Chapter 19: Coming from the Maid's Pounce

"Hiss!"

The moment Li Yu’s soul returned to his body, he felt the sensation of a swollen brain for the first time.

His brows furrowed slightly as a feeling of both joy and nausea surged up.

The joy was naturally because his harvest this time exceeded his imagination.

The nausea was because digesting such a massive amount of extraordinary secrets made his soul feel overstuffed.

"Wandering Soul... Alchemist Apprentice... Weird Domain Spirit Realm... Black Maitreya Path... Sequence 7 Life-Claiming Walker... Secret of the Red Bean... Sinister God Path Sequence 8 Courtesan..."

As Li Yu summarized these in his heart, the fourth truth bubble on his retina was already more than half charged.

And by the time he regained his clarity, the two transactions in the room had both been successfully completed.

The atmosphere was very heated.

The remaining few evil cultivator neighbors, unable to restrain themselves, took out various strange objects one after another, each issuing their own trade requests.

Because there were no "secret medicine formulas" among them, Li Yu did not intend to waste his last remaining opportunity.

He also didn't dwell on the other secrets he had just glimpsed, instead beginning to ponder the most critical question in his heart.

"I currently possess the secret medicine formulas for Human-Vegetable, Wandering Soul, and Alchemist Apprentice. The first two can be dismissed; one cannot be cultivated, and the other wouldn't solve my predicament even if I did."

"Only the Alchemist Apprentice, while looking quite dangerous, offers extraordinary gains."

"Given my current situation where I might die or turn into a man-eater at any moment, I am in no position to be picky about the fact that this path lacks a backing faction and that it is very difficult to obtain subsequent sequence formulas."

"As for waiting for another gathering to see if a more suitable path and sequence appears?"

Once this thought arose, Li Yu immediately shook his head to reject it.

He couldn't wait!

Although he could still borrow the power of the Human-Vegetable one more time, the price was truly enormous.

Moreover, he could not guarantee that a secret medicine formula would appear at the next gathering.

That was the rarest resource in the extraordinary world; having two sequences appear at once was already a stroke of immense good fortune, so how could he dare to hope for more?

The current plan was to save his life and step onto the path of God; that was the most correct choice.

"Fine, then it shall be Alchemist Apprentice."

"It's just, how do I gather the formula? Those highly toxic minerals are easy to find, but what on earth is Fire Essence? I can't buy the alchemy furnace with great fanfare either; if Zhu Mei, the rightful buyer of the Alchemist Apprentice formula, finds out, he will surely be suspicious."

"Even if I gather everything, I still have to get into the furnace and refine myself. Tsk tsk, it seems that regardless of whether they are righteous gods or evil gods, they all love to torment their believers."

Just as Li Yu finished his deliberations and reached a decision, all the transactions in the room had concluded.

Seeing the atmosphere cool down, Li Yu immediately stood up and said in a stiff voice:

"Many thanks to you all for your support. Let us end this spirit food private banquet and trading gathering here."

"When the next private banquet begins, I will personally visit each of you to extend an invitation."

"Red Bean, collect the payment."

"Thank you for your patronage."

Hearing him say this, everyone was tactful.

Giving this exclusive spirit chef some face, they stood up to pay their tabs.

Everyone had gained quite a bit tonight; those who hadn't traded had still eaten a very cheap, grand spirit food feast and left satisfied.

Once the evil cultivators left, Li Yu immediately revealed an excited smile and looked at his maid, as well as the large amount of wealth she was clutching in her arms.

Although it was already late at night, he felt no sleepiness at all.

The first urgent matter in his heart was to purchase and gather the secret medicine formula for [Alchemist Apprentice]. He had just obtained a huge sum of money, so he figured there would be no problem, and he had even decided where to buy it.

"Peace Weird Market!"

"A market existing in Peace Ward. According to Jiao Qing and Sun Sanniang, this is the largest extraordinary market in Fortune City. It only opens for one hour at the Hour of the Rat. It does not allow mortals or even bottom-tier extraordinary beings to enter; only practitioners of official Sequence 8 and above may enter."

"In addition to practitioners from the eight major wards of the South District gathering to trade, high-sequence powerhouses from the city's other three major districts occasionally appear in the market as well."

"Although I am not officially Sequence 8, if I switch to the state of the Son of the Forbidden God, I should be able to enter smoothly."

"However, the weird market should be closed by now; if I want to go, I have to wait until tomorrow night."

Having already obtained a path of God and a sequence formula suitable for himself, yet being unable to immediately gather the materials to consume it, was truly annoying.

Thus, Li Yu quickly shifted his energy to the second most urgent matter.

His maid still had a small amount of Heavenly Craft Secret Core residue in her body... find it... there is a possibility of repair.

One must know that this was the peak work of a Sequence 7 Puppet Maker, and it was embedded with a high-level Heavenly Craft Secret Core.

It didn't even need to be fully repaired; just having a few more module functions would suffice.

Red Bean's value would skyrocket exponentially.

Moreover, she would be able to provide him with greater help, such as protecting him before he gathered the formula and advanced to Alchemist Apprentice, or guarding him during the advancement process.

He, Li Yu, might have picked up a super bargain.

Thinking of this, he became even more excited.

He walked straight up, took his maid's hand, and headed toward the master bedroom again.

"Red Bean, take off your clothes. I want to give you a thorough check-up to see if I can repair some module functions."

"Yes, Master!"

The conversation sounded less than proper, but in reality, there was not a shred of flirtation.

Red Bean shed her maid's clothing; apart from that face like a fox-girl, she was just a lump of exquisite iron.

One might ask?

Who would have improper thoughts about such a mechanical maid?

How perverted would that have to be?

Li Yu muttered in his heart, then began to carefully check Red Bean's body from the inside out. The starting point was the place where the secret core was originally loaded.

There were a few "stains" like spots of flesh and blood there, quite eye-catching.

When he first bought her, Li Yu hadn't paid them any mind due to his preconceived notions.

This time, he couldn't help but reach out and touch them; the texture was unexpectedly cold and soft, and there was a feeling he couldn't quite put into words.

Just as he was pondering whether to waste his third truth bubble to analyze it.

An unexpected situation suddenly occurred.

It was the Forbidden Egg sleeping in his abdomen, which suddenly transmitted a faint desire the moment he touched that strange flesh.

Since they were one, Li Yu easily deciphered it:

"Delicious... want to eat!"

"Hmm?"

=9+Shu_ba

"Isn't the Heavenly Craft Secret Core a mechanical creation? Why would it trigger the Forbidden Egg's appetite? This piece of shit only likes to eat flesh and blood with spirituality."

In an instant, a guess formed in Li Yu's heart.

Then his eyes flashed, and he gave another order to Red Bean:

"Red Bean, open everything inside your shell to me; open whatever can be opened."

"Yes, Master!"

Accompanied by the cute girl's voice, the maid, who was already stripped bare, suddenly spewed steam of strange fragrance, and the sounds of gears, mainsprings, and springs constantly engaged.

When the steam dissipated and Li Yu looked again, what was before him was a maid who could be considered "dismantled."

She had truly opened up completely; her skull, torso, and limbs were all spread apart.

Li Yu did not delay and immediately began to grope through every corner of Red Bean's body, inch by inch.

Initially, apart from some rust and traces of machine oil, there were no discoveries.

It wasn't until he groped to Red Bean's chest cavity that, between the gaps of two extremely inconspicuous gears, a small piece of familiar flesh-and-blood stain was attached.

Li Yu reached out a finger to touch it, and the familiar appetite was transmitted.

"Found it!"

In his joy, Li Yu took a pair of tweezers and carefully clamped out the flesh, which was as thin as a hair.

He placed it on a plate first, then immediately continued to grope downward.

Not long after, a smile appeared on his face again.

The tweezers in his hand reached into the middle of a spring and clamped out another thread of blood.

After dozens of breaths, he clamped out another small piece of flesh-and-blood stain the size of a grain of rice from a depression on the surface of a bronze nail.

After that, he had no more gains.

It wasn't until a full half-hour later that Li Yu clamped out another small piece of flesh and a few hair-like blood threads from between the two soft tubes flowing with machine oil on Red Bean's left and right feet.

"Should be all of it?"

"Don't know if it's useful... hmm?"

While muttering, Li Yu went to place the newly found secret core remains into the plate.

But as he turned his head, he was shocked to see that the scattered flesh-and-blood stains that had been placed separately in the plate had somehow automatically merged together.

It was clearly a "blood ball" the size of a mung bean, and it was alive.

It seemed to have detected more nearby, and it was actually squirming, constantly extending scarlet tentacles full of spirituality, climbing toward Li Yu's palm.

This scene was somewhat horrifying.

But Li Yu began to feel some anticipation, and he proactively handed over the two pieces of flesh.

In an instant, they merged, and a blood ball about the size of a thumb was born.

The spirituality overflowing from within grew exponentially.

The next instant, an astonishing change occurred.

As if the blood orb had come completely to life, a multitude of scarlet tentacles shot out, and with a few wet slapping sounds, it headed straight for the cranium of Hongdou.

With a slithering sound, it burrowed directly into the place where the Heavenly Craft Secret Core had originally been housed.

"Hiss!"

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

Without any command from Li Yu, steam carrying a faint, strange fragrance roared and surged forth once again.

Amidst this commotion, the already disintegrated body of Hongdou rapidly reassembled itself, and her previously tightly shut fox eyes opened once more.

This time, there was a radiance of spirituality in her eyes that even Li Yu found deeply alarming.

If one were to ignore her mechanical body, one would fear they might mistake her for a somewhat dazed and adorable human girl.

These changes were already astonishing enough, but the event that followed was what truly made Li Yu nearly panic and turn to flee.

The moment Hongdou opened her eyes, the ruby at the center of her brow emitted a hazy red light, locking onto and enveloping Li Yu.

A mechanical voice, impossible to decipher, suddenly rang out:

"Lost secret core replenishment at five percent... partial module functions restarting..."

"New master discovered... master-recognition steps insufficient... authorization severely lacking."

"Restarting master-recognition... beginning collection of fingerprints, iris, and bodily fluids..."

"Huh?"

Li Yu had barely let out this cry of surprise before he could react, and the mechanical maid before him suddenly leaped up, pinning him directly onto the bed in the main room.

(End of chapter)