Chapter 158: Luck Turned Negative
Chapter 158: Luck Turned Negative
Standing a hundred miles away, Li Si gazed at the large city for a long time. He then beckoned the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl back. After checking its Tier-Three Helmet, Tier-Three Armor, and the newly added Concealment Ghillie Suit, he released it again. Slowly and silently, it flew toward the strange large city.
At the same time, Li Si took out a Substitute Wooden Figurine to remotely control the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl in his place. His own main body quickly retreated three hundred miles back. Every hundred miles, he placed another Substitute Wooden Figurine.
Anyway, it was better to be safe than sorry. Being outside without the protection of the Land Deed Seal made him really nervous.
Ahead, the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl advanced at an altitude of three thousand meters, moving at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour. It continuously illuminated the Mortal Realm and the Illusory Void.
But for now, everything seemed normal.
So the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl continued to fly forward slowly. Li Si swiftly retreated another two hundred miles, maintaining a safe distance of five hundred miles.
Don’t ask why. Just consider this: in such a mountainous area, without any big rivers or plains, how did a large city with a hundred thousand people develop?
He strongly suspected that there were Ghost Shadows in this city.
Time passed minute by minute. The Wish-Fulfilling Pearl was now only fifty miles from the large city, and just a few miles from the big mountain east of the city.
Through the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl, he could clearly see the soldiers on the city walls. They were very tall and strong, about two meters tall. Combined with their black armor, they looked very imposing.
For some reason, Li Si felt these strong soldiers looked familiar.
Right, back when he first crossed over, one afternoon he was hunting Anomalous Weeds in the valley between Western Mountain and Northern Mountain. He encountered three Evil God Cultists—two men and one woman, all tall and emanating a sinister aura.
That woman was good at summoning Little Mushrooms, creating one Devil Mushroom with every step.
At that time, Li Si had a hard time killing two of them, and one escaped. He later found out the one who escaped was killed by a Golden Core Devil.
He hadn’t thought much about it since then.
There was just one detail: later, whether he took over Kao Mountain Town, Blackwater City, Reed City, or other cities, even though he encountered tall Black-Armored Warriors and Evil God Cultists, he always felt something was missing?
Now, seeing the almost uniformly huge Black-Armored Warriors and large Evil God Cultists on the city walls through the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl, he suddenly remembered.
That kind of build wasn’t normal for a person.
Normal people could be two meters tall too, but definitely not like this. The impressive build of those three Evil God Cultists gave the strongest impression of life force growing abnormally.
To put it bluntly, they were like walking cancer cells.
But on the other hand, think back to when Li Si took over Kao Mountain Town. Whether it was Wang Wu, Song Qiao, or Xu Sen, even though they were shrouded in black energy, their life force was actually very weak.
They were saved only after Li Si used Divine Grace Baptism on them.
Just as he was thinking this, the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl suddenly and without warning emitted billowing black smoke. In one second, it was tainted and fell to the ground with a plop…
Almost simultaneously, Substitute Wooden Figurine Number One quickly cast the Artifact-Control Incantation to retrieve the remains of the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl. After all, “never abandon, never give up” was their principle.
At the same time, the last image seen by the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl was transmitted over.
The image was somewhat blurry. The only thing certain was that the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl had been scanning that big mountain, and then… an eye opened…
In the blink of an eye, Substitute Wooden Figurine Number One was afflicted just by looking at this image. Foul, black blood uncontrollably flowed out, as if it contained a large jar of stinky tofu that had now shattered.
But remember, although the Substitute Wooden Figurine couldn’t replicate Li Si’s Dao Heart or Dao Body, it carried the Clear Heart Spell, the Disaster-Averting Spell, the Spirit Stabilization Curse, the Heart-Interrogation Mantra, and even the newly mastered Heart-Dominating Sword characteristic. All together, it could resist at least 3000% of physical and soul Aberrant Corruption.
So what kind of curse was this?
Just as Substitute Wooden Figurine Number One turned into mud and dissolved into the ground, Substitute Wooden Figurine Number Two took over like a relay, using the Artifact-Control Incantation to retrieve the remains of the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl.
Inevitably, it also saw that image. Instantly, it rotted, deteriorated, and turned into stinky tofu!
By the time Substitute Wooden Figurine Number Three took over the relay to rescue the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl’s remains, this curse hadn’t weakened at all—in fact, it had grown stronger.
Li Si had never seen anything like this before. Could this curse actually spread?
But he didn’t give up on retrieving the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl’s remains because, in a way, the value of one Wish-Fulfilling Pearl was worth using up four Substitute Wooden Figurines.
In a flash, Li Si retrieved the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl’s remains from Substitute Wooden Figurine Number Four. The final image seen by the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl was fixed in his mind.
It was a very blurry image: a towering mountain, and a half-open eye. That eye was at least ten kilometers long. If you didn’t know, you might think it was just a fissure canyon.
Boom!
A terrifying curse storm instantly activated, bringing dual Aberrant Corruption to both soul and body!
In an instant, Li Si’s spirit felt as if countless icy steel needles were piercing it, along with toxins, causing an indescribable, despairing pain.
But actually, this was a good sign because it meant he could withstand it. Only if you can withstand it do you feel anything.
Whether the feeling was pain or happiness didn’t really matter.
Then, the curse storm came fast and left fast. Li Si’s head felt like it had been hit by a large hammer, buzzing, but it was quickly recovering.
On the surface of his body, flickering black tadpole-like patterns continuously appeared. These patterns seemed alive, desperately trying to burrow into his skin.
But Li Si’s Flawless Dao Body + Fetal Breathing Dao Body + World Transcending Dao Body fought back with all their might. The World Transcending Dao Body alone bore at least ninety percent of it.
For a moment, Li Si almost thought he couldn’t hold on. Well, not almost—he really couldn’t hold on.
The moment his body gave out, he couldn’t even mobilize Magic Power, let alone use any Divine Abilities.
Just as his Flawless Dao Body was about to collapse, Li Si started chewing with a crunching sound.
Oh, forgot to mention—earlier, just in case, he had put twenty Longevity Elixirs in his mouth. The effect of these Longevity Elixirs against physical Aberrant Corruption was no weaker than the Clear Heart Spell. One elixir could neutralize 100%; twenty would be about 2000%.
As the Longevity Elixirs took effect, Li Si’s face and body finally returned to a somewhat normal state. The Flawless Dao Body, Fetal Breathing Dao Body, and World Transcending Dao Body recovered. A layer of divine light shuddered, successfully destroying all those black tadpole patterns.
Even so, Li Si had to spit out several mouthfuls of black blood. It was extremely foul-smelling, and there were even little things hopping around inside it…
All of this was the cost of just one look at that image.
From the moment the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl was tainted until now, less than three seconds had passed. But from within the large city, terrifying roars erupted. Then, centered on the large city, a black dome slammed down, covering a radius of five hundred miles.
Their reaction was too fast!
Li Si was so scared his heart pounded like a galloping deer. Good thing he was vigilant enough and had maintained a safe enough distance.
Remember, this wasn’t his territory. He didn’t have the ability to teleport instantly. A distance of five hundred miles—even if he used all his strength and his best flying treasure—would take him ten seconds to fly out. He didn’t have the skills of the Raven men, nor had he specifically learned escape arts.
Unless he was willing to abandon his physical body and escape with only his spirit.
Run!
Without hesitation, Li Si first rescued the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl, then prepared to flee. It wasn’t that he couldn’t fight, but something felt very wrong.
Clang!
Another black dome fell, directly sealing off a radius of one thousand miles. Well, now even his spirit couldn’t escape.
Li Si was stunned. Then, belatedly, information from the Fate Forge arrived.
“Because you traveled more than ten thousand miles away from the Land Deed Seal, the Land Deed Seal can no longer suppress the Calamity Qi of the Calamity-Bearing Human King. You are now facing calamity.”
“In this calamity state, your luck automatically drops by 100 points, bringing the following consequences—”
“Your perception will be interfered with; you cannot detect warning signs you would normally sense.”
“You will be attracted by certain dangerous forces and subconsciously investigate further.”
“The effectiveness of your defensive Divine Abilities and Dao Techniques will decrease by 90%, especially perception-type abilities, which will decrease by 99%.”
“The power of your offensive Divine Abilities and Dao Techniques will decrease by 50%, and you will lose accuracy.”
…
“You accidentally entered an ancient forbidden land. Hidden here is an ancient Demonic Dragon that has survived from ancient times. It is gathering strength and, together with the third prince of the former Sacred Raven Kingdom, is evading the Evil God’s blockade and plotting something big here. It believes you discovered its traces and intend to perform some evil, malicious act against it.”
“You gained the friendship of the ancient Demonic Dragon.”
“You successfully resisted 8000% of Soul Alienation Contamination.”
“You successfully resisted 8000% of physical Aberrant Corruption.”
“Your escape route was cut off…”
——
“Darn it!”
Li Si felt truly unfortunate. He didn’t know that after traveling ten thousand miles away, his luck would drop so drastically. No wonder his Clear Heart Spell and Disaster-Averting Spell seemed as fragile as paper, so easily broken.
No wonder he had no sense of foreboding about this place hiding such a ferocious ancient Demonic Dragon.
So it was because he had no luck left.
He opened the tattered page and indeed found that he had no trace of Fate left on him. He remembered that right after setting out, he had refined 500 portions of White Fortune to carry with him. And now?
Well then!
Luck -100. No, wait—it was Luck -101 now.
He didn’t dare hesitate any longer.
Li Si immediately activated the Fate Forge. With a rumbling sound, he directly refined 50,000 portions of White Firewood, obtaining 500 portions of White Fortune. But then, within one second, 200 portions of that White Fortune vanished. However, the number in the Luck column, which was originally -101, instantly changed to 0.
What the heck?
Couldn’t Luck be increased?
Li Si had no mind to complain anymore. He quickly replenished his status, applying various buffs like the Clear Heart Spell, Disaster-Averting Spell, Heart-Dominating Sword, etc. This time, the effect was noticeably different. Even his mind felt sharp and clear, as if waking from a dazed state.