Chapter 413: Chapter 412: Eyes Like Knives
It was rumored in the Martial World that the Maple Forest Shelter Master once defeated Yuan Zhizi, the former top martial artist in Mirror State, with a single move. Yet, this man’s skill level was only at the eighth level of the Dragon Gate Realm.
Just when Shi Xiaole and the girl in black were about to use their skills, their minds went blank. By the time they regained consciousness, both were restrained by the Maple Forest Shelter Master.
"You’re not the Maple Forest Shelter Master."
The girl in black stared intensely at his youthful face.
"Wrong, I am."
The man laughed lightly, saying, "However, I am not the Maple Forest Shelter Master known by you. I am curious, how did you notice the difference?"
"When you appeared, I forgot all the martial arts I was practicing before."
The man nodded, exclaiming, "Ordinary people need at least three days to recover from the illusion formation. Yet, you only took a moment. I am increasingly interested in you."
"What do you want?"
The girl in black asked.
Without answering, the Maple Forest Shelter Master exerted strength on both hands. With a bang, Shi Xiaole and the girl in black fainted at the same time.
"Master, oh Master, you traveled far to find someone, never expecting that your disciple has perfected your Golden Puppet Control Divine Skill. Only one more step, and I will reach a level you never achieved. Hahaha..."
Holding one in each hand, the Maple Forest Shelter Master quickly arrived at the backyard of a cabin enclosed by maple fences and threw Shi Xiaole and the girl in black into a small pool three feet square.
You could observe that there were three small pools behind the cabin. From left to right, twelve people were in the first pool, three in the second pool, and Shi Xiaole and the girl in black were the only ones who were cast into the third pool.
Soon after, Young Master Xuanmu was thrown into the second pool.
Later that night.
The Maple Forest Shelter Master sat in front of the third pool, cross-legged with his chest upright and palms upward.
In total silence, two golden rays of light shot from his eyes and pierced Shi Xiaole and the girl in black’s foreheads.
The water in the pool was also golden, seemingly composed of unknown materials.
As the golden light entered their foreheads, the golden water in the pool began to boil, with many bubbles appearing. Like leeches, they rushed to penetrate the skin pores of Shi Xiaole and the girl in black.
Their skin gradually turned a pale yellow color.
"What powerful spiritual energy."
A moment later, the Maple Forest Shelter Master showed delight on his face.
His Golden Puppet Control Divine Skill was a top-tier inferior level spiritual martial art. Once successfully cultivated, it could control a martial artist at the third or even fourth level of the Dragon Gate Realm if used wisely.
However, such a spiritual martial art was extremely difficult to cultivate. It required the use of puppets with strong spiritual power, and the stronger the puppet’s spiritual power, the better the cultivation results.
Over the years, he used the enchanting formation to continuously screen for powerful puppets. He only managed to create a few jade and silver puppets. He never expected to catch two golden puppets, so rare that they could only be found once in a million.
Suppressing his excitement, the Maple Forest Shelter Master increased his output of spiritual power. The gold threads became more substantial and lifelike, repeatedly piercing the spiritual sea of Shi Xiaole and the girl in black with the intention of creating a gap to absorb their spiritual power for himself.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Under the intense shock, Shi Xiaole and the girl in black were completely unconscious.
"Hahaha, not only are they golden puppets, but they are also top-grade golden puppets. Such spiritual power is simply unheard of. Once I subdue these two, I will walk unhindered in Mirror State, fearless."
Maximizing his output of spiritual power, his eyes bloodshot, he gave it his all.
Splat!
Under the severe impact, a hint of consciousness finally awakened in Shi Xiaole. But this hint of consciousness was quickly absorbed by the golden thread and countered to enter the Maple Forest Shelter Master’s mind.
This is the horror of the Golden Puppet Control Divine Skill. Even if it cannot penetrate your spiritual sea, it can awake your consciousness and peel away your spiritual power,
Not only Shi Xiaole, the spiritual power of the girl in black was also being absorbed, and at a rate three times faster than Shi Xiaole’s.
The pair seemed to become the Maple Forest Shelter Master’s spiritual nourishment, allowing him to absorb freely.
However, the Maple Forest Shelter Master failed to notice that although he absorbed Shi Xiaole’s spiritual power each time, due perhaps to a very solid spiritual sea, a very small amount always remained on the surface of the spiritual sea and gradually accumulated.
About three 2-hour periods later.
The Maple Forest Shelter Master stopped satisfactorily.
Excessive foreign spiritual power cannot be absorbed all at once. It needs to be assimilated before more can be absorbed.
"Hehe, tonight’s gains are equivalent to what I usually get in a month. Once I’ve drained half of their spiritual energy, my own spiritual power will certainly be transformed, even surpassing my master. Then, who in the world can resist me?"
Having trained for so many years, Maple Forest Shelter Master hasn’t yet perfected a top-tier martial art. But when his spiritual power transformation occurs, he believes this task will become easy.
"The Golden Puppet Control Divine Skill can only consume half of the spiritual power, but that’s just as well. These two have absorbed the Golden Puppet Liquid, which also significantly enhances their own internal power. At that time, they will become my perfect puppets, commanded by me and renowned throughout the world."
Laughing heartily, the Maple Forest Shelter Master turned and left.
Over the next few days, he returned every six 2-hour periods eager to absorb the spiritual power of Shi Xiaole and the girl in black. Though he could never fully penetrate their spiritual seas, the accumulated power yielded results. The Maple Forest Shelter Master could feel changes in his own spiritual power and understandings.
Half a month later.
Half of Shi Xiaole’s spiritual power was drained while the girl in black almost lost one-tenth.
However, at the surface of Shi Xiaole’s spiritual sea, the residual spiritual power left every time gradually increased. By the 20th day, Shi Xiaole’s eyelashes trembled ever so slightly.
"So much of my psychic power has been drained."
A sigh of indescribable fury and killing intent filled Shi Xiaole’s heart.
The current situation was perilous.
He was no match for the Maple Forest Shelter Master, and his psychic power was being suppressed by the Golden Puppet Control Divine Skill. Other than his consciousness, his body couldn’t move.
It was as if he was a conscious puppet.
But he couldn’t sit idly waiting for death. He had to figure out a way to save himself.
The Maple Forest Shelter Master came again, sitting cross-legged with golden threads radiating from his eyes, beginning to absorb the psychic power of Shi Xiaole and the girl in black.
"That’s it."
As if recalling something, Shi Xiaole suddenly had an idea and entered the system space in his mind.
His gaze abruptly fell on a certain stele on the second floor of the Martial God Hall.
Last time in Qingxue State, he accidentally acquired a lot of secret scripts due to the eradication of the Sky Evil Sect by the Lan and Huang families. His current reward points had reached 45,700.
Shi Xiaole originally planned to slowly accumulate these points and then continue to buy first-rate martial arts from the system, but the current situation forced his hand, making him spend these points prematurely.
Luckily, this martial art was as rare as a first-rate lower-tier martial art, even surpassing it in certain areas!
"System, I want to purchase a martial art."
Shi Xiaole pointed at the stele he had chosen.
"This technique is of the second tier top grade level, it requires 12,500 reward points to purchase. Do you confirm this purchase, host?"
A second-tier martial art has a maximum value of 5,000 points, meaning the martial art Shi Xiaole was buying was amongst the top of the second-tier martial arts.
"Confirmed."
Ding!
"Congratulations host, you have acquired a second tier top-grade Pupil Skill ’Eye Saber’ by Di Feijing."
A flash of light came from one of the steles on the second floor. The next moment, a previously unknown incantation appeared in Shi Xiaole’s mind.
In the Martial World, the rarity of Pupil Skills could be compared to that of Poisonous Skills, and even surpassing the Flying Skill. If a second-tier top-grade Pupil Skill like ’Eye Saber’ was spread out, even the martial arts circles in Mirror State would fight over it tooth and nail.
The Eye Saber was undoubtedly one of the very best of the second-tier, top-grade Pupil Skills.
Di Feijing, the only one known even by those without acquaintances, is revered across the kingdom.
This is the most widely spread saying in the capital. As the grandmaster and strategist of the Six and Half Halls, Di Feijing was not keen on showing off. This man, who always looked down, was attractive enough to make Bai Choufei jealous. He left a lasting impression of intelligence, wit, calmness and loneliness on the people of the martial world.
However, few people knew that Di Feijing’s martial arts skills were as stunning as his intelligence and appearance.
The Eye Saber was one of his unique skills.
The horror of this martial art was that it could emit internal power with just a glance. Who would think that when someone looks at you, their internal power has already been shot into your body through their eyes?
Even Wang Xiaoshi was almost caught by it and nearly killed by the Eye Saber.
However, after all, it was an eyeball attack, so the Eye Saber could not fully utilize all the internal power of a martial artist, otherwise, it would exceed the bearable range and cause blindness.
Shi Xiaole guessed that this might be why the Eye Saber could not be rated as a first-class martial art. Otherwise, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was a first-class mid-tier martial art.
There was no time to waste. As soon as he obtained the Eye Saber, Shi Xiaole began practicing it. Since the Eye Saber was a visual Pupil Skill, it could be practiced with just his consciousness.
However, Shi Xiaole was very cautious and only chose to practice after the Maple Forest Shelter Master had left to avoid detection.
"It turns out that the Eye Saber can not only emit partial internal power but also partial psychic power."
As his training deepened, Shi Xiaole truly felt the subtlety of the Eye Saber, which could not only catch the enemy by surprise, but could also freely switch between internal power and psychic power, making it a nightmare for the enemy.
Don’t forget, Shi Xiaole’s psychic power was extremely strong. The power of the Eye Saber would double in his hands.
Day after day.
Unconsciously, another month passed.
Even if nearly ten percent of his psychic power was absorbed by the Maple Forest Shelter Master, Shi Xiaole still managed to fully master the Eye Saber in the first month.
On this day, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.
As usual, the Maple Forest Shelter Master came with a smile on his face and began to absorb the psychic power of Shi Xiaole and the girl in black.
Shi Xiaole didn’t make his move rashly.
After a month of observation, he had already discovered that the Maple Forest Shelter Master would have a vulnerability in his defenses when he finished his operation. That was the best opportunity to make his move.
His consciousness attached to the sea of psyche, Shi Xiaole, like a lurking hunter, waited patiently, but coldly and angrily watched as the other drained his psychic power.
"These two top-grade golden puppets are indeed a gift from Heaven to this Shelter Master."
Three 2-hour periods later, the Maple Forest Shelter Master stopped working with a hearty laugh.
Now is the time!
Consciousness suddenly erupted, and two invisible, yet sharp lights shot out from Shi Xiaole’s eyes along the lingering golden threads, piercing straight into the pupils of Maple Forest Shelter Master.
