I Can Give Talents-Chapter 457 - Mask

It was not until the ground had sunk nearly three meters deep that the immense spiritual pressure finally vanished.

Leyvi walked forward to the freshly made crater. He stood at its edge, looking down into the pit while a ball of light floated beside him, illuminating the scene. Inside, everything was utterly crushed and compacted into a dense, bloody paste. Only a single, intricate mask remained intact, likely a high-tier spirit artifact.

"It seems I overdid it and killed this person," he muttered to himself. "I crushed their entire body. Everything happened so fast that I could not even get a proper glimpse of who it was. Was it a man or a woman?"

When he had first noticed the sudden, violent commotion, he had reacted instantly and without restraint, unleashing his strongest spiritual pressure directly forward. Because the attacker’s body was still ragdolling toward their position, the pressure had landed perfectly, completely trapping them.

But it had all happened too quickly. The person was dead before he could even think to retract the force. It was not that he felt particularly bad about killing an ambusher, but he did feel a flicker of regret that he had not been able to ask any questions first.

"This..." Rose and her maids watched in stunned silence from their original positions. Was that spiritual pressure? How strong was that?

The three of them were still unaware of Leyvi’s true status as a Spiritual Cultivator.

"Ava, did you see this person lurking?" Leyvi asked her as she stood beside him at the crater’s edge. "Were they trying to kill us?"

Ava nodded sharply. "It was an invisible man wearing a mask. He was trying to kill all of us. He summoned five large bows using spiritual touch and aimed them at our heads."

"Invisible man? Damn! No wonder I did not notice anything. Wait, how could you see him then? You could even see his spiritual touch creations?" Leyvi asked, but the answer came to him in the very next moment. Oh, right. How could I have forgotten? It’s because of the talent I gave her.

So her new eyes let her see invisible things now, huh? Not a bad starting ability. It will grow more advanced later. Does that mean she can see my spiritual touch too? Leyvi wondered.

Ava rolled her eyes. Are you pretending you do not know now? Hmph. You gave me this precious ability and you still want to act clueless. He must be baiting for another hug from me. Not a chance! That was a one-time exception!

"Hahaha! Although I accidentally killed him, it shows that our combo worked. Nicely done, Ava," Leyvi praised.

This was one of the combat combinations he and Ava had devised for situations where an enemy tried to ambush them. Ava would launch the attacker directly toward him, and he would immediately trap them with his overwhelming spiritual pressure.

At that moment, Rose, Lily, and Liyan arrived beside the crater.

"Darling, are you... a Spiritual Cultivator?" Rose asked, her voice a mix of awe and disbelief.

She needed to confirm her suspicion. After all, a Qi Cultivator simply would not possess spiritual pressure of that magnitude.

"Right," he nodded simply.

He saw no reason to hide it from her now, given her current state of devotion.

"But... I was certain that people from the backward... ahem, from the Cloud Continent, do not have any Spiritual Cultivators yet," she said, catching herself.

"Oh, I only recently became one," he explained with an easy smile. "I obtained a manual and practiced the mantra for about a year. Now I can use spiritual touch. Here, let me show you."

He created an invisible hand of mental energy, sent it down into the gruesome hole, and used it to pick up the blood-smeared mask.

The three women watched as the mask floated up out of the pit and drifted toward Leyvi.

"It really is spiritual touch!" Rose exclaimed, her shock evident.

She, Lily, and Liyan immediately exchanged a glance and began a hushed, secret discussion using sound transmission.

"Holy Maiden, Liyan, have either of you ever heard of someone reaching the Spiritual Touch Realm in just one year?" Lily asked, her mental voice tight with disbelief.

"No. That is unheard of. Is he lying to impress us?" Liyan replied, her tone deeply skeptical.

"Liyan, watch your mouth!" Rose snapped. Her tone was sharp, but the two maids knew she wasn’t truly angry. They had grown up together, after all.

"Darling is the best man in the world! Why would he lie to impress me? I am already his beloved. If he desired me right now, I would offer every inch of my body to him. He could do anything he wanted. And you two would join as well. You are my maids, after all."

Lily and Liyan both pouted upon hearing this.

As the Holy Maiden’s maids, they had long accepted that they would eventually share the same man. Still, they had always imagined she would choose a peerless, handsome hero, not a country bumpkin like this. Yet it was painfully obvious that she was completely enamored with this average-looking man, and once that happened, their fates would inevitably be tied together as well.

What a letdown.

A smile of pure pride blossomed on Rose’s face. "Since Darling said it, then it must be true. My taste is simply unmatched. I fell in love with such a prodigy. It was fate. Fufufu~"

Her two maids continued to pout, their disbelief plain. Perhaps he wasn’t from the Cloud Continent at all, they silently reasoned. In unison, they vowed to investigate him even more thoroughly.

Leyvi, for his part, ignored their whispered exchange and focused on cleaning the grimy mask. He observed the three of them communicating in hushed tones, but it raised no red flags for him. He was intimately familiar with such scenes. His wealth of experience allowed him to discern the situation easily.

The atmosphere, the subtle body language, the fleeting expressions—they were absolutely in the middle of gossiping! It was something his own wives did frequently. It was nothing to be worried about.

"Eh? This mask doesn’t have any holes for the eyes," Leyvi remarked, turning the object in his hands. "What a weird design."

Hearing this, Rose turned to look.

The next moment, she froze, utterly shocked by the sight of the now-cleaned mask.

She knew very well who its owner was.

Mental Lord Vincent!

The prodigy hailed as the most talented Spiritual Cultivator of their entire generation!

A cold dread washed over her. Could it be... he was the one who had been killed just now?

Lily and Liyan also noticed the mask. They shared the same stunned reaction and the same terrifying thought as their mistress.

"Darling! That’s... that’s Mental Lord Vincent’s!" Rose informed him, her voice a mixture of alarm and excitement. She jumped to Leyvi’s side immediately.

"Eh? Mental Lord Vincent? That faction’s leader?" Leyvi was genuinely surprised, looking down at the cleaned mask with renewed interest.

"Right! Fufufu~" Rose laughed, a touch of dark glee in her tone. "Who would have thought he himself would come here to avenge his subordinates, only to be killed instead!"

Seeing an opportunity, she swiftly hugged Leyvi’s arm, pressing her soft mounds against him deliberately. "Darling saved our lives! With our abilities, there was no way we could have fended off his sneak attack. He was not a cultivator trained specifically for assassination, but he holds a terrifying record because of his abilities. All of his victims... their heads exploded! If not for you, we would have died for sure. Lily’s formation could not hide us from his perception."

Leyvi was dumbfounded. He was that strong? Then he truly had some spectacularly bad luck today. He obviously never expected anyone to see him.

"Hmph!" A frowning Ava suddenly appeared, inserting herself between them and prying Rose away from Leyvi’s arm. Want to use your... assets... to seduce him? Talk to me first! Her silent declaration was clear.

She then shot a sharp, pointed glance at Leyvi for a quick second.

Leyvi offered a wry, helpless smile. How is this my fault?

"Holy Maiden," he said aloud, redirecting the credit smoothly. "It was all thanks to Ava. She was the one who noticed him. If not for her, we would all be dead."

He was beginning to understand how to manage Ava’s temperament.

Like a charm, Ava’s deep frown softened, then transformed into a faint, satisfied smile. She gave a slight, proud nod. That’s right. It was all thanks to me.

Rose, ever perceptive, understood the assignment perfectly. She immediately began praising Ava’s keen senses and vital role, her words deftly turning the little spirit’s mood for the better.

If I want to progress further with Darling, I must raise my favor with Ava first. She reasoned.

"Oh, right! Darling!" Rose exclaimed, shifting focus back to the matter at hand with renewed excitement.

"You must take his space ring! He must have an extraordinary Spiritual Cultivation inheritance with him. I don’t think he rose this far on talent alone. He was a nobody before his ascent. With your talent, I am sure you can master what he did, and far more easily."

"Eh?" Leyvi blinked, looking back at the spot where the body had been. "But I don’t see any space ring on him."

He had checked previously. Only the mask remained. No ring. That was strange. All cultivators carried some kind of storage artifact unless they had been robbed recently. And this man was a faction leader. There was no way that happened.

Wait a minute... Leyvi’s thoughts raced, his eyes locking onto the smooth mask in his hand.

Don’t tell me... this mask itself is his storage item?