Chapter 91: Evil Ghost
Chapter 91: Evil Ghost
“Hmm?”
The bronze mirror reflected a fierce and formidable face.
His eyes were cold, like crimson amber. His massive jaws protruded, with fangs as sharp as daggers. His entire body was covered in dark, mysterious scales, resembling black iron armor, radiating a chilling, icy aura, vast and overwhelming like a downpour.
Just standing still, with each breath, he seemed deep as an abyss and towering as a mountain. Subtly, a faint Dragon’s Aura was emanating!
“Dragon-man?”
Staring intently at his reflection, Li Yi’s astonishment and bewilderment were also visible in the mirror.
He lowered his head, turning his hands over. They too were covered in black scales, with sharp, massive claws!
“First, let’s see what changes have occurred on my body?”
He raised a hand, and three Mana Missiles floated up.
“Hmm? The spell effects show no change at all…”
Muttering softly, he had a sudden thought. His eyes sharpened as he squared his shoulders and arms, adopting the posture of a Barbaric Charge, and threw his whole body at the three Mana Missiles!
Boom!
A loud roar echoed. Amidst the blooming magical radiance, Li Yi’s figure broke through the waves of energy without any hindrance.
His steps were slightly uneven, his movements a bit clumsy. Smoke rose from between his scales, but there was not a single trace of blood—he was completely unharmed.
“Recovery ability… can’t tell for now. But defensive power and magic resistance have suddenly increased by eighty or ninety percent—basically doubled! How can this be? If the Werewolf Mask had such an effect, it wouldn’t be considered useless equipment. But, can just a trace of Lurking Abyss essence change everything?”
Li Yi’s gaze shifted as he examined his body up and down, inwardly amazed.
“Let’s check other effects!”
With a flicker of intent, his body suddenly became like drifting mist. Three or five dragon-man afterimages darted about, punching and kicking, stirring wind and thunder within the small room!
This was precisely—Thousandfold Strategy.
“Speed has increased by fifty or sixty percent at once! If combined with Wind-Walking Boots…”
He thought for a moment, whispered to himself, and a swirling wind gathered at his feet. He leaped up, and his figure turned illusory!
No sound of landing was heard. In the small room, winds rose and waves surged, with more than ten dragon-man forms flickering in and out, leaping and bounding like dragons and tigers.
After the wind and shadows crisscrossed, his figure paused, appearing back in the original spot.
“The dragon-man form and Wind Stride Spell do not conflict. They work together to assist the Thousandfold Strategy, making it faster than a gale, elusive as a ghost—its effect greatly enhanced!”
Savoring the feeling carefully, it was indescribably wonderful.
“Now, what about strength!”
Li Yi clenched his right fist, his five fingers tightening. The scales between his fingers rustled as streams of Mana seeped from beneath the scales, gathering onto the Stone Fist Gauntlets.
“Ha!”
Without deliberately choosing a target, Li Yi stood firm and threw a punch into empty air.
A great wind rose, like thunder from a clear sky. A savage force, boiling and surging, transformed into a pale fist-mark that shot through the air!
“What? A punch into empty air can concentrate power like a sword beam?”
The fist-mark sliced through the air and struck the wall. The Defensive Array activated, with silver snakes of energy dancing and crackling. Several shallow cracks appeared on the Defensive Array.
“Damn it, I got carried away…”
Li Yi shook his head. The Meditation Chamber couldn’t compare to an Alchemy Workshop. As a place for meditation, its Defensive Array was much weaker.
“Forget it, it’s not a big deal. Later, I’ll ask Wang Sheng for a small favor to repair it…”
Li Yi could repair it himself, but in the Star Radiance Tower, the arrays were intricate and interconnected. If he acted on his own, he might cause some trouble.
While pondering this, his expression changed. The dragon scales receded, revealing pale skin.
“Only three minutes? Usually, the Werewolf Mask’s effect should last around fifteen minutes…”
Muttering to himself, Li Yi’s legs weakened. A wave of intense exhaustion washed over him.
“Huh? What on earth is going on?”
The mask fell off. Li Yi half-knelt, half-sat, supporting himself with his hands on the ground, his head covered in sweat.
“My mental energy and Mana are both perfectly normal. So why…”
Looking inward with his spirit, Li Yi’s face showed sudden understanding.
Inside his body, the Bearing the Stele Rune shaped like a Dragon Turtle, and the Lurking Abyss Rune resembling a Black Dragon, were both dim and lifeless, as if completely drained.
“No wonder. I thought, how could the Werewolf Mask have such power? This mask is just a trigger. What truly supports the dragon-man form is the dragon bloodline within my body! Dragon-blooded… am I really a Dragon-Blooded?”
“From the looks of it, this dragon-man form, though incredibly powerful and domineering, also has significant side effects…”
“At this rate, the period of weakness will probably last about half an hour. And during this time, I cannot use any Bloodline Ability.”
However, thinking it over carefully, this thing was actually quite useful.
When spells prove ineffective, it’s a good trump card.
Moreover, it can also be used as an actor’s mask to disguise myself. No one would expect that an object identical inside and out to a Werewolf Mask could allow someone to transform into a dragon-man!
After savoring the experience for a moment, he took out paper and pen. Taking advantage of his weakened state, he began calculating and deducing on the floor.
The Thousandfold Strategy began with the formless and ended with the ten directions, capable of giving rise to countless variations. Yet, Li Yi had only deduced about a hundred steps.
Because even with Wind Stride, a battle usually ends after about a hundred steps. But now, with this Werewolf Mask in hand, he needed to prepare more contingencies.
…
Gazing at the old, small house from afar, You Wucheng was filled with fear. He leaned against a locust tree, trembling uncontrollably.
On the path before the door, more than ten servants came and went in succession, stacking greenish-yellow bamboo baskets by the entrance, piling them higher and higher.
A faint sound of crying could be heard. It turned out that inside those bamboo baskets were wailing young children!
The door to the small room suddenly swung open.
As the door opened, giant shadowy claws reached out from the darkness, like countless snakes emerging from a damp, dark nest!
The enormous hands, resembling monstrous pythons, exuding an aura of death and the underworld, grabbed the bamboo baskets one by one, dragging them into the room.
A servant, unable to dodge in time, was caught by a giant hand. With a drawn-out, agonized scream, he was pulled into the room.
The door closed.
But the cries and screams continued unabated.
Crunch!
Something seemed to snap. The servant’s screams abruptly ceased.
Then, the children’s wails also fell silent one by one. Now, however, the sound of a giant beast chewing, gnashing and crunching, could be heard.
You Wucheng trembled like a leaf in a sieve, nearly collapsing to the ground.
It was impossible to tell how much time passed. In the utter silence, the large door opened once more.
The figure of You Honghu appeared behind the door. With an elegant and composed demeanor, he stepped out calmly.
About him hung an indescribable coldness. A sinister, ghostly aura swirled around his body, eerie and chilling.
His shadow under the sunlight was no longer split into four, but was now a single, particularly deep and dark shadow.
“Cousin, how did it go? Did you break through?” You Wucheng was tactful enough not to ask about the fate of the children and the servant.
“I am now a Superior Spell Seal,” You Honghu’s face held a deliberately restrained pride.
“Superior Spell Seal?” You Wucheng was overjoyed at hearing this and repeatedly congratulated him. “Congratulations, cousin! You’ve advanced another step in the line of succession for clan head!”
Upon hearing this, You Honghu’s brow furrowed slightly.
You Wucheng’s words had actually touched on a sore spot.
He had thought that being a Heaven’s Pride of the You Clan, refining an Evil Ghost Lord’s projection would be as easy as taking something from a bag, a simple task.
He hadn’t expected that Chimei Wangliang, worthy of being one of the most powerful Evil Ghost Lords, would be so troublesome even as just a projection!
In the end, he had to rely on those forty-eight children as sacrificial offerings, half-exchange and half-sacrifice, to successfully refine it.
Forty-eight children and one servant were trivial matters, not worth many gold coins.
What mattered was that the clan elders’ assessment of him would likely drop significantly.
He had been suppressed by You Kongque for many years. This was supposed to be a good opportunity to turn things around, but unexpectedly, such a hitch occurred.
“To strengthen my inherent talent, I even devoured my own wife… Even so, am I still not as good as him?”
You Honghu’s eyes held unwillingness. For him, this was a profound humiliation!
“By the way, what about that Li Yi? Has he been dealt with?” He thought of something and asked casually.
“Li Yi? That kid has had the devil’s own luck!” You Wucheng replied, his face filled with indignation. “Pang Yi and Silver Snake are both dead. Rumors say they were killed by a powerful figure wearing a Baxia Mask. That Baxia is extremely prominent right now, having seized three strands of Six Strategies Qi alone!”
Damn it, why is everything going wrong?
This matter was personally planned by You Honghu. This sense of failure made his anger burn even fiercer.
“Forget it, I’ll handle it myself…” he said coldly.
“Cousin, why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut?” You Wucheng looked at him in disbelief. “Moreover, that kid is inside the Star Radiance Tower. It’s not easy to take action there…”
“Don’t worry. After refining the four major projections, I gained four abilities simultaneously—’Shadow Lurking,’ ‘Plague Poison,’ ‘Commander of the Dead,’ and ‘Dark Corruption.’ Among them, Shadow Lurking allows me to easily infiltrate anywhere, killing without a trace.”
“But, a Half-Step Mage?” You Wucheng felt this was making a mountain out of a molehill.
“It’s fine. I just made a breakthrough and want to test my skills…” You Honghu’s mouth curved into a sinister smile. At the same time, he also wanted to vent his anger.