Secret Art Optimized, Body Tempering Mastered!

Cheng Sheng did not know whether his request was excessive.

Why not try?

There's no harm in trying.

The essence of a sacrifice was a "transaction." Wasn't doing business all about asking for the sky and settling for the earth?

The crocodile offered as a sacrifice was completely swallowed by the black vortex. He waited a while longer, until...

Cheng Sheng was struck hard by a force!

Boom!

The boon surpassed those of his previous two sacrifices. It was as though a miniature volcano had erupted inside him.

Cheng Sheng immediately felt muscles tear in many parts of his body, then heal and knit themselves back together...

The process brought unimaginable agony. He collapsed at once, unable to stop himself from curling up.

At that moment, however, a "fire" sprang to life in his chest!

The fire was so intense it seemed ready to burn through his chest. The next second, it swiftly divided into countless thin "threads of fire" that raced through his body, spreading along his skin and bones.

This is...

At first, Cheng Sheng felt only pain, but his eyes soon filled with astonishment.

Why did the way the "fire" appeared and split apart so closely resemble the Black Killing Style Secret Art he had been practicing every day lately?!

The sensation was much like applying the Black Killing Style secret medicine, only many times hotter. The separated "threads of fire" were like the warm currents he guided every day, but they needed almost no guidance from him. They raced furiously along a route on their own, advancing swiftly and violently.

Moreover, the entire route they followed was who knew how many times more complex and complete than the original route of the Black Killing Style Secret Art!!

It worked!!

Cheng Sheng was overjoyed.

He had only tried it on a whim and hadn't expected the one on the other side to actually agree to his request.

With his talent and aptitude, mastering this Black Killing Style secret art would have taken at least several months, half a year, or even longer. Now, however, he was rapidly accomplishing it in less than a minute.

And he was accomplishing it in a more complex, advanced, and perfect form!

Fresh flesh and blood, fresh souls... they're all tasty delicacies to demons.

It wasn't as though a sacrifice had to be extraordinarily precious or rare to earn a demon's favor.

Sometimes the process was like going out shopping and spending two bucks on a little roadside snack to satisfy a craving.

But to Cheng Sheng, who was still just an ordinary person, even the tiniest benefit that slipped through the fingers of those powerful, evil, chaotic beings dwelling in the lower reaches of the Abyss was enough to save him a great deal of the time he needed to grow.

Cheng Sheng felt his entire body heating up. His temperature was frighteningly high, and tiny patches of keratin were rapidly growing on the surface of his skin...

Suddenly, another strange sensation came from outside his body-

It was like someone was blowing into his ear. No, it was a warm, soft, slender tongue gently licking his earlobe.

Again?!

Cheng Sheng wailed inwardly. His eyes were bloodshot as he panted heavily, constantly trying to suppress the reaction in his lower body...

Under the hazy moonlight, a muscular youth stood alone in the center of the silent, empty warehouse, black keratinous protrusions rapidly growing all over his body. A scorching, violent presence rolled around him as his body swelled slightly and trembled. The scene resembled a villain undergoing a biochemical mutation in some science fiction movie.

The youth's expression, however, was somewhat strange, twisted and ferocious. He was clearly enduring the immense pain of his body's drastic transformation, yet mixed in with that pain... seemed to be a trace of an indescribable sensuality and bashfulness.

"Whew..."

After an unknown amount of time, it was all over.

Cheng Sheng let out a long breath of turbid air. Drenched in sweat, he was nearly exhausted.

Part of it was the transformation wrought by the power of a demon from the Abyss. The other part came from his "Intermediary Demon," who was always fond of teasing and provoking him.

You think this is fun, huh? Just wait until I've mastered my sorcery and can enter and leave the Abyss. Then I'll...

Cheng Sheng had intended to fling some threats into the void, but what came next seemed a little inappropriate for children. After some thought, he decided to forget it.

His attention returned to himself.

The first thing Cheng Sheng felt was his strength, which had soared yet again!

No, more accurately, it's my physical attributes! Strength, speed, constitution... they've all improved.

Under the moonlight, Cheng Sheng clenched his fist and could clearly feel the explosive power coming from his arm muscles.

He tried a few moves from his fighting techniques and easily sent his fists whistling through the air.

The male black goat I sacrificed last time quickly brought my physical attributes up to the average level of a veteran trainee. This sacrifice let me master Body Tempering outright, and I even mastered the Black Killing Secret Art!

Cheng Sheng raised his right hand, and with a thought, the mass of warm current that had appeared in his chest after the sacrifice immediately spread out.

The next second, strange keratinous protrusions appeared on the surface of his arm, like those Sulai had once demonstrated to them.

But they were darker in color than Sulai's had been, and more pronounced.

When Cheng Sheng drove the warm current in his body to its limit, the granular keratinous protrusions spread across his body. They did not cover every part, but they covered many places, including his arms, shoulders, back, neck, chest, and thighs.

They seem to cover a much larger area than Sulai's, and the protrusions are more pronounced too. They're closer to the armored scutes on a crocodile's back...

Cheng Sheng concluded that the power from the sacrifice had helped him "optimize" the original Black Killing Style Secret Art.

This was a completely new approach to sacrifices. If he encountered similar cultivation secret arts in the future, he could simply have the Abyss help him optimize them all.

How could human wisdom compare to that of demons?

What does it actually do?

Cheng Sheng looked around for a suitable target.

But there was nothing in the warehouse. The iron pillars supporting the middle would have been quite good, but he would probably have to pay for any damage, so in the end he could only find a corner and punch the wall.

Thud!

An entirely ordinary straight punch stirred up a huge, muffled echo in the warehouse.

Cheng Sheng's expression barely changed. Instead, he thought for a moment, then punched a second time-

"Power of the Ram!"

This time, he used Power of the Ram!

Boom!

Unlike every previous time he had activated Power of the Ram, the instant he punched, Cheng Sheng's heart abruptly swelled, stopped, and then thumped fiercely with a tremendous sense of power!

At the same time, his right arm suddenly swelled as he punched, and the strange keratinous protrusions on it abruptly spread open like tiny bone wings!

Bang!

Crack!

Fine dust rose into the air as Cheng Sheng slowly withdrew his fist.

Before him, an extraordinarily clear indentation several centimeters deep had appeared in the once smooth, flat wall. The surface plaster had peeled away, exposing the brickwork and cement beneath, now marked with numerous obvious fractures.

"This punch..."

Cheng Sheng slowly exhaled, looking at the right hand he had punched with, a strange light flickering in his eyes. "It's enough to kill someone easily."

In fact, the first layer of the Black Killing Style's secret art did not emphasize explosive power, but rather defense.

That was also why he had struck the cement wall directly with an unprotected fist without injuring his hand in the slightest.

"The first layer of my Black Killing Style Secret Art has been optimized by demonic power. Its defense should be much stronger than the normal first layer, though I don't know exactly how much stronger... It probably still can't stop firearms, right...?"

Cheng Sheng pondered silently.

Overall, he was very satisfied with this sacrifice. His only regret was that he had not obtained a trait like [Power of the Ram].

Perhaps the quality of the sacrifice was still a little lacking. His "cooking skills" were growing ever more refined and perfect, but unfortunately, the "ingredients" themselves were subpar. If he had used one of those mutated saltwater crocodiles from the swamp pool instead, the result would surely have been very different.

With the sacrifice over, Cheng Sheng prepared to leave.

After this sacrifice, his physique had grown considerably stronger. He had originally been somewhat lean and muscular, but his muscles were more pronounced now.

He did not know whether it was because the "Intermediary Demon" always threw in some charm points, but the additional muscle had grown in just the right places, forming an almost perfect proportion with his quietly increasing height. He looked increasingly tall and well-proportioned, with the sculpted beauty of a carefully carved physique...

It was just that his old clothes were a little tight now.

"What time is it?"

Cheng Sheng tidied up a little, walked to the tightly shut warehouse doors, and habitually took out his phone to check the time.

But he discovered that the signal indicator in the upper right corner of his screen was flickering, its connection unstable.

Cheng Sheng frowned but paid it no mind. He pulled the warehouse doors open with a heave.

The instant the doors opened, moonlight streamed in from outside and fell on Cheng Sheng.

In the moonlight, wisps of black mist, like smoke, drifted eerily...

Cheng Sheng froze. The next second, he realized what was happening.

"Black Tide?!"

Balai City had issued a Black Tide response that night. Because of his third sacrifice, he had not found a suitable place to hide...

He had been left behind in the area where the Black Tide was spreading.