147 Fusion Time
Cao Mao couldn't choose. There was no hint or indicator if one of them was superior to the others or not. In a dilemma like this, he canceled the fusion.
First of all, Cao Mao didn't like the fact that he would lose some of the clone techniques in this fusion. Since he couldn't steal the same skill from the same clone again, it would be a hassle to look for another clone to regain the lost system skills.
Secondly, there was no description of the new skills. Cao Mao couldn't gauge how strong each style or technique could be.
And lastly, gambling was bad. Cao Mao couldn't afford to lose all core sword techniques and hope to get something better from the bunch.
Instead of combining all sword techniques at once, Cao Mao experimented with two or three skills at a time to see the best possible combination, so he could get the most out of it.
Playing around for an hour, he found a result that he wouldn't lose anything by using the following combination;
Iron Wall Sword Fortress +20
Simplified Murder Sword Formation
Death Sword Formation
Iron Wall Sword Fortress was a defensive sword style while the other two were a combination of spells and sword arts. When a sword formation was activated, the spell could give buffs to the user, debuff the opponents, attack the opponents directly, defend against oncoming attacks, or become a unique sword stance, depending on the variations and the specialties of each formation.
Murder Sword Formation and Death Sword Formation were debuff style swordsmanship. Once used, the opponents' defensive stance, abilities, or armors would be rendered useless while the formation was active. The sophisticated and deliberated style required a certain mastery in swordsmanship – One with the Sword.
Originally, Cao Mao had no clue about One-with-the-Sword. But after giving Kang Yan the Ring of Yin Slave and copying her abilities to system skills, he acquired her knowledge in swordsmanship. But for the practical usage, Cao Mao had to work on it himself.
Ding
50% Indestructible Fortress Style
35% True Murderous Sword Formation
9% Berserker Swordsmanship
3% Sword of Annihilation
2% Murder Sword Fortress
1% Death Fortress Sword Style
As usual, the possible results never showed any detail of these skills. It was up to Cao Mao to judge the abilities by its name.
However, Cao Mao was looking for an upgraded version of the Iron Wall Sword Fortress style. Therefore, he welcomed any rare ability that focused on defensive sword arts.
Cao Mao activated his heaven blessing, changing the lowest percentage skill to 100%. Then, he pressed the FUSE button.
WHOOM
Cao Mao's head felt heavier as if he had just woken up after a hard party. At the same time, new memories entered his brain.
Flashes of unknown movements entered Cao Mao's mind. He could see a series of complicated movements while he gained comprehension behind the fortress sword style.
This was not the first time that Cao Mao had experienced the memory implant process from the system. When he copied his yin slave's skills, he went through this ordeal several times.
Enduring the system process for 3 hours, the download was completed. However, Cao Mao was bleeding from his nostril from the intense memory transfer.
Ding
You have learned Death Fortress Sword Style
The following skills cannot be fused for one year;?Simplified Murder Sword Formation,?Death Sword Formation,?Death Fortress Sword Style.
Ding
Your skill, Iron Wall Sword Fortress +20, has been deleted.
"Haiya, fighting 3rd-stage clones is a lot better than fusing skills. That shit is fucking painful."
Cao Mao laid on his back before in the baby geese, panting in exhaustion.
Chirp (Nose bleed.)
Chirp (Hooman blood is stink!)
Chirp (Hooman is bleeding!)
Chirp (Help the hooman!)
The geese jumped on Cao Mao's face and pecked his nose, licking and drinking his blood.
"Honk! HONK!" (STOP, BAD GEESE!)
As Cao Mao was struggling under the geese, the system updated.
Ding
You have completed the last tutorial quest.
You can access the campaign mode.
The system shop has been updated.
You can upgrade Isolation Training Space to level 5.
The system has given you one week to prepare for the upcoming campaign mode.
Please decide which protagonist, main character, or antagonist you wish to hunt.
If you don't choose anyone after the one week is over, the system will automatically pick a random protagonist for you.
Six system screens appeared before Cao Mao, showing the details of potential targets.
Two protagonists, two neutral characters, and two antagonists were selectable. However, Cao Mao could only pick one.
Cao Mao ignored the geese and read through the description of each character. But when he saw the face of a neutral character, his face twitched.
"Zhu Qiao?"
.
.
.
During the 9 months that Cao Mao had spent practicing the Goose Tongue technique, skirmishes between the royal army and Wei Huang's demon army occurred once or twice a month. Most of the time, they sent weak soldiers to probe the other's strength while the 7th-stage experts avoided a direct confrontation with the other side's experts.
Both sides were buying time as they were negotiating with neutral organizations, who had yet to join the war. Many orthodox, unorthodox, and evil sects chose not to participate in this conflictsince they had nothing to gain.
Instead of worrying about the war between two superpowers, these neutral organizations' attention lied elsewhere.
Three major merchant organizations, the Yu Merchant Association, the Mi Clan Incorporate, and the Zhou Finance, were searching for a certain dead body. Had it been a normal corpse, nobody would have paid attention. However, these merchant firms said that the corpse belonged to someone with an ancient bloodline, and they would exchange essence cores for it.
The Yu Clan offered 500 cores and permanent discounts to the affiliated shops. The Mi Clan was willing to give 1000 cores if the corpse was intact while the Zhou Clan offered an element crystal instead.
The odd bidding of these organizations aroused suspicion. Many sects deployed inner disciples and experts to investigate this matter.
It didn't take long for the crown prince, Liu Bian, to make an announcement to the public, clearing the doubts of all powerhouses. The prince also offered the same bounty that he had offered Yu Shun and the merchant clans.
The land was thrown into chaos when 1,000 essence cores and a shadow element crystal was on the line. All sects disregarded the war and searched for clues of Xie Tian's last whereabouts. Even Wei Huang and the emperor had to stop their forces and investigate this treasure hunting mission.
Soon, they found clues. Everything led to the Myriad Cauldron's herbal plane.
…
"This is annoying! WHY ME OF ALL PEOPLE!?"
Inside a private room in a flying ship, which was heading toward the Yeet City, Zhu Qiao buried her face in a pillow, screaming in frustration.
Zhu Huifang dispatched Zhu Qiao and many former Silver Phoenix Sect's disciples to search for Xie Tian's dead body as well.
The clan patriarch regretted letting Xie Tian go. Frustrated with her loss, she also joined this hunt, hoping to get some fortune from Xie Tian's dead body and score an element crystal from the crown prince.
But Zhu Huifang couldn't leave the Sky Duck City due to the conflict with the Xu Clan. She had to protect the front line against her former sect master.
The burden shifted to Zhu Qiao, who was the youngest daughter of Zhu Huifang. As someone who was born a succubus, she wasn't at risk of being violated by random men. Instead, she could kill any man with her lower mouth. Meanwhile, Zhu Yanyu was a normal virgin maiden, so Zhu Huifang kept the elder sister in the city.
"I'm a fucking virgin, too! I don't want to get fucked!"
While Zhu Qiao was throwing tantrum, another mature woman was leaning against the wall, closing her eyes, listening to her niece getting crazy on the bed.
Zhu Nuan was a peak 6th-stage succubus, who successfully mutated like her elder sister, Zhu Huifang. However, she lost her eyesight as a price for obtaining the demonic power. She closed her eyes, similar to Qi Hong and Qi Ning.
As a succubus, Zhu Nuan's 116-year-old body was the same as attractive women in their late 20s. She inherited the signature pink hair and the sharp nose of the Zhu Clan. Despite having a breast size over 100cm and a bountiful butt, her slim waist and her face didn't look fat. Her juicy body was the same as modern women who had beautification surgeries or fake boobs.
Zhu Nuan sighed, "You're not even cultivating VY techniques. Why should you care about your virginity? Just pick a little boy and tear the hymen, so you won't be flustered when someone tries to violate you."
"Aunty! Are you telling me to get fucked!?"
"You're wasting your gift. Do you know how many women died trying to become a succubus? Succubi like us can live forever with our youthful bodies. We can even increase our cultivation base rapidly by devouring men's semen."
Zhu Qiao clicked her tongue in disgust, "But mother promotes VY School of thought and teaches everyone to respect their virginity."
"Those techniques are for humans. We're demons."
"…"
"If you can't discuss this topic with me, you can go ask everyone on the ship how their first time went. Everyone on board of this ship are practicing JY techniques."
"Meh, I'm not talking to those sluts. Please leave me alone."
"… Fine."
Zhu Nuan shook her head and exited the room.
After Zhu Qiao was left alone, she summoned her system menu.
A quest panel was flashing before her.
.
Campaign Quest, Unknown Difficulty, Friend or Foe Part 1,
Objective: Investigate the identity of Xie Tian's murderer.
Failure Condition: The murderer is dead.
Reward: A heaven-grade cultivation technique gacha ticket.
Failure Penalty: Zhu Huifang will marry you to a random fat ugly young master of a noble family.
Description
Someone has slain one of your love interests, Xie Tian. Now, everyone is hunting for Xie Tian's dead body. The last clue of Xie Tian's last whereabouts is the herb harvesting event, where alchemist pupils and many cultivators visited a lower plane to harvest rare herbs.
The rumor said that Xie Tian died inside the plane, but nobody knows who killed him. Use your abilities and everything you've learned from the tutorial quests to complete your first campaign questlines.
Hints and Tips
Your actions and your performance during this quest will determine how difficult the quest will be. It can be as easy as the tutorial quests or it can be as hard as a 10-star quest.
.
Zhu Qiao gazed at her system menu and grumbled. Among the selectable campaign quests, this one had the potential to be the easiest quest since the difficulty was determined by her actions and decisions. As for the other quests, she didn't like it.
There were five quests. One was the current questline. The other three involved flirting with young masters from prominent clans, and the last one demanded her to marry one of the princes.
Zhu Qiao didn't want to marry any of them since local young masters were either douchebags or womanizers. She wanted a man whom she could manipulate. If possible, Zhu Qiao wanted to be like one of the immortals in novels, living free and aloof without a spouse. Then, she would find a way to return to the modern world.
'This freaking heaven-grade cultivation technique is better be worth it. I don't want anything to do with pussy-related techniques anymore.'
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l