Chapter 3

The two ate in silence, the awkward atmosphere finally broken by Han Jiangxue.

While picking up some vegetables, Han Jiangxue asked casually, "Does it still hurt?"

"Eh..." Jiang Xiao, who was happily eating the braised pork, was praising the girl's amazing cooking skills when he suddenly heard Han Jiangxue's question. He hesitated for a moment and replied, "A little."

Han Jiangxue's expressionless face finally showed some change, seemingly a bit pained, but unwilling to show it. She opened her mouth, paused for a while, and then resumed her casual demeanor, saying, "Don't make videos like that again in the future."

"Okay." Jiang Xiao ate another piece of braised pork and took a big bite of rice, almost crying from happiness.

It was hard to imagine that such a young girl could have such astonishing culinary skills. Could this be her star skill?

This braised pork was truly fatty but not greasy, incredibly delicious.

Jiang Xiao's focused eating made Han Jiangxue feel a bit pained. Her little brother must have been scared by her earlier. She had indeed hit him without much control in her anger.

Thinking of this, Han Jiangxue put down her chopsticks and walked out of the kitchen.

Jiang Xiao paused for a moment, watching the girl in the white dress leave. Was she done eating already?

So little?

What a waste!

Don't you think about yourself, or at least the airport?

Aren't you planning to build a C-shaped building on the airport?

Jiang Xiao finished his bowl of rice and looked at the small bowl of rice left by Han Jiangxue on the opposite side of the table. He hesitated for a moment, then took it and continued to eat.

As time passed, the memories in his mind gradually merged, and he became more and more at ease.

Rationally, he knew he had no relation to this family.

But emotionally, Jiang Xiao was gradually getting into character.

The result of getting into character was... finishing the meal and leaving the table.

As for washing the dishes?

Ha, that didn't exist.

Jiang Xiao dismissed the idea of leaving the table immediately. He wasn't Jiang Xiaopi, and the differences in personality, behavior, and language would eventually be noticed.

Since that was the case, why not start making changes from small things? It would help Han Jiangxue accept him better.

Let's start with washing the dishes.

"Where's my food?" A cold voice came from behind.

Such a voice always made Jiang Xiao feel out of place. The otherworldly quality of her voice contrasted sharply with the mundane topics she discussed.

"I thought you weren't eating." Jiang Xiao paused in his actions of clearing the table.

"Uh-huh." Han Jiangxue seemed to be like this by nature, not bothering to argue. She didn't care about many things and simply gestured for Jiang Xiao to sit down.

"Okay." Jiang Xiao sat down, wondering if they were about to have a meeting.

With the mindset of "since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it," Jiang Xiao decided to try to fit into the role and obediently sat down.

"Here." Han Jiangxue opened her white, tender palm, revealing a yellow-copper-colored bead in front of Jiang Xiao.

"Is this... a star bead?" Jiang Xiao's eyes lit up. He wasn't unfamiliar with star beads. In Jiang Xiaopi's memories, Han Jiangxue had given him three star beads, which was why Jiang Xiaopi's star power had reached the Star Dust Level 2.

Unfortunately, Jiang Xiaopi's talent was poor, and most of the energy contained in the three yellow-copper-quality star beads was wasted.

Of course, Han Jiangxue's purpose in giving Jiang Xiaopi star beads wasn't just to enhance his star power but to help him obtain star skills.

Star beads come from dimensional creatures, but not every dimensional creature forms a star bead.

By absorbing a dimensional creature's star bead, one can obtain its abilities, which is the only way to acquire star skills.

What makes people sad is that even if you obtain a star bead and know that it contains the abilities of a dimensional creature, the probability of absorbing a star skill from it is extremely low.

Therefore, the difficulty of obtaining star skills is not low.

Moreover, an important point is that as one's star power increases, the awakened can absorb star skills.

The levels of star power are: Star Dust, Star Cloud, Star River, Star Sea, Star Sky, and possibly higher levels.

Even if a person has many star slots and great talent, when their star power is at the Star Dust level, they can embed at most four star beads in their star map, meaning they can have at most four star skills.

When the total star power reaches the Star Cloud level, they can absorb four more star skills.

When the total star power reaches the Star River level, a qualitative change occurs, allowing them to absorb eight more star skills, and so on.

These were still too far away for Jiang Xiao.

Jiang Xiaopi, who had already absorbed three star beads, naturally became one of the masses, having absorbed no star skills from the three star beads.

"Yesterday, I encountered a group of White Ghosts in the snowfield. This star bead is from a White Ghost Shaman." Han Jiangxue, who rarely spoke, said a whole sentence.

After explaining, she didn't say anything more and placed the small, fingernail-sized star bead in front of Jiang Xiao.

White Ghosts?

And this star bead wasn't from a White Ghost but from a rarer species—the White Ghost Shaman?

"Absorb it. People's constitutions are different. Some people, even if they activate their star maps, may never obtain a star skill in their lifetime." Han Jiangxue spoke another long sentence.

Are you trying to comfort me?

Jiang Xiao's expression was a bit strange. After combining the memories and realizing the value of the star bead in front of him, he sighed inwardly.

Han Jiangxue, seeing that Jiang Xiao wasn't moving and sensing his pressure, continued to comfort him, "Your talent isn't high. Your star map has only nine stars, which already determines your upper limit. Even if you can't absorb a star skill, don't be too sad. It's okay."

Jiang Xiao: ???

Jiang Xiao finally looked up, feeling helpless as he looked at Han Jiangxue. He knew she meant well, but why did her words make him so annoyed?

Indeed, Jiang Xiao's star map was the "Big Dipper Nine Stars," with nine dim stars representing nine star skills, and also representing his growth limit.

In simple terms, nine stars meant nine skill slots. No matter how much Jiang Xiao tried, he could only obtain nine star skills at most.

In general, the number of star slots represents a person's talent, not only distinguishing the number of star skills an awakened can obtain but also showing their development potential.

This was a standard formed after countless experiments in human society.

An awakened with 20 star slots and an awakened with 1 star slot, when facing the same quality of star beads, the 20-slot awakened can more easily obtain star skills.

Jiang Xiao's star map was the "Big Dipper Nine Stars," while Han Jiangxue's star map was a blazing white flame.

Through the connections of the star slots and the distribution and rendering of star power, Han Jiangxue's star map during battles was simply terrifying.

A full thirty star slots!

This represented the number of star skills she could obtain and her growth potential!

Jiang Xiao picked up the star bead from the table. Before absorbing it, a scene suddenly appeared in his mind.

"White Ghost Shaman Star Bead (Yellow-Copper Quality)

Star Skills:

1. Blessing: Slowly restores the target's vitality. (Yellow-Copper Quality, Upgradable)

2. Decoy: Creates an illusion to confuse enemies. (Yellow-Copper Quality, Upgradable)

Merge and Absorb?"

What does this mean? Absorb? And "merge" absorb?

What does this represent? Two skills in one slot?

Others might have a star bead and never absorb a star skill in their lifetime, while he could directly absorb it?

Including the "upgradable" mark, others, even if they absorbed a star skill, would be stuck at the quality level at the time of absorption and couldn't improve it.

But Jiang Xiao could enhance a skill's quality?

What a golden finger!

Was it because the system introduced this to Jiang Xiaopi three days ago, causing his mentality to completely collapse? Damn, he really was a chosen one!

"Don't be sad, absorb it. I can go and get more." Han Jiangxue said impatiently, waving her hand indifferently. She knew Jiang Xiao's talent and that her little brother was a big pit.

Han Jiangxue continued, "The White Ghost Shaman has two star skills. One heals teammates' injuries, and the other creates illusions. Both are very good..."

As she spoke, Han Jiangxue saw Jiang Xiao's eyes light up. The star bead in his hand turned into points of starlight and entered his chest.

Even if Han Jiangxue's personality was indifferent, at this moment, she felt a bit of anticipation. She tilted her head and asked, "Did you obtain a star skill?"

Jiang Xiao felt the starlight entering his body, opened his eyes, and nodded.

Han Jiangxue's beautiful eyes lit up, and her cold expression softened slightly, as if the whole world had become warmer.

Jiang Xiao looked at the girl with bright eyes and felt much better.

Han Jiangxue softly asked, "Which star skill did you obtain?"

Which star skill?

Jiang Xiaopi didn't have a choice,

But I, Jiang Xiao, want both!