hongye had already disappeared from Tie Chui's side.

After learning the relevant rules of the exclusive subjugation, the eager‑to‑try her began her first attempt.

Coincidentally, Qin Chuan had something he needed to ask Tie Chui to do, and it wasn't convenient to let Hongye know about it yet.

"Tie Chui, could you help me with equipment enhancement?" Qin Chuan, accompanied by Shui Hua, strode over to Tie Chui and pulled out nine enhancement stones from the equipment menu.

In yesterday's attempt, Shui Hua's existing equipment affix Cang Zong had risen from Star‑Mist level 9 to Moon‑Halo level 1.

Doing the math, only nine more enhancements are needed to reach Moon‑Halo level 10.

Although it sounds absurd, with Shen Zhu and Qi Ming's support, that's exactly the case.

Yue Li immediately clasped her hands together and used today's second effect of Qi Ming.

"No problem," Tie Chui laughed, took the enhancement stones from Qin Chuan's hand, and, just like yesterday, pressed one hand onto Shui Hua's Flowing Shape Water Crown.

A golden enhancement formation appeared in mid‑air; Tie Chui crushed one enhancement stone, instantly turning it into a golden hammer that smashed down onto the Flowing Shape Water Crown.

【Congratulations, player successfully enhanced equipment; the Flowing Shape Water Crown's affix Vast Vertical (Moon‑Halo 1) has been enhanced to Vast Vertical (Moon‑Halo 2)】

【Vast Vertical (Moon‑Halo 2): Attribute Control increased 114%】

In the Star‑Mist stage, each level up raises Attribute Control by 6%; in the Moon‑Halo stage, each level up raises it by 12%, effectively doubling.

Another eight hammer strikes later, Vast Vertical reached Moon‑Halo level 10.

【Vast Vertical (Moon‑Halo 10): Attribute Control increased 210%】

"Can't continue," Tie Chui regrettably withdrew his hand, "the display shows we've reached the current tier's equipment affix limit."

"Enough." Qin Chuan was in high spirits.

These past two days, after conquering three A-rank 1-star secret realms, he and Yue Li together obtained one self-selected item and four random Moon Halo equipment materials.

Yue Li gave the self-selected item to him, taking only two random ones.

Plus the three pieces exchanged from the shop, he now has six Moon Halo equipment materials.

Tomorrow, he will be able to gather nine pieces.

(End of chapter)