Translator: CinderTL
Hearing the Narrator earnestly advising him not to harm the Scarlet Eye, lest he be corrupted by magic, Feng Qi couldn't resist mentally flipping him the bird.
The earlier battle had revealed the Scarlet Eye's glaring weakness: its pitifully weak defense. While its telekinetic control was formidable, it was no match for little black's relentless assault.
Feng Qi suspected the Scarlet Eye had only managed to hold off little black for so long by relying solely on its telekinetic abilities. Once its telekinetic energy was depleted, it became a lamb awaiting slaughter.
The Scarlet Eye and Suction Cup represented opposite extremes.
Suction Cup's endurance in battle depended on her defensive strength, not her offensive power.
The Scarlet Eye's survival hinged on its offensive capabilities, completely disregarding its defensive weaknesses.
One focused on defense, the other on offense.
Glancing at the slumbering Scarlet Eye, Feng Qi felt telekinesis beckoning him, a tantalizing itch in his heart.
As expected, magic is a corrupting force. You could have become a steel-muscled powerhouse. Are you truly willing to succumb to this?
"Shut up!"
Feng Qi bent down, picked up a pebble, and tossed it at the Scarlet Eye.
The pebble struck the slumbering Scarlet Eye, causing it to twitch slightly but otherwise eliciting no reaction.
Having completed his test, Feng Qi's resolve to hunt the Scarlet Eye solidified.
Gripping his spiked club tightly, he advanced step by step toward the Scarlet Eye, murderous intent surging within him.
Sharpening the blade for the eyeball.
Reaching the Scarlet Eye, he slowly raised the spiked club, then swung it down with full force, aiming for the rune crystal embedded in its forehead.
The rune crystal served as the domain creature's power source. Shattering it would drastically weaken its abilities. Since he had committed to the attack, Feng Qi couldn't afford to give the Scarlet Eye any chance to retaliate.
Black energy swirled around the spiked club, erupting with destructive force upon contact with the Blood Eye's rune crystal.
Crack!
To his surprise, the Scarlet Eye proved not only physically frail but also possessed an exceptionally fragile rune crystal. A single blow had already cracked it.
As spiritual energy leaked from the rune crystal, the Scarlet Eye, its body now withered and wrinkled from severe dehydration, snapped open its bloodshot eyes.
The bloodshot pupils now appeared particularly terrified, and Feng Qi even detected a hint of pleading in its gaze.
Feng Qi, magic is corrupting your mind. It's not too late to stop. Take my advice and let's go back to pursuing the path of the muscular hunk!
"I'm not listening," Feng Qi said, rolling his eyes.
He felt no pity for domain creatures and brought his second strike down without hesitation.
The blow landed squarely on the Scarlet Eye's open pupil, causing it to burst like a water-filled balloon. Liquid splattered across Feng Qi's body. The eye's defensive capabilities were far weaker than he had imagined.
As the eye exploded, the twisted tentacles slowly drooped, their movements ceasing.
To his surprise, no bloody mist emerged from the Scarlet Eye's remains. Instead, a golden mist appeared and instantly burrowed into his mind.
It felt like drinking ice water on a scorching summer day—refreshing, invigorating, and deeply cooling.
His vision sharpened dramatically, making even the wriggling insects over ten meters away crystal clear.
His thoughts flowed with unprecedented clarity, and memories long forgotten resurfaced vividly.
Puzzled by this sudden change, Feng Qi immediately summoned his status panel:
Malevolence · Brute Force · Blood Source · Nightmare · Resilience (LV4) · Very Robust Living Dead: Feng Qi
Strength Tier: Black Iron-Intermediate Stage
Mental Strength: Weak
Prefix Title: Very Robust: Physical strength increased by 30%, significantly enhancing self-healing capabilities.
Resilience LV4: Muscle resilience increased by 4%.
Brute Force (LV1): Physical attributes increased by 5%. Melee attacks inflict kinetic force damage (kinetic force damage scales with the user's blood vitality; higher blood vitality results in stronger kinetic force).
Nightmare (Non-Upgradable Prefix Title): Allows intrusion into consciousness to extract memories. Effectiveness depends on the user's mental strength. The ability associated with this prefix title improves as the user's mental strength increases.
Blood Source (Non-Upgradable Prefix Title): Condenses a blood core within the heart, significantly enhancing its efficiency. This ability can also be activated to instantly drain the blood core's energy, granting a burst of combat power. The ability's strength scales with the user's blood vitality.
Malevolence (Upgradable): A special ability to manipulate the motion of material systems through mental force, combining offensive, defensive, and control capabilities. Its effectiveness is determined by the user's mental strength.
Bloodline: Human (Primary)
Bloodline Evolution Points: 498/1000
Prefix Title Milestones:
Very Robust (Upgradable):
Third Milestone Progress: 17%
Resilience LV5 (Upgradable): 16%
After reviewing his status panel, he realized something crucial:
Killing domain creatures didn't just produce blood mist clusters; it also yielded golden mist clusters identical to those from the Blood Eye.
The newly appeared "mental strength" stat on his panel was clearly linked to absorbing these golden mist clusters.
He also noticed that killing the Blood Eye had significantly increased his bloodline evolution points, without triggering the Slaughter Milestone's limitations.
From this, he hypothesized that the rewards for killing domain creatures differed from those for killing Domain Derivative Creatures.
Killing Domain Derivative Creatures was subject to the Slaughter Milestone's restrictions, requiring him to kill the same number as his previous kill count to progress further.
However, killing domain creatures seemed exempt from this limitation.
He had previously been worried that as his strength tier increased, the number of monsters he'd need to hunt would become astronomically high, making further progress increasingly difficult.
Realizing that killing domain creatures bypassed this restriction filled him with renewed optimism.
Go take a bath already! What will other systems think if they see my Host looking so filthy? Where will I hide my face?
Hearing the Narrator's mocking tone, he glanced down at himself.
His body was now coated in transparent slime, adding a sinister edge to his already grotesque living dead appearance.
After all, terrifying creatures in science fiction films are always accompanied by slime.
But taking a bath was clearly impossible, as there was no water source nearby to cleanse his body.
So he decided to try using telekinesis.
As he focused his mind, it felt as if invisible hands were extending outward from within him. Under his control, the surrounding rubble trembled and floated into the air.
Next, he manipulated this invisible force to clean his body.
Still unfamiliar with telekinesis, he struggled for quite some time before finally managing to remove all the slime clinging to his skin.
You, tainted by magic, have completely succumbed.
"This power is too useful. I willingly succumb."
Pah!
Next, he attempted to levitate.
As the invisible psychokinesis enveloped him, his body trembled and slowly rose into the air.
The sensation was extraordinary, as if his body were immersed in a soft sphere of water, suspended weightlessly.
Due to his inexperience, his body wobbled in mid-air, the psychokinetic connection flickering intermittently, as if he might fall at any moment.
Through trial and error, he gradually grasped the feeling of releasing psychokinesis, and his form stabilized into a steady levitation.
A sudden thought struck him, and his body shot upward, soaring over twenty meters above the ground in an instant.
He then manipulated his psychokinesis to propel himself toward the Star City Underground Shelter.
The wind roared past his ears, and his vision expanded dramatically, the sensation of surveying the world from such a height filling him with a novel sense of wonder.
But after flying several hundred meters, he suddenly sensed something was amiss.
The frequency of his psychokinetic pulses grew weaker, becoming intermittent, causing his flight to fluctuate erratically.
Realizing his psychokinesis was about to fail, he immediately tried to descend.
Just then, he felt something drain from his mind. The soft sensation of psychokinetic support vanished, and his body plummeted from the sky.
Seconds later, with a dull thud, he crashed hard against the ground.
After a long moment of recovery, he slowly crawled to his feet, his entire body throbbing with pain. He discovered he had broken three ribs.
See? The magic backlash has arrived. Disregarding the Narrator's warnings always leads to consequences.
The Narrator's mocking tone was merciless.
Feeling helpless, he immediately asked:
"Narrator, is there a way to measure my psychokinesis reserves? Otherwise, I won't know when I'm about to run out."
There's no way to do that. Normal people experience clear feedback when using their mental energy—sharp headaches when they're nearing exhaustion. But you're different. As a living dead, you can't feel the feedback of your mental energy depletion. That's why I said you'd be better suited for the "Robust Living Dead" route.
Ignoring the Narrator's last remark, Feng Qi pressed on, "Then how do I replenish my mental energy after it's depleted?"
To put it bluntly, mental energy is like tadpoles, if you catch my drift.
Feng Qi: ...
Caught off guard, he finally understood.
The Narrator meant that depleted mental energy would automatically regenerate.
"And how do I increase my mental strength and mental energy reserves?"
That's simple. Hunt down Scarlet Eye domain creatures. The golden mist they release upon death is the perfect nourishment for your mental growth.
"Got it. Thanks for the guidance, Narrator!"
You're welcome. But remember, elder brothers are like fathers. Call me "Father" from now on.
Feng Qi: ...
Ignoring the Narrator's presumptuousness, he immediately set off toward Star City Shelter.
After several hours of travel, Feng Qi's figure appeared at the metal tunnel entrance outside the shelter.
He strode into the tunnel without hesitation.
Following the tunnel to its end, he reached the central plaza of the shelter and stood before the Database Control Console.
The screen was still lit, displaying the cultivation technique fundamentals tutorial he hadn't finished watching last time.
Having gained limited insights from this Dream Realm exploration, he decided to dedicate the remaining time to studying, stockpiling "flexing knowledge" for his future self.
Gazing at the screen, he quickly calmed his mind and entered a focused learning state.
During his studies, he noticed a significant improvement in his learning efficiency. Material that previously required multiple repetitions to memorize now only needed one or two readings to be easily retained.
He suspected this change was related to activating his mental growth panel.
With this thought, he immediately asked:
"Narrator, if I keep increasing my mental strength, will I eventually gain the Photographic Memory ability you mentioned?"
Far from it. With Photographic Memory, even if you lived for ten million years, not a single memory would be lost. However, increasing your mental strength will indeed sharpen your senses and improve your memory.
Hearing the Narrator's explanation, Feng Qi couldn't help but grin.
At least he'd found a way to improve his learning efficiency.
Compared to the elusive Photographic Memory ability, increasing his mental strength seemed like a more reliable path.
(End of the Chapter)
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