Chapter 405

Luo Ji slowly lowered his head, his gaze focusing on the Bronze Ancient Mirror lying quietly in his palm.

The mirror surface resembled a weathered, tattered mask, covered in spider-web-like crisscrossing cracks; the cracks were intricately complex, as if they were deep marks left by the passage of time.

What was hair-raising was that a dark red liquid faintly seeped from within every single crack.

Those liquids wound and flowed across the mirror surface, slowly wriggling within those twisted cracks, as if retaining a remnant consciousness, wanting to break free from their bonds and flow out.

Looking again at the mirror frame, it was actually carved with a hollow human face.

This face seemed like an existence forgotten by time, its skin withered like wind-dried tree bark scorched by the blazing sun and lashed by fierce winds, rough and ancient.

Dense runes could faintly be seen flickering within the creases of the wrinkles.

Those runes were like invisible silk threads, tying the fragmented face firmly in place, preventing it from completely falling apart.

The most bizarre thing was that the face had no features, only a smooth, sunken hollow, bottomless, as if quietly waiting, waiting for someone's face to come fill it in.

Luo Ji called out the mirror's name in the bottom of his heart, while simultaneously recalling the mirror's various information one last time in his mind.

This information seemed to have been forcibly instilled into his brain; after repeated comprehension, he summarized it into a few simple rules:

Ability: Steal a genius's destiny.

Trigger Conditions:

Step One: Bind a genius, just need to shine the mirror on them for 5 seconds.

Step Two: Steal. When the target meets with bad luck or death, their destiny will be devoured by the mirror.

Stealing Methods:

Active: Create bad luck or directly kill the target, effect is significant.

Passive: Wait for the target to naturally meet with bad luck or die, effect is weaker.

Effect:

Obtain the target's most outstanding talent or ability, and randomly inherit one of the target's flaws.

Upgrade:

Initial: Can only steal one genius's destiny.

After Upgrade: Can steal a maximum of five geniuses' destinies, and ultimately fuse them into a destiny uniquely one's own.

Side Effects:

The fused destiny will permanently alter personality, possibly leading to split personality.

After the genius whose destiny was stolen dies, part of their soul will be absorbed by the mirror, and their features will gradually emerge on the mirror surface. When the features become completely clear, it will trigger a "Surprise".

Regarding the "Surprise", the information did not explain in detail, as if it had been erased by the cracks on the mirror surface.

But Luo Ji knew with his toes that it absolutely would not be anything good.

He stared at the mirror surface; the dark red liquid in the cracks seemed to respond to his gaze, flickering with a black ghostly light.

That faceless face seemed to be silently mocking, welcoming the arrival of the first "occupant"!!!

Bringing the mirror out from the Hidden Gate, and after figuring out the mirror's ability, Luo Ji rushed over to visit No. 8 Middle School without stopping, just to personally witness the outstanding bearing of those geniuses in the Martial Arts Joint Examination.

Watching them on the Platform, performing excellently, the center of all eyes, drawing earth-shaking cheers, Luo Ji was truly too excited.

Without exaggeration, Luo Ji was even more excited than the geniuses standing on the Platform.

After several days of observation, Luo Ji had screened out a few targets, though it couldn't be said he screened them; it was the Martial Arts Joint Examination that helped him screen them out.

All the tedious preparatory work, the Martial Arts Joint Examination did for him; he just needed to shine the mirror on them and complete the free ride.

Nothing more to say, Luo Ji's current mood could be summed up in just two words — gratitude!

Luo Ji took a deep breath, his wrist turned slightly, aiming the mirror at the nearest Platform.

Beep—

The Referee's whistle sounded.

The sharp whistle sound made Feng Yuhuai's mind recover a moment of clarity.

She reacted in horror; amidst the chaotic noise, there seemed to be a bizarre sound constantly looping, stimulating her to the brink of madness.

"Who? Where did the sound come from, who is stimulating me?"

Feng Yuhuai froze in place, abruptly raising her head, looking towards Qian Duoyu opposite her who was shining with golden light all over, her voice becoming hoarse,

"Is this your trick?"

The instant the whistle sound fell, Qian Duoyu did not rush to attack, but first assumed a defensive posture.

Then, he parted his lips slightly, revealing a tongue coating printed with the fluorescent words "X-7 Combat Excitement Agent" between his tongue and teeth.

The next moment, he bit down hard to crush the tongue coating; in a split second, his whole body surface visibly flickered with an electric current, his blood rampaged incomparably violently in his blood vessels, and his whole body's aura also surged violently.

His originally round, slightly chubby body rapidly shrank and collapsed, turning in the blink of an eye into a lean, muscular man with distinct muscle lines and a strong sense of power.

Then, he flicked his right hand, his little finger fracturing in response, a pool of liquid gushing out from under the skin and flesh.

Metal Liquid shimmering with silver light spread along his fingers, covering his whole body in the blink of an eye, forming an extremely thin protective suit.

Then, Qian Duoyu violently shook his head, a head of golden long hair instantly moving without wind.

That was not ordinary long hair, but an artificially implanted "Neural Wig" — every strand was forged from 24K gold, embedded with nano-level neural Crystal Yuan inside.

These hair strands could receive his brainwave signals, flexible like tentacles, and could even instantly harden into lethal weapons.

At this moment, his wig drew golden arcs in the air, emitting a high-frequency trembling buzzing sound, reflecting his whole person in a golden, dazzling, blinding light.

Qian Duoyu moved his lean neck, his drastically changed face revealing thick contempt:

"How can this be called a trick? The reasonable development and utilization of the body is the power bestowed upon me by money; you question it only because poverty has limited your imagination."

Qian Duoyu had obviously misunderstood; what Feng Yuhuai wanted to ask about as a trick was not this; obviously, Qian Duoyu misunderstood the true meaning of the trick Feng Yuhuai asked about.

However, Qian Duoyu's appearance of transforming into a golden body on the Platform did indeed surprise Feng Yuhuai.

The Professional Referee standing in the field scanned Qian Duoyu with a sharp gaze, then righteously said to Feng Yuhuai:

"Your opponent has not violated any rules. In the world of Martial Dao, the reasonable development and utilization of the body, pursuing the extremity of power, is the goal pursued by every Martial Artist, and is also the concept advocated by Martial Dao.

"Therefore, the match continues!"

And Qian Duoyu's answer fell into Feng Yuhuai's ears, and as a matter of course was misunderstood as a public admission that the bizarre stimulating sound in her Nao Hai was precisely from Qian Duoyu's "tricks".

"You deserve death!"

Feng Yuhuai's eyes widened, her eyes splitting at the corners, as if blood threads continuously seeped from the corners of her eyes.

Her body trembled uncontrollably, that malicious chill in her Nei Xin like a burst dam's flood, with the force of overturning mountains and seas, once again surging up violently.

And this time, the fear and madness brought by this malicious chill were even more violently terrifying than at any previous time, as if they would completely swallow her reason.

Feng Yuhuai's eyes revealed Yan Shi murderous aura, her red hair dancing wildly behind her, she tapped her foot and her whole person, carrying evil wind, pounced to kill toward Qian Duoyu.

At this moment, the whole Shijie in her eyes seemed to have vanished, her mind left only with that continuously repeating sound, rustling like a wild beast's chewing sound, and also like someone using fingernails to continuously scratch inside her head.

Eyes covered by a layer of red Fog, the audience, the Referee, everything, all suddenly vanished, leaving only this Platform/Ring beneath her feet, and that golden-shining... food before her eyes.

"Eat him!!!"

"Eat him right here on the Platform/Ring!"

Hysterical, manic roaring roared in Feng Yuhuai's soul.

(End of Chapter)