Yun Xinghe, confused, gestured for Jiang Hao to calm down before saying, "What's wrong? Weren't you just upgrading your skills? What happened? Don't get agitated, tell me slowly."

Jiang Hao struggled to suppress his urge to explode and said, "Why did my skill become weaker after it was upgraded? My level 100 skill could summon 200 creatures, so why can I only summon one after it was upgraded?"

"What?"

Yun Xinghe, standing three feet tall, pointed at Jiang Hao and shouted, "Holy crap, are you serious? You're only level 30-something, how did you level up your skills to 100? Where did you get your skill points?"

Yun Xinghe's shout was quite loud. All eight of his companions looked over at them.

Jiang Hao was stunned, thinking, "Can't I just level up with skill points? There's no level limit for skill upgrades." But, was he focusing on the wrong thing? So Jiang Hao said, "Is that what I meant? I said my skill has become weaker! Before, I could summon 200 creatures, but after leveling up, I can only summon one!"

Yun Xinghe thought for a moment and said, "Generally, after a skill reaches level 100, leveling up again will bring it to the beginner level of Legendary. At that point, the skill undergoes a qualitative change. I'm not sure what the mechanism of the skill you're talking about is, but is there really no other change to your skill? For example, the skill effect, the skill description, or anything like that?"

The skill description remained unchanged. Jiang Hao had checked it many times. As for the skill effect, there were no monster corpses here for him to revive, so how would he know the skill effect?

Seeing that Jiang Hao was no longer so agitated, Yun Xinghe said, "Have you ever thought about this question? Why can the Spirit Ruins help you upgrade your skills? I mean, how exactly does the data from the Spirit Ruins affect your skill upgrades?"

Jiang Hao looked completely bewildered. He didn't understand what Yun Xinghe was talking about. Having skill points meant he could level up; it was perfectly natural. Did he really need to delve into that?

Seeing that Jiang Hao clearly didn't understand what he meant, Yun Xinghe shook his head and said, "Then do you know how people resisted monsters before the Spirit Ruins appeared?"

Jiang Hao knew the answer; it was on the panel screen of the Ancient Martial Arts Pavilion. So Jiang Hao asked, "Is it through those ancient martial arts?"

Yun Xinghe was somewhat surprised, but then he remembered that Jiang Hao had already opened the Ancient Martial Arts Pavilion, so he nodded and said, "That's right, it's based on ancient martial arts. It's just that back then, ancient martial arts required people to practice constantly. Only when you cultivate to a high enough level will the power of the ancient martial arts become greater. Now you should understand what skill upgrades are, right?"

Jiang Hao shook his head.

"Damn, you're really stupid! A skill is like an ancient martial arts manual. Upgrading your skill is like practicing that ancient martial arts. It's just that Lingxu has simplified the process. Skill points are actually a universal form of energy that can increase the power of your skills. It's impossible for your skill power to weaken when you invest skill points, so do you understand now?"

Could it be that I've made a mistake?

Have you misunderstood the Spirit Ruins System?

After all, even though I've invested so many skill points, I haven't tried out the effects of the new skills yet. Just looking at the skill descriptions makes it really hard to know their true effects.

So Jiang Hao decided to test the skill's effect. He said to Zuo Ming, "Come on, buddy, help me activate my Heavenly Eye. I want to test the skill's effect."

Yun Xinghe instantly understood Jiang Hao's meaning and took several steps back, clearly resisting the transfer of his talent. Seeing Zuo Ming smile maliciously and about to use his talent, Yun Xinghe quickly pointed ahead and shouted, "No, no, no! There are monsters not far ahead!"

Although Jiang Hao didn't quite believe it, he really couldn't find an excuse. After all, he was the team captain, and he couldn't be too domineering.

So the group continued walking forward. Just when Jiang Hao felt he couldn't wait any longer, Yun Xinghe, who was walking alongside Jiang Hao, stretched out his arm and blocked the way in front of the group.

He turned his head and said, "Well, the Monster Forest is just ahead. There are a lot of monsters in there, and I'm a little scared. How about... how about I lend you both my talent, and we go in after you've cleared out the monsters?"

After Yun Xinghe finished speaking, he suddenly darted behind Jiang Hao and stood side by side with Qiu Si. At the same time, the warrior Luo Zai (Jiang Hao couldn't recall his previous ID, but after looking at his attribute panel a few times, he remembered his real name) took the lead, raising his shield and standing in front of Jiang Hao. The archers Ling Feng and Sun Zhi were positioned on either side of Jiang Hao, bows drawn, standing in a row with the mage Zuo Ming. It was clearly Jiang Hao as the core. Only the archer Li Duofu, holding his bow, stood three meters behind Luo Zai. Standing in front of Sun Zhi, he had to shift to the right to avoid being positioned too far away from Sun Zhi. It was clearly the main tank Luo Zai as the core.

Pastor Zhu Lin, staff in hand, stood at the back of the line, staring at the strange dual-core formation, momentarily unsure which side to prioritize. She also noticed the team was missing an assassin—the quiet, seemingly indifferent Fu Zigui. She vaguely remembered him being called a thief with a code of honor at the recommendation meeting.

Just as Zhu Lin was about to say, "Shouldn't you guys adjust your positions again?" she saw Yun Xinghe run out and pull Luo Zai to Jiang Hao's right, saying, "Brother, brother, with this guy here, you don't have to take hits or tank monsters anymore. Just take out your big sword and focus on dealing damage."

Luo was still skeptical. He looked at Jiang Hao, then at Yun Xinghe, but ultimately did not put the shield away.

Yun Xinghe shook his head, said nothing, and then slipped behind Jiang Hao again.

No one seemed to notice that someone was missing from the group, so Zhu Lin called out again, "We're missing someone! Fu Zigui is lost! I just saw him, how could he disappear in the blink of an eye?"

Suddenly, a voice came from the air to Jiang Hao's left: "I'm here! I'm not lost!"

The sudden sound startled Jiang Hao and the others.

Zhu Lin was puzzled. Usually, when an assassin goes invisible, shouldn't teammates be able to see a blurry silhouette? How come when this guy goes invisible, his teammates can't find his trail at all?

Then he called out again, "Why can't I see you at all? If you get hurt later, I won't be able to protect you. Maybe you shouldn't turn invisible."

Fu Zigui's voice echoed through the air again: "Injured? You're kidding! I've never been injured before. Besides, with the Lord of Hell around, fighting monsters is the safest thing to do, right?"

Zhu Lin thought to herself, "This guy is incredibly arrogant. Has he never been injured?"

How could he even say that?

Then Zhu Lin called out again, "I advise you to listen to my advice. If your shield disappears later and I don't know, you might freeze to death."

Sure enough, as soon as he said that, Fu Zigui appeared. But he was incredibly arrogant; he stood to Jiang Hao's left, his hands on the hilt of the dagger at his waist, not even drawing the dagger, as if he didn't care at all about the adventure that was about to begin.

Even Jiang Hao, who was already raising his staff, didn't seem as arrogant as him.