Chapter 66 : Chapter 66
Chapter 66: The Blood Moon Reappears
Lu Zhan returned home.
Before doing anything else, he took a bath first.
He was covered in blood, and not only was it uncomfortable, it also damaged his upright public image.
After that, he took out the Nightmare Fruit and ate it.
[ Ding! It has been detected that the Host consumed a Nightmare Fruit. Natural endowment has increased slightly. ]
Then Lu Zhan turned his gaze to the Talent Fragments.
[ Talent Fragments: 60 ]
He remembered that the two talents, Never-Extinguishing Soulfire and Eyes of the Candle Dragon, seemed to be capable of fusion.
“System, fuse the talents.”
[ Do you wish to spend 50 Talent Fragments to fuse Never-Extinguishing Soulfire and Eyes of the Candle Dragon? ]
“Yes!”
[ Fusing talents... ]
[ Fusion successful ]
[ Congratulations, Host. The talent Eyes of the Candle Dragon has been enhanced. ]
Lu Zhan opened the talent panel.
Talent Name: Eyes of the Candle Dragon
Talent Grade: Epic (Mythic)
Growth Status: Broken past its limit, temporarily sealed
Duration: Permanent
Status: Fixed
[ Effect 1: Deadly Weakness ]
[ Your insight has touched the level of the soul and possesses the [Soulfire] attribute. After using Deadly Weakness to gaze at a target, you may mark a dual-layer “deadly weakness” on both its body and soul. Attacks against that point will deal an additional 50% physical damage and 30% soul damage. ]
[ Effect 2: Trajectory Tracking ]
[ Consumes Spiritual Power to predict a target’s movement trajectory for 1 to 3 seconds. The stronger your Spiritual Power, the longer the predicted duration. The stronger the target, the more Spiritual Power is consumed, and the shorter the duration. ]
[ Effect 3: Burn Away Falsehood ]
[ Grants immunity to illusions cast by those up to one major realm above the Host. Against illusions cast by those more than one major realm above the Host, damage taken is reduced by 35%. ]
[ Effect 4: Eternal Night Gaze ]
[ You are the king of the night. In darkness, you can construct [Panoramic Perception] with a detection range of 1000 meters. When a living being enters your detection range in the dark, it will be suppressed by [Soul Ash Pressure], reducing its speed by 35% and continuously inflicting weak soul-burning damage. ]
[ If you gaze at a target for more than 2 seconds, it will trigger [Fear Aura], causing the target to fall into negative mental states such as panic and confusion, reducing its damage by 30% and its mental recovery by 20%. ]
[ Effect 5: Protection from the Other Shore ]
[ When you suffer a fatal soul injury, you will receive [Protection from the Other Shore], blocking one fatal soul attack. When you are attacked by soul-based attacks, soul damage is reduced by 80%. ]
[ Effect 6: Undying Soulflame ]
[ This is a fire from the Other Shore. You can convert Spiritual Power into soul damage. It deals 10% to 30% damage to souls that have lost their physical bodies. The more Spiritual Power you expend, the higher the soul damage. ]
Lu Zhan gave it a brief look over.
This Eyes of the Candle Dragon talent was truly somewhat terrifying. Up to now, he had obtained a total of eight talents.
But four of them had fused into two.
In other words, Lu Zhan currently had a full six talents.
Every single one of them was quite good, but when he looked at the talent Driving God— now that he could already fly, that talent seemed useless.
The instant Lu Zhan had that thought, the system popped up a prompt.
[ Do you wish to dismantle the talent — Driving God? After dismantling it, you will obtain 20 Talent Fragments. ]
[ Friendly reminder: Once a talent has been dismantled, the process is irreversible. Please choose carefully. ]
“Talents can even be dismantled?!!!”
Lu Zhan was somewhat surprised.
“Forget it. I won’t dismantle it for now. Twenty Talent Fragments can’t really do much anyway.”
After finishing all that, Lu Zhan’s stomach let out a growl.
“Forget it. Time to eat. Time to eat!”
He took the fresh ingredients he had harvested from the Demon Nest out of the Sumeru Mark.
The ones he had kept were all ingredients with higher qi-and-blood content and better flavor.
As for the ones that were too large... they were useless to eat yet a pity to throw away, so most of them had been chopped into meat paste.
[ Ding! You consumed the flesh of a Ninth Level Aperture Opening Realm Demon Beast. Your physical body has improved slightly. ]
[ You consumed a... ]
...
In the kitchen, a large pot bubbled away, sending out wave after wave of rich meat fragrance that filled the entire room.
“Hah... I’m finally full.”
Some time later, Lu Zhan set down his bowl and chopsticks and let out a satisfied breath.
He had eaten three Demon Beasts in a row before finally feeling full.
He discovered that as his physical strength increased, the amount of energy he needed was also growing greater and greater.
He could feel the Qi and Blood Armor that the Nightmare Demon Peach had shattered beginning to re-form inside his body.
A warm current coursed through him, leaving him brimming with energy.
Having just flattened a Demon Nest and then eaten his fill, his body and mind completely relaxed.
He strolled over to the window and pushed it open. The summer breeze carried a trace of coolness as it brushed across his face.
The night hung low, stars scattered across the sky. The noisy streets from daytime had now fallen silent, with only a few distant points of light still glowing faintly.
“The nights here will never be as bustling as they were in my previous life.”
Lu Zhan sighed softly, his fingertips unconsciously tapping arrhythmically against the windowsill.
Suddenly,
he felt that the surrounding concentration of Spiritual Energy seemed to have increased by quite a bit.
At first it was only a trickling stream, so Lu Zhan did not pay it much attention. He simply assumed that with the deepening of the night and the stillness of all things, the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth had naturally settled.
But very quickly, that trickling stream turned into a surging river.
The air itself seemed to become a thick spiritual liquid, and every breath felt like swallowing pure energy.
“What’s going on?”
Lu Zhan’s heart jolted, and he quickly realized that something about this was wrong.
But he did not bother dwelling on it. Improving his cultivation came first.
Letting such pure Spiritual Energy go to waste without absorbing it would be a crime.
About the time it took one stick of incense to burn, Lu Zhan broke through to the Second Level of the Divine Sea Realm.
Strange!
This was the first time he had broken through relying on himself, and he had done so with such ease.
Soon after, the concentration of Spiritual Energy gradually began to fall until it settled into a stable state.
Yet compared to before, the Spiritual Energy was still far denser than it had ever been.
Suddenly, a terrified voice rang out across Peach Blossom Alley, breaking the silence of the night.
“Heavens, everyone look... the Blood Moon... the Blood Moon has appeared again!”
“It’s over. Disaster... it must be foretelling disaster again...”
But there were also voices filled with joy.
“Hahaha, I Awakened! I finally Awakened! From now on, I’m a martial artist...”
“I think I Awakened too. Spiritual Energy... such dense Spiritual Energy...”
...
Lu Zhan lifted his head and looked toward the sky.
There, in the heavens above, the moon that had been bright and pure was now undergoing a shocking transformation.
At first, there was only a patch of scarlet at its center, but that scarlet quickly spread outward like ink staining paper.
In only a few breaths, it devoured all of the moonlight.
In an instant, a horrifying Blood Moon, scarlet and sinister, hung high in the sky.
It was terrifying and eerie!
“So this is the Blood Moon hanging in the sky?”
At some point, Lu Zhan had already flown out through the window.
“The first time the Blood Moon appeared, it led to the appearance of Demon Beasts. Then... what will the second time bring?”
“And if there’s a second time, will there be a third?”
Lu Zhan narrowed his eyes slightly as he speculated.
That night, Peach Blossom Alley—no, the entire world—was unusually lively.
Ordinary people who had not Awakened before seemed to be Awakening again.
Was the Blood Moon a crisis, or an opportunity? No one knew.
But Lu Zhan’s eyes were cold.
Come then! Come! The more monsters that come, the better!!!
He was just worrying that there would not be enough to kill.