When the Tiger Doesn't Show Its Fangs, You Think I'm a Sick Crow!

The moment he landed, the stench—foul enough to make a soul recoil and flee the body—nearly forced Lu Changsheng to vomit up the Red Sun Fruit he had eaten five thousand years ago.

The surroundings were pitch black, save for a hair-raising hissing sound that echoed incessantly through the darkness.

It was the sound of stomach acid corroding rock.

The massive, ten-ton boulder Lu Changsheng had been clutching just moments before had fallen into this swamp of gastric acid; it hadn't even lasted half a breath before dissolving into bubbling sludge.

"What terrifying corrosive power!"

Lu Changsheng fought back his nausea, desperately channeling the sliver of mana he had just managed to recover within his body.

A dark golden True Immortal protective aura flared around his skin, temporarily shielding him from the splashing acid.

"Drip."

A glob of viscous yellow liquid fell from above, slamming into his protective aura.

The aura flickered violently, and the droplet burned a fingernail-sized crater into the surface before its energy was finally spent.

Lu Changsheng's face turned deathly pale.

This isn't ordinary stomach acid; it's a corrosive divine ability fused with the essence of earth and the Sha Qi of a fierce beast!

He turned his gaze inward to his dantian.

In these few short breaths, he had already consumed nearly ten percent of his True Immortal mana just to maintain the aura against the acid's erosion.

At this rate, his mana would be completely exhausted in half an incense stick's time at most.

When that happened, his newly tempered True Immortal body would surely follow the fate of that boulder, dissolving until not even a scrap of bone remained.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Lu Changsheng searched frantically for an exit within the dark stomach walls, but he found that the entire perimeter was composed of incredibly tough, constantly undulating membranes.

He slashed at them with Sword Qi, but instead of cutting through, the attacks were simply bounced back by the bizarre, rubbery flesh.

"I can't get out! There's no way out!"

Trapped in this sunless, acid-filled abyss, listening to the hissing of his mana being eaten away, a shadow of death unlike any he had ever known gripped his heart.

Have I really spent eight thousand five hundred years playing it safe, only to finally strike it rich and end up dying a pathetic death in the belly of this beast, destined to be excreted as a pile of dung?

Lu Changsheng's eyes turned bloodshot, filled with intense resentment and fury.

No! I still have a trump card!

He suddenly lowered his head, looking deep within his own body.

There, the source of Great Dao Merit he had never dared to use was emitting a soft, sacred golden light.

If he withdrew his protective mana and let the acid touch his skin—if his physical body suffered even the slightest substantial injury—the passive defense mechanism of this Great Dao Merit would trigger instantly.

The Great Dao would descend in judgment; never mind a mere Earth Dragon at the Profound Immortal level, even a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal would be reduced to ashes under the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning!

It was the most inescapable law-of-causality weapon in the entire Primordial Land!

However, Lu Changsheng hesitated.

His miserly, penny-pinching nature erupted in that moment with an unbelievable obsession.

I can't use it... I absolutely cannot use the merit!

Lu Changsheng bit down so hard his gums bled.

This is Great Dao Merit! Every bit I use is a bit gone forever! It took me over five thousand years to scrape this fortune together, and I only just recovered a little after drawing in thousands of years of Sha Qi.

Trade my life for this mud-covered, dead loach?

It's too much of a loss! A loss so great it would make my ancestors weep!

In Lu Changsheng's subconscious, merit was his lifeblood, his only capital for establishing himself in the Primordial Land and perhaps even attaining the Dao.

Asking him to voluntarily consume merit to trigger a counter-attack was ten thousand times more painful than cutting his own flesh with a knife.

I can still hold on! I'm a True Immortal, for heaven's sake; I refuse to believe I can't outlast a few mouthfuls of your stomach acid!

Like a madman, Lu Changsheng squeezed every last drop of mana from his dantian, pouring it endlessly into the protective aura around his body.

He even pulled the Red Sun Fruit tree he had just planted from his Storage Jade Box, casting aside all thoughts of sustainable development.

He shoved the trunk and leaves directly into his mouth, chewing them into a chaotic pulp and swallowing, trying to force his body to convert them into a sliver of mana to replenish his reserves.

But reality was cruel.

Against a corrosive divine ability of the Profound Immortal level, the mana reserves of an early-stage True Immortal were like a cup of water trying to put out a burning cart of firewood.

As time ticked by, the duration of an incense stick was nearly at an end.

The bubbles roiling within the swamp of gastric juices grew increasingly dense, and the temperature throughout the entire stomach began to rise sharply.

Old Earth Dragon seemed to sense that this little snack in its belly was proving difficult to digest, so it began to actively channel its innate divine ability, intensifying the corrosive power of its stomach acid.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss—"

The harsh sound of corrosion was as dense as a torrential downpour.

The layer of dark golden protective aura on Lu Changsheng's body was now riddled with holes, as thin as a sheet of window paper ready to tear at any moment.

"Mana... dried up..."

Lu Changsheng gasped in despair, his hands hanging limply at his sides.

His dantian was completely empty; even the last shred of mana had been squeezed dry.

"Pop!"

A soft sound echoed.

The protective aura that had struggled to hold on for half an incense stick's time finally shattered completely amidst the boundless, corrosive stomach acid.

The moment he lost the protection of his aura, a pungent, yellow gastric fluid splashed directly onto Lu Changsheng.

"Sizzle—"

The moment the stomach acid touched his dark golden feathers, it triggered a violent chemical reaction.

Even though this physical body had been tempered and washed by a massive amount of Heavenly Dao Merit and was already incredibly formidable, it still suffered piercing, agonizing pain under the corrosion of a Profound Immortal's innate divine ability. The outermost feathers even began to emit faint wisps of white smoke.

Lu Changsheng looked down at the yellow gastric fluid that was about to burn through his skin and flesh.

The fear in his heart climbed to its peak at this moment, but what followed was an unprecedented surge of violence and indignation.

He had lived cautiously for eight thousand five hundred years!

He had walked around every pothole, hadn't even dared to breathe too loudly, and now that he had finally struck it rich, was he really going to die a pathetic death inside the belly of a dim-witted, dead mud loach?

"You forced my hand!"

Lu Changsheng's eyes instantly bloodshot, turning a deep crimson. He gritted his teeth hard, a furious roar erupting from his throat.

"If a tiger doesn't show its might, do you take me for a sick crow!"

Screw being a miser!

Screw the heartache!

If his life was gone, was he supposed to keep a pile of merit in his belly as travel money for his next reincarnation?

He no longer struggled to suppress it, nor did he care about the waste.

At the final moment of life and death, Lu Changsheng completely released the restraints on the mass of Great Dao Merit within his body, even actively guiding it to erupt outward with all his might!

"Get the hell away from me!"

"BOOM!"