Chapter 28: The X-Ray Vision Cheat Arrives

On the ruined city streets, the carcass of the Green-Scaled Giant Python lay sprawled across the ground like a massive fallen pillar.

[Kill one Intermediate Warlord-level monster (Repeatable)] (Completed once)
Reward: 1,050 points

Closing the mission panel, Luo Feng descended slowly from the sky and stood before the colossal corpse. With a flick of his thoughts, his sharp Rank 9 throwing knives began to dissect the python.

Before long, a massive snake skin was peeled off in its entirety, along with other valuable materials like the fangs, the gallbladder, and the green-scaled egg.

"Important materials from an Intermediate Warlord-level monster generally sell for between 1.5 billion and 7 billion. Because this python is exceptionally large, it should be worth more than a typical specimen—probably over 5 billion," Luo Feng calculated, though he felt no great excitement.

He turned his gaze toward the egg, which was nearly a meter tall, his eyes revealing a hint of complexity and reflection.

Logically, this egg shouldn't have survived. The mother python had the strength to crush it before she died, yet she hadn't. Many monsters, knowing they cannot protect their offspring, choose to kill them rather than let them fall into the hands of an enemy.

Luo Feng recalled the unwillingness and pleading in those blood-red eyes as the python breathed its last. Unwillingness was natural—after all, who wants to die, especially a Warlord-level monster with intelligence comparable to a human's? But pleading? Its brain had already been destroyed; it was doomed. It couldn't have been begging for its own life.

Clearly, that wasn't it. Then...

Luo Feng touched the prickly, fine green scales on the egg’s surface, a trace of regret flashing in his eyes. It was impossible to let this little creature live. Humans and monsters were mortal enemies; if he set it free, it would grow into a Warlord-level beast capable of endangering countless humans and martial artists.

"Better to sell it," Luo Feng thought. Many large organizations loved acquiring powerful monster eggs or cubs, whether for experiments or with the intention of domesticating them.

"If you want to keep it, that’s not impossible," Bai Chen suddenly chimed in.

Luo Feng was startled. "Bai, what do you mean?"

"I can create a beast-taming technique for you; once you learn it, you can enslave it. Or, I can step in and handle the enslavement for you directly." Inside the internal space, Bai Chen stroked the white cat in his arms and smiled.

The white cat was, of course, the cat-girl 'Energy-Plus'. During this period, Luo Feng’s points had accumulated to over ten thousand, and as Bai Chen took a ten percent cut, he had gained significantly. The energy reserves, which had been nearly bottomed out, were now stocked with over a hundred thousand points. Without hesitation, Bai Chen had spent a portion of this energy to grant two new abilities to Energy-Plus, who had been imperfectly created during the previous energy shortage.

One was shapeshifting, allowing her to take the form of a cat—convenient for Bai Chen to pet and practical for operations in the outside world. The other was much more important and cost significantly more energy: sensory perception.

[Sensory Perception]
Effect: Maximally enhances the user's perception, allowing them to hear sounds from great distances and acutely sense the aura and energy field of living individuals. (The range is proportional to strength; the stronger the user, the greater the range.)

From the start, Bai Chen’s idea in creating 'Energy-Plus' was not just for companionship, but to provide support for Luo Feng. After all, when it came to combat, having the protagonist Luo Feng was enough; there was no need to create a being stronger than him—it wouldn't be cost-effective.

As for sensory perception... anyone who has read the original *Swallowed Star* knows that even at the Immortal level, detection and sensory abilities are essential. Whether by purchasing expensive detectors or learning secret techniques, experts do their best to strengthen this area, at the very least to ensure it doesn't become a weakness. If you detect the enemy first while they remain unaware, you hold the initiative. If the enemy is weak, you can ambush them; if they are strong, you can slip away. Information is crucial in battle—in critical moments, it can determine life or death.

While the cat-girl's perception isn't much on the scale of the vast universe, on Earth, where the strongest beings haven't even reached the Star Traveler level, Luo Feng essentially no longer needs to worry about being ambushed. Simply put, Luo Feng now had a scalable "full-map hack."

...

"Forget the beast-taming technique," Luo Feng thought for a moment and shook his head. The 'Giant Elephant' and 'Underworld Blade' techniques were already enough for him to study; he had no time to waste on beast-taming. If he were to learn it, it would be later; he couldn't waste time during his current period of rapid growth.

"Bai, just handle the enslavement yourself," Luo Feng decided after a few seconds of contemplation.

He wasn't short on the billion-plus he would get from selling the egg, and since Bai had the means to control a monster, he might as well. It wasn't just the pleading look in the python's eyes that moved him, but the thought of his own family. If his parents and brother had a powerful beast to guard them, he could rest much easier.

"I'll exchange some mild body-strengthening pills from Bai for them later. They don't need to hunt monsters, but having a healthy body and a means of self-defense is a good thing," Luo Feng mused.

As he thought this, a white cat suddenly appeared above the green-scaled egg.

"Bai, this is...?" Luo Feng looked at the cute white cat. It wore a bell around its neck, and its jewel-red eyes revealed a curiosity about the outside world. It was clearly a house cat, not a monster.

Bai Chen didn't bother explaining, instead pushing the information regarding the cat-girl's abilities directly into Luo Feng’s mind. Finally, he added, "From now on, this cat is your teammate. Her name is 'Energy-Plus'."

After digesting the information, Luo Feng looked at the cat standing on the egg with excitement. Her abilities were incredibly useful to him! Especially the sensory perception; he would no longer have to struggle in the high altitudes searching for monsters. He could just let her activate her senses to pinpoint their location and strength. It would save him massive amounts of time and greatly reduce the danger he faced.

"Can she sense King-level monsters? How large is her range?" Luo Feng asked curiously.

"She can sense King-level monsters. As for her range, since she is currently at the Warlord level, the radius is about one kilometer. It shrinks a bit underground, but a few hundred meters is still possible. As her strength increases, she'll be able to cover several to dozens of kilometers," Bai Chen replied.

The newly created cat-girl wasn't even considered a martial artist at first, but after constant feeding with flesh-essence pills, her strength had skyrocketed. She had reached the level of a Junior Warlord in both physical martial arts and spiritual consciousness. Because she possessed a wind-attribute talent and was a cat by species, her speed had already reached the level of a Senior Human Warlord.

While Luo Feng and Bai Chen chatted, Energy-Plus, in her cat form, completed the mental enslavement of the lifeform inside the egg—which had formed but not yet hatched.

Afterward, Bai Chen stored the egg, the python's carcass, and the gathered materials into his internal space. Luo Feng had grown accustomed to the convenience of Bai’s space; he usually stored his gathered monster materials there, keeping only a few light, Warlord-level items in his tactical backpack as a disguise.

Energy-Plus remained behind, serving as Luo Feng's personal cat-shaped detector.