Chapter 511: What Is This? (9/10, Autumn Subscription)

With no increase in weirdness, You Sisi's team, aided by the supremely heroic Captain Wu, held the advantage.

The golden threads in Captain Wu's eyes seemed to have become permanent, rarely fading.

After slaying another 【Bone Pillar Weird】, he moved through the scene, slaughtering wildly.

Seeing that Captain Wu could hold the situation, Fang Yue said to them: "I'm going to rescue Lord Han. You handle this place."

"Lord Han?!"

Jing Yan blinked in surprise: "Is Lord Han still alive? Where is he?"

"Want to come along? No guarantees of safety."

"... Uh, I'll, I'll follow and take a look."

Jing Yan was incidental, but Chen Qing was essential.

In the Underground Stronghold, very few knew the layout.

Of those willing to cooperate, it was almost just Chen Qing.

Without him to guide, Fang Yue wouldn't even know where Ma Zuo's room was.

As Fang Yue tried to avoid the group of weirdness being crushed by Captain Wu, he noticed those weirdnesses suddenly all turned their gazes toward him.

This puzzled Fang Yue—he'd felt this before. Those weirdnesses were strange, as if they were fixated on him alone; others clearly held far less attraction for them.

But with Captain Wu and You Sisi suppressing them, the weirdnesses could only be slowly culled and contained—they couldn't break free to attack Fang Yue.

On the way to Ma Zuo's room, Fang Yue and the others encountered several lone weirdnesses, mostly killed by Fang Yue; only one weaker one was slain by Chen Qing.

Jing Yan's eyes turned green with envy.

"You're a researcher—how do you even have time to train and boost your strength?!"

Chen Qing then told Jing Yan what Fang Yue had done.

This left Jing Yan utterly despondent.

Had he never heard of someone getting a windfall, he wouldn't have felt anything.

Now, with a living example right before him, how could he not be bitter?

Yet bitterness aside, replicating Fang Yue's move was impossible—there was only one 【Living Weird Room】 in the entire Underground Stronghold.

To get another such opportunity, they'd have to sweep through other Phoenix Organization strongholds.

With Chen Qing, the mole, leading the way, the three quickly reached Ma Zuo's room.

Opening the door with a key, Fang Yue found the room surprisingly tidy.

He hadn't expected Ma Zuo to keep his room so clean.

While searching, Chen Qing gathered a large pile of books, his eyes gleaming.

"Big Boss, forbidden books! These are forbidden books! I begged the Organization for months and no one would sell me these—yet Master Ma Zuo collected so many, and now they're all mine!"

Forbidden books? Could they be those kinds of…

Fang Yue felt his thoughts turn impure—he glanced at the book titles and immediately shut his mouth, abandoning the idea of borrowing one.

"Theoretical Foundations of Weirdness Art Core Formation," "Do Weirdnesses Naturally Reproduce? Let's Get Scientific!," "Simple Weirdness Assembly Surgery Techniques, 10th Edition, From Basic to Advanced"…

Almost all had bizarre titles like these.

Fang Yue could barely glance at them before feeling drowsy.

Compared to these books, Fang Yue found several bottles and jars—among them, a surprising number of normal cultivation pills, collected by Ma Zuo.

Fang Yue had assumed those who cultivated by consuming 【Human Medicines】 wouldn't use other pills to boost their cultivation—but there were more of these pills than 【Human Medicines】, and far more varieties.

"I've long heard Master Ma Zuo's cultivation has stalled, said to be due to his 【Human Medicines】 draining his potential, forcing him to seek other methods. That's why he collected so many pills."

Chen Qing's analysis went in one of Fang Yue's ears and out the other—he didn't care. The pills were his now, and that's all that mattered.

But the idea of drained potential…

"Chen Qing, if someone like me, who cultivates normally, drains their potential, what happens?"

"Drain your potential, and you'll end up just like Master Ma Zuo—your cultivation hits a ceiling and can't advance further."

Fang Yue's heart dropped.

No way…

That won't do at all!

Fang Yue had always thought those potency-draining pills were so powerful—why not use a few during desperate fights?

But now, hearing Chen Qing, Fang Yue grew anxious.

He had a Comprehension of 5—he had extraordinary potential. He couldn't risk blowing it all by swallowing pills.

Decided: from now on, if he could avoid potency-draining pills, he'd refuse them absolutely.

Fang Yue silently thought—thankfully he hadn't swallowed the 【Cape Pill】 during earlier battles, or he'd have suffered a massive loss.

But wait… isn't that wrong? Aren't we players? If our potential is completely drained, can we truly never advance again?

"If potential is drained, can we still break through to higher realms?"

"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But Big Boss, don't stand under a crumbling wall. Why risk draining your potential if you don't have to?"

That makes sense!

Better not to risk uncertain dangers.

"Woof!"

As the three were still searching for the secret chamber's entrance, Xiao Xuedou suddenly woke up and barked excitedly.

Maybe he was hungry, or maybe he was just thrilled to see Master Jing Yan again after so long.

Fang Yue stared at the seven short swords stuck in Xiao Xuedou's head and hesitated.

"Ye Ge, can't you take those things off Xiao Xuedou's head?"

"I don't know. I just stuck them there on a whim, to see what would happen—I was planning to kill it outright then."

Saying so, Fang Yue looked at Qingchen: "What do you think? Is there any way to make a ghost-hunter that has gone anomalous, while sealed by the Seven Seal Short Sword, return to its normal form?"

The moment this topic came up, Qingchen's whole person came alive.

If you're going to talk to me about this, then I'm not sleepy anymore!

"Big shot, theoretically speaking, your ghost-hunter has too many buffs stacked on it, making it a bit hard to know how to handle. But I've analyzed it layer by layer.

First, the main body — Xiao Xuedou is still a ghost-hunter. After going anomalous, it was the anomaly that occupied its body. After the anomaly was sealed, it was Xiao Xuedou occupying the main body again. The key point in all this is that after the anomalous power is sealed, the main body's consciousness is still Xiao Xuedou.

So as long as we find a way to suppress the anomaly's power, even if we don't use the Seven Seal Short Sword, but use other ghost items of the same type, we can still achieve this effect.

As far as I know, the 【Ghost Item Manufacturing Department】 has two wooden nails that suppress anomalous power, which fit this requirement perfectly.

But compared to suppressing the anomalous power and restoring Xiao Xuedou's original ghost-hunter identity, I have an even bolder idea!"

"What idea?" Fang Yue felt around the room, searching for a hidden door or a secret room key, asking casually.

Qingchen excitedly took the dazed, cute Xiao Xuedou, tilting its head, from Jing Yan's hands, carried it over to Fang Yue, and pointed at Xiao Xuedou as she spoke.

"Big shot, look, what is this?"

(End of this chapter)