Chapter Forty-Three: Feathers

Soon, the cloaked man began to chant a peculiar incantation, each syllable strange and unpronounceable. Blood continued to flow beneath him, pooling into the bizarre tracks of the ritual on the floor. An eerie atmosphere spread; the air grew thick and viscous, and faint ghostly lights flickered along the ritual lines drawn on the ground. Yet he had not even finished uttering a single complete spell.

With a sudden bang, a silver bullet pierced the back of his skull, bursting forth a spray of blood. His body collapsed with a thunderous crash.

At the entrance, Lin Lei holstered his pistol and raised his blade once more. Without so much as a glance at the ominous symbols on the floor, he struck down a lunging monster before him, sending it sprawling to the ground.

"Fool, you dare to turn your back to me!"

Lin Lei had no idea what kind of ritual this man was conducting, nor who the so-called "master" he invoked might be, but he sensed the danger lurking within. "This fellow might appear mysterious, but his composure and methods are lacking. Faced with trouble, he panics and acts foolishly, performing such a ritual right in front of me. Did he really believe that these mindless creatures would keep me at bay?" Despite the oddities between them, Lin Lei still held a gun.

He suspected the cloaked man was a newly awakened source-wielder, one lacking real battle experience.

With the cloaked man dead, the burly men around them abruptly froze, standing motionless as if they were mere puppets. Lin Lei wasted no time, cutting each one down with his blade, dispatching them mercilessly.

With all enemies dealt with, Lin Lei surveyed the carnage and allowed himself a sigh of relief. He walked over to the corpse of the cloaked man, whose head had been blown apart, and removed the hood. Judging by the remaining half of his face, he appeared to be a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties, his eyes sunken, skin stretched taut over bone.

Lin Lei raised an eyebrow and attempted to plunder the cloaked man. It would cost him only two or three units of gluttony energy—barely more than it took to plunder source-imbued bullets. Lin Lei mused: "Source bullets themselves have no special effect; it's only because they're forged with source energy that I can plunder them... Could this man not be a true source-awakened, without a gift, but merely contaminated by source energy?"

He licked his lips.

So this man’s ability to control the monsters wasn’t due to any innate power, but likely stemmed from some other method.

Recalling the ritual he'd interrupted, Lin Lei felt a deep unease. After a brief hesitation, he refrained from devouring the corpse. The negligible cost in gluttony energy suggested the man possessed no special gift, and with his own source energy already brimming, Lin Lei had no need for more. He licked his lips, took out his PDA, and snapped a few photos of the monsters. Then he approached the nearest creature and activated gluttony, beginning to "feed."

After feeding, his gluttony energy increased by nearly three units.

His eyes shone. "These monsters aren't much stronger than ghouls, but the energy gained is considerable..."

He next attempted to plunder another monster, only to find it required twenty units of gluttony energy.

"It costs so much more than ghouls?" Lin Lei’s lips twitched in surprise.

These creatures weren't especially formidable, so why did plundering them require so much energy?

He furrowed his brow and activated plunder.

After plundering the monster, he smacked his lips; the taste that returned was akin to cooked silkworm pupae—both flavor and texture superior to that of ghouls. At the same time, a heat surged through Lin Lei’s body, filling him with source energy—though with his reserves already overflowing, the excess could not be absorbed.

It had little impact on his mood.

Moreover, new information flooded his mind, as if by instinct, granting him a new ability.

Its name was [Shapeshifting].

His eyes glittered as he pressed a palm to his face; his skin rippled and changed, and in the blink of an eye, he wore a different visage. Not only could he change his face, he could alter his entire physique, even transform into another creature altogether.

Yet [Shapeshifting] came with a glaring flaw: direct exposure to sunlight would break the transformation.

"No wonder it costs so much gluttony energy..."

The ghouls' special traits were merely their skin and claws; compared to this monster's [Shapeshifting], they paled in comparison.

When Lin Lei tried to plunder a second monster, he discovered the required energy had plummeted—to only five units, less than even a ghoul.

He devoured the creature without hesitation, feeling his body strengthen, but the [Shapeshifting] ability remained unchanged.

"[Shapeshifting] is a functional ability and cannot be stacked. On the second plunder, since I don't need the [Shapeshifting] aspect, the energy cost drops considerably!"

Aside from shapeshifting, these creatures were stronger, but lacked the ghouls' distinctive skin and defenses. Their surplus source energy was now useless to Lin Lei, so the benefit to his power was marginal.

He licked his lips. Though it wasted some source energy, he couldn't wait until his second tier awakening to plunder again.

Without hesitation, he continued to plunder, but after the fourth monster, he could go no further.

There were more than twenty monsters; each could provide over three units of gluttony energy. Even after plundering four, his reserves had grown by nearly forty units.

His gluttony energy now topped seventy.

With the monsters dispatched, Lin Lei began to search the room for anything unusual. The cluttered chamber overflowed with corpses—who knew how many graves had been robbed?

He rummaged through the room and soon found, in a cabinet tucked in a corner, a palm-sized iron box. Opening it, he discovered a feather from some unknown bird or beast, shimmering with red light and radiating a faint warmth.

The moment he opened it, Lin Lei sensed a torrent of source energy spilling out.

"What is this?!"

His expression changed. He raised his [Source Energy Radar], and saw a jet-black dot appear at the center of the screen, spreading rapidly until the entire radar was engulfed in darkness.

"Source Energy Radar is malfunctioning!" Lin Lei realized instantly, quickly closing the iron box.

He didn’t need to plunder to know this was no ordinary item. In fact, he couldn’t plunder it at all.

He could feed on it, but doing so would demand sixty units of gluttony energy!

Devouring nearly two hundred ghouls had cost Lin Lei less than two units, yet consuming this single feather would require sixty—the sheer magnitude surpassed all his expectations.

Utterly astonishing!