Chapter 287: Seeking a Breakthrough, A Chance Encounter in the Estate

After the Heaven-Nurturing Origin Art was upgraded, it brought in a windfall of 100,000 Experience Points.

Zhou You could never keep money in his hands; to avoid long nights and many dreams, he spent it all in a flash.

This amount of Experience Points was allocated to the Tiger-Crane Dual-Action Fist and the Seven Step Poison Sand Palm, raising both signature skills simultaneously to the 9th stage of Qi and Blood—a well-deserved peak level.

With this, both avatars stored in his virtual face were upgraded.

Lu Zhigang, like the main body, was at the peak of Qi and Blood, while the second avatar, Yan Ping, was a Primary Martial Master who had mastered the Ice Marrow Finger.

The situation was becoming increasingly urgent; he had just received news from Bao Shuixian that someone was coveting his... well, his body.

Zhou You thought it over and decided that only by having the second avatar, Yan Ping, step forward to muddy the waters would he have any chance of escaping.

The biggest problem he faced was the Qi Family's predatory gaze.

Qi Fengxiao viewed him as a mortal enemy, Qi Fengzhang wanted to recruit him to work for them, and there was also an unidentified female member of the Qi Family coveting his body, attempting to borrow his seed to absorb his essence and give birth to more powerful offspring.

Being drawn into the turmoil of a noble family was undoubtedly a path of constant terror and extreme danger.

To break the deadlock, he had to find a power more transcendent than the noble families.

"Golden Immortal Dao!"

Zhou You suddenly remembered that he had laid this groundwork while using Yan Ping's identity.

Back when he eradicated the charms in the village and saved the innocent girl, the legend of the Golden Immortal Dao still circulated in the outside world to this day.

Afterward, the Xu Family and the Qi Family searched many times but found nothing, yet they had not relaxed their pursuit.

If he appeared again, disrupting the two great families' line of sight and diverting their internal attention, he could buy more time for his main body and Lu Zhigang to break through to Martial Master.

Once he broke through to Martial Master, Zhou You would no longer be a chess piece and would have the qualifications to negotiate terms.

In the distant Mo Yun Stronghold, 'Lu Zhigang' sat in the ruins, the surroundings rustling as countless lurking poisonous insects hid in the crevices of the shadows, peering at the 'sweet' target before them.

The aroma of flesh and blood was incredibly intense, attracting the poisonous insects to gather like moths to a flame.

The ground could no longer be seen beneath his feet, as it had been covered by a thick carpet of tide-like poisonous insects.

The avatar 'Lu Zhigang' opened his eyes and brought his palms together as if flipping a switch; the palm wind instantly enveloped a circle with a diameter of one hundred meters, and all the poisonous insects were instantly weathered into a pile of debris.

The Seven Step Poison Sand Palm, breathing freely, refines the virulent poisons of all things with palm power to strengthen oneself.

"The Poison Palm at the peak of Qi and Blood has already opened up ninety-nine percent of the body, with only the most critical points remaining, such as the brain, heart, and so on."

"It is time to take the Ten Thousand Poison Heart-Attacking Pill, circulate the Qi and Blood throughout the whole body, and kick open the final door."

After arriving at Mo Yun Stronghold, he went to the back mountain every night to hunt charms, accumulating enough Charm Cores.

As time passed, the number of charms increased, and the number of Living Charms promoted from Void Charms grew with each passing day.

It was conceivable that if this continued, even Lurking Charms might emerge.

The arrival of the avatar 'Lu Zhigang' broke the tranquility of the back mountain, and the large-scale hunting of charms invisibly played a role in balancing the environment.

With the Charm Cores obtained from killing Living Charms, the calculation progress of the Faceless Copper Puppet accelerated.

The Nine Transformations Bone-Changing Method finally reached 100% progress not long ago, and the final piece of the puzzle was filled in.

"This avatar cannot help the main body for the time being."

For this breakthrough to Martial Master, the place Zhou You chose was truly marvelous—safe and sturdy, where ordinary beasts could neither find nor break in.

The location was in... the treasure room of Mo Yun Stronghold! Ever since the internal valuables were emptied, this underground treasure room had been abandoned. Because no expense was spared on materials during its construction, it was extremely sturdy, and even raging fire could not destroy it.

The avatar closed the treasure room door, sat cross-legged, swallowed the Ten Thousand Poison Heart-Attacking Pill, and began to circulate the Nine Transformations Bone-Changing Method. The Blood God Leech swallowed a large mouthful of vital blood and lay lazily on the ground, unwilling to move, serving as a trump card for self-rescue at a critical moment.

The closed-door cultivation officially began...

Zhou You withdrew his attention from Mo Yun Stronghold; Lu Zhigang was in closed-door cultivation and could not get away, so he had to rely on himself to play two roles.

Hmm, there were still some Experience Points left, not many, just over 30,000.

He might as well add them all to the Basic Lightness Skill; he had the body of a Martial Master and could withstand higher speeds.

"Basic Lightness Skill lv6 → lv7, Experience Points -6,000."

"Basic Lightness Skill lv7 → lv8, Experience Points -7,000."

"Basic Lightness Skill lv8 → lv9, Experience Points -8,000."

"Basic Lightness Skill lv9 → lv10, Experience Points -9,000. Basic Lightness Skill is maxed out. To continue increasing the limit, please record more movement techniques and lightness skills."

The Basic Lightness Skill being raised to lv10 was the bottleneck of this technique; to improve further, he would need to integrate more lightness skills.

Zhou You estimated the lv10 Basic Lightness Skill; it was faster than Bao Tiefeng and should be on par with the speed of a High-level Martial Master.

In this way, the plan to use Yan Ping's identity and put on the shell of the Golden Immortal Dao to play the god and act the ghost had a higher feasibility.

For the next few days, Zhou You practiced his brand-new power to make sufficient preparations.

One day, Qi Fengzhang sent someone to invite him to be a guest at his home.

"It's here."

If it were before, Zhou You might not have understood the purpose of this trip, but now he could roughly guess it.

The location was a garden in the Qi Family estate, where clear breezes and green waters could be seen everywhere, and the beauty of mountains and rivers was fully displayed within a small space.

Hmm, people without imagination would only think that a so-called mansion was just a few large houses surrounded by four walls.

Zhou You used to think so too, but only after entering the Qi Family did he realize how shallow he had been.

Imagine a university campus from his past life; the entire structure was a city within a city, and the noble family estate was ten or a hundred times better.

The garden where Zhou You was located was merely one area of the estate, yet it was already of considerable scale, and he could not see the end of it at a glance.

Especially after Qi Fengzhang introduced it along the way, there were pastures for raising horses, mountains and forests for keeping rare and exotic beasts, and so on.

These gardens, pastures, and mountains were all part of the interior of the noble family estate walls.

In the core of the Inner City, where every inch of land was worth an inch of gold, only a noble family would have such a grand scale.

"Senior Brother Zhou, today is not for official business; let us brothers enjoy ourselves."

The two walked along the rugged path by the clear water; not far away on the water, servants of the estate were punting boats and casting nets as a backdrop, and there were maidservants dressed as lotus pickers singing folk songs.

Don't be fooled by the fact that there are only the two of them; at least 100 servants from the manor are busy in the shadows, and a great sum of money was spent just to embellish the surrounding scenery.

To say nothing of the distance, the smoke slowly rising from a nearby rock formation is created by burning high-quality incense to set the mood.

It cannot be ordinary firewood, as the smoke it produces is not aesthetically pleasing and is also choking, which would ruin the view.

The wealthy really know how to play; wasting manpower and money just for a moment of visual pleasure! Zhou You complained incessantly to himself, then suddenly heard the sound of warbling voices approaching, so he stopped his footsteps, "Senior Brother Qi, there are female family members ahead, we had better take a detour!"

"No need to be so formal, they are a few of my younger female cousins; having heard that you are a young hero, they also wish to make your acquaintance."

Amidst waves of fragrant breeze, uninvited guests intruded upon the scenery, and the younger female cousins mentioned by Qi Fengzhang appeared.

Seeing the stunning beauties before him, Zhou You began to get a headache; even with his iron-clad willpower, he found it somewhat difficult to handle such a formation! (End of chapter)