The instant Shi Feng pulled the Sage's Hand from his bag, the surrounding space seemed to grow heavier, as though the entire world could barely contain the relic's pure and concentrated energy.
Before, with the Fire Demon King around, he hadn't had the chance to truly feel it. But now, simply taking out the Sage's Hand was enough—not only could he sense the pure energy, but there was also an indescribable sense of ethereal clarity.
It was as if the entire world had fallen silent in that moment, everything becoming so calm and simple.
"Is this the true Sage's Hand?" Shi Feng stared at the blood-red gem in his hand, his heart stirring with barely contained excitement.
The Sage's Hand — a Legendary-grade item, one of the supreme alchemical treasures passed down throughout the Divine Realm, a special gem forged by the sage Ulhart, possessing the inconceivable power to alter the soul.
It carried a passive effect: anyone who held the Sage's Hand would have the level of all their sub-classes raised by one tier.
Skill One — Soul of the Sage: could guide a player during item crafting. Duration: ten hours. Cooldown: twelve hours.
Skill Two — Soul Illusion: immersed the player in a virtual world where they could simulate the use of any material they understood to craft items, with no restrictions on quantity. Duration: eight hours. Cooldown: fifteen hours.
Although the Sage's Hand, being a Legendary-grade item, possessed very few skills, each one was absolutely heaven-defying.
Among the items Shi Feng had previously known about, the Epic-grade necklace Heart of Icarus — which could temporarily elevate a player to sub-class Master rank — had already been considered absurdly overpowered. Now, by comparison, the two were not even in the same league.
All sub-classes forcibly raised by one tier. That meant an Initial Master could instantly become an Intermediate Master, an Intermediate Master could instantly become an Advanced Master…
As for the Soul of the Sage, it needed no explanation. The system's guidance went straight to the essence of crafting, providing tremendous assistance to any player making items. Before, the original version lasted only a single hour — barely enough to do anything meaningful, since crafting consumed so much time. How much could anyone really accomplish in one hour?
Now, with ten hours added, a player could accomplish a great deal.
Moreover, the Soul Illusion skill was essentially an open door to the system's resource treasury, letting players experiment to their heart's content…
Only after seeing these two active skills did Shi Feng truly understand why the Sage's Hand could produce such a massive number of sub-class Masters. For any sub-class, no matter what was being crafted, materials were always required.
While some items could be simulated, the materials themselves could not be replicated. All a player could do was observe a simulation of their own crafting process. To truly test something, they needed the real thing.
To advance to Master rank, the items created were generally of a high grade, which meant the material requirements were equally demanding. But these materials weren't the kind you could just go out and collect — and even if you obtained eight or ten sets, it still wasn't enough.
It could be said that every sub-class Master was built upon a mountain of materials. Even the most gifted prodigies were no exception — they simply used slightly fewer resources. Now, with Soul Illusion, players could freely experiment with every kind of material without ever worrying about shortages. Creating something new naturally became far easier.
"I'm going to have quite the headache once I get back," Shi Feng murmured, looking at the Sage's Hand with a faint, rueful smile.
He had gotten his hands on it, but figuring out how to actually use it was a far bigger problem.
There was only one Sage's Hand, yet Candlelight Trading Firm had an absurd number of high-level sub-class players. The only one who knew all of them well enough to make the call was Melancholic Smile.