Dodging aside, I unleashed three fourth-step High level "Ice Roses," fully freezing the Lava Salamander into an ice statue I didn't shatter—let it delight stray travelers. Though who else but me needs this backwater? Ah, right. Those I got info from.
Circling the frozen mid Grand Commander, I cautiously neared the Flaming Thread fire flower, coated in thin ice for protection, and harvested seeds. Its scorching threads burst from soil as I closed in, wrapping to dice me, but failed. My ice too tough for deadly strings.
No thought to destroy this wonder; parallel history says a Hunter team stumbles on it, info reaching my book. Won't be ungrateful pig—leave pioneers their find... this time.
Stretching, I sighed in relief. Flaming Thread seeds last to get—I saved them. Others containered in my Spatial Pocket, awaiting girls.
Of them, Red Spider Lily easiest. No one lived where it grew. Bitter-experienced monsters shunned coma from pollen or soul damage from cuts, building far off. With sixth spirit boundary, reinforced ice shield, and Spirit Element aid, quick work.
Blood Sufferer trickier. Mine symbioted with senior plant-type Grand Commander; pacifying sans seed damage took effort. Spirit Element saved day. Next raise it to High—seniors barely wince now. Good sixth boundary helps.
Sand Aloe would've been like Red Spider Lily, lonely in useless desert... but seeds centered, guarded by dozen ten-meter petals tanking senior hits each. No need say what took longest? Especially careful strikes to spare seeds.
All told, three days as planned, but no rest yet. Suddenly recalled no official High level talent picked. No need explain "Passive star level boost" or China's top "Mutated Stars" as fave.
Otherwise, even with the support of the ancient Clan Tang, as old as the country itself, it would be strange if I strengthened all my High-level elements with the souls of Commanders-in-Chief. I'm not sure I could scrape together that many such souls for sale from the entire world, let alone just from China. And the money for such a purchase would be indecently huge. And when they check and see that nothing was bought... I don't need that kind of happiness.
So this talent will not only greatly boost my combat power but also serve as good cover in front of others. Like, sure, I'm rich, but only with souls at the Servant and Pack Chieftain level, and I hit three tiers stronger thanks to the talent. No way to nitpick! And quietly, I'll be hitting four tiers stronger! Paradise!
The mechanism for extracting the talent from the young Dongfang Min was already worked out when I gave it to replace Heidi's, so it didn't take much time—less than ten minutes. Extract his talent, give him "Spell Amplify x1.2" borrowed from an acquaintance criminal, and leave. All quite simple. Merging with the talent, I checked my current power and smiled.
Now my power approaches that of a High-tier mage at the first step with a weak Soul Seed. And that's using traditional magic! With fusion magic, I could roll a High-tier mage at the first step—even one with a Soul Seed as good as mine—right into the asphalt! And those are almost nonexistent in nature. Anyway, I didn't take this talent for nothing; it significantly boosted my strength.
I could even tweak it for the girls until I figure out how to properly haul souls from other worlds into ours. I have some developments, of course, but with my time shortage, they'll stay that way until I test and refine them experimentally. Against my background, boosting the girls' magic by just one tier won't look strange.
Said and done. I didn't drag it out and borrowed talents from two more young Dongfang Mins. Stood there, thought, and went to extract the talent from a third. After all, a long time ago I wanted to repay that girl whose "Accelerated Magic Energy Recovery" talent I took, but back then I lacked the power. Now, I'm sure I could even escape her father. So no more excuses to avoid paying the karmic debt.
Since I remembered the coordinates of her world and the approximate movement routes, finding her was no trouble. After the past kidnapping incident, her guard was increased to a whole five High-tier mages, but for current me... they were like dust underfoot.
Dash in on "Eightfold Time Acceleration," cover us with a modified "Ice Dome" spell that those suffocators could never break through in their lives, and insert into the frightened girl... a talent. Done, karmic debt paid, I wash my hands of it. Now I can return to my girls.
As soon as I closed the door behind me, my two little angels hugged me right away:
"Mu Bai! You're finally back!" TuTu exclaimed joyfully, squeezing me in her embrace.
"We missed you!" Jiao Jiao squeaked touchingly, nonetheless shoving my face into her chest. My shy pervert.
"I missed you too. But first, accept my little gifts, then thank me." Smiling, I ruffled their heads and infused a talent into each of their spiritual worlds.
Feeling the changes in their inner worlds, the girls immediately sat in lotus position and dove in to check what I'd added this time. When they saw it, they didn't understand what it was and gave me questioning looks.
"I infused you each with the 'Mutated Stars' talent. It passively boosts your stars by one tier. Souls are tight for me right now, so I decided to boost your power this way at least." I explained, for which I was immediately squeezed in hugs again and buried under words of gratitude. And not just words... TuTu's hand creeping under my pants clearly hinted at where our touching reunion was heading.
Looks like the seeds of the obtained plants the girls will get tomorrow. But I'm all for such an arrangement with both hands! Nice to finally come home.