The strange-looking fruit before him was one of the newly listed products in the system shop. Its attributes read:
[Name: Flame-Flame Fruit] [Effect: Grants the eater the ability to create flames and transform their body into an elemental form.] [Price: 100,000 Villain Points]
In Nalan Sheng's previous life, the Flame-Flame Fruit had been jokingly called "the fruit even dogs wouldn't eat," but there was no denying that it was an exceptionally powerful Logia fruit.
In the original story, Ace's Flame-Flame Fruit had been countered by Akainu's Magma-Magma Fruit. That only meant he hadn't known how to develop its abilities, not that the Flame-Flame Fruit was inferior to the Magma-Magma Fruit.
After all, magma's temperature had a limit, while the temperature of flames was limitless.
Moreover, the Dou Qi Continent had plenty of powerful beast flames and heavenly flames. Nalan Sheng only needed to use the Flame-Flame Fruit's abilities to analyze their composition in detail, and he could create identical flames himself.
In Nalan Sheng's hands, the Flame-Flame Fruit would therefore certainly unleash power far beyond what it had shown in the original story.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch..."
Having made up his mind, Nalan Sheng didn't hesitate. Fighting down his revulsion, he polished off the entire Flame-Flame Fruit in no time.
Boom!!!
The instant Nalan Sheng finished eating the Flame-Flame Fruit, orange-yellow flames erupted from his body, turning him into a human torch.
Wrapped in flames, Nalan Sheng felt no discomfort whatsoever. Instead, he felt like a fish in water.
After briefly familiarizing himself with the Flame-Flame Fruit's abilities, Nalan Sheng slowly raised his right hand and condensed a fist-sized orange-yellow fireball in his palm.
Bang!!!
Nalan Sheng flicked his right hand, sending the fireball hurtling out. It exploded against the solid stone wall, blasting a washbasin-sized crater into it.
Nalan Sheng nodded in satisfaction, then raised his left hand and condensed another fist-sized fireball.
This time, however, he didn't rush to throw it. Instead, he made the fireball spin and compress in his palm.
"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..."
Under Nalan Sheng's control, the rapidly spinning fireball shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye, finally becoming a crimson fireball the size of his thumb.
"Go!"
With a low shout, Nalan Sheng flicked his hand again, flinging the fireball away.
"Pfft!"
The instant the fireball struck the rock wall, it didn't explode. Instead, it pierced straight through the surface and burrowed inside.
Boom!!!
A thunderous blast soon sounded from within the wall, blowing out a crater roughly three meters across and more than half a meter deep.
"Hahahaha..."
Looking at the masterpiece he had created so effortlessly, Nalan Sheng couldn't help throwing back his head and laughing.
Judging by the compressed fireball's power, even a Da Dou Shi struck head-on would probably lose all ability to resist in an instant and sleep like a baby.
What delighted Nalan Sheng most was that using the Flame-Flame Fruit's abilities didn't consume the Dou Qi in his body. It consumed his stamina instead.
That meant he could use the Flame-Flame Fruit's abilities indefinitely, as long as his stamina could keep up.
The pills sold on the market that restored stamina were far cheaper than those that restored Dou Qi.
Only after quite a while did Nalan Sheng calm his excitement. Then he turned his attention back to the stone boxes before him.
"Go open the stone boxes."
At Nalan Sheng's command, three Shadow Ninjas immediately stepped forward with the keys and opened all the locked stone boxes.
All three stone boxes contained scrolls, differing only in color.
One scroll was multicolored, while the other two were black and cyan.
Nalan Sheng first picked up the multicolored scroll and examined it.
The multicolored scroll recorded recipes for numerous poisons, along with a brief introduction to the woeful poison body. It was a poison manual called the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture.
Since Nalan Sheng had little interest in concocting poisons, he merely skimmed through the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture before putting it into his Storage Ring.
To Nalan Sheng's slight disappointment, no system notification sounded in his ears.
Still, he had already expected this. In the original story, Xiao Yan hadn't taken the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture, but had let Xiao Yi Xian have it instead.
Xiao Yi Xian had only been a supporting female character in the original story. Naturally, snatching her opportunity couldn't earn Nalan Sheng any Villain Points.
Nalan Sheng shook his head regretfully, then picked up the cyan scroll to examine it.
The cyan scroll contained a high-grade Xuan-rank Dou Technique called Mad Lion's Roar.
This Dou Technique possessed considerable power, allowing its user to condense their Dou Qi into a lion-shaped energy construct to attack others.
Unfortunately, Mad Lion's Roar was a wind-attribute Dou Technique, making it rather like chicken ribs to Nalan Sheng, who primarily cultivated a lightning-attribute method-little meat to enjoy, yet a shame to discard. He could, however, save it for Nalan Yanran to practice.
According to the original plot, Xiao Yan hadn't obtained this Dou Technique either. Members of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group had snatched it away midway.
Thus, when Nalan Sheng put Mad Lion's Roar into his Storage Ring, he naturally earned no Villain Points from it either.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
Just as Nalan Sheng was about to pick up the last scroll to examine it, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the stone chamber, followed by several figures entering.
At their head was a middle-aged man in leather armor with a gloomy expression. Judging by the badge on his chest, he was a Two-Star Dou Shi.
"Commander, that's him!"
Upon spotting the frowning Nalan Sheng, a young mercenary following behind the middle-aged man hurriedly called out, "He's that fat sheep!"
Hearing this, the middle-aged man withdrew his gaze from the treasures and medicinal herbs in the chamber. His face darkened as he stared at Nalan Sheng. "Brat, were you the one who killed my son?"
"You people really are annoying."
Nalan Sheng ignored Mu She's question and said irritably, "You've completely ruined this young master's treasure-hunting mood, so you might as well die!"
Under the disbelieving gazes of Mu She and his men, Nalan Sheng's arms suddenly transformed into two masses of flame.
"Fire Fist!!!"
With Nalan Sheng's thunderous shout, two pillars of fire, each roughly three meters in diameter, erupted from his arms and swept toward Mu She and the others.
"This is bad!"
Mu She's pupils abruptly contracted. Instinctively, he mobilized the Dou Qi within his body, condensing a thin cyan veil over his skin.
Before Mu She could even breathe a sigh of relief, the two pillars of fire completely engulfed him and the mercenaries behind him.
"Aaaah..."
The mercenaries, whose cultivation was only at the Dou Zhe level, barely had time to scream before they were all burned into charred corpses.
"No-!"
Mu She let out a defiant roar, watching helplessly as the raging flames melted his Dou Qi Veil. In the end, he too became a charred corpse.
Before you continue