Chapter 2716 - 2717: Testing Moves

Originally, Feng Yuan had thought buying fireworks materials would take some persuasion—after all, that stuff really is a bit dangerous—but he hadn’t expected the person in charge of the cafeteria to just glance at him, ask nothing, and sell it to him directly.

Feng Yuan hadn’t even imagined there’d be a huge warehouse of fireworks raw materials hidden beneath the cafeteria. He really couldn’t figure out what they were thinking. Even with Spirit Beasts guarding the place, wasn’t this a bit too dangerous?

In the end, though, Feng Yuan gave up on the idea of reminding them. It’s not like only one person is running the cafeteria—there are plenty of people, and with so many Beastmasters stationed here, if it were truly dangerous they would have changed things long ago. The fact they haven’t probably means there’s more to it, and Feng Yuan had no desire to meddle.

As for whether this was some well-connected idiot messing around? Feng Yuan was certain that was impossible. Leaving aside that their so‑called background might not even outrank He Nanqing, even if Feng Yuan himself wanted to fool around in Li Mountain Village, the others definitely wouldn’t allow it.

Li Mountain Village isn’t just any place; it’s still very important to the Tea Wood Town Area. No matter what kind of background someone has, they wouldn’t be allowed to cause trouble here.

That was also why Feng Yuan had been puzzled before about why the cafeteria had so many dangerous items yet never said anything.

With Veronia and the others following along, Feng Yuan moved all those materials up to the grassy hilltop in one trip.

He had no choice—there was no way he’d dare process this stuff inside Li Mountain Village. If something went wrong and it exploded on the spot, that would be quite the spectacle.

"Ahem, the United Army suddenly switched to a steady offensive, huh."

Just as Feng Yuan was fiddling with the fireworks, Veronia suddenly spoke up. Feng Yuan glanced at her, a bit puzzled, and asked,

"This is public now too?"

He didn’t think this was some exclusive intel Veronia had gotten from the Divine Beasts’ intelligence network. Agunas and the others didn’t have the leisure for that right now.

"Sort of. They made the upcoming operations public—is this them upping the difficulty? I really don’t know what they’ve run into."

Looking through the news, Veronia muttered in confusion. She didn’t think Little Crocodile and the others were messing around, but as for what their actual plan was, she really couldn’t see it.

After all, the intel they had was too limited, and the other side wasn’t easy to deal with. There were bound to be traps hidden in those reports—if you want to fool others, you fool yourself first. For now, the rear’s influence on the front lines wasn’t that great.

At the very least, those who need to read the public intel almost can’t affect the United Army.

"Who knows—could be training the troops, or maybe baiting the War timeline into making a move. There’s too much they could be doing; I can’t guess."

Sealing up one firework, Feng Yuan spoke casually. Seeing the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound approach, he hurriedly said,

"Don’t come over here, I haven’t done any fire‑proofing."

Xiao Ji was fine; it liked using Fire Attribute Moves, but it didn’t carry fire on its body. The Fluffy Fire Wolfhound was different—its body might not be blazing, but sparks still flickered off it from time to time. With everything here being flammable and explosive, if it came over and accidentally ignited something, that would be bad.

Swishing its tail, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound opened its mouth, turned, and barked a "woof" at Xiao Ji.

Veronia glanced at the two little ones and said,

"You two probably can’t enter Qi Realm Stance on your own."

Because when they took on trials together with their Beastmaster, the Beastmaster bore most of the pressure, Xiao Ji and the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound had the difficulty of obtaining Qi Realm Stance reduced a lot. But in exchange, they almost couldn’t enter Qi Realm Stance on their own and needed Feng Yuan to trigger it.

The main reason was that Feng Yuan had taken on most of the pressure. For now, they simply didn’t have the capacity to withstand the strain of Qi Realm Stance.

That was also why Qi Chen and the others had fairly obvious side effects while Xiao Ji and the others were perfectly fine.

"Enter Qi Realm Stance? What are they trying to do?"

Busy making fireworks, Feng Yuan looked over at Veronia, baffled. Qi Realm Stance wasn’t much of a burden for him, but he at least wanted to know what they intended to do.

Qi Realm Stance was a combat tool—where was the battle supposed to come from right now?

"Looks like they want to fight each other on their own."

Veronia glanced at Xiao Ji and the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound and said. They hadn’t reached a consensus yet, so Veronia could only give her guess based on their chatter.

Xiao Ji called out to Veronia. With a soft snort, Veronia said,

"It says it wants to stretch its limbs a bit."

"Stretch its limbs? Fair enough, then just let them. Sorry to trouble you."

Feng Yuan froze for a moment, then caught on. These past few days Xiao Ji had been trailing him constantly; while digging through data might be tiring, it wasn’t exactly boring. Those documents weren’t something you just skim once—you had to analyze and sort them. At least he had things to do.

Xiao Ji was different. It didn’t play on a phone, and it couldn’t practice Moves in the archives room; all it could do was sit there and wait. By comparison, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound probably had it better, since it could run all over Li Mountain Village.

Thinking of that, Feng Yuan didn’t stop them. Having Veronia open up a Mirror Space was enough; otherwise the aftermath of their fight wrecking this patch of grass wouldn’t be ideal.

Feng Yuan didn’t know what Xiao Ji was thinking. It wasn’t planning to use Qi Realm Stance to attack, and instead wanted to use Qi Realm Stance Defense to fight.

Qi Realm Stance triggered by Feng Yuan would apply to all Beasts under his name. That meant its opponent, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, would also shift into Qi Realm Stance Defense. It wouldn’t quite turn into a "whose shell is harder" contest, but...

Glancing at Xiao Ji and the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound, Feng Yuan couldn’t be bothered to fuss over them. He still had work to do here; letting them fool around on their own was pretty good too.

The Mirror Space unfolded without pulling Feng Yuan inside. He didn’t mind. With Veronia watching, there was no way Xiao Ji could cause any major trouble.

"Weird, its defense looks a little off."

Veronia stared at the Black Sun Xiao Ji had become, puzzled. Under Qi Realm Stance Defense, Xiao Ji’s main Moves were all concentrated in its Black Sun state, yet right now that Black Sun was different from before.

Tamur, who’d been brought into the Mirror Space by Veronia, swayed slightly and said,

"Hybrid Move. Qi Realm Stance. Decorative Move. Heart Driven Spirit."

"That’s possible too? That’s... a surprisingly good battle talent. I wonder whether it’s innate or..."

Thinking of the origin of Xiao Ji’s Divine Beast identity, Veronia felt uncertain. Unlike normal Divine Beasts like them, Xiao Ji had gotten its Divine Beast identity from Feng Yuan. The key difference was that their Authority was innate, while Xiao Ji’s was the result of its own choice.

Different Authority means different roles. Xiao Ji’s offensive role might be related to its personality, or it might be tied to its Authority—but this talent... could it be acquired later?

At the very least, Veronia was sure she didn’t have this kind of combat talent. Figuring out a smooth way to weave those Moves together wasn’t impossible, but it took time—never mind that there was a huge power gap between the two sides.

Power doesn’t strictly define talent, but once your strength is high, your combat ability generally becomes much stronger.

"Innate. He may be able to alter his talent, but he won’t do so."

Tamur swayed gently and answered with absolute certainty. Veronia glanced at Tamur and chuckled softly.

"You really trust what you see, don’t you."

"Whether we trust it or not, it’s still the world’s reality."

Xiao Ji’s Black Sun form was different from before. Previously it had been like a black solar Divine Bird, but now there was a more illusory feel to it—that was what puzzled Veronia.

Because the space around Xiao Ji was off at the moment, seemingly distorted.

It wasn’t a simple Spatial Barrier—it felt more like the kind of infinitely extending special space from Tamur’s Era Descent.

Having gotten confirmation from Tamur, Veronia examined Xiao Ji’s Black Sun state, curious what it was trying to do.

Under Qi Realm Stance Defense, Xiao Ji needed to rely on taking hits to trigger its counters. There were only it and the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound fighting right now, so the line of "transferring damage from allies" was already impossible.

The essence of infinite‑extension space is to make attacks never reach their destination—rather than directly blocking them. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be able to trigger a counter.

Because if the attack never lands, naturally no counter can occur.

But it’s impossible Xiao Ji doesn’t know that, so...

The Fluffy Fire Wolfhound didn’t move in. It knew about Xiao Ji’s Black Sun stance, but its instincts were telling it that this Black Sun stance was a bit off right now.

With that in mind, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound tried a long‑range probing attack. Yet the attack didn’t land on the Black Sun; it suddenly disappeared while still some distance away from it.

Before the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound could think it through, its fur stood on end as if some terrifying thing had locked onto it. Even in Defensive Stance, the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound didn’t dare take the hit head‑on. Fortunately, because of that, it managed to dodge in time, narrowly avoiding getting nailed by the surge of black Flames.