Chapter 90: Chapter 90: Slanting Wind and Fine Rain, No Need to Return
’I guess this counts as a success.’ Qi Suian felt the bizarre flesh that had mutated from the vast number of cancer cells in his stomach.
’Next, I’ll use it as fuel, forcibly compressing and burning it until I reach my absolute limit.’
’Extreme Combustion Cells, variant adrenaline, destructive dopamine, and Destructive Blood.’
’If I wasn’t just 0.001% away from complete infection, I’d wonder if I was even human anymore.’
Qi Suian mused self-deprecatingly. To survive, he had sacrificed a great deal, but the rewards had been immense.
A protagonist’s halo without the usual drawbacks, with the Profound Virus as the foundation of his Extraordinary power.
’These four effects not only serve to strengthen my body and Spirit, but they can also act as an overdrive state.’
’But calling it an overdrive state doesn’t feel right anymore. I need a more suitable name... How about the Celestial Demon Dissolving Technique?’
’That might be copyright infringement...’
’Then I’ll just call it the Oblique Wind and Drizzle Skill.’
He chose this name because of the rest of the line from the poem.
In oblique wind and drizzle, one need not return.
It meant that once this move was used, death was certain. There was no turning back.
’The name doesn’t really fit, though. This thing has nothing to do with wuxia or xianxia,’ Qi Suian grumbled.
But he didn’t care. It was his own modification, so he called the shots.
"AI Brain, devise an extreme training regimen. I need to get stronger."
Qi Suian understood his own body very well, but planning a training method was not that simple.
He wasn’t a professional; the AI Brain, on the other hand, had the relevant data.
Combined with its intelligence, it could design a regimen for Qi Suian to unearth his limits in the fastest way possible.
[Planning...]
[Plan complete. Forced stimulation can be administered via the viral bloodline bio-armor, combined with a high-temperature environment for secondary stimulus. Proceeding regardless of consequences, estimated completion time is three days.]
’Of course it’d be you,’ Qi Suian thought. He could tell at a glance that the upside of this method was its ease—he wouldn’t even have to move.
As for the downsides, there were plenty of them, the most obvious being the pain. However, this method would save Qi Suian at least three, or even six, months of time.
The normal path to mastering the Power of the Limit required years of compression and burning to reach a hundred degrees of power. For Qi Suian to succeed in just three days via a shortcut, it was unrealistic to expect there wouldn’t be a price to pay.
However, because Qi Suian wasn’t a native of the Polar Day World and his cellular genes hadn’t evolved here, he couldn’t reach such high temperatures. His body temperature could only reach fifty degrees.
But his attributes could reach 2 points, which made it a much better deal for him.
"Can this timeframe be compressed even further?" Qi Suian asked.
[Possible. A three-hour forced metamorphosis, dying once per minute on average. Stimulation will be intensified by combining destructive properties with extreme adaptability.]
"I’ll take that one."
Between three hours of ultimate agony and three days of lesser pain, he would obviously choose the former.
When it came to getting stronger, the faster the better. This was especially true for Qi Suian, who had been taking shortcuts from the very start.
Forcing him to progress step-by-step was simply unrealistic.
The Apocalypse Game wouldn’t give him that much time to prepare, anyway.
Besides, if he really took things one step at a time, wouldn’t his death-and-rebirth ability be a complete waste?
"Let’s start immediately, get it over with—HSSSS!"
Qi Suian felt as if all the flesh and blood in his body were on fire, especially his stomach, which felt like a massive furnace.
’Fifty degrees? This feels more like one hundred and fifty!’
And the temperature was still skyrocketing.
The agony wasn’t just physical; it seared his Spirit as well.
’You said one minute... it’s only been thirty-two sec—’ Before Qi Suian could finish, his entire body withered into a brittle husk.
From flesh to bone, everything was incinerated in the extreme combustion meant to forge his dual attributes.
This method was far crazier than the standard training for the Power of the Limit. At least that involved compressing one’s power before burning it.
Qi Suian, on the other hand, was simply setting himself completely on fire.
If not for his ability to resurrect, this would be nothing more than a method of suicide.
He resurrected in an instant, only to feel a searing pain in his stomach.
Apparently, this was because the mutated cancer cells in his stomach were forced to adapt and, to save their own lives, re-fuse with Qi Suian’s body.
Once successful, Qi Suian’s stomach would undergo an extremely powerful transformation.
The mutated cancer cells, which Qi Suian had dubbed Extreme Combustion Cells, inherited the high-temperature properties. When combined with his stomach acid, their power would be extraordinary.
He could probably even use his stomach acid as a weapon.
Before he could finish his thought, the intense, burning pain assaulted him once more.
Having been through it once, the process was much more efficient this time. Qi Suian endured for a full twenty-one seconds before activating his death-and-rebirth.
He might have died faster, but the efficiency was far greater.
He achieved in twenty-one seconds what had previously taken thirty-two.
This meant that the three hours was just an estimate; the actual time would definitely be much shorter.
The AI Brain’s estimate of one death per minute had been conservative; the reality was quite different.
An hour and a half flashed by. Qi Suian reached up and scratched at the connecting tube between his spine and the viral bloodline bio-armor module.
’Good thing I’ve died so many times. I have plenty of experience with this, otherwise I might have actually had to give up halfway.’
[Name: *** (Profound Virus: Severe Infection 99.99%)]
[Spirit: 2.1]
[Physique: 2.1]
’An extra 0.1... that’s within the normal range of deviation.’
’It must be a bonus effect from undergoing direct, full combustion, rather than compressing first and then burning.’
’But it seems this still isn’t my limit.’
Qi Suian looked at his stats. The Extreme Combustion Cells, evolved from the Power of the Limit, still had room to grow.
’Using cancer cells is really much more effective than using normal cells.’
’Especially since cancer cells can multiply infinitely as long as there are nutrients.’
’So next, as long as I nourish my stomach and give my body enough nutrients, my dual attributes will be able to grow to 2.5 on their own.’
This was a process that couldn’t be cheesed using his death-and-rebirth.
To make an analogy, his body was lacking nutrients and needed to be fed in order to grow.
You can’t just give a hungry man an empty bowl.
He already had the bowl; what he needed was the food to fill it.
And now, his stomach had completed its mutation. Its temperature of one hundred degrees constantly burned his other organs.
In Qi Suian’s opinion, this was no longer a stomach; it was clearly a furnace.
"Prepare some nutrient solution and inject it directly into me." Qi Suian left the matter to the AI Brain.
What else could he do?
[Executing...]
Meanwhile, Qi Suian was pondering something else. ’With the Death Potion and the Oblique Wind and Drizzle Skill, once my attributes hit 2.5, I should be able to boost them to 3.0.’
He could feel the difference just from the change in his data, now that his dual attributes were at 2.1.
To put it simply, he could kill his former self in a single move, so fast that his past self wouldn’t even have time to react.
’No wonder the Apocalypse Game is so stingy, only giving out 0.1 attribute points at a time. It turns out that reaching each whole number represents a qualitative leap.’
As for why he didn’t feel anything when his Physique reached 1 point, it was because he originally had 1 point, but it had dropped due to complications from the Profound Virus.
So that had just been a recovery. This was a true breakthrough.
The Tai Sui God quickly utilized the resources of Liebo Mansion to produce a large quantity of nutrient solution.
It was administered slowly, like an IV drip, and the excess was stored in his Subspace Stable Pocket.
With the injection of the nutrient solution, Qi Suian felt much more comfortable.
[Estimated recovery time: Half a month.]
The AI Brain didn’t wait for Qi Suian to ask, having already projected the approximate time.
After all, the AI Brain was constantly monitoring Qi Suian’s various stats through an expedition-grade ecological circulation device. Combined with the data Qi Suian himself had recorded, projecting a timeline was no problem.
"Stockpile enough nutrient solution in advance. Then, let’s collect the precursors for the modules we need from Liebo Mansion."
Liebo Mansion itself no longer held any value for Qi Suian.
The same went for the conventional human method of cultivating the Power of the Limit.
The only things of value left to him were the Ancient Martial Techniques of this group of survivors and the Desolate Beasts.
Then it was a matter of finding a way to survive.
The crisis of the Polar Day World was already beginning to show.
A reconnaissance network was monitoring the sun’s temperature in real time.
Since Qi Suian arrived in this world, the temperature had been rising at a rate of one degree every five days.
Moreover, that interval was shortening, and the temperature jumps were getting larger.
At this rate, humanity couldn’t possibly survive. In half a year, even the Sand Worm-type Desolate Beasts in the desert probably wouldn’t be able to take the heat.
So he had to prepare early. Lingering in Liebo Mansion for too long would only hinder his progress.
Next, after seizing the opportunities here, he would hunt Desolate Beasts to fuel the Tai Sui God, while simultaneously researching Ancient Martial Techniques and the Blood Moon Organization samples.
-----------------
"It’s been five days since our arrival, and the temperature has already risen by a degree." As a Huajin Ancient Martial Artist, Cao Li was naturally highly perceptive of his surroundings, so he clearly sensed the problem.
’It seems I must prepare early. This so-called Apocalypse Game, judging by its name alone, is clearly not a charity.’
Cao Li felt no discomfort for now, but if the temperature truly rose into the hundreds of degrees, not even he could survive.
’The key to survival lies within this Power of the Limit. I have only just scratched its surface. Perhaps only when I reach the Danjin stage and become a Grandmaster will I be able to see the path forward clearly.’
Things had been smooth sailing at first, leading many of the younger members of the Cao Clan to grow contemptuous of the Apocalypse Game.
Cao Li, however, had not. On the contrary, he had grown ever more vigilant.
’A pity. I only cultivate Ancient Martial Techniques; I don’t understand anything about cells or genes, and no one else in the clan is developing in that direction either.’
’Otherwise, I wouldn’t need to become a Danjin Grandmaster just to understand it.’ Cao Li was an old man, to be sure, but he wasn’t an old fossil.
Ancient Martial Artists hadn’t been mainstream in his original society; science had been.
Even though they possessed power far surpassing ordinary people, even a Danjin Grandmaster wouldn’t dare to face a hail of bullets head-on.
That’s to say nothing of even more advanced weaponry like missiles, robotic dogs, and drones.
A Danjin Grandmaster’s Martial Dao intuition could indeed perceive such threats, but that was only effective in one-on-one combat or against a long-range ambush.
If one were to truly face an overwhelming saturation strike, you’d have to praise a Danjin Grandmaster’s body-hardening techniques if there was even a scrap of them left behind.
