"Nothing, just a bit strange!"
Ye Feng looked quite puzzled. "Xiao Xiao, are you still feeling pain or dizzy?"
"Mmm... much better than when I first woke up, but it hurts a lot whenever I try to use arcane energy," Xiao Xiao replied after thinking for a moment.
"Oh, right, Big Brother, can you check this spatial rift fragment ring for me? Is it broken?"
"When I was captured, I couldn't use arcane energy. I wanted to take out my AK-47, but I couldn't. I also can't sense anything inside the ring anymore!" Xiao Xiao added after a pause.
"Broken? That shouldn't be! There should be more than ten uses left!" Ye Feng frowned slightly, stepped forward to examine it, and with a flash of light, an AK-47 appeared in his hand.
"This spatial rift fragment ring isn't broken. Strange, why couldn't I take it out?"
"Ooh~ My head hurts again!" As she spoke, Xiao Xiao instinctively covered her temples with both hands.
"Xiao Xiao, don't try to take things out of this spatial rift fragment ring. You might have been hit by some kind of mental attack, that's why you're like this!" After pondering, Ye Feng understood immediately. He had encountered a similar situation before, the time he first met Ling Xi and almost died at the hands of that dog-headed brute. Back then, he had been subjected to a mental attack, unable to communicate with his spatial warehouse or contact the system...
"Xiao Xiao, smell this!" Saying that, Ye Feng took out the Spirit Nourishing Ganoderma from his spatial warehouse and placed it beside Xiao Xiao. Through previous experiments, Ye Feng had discovered that the Spirit Nourishing Ganoderma greatly aided in the recovery of mental energy.
"Okay~!" Xiao Xiao quickly moved closer to the Spirit Nourishing Ganoderma, and as she inhaled its unique fragrance, along with that of the ambrosial nectar, her frown soon eased. Ye Feng then willed it, and with a flash of light, he put the Spirit Nourishing Ganoderma back. After all, Leng Yue had warned Ye Feng before that exposing the Spirit Nourishing Ganoderma could bring him immense disaster...
"Xiao Xiao, tell me what happened at noon. Why did you suddenly run off, get knocked unconscious inexplicably, and not even have a chance to react?" Ye Feng helped Xiao Xiao lie down, his expression quite solemn.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you!" As soon as Ye Feng finished speaking, Xiao Xiao chimed in. "Big Brother, today, at that chaotic place where we traded for the slots in the Armorer Selection Assembly, I saw a big sister. She had the Seed Record that you were researching!"
"What?" Ye Feng looked at Xiao Xiao, very surprised. "Are you sure?"
"Mm!" Xiao Xiao nodded earnestly. "To be precise, it was on a folding fan she was holding. There was a bamboo slip on it, very similar to the one you've been researching recently, especially the runes on it!"
"That big sister was already walking away, and I didn't have time to explain, so I followed her!"
"I was following her fine, but maybe I wasn't the only one following that big sister..." Xiao Xiao hesitated at this point, seemingly unsure.
"Not just you, there were others?" Ye Feng asked, quite perplexed.
"I'm not sure~" Xiao Xiao nodded, then shook her head. "When I followed that big sister to a corner, I suddenly felt a warning from behind. But before I could react, I was knocked unconscious!"
"I vaguely felt it was a dark shadow... heading towards that big sister..." Xiao Xiao mused for a moment, recalling carefully.
"A powerful mysterious person... a dark shadow... a mental attack... a woman possessing the Seed Record..." Listening to Xiao Xiao's words, Ye Feng's mind was filled with many mysteries.
"Hoo~" Ye Feng let out a soft breath and squeezed Xiao Xiao's cheek. "Xiao Xiao, don't think too much, go to sleep!"
"Okay~" Xiao Xiao responded softly, closed her eyes, and soon began to snore lightly, clearly exhausted mentally.
"This Mech City seems to be a bit troublesome... That woman probably didn't deliberately reveal the Seed Record in front of me... Is that strange dark shadow related to those two people selling slots for the Armorer Selection Assembly..."
"And what's with that passageway that doesn't exist in Li Yidao's Mech City map..." With a multitude of doubts, Ye Feng also drifted off to sleep.
...
The next day, as the sun began to rise, Ye Feng woke up. Today, he was going to participate in the Armorer Selection Assembly, hoping to find something related to the Seed Record. As for Xiao Xiao, because she had suffered a mental attack yesterday, although she was awake, she was yawning incessantly and her eyes were groggy. She even ate with her eyes half-closed. So, Ye Feng had to carry Xiao Xiao on his back towards the location of the Armorer Selection Assembly.
...
"Zheng Huzhi?" Not long after leaving the Mech Star Hotel, Ye Feng spotted a familiar figure.
"What's wrong with you?" Ye Feng looked at Zheng Huzhi with some bewilderment. Unlike yesterday, when he was elated and smiling after getting the testing rod, Zheng Huzhi now looked dejected and gloomy.
"Alas, don't even mention it, I'm so unlucky!" Zheng Huzhi sighed, looking at the testing rod in his hand. "Hundreds of people came to me for testing yesterday, to see if they had a chance to participate in the Armorer Selection Assembly, but not a single one met the requirements..."
"What's outrageous is that several Black Iron level arcane energy powerhouses couldn't even make the patterns on the testing rod light up!"
"Logically, this shouldn't happen. With Black Iron level arcane energy cultivation, as long as one isn't an idiot and has some control, they can flood the arcane energy to meet the qualification line on the testing rod!" Zheng Huzhi said, becoming more and more frustrated, his brows furrowed into a mountain shape. After all, if there were no qualified participants, he wouldn't get any commission...
"Uh... could there be a problem with this testing rod?" Ye Feng frowned slightly and spoke.
"I thought of that too... but this testing rod was issued by the City Lord, and I've never heard of a testing rod malfunctioning..."
"I'm just a nobody, I wouldn't dare question it rashly..." Speaking of this, Zheng Huzhi looked troubled.
"Uh... it's getting late, I have to go~"
"That testing rod might really have a problem~" With that, Ye Feng quickly walked away in a certain direction, carrying Xiao Xiao on his back.
Zheng Huzhi frowned, sighed again, and walked towards a platform. "Opportunity knocks, Mech City selects armorers..."
...
It took Ye Feng a full two and a half hours to reach the location of the Armorer Selection Assembly, a super-large plaza in the inner city of Mech City. This plaza was as large as several football fields, and it was already crowded with people of all sorts. They were either chatting in small groups, standing aloof, meditating with eyes closed, or observing their surroundings... On the east side of the main plaza, directly in front of Ye Feng, stood a palace-like tall building with several rows of mechs, where people occasionally walked by. Most people on the plaza were gazing at the palace-like tall building with expectant faces.
"Big Brother, it's that big sister with the Seed Record!" As Ye Feng was observing his surroundings, Xiao Xiao's surprised voice suddenly reached his ears.