Chapter 48 Awakening the Racial Talent

"Awooo."

The Cold Moon Divine Hound let out a howl in response, displaying its inner husky nature to the fullest while rapidly shrinking in size until it turned into the shape of a small puppy.

Seeing this creature suddenly transform into a puppy, Qin Zhe was slightly startled. He picked it up, placed it on his shoulder, and chuckled.

"That trick of yours is quite convenient, able to grow and shrink at will. Especially this puppy look—if ordinary girls were to see you like this, I'm afraid their maiden hearts would overflow."

"Chatting" across species with the Cold Moon Divine Hound, Qin Zhe led it to the cave etched in his memory.

Perhaps because several days had already passed since his last visit, no traces of anyone having stayed in the cave could be seen anymore.

Sitting down inside the cave, Qin Zhe once again fished a spirit fruit out of his ring.

Along the way, he had intermittently munched on quite a few spirit fruits.

It had stuffed him to the point of extreme discomfort, but the gains were also very substantial.

On the status bar, the Essence Conversion talent had already reached 80%.

With a little more effort and a few more consumed, he would be able to accumulate another potential point.

The Cold Moon Divine Hound remained resting on Qin Zhe's shoulder. Seeing him suddenly pull out a spirit fruit, it let out a "woof" and wagged its tail rapidly.

Just as Qin Zhe was about to take a bite, he heard the sound, his mouth twitched, and he turned his head to look at it with a slight hesitation.

Having traveled all the way with the Cold Moon Divine Hound, the bond between the man and the dog had improved a lot.

The hound was very obedient, which made Qin Zhe quite satisfied. Therefore, along the way, he hadn't been stingy and had intermittently fed it quite a lot.

Right now, the stock of spirit fruits in his spatial ring was running low, and Qin Zhe was somewhat reluctant to give any more to this dog.

The quality of the spirit fruits provided by the Disaster Management Bureau varied; some were so rich in spiritual energy that they increased the Essence Conversion progress by 3%, while lesser ones showed no increase at all.

Qin Zhe was still counting on munching fruits to gain potential points, so naturally, he was unwilling to be too wasteful.

After pondering in secret for a moment, and with the attitude of giving it a try, Qin Zhe took a middle-grade spirit stone out of his ring.

"The fruits are running low; I have to keep them for myself. Can you absorb this thing?"

To Qin Zhe's surprise, the moment he took out the spirit stone, the speed at which the Cold Moon Divine Hound wagged its tail immediately jumped to a higher level.

It looked like it could indeed absorb spirit stones.

That made things much easier!

Thinking this, Qin Zhe casually tossed the spirit stone onto the ground.

Seeing this, the Cold Moon Divine Hound resolutely leaped down from his shoulder, pounced on the spirit stone, and took a "crunch" bite right out of it.

Catching sight of this, Qin Zhe's mouth twitched, and he involuntarily felt a bit worried.

Spirit stones... weren't they supposed to be used for absorption?

For this guy to pounce on it and just start chewing—was this kind of operation really okay?

Would it upset its stomach?

However, seeing the Cold Moon Divine Hound hugging the spirit stone and crunching away energetically as if it were gnawing on a bone, Qin Zhe didn't pay it any more mind.

At least the hound had a good set of teeth. Rather than worrying blindly, he might as well hurry up and chew out a potential point.

No sooner thought than done, Qin Zhe hugged a spirit fruit and began munching wildly, casually taking out a few more spirit stones and tossing them to the ground.

The dog belonged to the Bureau Chief, so of course he couldn't be stingy.

Since it could eat them, he would let it eat more. Eating more spirit stones might even help it recover its physical strength a bit faster.

Just like that, the man and the dog spent their time—one gnawing on spirit fruits and the other crunching on spirit stones, the sounds of "snap" and "crunch" echoing continuously within the cave.

After about half an hour, Qin Zhe laboriously massaged his tightly distended lower abdomen, a hint of joy flashing across his brow.

After expending a great deal of effort, he had finally managed to chew out a potential point.

Having gnawed on several spirit stones, the Cold Moon Divine Hound had calmed down and was now lying quietly to the side, digesting the spiritual energy.

Paying no attention to the hound, Qin Zhe sank his consciousness into the status bar and chose to add a point to Spiritual Sense.

Compared to adding another point to Spiritual Energy, adding to Spiritual Sense, which he hadn't tried yet, naturally made him much more curious.

As Qin Zhe made his choice, the data on the status bar changed.

Potential points reduced to 0, Spiritual Sense +1.

The next moment, Qin Zhe distinctly had the sensation that he himself had undergone a change, but this feeling was extremely ethereal.

Compared to the substantive changes brought by adding points to Spiritual Energy, this change carried an indescribable, ineffable quality.

In some mysterious way, Qin Zhe felt that his connection with heaven and earth had grown tighter, and the spiritual energy fluctuations within his perception had also become much more active.

Just like that?

Qin Zhe swept his mind across the status bar, feeling somewhat disappointed.

The changes brought by adding to Spiritual Sense were novel, but if that was all, to be honest, it didn't quite live up to his expectations.

Suddenly, the status bar, which had been quiet after the point allocation, unexpectedly popped up a notification.

Notification: Congratulations on completing the Spiritual Sense allocation. Spiritual Sense is newly born, ancestral reversion progress increased by 10%, awakened racial talent: Heaven and Man as One.

Annotation for the talent "Heaven and Man as One": Soul is permanently secured, Primordial Spirit is forcibly integrated with the physical body, permanently losing the ability of Primordial Spirit out-of-body projection, immune to all mental-level attacks, immune to illusions.

Racial talent?

Qin Zhe was slightly dazed. His mind swept across the race column in the status bar, and seeing that his race was still displayed as human, his brow furrowed deeply.

The ancestral reversion had instantly increased by 10%, which was undoubtedly related to awakening a racial talent.

The problem was that his race was still human; he had never heard of humans having racial talents of any kind!

Not to mention that the awakened "Heaven and Man as One" was clearly a bug, immune to mental attacks and illusions—could humans possess this kind of talent?

Was I... really gradually turning into some strange creature?

Anxiety gripped Qin Zhe's heart, and then his entire body stiffened.

Wait!

Permanently losing the ability of Primordial Spirit out-of-body projection?

This damn thing even comes with negative effects?!

No!

I haven't even tried Primordial Spirit out-of-body projection yet!

Can you give me a chance, please?

Sweeping his mind across the status bar once more, Qin Zhe felt that he had taken a devastating loss.

The talent "Heaven and Man as One" might be a bug, but he had forever lost a certain experience.

Sighing heavily, Qin Zhe stopped paying attention to the status bar and lay down flat like a salted fish.

Primordial Spirit out-of-body projection, ah!

The legendary divine technique that allows one to peek at beauties bathing without getting cau—

Ptu!

The legendary divine technique of roaming the heavens and earth with the primordial spirit!

Before he even figured out what a primordial spirit actually was, he had permanently lost the chance for primordial spirit projection.

Just as Qin Zhe was feeling utterly lifeless, the Cold Moon Divine Hound lying to the side twitched its ears, suddenly leaped up, and let out a few barks toward the cave entrance.

"Eh? Why is there a dog barking in this cave?"

A soft, charming female voice drifted over, full of astonishment and suspicion.

"Academician Shangguan, there might be abyss creatures inside. Caution is paramount."

A steady male voice rang out, carrying words of warning while faintly tinged with adoration.

"Aiya! Stop trying to stop me! There are other creatures in the scorched earth, and this is a major discovery! If it's an abyss species, this trip will have been totally worth it!"

The female voice sounded very impatient, and shortly after, hurried footsteps echoed from outside the cave.

Hearing human voices out of the blue, Qin Zhe lay on the ground without moving.

He was in despair and too lazy to move.

Judging from the voices of the man and woman outside the cave just now, they clearly weren't Eagle Nation people, but rather personnel from the Disaster Management Bureau and the Academy of Sciences, so there was no need for him to be on guard.

Before long, a young woman of superior looks arrived deep inside the cave, followed closely by a young man.

Entering and seeing a person lying on the ground, the woman couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"Ah! There's a person lying over there! Chen Yu, go take a look and see if he's alive!"

The young man called Chen Yu's mouth twitched. He stepped sideways to shield the woman behind him, sized Qin Zhe up for a moment, and asked.

"Kid, are you from Haicheng University?"