Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!

Chapter 1290: Chapter 976: Success and Failure Both Come from a Thousand Faces (Part 2)

[Qi Baijun has activated Soul-Devouring Demon Skill on you, Lifespan -45 years]

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Dragging the other party into the Seven-Layered Glazed Treasure Tower, Jiang Yuan took the initiative and kept clicking to cast the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill.

However, Qi Baijun reacted quickly. Realizing he’d fallen into a trap and was firmly latched onto, unable to use any other methods, he immediately countered by adopting the exact same tactic!

Jiang Yuan’s move had a 0-frame start, no need to circulate Spiritual Power—just click the Skill button. His Speed was a bit faster, but his Level Five Soul-Devouring Demon Skill was clearly slightly inferior to the other party’s, and the years of Lifespan he absorbed couldn’t compare to his opponent’s;

Qi Baijun needed to circulate Spiritual Power, so he was inevitably affected and a bit slower. But he had deep Power and had cultivated the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill to perfection; a single counterattack was enough to claw back a lot.

Everything happened in a flash of lightning. Realizing he’d been tricked, Qi Baijun was so furious his face turned green.

This bastard Yang Sansi definitely has a problem!

As a high-ranking member of the Leisure Sect, he’d seen a lot and naturally knew that while the Merit Token was impressive, it was still just a Magical Treasure and couldn’t be trusted completely. Now it seemed this bastard was a fake who’d seized Yang Sansi’s Merit Token.

Using a Divine Artifact as bait, then using the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill to drain Lifespan—he probably even wants to replace me!

Heh, didn’t expect I’d also know the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill, and be better at it than you, did you?

Qi Baijun knew that with the two of them draining each other, there would be no quick outcome; this had to be a war of attrition. The Black Riders outside were blocked by the secret chamber’s Array, and he himself was in some unknown space, so they couldn’t possibly come to the rescue.

So he had to keep his cool even more, and rely on his superior Soul-Devouring Demon Skill to suck the other party into a dried-up corpse!

He needed to keep his focus razor sharp, continuously circulating Spiritual Power to seize the initiative;

Jiang Yuan, on the other hand, didn’t need to. He hadn’t even used up much of his Physical Strength Bar. Seeing this, he chuckled and said, "Worthy of being the Leisure Sect’s Three Protectors—impressive. To cultivate the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill to this level, just how many people’s Lifespan have you drained?"

The other man just snorted coldly and ignored him, single-mindedly absorbing Lifespan while secretly thinking of the aura of that Divine Artifact just now. As long as he won, everything would be his!

"You think you’re definitely going to win, don’t you?" Jiang Yuan looked at his Lifespan balance rising a bit then falling a bit, and said with a grin, "I still have more than thirty thousand years of Lifespan right now. How much have you stockpiled?

Let me do the math. If we keep sucking back and forth like this, even if you win four or fifty years each time, you’ll have to circulate Spiritual Power more than six hundred times to kill me. The key point is, I can replenish my Physical Strength at any time—can you replenish your Spiritual Power whenever you want?"

He looked around the gleaming golden interior of the Pagoda with a relaxed expression and added, "Besides, we’re inside my Divine Artifact, on my turf. As long as I shut off Spiritual Power transmission, even if your pores could absorb Spiritual Power it won’t help. Also, I’ve still got my trump-card treasure!"

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan rummaged in his Storage Bag and pulled out the Skill Upgrade Cards he’d been hoarding.

He fed two to the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill, and the Level Five Skill instantly became Level Seven. Each Lifespan drain now matched the opponent’s!

"Huff! Huff!"

Qi Baijun couldn’t get any words out; he could only pant heavily.

He couldn’t figure it out. They were both cultivating the same Cultivation Technique, and the other party was clearly weaker than him, so how could he still be this relaxed?

Could it really be that being inside the Divine Artifact gave him an advantage?

If he had to circulate his Cultivation Technique more than six hundred times to come out on top, how much Spiritual Power would that burn? Qi Baijun kept his face expressionless, but inside he was panicking. He remembered very clearly that two days ago, when he brutally slaughtered the twenty-one prisoners his subordinates had brought, he’d circulated the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill over three hundred times, in two batches, to finish the job.

In other words, if he went all-out and circulated the Cultivation Technique a bit more than a hundred times, his own Spiritual Power would run dry and he’d have to use Spirit Stones or Immortal Jade and sit in meditation for half an hour to fully recover.

Feeling the Spiritual Power in his body rapidly depleting, Qi Baijun didn’t know if it was an illusion, but the other party’s Soul-Devouring Demon Skill suddenly seemed to become as strong as his own?

What the hell kind of monster is this?!

Among the world’s Cultivators, whose Cultivation Technique isn’t honed step by step over time and experience, slowly accumulated? How could anyone possibly catch up in such a short time?

But he soon realized it wasn’t an illusion; not only was the other party’s Cultivation Technique on par with his, the Speed was even faster!

He could clearly feel his Lifespan continuously flowing away with no replenishment, and his Spiritual Power was getting lower and lower. Forcing himself to hold his breath, Qi Baijun said through clenched teeth, "Which mighty figure are you, Daoist friend? If there’s something you want, just say it—I can hand it over!"

Finally, he’d turned the tables a bit; Jiang Yuanxin had been longing to trigger the "extract opponent’s Skill" option so he could upgrade the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill again.

Hearing this, he casually chuckled and said, "There’s nothing I want. On the contrary, I’m here to deliver benefits to you. We’re fated, so I’m going to give you an Undying, Immortal, Eternal-Life Premium Package Gift Box!"

"Lunatic!" Qi Baijun’s blood surged as he cursed through gritted teeth, "You think that after killing me, you can impersonate me? Keep dreaming!"

Jiang Yuan sighed lightly. "I know, I know—you lot are always going on about ’pursuing the Great Dao’ and wanting Immortality and undying existence. But you don’t actually believe it. If you really believed in the vastness of the Heavenly Dao, you wouldn’t have fallen into becoming Evil Cultivators.

You don’t believe that even without Ascension to Immortality, you can still be undying and immortal. But that’s fine; you’ll soon see that everything I’ve said is true. As for impersonating you, isn’t that simple?

Ugly Slave already confessed: Protector Qi Baijun is known as the Thousand-Faced Young Master.

You’re adept at using the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill and like to pick faces you fancy from your prey, changing your appearance every few days.

You’ve made it so all your subordinates, the Sixth Elder, the other Protectors, and even the Sect Leader can’t figure out what your real face looks like, making it easier to protect yourself. After all, as an Evil Cultivator that everyone wants dead, you have to be cautious to live longer. I get that.

So if, today, Protector Qi Baijun, delighted after obtaining a Divine Artifact, decides he’s very fond of this body that Yang Sansi seized, and transforms into his appearance, what’s wrong with that?"

Seeing himself so thoroughly exposed, the other man’s face changed.

Jiang Yuan continued to kill both body and mind: "It’s not like you’ve never pretended to be human before. Ugly Slave said there was a period when you especially liked turning into the form of a human child. From appearance to aura, your disguise was identical to the original and impossible to tell apart.

Within the sect, everyone uses the Merit Token as identification. As for what you look like, whether you’re male or female, that’s all up to your whim. Who would be so bored and suicidal as to question the mighty Three Protectors holding great power?"

"You..." With his Spiritual Power gradually running dry, Qi Baijun’s face grew uglier and uglier. "So Ugly Slave was killed by you too! That ugly thing actually dared to betray me!"

"Listen to yourself—how can you judge people by their looks?" Watching the other party’s HP bar fail to recover and start plummeting, Jiang Yuan kept clicking the Skill button without missing a beat of trash talk. "Don’t be mad. In a bit I’ll personally take you to see him. Once you’re reunited, you might even end up thanking Ugly Slave."

Qi Baijun closed his eyes in despair, racking his brains to think of a way to break the situation.

But he was trapped too deep. The moment his focus slipped, the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill would become unsustainable, making his already losing position even worse.

He even thought that when he was sucked into a dried-up corpse and completely dead, those Black Riders outside still wouldn’t realize it.

After all, one is a堂堂 Protector, the other is a guy who practically has no Spiritual Power and only survived by Possession, "Yang Sansi." When they walk out of the secret chamber, no one would ever believe Yang Sansi could reverse-kill a Protector!

"Success by a thousand faces, failure by a thousand faces!" Qi Baijun was so enraged he nearly spat blood. He glared at Jiang Yuan viciously and said through clenched teeth, "You’re right, you can completely claim that you fancy this skin and transformed into the appearance of ’Yang Sansi.’

But don’t forget, no matter how well you act, you’re not me. You don’t know all the major affairs of the Leisure Sect! You’ll be exposed. When that happens, you’ll die more miserably than I do!"

Jiang Yuan shook his head and sighed. "Why are you so stubborn? I told you you’re not going to die, but you just won’t listen. I thought that since you’d cultivated the Soul-Devouring Demon Skill to perfection, you’d at least stockpiled tens of thousands of years of Lifespan. Never thought it’d be this pathetic—doesn’t even hit ten thousand, does it? What a waste!"

The Spiritual Power within the Seven-Layered Glazed Treasure Tower was cut off and sealed. As Qi Baijun’s Spiritual Power was completely exhausted, he had no ability to fight back, leaving Jiang Yuan to keep on sucking, sucking, sucking.

[Triggered Skill extraction from opponent. Please choose one of the three options. If you don’t need any of them, please close the dialog box]

[1. Bone-Dissolving Evil Technique: All things between heaven and earth possess Spirit; even remains such as bones and flesh contain a certain amount of Energy. Cultivating this Skill allows you to make use of waste, squeezing out the Essence within and absorbing it for yourself. Earth-rank Advanced Cultivation Technique]

[2. Soul-Devouring Demon Skill: Same Skill. Choosing to learn it will automatically convert into a certain amount of Skill experience]

[3. Soul Searching Technique: Allows you to randomly obtain memories stored in the target’s mind. Generally speaking, the more emotionally broken the target, the easier it is to obtain important information. Earth-rank Low Level Cultivation Technique]

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