Chapter 303: Liu Bian’s Pylon Tower
Finally, Miaomiao reached the place where he had sensed Ju Shoufen's presence last night.
The underground ceiling was 100 meters high, and the dome was almost a kilometer wide. The unusual brick ceiling, brick walls, and flooring looked the same as the maze, but it didn't extend to the tower.
The border of their territories was clear as the uneven elevation was visible. Still, the dungeon master's territory seemed to have been changed recently as the ceiling brick color was different – A portion of them was grey, but most of them were dark blue.
At the center of this place, a dark crystal pillar, aka the shadow pylon tower, stood tall and emitted black miasma.
On the top of the tower, a purple portal was still active. It leaked out silver gas, which flowed toward the black miasma and became one with them.
Surrounding the tower was the mutilate corpses of various cultivators, zombies, and unknown four-legged creatures. Traces of combat, such as craters, broken weapons, arrows, and smoke were still there.
Closer to the tower, a small barrier array flickered as if it was about to run out of energy soon. The dome was cracked and thin, which was unusual for an array.
Inside the array, a few hundred ghouls and zombies were limping, staggering around the tower.
Miaomiao gazed at the tall tower, the dome array, and the remaining undead monsters. He frowned, wondering if this was a pylon tower of someone else.
"What is this tower?"
Ding
[I have scanned the tower. It shows the dao signature of Liu Bian, your target.]
[Confirmed. This is the Pylon Tower of Liu Bian!]
"Oh!"
Miaomiao clenched his fist. It seemed that he might be able to the clues of his whereabouts soon.
"What about the tower? What can it do?"
[This tower has been upgraded several times. It is embedded with a shadow element core, a rune of necromancy, a broken security module, and 5,000 cryptocurrency coin mining rigs.]
"…"
Miaomiao had the urge to ask why Liu Bian kept mining rigs in his tower since there was no cryptocurrency in this cultivation world. Yet, he suppressed his curiosity and spread his sense, scanning the surroundings and searching for more clues.
Fortunately, Miaomiao's night sight vision was useful in the dark place. He could also see through the dark miasma beyond the barrier array. Combining with his Qi sense, everything became as clear as day.
Miaomiao gazed at the top of the pylon tower, where the portal was located. It was still inside the barrier dome, so he needed to go through the unknown array.
As Miaomiao didn't know what the barrier dome could do, he decided to wait for White Album.
'Where are you, White Albutt?'
Having copulated with White Album, Miaomiao and she got a bit closer. They started talking with nicknames now.
[I'll be right there in a minute. I got stuck inside a stupid underground maze, and the energy here is preventing me from getting to you. I'm destroying walls and stone soldiers at the moment.]
Miaomiao thought of the cultured dungeon master. He had an idea, 'Write something on the floor or on the wall that you're the familiar of the tentacle guy earlier. He will let you through.'
[I'll try.]
…
A few minutes later, White Album returned to Miaomiao's side. Her perplexed expression said it all that she didn't understand what had happened between the cultured DM and Miaomiao.
'Master, there was a dungeon manipulator in that maze.'
"I know."
'He also said that you're a good man.'
"Of course, I'm a good man! That guy is a good man, too!"
'He confessed to me and asked if I could take his virginity. I turned him down, though.'
"He's definitely an asshole! He deserves a thousand spike tentacles in his ass! The next time I see him, I'll pull out his heart and kidneys from his shithole and shove it back into his mouth!"
'He also said that he can import porn magazines, AV clips, and H-games from the… mo-dan world? He said that he forgot to mention about his wares when you left, and his shop sells everything for one refined stone a piece.'
"Never mind. He's a good guy! Cultured men are good men!"
'…'
Miaomiao was relieved after White Album had returned to his side. He ordered her to hide in his body for the time being. Then, he flew toward the broken barrier array.
Miaomiao tossed a stone toward the barrier, testing its effect.
WHOOSH
Nothing happened. The stone entered the barrier untouched.
Miaomiao tried again. He touched the exterior of the barrier dome, testing if it could zap him.
Again, nothing happened. His hand easily entered the barrier.
"Hmm."
Carefully entering the barrier from above, Miaomiao slowly descended, floating toward the top of the tower.
But as soon as his entire body entered the dome, something changed.
ROAR!!
GRRRR!!
RRRRAAAARRR!!
The zombies, ghouls, and undead creatures on the ground suddenly looked up and roared at him. They raised their arms and jumped, trying to reach Miaomiao.
Among the useless undead creatures, ten vampires transformed into giant bats and flew toward Miaomiao!
Miaomiao squinted his eyes, which glowed in red light. He unsheathed Killer Queen and activated his killing domain.
Five of the vampires transformed back into humans. Yet, their fingernails extended and became their claws. They covered their bodies with blood element aura and thrust their hands, planning to skewer him alive.
Miaomiao had planned to fly backward to keep his distance at first, but he sensed something weird. Their movements were so slow that it felt like everything was in slow-motion mode.
Seeing how weak the vampires were, Miaomiao scoffed and traced the red lines on their bodies with KQ.
SWUA
Within a split of a second, 100 afterimages of sword slashes flashed as Miaomiao sliced the vampires into mutilated corpses. They were burnt and disintegrated into dust on the spot.
The five remaining vampire bats flinched. Instead of charging at Miaomiao, they surrounded him and kept their distance.
Miaomiao scanned through their cultivation base and power. Surprisingly, their strength was the same as 5th-stage cultivators. Even the previous ones just now left the trace of a foundation establishment realm experts.
Instead of being shocked that he was fighting stronger foes, Miaomiao doubted if their combat strength was really at the 5th-stage. Their movements were so slow, and their blood element Qi seemed a lot weaker compared to Ju Chen and other vampire girls.
Miaomiao was disappointed. He thought that he would have met worthy opponents that he could torture and kill. He missed the sensation of punching his foes to the face over and over again until they died.
Miaomiao forgot that he had been fighting countless clones with a 200% potential rating with the strength surpassing their cultivation levels. These monsters couldn't be compared to one of those monstrous clones.
SCREECH!
The vampire screamed and unleashed their sound attack. These five bats used their skills at the same time from all sides, creating a high-pitched vibrating sound wave.
Miaomiao's mind shook, and his eardrums trembled.
But that was it.
He tilted his head and frowned, thinking if there was more to the sound attack. He was cautious if it was a decoy skill to hide the real attack, such as an ambush from behind, above, or below. Yet, nothing happened afterward.
The vampires panicked and looked at each other. Then, they used the same skill again.
Miaomiao deeply exhaled. He thought that they were trying to buy time for the reinforcement from the tower or from the crowd below, so he prepared a counterstrike.
HONK!
Miaomiao counterattacked by using his own sound attack.
SCREECH!
Miaomiao didn't know what happened to them, but they screamed and fell to the ground while they squirmed in pain. All bats were suddenly ignited in flame, and they were disintegrated into ash.
"Dafuq? How did they just die like that? Can't they resist a little? You guys are no fun!"
Ding
[Just now, you used a strand of dragon fire Qi to activate your goose tongue technique. The fire property has been carried over with the voice, so they are caught on fire and die.]
[Your current strength is beyond the logic of this world. Please be mindful when you use your power, especially if you accidentally use an advanced element Qi strand to activate a common technique.]
"Oh… Okay."
Miaomiao rubbed his chin and nodded. For once, he felt nice for being powerful.
Still, his elation was ruined when he thought of his wives, Xu Chu, Jia Shan, Ma Ping, and other protagonists with inhuman potential and talent. He felt small when he was around with them.
'There are stars above the sky. I can't be cocky like those 3rd-rated villains. Come on, Miaomiao. You're still too weak! You need to get a lot stronger than this! I can't be satisfied by bullying weak fodders!'
Miaomiao slapped his face to self-motivate. Then, he flew toward the portal.
…
The oval portal looked similar to one of those warp gates in the Diablo Game Series. Even the SFX sounded the same.
However, Miaomiao could hear people's death throes and human screams from the portal. Grey mist was also thicker, and they contained a sinister element power that Miaomiao couldn't identify.
Ding
[Warning, you have inhaled a portion of Twilight Essence.]
[Twilight Essence contains mutated Life Essence, which transforms corpses into undead creatures. These corpses produce Extreme Yin Essence, Death Element Qi, Poison Element Qi, and parasitic properties that can infect ordinary humans. Inhaling a lot of Twilight Essence may corrupt your dantian with impurities, and you might need to refine your bone marrow and muscle again from scratch.]
'Extreme Yin, Death Qi, and Poison Qi?'
Miaomiao was tempted to sit here and start cultivating these new elements, especially the Death Qi. It sounded majestic, and it reminded him of many anti-hero protagonists, who cultivated Death Arts.
'Dammit! I want to stay here and absorb everything, but I need to find Ju Shoufen!'
Miaomiao gritted his teeth and ignored the treasure trove. He walked toward the portal, planning to enter it before it was closed.
He forgot that a certain glutton weapon was with him.
[Mine!]
Killer Queen glowed in yellowish light as she began absorbing all strange Qi into her blade. Static of Lightning Element came out of her blade body, purifying the Extreme Yin Qi. Dragon Fire Qi also ignited herself on fire, cleaning the Poison Qi and killing the parasitic creatures in the fog.
Then, KQ absorbed a portion of Miaomiao's Life Essence to merge with the Death Qi. Both energies clashed and disintegrated into particles, but KQ ate the leftover energies in glee.
However, the Death Qi was too strong, and KQ couldn't digest them all. For the first time, KQ spat most of the Death Qi strands out as if they were rotten food.
Miaomiao stared at KQ, wondering what she was doing by using his Life Essence to destroy Death Qi.
"What are you doing, my loli sword?"
[Not telling you.]
"Then, I won't bring you with me anymore. I'll leave you here."
[You! You're a cruel hooman! Fine! I'll tell you! I'm cultivating Life Element Qi!]
"Hah?"
This was the first time that he heard that there was such an element.
Miaomiao was aware of the terminology, but most of the similar elements had other names, such as Holy Element, Light Element, Sacred, Hollowed, Divine, etc.
But Life itself?
[I'll thoroughly explain when I'm done. Can I have about a billion liters of Life Essence, please? I'll give you my lightning element Qi and help you form a primary lightning element core, okay?]
"…"
Miaomiao didn't know if KQ was smart or he was too gullible to be tricked. The proposition sounded interesting and profitable.
Since Miaomiao could easily generate Life Essence by converting what he had stored in the dantian storage into more energy, a billion liters of Life Essence was nothing to him. On the other hand, elemental Qi was more precious.
Converting his lightning element core into a primary element was better than leaving it as a secondary element. After all, it could expand his dantian capacity and store more essence in the future.
"Sure," Miaomiao transferred his essence to KQ.
[Noice!]
BOOM
As soon as Miaomiao gave Killer Queen what she wanted, she absorbed Death Qi from the surroundings and purified them with the newly acquired Life Essence right away.
After digesting everything, KQ sent her Lightning Element Qi into Miaomiao's dantian, refining the incomplete lightning core that Miaomiao had been keeping for a long time.
It only took her three minutes to solidify Miaomiao's new primary crystal core.
Ding
[Congratulations, you have condensed a new primary element core, the Lightning Element Core!]
[Your Dantian Capacity has expanded.]
Miaomiao was satisfied. At least, KQ kept her promises.
With that, he had 4 primary elements, which were closer to his goal.
Miaomiao wanted all the basic elements! He wanted to form 7 seas of essence!
If possible, he wanted to solidify 9 seas or more!
No one should be considered greedy when they wanted perfection. Miaomiao wanted his foundation to be as inhumanly solid as possible to contest against the protagonist's insane plot armor and skills.
Even though the annoying sponsor was no longer with him, Miaomiao still instinctively competed with local protagonists.
As Miaomiao was in a trance while he was reading the system messages, KQ surprised him. She injected something into his dantian.
[Killer Queen has shared a strand of Life Element Qi to your dantian.]
[Life Element Qi synergizes with your Life Essence! Your Dantian Capacity has expanded!]
[Life Element Qi has purified your bone marrow, muscle, and dantian!]
[Impurities in your body will be flushed out. Please be patient.]
"!!!"
Miaomiao felt something coming out of his stomach to his throat.
"BLEGH!!"
SPLASH
A liter of black vomit gushed out from his mouth. As soon as the black liquid touch the tower, it emitted white smoke and a rotten odor. The fluid also corroded a bit of the tower ceiling, creating a sizzling sound.
Miaomiao stared at the vomited impurities in shock. He had thought that he had purified every nook and crannies in his body, but so much impure liquid came out.
"Dion, you said that I've purified everything. What is this!?"
[As you cultivate new Elemental Qi and form new element crystals, you collect natural impurities into the dantian. It is imperative to detoxify your foundation every month. However, you have been neglecting it for over a year.]
[TL;DR, you've built up a lot of impurity for a long time. It's the same as taking a long bath once and not taking a bath again afterward. What do you expect? Do you think you will remain clean after one bath? Think of the basic hygiene, you dirty pig!]
"…"
…
[Basic Information]
Name: Mao Miaomiao (Cao Mao)
Cultivation Rank: Late 4th Stage (Essence Gathering Realm)
[Energy Pool]
Current Life Essence: 3 Billion Liters
Dantian Capacity: 40 Billion Liters
[Daily Energy Regeneration Rate]
Life Essence: 30M + 15M Liters
[Element Crystal Level]
Wood (Primary): 7/10
Water (Primary): 1/10
Lightning (Primary): 4/10
Dragon Fire (Primary): 5/10
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