Chapter 256: The Mastermind Golden Immortal Dao

Zhou You dug at his ear; he had almost been deafened just now.

Although he was not a Martial Master, he possessed the storage vest of a blank-slate Martial Master, which he had invoked in an emergency.

The body of a Martial Master was truly sturdy; even when the opponent's 10-meter-wide wings slammed into him, he had managed to block it head-on.

He stared at the Huasheng Mei Laoda opposite him; was this the form of a Plague Ghost?

A sickly aura drilled in and out of its body, causing the surroundings to tremble.

No, it was still one step short; this guy had not yet finished transforming and had to be killed as soon as possible.

"Give me your life!"

Zhou You had not noticed at all that the City Gate Guard waist token on his body, having accumulated the battle record of one Huasheng Mei after another, was developing an increasingly thick patina and was quietly undergoing some kind of change.

He carried his bone hammer and stepped forward, engaging the opponent in a fierce battle once more.

With its plague wings, the Huasheng Mei leader was like a tiger that had grown wings; both the sky and the ground were its main battlefields.

It stretched out arms as agile as a monkey's, blocking Zhou You's pincer attack of the bone hammer in his left hand and the tiger claw in his right, then casually spat out a bright red tongue, shattering the fist-sized copper tiger spirit that was blowing toward its face.

The tiger spirit had upgraded to copper, making its lethality against charms even greater.

Any charm invaded by the tiger spirit would see its internal and external flesh rapidly decay and rot, sprouting thick, emerald-green copper rust.

Even as strong as a near-latent Huasheng Mei leader, it dared not make direct contact with the copper tiger spirit, blowing it away from a distance.

"Screech!"

Just as it swung its other arm, straight and hard as a steel rod, to pierce Zhou You's heart, a crane's cry suddenly rang out behind its head.

But Zhou You was clearly attacking from the front; how could he have circled to the back to launch a sneak attack at the same time?

A crane's beak pecked fiercely, striking the leader's occiput; although it failed to pierce through, it smashed a fist-sized dent into it.

The world inside the Huasheng Mei leader's ears rapidly descended into buzzing and chaos.

Zhou You charged in from the front, his body stretching slightly like a hungry tiger, the copper tiger spirit tearing through the opponent's surface defenses like dry wood.

*Squish, squish*, the Hu Zhua pierced through skin and flesh, locking onto the Huasheng Mei leader's shoulder blades and collarbone.

"Hah!"

Zhou You exerted force with both arms, expanding briefly, and finding the opponent's skin and flesh too tough to tear, he simply grabbed the opponent's shoulders and began to twist them clockwise like a screw.

The Huasheng Mei leader's eyeballs were about to pop out; this was too ruthless! It flapped its wings desperately, slamming them hard against Zhou You's face, but it had no effect.

Zhou You invoked the physical strength of the blank-slate Martial Master; the attack of a mere Near-Latent was just a drizzle! A moment later...

The Huasheng Mei leader's form was spirally twisted, like a towel wrung dry of water.

An ordinary person with such injuries, even with Qi and blood, would not be able to hold on and would have died long ago.

But it was still alive, its skin and flesh wriggling and rebounding, attempting to rotate in the opposite direction to straighten its body.

"Let me take a look at this character."

Zhou You's fingernails were as sharp as hooks, tearing open the piece of skin on the Huasheng Mei's forehead.

The moment he touched it, the brand ignited, leaving a hole in the shape of a twisted character.

Looking back, the Huasheng Mei's forehead was a bloody mess, but the brand remained.

In other words, the moment the skin was torn off, the brand automatically sank deeper, still attached to the opponent's shell.

This character, suspected to be one of the Nine Cauldrons of Heaven and Man, had already become a part of the Huasheng Mei leader's internal structure, just like the texture of the skin and the distribution of blood vessels and bones; it could not be separated by simply peeling skin or dismantling bones.

Zhou You guessed that it must have been created by some kind of miraculous Secret Medicine to produce such a peculiar sight.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Around the Huasheng Mei leader, plague and sickness aura continuously gathered, replenishing its riddled shell.

Given enough time, it might really be possible for it to return to its original state, or even become more powerful.

No wonder it wanted to transform into a Plague Ghost; as long as the plague did not perish, it could recover to its original state no matter how severely it was injured.

"Since that's the case, I cannot let you live!"

Zhou You held a dagger and cut into the Huasheng Mei's neck, sawing back and forth.

After a long while... the Huasheng Mei leader was completely dead; only a headless corpse remained on the ground, which Zhou You had also used his bone hammer to break all its joints and punch two large holes through its chest and abdomen.

Zhou You held the hideous head up to eye level, examining the character on its forehead closely.

The more he looked, the more marvelous it seemed, and he couldn't help but think of taking it back to study.

Since it could not be removed by physical means, what about using Tianfu Decipher Confusion?

Zhou You rubbed his chin; there were 9 Huasheng Mei on the scene, and if he swallowed them one by one, he would surely have a small harvest! "Tianfu Decipher Confusion."

"Tianfu Decipher Confusion +1."

"Tianfu..."

Zhou You swallowed from the corpses one by one, hearing the panel ding-donging with constant notifications in his ears.

"One Charm Core."

"One Charm Core."

"One piece of Charm Bone, can be used for auxiliary improvement of defensive arts."

"One piece of Charm Bone, can be used for auxiliary improvement of Lightness Skill."

"One piece of Charm Core."

Charm Cores were gem-like; besides being consumed by the Wuxiang Tongkui, they had many other uses, and the more, the better.

As for the Charm Bones, they were also good things; they provided auxiliary improvement for arts and could partially replace Secret Medicine, reducing the loss of Experience Points.

It wasn't until the Huasheng Mei leader that a big treasure chest dropped.

"Latent Charm Remains, when fused with a Qi and Blood Divine Weapon, can help it upgrade to a Latent Charm Treasure (incomplete)."

Zhou You remembered that Commander Chen's trump card for sweeping through the Mowun Stronghold was the Strong Martial Golden Body, which had broken the Calamity Charm Treasure of the Mowun Stronghold's head leader.

A Calamity Charm was an existence that rivaled a Strong Martial, while a Latent Charm was a grade lower, equivalent to a Martial Master.

The damage limit of a Qi-Blood Divine Weapon is a Primary Martial Master; once a martial master comprehends the principle of extreme hardness becoming soft, and their limbs can stretch and move freely, they can use softness to overcome hardness and neutralize the lethality of a Qi-Blood Divine Weapon.

In other words, once one reaches the level of an Intermediate Martial Master, they no longer fear assassination by Qi-Blood Divine Weapons.

But Hidden Charm Treasures are different; their power is even greater than ordinary Qi-Blood Divine Weapons.

If Zhou You had a broken Hidden Charm Treasure, wouldn't he be able to inflict damage on enemies above the level of a Primary Martial Master?

Fusion, should he decisively choose fusion?

Zhou You chose that dagger and fused it with the Hidden Charm wreckage, using it as a trump card for backstabbing people.

A sharp sword is too long and the target is too large, making it difficult to launch a surprise sneak attack, and the bone hammer is his signature skill that he often displays, so it is also inconvenient to use as a trump card for a one-hit kill.

After thinking it over, a dagger is still very suitable; hiding it in a sleeve and stabbing someone unexpectedly—that feeling is sour and refreshing! "It's a pity; if I had waited for him to become a Plague Ghost before killing him, the wreckage obtained would be of a higher grade, and perhaps it could have been fused into a complete Hidden Charm Treasure."

While Zhou You was sighing with emotion, another good thing arrived...

"One 100% Ancient Seal Script that has been recorded, interpreted, and applied; Ancient Seal Script level increased to lv15."

The brand on his forehead lit up, merged into the panel, and quickly matched the incomplete character that Zhou You had recorded.

In an instant, a massive amount of information flooded into his mind.

"Ancient Seal Script is not just about recording and interpreting; there is a third stage: application."

"The function of this character is... bewitchment, subtly influencing the thoughts of charm creatures to achieve a certain goal."

"So this Transformation Charm gathering companions, raising human livestock, and frantically collecting sickness Qi to evolve into a Plague Ghost was actually being pushed by a mastermind who has mastered Ancient Seal Script."

A tidal wave surged in Zhou You's heart, and the three large characters 'Golden Immortal Dao' appeared in his mind.

"The truth about the Good at Driving Away Charm is actually like this; the Golden Immortal Dao has mastered the method of using the Nine Tripod Characters."

Through this character, Zhou You briefly saw the existence of the mastermind, Kunpengzi.

An aged face opened its eyes, "Who is peeking at me?"

The connection was severed instantly.

(End of this chapter)