How can you become stronger if you don't build up bonds?

—Could there really be such a wonderful thing in the world?!

—You can take the opportunity to "get revenge" while also making a huge sum of money!

It seems Tina really doesn't have much money on her hands; she's so excited about ten gold coins.

You can learn a soul skill for just ten gold coins. Where else can you find such a good deal?

Both sides felt they had hit the jackpot.

But Lin Wei still felt he had gained more, and that Tina had, to some extent, fallen for his trick.

If taught using the academic approach, Lin Wei felt he would be completely lost.

So all the previous requirements were just a pretext; his real intention was to steal skills from the "experience of consuming skills."

Lin Wei had just experienced firsthand how expensive magic books were on the market, thanks to Lan Zhu.

But here, it costs ten large gold coins each, and Tina will most likely even offer after-sales service.

Lin Wei couldn't find a reason not to grin from ear to ear.

Do you have any money on you?

"Is it that urgent? I'm not going to renege on my debt."

"So where did your money come from?" Tina pressed for details.

"Where did my money come from...?" Tina's question caught Lin Wei off guard.

In fact, Lin Wei rarely handles money. He just tells the maids what he needs, and Laila will deliver it to him in the shortest possible time.

In theory, all of Lin Wei's expenses should be accounted for by the Duke's mansion.

"I got it from Laura."

"You...you're using other people's money. Can't you earn your own? Laila isn't your biological mother."

"You mean I can't pay with Laura's money?"

Tina didn't say anything, but her expression conveyed that meaning.

"Then I can use the Duke's money, right? He's definitely my biological father, and I'm guaranteed to inherit at least a third of his fortune."

"...Okay." Tina still looked a little unhappy.

Doesn't that still come from Laila? Eugene and Laila are practically inseparable...

Lin Weimeng ranted.

But then again, Tina's simple value of self-reliance is not bad.

"Now can you tell me how many kinds of soul magic you know?"

"There's... quite a lot. You can't fight back while I'm using it."

Also, if any problems arise, I will not be responsible at all; you were the one who begged me to use it.

"No problem, you can use it as you like, but remember to explain the effects to me before you use it."

"OK."

Tina didn't know what Lin Wei was planning; she only knew that Lin Wei couldn't possibly learn her magic in this way.

Let's kill a few more rats for him then, so he doesn't feel too frustrated.

"The first one is Soul Branding, which can imprint pain on the soul level. The intensity and duration of the pain are controllable. I'll give you an intensity that's just enough to keep you awake at night."

Tina thought this intensity was perfect for venting her anger.

"no problem."

Tina walked up to Lin Wei and met his gaze with her beautiful eyes.

Lin Wei voluntarily gave up resisting and waited for Tina's power to transform his soul.

Soul-based techniques can be used without consuming mana, so as long as Lin Wei remains compliant from beginning to end, Tina will not suffer any backlash.

"It's here!" Lin Wei felt an extremely subtle energy enter his brain.

—Hmph, serves you right for forcing me to call you "Master." You'll regret it later!

—Haha, it hurts so much I can't even open my eyes! Serves you right for having such wild ideas. Even if you don't want to try it later, I'll still charge you 100 gold coins!

Is this branding torture?

This feels so good, how is it any different from a massage?

If Lin Wei were to use an analogy, the soul branding torture inflicted by Tina would be like scraping his skin.

There was some pain during the process, but the feeling of relief after the pain subsided was much stronger.

The Chain of Hearts has greatly enhanced Lin Wei's abilities; his soul strength is now exactly the same as Luya's.

After being "tortured" like this for more than five minutes, Lin Wei felt he had had enough and opened his eyes to tell Tina to stop.

"So, do you still want to continue? If you back out, I'll charge you a 100 gold coin penalty."

Although Lin Wei didn't utter a sound during this time, Tina felt that he must have suffered a great deal.

"Wait a moment."

"Hehehe..." Tina burst into laughter.

Lin Wei packaged all the information and feelings he had just gathered and sent them to the Creation Mage system, so that it could calculate how much mana would be needed to replicate such a Soul Branding punishment.

The results came out quickly.

90 points.

Why is there so little?!

Lin Wei was stunned.

I don't understand the principles at all!

"Tina, try again, this time with all your might," Lin Wei instructed Tina.

"what?"

"I'll charge you twice, hurry up!"

Tina's mouth formed an "O" shape in surprise. Is he a masochist?

Never mind, even a super explosion couldn't kill him, so a punitive spell like Soul Branding probably won't have any serious consequences.

Tina met Lin Wei's eyes again.

Yes, it's definitely much stronger than before; it feels hotter now.

After experiencing it for five minutes, Lin Wei once again asked the mage system to calculate the mana consumption.

90.

It's still 90, nothing has changed!

What's going on?

Normally, shouldn't the greater the force, the more energy is consumed?

Lin Wei fell into deep thought.

The mechanism by which the Creator deconstructs soul-side magic seems to be somewhat unique.

But without a doubt, this is a good thing. The 90 mana cost means that Lin Wei can use it at will, and it can basically be classified as a regular skill.

"Very good, next one."

"You're alright? You're okay...?"

"fine."

"oh..."

"The next one is a needle-like soul attack that can damage the very essence of the soul. It can cause such intense pain that the user is unable to do anything for a short period of time, and prolonged use can cause the soul to dissipate..."

"Let's start with ten minutes."

Ten minutes later.

Mana required to replicate the Soul Needle spell: 110.

Still very few.

"continue."

"Hey...you should rest for a while, don't push yourself..."

"Time is tight and the task is heavy. If you're not tired, just continue. Don't worry about me."

Soon, after Tina's repeated demonstrations, more than half an hour had passed.

Lin Wei also secretly learned seven or eight soul-related skills from Tina.

Without exception, none of these spells cost more than 200 mana.

Tina has given herself an incredibly high-quality skill gift pack.

However, Lin Wei also discovered some problems during this process.

Tina's skills are all extreme, all of them are direct damage skills, and Lin Wei's expected balanced skill set is nowhere to be seen.

"Is that all?"

"Aren't you done yet?!" Tina was utterly astonished; even she, the "perpetrator," was exhausted.

"Nothing else? Isn't enslavement magic also a type of soul magic?"

"Why are you asking about enslavement magic?" Tina immediately became alert upon hearing the words "enslavement magic."

"I don't mean anything by it, I'm just giving an example."

The existing skill information did not support Lin Wei's idea of ​​exterminating rats at all. He tried to make a request to the Creation Mage System, but was met with a requirement of 3 mana points.

"Why give examples? I just don't know how..." Tina puffed out her cheeks.

"what?"

Enslavement magic is the most widespread and well-developed soul-based magic in the entire human world.

Correspondingly, soul spells that cause direct damage are the least popular and rarest, and many people will never see one in their entire lives.

The result was completely the opposite for Tina?

"Are you sure there aren't any others?"

"What else could it be? I've already learned a lot, which is quite impressive."

"And what about the positive effects? For example, temporarily boosting one's soul during battle, or squeezing out one's own potential..."

Lin Wei rattled off all the effects of the soul-related spells he had imagined.

"You don't understand soul-related magic at all; many masters can't even perform what you're talking about!"

Tina was having trouble continuing her conversation with Lin Wei.

Disappointment showed on Lin Wei's face.

For some reason, seeing Lin Wei's expression made Tina feel uneasy.

He did all this to get rid of the rats.

For this reason, he was even willing to endure that one hour of torture.

Why go to such lengths...? Were you really not doing this on purpose for me?

"Feed..." Tina couldn't help but call out to Lin Wei.

"Um?"

Tina's brows furrowed, and after hesitating several times, she finally spoke:

"Well, actually I have another soul spell that I haven't told you about, but it really has nothing to do with the rat extermination you mentioned. I've never even used it myself."

"What kind of effect?" Lin Wei quickly asked.

"Significantly enhances the will to survive."

"And that's it?"

"Right? I knew you'd think it was useless."

"To what extent can it be improved?"

"Going mad, losing one's mind, and even affecting others within a certain range."

First, this technique can only be used on humans. Second, even if it could be used on blood rats, it would only make them more frenzied and cause them to attack people more often, which completely contradicts your original intention.

This was the first time Tina had analyzed so much for Lin Wei.

"Could I use this?"

"Do you even understand what I'm saying? It's useless. I'm only saying this to make you give up!"

Besides, even if you force me to use it on you, it won't have any effect.

Because you've lived a life of wealth and comfort since childhood, you've never encountered a survival crisis in your entire life!

Tina grew angrier as she spoke, sensing that Lin Wei was becoming somewhat obsessed.

Lin Wei didn't rush to refute, but waited for Tina to calm down:

"I understand what you mean, but my life has not been as comfortable as you imagine."

Anyway, please use it; consider it my way of sending you money.

"..."

Tina knew she couldn't persuade Lin Wei otherwise, so she sighed and prepared to cast the spell:

"Can't you let me save some energy and help you kill a few more rats...? My rat-killing efficiency is only higher than Shuliya's."

"Fine, I'll begin. I command you to fight for survival with all your might—"

Lin Wei shuddered as he met Tina's gaze, and a thin layer of sweat involuntarily seeped from his body.

It's a very peculiar feeling.

This spell reminded Lin Wei of the period when he was under the most pressure in the past.

How could Lin Wei Kreddy not be facing a survival crisis?

"Huh..."

After completing the spell, Tina noticed something was wrong.

Lin Wei was sweating, which was a sign that the spell had been successful.

Could it be that he really had some very difficult times?

This time, Lin Wei experienced it for a full ten minutes.

After it was over, he stood up directly from the big rock.

This technique has a method.

But the prerequisite is to adjust our thinking.

What is the most distinctive feature of the mad blood rats created by Lan Zhu and Kui Long?

They were tainted with a high concentration of bad luck, and therefore desperately tried to attack Lillian, who was their lucky star.

The higher the level of "misfortune," the harder it is for it to dissipate on its own.

At the level of "Dark Elf Curse", the misfortune may even last forever.

However, even misfortune of the 'Dark Elf Curse' level can be offset by 'luck' of the same level.

So is it possible that the Mad Blood Rat didn't attack Lillian because he was too insane?

Instead, he went mad because he wanted to attack Lillian and steal her luck to offset his own misfortune.

The blood rats were driven mad by their misfortune and their intense will to survive.

Perhaps this is the correct logic behind the birth of the Mad Blood Rat.

If this is the truth, then possessing the level of "Grip of Doom" should already be the limit for the Blood Rat species.

Their will to survive has been squeezed to the extreme.

What would happen if Tina used her soul magic to add fuel to the fire at this time?

Transforming a soul spell originally intended for humans into a version usable by the Mad Blood Rat is not difficult for the Creator Mage system; it only requires Lin Wei to consume 500 mana.

What is certain at present is that the more survival-driven these mad blood rats are, the more focused they will be on targeting Lillian, and they will never choose anyone else who does not have the luck attribute.

Furthermore, when their will to survive reaches a new level, even lower-level lucky units will become their targets.

A complete plan formed in Lin Wei's mind.

"Come on, Tina, I have an idea."

"Huh, huh?"

Lin Wei didn't care about anything else, grabbed Tina's wrist and jumped onto the giant wind eagle.

The two returned to where Shulia and Lillian were.

"Miss Tina, it's so good to see you're alright!" Shuliya stood up to greet Tina.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." Tina had a good impression of Shulia because she and Luya were similar in some ways.

"Shuliya, can you help me capture a few mad blood rats alive?"

"certainly."

Shulia's mana has recovered to more than half.

"Tina, take good care of Lillian."

"Oh, oh." Tina sat down next to Lillian and gently poked her rosy cheek with her hand.

Lin Wei and Shuliya arrived outside the shelter, and Shuliya easily brought several mad blood rats that were gnawing on tempered glass to Lin Wei.

Lin Wei focused his mind and, imitating Tina, used the Survival Instinct Spell on one of them.

Just ten seconds later, the mad blood rat began to struggle violently like never before.

"Huh..." Shuliya looked surprised.

Ten seconds later, the other captured mad blood rats also had the same reaction.

"Right now, all of you get on the giant wind eagle."

"Okay." Shuliya didn't ask any questions and resolutely carried out Lin Wei's orders.

Soon, Shulia, Tina, and the still-sleeping Lillian all transferred to Fengliu.

Then Lin Wei used his creative power to move the sofa onto Feng Liu's body, leaving only a few dolls that Lillian had been holding on her body.

"Fly higher, the higher the better."

"And what about you?" Tina asked.

"Lure the monsters, then wipe them all out at once."