Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 873 Demon Core Blood Pattern

"You unlucky thing, of all places to go, you had to run down the path I was going to."

Li Zheng patted the three lion heads under his buttocks: "Now look what happened! Not only did you fail to escape, but you've now become my mount."

The three-headed demon lion carried Li Zheng on its back. Its six pale eyes blazed with anger, yet it dared not speak out. It could only make gurgling sounds in its throat to appease Li Zheng, fearing that if Li Zheng became unhappy, he would rip off its head and braise it.

This three-headed demon lion is not weak in the matrix, possessing top-tier gold-level combat power.

Unfortunately, they encountered a veteran like Li Zheng, who returned to the starting village after reaching max level. Gold-level players were easily defeated by Li Zheng, just like Iron-level players.

Li Zheng casually patted the lion's head in the middle, and Lao Pu sent him a message: "Follow the instructions and when you reach your destination, you'll be rewarded."

Ghost Lion shook his head, looking somewhat bewildered at the arrow that appeared before him, unsure of what was happening.

But its intuition told it to follow the arrow, or it would be discarded after its usefulness was over.

With the three-headed ghost lions providing transportation, Li Zheng was much more at ease, sitting on their backs to check on the current situation within the matrix.

Because most players went to the outer city, there weren't many people left in the matrix at the moment; there were only a little over a hundred people in Li Zheng's channel.

For some reason, the terminal didn't pay attention to them or merge these channels.

Through the regional chat channel, it was learned that most of these people had already met the requirements to enter the outer city, but they believed that they should collect more materials to protect themselves before going to the outer city. These were their "foundation" that they could use after entering the outer city.

Many people have this idea, and some even use the world channel to exchange things they need with others. In Li Zheng's view, this behavior is putting the cart before the horse.

After going to the outer city, there are many more ways to obtain various materials than in the Matrix. You can get a lot by just choosing any wilderness area, which is many times better than entertaining yourself in the Matrix where you can only change locations ten times a day.

Unable to bear it any longer, Li Zheng used his privileges to send three consecutive messages to the world channel: "I am Li Zheng, the leader of the Qidian Legion. I have returned from the outer city on business. All players who have met the conditions to go to the outer city should leave the matrix as soon as possible. Only by going to the outer city will you have the opportunity to show your skills!"

Regardless of how many of these people were from Japan, Korea, or the West, Li Zheng had transcended the concept of classifying people by national borders. As long as they were from Earth, he treated them all equally and notified them all.

After all, every bit of strength these people gain could potentially allow them to kill one more twisted beast in the final battle.

After this message was broadcast in the world chat, the regional chat channels for other players instantly erupted in chaos.

"Holy crap, Li Zheng! The Li Zheng who was the first to go to the outer city?!"

"Why is he back? Could it be that he couldn't make it in the outer city and was sent back?"

"Hilarious! If Li Zheng can't even make it in the outer city, won't all those who went there early have to come back?"

“He said he came back to take care of business, which means we still have a chance to return to the Matrix after we go to the outer city. So far, I’ve only seen him come back. What does that mean?”

"This means that coming back won't be so easy; there must be something even more precious inside the Matrix than in the outer city!"

"Idiot, you've read too many novels about newbie villages having amazing artifacts, haven't you? It just means the outer city has more resources than the matrix, so they don't bother coming back."

Li Zhengfa's messages were not prefixed with an area code, so no one knew where he was.

As it happened, he was on the channel where these conversations were taking place and saw the entire conversation.

Li Zheng understood the idea that the matrix contained valuable items that would make people in the outer city envious. After all, he had read many online novels before, and many online game novels liked to write about the protagonist obtaining a magical artifact in the starting village.

But the truth is, the beginner village is just a beginner village. If there were amazing artifacts in the beginner village, what would be the point of having a map later on?
Enough support?
This friendly reminder is only given once. If anyone still wants to linger in the matrix and refuse to go to the outer city, Li Zheng wouldn't mind stripping them of their player status after the trial ends. At that time, players who don't even have storage methods might have to endure a life worse than they imagined.

After closing the chat interface and ignoring the messages in the world channel asking for his information, Li Zheng took out a spirit stone and a twisted magic crystal, focused his mind on his dantian, and began a new attempt.

The energy within the Twisted Magic Crystal has been verified over countless years in the outer city, confirming that it can be used to enhance mental power after the dense negative energy within it is removed.

According to Li Zheng's speculation, the spiritual body and the so-called primordial spirit may be the same thing. So, can the distorted magic crystal used to cultivate spiritual power be used as a substitute for spirit stones?
If feasible, the plan to widely disseminate the cultivation technique could perhaps be brought forward.

As the cultivation technique was activated, the energy within the spirit stone was easily drawn into the body, flowing along the meridians into the dantian and being absorbed by the golden core.

After many days of stagnation, his cultivation finally began to improve slowly, though not as dramatically as during his first cultivation session; it was better than nothing.

After absorbing the energy for a moment, I replaced the spirit stone with a twisted magic crystal and tried to activate the energy within the twisted magic crystal by circulating the technique again.

Li Zheng could clearly sense the Twisted Magic Crystal and the energy within it, but activating it was much more difficult than absorbing spirit stones, seemingly because the outer shell of the Twisted Magic Crystal was more robust than that of spirit stones.

As the technique continued to operate and gradually increased in intensity, the energy within the distorted magic crystal finally began to fluctuate.

It was as if a vortex had formed beneath the surface of the water, stirring up the magic crystal's energy and making it impossible for it to maintain a stable state.

As a wisp of energy, somewhat similar to but not entirely the same as the energy of the spirit stone, entered his body, Li Zheng began to try to guide it along his meridians. Under the control of his powerful mental strength, the process was much easier than he had imagined.

Finally, at the moment this energy entered the dantian.

A sudden change occurred!

Suddenly, the golden core, which had been quietly floating in the dantian, emitted a blood-red glow, and a phantom of a demon god condensed on its surface. The phantom of the demon god opened its blood-red maw and bit into the demon crystal energy.

Click.

After a portion of the magic crystal's energy was consumed, the demon god's phantom paused slightly, then, as if it had discovered a highly nourishing substance, greedily devoured all the magic crystal's energy, ultimately fusing it into the golden core.

As the demonic phantom dissipated, a clearly visible blood-red pattern formed on the surface of the golden core. The pattern was extremely profound, much like the textual carrier of information recorded in cultivation manuals.

After a moment of contemplation, Li Zheng gained some understanding of the blood-red patterns.

These are the golden core blood patterns condensed by demonic cultivators at the Golden Core stage, corresponding to the golden core patterns of orthodox immortal cultivators. Each line contains a unique supernatural power.

Supernatural powers are not unique; one can even acquire corresponding supernatural powers by condensing pill patterns in a fixed way.

Li Zheng opened his eyes, and a blood-red image of a demon god flashed deep within them.

Discarding the shell that had been drained of energy, Li Zheng let out a long sigh: "Isn't this supernatural power just like a genetic ability that can improve as strength increases?"

The difference lies in the fact that supernatural powers have unlimited growth potential, while genetic abilities often have an upper limit.

"Let's see what my supernatural power is all about."

As the golden core was activated, the blood patterns were illuminated.

The next second, a blood-red demon god materialized behind Li Zheng, radiating a chilling malice.

Ugh!
The three-headed demonic lion was so frightened by the sudden terrifying aura emanating from its body that its legs went weak, and it lay on the ground trembling, whimpering incessantly from deep within its throat. Yellowish liquid even flowed from between its hind legs, indicating that it had actually urinated out of fear.