Chapter 172: Transformation

"Huh!"

Li En sheathed his sword, satisfied with the faint golden light on its blade.

His stamina was fully restored, and his holy power had clearly increased.

The absurd spectacle of being tossed into the air yesterday had somehow been interpreted as "fulfilling a vow," and the boost was unmistakable—Li En had no idea how it worked; had he done something truly remarkable yesterday?

At this moment, he looked up at the sky—the familiar blue expanse and vast clouds.

A faint morning glow filtered through the clouds, warming his freshly trained body.

He felt, inexplicably, moved.

Only those who had traveled through the underground world could feel such inexplicable happiness and fulfillment upon seeing sunlight and breathing the fresh morning breeze.

"Rest a bit, then train another round."

Li En had already completed his daily training quota, yet he felt no fatigue, and had spent far less time than usual.

Clearly, his current physical condition required a drastic increase in training volume—even doubling it.

"Snap!"

Li En clenched his fist, feeling a completely different level of strength and stamina—he hadn't had a reference before, but now, after practical training, he suspected it had at least doubled.

【Biological Rank: Silver, Status: Strength 14 (17), Physique 16, Agility 10, Spirit 14】

Now, with the Fire Giant Gauntlets enhancing him, his stamina was only slightly below that of a true Giant race, the Hill Giant.

And if he entered battle mode, using spells or divine arts for augmentation, his physical capabilities could rise further still.

At that point, the Holy Knight Li En would literally be a hammer-wielding giant.

"Huh."

He began swinging his sword again; he needed more training—even combat—to adapt to this new state.

He had even kept the gauntlets on while eating and sleeping just to acclimate—but now he seriously considered whether he should take them off at night.

Last night, he'd slept on the floor; halfway through, his bed suddenly collapsed!

His own assessment pointed to two reasons: one, the massive increase in his body weight after his physical transformation.

The other, he might have simply rolled over in his sleep, twisted slightly—and the cheap wooden bed had shattered outright.

Now, the broken planks still lay in a corner of the courtyard; he'd probably need to order a metal bed soon.

After all, he was now effectively a shrunken giant; ordinary wooden furniture simply couldn't bear his weight—that was only natural.

"Good. Completely different from when I wore the cursed gauntlets. I feel I can unleash my full power now."

The most important stat in this list wasn't the 17-point Strength, but the 16-point Physique—it meant his body could now fully channel his stamina, withstand the recoil of maximum exertion, and significantly enhance recovery, endurance, and explosive power.

High Physique is a fundamental trait of legendary creatures; dragons, drakes, and beasts all boast astonishing Physique stats—this is the foundation of everything.

Supernatural power requires a body and soul to carry it; the core of Mind-Body-Skill remains the body.

My mind-soul ability's upper limit has also increased, but to truly advance it, I'll have to proceed slowly.

Li En's Thousand-Faced Dragon Mind-Soul ability remained at raw stone level; Su Er's Demolisher and Ku Ku's Multithinking were the same—these things don't improve easily.

They can evolve alongside one's profession and physical growth, but advancement requires emotion as nourishment, an evolved body as a foundation, and advanced or new professions as expansion.

Li En estimated that improving his Holy Knight abilities and Su Er's sword arts might enhance Demolisher's Mind-Soul ability, while advancing his mage abilities might boost Ku Ku's—though, for now, he'd leave that alone; he already had enough.

Li En always felt Ku Ku's Soul-Spirit ability would cause trouble if upgraded too much.

The conditions for advancing the Thousand-Faced Dragon's Mind-Soul ability remained unknown, but he guessed it would strengthen alongside Soul-Embodiment, Soul-Spirit abilities, and physical enhancements.

Li En was now genuinely looking forward to it—he'd experienced firsthand how powerful a single-tier Mind-Soul upgrade could be: it could grant him core Soul-Spirit abilities years ahead of schedule, mature his combat system.

After all, taking that crucial step with Mind-Soul abilities was never easy.

If he could further strengthen the Thousand-Faced Dragon's ability, turning its weakening effect on Soul-Spirit into neutral or even enhancing it, that would be even more worth pursuing—though doubling the tier of Soul-Spirit? Li En dared not dream of it.

"Looks like I'll need at least three days. Then I'll head to the Mage District."

Even while practicing swordplay, his second thought-line was analyzing the Heat Ray spell model—he had to admit that even though its principle was relatively simple (the spell model was just a line/arrow), the speed of his progress was still abnormal.

For Li En now, the computational power provided by the "Second Dragon Head" was clearly excessive.

"I'll ask about psychic professions while I'm there."

Li En's list of power-seeking goals was already full.

And today's to-do list was nearly full too.

He hadn't notified anyone upon returning home yesterday, and had rested immediately—even today, his body hadn't fully recovered.

The fatigue from the journey was one thing, but awakening his bloodline ability prematurely and forcing its use had further drained his physical reserves (beasts expend body and stamina when using supernatural abilities).

"I'll visit Saliman later and bring Lana back. Not even telling them I returned—they'll definitely complain. If I don't bring her back soon, little Lana will be furious."

Li En sighed; he felt awkward about seeing Saliman—he truly didn't know what to say to her, or even how to address her now.

But he owed her a lot; returning without even reporting his safety was unthinkable. Visiting Saliman in Huiguang District was his first priority, then he'd head to the blacksmith's to have his weapons (besides the Holy Sword) and armor repaired.

Though this battle was brief, its intensity was high; his armor was heavily worn and likely needed major repairs.

"Oh, I also need to buy some supplies—holy water, potions, alchemical fire, medical kits, thief's tools, all of those are necessary."

During this journey, Li En had learned much from his companions and mercenaries; he needed to replenish his standard inventory, and might even need another space bag.

"Hmm, there's still some Shadow Dragon and Black Dragon materials left in the space bag…" These should be sold quickly—it would greatly ease Li En's financial strain.

Actually, the most valuable item was the "Prince of Beasts" material, but casually processing it would cause disaster; it required professional handling, and ordinary warriors had no right to use it—it was hard to sell too.

The best use would be as a core or auxiliary material in high-tier alchemical or forging equipment, diluted with other top-grade materials to temper its beastly nature—but that wasn't something ordinary craftsmen could manage. The designs, blueprints, and equivalent materials were hard to obtain; Li En still preferred finding a suitable buyer to sell it outright.

Back home, Li En relaxed. With the cook and maids absent, he simply grabbed some snacks left by Lana and Saliman to fill his stomach. Thinking of the long to-do list ahead, he felt even less inclined to step outside.

"Tch, the snake's gone again—good."

This utterly uncool big shot was far too talkative and nagging; worst of all, whatever he said, you couldn't ignore—you had to think about it, and before you knew it, you were dragged in, only to find new trouble waiting to be stepped into.

"He'd better go out and play for a few days—stay away until the time's up, no problem."

After eating, Li En felt drowsy. Maybe he could delay going out a bit. Without survival pressure, he seemed to be developing a taste for slacking off.

But he didn't want trouble—yet trouble wanted him.

After news of his return spread, many had refrained from visiting yesterday (giving him time to rest); today, visitors were already on their way.

Yet before that, Li En suddenly encountered an unprecedented phenomenon.

"Tap-tap-tap!"

Suddenly, his Soul-Spirit Codex spontaneously appeared and began flipping pages on its own.

Clearly, some unexpected event had occurred.

【Emergency Event Triggered: Fate Trajectory Altered. Main Quest Status Reassessed and Revised.】

Main quest? Wasn't that the seal of the Deer? Li En froze—could this thing change?

【Main Quest: Seal/Kill the Demigod Elsena.】

【Briefing: The Demigod's seal beneath Huicheng is crumbling; He is about to break free. Eliminate Him—or be eliminated by Him.】

【Failure Penalty: Failure results in the city becoming history. No further penalty needed.】

【Completion Countdown: 720 days 8 hours—Reevaluating.】

【Completion Countdown: 846 days 12 hours!】

Li En was utterly stunned—he'd expected the seal-breaking time to shorten, but now it had lengthened? Wasn't that good?

This added nearly four months—he could accomplish far more.

The next moment, a new quest line revealed a glimpse of the future.

【New Subquest: The Enraged Demigod Elsena roars, consuming his root power within the seal, drastically accelerating the birth rate of underground monsters and generating new Beast bloodlines. To prevent the seal's destruction, eliminate this wave of Beasts ASAP!】

【Reward: Random Mind-Soul ability upgrade by one tier, two random Soul-Spirit weapons, one clue to a Soul-Spirit quasi-artifact.】

Li En was completely dumbfounded—it was hard to say whether this was good or bad now.

But why had it changed so suddenly? Was this Soul-Spirit Codex really that unreliable?

Wasn't Ku Ku saying this fate-prediction ability was nearly absolute when undisturbed?

He fell silent for just a moment—and realized the answer.

"Snake! What did you do?!"

Yet the roar, which he expected to go unanswered, received a lazy reply.

"Huh? I just slept in. Didn't do anything. Don't falsely accuse me." At some point, it had already curled up on the roof, basking in the sun—as if it had never left.

But at this moment, Li En became certain.

"It was definitely you! If I'd wrongly accused you, you'd have exploded back at me immediately and started scheming to mess with me!"

He knew himself best—Li Ensu hated being falsely blamed above all.

If he'd truly been wrongly blamed, he'd have flown into a rage instantly—why would he calmly defend himself?

The snake's gaze swept over him—and grew even more dangerous.

"Do you know that when strength doesn't match the situation, it's best to stay quietly foolish?"

Fine—the snake dropped the act and went straight for threats.

But from the perspective only the snake could observe, the scene was different.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Just adding half a year reduced the city's destruction probability from 61% to 37%. Looks like the little guy's potential is pretty decent."

(End of Chapter)