Tower Defense: Public Enemy

Chapter 524 Sorry, we're not familiar with each other.

"Heaven and earth were dark and yellow, the universe was vast and boundless, the sky was disordered, beginning with the death of a star, in the boundless chaos, the acupoints of the universe were arrayed..."

Lei Chi silently studied the [Starry Sky Divine Skill] manual. The true meaning of this skill is to create something from nothing by using secret methods to open acupoints in the body, and then compare the acupoints to stars to form a starry sky in the body, thereby forming a Starry Sky Divine Body.

Therefore, the Starry Sky Divine Skill can be regarded as a body-refining technique, and it also contains many secret techniques, such as using the stars in the body as storage space, and the Star Shifting Technique to evolve the power of formations, and so on.

Lei Chi initially thought that the [Starry Sky Divine Skill] was a simple technique similar to the [Star River Gazing at the Moon Technique], but now he realized that this technique was not simple at all, and was almost as profound as the [Burning Fire Divine Skill].

Of course, this technique is not easy to cultivate. Fortunately, the [Burning Fire Divine Art] opens up a small universe within the body, which is equivalent to having a unified foundation for the technique. It will be much easier to cultivate the [Starry Sky Divine Art] afterward.

"Given my current situation, the Great Might Divine Art is naturally my main cultivation method. The Returning Origin Qi Gong and Turtle Flow Qi Gong lack follow-up cultivation methods and have reached their limits. Condensing intent is also too slow. This Starry Sky Divine Art is worth cultivating. If I master it, combined with the sixteen star pillars I collected from the ruins of the Star Palace, it will be another way to attack..."

Lei Chi thought of the sixteen star pillars, which further confirmed his previous speculation that the ruins in the ancient holy domain outside the Holy God Palace originated from the Holy God Palace.

In his mind, in the past, the Holy God Palace must have produced some outstanding inner disciples. They took the temple created by the Holy God Palace out and perhaps formed their own forces. Perhaps that was the Ancient Holy Domain. He just didn't know how many of them were still alive today, and why the Ancient Holy Domain had become ruins.

When the stone slab passage opened again, Lei Chi's true form quietly began cultivating the [Starry Sky Divine Art] within it.

This practice is progressive. The first acupoint to be opened is called "Wuji". Each acupoint is named after that. Each advancement is based on 1600 acupoints, for a total of 81 advancements. The final acupoint to be opened is "Taishang". In total, 129600 acupoints need to be opened in the body.

Once these 129,600 acupoints are completed, they will become 129,600 stars, or 81 constellations, thus completing the Star Divine Body.

Moving forward, once 64,800 acupoints are formed, the spiritual body will be partially complete.

Cultivating this technique is similar to Guiyuan Qigong, emphasizing gradual progress. It doesn't require much talent or innate ability; with enough time and effort, it will naturally come to fruition. However, opening special acupoints requires certain special materials and rare treasures, so the difficulty in cultivating this technique lies in collecting those materials.

Fortunately, no materials are needed to open the first 1600 acupoints.

In the sixth month after entering the stone plate passage, Lei Chi successfully opened the "Wuji" acupoint in his body.

In Lei Chi's perception, this acupoint exists or does not exist within the body, and its location is not fixed, constantly moving around.

Opening this acupoint has almost no impact on the Thunder Pool's combat power, nor on its body-refining effects. Apart from being able to be turned into a storage space through the secret method of the [Starry Sky Divine Art], it is practically useless.

Lei Chi was not discouraged. By the end of this seclusion, he had opened up a total of 36 acupoints in his body.

All thirty-six acupoints were transformed into storage spaces by the Thunder Pool!

The size of the storage space in the acupoints is related to the progress of the [Starry Sky Divine Art], but even though Lei Chi has not yet completed the first stage of progress, each storage space is already large enough to hold a large palace.

With the opening of the thirty-six acupoints, the body-refining effects of the [Starry Sky Divine Art] began to manifest. Lei Chi felt that the thirty-six acupoints were constantly drawing spatial energy from the outside world, which continuously tempered his body, and his physique gradually became stronger invisibly.

However, these thirty-six acupoints are not enough to grant Lei Chi direct power, nor can they allow Lei Chi to use the Star Pillars to set up the Star Array.

Lei Chi has realized that if he wants to use the Star Pillar to set up the Star Array, he must at least create a Star within his body, which means opening up 1600 acupoints and achieving the first stage of the [Star Divine Skill].

He vaguely felt that if he really opened up 1600 acupoints, then the Star Array would likely become one of his strongest techniques.

After re-projecting his consciousness into the Azure Flame incarnation, Lei Chi controlled it to continue forging iron.

Half a day later, a female demon with a large, fluffy tail, who looked like a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl, arrived at the blacksmith's shop.

Lei Chi spotted her immediately and became wary. He silently controlled his Azure Flame avatar to retrieve the sword pellet given to him by Sun Hu.

Knowing that this female demon was a former inner disciple with Qing Mangzi and You Shula as role models, Lei Chi dared not be careless.

The female demon, upon seeing the Thunder Pool, beamed with delight. Like a girl next door, she waved to it and said, "Junior brother, you know how to forge iron? That's wonderful! I have some elemental magnets here; could you help me forge them into iron ingots?"

As she spoke, the banshee opened her storage device and took out a large white bag filled with grayish-brown objects.

The Azure Flame Avatar narrowed its eyes and said, "Sorry, we're not familiar with each other, and I don't know anything about elemental magnets, so I can't help you."

"Oh my, we didn't know each other before, but now we do. We're not familiar now, but we will be in the future. My name is Li Luo, and I was an inner disciple from the previous era. You can call me Senior Sister. What's your name?"

"My name is... Zhao Shuibiao!"

Lei Chi hesitated for a moment and did not reveal his real name.

Li Luo continued, "So it's Junior Brother Shui Biao. Junior Brother, listen to me. Processing elemental magnets is not difficult at all. As long as you learn the Star River Hundred Refinement Technique, you can just take the Star River Hundred Refinement Hammer and hammer away. It's just a matter of putting in some effort."

"Is that so?" The Azure Flame avatar shook its head and said, "What I hate most is exerting myself, so... if there's no benefit, I won't do it!"

"Of course I won't let Junior Brother Shui Biao's efforts go to waste. Come here and see if you like this!"

Li Luo then took out a palm-sized jade box from her storage space and beckoned the Azure Flame avatar to come closer to take a look.

"What good stuff is it? Let me see..."

The Azure Flame Avatar nodded and strode toward Li Luo. Just as Li Luo was flipping the jade box toward the Thunder Pool, the Thunder Pool threw out a sword pellet without warning.

Suddenly, a beam of blue light shot out from the jade box and struck Lei Chi squarely in the chest.

The next moment, Li Luo looked shocked, her eyes wide and clear, as if a thread-like piercing force had pierced through her brow.

The light that flew out of the jade box gave no time to dodge, and even the Wu Nian Huan Huan couldn't intercept it in time, striking the chest of the Azure Flame avatar squarely.

puff!

The avatar of the Azure Flame staggered backward, coughing up a mouthful of blood, and a bloody crater appeared on its chest.

"What a powerful attack..."

Lei Chi said in a low voice, estimating that if the damage value were calculated, the light that flew out of the jade box would probably take away no less than 10 billion of the Azure Flame Avatar's health points in one go.

"Luckily, I acted decisively and struck first, otherwise I would have fallen into the banshee's trap!"

Lei Chi, controlling the avatar of the Azure Flame, glanced at the female demon in the form of a young girl. With a thought, he unleashed a storm of mental energy. The female demon let out a sharp roar, her body was abandoned, and she fell straight to the ground.

To Lei Chi's surprise, she was still alive. She shakily got up and said through gritted teeth, "It's Sun Hu's Heaven-Shattering Sword Qi. Do you know Sun Hu?"

The Azure Flame incarnation remained silent, his face cold, but he secretly prepared for the [Shocking God Break] technique.

Li Luo asked again, "How did you find out? Where did I give myself away?"

The avatar of the Azure Flame said, "I didn't notice. It's just a coincidence that you tried to kill me first, and I wanted to kill you too!"

"Why...why do you want to kill me?"

"Because you dared to interrupt my blacksmithing!"

After saying that, the Azure Flame Avatar used the [Shocking God Strike], and Li Luo immediately bled from all seven orifices and died on the spot.

Lei Chi remained expressionless upon seeing this. He wanted to kill Li Luo for two reasons: firstly, he was trapped in the blacksmith shop and did not want to be in danger, so he decided to strike first.

After all, he had heard Yushula mention this Li Luo, who didn't seem to be a good person.

At the same time, Lei Chi also coveted the wealth of this former disciple.

Without considering right or wrong, good or bad, eliminating this former disciple could only bring benefits.

Judging from the outcome, while lamenting the cruelty of reality, Lei Chi also subtly praised Lei Chi's wisdom.

Next, Lei Chi controlled his Azure Flame avatar to immediately begin a ritual of deliverance, chanting scriptures over Li Luo's corpse.

However, strangely enough, Li Luo's corpse quickly turned into green smoke and disappeared, leaving only a tail and a storage ring in the original place.

Of course, the jade box is also there.

"Um?"

Upon seeing this, Qinghuo, in his incarnation, stopped the ritual and quickly stepped forward to observe.

"What's going on? Could it be that Li Luo ran away? Or is this not her true form?"

Lei Chi, outside the Holy God Palace, was puzzled. He controlled his Azure Flame avatar to retrieve the fluffy tail and storage ring from the ground, kicked the empty jade box away, and without having time to examine it, quickly left the blacksmith shop and returned to a nearby cultivation cave.

Once inside the cultivation cave, Lei Chi felt slightly relieved and took out his previous gains.

Lei Chi couldn't discern any mystery about the fluffy tail. After reciting a sutra for its salvation, he casually tossed it aside.

As for the storage ring, it seemed ordinary, and the spiritual imprint on it was not strong. The Azure Flame Avatar quickly opened it and found that there were only five items inside.

Three of the five items are identical; they are the small jade boxes that Li Luo had previously intended to use to ambush Qinghuo's avatar.

The small jade box looked quite exquisite, with a delicate seal. Lei Chi studied it carefully for a moment and guessed that the small jade box was exactly the same as the one Li Luo had used to ambush him before. He figured that if he opened it, a powerful blue light would fly out from it.

There were only two other items, one of which turned out to be a real mask!

The second item was a fist-sized sphere, inside which sat a small figure wearing red armor with metal plate-like skin.

"This is... a Red-Armored Spellbreaker!"

Lei Chi frowned. He recognized the little man in the sphere as the red-armored spellbreaker from the Fallen Temple, the god Arsh.

Arsh's strength is a level above Zhao Shuibiao's. If Lei Chi is not counted, he is probably the strongest disciple of the Cowardly Sect in the present day!

"This guy got promoted to inner disciple? And then... he got killed by Li Luo?"

A sudden guess arose in Lei Chi's mind. He continued to study the sphere and vaguely felt that the little man Alsh inside was a remnant soul or will that had been extracted. Combined with the real mask in the storage ring, Lei Chi guessed that Alsh had most likely been killed.

"This Alsh wasn't weak; he was a previous generation player, yet he was killed just like that!" Lei Chi sighed. "Everyone for themselves, killing to steal is understandable. The path of cultivation is truly cruel. One must learn from this and never be held back by justice, kindness, or morality. One must act decisively..."

Shaking his head, Lei Chi controlled the Azure Flame avatar and squeezed his fingers. With a crack, the small ball in his hand was crushed, and then Arsh's small phantom quickly blurred and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

At that very moment, under a sky ablaze with iridescent colors, on the shore of a small lake also bathed in iridescent light, a beautiful figure suddenly opened her eyes.

This figure looked almost exactly like Li Luo, whom Lei Chi had seen before, except that the former appeared youthful and beautiful, while this one was more alluring and seductive, and had no tail.

"Qing Mangzi is dead, You Shula is dead, and my clone just died too. Among the current disciples, there is such a ruthless one!"

The alluring figure spoke calmly, with a fluffy tail behind her. She was the real Li Luo, or rather, Li Luo's true form.

"Are you sure it was done by a current disciple?"

Another voice rang out. It was an old man with a white beard who was not far away. The old man was hunched over and had an unremarkable face. He was currently eating a grilled fish with gusto.

Click click...

The grilled fish looked very crispy, and the old man ate it in big bites, seemingly swallowing even the fish bones.

He was another former inner disciple named Gu Ran.

"Confirmed!" Li Luo said. "This man calls himself Zhao Shuibiao. Not only is he incredibly strong and decisive, but he also possesses a sword pellet imbued with heaven-shattering sword energy!"

"A sword pellet? It contains heaven-shattering sword energy..."

The old man's expression turned serious. "That wouldn't eliminate your clones, would it?"

"What if it were Sun Hu's sword pellet?"

"Sun Hu!"

The old man's eyes widened suddenly. He threw down the grilled fish in his hand and asked, "Are you sure?"

Li Luo said, "Of course I'm certain. The only thing capable of instantly killing my clone could be Sun Hu's sword energy!"

The old man pondered for a long time before saying, "If that's the case, then we shouldn't provoke the current generation of disciples so easily. Sun Hu is already a true disciple, and he might even have advanced to the secret realm. His strength is too great for us to provoke. Since he left the sword pill with that current generation player, he must have intended to protect him... Forget it! Li Luo, just accept your fate and stay in this Fish-Dragon Pool Secret Realm. Don't go out until you're confident you can advance to the true disciple level."

"What else can I do but refuse to admit defeat?"

Li Luo shook her head and sighed, "I no longer have any clones!"

(End of this chapter)