69novels Chapter 1152 - 108: Ma Long Was Nearly Beaten to Death
Chapter 1152 - 108: Ma Long Was Nearly Beaten to Death
"So annoying."
Looking at the endless surge of beast tides, Li Zheng rubbed his forehead in frustration: "At this rate, even if those stronger beasts don’t come, I might still be worn out to death."
It seems there is someone in the depths of the Sin Domain who doesn’t want to see me right now.
Feeling a stir in his heart, Li Zheng descended from the sky, grabbed Ma Long’s arm, and let his Spiritual Power sweep over its surface. Sure enough, he sensed a pure negative emotion.
Although this negative emotion is pure, it’s far from comparable to the threats deeper in the Sin Domain. In other words, Ma Long hadn’t mastered the Great Sin Rules as he thought, but for some unknown reason, after being fully distorted, he somehow regained his sanity.
"Let’s go back first."
Ignoring Ma Long’s puzzled look, Li Zheng pulled him up into the sky and retreated in the direction of the Golden Light Zone.
Looking back, as expected, as he distanced himself from the depths of the Sin Domain, the charging speed of the incoming beasts slowed.
When he finally saw the Golden Light Zone appear in sight, the beast tide also completely halted, showing signs of retreat.
"Why are they retreating again?" Ma Long noticed this scene and asked in confusion, "Weren’t the beasts said to act solely on instinct without rationality? Does this mean... these beasts are being manipulated by some rational being to attack us?"
"That’s about right."
Li Zheng lowered his altitude and tossed Ma Long down: "Let’s head back to the Golden Light Zone first; you can find your own way down."
Bang!
Ma Long landed steadily, stirring up a cloud of dust.
"..."
That Li is a bit too much, almost reaching the Golden Light Zone and he throws me off. Couldn’t he just take me all the way across by flying?
Shaking his numbed legs, Ma Long chased after Li Zheng in the sky towards the Golden Light Zone.
Li Zheng observed Ma Long’s condition: "From that height, if it was his former strength, he would have been smashed into a pulp upon landing. Yet now he remains unharmed, and can barely keep up with my speed just by running on foot?"
It seems that after the distortion, Ma Long’s body has undergone extreme changes, even more terrifying than even the Divine Powers who actively undergo distortion!
Back then, the Divine Powers were no match for Li Zheng now; he could blow them away with a breath.
But observing Ma Long’s current strength, Li Zheng doubted whether even his full power could harm him.
"Perhaps... "
The Outer City residents who once attempted to master the Great Sin Rules all failed, and some of them turned into this state like Ma Long?
If that’s the case, where are those people now?
Are they the ones controlling the beast tide to block me?
What is their exact condition?
Are they under the control of the Emotion Storm, or are they free?
Every visit to the Sin Domain leaves Li Zheng with many mysteries, yet only a few can be unraveled.
Returning to the sky above the Golden Light Zone, Li Zheng dispersed the Thunderous Wings behind him and a gentle breeze enveloped his body as he slowly descended.
This was a new Superpower he injected into himself, belonging to the Wind Element or rather the Air Element.
When combined with the Fire Superpower, the Wind Superpower can enhance the power limit of the fire abilities, while also being usable independently.
"What do we do now?" Ma Long was waiting below, eagerly asking as soon as Li Zheng landed.
"Wait here for a bit, I need to enhance myself again." Li Zheng knew that with his current strength, charging all the way in wasn’t realistic. His strength was limited by the Genetic Force within him; once that was exhausted, his power would greatly diminish.
So, he intended to address his endurance issue a bit before launching another assault on the Sin Domain.
"Enhance?"
Ma Long was stunned: "Here?"
What could be enhanced inside the Sin Domain?
Spiritual Power?
"Here."
Li Zheng found a relatively secluded spot, sat cross-legged, and instructed Ma Long: "Keep an eye out for me, don’t let anyone approach."
Originally, he assigned the task of attempting to cultivate using the black qi of the Sin Domain to Zhan Zhouzhou, while he focused on attempting cultivation using the resentful black hair behind him.
Yet due to a commission, he personally came within the Sin Domain this time.
"Myriad Evils Demon Technique, don’t let me down."
Closing his eyes, Li Zheng calmed his mind, quickly finding the feeling for cultivation.
With a thought, several Spirit Stones appeared in his hand.
While absorbing the Spiritual Energy within the Spirit Stones, he also attempted to interact with the resentful black hair behind him.
From Ma Long’s perspective, once Li Zheng sat down, there was no movement, except the eerie, cascading black hair behind him twisting as if it were trying to escape from behind Li Zheng’s back.
Before long, in the blink of an eye, Ma Long noticed that the black hair separated into two extremely thin strands connecting to Li Zheng’s nostrils.
In yet another blink, a small part of the resentful black hair was gone!
"What the...?!" Ma Long was stunned, "What kind of cultivation method is this? Wasn’t it said before that the black thing behind him was a curse attached to him because he killed too many Mud Furnace people? How come it now looks like he’s using it as nourishment?"
Using a curse for cultivation?
What kind of fantasy development is this!?
"It works, but why is the speed so slow?"
Li Zheng perceived that he could indeed absorb the resentful black aura smoothly, and after channeling it according to the cultivation technique, it entered the Spiritual Realm, adhering to his Spiritual Body like a thin layer.
However, the speed was far slower than when he simply absorbed spiritual energy a short while ago, and it even hindered his current spiritual energy absorption efficiency.
"Damn, how long will it take to cultivate this way?"
Li Zheng was dissatisfied with the status quo, yet he was helpless, as cultivation speed wasn’t something he could control.
Or rather, he could slow it down but couldn’t speed it up.
As more and more resentful black aura was absorbed into the Spiritual Realm, it started to move downward along the spine, passing through the chest’s Middle Dantian, turning it a pitch black.
Once the Middle Dantian turned completely black, it continued downward, finally settling in the Lower Dantian, forming a pathway between the Lower and Upper Dantian.
Soon after, Li Zheng noticed that his absorption rate of the resentful black aura skyrocketed, almost instantly drawing all remaining aura into the Lower Dantian and expanding it a hundredfold!
This wasn’t the end. The black aura seemed to sense that there were other energies within Li Zheng’s body and, mixed with the blackened spiritual energy, surged out of the Dantian, launching an aggressive attack on all the "Bases" within Li Zheng’s body.
Li Zheng didn’t even have time to stop it. The various "Bases" he’d accumulated within less than a week were scattered.
"What the...?"
Li Zheng was stunned. How come cultivating this demon technique has side effects? Just when he made a little progress, it destroyed the means he relied on for survival?
But then again, if the black aura could easily destroy the small Matrix formed by his Genetic Ability, doesn’t it also suggest that the demon technique is stronger than Genetic Ability?
So now the question is.
The resentful black aura behind him has been completely absorbed. How should he continue to improve in the future?
Like before when he obtained the resentful black aura, should he massacre people from several other countries?
Not to mention whether Liu Qi and the others would stop him, even he himself was strongly resisting such acts from within.
Or maybe...
Try and see if he can absorb the Black Qi from the Sin Domain?
Just as this thought emerged, Li Zheng found that the black aura in his body, after destroying all Genetic Abilities, began to expand outward, eventually spreading to every corner of his body, seemingly to prevent him from injecting those messy things into his body again later.
Then, most of the black aura curled back into the Lower Dantian, turning into a spinning round ball, becoming still.
"Has it calmed down?"
Not really.
Li Zheng discovered that a breath of air was inhaled through his nostrils, circling around before merging with the spiritual energy absorbed by the hands. The spiritual energy was extremely resentful of this new air, wrapping around it and pressing it heavily.
For some reason, a picture popped into Li Zheng’s mind, showing a white little person punching and kicking a gray little person.
During the fight, the gray little person was beaten black.
When the gray little person turned into a black little person, the white little person and the black little person were arm in arm, putting aside past grievances, and entered a small shabby hut, which was the Lower Dantian.
"Is this gray aura the air that permeates the Sin Domain?"
Li Zheng was puzzled, "Looking at this, the black aura from the Sin Domain and the resentful black aura are actually the same thing, just an extremely diluted version? Does the spiritual energy combine with it to refine and purify the gray aura, and only accepts it into the Dantian when it meets the quality standards?"
No wonder the classics say that spiritual energy has "spirit," and it can make self-adjustments according to the characteristics of the cultivation technique, actively refining and purifying the substandard gray aura.
Isn’t this like raising a small animal in your body?
But using gray aura for cultivation, superficially, seems fast and continuous.
Yet, when finally incorporated into the Dantian, there doesn’t appear to be much growth, incomparable to absorbing the resentful black aura.
Feeling that relying on gray aura for cultivation wouldn’t yield significant improvement in the short term, Li Zheng simply stopped cultivating and opened his eyes.
A pure black hue flashed deep in his eyes, permeating all his whites, then everything returned to normal.
"Uh..."
Looking around carefully, Li Zheng was dumbfounded, "What’s going on here?"
Unbeknownst to him, a large crowd of hooded Outer City residents had gathered around him. A rough count showed at least over two hundred people, and the atmosphere among them was very tense.
Feeling the golden light somewhat dazzling, Li Zheng looked up to find that the War Soul of the Dragon Clan had been triggered and was floating above his head, each with a solemn expression.
"What happened?"
Ma Long was still standing by, with his hooded cloak now in tatters, exposing his flesh and blood without skin.
It looked like Ma Long had been in a fight with someone.
"You’re asking me?" Ma Long spat out a mouthful of purplish-red blood foam and grinned bitterly, "The commotion you caused, you didn’t know? I nearly got besieged to death trying to protect you from being disturbed by others."
"I... What kind of commotion did I make?" Li Zheng looked puzzled. He just sat here and cultivated for about half an hour, he didn’t do anything else.