The Shang Family's Young Lady and Crimson Baleful Transformation!

It was an extravagantly luxurious carriage, gilded all over and inlaid with jade. Silk drapes covered its cabin, copper skin wrapped its wheels, and though it rolled across the muddy road, it barely picked up any filth. More than a dozen guards surrounded it front and back.

At that moment, a lustrous jade hairpin gently lifted one corner of the window curtain, revealing the breathtaking face of a woman veiled in gauze.

One glance was enough to make it impossible to look away.

Beautiful!

Too beautiful!

Especially those eyes. Their pupils were deep and shadowy, and as her gaze shifted, they carried a soul-snaring power.

Zhou Chen had only met her eyes unconsciously for an instant. At first, he merely thought her beautiful, but then his mind buzzed. For one moment, he was dazed, as if he no longer knew anything at all.

Then the Divine Statue in his mind suddenly lit up, as though it had let out a cold snort!

Only then did Zhou Chen come to his senses. He fiercely bit the tip of his tongue and hurriedly shifted his gaze away, cold sweat instantly seeping across his back.

In that brief instant of eye contact, he had clearly sensed the aura emanating from her. That pressure was several times heavier than even Master Zheng's, unfathomably deep.

Even stranger, the woman carried an aura entirely different from the surrounding Black Mist—an extraordinarily eerie one.

Yet the woman merely gave him a flat glance before withdrawing the jade hairpin. The curtain fell.

The carriage rumbled away, crushing through the mud-filled streets and over the lowered gazes of countless Outer City residents as it headed toward the Inner City.

Zhou Chen stood where he was, covered in mud. He watched the carriage vanish around the street corner, then lowered his head to look at the Outer City commoners beside him, huddling their shoulders beneath shabby gray clothes.

In this cannibalistic world, some sat in carriages paved with gold and jade, looking upon all living beings as ants through gauze curtains; others stood ankle-deep in mud, without even the right to dodge. One step too slow, and they became a wronged soul beneath a horse's hooves.

It filled his heart with an indescribable sense of absurdity.

This cannibalistic world!

Zhou Chen withdrew his gaze, frowning tightly. He suddenly realized that Azure City's people had entered the Inner City so openly; they must have already settled the terms with Black City's lords.

He was no fool, and he had caught the deeper meaning behind it. It seemed the Heaven-Breaking Sect had truly placed tremendous pressure on Black City!

Now that Azure City's new force had joined them, he recalled the rumors spreading through Black City lately—that the Heaven-Breaking Sect was preparing to attack Black City as well!

There was no need to think too hard about it. This world was surely about to descend into chaos!

Strength!

He needed to raise his strength as quickly as possible!

Only with sufficient strength would he have the right to survive in these troubled times!

With that thought, Zhou Chen took a deep breath, wiped the mud from his face, turned, and strode away.

Meanwhile, inside that luxurious carriage, an incomparable beauty in a purple gauze dress reclined halfway against the silk-covered seat. The curtain had fallen again, sealing out everything beyond the carriage.

She curled a strand of hair around her fingertip, then suddenly extended her tongue and lightly licked her lips. Muttering to herself, she said, "There wasn't even the slightest trace of 'ruins' on him, and he was able to quickly break free from my technique's influence... Someone from an Inner City aristocratic family? No. Why would those livestock raised in captivity in the Inner City care whether these lowly commoners lived or died?"

She lazily tapped the carriage window with her jade-white knuckles. A deep voice immediately answered from the front, "Miss."

"I said before we came that once we reached Black City, we were to act cautiously and keep a low profile." Her voice was soft as spring water and sweet enough to melt one's bones, but her words were exceptionally cold. "Kill those who rode their fast horses into the civilians just now."

"Yes." The voice outside the window did not hesitate in the slightest.

The carriage continued onward steadily. Its wheels crushed through the mud, leaving behind deep ruts.

The woman murmured inside the carriage, "This cultivation world from a thousand years ago still feels more comfortable and reassuring. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have truly thought everything written in the books was false. Even these streets are so quaint and antique."

Upon reaching Warehouse Number Two, Zhou Chen first returned to his quarters to wash up and change into dry clothes. He then instructed the servants not to disturb him that afternoon before closing his door and carefully retrieving the iron box from deep beneath his bed.

According to the book, flesh reishi was harmless when eaten raw and harmless when cooked. What one had to avoid most was eating it half-cooked, which would ruin its medicinal effects and turn its immense medicinal power into a deadly poison.

"Who knows what counts as cooked if I boil it? Better just eat it raw."

He no longer hesitated. Taking the flesh reishi from the iron box, he bit into it.

Crunch.

The instant the juice burst across his tongue, Zhou Chen froze for a moment!

Fresh—so incredibly fresh!

It was an indescribable deliciousness, as though the essence of an entire mountain forest had been condensed into that single bite. He could barely bear to swallow it.

In just a few bites, he swallowed the fist-sized flesh reishi whole. When he was done, he smacked his lips, still wanting more.

But before he could savor the taste—

Boom!

Zhou Chen felt as though a furnace had appeared in his abdomen. Scalding heat surged and poured backward through his limbs and bones, while the medicinal power burst forth like a river whose dike had collapsed, rushing wildly into every meridian.

His entire body instantly turned red. His skin was hot as branding iron, and the sweat that emerged was immediately evaporated, turning into thin wisps of white vapor that rose from his head.

The endless medicinal power continued spreading through every inch of his skin. In that instant, Zhou Chen felt as if a million steel needles were madly stabbing into his flesh. A wave of agonizing pain struck, and his vision went black!

"Such... such terrifying medicinal power..."

This flesh reishi truly deserved to be called a great medicine worth a thousand taels. Zhou Chen took a deep breath and dared not delay for even half a moment. He abruptly spread his legs into a horse stance, slowly pressed his hands down before him, and instantly assumed the posture of the Coiling Python Stance Technique.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, using the technique as a guide to gradually rein in and tame the immense medicinal power rampaging through him, like controlling a frenzied wild stallion.

The immense medicinal power was like a wild stallion, while the technique was its handler. Without a capable handler, no one could control such a fierce horse!

Zhou Chen felt his skin continuously stretching beneath the nourishment of the medicinal power!

It felt as though he had become a tightly drawn longbow, yet was still being stretched again and again to its limit. The sensation made him deeply uncomfortable.

But what excited him was that as he continuously circulated the Stake-Standing Exercise, the bronze hue of his skin actually began transforming toward gold!

About two hours later, Zhou Chen felt the immense medicinal power within him recede. He let out a long breath, withdrew his stance, and looked at his body.

His skin, which had originally turned bronze whenever he exerted his technique at full force, had now become a pale gold. Its toughness had improved by an unknown amount!

He brought his fists together, producing the sound of metal striking metal.

Once Golden Skin was achieved, it would become incomparably tough. Even ordinary sharp weapons would struggle to wound it!

Most of all, his strength had surged once more!

For a moment, Zhou Chen was in excellent spirits. With his current strength, even if he faced Du Ruming head-on, he could kill him with a single punch!

[Realm: First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm (Minor Accomplishment) 368/2000)]

Zhou Chen had been diligently training his fist techniques all this time. He had not expected that after absorbing a single flesh reishi, his realm would soar by such a great amount in merely two hours. It truly deserved to be called a top-grade great medicine!

"If only I could have enough of this great medicine every day."

Zhou Chen could not help fantasizing for a moment, but then he gave a mute laugh. This flesh reishi was extremely valuable; even the descendants of Inner City aristocratic families likely did not receive such treatment.

He got up and happily took a hot bath.

After resting for a while, Zhou Chen sank his consciousness deep into his mind and fixed his gaze upon that newly lit segment of blood incense.

Now that he had some free time, it was time to find out what this thing could truly do.

With a thought, he lit the blood incense!

As the blood incense burned, it emitted red smoke. Once the Divine Statue absorbed it, the statue abruptly began shining with red light, and its originally solemn, majestic expression suddenly became savage and violent.

A familiar voice rang out: [Offer the body as sacrifice, draw with blood, steal fragments of another's soul, and exchange them for Crimson Baleful descent. For every inch the incense burns, the gates of hell open for one quarter-hour!]

Rumble!

The instant the words fell, it was as though something glanced at him. Then a violent force of Blood Vitality surged into his limbs and bones like a flood bursting through a breached dike. Zhou Chen felt the skin all over his body tighten, as if something were about to explode from his pores!

His muscles suddenly swelled and bulged. Veins writhed beneath his skin like snakes and insects, while his body grew a full foot taller amid a series of cracking bone sounds. His clothes instantly tore apart as well!

Bloodshot veins flooded his eyes, and even his hair seemed to be driven by some force to grow madly, falling all the way to his waist!

At that moment, Zhou Chen looked like a vicious ghost that had just crawled out of the abyss!

"What is this?"

He lowered his head and looked at his hands. His five fingers were thick as forged iron, and when his knuckles curled slightly, he squeezed a dull boom from the air in his palm.

His body flashed, and his speed nearly doubled. He appeared before the wooden training dummy in the courtyard almost as though he had teleported. Drawing his right fist back to its limit, he let out a low shout and smashed it forward!

Where the fist wind passed, the air was compressed to its utmost limit!

Then his casserole-sized fist struck the wooden dummy squarely. The entire post exploded with a bang, splintered wood flying everywhere.

Zhou Chen withdrew his fist and stood still, his pupils shrinking slightly.

"Strength, speed, defense... all more than doubled! The explosive force of that punch is already comparable to the full-force strike of a first-rank Major Accomplishment Martial Warrior!"

With another thought, he extinguished the blood incense. According to the Divine Statue's intent, an inch of blood incense could burn for one quarter-hour—fifteen minutes. The outcome of a battle was often decided in an instant, and fifteen minutes would be more than enough for him.

As the blood incense went out, Zhou Chen felt that swollen power within him recede like the tide. His body swiftly returned to normal, and his hair shrank back to its original length.

He stood there without showing the slightest sign of exhaustion or weakness.

As far as he knew, every secret technique that stimulated one's potential came with enormous aftereffects. At best, it would drain one's Blood Vitality; at worst, it would shorten one's lifespan.

Yet after that strike just now, he did not feel even the slightest discomfort.

Zhou Chen lowered his head to look at his fist and grinned.

This thing was enough to become his true trump card!

Based on the Divine Statue's words, Zhou Chen considered it for a moment and temporarily named it [Crimson Baleful Transformation]!

At the same time, he vaguely sensed that as his realm improved, he would be able to unlock more abilities of Crimson Baleful Transformation in the future. That was something to look forward to!

Zhou Chen then changed into fresh clothes and, without pausing for even a moment, continued practicing the Stake-Standing Exercise in hopes of pushing his own Blood Vitality to Major Accomplishment as soon as possible.

The courtyard guards passing outside heard Zhou Chen training within and could not help sighing repeatedly. "Lord Zhou is truly diligent! He trains bitterly every day. I've never seen him slack off!"

"Exactly. Back when I was at the martial arts school, I had that much drive at first too. But after less than a week, I started slacking. Later, once I learned to enjoy myself, I couldn't even summon the will to strive anymore!"

"Ah, our aptitude is limited. Getting married, having children, and enjoying family happiness may not necessarily be the wrong choice!"

"But..."

The younger courtyard guard looked longingly at the courtyard gate, seeming to want to say more, but the somewhat older guard beside him was already urging him, "Enough. Stop talking and hurry up."

Diligent Martial Warriors were always worthy of respect. They accomplished what others could not, so the courtyard guards lightened their footsteps and tried their best not to disturb Zhou Chen.