Chapter 144

The Star Cup's peak Top Sixteen, the designated stepping stone for the Ten Outstanding of all generations, the Nanhuang Dojo Master, the last glory of Hengzhou's Old Martial Arts, the Martial Arts Association Headquarters Honorary Committee Member...

After a long string of titles, there always accompanied that plain and ordinary name.

Zhang Qiang!

The white-haired elder's lifelong obsession was to make this ordinary name of his, through being engraved on the Ancient Heavenly Road at the highest point of the Star Sea, prove that he was extraordinary!

"Kid, don't be afraid, mere followers, watch this old man cut him down!"

The withered, small body trembled as it left the wheelchair, two legs like they were convulsing, shaking uncontrollably.

With great difficulty, he finally stood firm.

Qin Shi watched with a pounding heart, wanting to step forward and lend a hand, then carry the old master on his back and turn tail to run.

The four Pillar Bosses were really too unconscionable, going to such great lengths, specially opening a transmission just to send over a wheelchair-bound old master who combined old age, weakness, sickness, and disability all in one!

"Kid, in a moment let you have a taste of..."

"Zhang Daye."

Qin Shi's simple three words nearly shattered the white-haired elder's Dao heart.

He didn't turn his head, roaring in anger:

"Just call me Daye directly!"

Qin Shi's mouth twitched, upholding the traditional virtue of respecting elders, going with the flow:

"Daye."

You brat know what's good for you!

The white-haired elder was satisfied, he took a deep breath, the silent Flesh Vitality slowly reviving, old arms and old legs needed warming up before they could be swung effectively.

"Kid, help me stall for half a minute. After half a minute, this old man will help you kill them all."

Qin Shi thought, Zhang Daye really was unreliable, talking nonsense.

Me, a high school student with Qi Life Force not even eighty points, who hasn't even initially touched the Field Prototype, how could I possibly beat a Shouguanzhe blessed by the Snake Mother in the middle stage of Holy Embryo.

Unless he's brainless like that Gray Viper, willing to run into my Inner Landscape and let me eat him clean!

"You have the Four Pillars' Symbolic Emblem, what are you afraid of! Don't lose face, kid!"

The white-haired elder encouraged.

"Dry up that suit-wearing man, maybe the 【Tianren】 will be in a good mood and bestow some golden legend, epic equipment on you!"

Daye really knows how to paint pies.

Qin Shi naturally didn't believe the Four Pillars were so generous, but as the Secret Sect Ritual progressed to its later stage, the entire Slaughter Factory was covered by the Snake Mother's cold gaze.

Existences like them, Foreign Races, are themselves aggregations of "Concepts" and "Rules". The difference from orthodox Divine Spirits lies in the latter approaching order, containing divinity. The former, well, are one hundred percent corruption, highlighting a chaotic distortion and maddening confusion.

After Fang Xin attracted the Snake Mother's gaze through the Feast, the terrifying influence began to take effect.

Metal steel, frozen meat, even several corpses discarded as unqualified "meals"... they were all "Activated".

"San value dropping too much, just looking feels like Spiritual Pollution."

Qin Shi looked at those metal-and-flesh mutually stitched, bizarre "creatures", they were striding toward him.

"Daye, step back a bit."

He stepped forward, the Ru Shen Ti's Operate Force method traversing his whole body, scorching hot Breath circulating, spinning rapidly.

The next moment, the tall figure vanished from the spot, like furious thunder exploding in mid-air.

【Instant Shadow】!

A kick with stored power crossed the air, heavily driving into the Snake Mother-influenced mutated creature.

Thud!

Metal pierced through, flesh torn apart!

Immediately after, Qin Shi flashed again, hands forming Punch Eyes, terrifying wind pressure expanding outward, like a steel cannon firing, knocking down a mutated creature nearly two meters tall on the spot.

"Actually not a Shouguanzhe!"

Fang Xin, having completed the ritual, opened his eyes, the rhombus mark on his forehead had turned into a green vertical pupil.

Three gazes landed on Qin Shi, like substantive coldness, raising goosebumps.

"What are you looking at?"

Qin Shi, having consecutively taken down several ignorant, unfeeling mutated creatures, likewise looked toward Fang Xin.

The latter's cheeks grew fine snake scales, leaning ever more toward Foreign Race.

He grinned:

"Interesting. Martial Artist Path, yet favored by the Four Great Divine Spirit Pillars, could it be a special Constitution?"

He operated the Shen Ling Sheng Tai, several Qi Snakes thicker than before, like deep-sea giant pythons swimming and soaring, lunged at Qin Shi.

Since he's not a Shouguanzhe, there's nothing to fear!

"Espers are really trouble! Their attacks, just with fists and feet there's no way to deal with them... Fortunately! I'm also half an Esper!"

Qin Shi's gaze calm, Spirit Residing in Inner Landscape, Spirit and Mortal Body merging in darkness, throwing out a 【Feng Ming】!

The deep-sea giant python-like swimming Qi Snakes, exploded in mid-air, shaking out clusters of gray-green mist.

Qin Shi held his breath, Ru Shen Ti operating, heat steaming and rising, like strands of white cloud-like ribbons, driving away the Paralysis Toxin.

For Old Martial Arts like him, Mortal Body breaking limits, Spirit Residing in Inner Landscape, it could be said to have no shortcomings.

"You're also a Spiritual Cultivator?"

Fang Xin couldn't help but freeze, this kid is stacking buffs here? Touching a bit of everything?

Martial Artist Path + Pillar Chosen + Spiritual Cultivator!

Why don't you add some Electronic Consciousness, Mechanical Life while you're at it?!

Through the precipitation of much Spirituality, the gradually solidifying Snake Mother vertical pupil, sensed the Shouguanzhe's emotional fluctuations, casting its gaze over.

Qin Shi felt a chill run through him, as if falling into an ice cellar in the depths of winter; the boiling breath of the Ru Shen Ti gradually solidified, as if frozen stiff.

But soon he realized something was wrong.

Why was the mental wave transmitted by this Snake Mother so strange?

"Submit to my command... you may surrender! Be crowned hereafter!"

Obscure and awkward ancient syllables gently shook the air, falling into Qin Shi's ears and automatically turning into a halting, majestic female voice.

"Am I some kind of Divine Spirit/Follower succubus?"

Qin Shi was quite surprised; logically, a Chosen One bearing the Symbolic Emblem of the Four Pillars should be regarded as a Heretic by Netherworld Followers, shouldn't he?

Actually, this was a misconception.

As powerful existences of the orderly camp, the Four Pillars recognized Chosen Ones.

They were often unparalleled geniuses and heroes, or paragons of moral perfection... such top-tier Good Seedlings—whose family wouldn't covet them?

Like elites from the world's top ten Companies, they could find work anywhere.

【Accept the gaze of the Shen Ling Zhi Guan "Snake Mother"?】

【Convert it into an Achievement Trait?】

【If you choose to accept】

【You will obtain "Qi of Six Desires"】】

Qin Shi was slightly stunned, then immediately chose to expand and examine it in more detail.

After skimming through it in a few glances, his facial color was very strange.

"It can emit a breath that arouses the desire of the opposite sex, stimulating hormone secretion... what a human-shaped walking aphrodisiac!"

Qin Shi's face was full of Xian Hen; this kind of Achievement Trait, even a dog wouldn't want it.

Refuse it directly!

"The Snake Mother is actually casting more gaze upon him! I am the Snake Mother's recipient!"

Fang Xin had a complex mood; what background did That Kid have, to attract an Upper-level Follower like this!

As he pondered, a thunderous, mighty roar rang in his ears—it was the Snake Mother's mental agitation—

"Kill him!"

Failing to recruit him, she turned angry from embarrassment, utterly lacking in stature; truly worthy of being a corrupted Evil Thing!

Qin Shi silently slandered her; after rejecting the Snake Mother, a great wind rose in the workshop, and terrible pressure came in waves, pushing horizontally toward him.

Like a powder keg exploding, dozens of Qi Snakes covered the sky and earth, almost impossible to avoid.

"Fortunately, half a minute has already passed."

Feeling the Shen Sheng breath surging, Qin Shi couldn't help but feel reassured.

He silently put his hands in his pockets, his face calm, welcoming Fang Xin's Qi Snake shock explosion.

As expected, like an immovable divine mountain rising from the ground, the majestic figure of white-haired Abruptly flashed, blocking all the raging waves below.

Great chunks of knotted muscles writhed, like a hundred pythons coiling, transforming into a Dragon, full of power and beauty.

Scorching air waves billowed and surged, distorting light, like a huge furnace hundreds of meters high, draining the moisture from the surroundings.

"Is this the perfect form at the pinnacle of the Ru Shen Ti?"

A flash of surprise crossed Qin Shi's eyes; he admired the powerful posture of the majestic back, pondering, how many layers of Shackles had this body of several Limits broken?

At least tendons, bones, skin, membranes—the four gates' Great Limits should all be broken, completing the ultimate carving of the flesh.

"Kid. Let you see what an extraordinary body pushed to the pinnacle is like!"

The white-haired old man stood there; visible pressure pushed aside the air, like wind Dragons surging upstream, rushing toward the high sky.

Boom!

The roof of the entire workshop was lifted open, revealing a gloomy lead-gray Dome.

It seemed the white-haired old man, who looked about twenty years younger, didn't put Fang Xin, the recipient, in his eyes at all; he stepped forward, like lightning flashing, with a "hiss" sound, tearing through the air, straight for the "Menmen" pried open by the Esoteric Ritual!

Crack!

His palm was like smashing a stele, heavily striking it!

The space within a hundred meters shook violently; that "Menmen" between void and reality was hard struck by the white-haired old man until it cracked, as if it would collapse the next moment.

Boom!

Another fist fell, using the Esoteric Ritual to mobilize secret power; the formed "Menmen" was on the verge of collapse!

"What is he doing?"

Fang Xin was stunned.

He had gone to such trouble, hiding in the Forbidden Zone, secretly hunting Criminals, even sacrificing his subordinates, all to gather enough Chang Ying offerings to let the Snake Mother descend and feast.

However, this old man who popped out from nowhere was using brute force to forcibly pry open that narrow gap!

This was clearly helping himself!

"Sir, this is planning to drag the Snake Mother over and Beat Up?"

Qin Shi saw more clearly than Fang Xin; feeling that the white-haired old man, whose name was ordinary but whose strength was indeed excessively strong, was simply too fierce.

Actually wanting to smash a Netherworld Follower with his bare hands!

Boom!

The final punch; the white-haired old man's Qi Jin surged within him, almost endless and inexhaustible, like a violent flood shaking the stars!

Enough to raze the Tu Chang Gong Chang, and even half of the Forbidden Zone; this terrible offensive was entirely poured back into that "Menmen".

Crack, crack!

Cracks kept expanding, and finally all collapsed!

The illusory figure of the Snake Mother, with a double flower crown on her head and a bewitching, beautiful form, instantly crossed that obstacle.

Before He could speak, thick, radish-thick broad palms suddenly clenched tight, the true intent unique to the Martial Artist Path circulating like a furnace burning with raging flames opening up and pressing down in an inverted cover!

"Look closely! Nanhuang Dojo! 'Universe Furnace Secret Canon'! Most suited for attacking Divine Spirit Abominations!"

(Chapter End)