"Boss, I'm heading back first. My senior is still waiting in the room."
"Alright. Although the [Red Rope Soul Binding] has been lifted, since you've suppressed yourself for so long before, it'll take time to adjust to the new state. Just like in the dream—try to smile more."
"Mhm, good night."
"Good night..."
Following a goodnight kiss initiated by her, Shenhe let out a soft giggle and walked out of the room.
Xia Zhi gently pressed his slightly damp lips, then sat back down at the desk.
He opened up the system panel to check—the effect of the [Luck Potion] still had over half an hour left.
This stuff costs 500 points per bottle. No way was he going to waste it.
With his current luck temporarily increased by 100%, now was the perfect time to try [Evolving] a few items.
Xia Zhi lowered his head in thought.
For gold-tier items, each evolution costs 100 points. In other words, if he fails five times fewer than average, just one bottle of [Luck Potion] pays for itself.
For platinum-tier items, each evolution costs 1000 points. Even a single successful evolution makes the cost of two bottles worthwhile.
So the most efficient move right now would be to evolve a single [Platinum Item].
Over the past half month or so, Xia Zhi hadn't really spent many points. After purchasing the [Luck Potion] and the [Seven-Star Lamp], he had used up 2100 points. Now, he still had a little over 3000 remaining—meaning only three chances to evolve. Each failure would increase the success rate for the next attempt.
Given his insanely high luck, this should be within reach.
With that in mind, Xia Zhi started browsing through his current platinum-tier items and their abilities.
[Embrace of the Vampire]: Lifesteal, Enchanting.
[Assassin's Blade]: Unerring, Shield Breaker.
[Tears of the Goddess]: Growth, Focus.
[Universal Syringe]: Extract, Inject.
[Transformation Badge]: Transformation, Fusion.
[Treasure Compass]: Detection, Hypnosis.
[Temporary Occupation Badge]: Word of Power, Myriad Forms.
[Hat of Secrecy]: Stealth, Mystery.
Xia Zhi pondered for a moment, then selected the [Temporary Occupation Badge].
Among all of these, this item had the most versatile abilities.
Xia Zhi opened the [Evolution] interface, placed the [Temporary Occupation Badge] inside, and clicked the evolve button.
"Do you want to evolve [Temporary Occupation Badge]? This is a Platinum Item. Current success rate: 10%. Cost: 1000 points."
"Yes."
"Evolution failed. Current success rate: 20%. Continue?"
"Yes."
"Evolution succeeded."
Success on the second try.
The benefit of high luck value was immediately evident.
The previously ordinary-looking work badge now had a slightly more polished look.
Xia Zhi placed it into his inventory and checked the new attributes.
[Temporary Certificate]
Quality: Diamond
Type: Special Equipment
Traits: Word of Power, Myriad Forms, Roleplay
Effect: By writing any identity on the object, the wearer temporarily gains the bonuses and skills associated with that identity. However, the abilities cannot exceed the item's tier.
Hidden Effects: +15% Charm; +20% effectiveness on temporary abilities.
Reclaimable for: 10,000 points.
Another god-tier special item added to the collection.
Glancing at the new description, Xia Zhi noted that the name had subtly changed—the word "Badge" transformed into "Certificate", and its limitations were now lifted from "Occupations" to "Any Identity".
Hidden effects had also improved: charm bonus upgraded by 10%, and it now included a +20% boost to temporary abilities. This effectively meant that the temporary role he assumed could actually become even stronger than its original counterpart.
How intriguing.
Xia Zhi picked up the pen on the table and wrote two words on the front of the [Temporary Certificate]:
[Geo Archon].
This time, the writing on the badge didn't fade.
Apparently, this kind of roleplay was still within the capabilities of the item.
Xia Zhi clipped the badge onto his chest.
Click.
As the pin latched with a crisp sound, a wave of brand-new knowledge and experiences flooded into Xia Zhi's mind.
These weren't the same as the abilities he had previously "skill-stolen" from Morax.
At the same time, the system's voice echoed inside his mind.
"Host now possesses trait: [Hypnosis]."
"[Temporary Certificate] ability [Roleplay] activates: surrounding individuals will subconsciously accept the given identity. The weaker their willpower, the more easily they will be influenced."
Another combo of traits had surfaced.
"To confuse falsehood with truth… huh."
Xia Zhi nodded slowly, shifting his attention elsewhere.
In his god's eye, he could now see countless glowing dots floating gently around him.
These were faith particles.
Local devotion toward the Geo Archon.
As the God of Light, Xia Zhi wouldn't normally be able to sense faith from other divine systems.
But now, thanks to the [Temporary Certificate] making him "Geo Archon" temporarily, at least to this land's people, this faith was directed at him. So naturally, he could now see it, and even collect and utilize it.
Still, stealing someone else's worship felt a bit shady. Xia Zhi wasn't keen on plundering the devotion from a neighboring buddy.
Faith was a tricky thing…
His cousin once overdrew her power by harvesting the entirety of Sumeru's belief, and it took her centuries to recover… still trapped in a little girl's body.
Only after he poured her some [Essence of Sun and Moon] from the [Essence Bottle] did she finally grow into a proper teenager.
Turns out [Essence of Sun and Moon] really is divine nutrition.
Xia Zhi remained curious about this faith energy.
As a newly recognized deity, he'd had no chance to establish any faith-based foothold in Teyvat, making such displays of devotion nearly impossible to come by.
"I heard some fallen Archons still have remnants of faith scattered throughout the world. Maybe I could impersonate them and siphon off a little?"
Xia Zhi removed the [Temporary Certificate] from his chest. The writing faded and returned to a blank state.
He picked up the pen again and tested something else, writing another name onto the badge:
[Celestia].
As soon as he finished writing, the words faded like invisible ink—vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Same result as when he wrote [Geo Archon] before initially evolving the item.
Clearly, pretending to be a part of [Celestia] was a level beyond the current capabilities of the [Temporary Certificate].
It needed further evolution.
Xia Zhi paused and decided to write that one divine name that had broken his mirror last time:
[Istaroth].
Once again, the letters faded as quickly as they appeared.
Clearly another unreachable godly identity for now.
Shaking his head, Xia Zhi tried another amusing test:
[A Devilishly Handsome Man].
New Temporary Skill: [Exceptional Charm] (Temporary): Passive, +40% Charm.
Thinking back, Xia Zhi realized that playing the same role pre-evolution had only given him [Exceptional Charm Lv.1] with a charm boost of 30%. Now it had scaled and renamed to [Exceptional Charm], with a 40% boost.
As expected, higher-tier items widen the ceiling of each ability type.
Which meant, through [Roleplay] and [Skill Steal], he could now gain better attribute boosts from familiar roles.
Satisfied with the test, Xia Zhi wrote another identity onto the badge:
[Amazing Luck Man].
He equipped it onto his character panel, gaining the temporary ability: [Exceptional Luck].
With the [Luck Potion] still active, his already sky-high luck got another significant spike.
He opened the [Evolution] menu once again, this time putting in the [Assassin's Blade].
Most of his current diamond-tier items were utility-focused—he needed a powerful weapon on hand, too, just in case.
"Do you want to evolve [Assassin's Blade]? This is a Platinum Item. Current success rate: 10%. Cost: 1000 points."
"Yes."
"Evolution succeeded."
Another clean one-shot evolution.
High luck was cheating, seriously.
The modest arm-blade transformed into a sharp, elegant dagger.
Xia Zhi examined the updated attributes:
[Assassin's Blade]
Quality: Diamond
Type: Weapon
Traits: Unerring, Shield Breaker, Combo
Effect: Automatically possesses all assassin skills from Tier 5 down; all attacks are guaranteed to hit; each strike deals cumulative damage, stacking onto the previous one.
Hidden Effect: +100 Agility
Reclaimable for: 10,000 points
Xia Zhi twirled the knife in his hand with satisfaction.
Previously, it only had Tier 4 assassin abilities. Now it stretched to Tier 5 and even gained the new [Combo] trait—each hit stacking damage onto previous ones. If he managed enough hits in [Without Thought] mode with a 10x power boost and [Unerring]...
"One swing in Without Thought state might just one-shot a god."
He happily sheathed the blade.
His remaining points were down to just over 100—not enough to evolve another platinum item.
He could still try a gold-tier one.
He looked into his item bag and pulled out the pillow that had accompanied him the longest.
"Do you want to evolve [Dream Pillow]? This is a Gold Item. Current success rate: 10%. Cost: 100 points."
"Yes."
"Evolution succeeded."
Another first-try success.
Xia Zhi finally understood Ganyu's cool confidence during the Mahjong King Tournament.
The once-small soft pillow now expanded into a large, plush white body pillow.
[Dream Pillow]
Quality: Platinum
Type: Auxiliary Item
Traits: Dreamscape, Fate
Effect: Sleeping on this item grants a chance to enter dreams. First-layer Dream: 50%, Second-layer: 48%, Third-layer: 2%.
Hidden Effect: While dreaming, +100% Mental Recovery speed; very small chance of entering a Special Dream.
Reclaimable for: 1,000 points.
Previously, it only allowed entrance up to the second dream layer.
Now? There was a chance to reach layer three—plus a hidden function to enter "Special Dreams".
Though the description doesn't specify exactly how "unique" those dreams are…
Trait [Fate] is also curious—somehow feels suspiciously close to [Thread of Fate]...
Xia Zhi picked the pillow out of his inventory.
It was big—almost his height. Hugging it in his arms felt insanely comforting. The fabric gave off a faint soothing fragrance.
Xia Zhi sniffed deeply.
Even with his [Fragrance Mastery], he couldn't identify the ingredients or origin of the scent—but he could feel the dream-energy it carried.
Definitely something woven from dreamworlds.
And suddenly, Xia Zhi felt... sleepy.
Genuinely unexpected.
That pleasant scent could actually influence a divine-level mental state.
He checked his system panel.
In total, he'd evolved just three items. Only the [Temporary Certificate] tests took a little extra time.
His [Luck Potion] still had about 20 minutes left.
Most of the points were gone—nothing more he could do now.
Might as well sleep.
The sleepiness hit a little harder.
Yawn~
Xia Zhi hugged the fluffy pillow and collapsed onto his bed.
With his luck so sky-high right now, would he trigger that 2% chance to enter a third-layer dream...?
Not that it matters—he could enter dreams anytime using his cousin's dream powers anyway…
So sleepy...
Ever since acquiring her abilities, he hadn't used a pillow to dream again...
And this one was reeeally soft... how lovely...
Mmm… sleep…
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