Chapter 245: Xiao Yun!?
Not only did Heaven Eye attack Xiao Yun, but two red lightning bolts also came for Xiao Fei and Xiao Xin.
The monk summoned his dao avatar, aka the Buddha statue, and sent it to protect the imp boy. As for him, he stood in front of Xiao Xin, becoming a human shield for the boy.
The statue got hit by the red lightning, but it was unharmed.
Unfortunately, the other one that came for Xiao Xin bypassed Zhao Bao. It also broke his protection array and struck Xiao Xin, who couldn't react to the lightning.
Similar to what Xiao Yun had suffered, the former beggar boy's dantian and heart were burnt to ashes. Moreover, the lightning punctured his chest and left a giant hole.
Both Xiao Xin and Xiao Yun collapsed on the floor.
Zhao Bao widened his eyes, staring at the two dead bodies.
For the first time, the monk was so enraged that he wanted someone dead a hundred times. He wanted to question the Heaven Eye why it attacked innocent people, who didn't have anything to do with him or the pill.
The Eye turned toward Zhao Bao. It curved up into a sneer as it sent a voice-transmission to the monk's mind.
'This is what you get for violating the Laws of the Mortal World! Now, hand over the pill if you want your last disciple to live!'
Zhao Bao's bloodshot eyes glared at the Heaven Eye, "I see what you did. So, do you want the pill so much that you resort to killing innocent children? I thought you wanted to destroy it."
'The pill will be confiscated by the world's guardians! Now, give it to me or I'll kill everybody here!'
The monk scoffed. It was so obvious that the avatar of this world's guardian wanted to rob his divine pill for himself.
Since the law enforcer had decided to intervene with the mortal's affair, Zhao Bao had a way to deal with the Heaven Eye and the guardian, who was the real body of this avatar.
"Buddha is merciful, so he will forgive you. But since you've killed innocent children because of your greed, King Yama and other gods will not overlook this."
'Ha! As if they care about this lowly mortal world! Bark all you want since they won't come-'
BOOM
Before Heaven Eye could even finish his sentence, it shattered into small fragments. A loud death throe, which had the same voice as the guardian that spoke to Zhao Bao, was also audible everywhere in the northwestern province.
A certain guardian had been killed by someone with greater power in an instant.
As soon as the voice stopped, all Heaven Eye stopped their tribulation midway and dispersed as if they ran away from someone. They also parted Siren City after leaving a dense fog of lightning and wind element Qi behind.
But a few seconds later, three incomprehensible voices of unknown heavenly beings echoed through the sky.
The real bodies of the three Heaven Eyes were also killed by someone.
Zhao Bao gazed at the sky as he held his hands in a prayer position, "Amitabha, no one can escape the laws of karma."
'More like, no one can mess with my son.'
"Son!? You are one of these children's father!?"
The monk had heard a mysterious voice-transmission from an unknown source. Zhao Bao immediately spread his senses in his domain to check the source of the voice.
Unfortunately, Zhao Bao couldn't detect the speaker. Thus, he bowed toward the sky, paying respect to the unknown immortal in hiding.
The mysterious voice didn't reply. Everything went quiet.
Zhao Bao sighed and turned toward the two corpses of his disciples and the lone survivor. He wondered which one was the son of a great being, who could destroy four world guardians instantly.
Still, the monk regretted that he couldn't protect the two of them. He lamented for his powerlessness.
The evildoers had been punished, but the gods couldn't undo the casualties.
"They are too young to die. They deserve better than this. This world is just unfair for them."
Zhao Bao looked at the source of trouble, the divine pill. He bit his lower lips, continuing to blame himself for not eating the pill or give it to one of his disciples.
But then, changes occurred to Xiao Xin's corpse. It shone in red light.
…
Meanwhile, Cao Mao had a wry smile on his face as he listened to the chaotic commotion outside while he had been sitting inside the lone storehouse.
'Figured as much. Had I eaten one of those stupid pills, I would have been killed by those tribulation lightning thingies. I'd rather exchange the pills to buy some friends than being backstabbed by the Ma Clan or being killed by one of those immortal fools.'
Unbeknownst to everyone, Cao Mao had expected that the higher entities, such as immortals or dao gods, would have come down to either destroy the pills or steal them from the pill owners as soon as the pills had been completed. Therefore, he had intentionally given away the hot potatoes, aka the four divine pills, so that he could avoid complications.
By giving away the pills, Cao Mao had bought Ma Clan, Mao Xueyan, Jia Shan, and the Huangjin Monastery's trust. He had built an image of a benevolent man and obtained reliable allies for the future protagonist hunt and the potential fight with the orc army.
Now, Cao Mao's prediction had become reality. All pill owners had faced an unknown tribulation as the nosy Heaven Eyes wanted a piece of it.
'One shouldn't strive too high, or they will be struck down by the proud people from above and the jealous people from below. Being in the spotlight for too long will attract haters.'
Cao Mao closed his eyes, returning his focus to his dantian and the immortal-grade pill in his stomach.
Ding
[You alignment has shifted from [Chaotic Good] to [Chaotic Neutral] and [True Neutral].]
[You are now 80% [Chaotic Neutral], 20 [True Neutral].]
Hearing the system notification, Cao Mao scoffed. He doubted if the evaluation was correct. After all, he knew what kind of character he was.
'What a bogus system. I had a beef with Yuan Hua, and it told me that I was about to become an anti-hero protagonist. Evil people killing other evil people doesn't make the former a good person! But now, I'm back to Chaotic Neutral because I distributed divine pills for charity? Ha! You're quite a hypocrite, my system sponsor. You should work on your logic some more before you create an alignment system!'
Cao Mao believed that defeating a villain didn't make him a protagonist as he didn't fight for the greater good or others. The previous combat was purely about his self-interest and self-protection. Therefore, his alignment shouldn't have changed according to the system evaluation.
He could see through the ploy of his system sponsor, who might have tried to manipulate him by using the system as a medium. The evaluation and the result were too suspicious.
[The system's evaluation is never wrong. You are overthinking.]
"Ha! Yeah, right…"
Cao Mao disregarded the thoughts and continued digesting the pill. He didn't even notice the illusion of the vermillion bird and an illusion of a giant fruit above a destroyed guest house, which belonged to Zhao Bao and his disciple.
…
Next Morning
Ding
[Your dantian capacity has been increased.]
[Your current maximum storage is 10 billion liters of Life Essence.]
Cao Mao's brown skin fell off as if he was a snake, who was in the middle of shedding a layer of skin. He slowly opened his eyes and tore the wasted skin layer out so that he could move.
After Cao Mao had removed his old skin and his clothes, which got on the way, he stood up.
The previous burly orc physique that Cao Mao previously used to have was gone. His skin and facial outline reverted back to his former appearance, aka a fragile-looking young master's light skin and a handsome face.
From a glance, his skin was so white that his naked upper body could be used as a beacon to request for Rohan's reinforcement to Gondor. Yet, in reality, Cao Mao's compacted muscle hid underneath the soft layer of skin.
Every fiber and cell contained Life Essence and a strand of every basic element Qi. Cao Mao waved his hands and arms around, and a wave of colorful aurora followed after his movements as if they were after images.
"Yikes! Why am I emitting rainbow!? I'm not a unicorn!"
Ding
[This is the byproduct of having a complete Unified Element Physique and Young Daemon Physique.]
Cao Mao's physique had evolved once more after he had shed his skin and reverted back to his human form. However, he had many unanswered questions. Cao Mao needed more detail about this daemon-related physique and what it could do for him.
"What's the point of the daemon body thingy physique?"
[Daemon Physique enables you to cultivate Demonic Essence, which is the unified Yin and Yang Energy. In this case, you have cultivated Life Essence, which is the original form of Demonic Essence.]
[Daemon Physique increases one's lifespan. With your current physique, you can maintain your youthful appearance for 1,000 years before you start growing older. The next level will add another zero to your lifespan.]
[The third effect is the increase of every element Qi affinity. You have already experienced how fast you can refine your body parts with basic elemental Qi, so there won't be a further explanation about this perk.]
[The fourth effect is your survivability. Daemon Physique is as strong as Dragon Physique in terms of vitality, endurance, and self-healing abilities. Combining with your LIFE ESSENCE, your natural self-regeneration ability is unrivaled. As long as you don't give up your life or someone chops off your head, you can't be killed.]
[Your Sponsor has said "TL;DR. You're now something that you hate, a protagonist-like cockroach!"]
Cao Mao nodded in satisfaction. At least, he got another vital information about his power. Though, he had forgotten when he had obtained this "Daemon Physique".
"Are Daemons demons?"
[No. Please don't confuse the likes of demons with the pure lifeforms such as Daemons.]
"Oho? So, they're different? What about the primordial orc bloodline? What are primordial orcs?"
[Primordial Orcs are male-only races, a degraded race of the Great Daemons. These orcs seek physical strength and expansion over being idle immortals. Though, they retain some of their gentle natures and honorable traits. As such, many peace-loving all-female races, such as dryads and mermaids, are fond of them since they are ideal fathers for their children.]
[Primordial Orcs can enhance their muscle and physical abilities with Life Essence. Their physical toughness makes their skin as hard as heaven-grade armors, and they can blow an essence barrier of any 4th-stage cultivator with a light punch.]
[It is ideal for cultivators with Primordial Orb Bloodline to practice physical martial arts, physical techniques, or hand-to-hand combat techniques. For example, Yaksha Fist Technique and Haunting Ghost Footwork are compatible with the bloodline.]
[As your muscle fibers and blood cells now contain a high volume of Life Essence, a normal movement of these techniques can be as powerful as high-graded techniques that consume elemental Qi. At the master level, you will not need to use a strand of Qi to defeat a 5th-stage cultivator in close-combat with your current cultivation base.]
"Oho!? Hand-to-Hand techniques?"
Cao Mao rubbed his hands and nodded. It had been a long time since he had last used a modern martial art technique in this world. It might be a good time to dust off his forgotten MMA skills.
Still, the technique conflicted with Killer Queen's instant kill move, the Transmutated Bomb. As long as he could touch and inject a strand of fire Qi into his opponent's body, the latter would be as good as dead.
Cao Mao scratched his head. Deep down inside, he believed that he might waste his precious time practicing useless hand-to-hand skills in this world when he had a better alternative technique. However, he was also curious about how modern martial arts could do if it was combined with the fantasy bloodline.
"Meh, I'll just play around with it for once."
He made a decision. He would practice the good-old MMA moves at the next ITS session. For now, he wanted to check the others' improvement after they had taken his pills.
As soon as Cao Mao had dressed up and got out of the storehouse, he found Zhao Bao, Xiao Fei, and Xiao Yun. However, their expression looked odd.
Zhao Bao had been staring at the rabbit boy with a deep frown. Meanwhile, the blushing Xiao Fei had been pretending to look away from Xiao Yun while he had been covering his crotch area with his hands. He also sneaked a glance at Xiao Yun's chest from time to time.
Currently, Xiao Yun had long straight white hair that touched the ground. His white robes had a hole at the center of her chest…
HER CHEST!?
Cao Mao froze and widened his eyes in astonishment. He stared at Xiao Yun's chest and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating.
The cute rabbit boy, Xiao Yun, now had a pretty face of an adolescent girl. The large hole of her robes revealed the cleavage of white hills, which were too big for someone at her age. The usual small hips of Xiao Yun got bigger and rounder, highlighting the shape of her buttock.
"WUTDAFUQISHAPPENINGHERE!?"
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