Shape-Shifting

After Nan Feng badgered her relentlessly, Bibi Dong had no choice but to agree to help him give it a try.

If she could, Bibi Dong also hoped to take Nan Feng with her when she escaped. After all, no one with even a shred of sanity could stand living in a godforsaken place like Slaughter City.

She had been here for less than three years. If Nan Feng hadn't been there with her, acting as a normal person and helping suppress the effects of the Killing Intent, she had no idea what she might have turned into.

"You need to think this through. If something goes wrong with this method, you'll explode," Bibi Dong warned.

A Soul Master's cultivation was a gradual process. This method of rapidly increasing one's strength through devouring not only left behind serious hidden dangers, but was also extremely dangerous.

Nan Feng thought his own healing ability ought to let him withstand the violent surge of energy and gain a rapid boost in strength, at least for a short time. But the process...

"I know." Nan Feng sat down on the floor.

"Let's do it."

Bibi Dong took a deep breath and released her Soul-Eater Spider Emperor. The dark green spider legs that grew from her back plunged into the Fallen One she had just dragged in from outside.

Devouring began, and the unconscious Fallen One immediately let out a howl of agony that seemed to tear through the soul.

"Uh... couldn't you kill him before draining him?" Nan Feng felt a little queasy.

He was visibly withering away!

"When a Soul Master dies in Slaughter City, everything they have is devoured by the city," Bibi Dong explained.

"I can only take some of their strength while they're alive. If they die, I won't be devouring their power anymore—I'll be fighting Slaughter City for its energy. That's far too difficult."

"Oh..." Nan Feng covered his ears and turned away.

That was freaking horrifying!

In his previous life, he'd never even seen a dead body. The sound of the neighbor slaughtering a pig was enough to scare him. How could he handle something like this?

When he'd first arrived and seen bones and body parts scattered everywhere, not to mention all the other gruesome sights, he'd nearly had a nervous breakdown!

"Scared?" Bibi Dong raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously." Nan Feng gave her a look of exasperation.

He was a fine young man raised in peacetime, not one of those brainless, twisted murderers from the Tang Clan. Wasn't it perfectly normal to be scared by something like this?

"But what happens to you next will be much the same," Bibi Dong said seriously.

"I've never tried channeling energy into someone else with the Soul-Eater Spider Emperor, but I can guarantee it'll do serious damage to your body. And..."

"Stop talking and just do it," Nan Feng interrupted.

"If you keep going, I probably won't have the guts to try."

Bibi Dong hesitated. "I'll start slowly. Feel it out, and if you can't take it..."

"Do it!" Nan Feng gritted his teeth and shut his eyes.

"Here I go."

"Go!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah!"

"Three..."

"Ahhh!!!"

"Where's two?!"

"Oh, I forgot. Two."

"Damn you!!!"

"Ah!!!"

"I wasn't cursing at you!!"

Half an hour later, Bibi Dong carried Nan Feng—his eyes vacant—back to bed.

"I can't believe you really endured it," Bibi Dong said, still stunned.

Nan Feng's body had nearly split apart just now. It had looked a lot like the Soul Masters she'd once seen explode after absorbing Spirit Rings that exceeded their limits. Just when she was about to stop, even pull the energy back out, Nan Feng's healing power had restored his body as it teetered on the brink of destruction!

Even the Nine-Heart Begonia might not have such terrifying healing power.

"I endured it with my life on the line..." Nan Feng lay limply on the bed.

The Horse Talisman's power could usually even erase pain, since pain was also a negative effect caused by an external force. But the energy surge just now had been so violent that the Horse Talisman had struggled just to keep him from exploding. It had no energy to spare for easing his pain.

It hurt so much!

He felt as if his whole body had been hollowed out!

Like he'd been reborn!

"I was going to stop, but you told me not to," Bibi Dong said, wiping away Nan Feng's tears, which he couldn't control.

"If we'd stopped, I would've had to go through it all over again. Better to grit my teeth and endure it in one go," Nan Feng said.

"Besides, after suffering through something like that once, I don't dare try a second time."

Before he knew how much it hurt, he'd been willing to try. But now that he'd been scarred by the experience, he didn't dare do it again.

"Does it still hurt?" Bibi Dong asked, looking at Nan Feng's vacant eyes with concern.

She had watched him grow up, after all. When they first met three years ago, Nan Feng had been a frail little boy, passed from one Fallen One to another in Slaughter City.

Over the past three years, she had watched him grow from a tiny little thing into someone almost as tall as she was.

"It doesn't hurt." Nan Feng curled up.

Once the energy had finished flowing into him, the Horse Talisman no longer needed to keep him from exploding. After stabilizing the foreign energy raging inside him, it had been able to erase his pain.

But physical pain could be erased. The shadow left in his mind wouldn't go away anytime soon.

"Hmm?"

Feeling something soft against his face and catching the milky scent drifting into his nose, Nan Feng instinctively opened his eyes—only to find Bibi Dong covering them with her hand.

"Don't move around," Bibi Dong said, looking a little uneasy.

"And keep your eyes closed."

"Can I move my hands?"

"Why don't you try and see?"

"..."

Who knew how long later, Nan Feng slowly opened his eyes. Bibi Dong had already left the room.

It was probably the most peaceful sleep he'd had since arriving in this world.

"Three years of effort, and I'm finally reaping the rewards." Nan Feng sat up in bed and stretched.

Nothing was impossible for someone who set their mind to it. As long as you found the right approach, no heart was beyond winning over.

Those so-called nice guys who ended up with nothing were just a bunch of self-important idiots.

They never bothered finding the right approach. They just kept using brute force. What good did that do?

"Everything I do is for your own good." "I've gone this far for you. Aren't you happy?"

Just listen to that. What kind of brain-dead nonsense was that?

You had to find the right approach and use your head. If sheer effort were all it took, the world's richest person would be one of the mules worked to death.

"What kind of transformations can the Monkey Talisman manage?"

A phantom image of Little Monkey appeared in Nan Feng's eyes.

The Monkey Talisman: Shape-shifting!

A flash of white energy instantly enveloped Nan Feng. After his body twisted and changed, he disappeared, replaced by a little black cat less than thirty centimeters long.

"Meow?" Nan Feng looked down and raised his right hand—or rather, his paw.

The transformation had worked. Now he needed to see if he could move properly.

Feeling awkward in his new body, Nan Feng sprang up.

"Meow!!"

"Xiao Feng?"

Bibi Dong rushed over at the sound.

Seeing a black cat of unknown origin sprawled on the floor, its limbs twisted at odd angles, Bibi Dong instinctively activated her Martial Soul Possession.

There were no cats in Slaughter City!

"Meow!!"

A flash of light passed, and Nan Feng hurriedly changed back. He stood up, clutching his aching waist with a pained expression.

"Don't attack! It's me!"

Damn! A cat kept its balance with its tail!

He didn't have one!

Only his body had changed. It was like he'd been given a whole new body, and he didn't know how to use it!

"You..." Bibi Dong stared in bewilderment at Nan Feng, who had just changed out of a cat.

"Is that your Martial Soul or a Spirit Skill?"

"I guess you could call it a Spirit Skill?" Nan Feng willed it, and another layer of white light enveloped his body. When the transformation ended, the iconic Vampire Bat of Slaughter City appeared before Bibi Dong.

Well, a Vampire Bat that couldn't fly.

No wonder Shendu hardly ever used this Talisman's power. Every time he changed into a new form, he had to start from scratch and get used to that body. What a useless ability.

But for Nan Feng, this was the only way he could escape Slaughter City.

If he could turn into a cat, he could turn into a bat. And if he could turn into a bat, he could turn into an ant! Or a bug!

He refused to believe that Hell Road came with some kind of built-in screening system!

Bibi Dong gave the little bat a strange look. "The way out you mentioned... don't tell me you mean..."

Nan Feng willed it, and transformed back into a human.

"If humans can't leave this godforsaken place, then I'll stop being human!"