Treasures of Heaven and Earth

Wu Pifu was confident he could defeat this so-called boar demon, but he would definitely be seriously injured—he might even perish alongside it.

The difference in their physical attributes was simply too great. Every movement of this boar demon carried at least four to five tons of force. By comparison, even when Wu Pifu unleashed his hidden force, he could only produce around one to one and a half tons of force within a short distance. Naturally, he was far inferior to the boar demon.

Even with greater speed, faster reactions, and the advantages of martial techniques, their combat strength was roughly three to seven. Wu Pifu was the three.

Three meters tall! To an ordinary person, that was truly enormous. A male Asian elephant was only around three meters tall, and this boar demon was already the size of an Asian elephant!

At that moment, Wu Pifu entered his demonic state once more. The boar demon growled low in its throat and panted heavily, ignoring Wu Pifu's movements as it charged toward him in huge strides. The entire ground seemed to tremble with every step. With that size, that strength, and speed clearly disproportionate to its bulk, it was practically a dump truck barreling along at two hundred kilometers per hour.

Yet Wu Pifu stood perfectly still. His entire body was completely relaxed. Though blood-red light shone in his eyes and he looked utterly ferocious, his movements were entirely different from the last time he had entered his demonic state.

Jiujiu's mouth fell open in the distance. Based on how he had performed when he entered his demonic state in the previous dream world, she could practically picture what would happen next. Wu Pifu would surely break through his so-called limits, then clash with the boar demon in a bloody melee until one of them fell...

But that scene never came. In the instant before the boar demon struck Wu Pifu, just as its long tusks were about to pierce his chest and head, Wu Pifu grabbed both massive tusks. Rather than wrestle with it, he used that grip to leap up, somehow landing in a crouch atop the boar demon's enormous head.

A controllable demonic state!

During the final battle in the previous dream world, Wu Pifu had been forced to use the Tiger Demon Art's active demonic-state blood and qi circulation route. He truly had been forced into it. At the time, he had stood at the brink of life and death. If he did not fight, he would die; if he fought, he would still have a sliver of hope.

And that sliver of hope had been his Sleepless Spirit-Sense!

In Wu Pifu's understanding, entering a demonic state came in degrees. Just like the negative emotions within his mind that had been frozen for centuries, as long as they did not all surge back at once, he still had around one hundred and seventy days left to cling to life.

As long as he did not fall too deeply into the demonic state, there was still a chance that his Sleepless Spirit-Sense could bring him back.

And he had won that gamble. At the final moment, he had indeed endured through it with his Sleepless Spirit-Sense.

It was only after he acquired the personal information interface that he gained a data-based grasp of the degree of his demonic state and the extent of the mental backlash. His negative mental backlash rate was currently three percent. As long as he gradually raised that backlash rate bit by bit—keeping the degree of his demonic state within a controllable range—he could try to make use of the immense power of entering a demonic state!

The balance involved was extremely difficult to grasp, but Wu Pifu had a feeling that he could do it!

And now, he truly had. He had entered a state that was both demonic and perfectly controlled by his Sleepless Spirit-Sense.

Only now did Wu Pifu truly realize how powerful the demonic state was. It was not merely the strength and speed gained by breaking through the body's self-protective limits. It also brought comprehensive enhancements to perception, reactions that were almost like bullet time, calculation ability, control over his own strength, and more.

The instant the boar demon charged, Wu Pifu could instinctively calculate the force and angle of its charge, as well as the damage he would suffer if struck. In an extremely short time, he simulated at least ten evasion plans, ten counterattack plans, and ten killing plans in his mind. Then those dozens of plans for evasion, defense, and counterattack began running through mental simulations. All of it was accomplished in a fraction of a second. Then he reached out, grabbed the boar's tusks, and flipped onto its head.

The boar demon was still charging forward wildly. Wu Pifu planted both feet on its protruding snout, grabbed its tusks with both hands, and wrenched upward with all his strength. With a shriek from the boar demon, he forcibly snapped off both tusks. Without pausing, he spun around while holding them and plunged them straight into the boar demon's eyes. Each tusk sank in by at least a third of its length.

After doing all that, Wu Pifu kicked off with both feet and flipped through the air. Just as he landed, the boar demon crashed into the thick metal wall of the factory under its own momentum, denting the wall inward. At the same time, the two tusks pierced out through the back of its head. The boar demon twitched where it was embedded in the metal wall for more than ten seconds before finally falling still.

Within Wu Pifu's mind, the Sleepless Spirit-Sense shone brilliantly as it began suppressing and absorbing the surging negative emotions. Then, as though it had reached some critical point, the Sleepless Spirit-Sense suddenly expanded tenfold. The negative emotions, which had previously required great effort to suppress, immediately receded like a tide. In less than ten seconds, Wu Pifu finally shook off the effects of his demonic state completely.

But that was only the retreat of the demonic state on the level of mind and consciousness. Its effects still remained in his body.

Excruciating pain throughout his muscles, dizziness from his overheated brain, internal damage caused by the overexertion of his heart and lungs, and distorted senses brought on by excessive hormone secretion in such a short period...

Based on Wu Pifu's movements and mental activity just now, it should have taken at least a month, perhaps even several months, of physical exertion, brain activity, and hormone secretion. Yet he had compressed it all into those few seconds. If not for his second-stage body, along with the improvement to his physical fitness and control over his body's qi and blood brought by mastering hidden force, an ordinary person might have died on the spot.

Wu Pifu crouched there in pain, his vision repeatedly going dark. Yet he was still comparing the difference between this controllable demonic state and the passive demonic state from the previous dream world.

Without question, the controllable demonic state was more powerful. Though the combat strength displayed by an uncontrollable demonic state was more exaggerated, that mindless head-on clash meant completely losing the use of humanity's strongest organ... the brain!

In a controllable demonic state, his brain could operate at more than a hundred times its normal efficiency. If he had merely fought head-on, even the outcome between him and the boar demon would still have been uncertain...

(It's a shame I can't manifest the personal information interface here. Otherwise, I could find out the exact figures for the demonic state and the negative mental backlash rate. That would let me better control and develop this controllable demonic state.)

Wu Pifu endured the pain as he silently pondered. At that moment, Jiujiu hurried over to his side and anxiously said something, but she did not dare touch him, looking completely helpless.

Wu Pifu remained crouched for at least two or three minutes before slowly standing up. Red-and-white steam rose from all over his body, and beads of blood seeped from the surface of his skin. He looked terrifying, but he knew that his injuries from this battle were not actually serious. He had also basically endured the backlash from entering his demonic state. It would not affect the battles ahead, which was quite good.

"...Idiot, are you okay!?" Jiujiu chattered anxiously.

Only then did Wu Pifu hear her. The sensory confusion caused by the excessive hormones in his body gradually subsided, and he shook his head. "I'm fine... But why did you turn into a human?"

Jiujiu circled Wu Pifu twice more, carefully inspecting his condition and injuries. Only then did she let out a breath of relief. Then, in a crisp voice that seemed to come with its own chirpy background music, she said proudly, "Because I have fairy blood! My great-great-great-great-grandfather was a lark demon. Though my cultivation is very shallow, I'm not an ordinary bird. I'm an intelligent creature, just like you humans."

Wu Pifu thought for a moment, then asked with both confusion and sincerity, "Then shouldn't you turn into a bird-man? Why did you turn into a human?"

Jiujiu flew into a rage. She jumped up and rammed her head into Wu Pifu's nose, then opened her mouth and bit into the muscles of his arm, dangling from it with her whole body.

Wu Pifu was helpless.

He did not know why Jiujiu was always so easily worked up. She had been the same way when they were choosing names, and she was the same now. Could fairies and demons really be so easily offended and angered?

But at that moment, a faint light appeared at the corner of Wu Pifu's eye. He immediately turned toward the boar demon's corpse. The light was emerging from its body.

It was here!

The end-of-"Week" harvest!

The "Week" was different from the dream worlds. This place was more like a virtual dream, while the dream worlds were more like other realms. That was because dying in the "Week" did not mean truly dying. It merely triggered loss of self. At the same time, no matter how severely one was injured during the "Week," once it ended and one returned to reality, all injuries, corruption, mutations, and loss of self would vanish—as long as one had not crossed the critical threshold.

But it was possible to obtain items from the "Week"!

The Main Brain would mark high-value objects near you with light. The more valuable the item, the brighter the light. Once acquired, if it was in contact with your body when the "Week" ended, it could be brought back into reality. According to the seniors, items obtained from the "Week" were often extremely powerful, either possessing special effects or being treasures of heaven and earth!

At the same time, the higher one's status within the Main Brain, the more sensitive the markings would be. According to the seniors, among the maintenance teams in other regions, someone had been promoted to a level-three maintenance worker. During the "Week," he even possessed a built-in mini-map that could produce effects similar to radar, mapping terrain and classifying danger.

That was why Wu Pifu had used his promotion reward before the "Week" began to raise his status to a level-two maintenance worker.

Wu Pifu carried Jiujiu in one hand as he walked toward the boar demon's corpse. He dragged it out of the wall and dug at the spot on its forehead where the light was strongest. A crystal the size of a pinky finger appeared in his hand.

"A demon core!" Jiujiu cried out. Her mouth fell open, and she dropped to the ground.

But she did not care about the pain in her butt. She immediately sprang up again, trying to grab the crystal.

Wu Pifu raised his hand higher, avoiding Jiujiu's grab before asking, "What does it do?"

Jiujiu's eyes gleamed as she hurriedly said, "Give it to me, give it to me! Only demons can use this. I can absorb the demon qi inside and improve my cultivation! Humans can't use it, or they'll be corrupted. There's a certain chance they'll become half-demons, but they're more likely to turn into uncontrollable monsters!"

Wu Pifu considered it. "I can give it to you, but only after we return and the Main Brain confirms that it's safe."

Jiujiu immediately pouted, but she did not continue trying to snatch it.

Only then did Wu Pifu look at the boar demon again. Though he had removed the demon core, light still remained on its body. It was very faint, and it covered the demon from head to toe.

"Flesh and blood?" Wu Pifu pondered slightly, then asked Jiujiu, "Can this boar demon be eaten?"

Jiujiu chirped, "Of course it can! This is a great demon with at least fifty years of cultivation. It's a great tonic for humans, and demons can also gain a small amount of demon qi and cultivation by eating it."

Then this counted as a "Week" item too.

Wu Pifu nodded and inspected the boar demon's corpse from top to bottom, considering which parts would be best to cut off and take with him.

But just then, an enormous boom erupted from an extremely distant place, as though the heavens and earth were collapsing. Wu Pifu and Jiujiu both fell to the ground at once. The entire factory shook violently. Before either of them could react, intense light flashed through the high windows at the edge of the factory, accompanied by a continuous series of explosions.

"High-level maintenance workers from another region!? Experienced seniors!? Or could it be..."

"The recipient has arrived?"

Wu Pifu looked at the dazzling light streaming through the windows, his expression gradually darkening.

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