In the Void God Realm, in a secluded spot within the starting ground for Blood Moving.
"Junior! Who are you?! How dare you do this! If my Martial King Manor finds out..." Chen Yao had caught a lucky test subject selected through divination, dragged him into a deserted corner, and begun testing his new Divine Ability on him.
Paralysis, pathological changes in the organs, sleep, cancer... his projected Astral Energy triggered all manner of ailments within the target's body. With a ranged hit, however, the effects faded easily. Sustained physical contact made them last much longer and work spectacularly well, rapidly stripping the target of any ability to resist.
Take the elder from Shi Yi's faction in the Martial King Manor now lying on the ground. Through divination with Feng Hou's Mystic Gate, Chen Yao had confirmed that this fellow had played a major role during the loss of Shi Hao's Supreme Bone, and had provided considerable help in hunting down Shi Hao's parents.
The bastard was now afflicted with paralysis, hypnosis, shock, and other negative conditions, all at a cultivator's level, triggered by the power of Twin Hands. Much like the Great Universe Mutation of the Pollen Path, conditions arising from within were often difficult to deal with. When a cultivator went into shock, it really could leave his Primordial Spirit dazed while draining his essence, energy, and spirit. The man on the ground was already about to kick the bucket.
Chen Yao placed his hand on the elder's head. The man was already unconscious, his vitality beginning to ebb. Pale blue, translucent tentacles emerged one after another and pierced into his mind. After locating the restrictions, Chen Yao skirted around them and began probing for information about the Martial King Manor.
The terrain, interior layout, patrol schedules, living quarters, and so on. He also checked for loopholes in its restrictions along the way.
The results were unexpected. With so many powerful cultivators in the Martial King Manor, its outer grounds had virtually no restrictions and could be entered freely. Only the courtyards of the direct descendants and the core area had their own formations and restrictions.
On second thought, that made sense. In the original story, Shi Hao had barged straight into the Martial King Manor without encountering any restrictions blocking his way. The outer formations were completely inactive most of the time. Unless it was an important location, there would be no obstacles at all.
After casually erasing and destroying the elder's recent memories, Chen Yao withdrew the Bright Soul tentacles of Twin Hands and quickly left, finding a safe place to log out.
Next, he planned to approach a certain hidden genius of the Martial King Manor: Aman, a servant's descendant who had treated Shi Hao exceptionally well both before and after his Supreme Bone was dug out, leaving a profound impression on him.
The original story never mentioned his real name. Perhaps he truly had not had one at first.
Aman was absolutely an SSR-tier hidden character in the Lower Realm. Unfortunately, he barely had any screen time in the original story.
In the original story, Aman was one of the descendants of the Martial King Manor's servants. Since his parents never appeared, he might also have been a child picked up outside and raised as a future servant, and thus placed together with the servants' descendants.
His first appearance was as a playmate who was very close to little Shi Hao. Even after Shi Hao lost his Supreme Bone, he continued visiting and caring for him. In contrast to the other brats who never came again, and some of the elders, he left an extremely deep impression on Shi Hao.
His second appearance came when Shi Hao's grandfather, the Great Demon God Shi Zhongtian, wreaked havoc in the Martial King Manor. On a battlefield of Array Formation Realm cultivators, Aman, whose cultivation was most likely only at the Spirit Transformation Realm, discerned some of the battle's developments and secretly warned the Great Demon God of the dangers. This offered the first glimpse of his extraordinary talent, and the Great Demon God took him away. When Shi Hao returned to stir up trouble in the Martial King Manor, a girl very close to Aman revealed that he was a genius of the manor, kept hidden away as a reserve of strength for the future.
Then came the Upper Realm. Judging by the treatment the Great Demon God received at Immortal Mountain, Aman probably fared little better. Most likely, he too had fled and gone off to train alone. By his next appearance, he was already at the place where the Demon Venerable had fallen, which was also the return coordinates of an Immortal King from the Boundary Sea. Aman seized the high ground and obtained the inheritance, becoming an honorary disciple of that Immortal King returning from the Boundary Sea.
Even in the Immortal Domain, people from factions such as Ao Sheng's referred to that Immortal King as "that person." Moreover, although Aman and Shi Zhongtian slaughtered the trio's descendants wherever they went, no one dared enter that place to settle the score. Most likely, it was because that Immortal King was no weaker than the trio. Considering that he had ventured into the Boundary Sea to wage war and returned, he was probably an Immortal King Giant as well. Unfortunately, that was all there was to it. His name was never mentioned again later on, and he never truly appeared.
According to the description, that Immortal King feared that his lineage would die out if he fell in battle, so he left Aman behind as an honorary disciple. Even if the other branches were wiped out, his teachings would not be lost. Aman was one of his fallback plans. If he kicked the bucket, Aman would presumably be promoted automatically to the orthodox successor. Aman was described as having received the inheritance because he met the Immortal King's requirements.
Someone who was most likely an Immortal King Giant could not possibly have favored Aman merely because of his physique or something similar. Besides, Aman had no special physique to begin with. He was essentially an ordinary mortal who relied entirely on his own comprehension and talent. All he had done was consume a divine pill from the Lower Realm to rebuild his foundation. Since Immortal Mountain had not refined Aman to extract its medicinal properties, that pill could not have been all that rare.
Thus, Aman's talent for cultivation had won an Immortal King's recognition. He had passed the test.
The standards for an Immortal King Giant's honorary disciple would hardly be low. By comparison, Aman's talent should have been similar to Mo Xian's in the Foreign Realm: someone favored by an imperial clan's Immortal King, who could receive equal standing with the clan's young members despite being a descendant of the Nine Heavens. At the very least, Ning Chuan would be his baseline, with a small chance of competing against the likes of the Ten-Crown King, Shi Yi, and the Exiled Immortal. His failure to rise early on was mainly due to a lack of resources and guidance, compounded by the fact that he had no particularly deep drive to pursue the Dao and wage battle.
He was quite a wasted character. After all that setup, his story ended hastily, leaving him to appear occasionally as a relative on the same footing as Shi Zhongtian. To Shi Hao, he was unrelated by blood yet closer than a biological older sister, more like a sibling than Qin Hao was, but his role was only slightly better than an extra's.
If Aman could receive proper nurturing from childhood, establish a solid cultivation foundation, and forge a steadfast Dao heart, his talent would absolutely let him soar into the heavens in a single leap.
The path Chen Yao had planned for himself leaned toward support, so he needed to find a real damage dealer to roam around with him. Yet there were only so many geniuses in the world. Each had their own faction, or even preferred to travel alone, leaving very few potential companions. Still, in a matter like this, it was better to have none than settle for the wrong one. If a frontliner could not even match his own damage output, he would be better off without one.
Among those he could currently approach, Aman was the only one with sufficiently high talent, no major faction backing him, and no commitment to traveling alone.
More importantly, building a good relationship with Aman would secure Shi Hao as well.
After investigating the Martial King Manor's layout, confirming Aman's location, and making sure there were no dangers, Chen Yao began preparing to infiltrate the manor and make contact.
Besides a silver tongue, he first needed to break through into Cave Heaven and gain the support of powerful magical energy. Only then could he use Grand Luo Insight with relative ease to appear and vanish like a ghost for extended periods, avoiding exposure halfway through.
For some reason, his Twin Hands manifested as tentacles rather than palms, and his Lower Corpse was a tentacle monster too.
It absolutely was not his fault!
Before you continue