Hair Again?

Zhou Yang crouched beside a wrecked car, his face exhausted as he dug a Crystal Core out of a zombie's skull.

He had just wiped the Crystal Core clean when his palm suddenly felt empty.

The next second, a tuft of black hair fell into his hand.

Zhou Yang froze completely.

"Hair again?"

"Which bastard is trading hair for my stuff again?!"

Fang Xu nearly laughed out loud at the sight.

When the image faded, a grayish-white Crystal Core appeared on the table.

[Obtained: First-Order Zombie Crystal Core.]

[Hint: Can be directly absorbed to enhance physique and mental strength.]

[Hint: Contamination risk has been removed.]

Fang Xu absorbed it on the spot.

The Crystal Core turned into a stream of icy energy that first rushed into his body, then surged into his mind.

The improvement was not dramatic.

His physique only rose by a small amount, and his mental strength merely became a little clearer.

But the significance of this thing did not lie in its one-time effect. It lay in the pattern.

Twice.

Twice, he had used Obito's hair for exchanges, and both times, they had connected to Zhou Yang's apocalypse world.

The first time, he had traded away the Attribute Panel from Zhou Yang's system.

The second time, he had obtained a Zombie Crystal Core.

Fang Xu sat at the table, lightly tapping the tabletop with his fingers.

"Items from the same series have a higher chance of exchanging for things from the corresponding world."

"Obito's hair has already established a connection with Zhou Yang's side."

"If I use something from the same source again, it will probably keep connecting there."

This pattern was far too important.

Something like the Chakra Refinement Technique had broad value and could connect to different worlds.

But Obito's hair was different.

The first time, the Apocalypse World Will had used it to screw Zhou Yang over.

Using it again afterward was equivalent to continuing to drill into that crack.

Thinking of Zhou Yang's devastated expression, Fang Xu became more and more convinced.

The Apocalypse World Will most likely really did hate Zhou Yang.

A system-wielding transmigrator was an invasive bloodsucker to that world.

And his Exchange Talent had just happened to give the World Will a channel to make its move.

Fang Xu sent over a tuft of hair.

The World Will casually pried Zhou Yang's belongings loose and sent them back.

Zhou Yang took a massive loss, while Fang Xu made a killing.

This deal was just too good.

"I need to collect more of Obito's hair in the future."

Fang Xu rubbed his chin.

"If I get the chance, blood would be even better."

"Hair can trade for panels and Crystal Cores. Blood must be worth even more."

"We can't waste Zhou Yang, this cash cow."

Far away, in a secluded courtyard within the Uchiha clan compound, Obito had just thrown a shuriken wide when he suddenly shuddered all over.

He instinctively covered the top of his head and looked around.

There was clearly no wind, yet his scalp felt cold, as though someone were standing behind him with a pair of scissors.

Obito swallowed, a powerful sense of foreboding rising in his heart.

When the eighth exchange cooldown ended, Fang Xu did not touch the original scrolls left behind by his parents again.

There were only so many of those things, and they were too valuable to waste casually.

Instead, he took out a copied version he had organized himself.

Lightning Body-Tempering Technique.

This scroll recorded some of the ideas he had developed recently regarding the Thunder Body Tempering Technique.

Thunder Breathing was responsible for the breathing rhythm.

Lightning-nature chakra was responsible for stabilizing the meridians.

The genuine lightning of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was responsible for tempering the flesh.

Though it was merely a simplified version, it was already astonishing by the standards of most worlds.

Fang Xu pressed his palm against the scroll and silently recited in his heart.

"Exchange."

The scroll vanished without a sound.

After the familiar pulling sensation, an image appeared before his eyes.

Inside a shabby courtyard, a tall man stood bare-chested, the veins in his arms bulging and his body covered in traces left by years of grueling external martial training.

Yan Zhendong.

He had originally been holding a yellowed martial arts manual, with a medicinal bath prescription beside him.

The next instant, both the manual and the prescription vanished.

A scroll bearing the words "Lightning Body-Tempering Technique" fell into his palm.

Yan Zhendong froze for a moment before abruptly unrolling the scroll.

"Tempering the body with lightning?"

"Using thunder to temper the bones and stimulate the flesh?"

The more he read, the more excited his expression became.

But before long, his brows furrowed.

Chakra?

Lightning nature?

The Rumble-Rumble Fruit?

He had none of these things.

Yan Zhendong gripped the scroll, his expression shifting constantly.

Fang Xu's mouth twitched as he watched.

"As expected, he can't use this anytime soon."

The image faded.

A copy of the Iron Cloth Shirt technique and a matching medicinal bath prescription appeared on the table.

Fang Xu opened them and read through them once.

The Iron Cloth Shirt focused on externally training the sinews, bones, and skin while internally strengthening one's vital breath.

Striking, weight-bearing, breathing, medicinal baths—step by step, it hardened the flesh, skin, and bones.

This path was crude, but practical.

That medicinal bath prescription in particular was very useful to him.

The weak point of the Thunder Body Tempering Technique was that its tempering was too intense, placing immense strain on the body's recovery.

If he extracted the principles of promoting blood circulation, dispersing bruising, and strengthening sinews and bones from the Iron Cloth Shirt medicinal bath, then combined them with medicinal meals produced by the Gourmet Tablecloth, he could further improve the efficiency of body tempering.

"Not bad."

Fang Xu closed the manual, but still sighed.

"But it's still a bit of a loss."

The core of his Lightning Body-Tempering Technique could not be separated from the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and lightning-nature chakra.

Yan Zhendong had neither a chakra system nor any true lightning abilities. At most, he could draw on the breathing and exertion principles within it.

It was basically impossible for him to master it in the short term.

Meanwhile, the Iron Cloth Shirt Fang Xu had received could fill out his external martial training system, but it could only be considered supplementary.

"Forget it."

"At least the medicinal bath prescription is usable, and the external training concepts can be incorporated as well."

Fang Xu put away the manual and prescription.

Whether it was a loss or not could not be judged solely by what was in front of him.

As long as it could make the Thunder Body Tempering Technique more stable, the exchange had not been wasted.

Another week passed, and the ninth exchange cooldown ended.

This time, Fang Xu changed his approach.

He had tried scrolls, chakra, and hair.

He wanted to try a living creature.

For this exchange, he had specifically obtained a live wild boar.

Its limbs were tied with rope, its mouth was sealed shut, and it lay in the corner of the courtyard, struggling constantly.

Fang Xu reached out and pressed a hand onto the wild boar.

"Exchange."

The wild boar vanished instantly.

The scene unfolded before him.

In a brightly sunlit meadow, all kinds of Pokémon gathered around fruit trees.

A boy with a backpack crouched on the ground, holding a bag of Berry Seeds as though he were preparing to plant them.

The next second, a live wild boar abruptly crashed onto the grass.

"Snort!"

After landing, the wild boar desperately rooted about in every direction.

The surrounding Pokémon were so frightened that they scattered and leaped away.

The boy was dumbfounded as well.

"What kind of Pokémon is this?"

He hurriedly took out his Pokédex and scanned the wild boar.

The Pokédex gave no response at all.

A girl beside him also leaned over, her face full of shock.

"The Pokédex can't identify it?"

"Could it not be a Pokémon?"

The bag of Berry Seeds vanished from the boy's hand.

In its place was an ordinary wild boar, real and frantically rooting around.

The image faded there.

A bag of seeds appeared on Fang Xu's table.

The bag was not large, but it contained Berry Seeds of different colors and sizes.

Fang Xu lifted it and examined it, feeling somewhat regretful.

"No Pokémon."

"No special abilities like aura or psychic powers either."

"I only got a bag of Berry Seeds."

It would have been a lie to say he was not disappointed.