197 Different Ma Moxi
Witnessing the changes in Ma Moxi's demeanor, tone, and air, Cao Mao stopped being playful. He heightened his sense of vigilance, getting ready for action if the protagonist was planning to do something drastic.
"Why three sets? Isn't one set of ingredients enough?"
Ma Moxi's request was suspicious. One set of ingredients could potentially be made into at least 3 pills, which was enough for Ma Ping and Ma Shoucheng. Asking for 3 sets of materials was unnecessary.
Hearing the critical question, Ma Moxi raised his head. He stood straight and crossed his hands behind his back like a soldier, who was speaking to his superior.
The previous arrogant and stubborn demeanor was gone. Only a disciplined veteran assassin remained.
"Each set can be concocted into three pills. One pill is for my grandfather, one pill is for my uncle, and one pill is for me. However, I'm planning to hire and nurture our future subordinates and servants for the Ma Clan. I need at least six more pills to create a medicine bath, so I can refine their dantian and physical body."
This time, Ma Moxi revealed everything in his mind, including a piece of intel about his secret ability.
Ma Ping opened his mouth and was about to say something, but Cao Mao gazed at the elder and shook his head, "Let him talk. I'll handle this."
"… Okay."
All Ma Clan members sat down and watched the show from the sideline.
Cao Mao stared into Ma Moxi's eyes again, "What is your life goal, Ma Moxi?"
"Restoration of my clan and repay the debt I owe to my grandfather and my uncle."
"That's for the sake of others. What about your goal?"
"Assassins are tools. Aside from surviving, I have no dream."
"So, the six pills that you're planning to use to train new soldiers, are these soldiers for the clan or for yourself?"
"For my clan, of course."
"Again, what about yourself?"
"The one pill that I said before is for myself. That pill will be enough for my lifetime service wage since it will evolve my dantian and my meridians."
"Hmm."
Cao Mao fell into deep thought. As he was thinking about what to do with Ma Moxi, he summoned a new scroll and jotted down his idea.
After finishing writing, Cao Mao passed the scroll to Ma Moxi, "These are my new conditions. If you can make a dao oath using this, I'll give you five sets of the ingredients."
Ma Moxi's face was expressionless when he received the scroll.
It read…
--
By accepting five sets of the simplified Yin Yang Divine Vein pill's ingredient from Mao Miaomiao, I'm willing to abide by these five conditions.
1. I shall serve Mao Miaomiao as his loyal servant. Mao Miaomiao will be my only master until I die.
3. I shall never directly or indirectly betray, harm, kill, or harass Mao Miaomiao and Mao Miaomiao's family members.
4. I hereby forfeit my rights as a protagonist of my story, and I shall hand over my fate power to Mao Miaomiao.
5. If I violate one of the four conditions above, my cultivation base will be ruined by the dao oath.
--
Ma Moxi could understand the first three conditions, but the fourth condition confused him.
"What's wrong with the fourth condition?"
Cao Mao shrugged, "Everybody is a protagonist of their own story. However, you will be giving me your life, so there is no need for you to have that kind of mindset. It's just there as a reminder."
"… Is that so?"
Ma Moxi reread the scroll one more time. Then, he stared into Cao Mao's eyes.
Unlike before, his eyes were deep as if he had seen through Cao Mao's character, "I'm fine with it, but I want to ask you one more question. If I become your servant, will you betray my family or harm them in the future."
Cao Mao snorted, "Why should I? As long as no one double-crosses me, I will never harm my allies. Hell, do you know that the girl over there betrayed me once? I'm still allowing her to follow me around, no? I'm a merciful employer, so you don't have to worry about the internal dispute or anything as long as you're following my order."
Ma Moxi was silent. He kept staring into Cao Mao's eyes for a few seconds.
"I see. So, you're that type."
Cao Mao tilted his head, "What type?"
"Forget it. I don't mind working for a villain as long as he leaves my family alone."
"Wait, what?"
Unbeknownst to Cao Mao, Ma Moxi read him like a book. He had seen through Cao Mao's character by analyzing the latter's expression, eye-contact, voice tone, and body language.
The protagonist summarized that Cao Mao was the same as a dictator politician or a crooked military officer. This type of people generally worked for their self-interest, but they sometimes rewarded their subordinates with their wealth to buy their loyalty.
As Ma Moxi only cared about his family, he had no problem if Cao Mao would do to other strangers. His family had to prosper – That was all that mattered.
Ma Moxi scrapped the old texts that he was forced to write. He brought out a new scroll and copied every word from Cao Mao's note with his blood.
Without hesitation, Ma Moxi recited every word and dropped his blood essence on the blood scroll.
The letters came to life.
The gold characters surrounded Ma Moxi and entered his chest.
Just like that, Ma Moxi completed the oath!
He turned to his new boss, "Ingredients, please."
Cao Mao was looking forward to seeing how Ma Moxi would double-cross him under the strict dao oath. He shrugged and summoned the required ingredients.
Instead of the four heavenly beasts' hearts, the required materials were odd.
A heart of a mutated komodo dragon
A heart of a 30-year-old rooster
A heart of a blood sea turtle
A heart of a 20-year-old white cat
A testicle of a 40-year-old virgin man
A womb of a 40-year-old virgin woman
These were the substitute ingredients for the legendary items.
Normally, these ingredients, except for the testicles and wombs, served as catalysts for various high-grade spirit pills, which increased one's yang or yin Qi by ten to twenty thousand strands at once.
Fortunately, the Qiang Clan and the Tang Merchant Guild had these items in stock when Cao Mao emptied the herb markets. They also sold these rare items to him with a markup price even though Cao Mao never asked for it.
Little did Cao Mao know, these items were reserved to be put on the auction. But the Tang Merchant Guild and Qiang Han decided to sell it to Cao Mao, so they could free some space to sell other items.
There were trivial herbs in the mix as well. However, they were not as important as the main 6 ingredients.
Ma Moxi inspected all of them and nodded. Five sets of these herbs could be made into 15 pills, which was more than he had envisioned.
The chest of Ma Moxi glowed in golden light again. The oath was completed, and he was now forced to become Cao Mao's underling forever.
"Very well, with this, our oath is completed."
Ding
\u003cOne of the protagonists, Ma Moxi, has forfeited his status as a protagonist.\u003e
\u003cMa Moxi is now a neutral character.\u003e
\u003cMa Moxi's Plot Armor Level has decreased from 4 to 1.\u003e
\u003cMa Moxi's Luck Level has decreased from 3 to 1.\u003e
At the same time, a semi-transparent ball slipped out of Ma Moxi's dantian. It was the energy of Heavenly Fate, which this FORMER protagonist had been hosting.
It orbited around Ma Moxi for one circle before it entered Cao Mao's chest. Then, it rushed toward the latter's dantian. It merged with the life essence core, where the other fragment of Heavenly Fate was hiding.
Ding
\u003cYou have obtained Ma Moxi's Heavenly Fate Energy.\u003e
\u003cYour Luck has slightly increased.\u003e
Cao Mao had a wry smile on his face. Somehow, this development was too convenient and anti-climactic.
There was no fight.
There was no struggle.
Ma Moxi just simply changed his mind, just like that.
IT WAS TOO EASY!
GG EZ NO RE!
Before Cao Mao could celebrate, another series of system messages flooded his screens.
\u003cYou have two pieces of Heavenly Fate Power. The system shall now inform you about the world events and the movements of your target.\u003e
Ding
\u003cWarning, Liu Hong, the emperor of the Liu Dynasty, has fallen ill. His condition is critical.\u003e
\u003cLiu Hong will die by an incurable poison within 35 days!\u003e
\u003cA reminder, you must complete the Campaign Quest #1 before Liu Bian can become the emperor.\u003e
\u003cWarning, Liu Bian has formed an alliance with the Poison Pavilion.\u003e
\u003cWarning, Liu Bian has signed a ceasefire treaty with the Mountain Goose Sect.\u003e
\u003cWarning, Liu Bian has signed a ceasefire treaty with the Twilight Hunter Guild.\u003e
\u003cWarning, Liu Bian has formed an alliance with the Myriad Cauldron Sect.\u003e
\u003cWarning, Liu Bian has signed a ceasefire treaty with the Huangjin Sect.\u003e
\u003cWarning, Liu Bian has formed an alliance with the Jiangdong White Tiger Sect.\u003e
\u003cWarning, Liu Bian has signed a ceasefire treaty with the Qiang Dynasty.\u003e
\u003cWarning, the Plot Armor Level of Liu Bian has increased from 3 to 4!\u003e
\u003cWarning, the Luck Level of Liu Bian has increased from 2 to 3!\u003e
Someone had been working hard behind the scene. Now, Cao Mao understood why Ma Moxi converted so easily.
'Liu Bian's quest line is probably a fucking trap! His cultivation progress is slow, but he is still a kingdom-building MC! His forte is politics and the ability to manipulate people! Had I wasted too much time on Ma Moxi, the emperor might have died first. I need to complete the first quest ASAP.'
While Cao Mao was sidetracked by the system messages, Ma Moxi collected a set of ingredients. Then, he concocted a pill right in front of everybody here.
His hands glittered in golden light.
Ma Ping squinted his eyes as he recognized the element characteristic. It was an advanced element, the gold element.
The gold element was an upgraded version of the metal element. It was tougher, harder, and more resilient to extreme temperatures.
The major advantage of the gold element was its defensive abilities.
In terms of offense, the gold element could only be used as a buff to increase one's physical martial technique. The effect varied as it could potentially multiply the power output by two to a hundred folds, depending on various factors. Still, there were many better elements out there that could boost a cultivator's firepower, so the gold element was lackluster, compared to other advanced elements such as ice, storm, gravity, or crystal.
But when it came to defense, the gold element reigned supreme as one of the top strongest defense specialist elements. Their physique would be as solid as a metal element or earth element user as no normal Qi attack could leave a scratch on their skin.
Most importantly, the users of gold elements were immune to the remote detonation attack from advanced element users, who evolved one of their basic elements. Cultivators, who were able to instantly detonate users with fire, water, earth, wood, or metal elements, could never harm gold element users with the same technique.
On the other hand, if the gold element had a special trait that no other element had. If the gold element users learned other basic elements, they could remote detonate other cultivators with the same basic elements!
They could perform the same ability as if they had the advanced element of other basic elements!
For example, Ma Moxi possessed the power of a gold element and a wood element. Meanwhile, Cao Mao had the wood element Qi. If Ma Moxi was a bit smarter and calmer, he could have detonated the wood element Qi in Cao Mao's dantian and killed him instantly!
Fortunately, Cao Mao was under the protection of Pang Lingming and Ma Ping. Or else, he could have been killed already.
As Cao Mao was clueless about what was going on or what the gold element Qi could do, Ma Moxi was holding the four hearts in his golden hands. He transferred his gold element Qi to each ingredient.
All four hearts became gold as well. Then, they expanded and grew bigger, becoming twice their original size.
Suddenly, their hardened texture turned into a soft liquid as if they were mercury. They became golden water and merged together as one big blob.
Ma Moxi picked more ingredients and repeated what he did to the four hearts. He tossed all gold liquid balls together and let them merge. Soon, the first set of ingredients became nothing but a big soft golden liquid ball with the size of a human.
"Moxi, what are you doing?" Ma Ping and others were baffled.
"It will be finished soon. Please wait."
The golden blob slowly shrunk to a hand-sized ball and split into three. The light faded, leaving only three black-and-white pills on Ma Moxi's hand.
"It's done. These are the simplified Yin Yang Divine Vein pills."
Ma Moxi handed two of them to his grandfather and his uncle. He also turned to Cao Mao, who didn't pay attention to the miracle concoction.
"This is proof of my sincerity and my apology for my rude behavior. Please take it. Also, since we had a bad start, I would like to start over. My name is Ma Moxi. In my previous life, I was called Ma Mengqi. Nice to meet you, boss."
Cao Mao came back to his senses, "Huh?"
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