Chapter 269: A Monster Family – Prelude 2
Hearing that Xu Chu had plotted to harm him, Miaomiao's heart sank. Fortunately, his sponsor and the system dealt with the potential troublemaker right away.
Miaomiao gazed at the giant orb in the sky. He still couldn't use it yet, but he was glad that he had it.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
As Miaomiao was looking at the sky, his yin slaves began entering the space. Even Ju Shoufen appeared as he had summoned everyone.
16 naked women gathered in the space. But instead of getting horny and opening their legs as usual, they opened their system inventory menu and brought out clothes and their prepared wooden swords, spears, and polearms. Except for Ju Shoufen, everyone picked their spot and started swinging their weapons, practicing their movements.
Ju Shoufen also put on her clothes. She looked at the girls in confusion, "What's going on here? Miaomiao, are you not summoning us for sex?"
"Nah," Miaomiao started putting on his clothes as well. "We'll be spending the night training. Oh, are you busy? I summon you here by accident. Do you want me to send you back?"
The loli grandma glanced at the girls, checking what they were doing. Then, she noticed how Kang Yan utilized her sword and how the other girls looked at the girl. Ju Shoufen finally realized what had happened.
"Nah, let me stay here. By the way, are you trying to learn the sword intent or the death perception?"
"Oh? You knew?" Miaomiao was surprised.
"I've heard about it from my dao god and my daughter. I don't have that perception, but I can guess what kind of trouble you have to go through to get that."
Ju Shoufen's had a bitter smile on her face as she took out a normal feather fan to look at it.
"My daughter used to have this ability. She was once known as the top genius of the Golden Crow Sect, and she used twin metal fans as her signature weapons. She always told me how she could see red lines of death and how she could slice through everything when she traced the lines."
Miaomiao nodded as he could confirm that it was the same ability as Tohno Shiki. But he still had doubts.
"Does everybody in the holy land have this ability?"
"Ha! Of course not! This ability is exclusive to hard-working idiots and weirdoes. All elites from the holy land's top sects ignored this ability since they can spend the same amount of time learning a stronger technique from their parents or mentors. Unless you're a weapon nerd or a lunatic that only swings your sword a million times every day for years, you won't get this ability. At one point, many people used to call this ability as an exclusive skill for the poor."
"So, Jia Shan was once a poor nerd…"
"He was once a weak nerd. He got bullied a lot when he was young, but he was a hard worker. That's why Kunwu took him in and raised him to what he is today."
Ju Shoufen burst into laughter and bragged a lot as she reminisced her early days when she was still na?ve. She told Miaomiao everything about how she got to know the Jia brothers and how Jia Wenhe wooed her daughter. She even told Miaomiao how she secretly observed her daughter and Jia Wenhe when they had their first date.
Though Ju Shoufen was smiling when she was talking about her past, her eyes were brimmed with tears.
Then, she began to cry.
"If only… Had only I stopped her from joining that tournament…"
Miaomiao didn't like how Ju Shoufen suddenly became depressed. He hugged her and patted her back without saying anything.
The loli grandma sobbed. Then, she wailed. Her sad voice was so loud that everyone stopped training to look at Ju Shoufen.
Miaomiao still remembered the grudge and the quest that the Sun Crow had tried to give him last year. It was the quest to kill Yuan Shaoqing.
Now, because of the unfair treatment of Yuan Hua, she unreasonably excommunicated him and probably wanted him dead. Miaomiao had enough reasons to take Ju Shoufen's side and help her avenge her daughter now.
"I'll get stronger, and I'll bring Yuan Shaoqing's head for you one day."
Ju Shoufen widened her eyes. She pushed Miaomiao away and scolded him, "You wish! Yuan Shaoqing is the top 7th-stage cultivator that has mastered multiple domain skills and can use death point perception! Even fellow nascent soul cultivators are vulnerable against his cheating domain power and his senses! Unless you reach the 8th-stage, never talk about killing Yuan Shaoqing!"
"Wow. He's that strong?" Miaomiao was shocked.
"He…" Ju Shoufen stopped crying and gritted her teeth, "He was once the champion and the representative of Aves Continent in the previous grand tournament. Well, he got this title after Ma Ping had been crippled."
"So, he's just a spoiled asshole that stole the title from Ma Ping."
"Spoiled or not, the Yuan Clan's main branch has never stopped sending him resources and manpower to Aves Continent to support him. Also, Yuan Shaoqing is not the strongest expert from the Yuan Clan. Have I told you that Yuan Shaoqing is just a henchman of their branch family? That's why you must never try to provoke the Yuan Clan unless you are strong enough to fight Yuan Hua and their immortals."
"… Branch family? Henchman?"
Miaomiao closed his eyes and bit his lower lips.
From the brief intel, the Yuan Family might be one of the big shots with strong background, just like an antagonist's super clan in novels. In this case, Ju Shoufen confirmed that Yuan Shaoqing was just an underling, and there were stronger cultivators in the Yuan Clan.
That meant, a snowball effect would ensue had Miaomiao fought and killed Yuan Shaoqing. Once Yuan Shaoqing died, stronger enemies from the Yuan Clan's main branch would pursue Miaomiao to the end of the earth.
This type of conflict usually ended with genocide as hypocritical main characters usually mindlessly slaughtered the villain's entire family to end the grudge.
Miaomiao hated this kind of story cliché plot and world background since this development had been overused. Unfortunately, he was forced to experience it since he had been behaving like a protagonist recently.
Living like a protagonist had its pros and cons, but the cons were always harsh and annoying.
'I wonder if I can avoid the genocidal route…'
Miaomiao paused for a moment. Then, he shrugged.
'Like I care. At least, I won't be killing them for the sake of JUSTICE. I'll be slaughtering them because they PISSED MY LOLI BABA!!'
Unlike protagonists, Miaomiao didn't care about laws, morality, justice, or righteousness. He never acted like a goody-two-shoes who fought for innocent people, but he always fought for his self-interests and carnal desire. Even if he were to kill someone, no one could criticize him for being hypocritical since it was always his character from the beginning.
What could be wrong with slaughtering random villains and their clansmen when he was also a villain?
Ding
[Your alignment has been readjusted according to your past deeds, current mindset, and your goals.]
[Here is your status.]
[Lawful Neutral: 15%]
[True Neutral: 10%]
[Lawful Evil: 45%]
[Neutral Evil: 30%]
"…"
Miaomiao suddenly wanted to argue with the system of why his alignment suddenly shifted toward Lawful Evil when he hadn't done anything to prove that he was lawful.
But since he was too lazy to bother, he ignored the messages.
…
In the end, Ju Shoufen joined the bandwagon and practiced basic sword training after she noticed how good Kang Yan was.
Kang Yan became the motivation and the goal for everyone. They spent 10 hours repeating the basic movements to train their bodies, hoping to reach Kang Yan's level of swordsmanship.
As everyone was busy training, Miaomiao stopped swinging his sword and checked his system menu. He operated the good-old sparring match menu to see if he could summon multiple clones here.
And he could! There was a new little panel to adjust the number of summonable clones per session.
Miaomiao clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"Girls, can you move away from the central plain for a moment? I'll be summoning a few sparring partners to practice my sword skill."
Many yin slaves had fought a few clones in this world before, and they were aware of their strength. Everyone but Kang Yan and Ju Shoufen relocated further away as they didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.
Kang Yan walked toward Miaomiao, "Can I join you? I need a sparring partner, too."
Ju Shoufen also remembered something, "Hey, brat. Hasn't it been over a month? Can you summon Xie Tian's clone and let me kill him again? He drops good items, right?"
Miaomiao sighed. He wanted to fight Xie Tian's clone to test his current abilities as well, but he had been postponing it due to external circumstances, such as system quests, pill-making, and the orc invasion.
Even after Miaomiao had dealt with all the external issues, he was still not ready for the rematch. Since Miaomiao had only a third of his Life Essence, he was in a good shape for a prolonged fight or a serious fight.
But since Ju Shoufen wanted to farm Xie Tian for loots, Miaomiao operated the menu to summon the clone and get this over with.
Ding
[You cannot summon Xie Tian's Clone with 300% difficulty adjustment.]
"What? Why!?"
Something was wrong. The system didn't allow Miaomiao to summon Xie Tian's clone.
[You have once defeated this difficulty before. Please increase the difficulty and try again.]
"…"
The system sponsor pranked him once again. It seemed that Miaomiao could not repeatedly fight the same clone that he had defeated before.
Miaomiao looked at the scroll bar below the difficulty option. Each tick increased the difficulty rating by 100%. Therefore, the lowest difficulty that Miaomiao could choose now was 400%.
"Well, shit. Err, senior. I don't think the clone will be easy to kill this time. Please be prepared to fight seriously, okay?"
Ju Shoufen and Kang Yan tilted their heads at the same time, "Why?"
"Just… take out your best weapons and be ready," Miaomiao turned toward other girls. "You girls, too! Take out your best weapons and armor! Be ready for a boss fight! I'm summoning a world boss!!"
Jiang Lan and others didn't understand the MMO term. They looked at each other in confusion.
Miaomiao ignored the girls' reaction. He checked Xie Tian's status to see his strength at the new difficulty.
…
Difficulty Setting: 400%
Name: Xie Tian
Cultivation Base: Late Stage Essence Gathering Realm
Core Cultivation Technique: Dragon Meridians
.
Bloodline/Physique/Constitution
Fire Dragon Bloodline
Fire Dragon Physique
Yang Fire Immunity
Fire Element Immunity
.
Elemental Qi Mastery
(Primary) Dragon Fire
.
Secret Techniques/Battle Styles
Fire Dragon Saber Style
Flame Sword Style
Fire Dragon Dance
Fire Dragon Skin
Fire Dragon Transformation
Supreme Dragon Recovery
Dragon Strike
Return to Zero
.
Secret Weapon/Familiar
Sovereign Flame Saber (Heaven-Grade)
Baby Divine Dragon Spirit
…
Many things had been upgraded after Miaomiao had increased the difficulty.
Xie Tian's cultivation base scaled with Miaomiao's current strength, changing from the half-step essence gathering realm to the late-stage essence gathering realm.
Fiery Flame Vital changed to Fire Dragon Physique, and Fire Immunity had been evolved into Fire Element Immunity. His Fiery Flame Meridian Technique turned into Dragon Meridian Technique. Also, his primary element Qi became an advanced element, the Dragon Fire Element.
As for the rest, they stayed the same.
With this information, Miaomiao could confirm that Ju Shoufen could no longer detonate Xie Tian's fire element Qi and instant-kill him again.
This rematch would not be easy!
Miaomiao checked his inventory menu and took out a sky-grade broadsword. It was not as good as KQ or the soul sword, but it was better than nothing.
Seeing the grim expression on Miaomiao's face, Kang Yan took a deep breath and brought out her best gears. She put on her plate armor and sky-grade long sword.
Ju Shoufen and others followed suit. They gathered and armed themselves.
After everybody was ready, Miaomiao warned them again, "Spread out and don't stay too close together. The clone I'm summoning can use AOE skills, and he can use long-ranged attacks."
"What do you mean by AOE?" Ju Shoufen frowned.
"Area of effect."
"I don't get it."
"Let's say they're wide-area skills. Everyone in a certain range will get hit."
"Ah, you should have said that earlier. Why do you keep using weird terms these days? Are you a hipster?"
Miaomiao rolled his eyes and ignored the complaints. He gazed forward and pressed the [Summon] button.
Xie Tian's clone and his heaven-grade saber manifested in the space. His flame aura and his dragon fire element enveloped everything in the radius of one kilometer as if Xie Tian had a domain ability. The grasses caught fire, and the soil darkened.
The girls leaped away from the fire radius in panic. Then, they stared at Xie Tian in disbelief. Even Ju Shoufen was dumbfounded by the amount of Qi that Xie Tian had been exuding.
Everyone was astonished by the sudden presence of a supreme expert, who could be said to be as abnormal as their husband. They finally understood why Miaomiao had warned them.
As everyone had leaped away from Xie Tian's pseudo domain, Miaomiao was left alone, standing in front of the clone. He strolled toward his former nemesis with only a sky-grade sword.
"I don't have KQ with me, my Qi is half-tank, and my allies are panicking…"
Miaomiao sarcastically smirked.
"You can trick them, but you can't trick me! Your little fire can't hurt me anymore. Come, you little bitch! I'll kill you again!"
As if Xie Tian's clone had inherited the memory of the original, his face distorted and charged at Miaomiao with his saber.
Using only his life essence circulation and his sky-grade sword, Miaomiao sprinted toward Xie Tian to counterattack.
And their sword collided!
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