The smoke from the chemical plant had yet to disperse. The pungent stench of burning mixed with the thoroughly purified air, creating a strange lingering atmosphere of battle.
Fatty Chen sprawled beside a pile of twisted metal wreckage, his glasses crooked and his face smeared with ash and sweat.
He watched helplessly as Fang Gang leaped from the top of a hundred-meter-tall smokestack. He did not even leave a dent when he landed, drifting down as lightly as a feather, with the Bronze Battle Halberd he had forcibly torn from the Grade A corpse puppet's neck resting on his shoulder.
"Gulp."
Chen Tao swallowed with difficulty, his throat dry enough to smoke. "F-Fang... Brother Fang?" His voice trembled beyond recognition.
Fang Gang ignored him and walked straight toward the smoldering remains of the Blood Fiend Corpse Puppet.
His dark golden skin gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen beneath the sunlight. The savage aura from the battle had mostly subsided, leaving behind only a heavy, suffocating pressure.
He stretched out his foot and casually nudged a charred bone.
Crack.
A black leg bone, several times thicker than an ordinary bone, snapped apart and shattered into several pieces.
Fang Gang bent down, picked up the largest fragment, and weighed it in his hand.
It felt heavy, yet the material was unusually brittle. Its fractured surface revealed a honeycomb-like, charred-black structure.
"Tsk." He curled his lip in disdain and casually tossed the bone fragment onto the ground, where it landed with a dull thud.
"Looks impressive, but it's useless."
He dusted off his hands as though they had touched something filthy. His gaze swept over the scattered fragments of Green Zombies and Hairy Zombies, and his voice was calm enough to betray no emotion, yet it struck Chen Tao and the others like a sledgehammer.
"I suggest these zombies... take more calcium supplements in their next life."
Chen Tao: "..." The team member beside him stood with his mouth agape, looking as if he had been struck by lightning.
Calcium... supplements?
A monster who had single-handedly taken down over a hundred Green Zombies, a Grade B Hairy Zombie, and a Grade A Blood Fiend Corpse Puppet, and his first comment after the battle... was to suggest that zombies take calcium supplements?!
His train of thought was even more hardcore than his fists!
"F-Fang... Brother Fang,"
Chen Tao struggled to his feet, forcing out a smile uglier than crying. Yet his gaze uncontrollably drifted toward Fang Gang's gleaming scalp, reflective enough to serve as a mirror. "That... Grade A one... it's just... gone?" He pointed at the still-smoking pile of charcoal.
Carrying the halberd, Fang Gang walked toward Chen Tao with steady steps. "Mm." A simple grunt.
"That flute... the person controlling the corpse puppet..." Chen Tao looked toward the empty top of the smokestack, still shaken by the experience.
"Ran away."
Fang Gang's tone remained flat. "A rat that hides its head and shows its tail. I'll drag it out and crush it next time."
The dark black Resentful Eye Mark on his left arm seemed to wriggle ever so slightly. From the tiny slit at its end, a bone-chilling sense of greed flashed past, so quickly that it seemed like an illusion.
Fang Gang's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
"Right, right, right! A rat! It has to be crushed!"
Chen Tao nodded frantically. As Fang Gang approached, the invisible pressure made him instinctively retreat half a step.
He quickly changed the subject. His gaze was once again drawn to Fang Gang's bald head, which looked like a little sun under the sunlight.
"Brother Fang, did you... shave your head for training? It's really... really bright! Down there just now, it nearly blinded me!" He tried to ease the atmosphere with an exaggerated tone.
Fang Gang glanced at him without taking the bait. "Where's my stuff?"
"Huh? Oh, right! The medal! Iron Head... no! The Humanoid Weapon Medal! Leave it to me! I'll get it done as soon as we get back! A special-grade medal!"
Fatty Chen patted his chest in assurance, then could not resist asking curiously, "Brother Fang, just how hard is your head now?"
He asked cautiously, his eyes filled with the thirst for knowledge of a scientific researcher.
Fang Gang did not answer. Instead, his gaze swept thoughtfully over the massive metal reaction tank nearby, which had been badly dented and warped when he had sent the Hairy Zombie leader flying into it.
Then he looked up at the towering smokestack.
Following his gaze, Fatty Chen shuddered. A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head. He hurriedly shut his mouth and did not dare ask another question.
Surely this guy isn't actually planning to test it with his head?!
"Clean up the scene and report it."
Fang Gang gave his orders succinctly. "I'm taking this halberd."
He shifted the Bronze Battle Halberd on his shoulder. It was cold and heavy in his hand, its ancient baleful aura restrained. It was not a bad trophy.
"No problem! Absolutely no problem! Please take care, sir!" Chen Tao could not wait to send this great god away and nodded repeatedly.
Fang Gang did not linger. Carrying the Bronze Battle Halberd, he strode out of the chemical plant ruins.
Sunlight fell upon his dark golden bald head and mottled ancient halberd, stretching his silhouette into one full of violence and absurdity.
When he returned to the old apartment building he rented, he had barely pushed open the creaking rusty iron gate when Old Zhao, the guard, stuck half his body out from the guardroom with a wrinkled courier document pouch in his hand.
"Little Fang! You've got a package! It just arrived! Looks like a book?" Old Zhao shouted.
Fang Gang halted, and a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes. It's here!
He took the document pouch. It was very thin. Tearing open the seal, he found a thin, crudely printed booklet sliding out. Its cover was an eye-searing fluorescent color, printed with several flamboyant characters.
"Nine Yang Divine Skill (Deluxe Collector's Edition)"
There was also a QR code beside it, with a line of tiny print beneath: Scan to watch the Heaven and Earth Great Shift instructional video (bonus included)!
An overwhelming air of cheap street-stall literature hit him in the face.
Fang Gang's mouth twitched. Very good. Same old formula, same old taste.
Holding the pirated "Deluxe Collector's Edition" manual and the Bronze Battle Halberd, he quickly headed upstairs.
He locked the door behind him and placed the heavy halberd against the wall. The room was cramped and shabby; its only advantage was that it was fairly sturdy.
Sitting cross-legged on the hard bed, Fang Gang did not immediately open the Nine Yang Divine Skill. Instead, he focused his mind.
"System."
A cold mechanical voice, accompanied by a simple panel of light, instantly appeared in his mind.
Host: Fang Gang Realm: Bone Tempering Realm → Tendon Transformation Realm (Early Stage)! Strength: 4250 → 8000 (Mammoth Lifts the Heavens) Constitution: 790 → 1200 (Indestructible Golden Body) Agility: 409 → 650 (Chasing Stars and Moon) Cultivation Techniques: True Dragon-Elephant Prajna Skill (Mastery 1000/1000) → Perfection! True Vajra Indestructible Body (Mastery 1000/1000) → Perfection! Available Evolution Points: 550!
The 550 Evolution Points gained from killing the Blood Fiend Corpse Puppet lay quietly on the panel.
Fang Gang did not hesitate in the slightest. His gaze locked onto the realm section. "Break through!"
Boom—!
The 550 Evolution Points were instantly cleared!
A torrent of power far more violent and profound than when he had previously brought the Vajra Indestructible Body to perfection suddenly exploded from the deepest depths of his body!
It was no longer the blazing eruption of countless tiny suns, but like subterranean magma that had lain dormant for hundreds of millions of years being suddenly stirred!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Dense bursts of popping sounded from deep within the bones throughout his body, like beans being fried!
The bones of the Bone Tempering Realm, tempered until they were as tough and dense as white jade, began to undergo an even deeper transformation beneath the wash of that immense power!
Countless tiny, invisible fasciae on his bones seemed to be granted life, growing, stretching, tempering, and strengthening wildly!
They became tougher and more flexible, like countless top-grade alloy springs, connecting every bone in his body into a more perfect whole brimming with explosive strength!
The Tendon Transformation Realm! A complete rebirth from the outside in! A qualitative leap in bodily coordination and explosive power!
Fang Gang abruptly opened his eyes. A lightning-like gleam shot from them, piercing the dim room!
He slowly clenched his fist, crushing the air in his palm with a dull burst of compressed air!
Beneath his skin, the newly formed fasciae wriggled faintly as power surged through them, filled with boundless vitality.
His body now felt like an unparalleled bow drawn to its limit, every inch of muscle, tendon, and bone packed with terrifying power capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks!
He lowered his head and looked at his left arm. Under the cleansing force of the Tendon Transformation Realm's vast qi and blood, the dark black Resentful Eye Mark seemed to have been suppressed more deeply. Even the dark golden vertical slit at its end appeared to have closed slightly.
Yet the mark itself conveyed an even clearer, colder sense of presence, like a piece of ice embedded in his flesh.
Fang Gang's gaze turned cold. This thing was like a ticking time bomb. He had to find a cultivation technique that could strengthen his mental resistance as soon as possible, or... eliminate its source completely.
At last, his gaze fell upon the Nine Yang Divine Skill (Deluxe Collector's Edition) beside him, which carried the smell of cheap ink.
"System, scan it."
Ding! A low-quality paper carrier has been detected. Its contents contain extensive fabrication, tampering, and logical errors... Energy signature: Weak (negligible) Threat level: None Spend 1 Evolution Point to convert it into the beginner cultivation technique "True Nine Yang Divine Skill"?
"Convert it!"
Evolution Points -1! Conversion in progress... removing redundant information... correcting core qi circulation routes... completing key nodes of yin-yang circulation... Conversion complete! Obtained beginner cultivation technique: "True Nine Yang Divine Skill" (Beginner 0/100)!
A simple method for guiding qi and blood and transforming it into supreme yang inner energy flowed into Fang Gang's mind. Though rough, the route was clear, real, and effective.
Fang Gang did not hesitate. He immediately began circulating the beginner method.
The immense qi and blood of the Tendon Transformation Realm surged through his body. Following the new route, it began to circulate, compress, and grind... A thread of faint yet incomparably pure golden-red energy, carrying a warm glow, slowly gathered within the qi sea of his dantian like a newborn flame!
Supreme yang inner energy! It had formed!
Though there was only a trace of it, this was precisely the core power that restrained all evil yin entities and ghosts! It was the starting point of the Great Sun Furnace Scripture!
Feeling the faint but lively warmth within his dantian, Fang Gang looked at the Bronze Battle Halberd leaning against the wall, its baleful aura restrained. Finally, he touched his cold, hard scalp, whose reflectiveness seemed to have risen another level.
He grinned silently.
The chemical plant had only been the beginning.
Nightmare Holy Cult?
Resentful Eye Mark?
Come on, then.
Let's see whether your sinister tricks are harder, or my fists and this bald head... are harder!
He picked up his phone. The screen lit up, and a new shipping notification appeared.
"Your purchased 'Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms (Manual + Disc)' has been shipped..."
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