I Can See Experience Points

He Xiaotian finally understood the agony of a fish caught in a net.

It was an intense contraction, threatening to squeeze him into a tight ball.

If it weren’t for the combined effects of the Fire-refined Golden Body and the Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training making his body absurdly resilient...

He probably would have been dead by now, wouldn’t he?

The Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training, in particular, had greatly increased the hardness of his bones, allowing him to perfectly withstand the black membrane’s constriction.

"I didn’t think a pushover like you would have so many tricks!"

He Xiaotian braced himself, every muscle and bone in his body tensing and shifting.

"Go on, curse all you want. Get it out while you still have the strength to resist. In a moment, when the black membrane fully constricts, you won’t be able to make another sound."

Liang Kun was surprised. This mysterious X still had the strength to resist his membrane, even now.

Fortunately, this membrane, the one capable of sealing a gifted individual’s abilities, wasn’t like his personal protective metal membrane, which possessed extreme toughness.

Otherwise, it would have shattered under the immense force before he could even kill X.

"Break!"

He Xiaotian dropped into a horse stance, his arms crossed over his chest.

The moment he threw his arms open, an immense force erupted from his entire body.

His entire body bulged, visibly expanding.

Liang Kun saw his black membrane stretch taut.

"SNAP!"

"WHOOSH!"

The moment the black membrane shattered, a century’s worth of Inner Strength erupted from his Dantian.

The cyan flames blazed to life once more.

’It... it broke?’

’Just how much strength would it take to burst my membrane!’

"You’re a monster, but you’re not in my league."

Things had come to this. He couldn’t let He Xiaotian do as he pleased, no matter what.

He was planning to stay undercover with the city’s Cleaners and provide a steady stream of intelligence to the Gourmet Kitchen!

Too bad that was impossible now.

"I didn’t want this. Damn you, X! Why do you always have to get in our way? Tonight, I’m going to eat you alive."

The words had barely left his mouth when Liang Kun’s body began to swell rapidly, his form twisting until he was completely unrecognizable.

His flesh ruptured, and a monster burst forth from within.

’He wasn’t exaggerating. Compared to this thing, I couldn’t be called a monster at all.’

The monster Liang Kun had become was difficult to look at directly.

Its lower body had spider-like legs, each one glinting menacingly.

No one could doubt the sharpness of those legs.

Its upper body was grotesquely bloated. A massive mouth was stretched across its stomach, a scarlet tongue lolling out.

No matter how you looked at it, the sight was just... vile!

Its head looked like it had been modified, with something resembling a metal helmet fused to it.

One of its eyes looked perfectly human.

The other, however, was solid blood-red, with no visible pupil.

"I’m going to eat you alive!!"

A violent, berserk aura suddenly erupted from him.

At the same time, a faint black sheen enveloped his entire body.

’That must be his film, protecting him from being picked up by certain detectors.’

"Eat!" "Flesh!"

The giant mouth on Liang Kun’s stomach roared along, its tongue lolling out.

’Forget his ghastly appearance, what I really want to know is, how the hell did you stuff something that big inside your body?’

’Okay, that sounded pretty dirty too.’

"No need to be so cautious, is there? For fifty li in any direction, there’s only Zhou family Village. By the way, you know what happened to Liu Nan’s lost soul, don’t you?"

"Still thinking about that rich girl at a time like this? All I can tell you is that Mirror Spirits usually devour human souls directly. So this wasn’t the work of a Mirror Spirit. But without a soul, what’s the difference between her and being dead?

Enough of this useless chatter. Once I’ve eaten you, I’ll become stronger and inherit your abilities. Your unparalleled strength, able to shatter the black membrane; your indestructible, impenetrable defense; and your cyan flames that can incinerate fiends. I’m really... looking forward to it!"

’Ma Dan!’

’He Xiaotian cursed inwardly. This guy’s brain doesn’t work like a villain from a novel at all, does it?’

’Other than learning they weren’t responsible for Liu Nan losing her soul, I didn’t get anything out of him.’

’To put it bluntly, with an ugly mug like that, what do you need brains for anyway?’

’Why is it so damn hard to trick him into saying something useful?’

If Liang Kun were his only enemy, he wouldn’t be too worried.

But the "Gourmet Kitchen" he mentioned... just the name alone sounded ominous.

What if he had accomplices lurking in the shadows, or the so-called Food King himself showed up?

’Wouldn’t I be totally screwed?’

’Nothing is more important than my own life.’

Liang Kun scuttled toward him on his knife-sharp spider legs.

"Take this!"

The massive iron hammer, blazing with cyan flames, flew from his hand and shot toward the monster.

Liang Kun had witnessed the terror of He Xiaotian’s monstrous strength firsthand; he wasn’t foolish enough to take the hit head-on.

He leaped into the air, dodging the immensely powerful blow.

"BOOM!"

The gravel road immediately exploded on impact.

The ground itself sank visibly.

The ground turned black and scorched, covered in a web of massive, crisscrossing cracks.

Instead of pressing his advantage, He Xiaotian activated his Qinggong, Eight Steps Chasing Cicada, and shot toward the custom SUV.

It wasn’t that he was afraid, nor was it because of Liang Kun’s nauseating form.

It was simply that there was no need to get tangled up with him.

The Cleaners’ custom SUV had a dedicated communicator. On the way to Zhou family Village, Lei Yang had been using it to contact Zheng Peng’s squad, who were following behind them. All He Xiaotian had to do was smash the door open and yell for help. Then, no matter how big the conspiracy was, it wouldn’t be his problem to handle.

’Playing savior? I’ll leave that to the government!’

’All he wanted to do was quietly smash a few fiends on the side, maybe steal a kill or two, and rake in some Experience Points. That was enough for him.’

"In your dreams!"

Liang Kun saw through his plan in an instant. With an angry roar, the giant mouth on his stomach gaped open, and its scarlet tongue shot toward He Xiaotian like a bullet from a gun.

"THWACK!" "BOOM!"

The first sound was the tongue striking He Xiaotian’s back; the second was his heavy hammer smashing into the SUV.

The car door shattered. The strange detector mounted inside was smashed to pieces along with it, clearly beyond repair.

"THUD!"

He Xiaotian wasn’t unscathed; the immense force of the tongue’s blow sent him flying, knocking him to the ground.

He performed a kip-up, springing back to his feet.

Before he could dive into the vehicle, a crisp female voice echoed from inside the other custom SUV.

[Attention. Attention. Attention. Vehicle Number 021, a custom Cleaner vehicle, has lost its radar signal in Zhou family Village, near the Shanghai G2X Expressway. All nearby squads, please proceed to investigate.]

"Damn it!!"

Liang Kun’s expression changed drastically. He hadn’t turned off the SUV’s detector for a reason.

The detectors, produced by the energy research lab, were always active and couldn’t be manually shut down. If one went offline, the Cleaners would assume the squad was in trouble and send people to investigate.

But things had happened too suddenly. That annoying grandson of Li had actually used the membrane he’d been given to mess with people.

And of all people, he just had to pick a violent maniac like He Xiaotian.

It forced him to reveal himself and hypnotize Zheng Peng to use him.

But up until then, everything had been more or less under control.

But He Xiaotian shattering the black film was completely unexpected.

What was really fucking infuriating was that this guy’s luck was just too good.

He’d actually triggered the alarm by accident. Someone would be here to investigate in less than half an hour.

By then, the entire organization would be exposed, attracting even more powerful gifted individuals.

"Heh heh! This custom Cleaner SUV is pretty neat. It even has an alarm function, I like it. Weren’t you trying to summon an avatar of the Gulping Monarch through a sacrifice? Now that Laozi has smashed the car, I bet it won’t be long before people show up.

Even if you manage to kill Lei Yang and the others, all your preparations will be ruined, won’t they? Are you pissed? Tell me, are you pissed?"

As he spoke, He Xiaotian punctuated his words by viciously smashing his hammer into the SUV again.

Even though it was an armored, bulletproof vehicle, it couldn’t withstand his immense strength.

"CRUNCH!"

The front of the vehicle was completely totaled, and the engine died.

"Not bad. This car of yours is pretty tough. It took two hits from my hammer before it finally kicked the bucket."

Liang Kun’s eyes went bloodshot. He had failed the Food King’s plan; the blame was his to bear.

"I’ll eat you!"

He roared in fury and charged.