Trait Enhancement

Jiang Jingnian's greatest trump card for offense was not his fistwork or legwork, but the innate trait of [Psychic Whip].

The reason he had been able to kill Huo Qi with a single slash in their earlier battle was because he had relied on this skill for a sneak attack. Its conditions for use were also simple: as long as he faced the enemy directly, this move was essentially guaranteed to hit.

Axu had only just parted her red lips slightly and exhaled sweet-smelling smoke when, before she could make her next move, the other party's eye sockets suddenly turned into pitch-black whirlpools, and a sharp pain exploded in her brain.

It was as though a hammer had smashed viciously into the back of her head.

The kind of agony that ignored the skull and struck straight into the brain.

Her entire body went blank. The groin kick she had been swinging downward froze in midair before dropping limply.

This caused Axu to lose her balance, and she toppled backward straight into the mud.

Seeing the stiff expression on the beauty before him, Jiang Jingnian felt not the slightest urge to cherish jade or pity flowers. He threw punch after punch at her abdomen, ruthlessly pinning her to the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The spot he struck was soft, but he showed no mercy in his punches. Instead, each blow grew heavier than the last.

Because Jiang Jingnian knew that he had already been poisoned. His surging blood and qi felt suppressed, so he had to end this battle quickly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Heavy punch!

Heavy punch!

Heavy punch!

Even as he felt his blood and qi ebbing away and his consciousness beginning to blur, Jiang Jingnian still gritted his teeth and maintained his sanity, putting as much force as possible into every punch.

Mud splattered everywhere. Axu's abdomen was beaten nearly flat into an irregular plane, and amid the searing pain, she snapped out of the earlier Psychic Whip.

"...Cough, cough... You bastard!"

Lying on the ground, Axu looked up at the half-grown boy pounding away as though hammering rice cakes, cursing weakly.

What secret technique had he used just now?

It had actually made her lose consciousness for a moment.

Why had this happened?

A mere mud-legged peasant...

Her cool, delicate face twisted into indescribable savagery as she tried to struggle and use the concealed weapon in her sleeve.

It had to be said that a Marrow Tempering Martial Master possessed astonishing vitality. Even with her internal organs nearly smashed to pulp, she still had not died.

However.

"This still didn't kill you?"

Jiang Jingnian's gaze flashed. Looking at her slightly raised head, he drove his thick, heavy fist straight down.

Her skull was rather hard.

The impact made his knuckles throb with pain.

Even so, he did not stop in the slightest.

All Axu saw was the fist rapidly enlarging before her eyes. Her partially raised arm stiffened, and facing such a life-or-death crisis, she could only desperately spew out more of that sweet-smelling smoke.

Jiang Jingnian had already been affected by the fragrance earlier; he had merely endured the discomfort while "pounding rice cakes."

But now, this sweet and strange smoke even seeped through his pores and into his skin, making his entire mind grow dizzy.

Bang!

One punch smashed her pure, beautiful face into the mud.

Her eye sockets shifted out of place, and blood gushed from her nose.

Looking at the woman before him, whose bones had twisted into grotesque shapes, an inexplicable emotion rose in his heart.

Although his limbs had begun to weaken.

Jiang Jingnian still did not dare stop for even a moment.

One hand hammered her long, fair neck while the other viciously battered her face.

The hardness of a Marrow Tempering Martial Master's bones and the strength of her life force were enough to make one's hair stand on end.

Even Jiang Jingnian's fists had begun to split and bleed. Blood pulp and scraps of skin filled his knuckles and the gaps between his fingers; he did not know whether they belonged to her or to himself.

"Stop..."

"You... have been poisoned by me... Only I... I can cure it..."

Axu's features had been battered out of shape, and she no longer retained even a trace of her former beauty.

Her voice was no longer cold and detached, but blurred and weak, as thin as a gossamer thread, carrying utter exhaustion and decay.

"I know."

After the two had exchanged blows, this was the first time Jiang Jingnian responded to Axu.

And also the last.

His voice trembled, and his limbs were weak, but his deep eyes seemed to shine.

Poisoned for a second time, Jiang Jingnian's punches fell slower and slower, with less and less strength behind them.

Until Jiang Jingnian could no longer endure it and braced both hands against the ground.

All that remained beside him.

Was a mangled remnant of a corpse, flesh pulp splattered everywhere.

Jiang Jingnian then dropped onto the blood-red mud, gulping in ragged breaths as he felt his entire body wrapped in a light, soft haze.

Everything before his eyes began to blur, as though an illusory sea of pink flowers were rushing toward him.

But at that instant, his gaze suddenly flickered.

A line of text appeared before his eyes.

[Lotus Smoke: Refined from numerous medicinal ingredients and Gu insects such as Passion Insect, Centipede Flower Gu, and Lin Xianzi, then mixed with a trace of lotus traits. It possesses the effects of stirring desire, clouding the mind, and dispersing blood and qi. It can be devoured and fused into a trait entry.]

When the smoke had not yet been so dense earlier.

This translucent text panel had not appeared.

Now that it had grown dense enough for Jiang Jingnian to be on the verge of falling into an illusion, it had actually been classified as a special item.

Jiang Jingnian took a fierce breath of the sweet smoke around him, then his gaze flashed as he refined it in an instant.

After the bluish smoke was completely devoured by [Taotie], his consciousness gradually cleared, and the pink sea of flowers pervading his surroundings faded away.

The scene before him returned to the muddy ground beside the dirt road.

On his own status panel, [Psychic Whip (Incomplete)], which had originally appeared blackish gray, instantly shook and unlocked, transforming into a pale blue glow.

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Jingnian's consciousness touched that trait entry.

The symbols and text of [Psychic Whip (Incomplete)] twisted and reassembled, then pieced themselves together into a brand-new string of symbols.

[Psychic Whip (Dream): Three times per day, it can wield invisible psychic power to whip a target's mind, adding traits such as dream illusions and bewitching desire. The specific effect depends on the caster's mental will.]

"The previous effect depended on the gap between both sides' mental will. Now that it has advanced into a complete version, it only depends on my own mental will?"

Jiang Jingnian stared at the text above, deep in thought.

The difference in willpower between both parties was easy to understand.

It meant that someone whose mental will was close to his own could be affected and fall into a stunned, rigid state for several seconds or even over ten seconds.

For instance, that gorgeous woman just now had only been affected for seven or eight seconds before recovering.

As for those with powerful wills, they might regain consciousness quickly even after being hit, or perhaps remain completely unaffected.

By comparison, the description of this complete trait meant that the stronger Jiang Jingnian's will was, the stronger the effect he could produce?

And it even came with two additional traits.

"In other words, in a one-on-one fight, as long as I can break their defenses with my fists, feet, or weapons, I should be able to defeat or even kill them."

Jiang Jingnian pondered inwardly.

Experts of the Inner Qi Realm.

He was not sure whether he could break their defenses.

But at the very least, Martial Masters from the Blood Tempering Stage to the Bone Tempering Stage should no longer be his opponents.

He could be considered invincible within his stage.

"Still, this trump card is not omnipotent."

"If there are many enemies—for example, several Bone Tempering Stage and Marrow Tempering Stage Martial Masters attacking me at once—Psychic Whip may hit one or two of them, but the others could restrain me. Then I might be powerless to do anything."

Before considering advantages, he considered drawbacks. With a turn of thought, Jiang Jingnian considered some of this trump card's weaknesses and flaws, and the swelling confidence in his heart gradually settled back down.