The Right View of Revenge

"Haha, I love your exasperated yet helpless state. If you don't want me to touch you anymore, hurry up and give me the Martial Form. Speaking of which, your true form should be a great Demon Race king, maybe even a Demon King, Demon Emperor, or Demon Thearch. How can someone so petty rule over all demons? As for the remaining three fierce beasts and four saints, just give me any one of them. Really, I'm not picky."

Most statues of deities have the ability to communicate with the gods, but Si Ming is not worried about retaliation. Such a statue, which can grant high-level Martial Form, has fallen into a godforsaken place and has not been retrieved for a long time. Obviously, the deity's main body is in trouble and has no time to care about other things. If it had the ability to punish, it would have done so long ago. How could it possibly tolerate this?

Even if we were to be targeted by this Demon Race behemoth, it wouldn't be a big deal. At worst, we could just stay in the Sea Continent and not venture out again. Would the other party really dare to break into the Eternal Barrier and act recklessly over such a trivial matter?

Si Ming had already checked the confidential information of the Mohist Knight Guard. Under the Eternal Barrier, all laws are forbidden. Unless one is an eternal saint, everyone else entering Sea Continent will be pulled to the same level. Even the great beings who created the world in mythology can only obediently play in the mud when they arrive in the Sea Continent.

"You brat... stop it right now! You're not allowed to insult the sacred image!"

The village chief was stunned. He was so shocked that he couldn't react for a moment. After understanding and accepting the reality, he was so angry that his beard stood on end. He swung his cane and unleashed a series of crazed blows at Si Ming.

The force of the blow was negligible on Si Ming, barely causing any pain. He continued to pat him while saying, "Grandpa, don't be angry. After all, this thing is a demon, not your ancestor. It has done nothing to help your village. Why give it face? Just because it has a strong aura doesn't mean you should fear or respect it. That's being afraid of power but not of virtue."

If Si Ming were to act like a villain and make a move to show his ferocity, the village chief would certainly not dare to stroke his beard and would only stay far away, letting him "desecrate" the stone statue. But Si Ming is now acting like a mischievous monkey, so the village chief dares to act like an elder.

"What nonsense are you spouting! If it weren't for the protection of the stone statue, how could our village have survived to this day?"

"Old man, you can fool others with that, but why are you fooling yourself? Resisting the monster is all thanks to the efforts of your villagers. What does this stone statue have to do with it? Otherwise, why didn't it attack earlier? You worship it like a god, but it treats you like ants. As long as you can sense the remaining divine will on this stone statue, you'll understand that it doesn't care about your lives at all."

The village chief trembled with rage. "You... you... you're too Wutian! How dare a stranger cause trouble in our village! I'm not going to argue with you. Da Zhuang, Er Zhuang, get this guy out of here right now!"

The two burly men behind the village chief exchanged glances, not daring to step forward. The village chief hadn't been present when they fought the monster horde, which emboldened him to be rude to the young man. However, they had witnessed his ferocity firsthand. Those mechanical monsters that even broadswords couldn't kill were smashed to pieces by him with a single punch, as easily as crushing soft persimmons. They didn't believe their bodies could be tougher than the mechanical monsters.

He Qichang coughed a few times and said awkwardly, "Brother Si, doing this is indeed a bit... well..." After all, he had benefited from the other party, so he still had to offer a few words of advice.

Murong Qing shook her head helplessly, but said nothing.

Xu Zhengyi, standing to the side, was dumbfounded, then suddenly realized something. No wonder his benefactor was so powerful; his ambition was indeed unmatched by himself. Although it seemed a bit shameless, what did that matter compared to increasing his strength?

Looking at myself, the opportunity to become stronger is right in front of me, yet I'm unwilling to speak up because of a little bit of pride. As the saying goes, you have to give to receive; if I can't even give up this little bit of dignity, when will I ever become stronger? Without even this kind of awareness, when will I ever avenge my blood feud?

As they were pondering this, a flash of light appeared on the stone statue and seeped into Si Ming's body. The villagers, witnessing this, were all speechless, their mouths agape.

Si Ming was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter. "See? The more polite you are to some things, the less respect they give you. Your village has always worshipped it as a god, so it doesn't care about your opinions. If I don't give it respect, it has to give me respect."

This isn't giving you face; it's clearly because they see you're a tough nut to crack and can't afford to mess with you, so they had no choice but to give you something to get rid of you.

The village chief inwardly grumbled, but even so, he couldn't help feeling a strong sense of loss, a feeling of faith crumbling. So this shameless method actually worked to get Martial Form! If only everyone had done it sooner...

"If you could have obtained Martial Form earlier, you probably wouldn't need to wait for any chosen one or Child of Mixed Blood. You could have taken down the domain lord on your own. After all, you've multiplied for generations, so it's normal for a martial arts genius to emerge. But without proper guidance, you'll just end up mediocre... Remember, there are no saviors, and you don't rely on gods or emperors. To create happiness, you have to rely on yourself!"

The village chief remained silent for a moment, then sighed deeply. Without saying anything, he hunched over and beckoned He Qichang over and impart the Soul Art.

Although Si Ming's reasoning is correct, it's too late. The savior is right before us now, and there's no need to seek or strive any further...

Ignoring the village chief's complicated feelings, Si Ming immediately focused his mind, immersed himself in his consciousness, and observed the benefits he had gained.

Martial Form: Little Drill Wind.

Features: None.

Soul Skill "The King Sent Me to Patrol the Mountain": Increases movement speed by 5%.

"... What the hell is this Little Drill Wind?! Do you think I haven't read 'Journey to the West'?! How could this little mountain-patrolling demon, who's also a part-time original singer, possibly beat Medal Knight?"

Si Ming was furious. He knew that anything obtained through persistent pestering was bound to be of poor quality, but this level was simply outrageous! Was he trying to fob off a beggar? Medal Knight was a ninth-rank item; was this thing even tenth-rank?

He immediately stared at the stone statue with a malicious look, as if searching for a convenient spot to smash it to pieces.

The stone statue probably thought that Si Ming might actually do such a thing, or perhaps it felt that the Martial Form it had given away were too meager. So, with a flash of light, it entered Si Ming's body, causing him to emit a blue rainbow light.

Upon witnessing this, Xu Zhengyi was astonished. "This is a phenomenon of Martial Form advancement!"

He had clearly only gotten something for nothing, yet he managed to force the Soul Artifact to upgrade his Martial Form for free. This solidified his earlier thought: what does face matter as long as he can become stronger? As long as it's not immoral, threats and intimidation aren't out of the question...

Si Ming also sensed that the Martial Form within his sea of consciousness had become stronger, so he asked, "Can the Martial Form be upgraded?"

"Yes, as long as certain conditions are met, Martial Form can advance in rank, and there are different advancement paths. For example, Medal Knight can advance to Grand Medal Knight, Royal Palace Knight, or Divine Hall Knight," Xu Zhengyi replied.

A bad premonition immediately arose in Si Ming's mind. Could it be that the Little Drill Wind had been promoted to "big drill wind" or "general drill wind"? He immediately focused his mind to observe again.

Martial Form: Jingxi Ghost.

Feature: Makes your thinking clearer.

Soul Skill: None.

Si Ming racked his brains for a while before remembering that this guy was a subordinate of Golden Horn and Silver Horn, and apparently had a partner named Lingli Bug. These two little monsters were ordered to take the Jade Bottle and the Gourd to capture the Monkey, but Sun Wukong disguised himself as an old Daoist and tricked them out of the two treasures. What a waste of the names Clever and Clever. Even Golden Horn and Silver Horn thought this guy was useless.

"Alright, the Jingxi Ghost is a monster directly assigned by Golden Horn Silver Horn, so he is indeed a bit stronger than a lackey like Little Drill Wind, but only by a tiny bit. Since they are all monsters from Journey to the West, I don't expect him to be on the level of the Three Monsters of Lion Camel Ridge. I'd accept him even if you replaced Chechi Kingdom."

Si Ming stared at the stone statue with ill intent once again, but this time the statue did not compromise. It even withdrew its spiritual energy, as if it were pretending to be asleep and unaware of the outside world.

After hesitating for a moment, Si Ming didn't actually make a move. After all, it was something from someone else's village. Even though it fell from the sky, the villagers had been worshipping it for hundreds of years. Even if it was just an ordinary stone, they had developed a deep affection for it.

Moreover, given the other party's petty and stingy behavior, even if they were to advance to the next level, they would still only be at the level of a minor monster. Next time, they might be replaced by Baboben or Benboba. These two are fish spirits, and their characteristic is most likely to be to increase their swimming speed, which is not as good as the Jingxi Ghost. At least the characteristic of "making thinking clearer" is beneficial to their role as the person in charge of wisdom.

Having abandoned his greedy thoughts, Si Ming turned around and saw Xu Zhengyi kneel down before him with a thud, kowtowing and begging, "Please, benefactor, teach me martial arts!"

Hmm? He wasn't satisfied with just being saved, he wants me to teach him martial arts too. I never knew this kid was so shameless.

Chapter 518 The Correct View of Revenge

After considering it for a moment, Si Ming agreed to Xu Zhengyi. He wasn't the kind of person who would hoard his knowledge, and given the general environment in Su State, he was willing to teach as long as the other party didn't dislike him too much.

He's not like the protagonist in traditional martial arts novels, who carefully keeps his unparalleled martial arts skills hidden away and refuses to share them with anyone, not even his closest friends.

Zhang Wuji obtained the Nine Yang Divine Art but did not tell Zhang Sanfeng, who had endured humiliation at Shaolin for his sake. Linghu Chong obtained the Dugu Nine Swords and, knowing that Yue Buqun was determined to restore Mount Hua, resolutely refused to break his promise.