Chapter 42 - 40: Smooth Path on the Great Dao, Transformation of the State of Mind!

Chapter 42: Chapter 40: Smooth Path on the Great Dao, Transformation of the State of Mind!

To his surprise, even with the Demon Calamity arriving twenty-eight days early, Liu Siqi still couldn’t escape his fate of an early death. However, this wasn’t entirely unexpected.

After all, in his previous life, Sanyuan City’s Central Hospital had been a concentrated outbreak point and a severely afflicted area during the Demon Calamity. This wasn’t merely because the hospital’s overall corridor-style architectural structure had trapped some of the Outer Realm Demon Beasts descending from the sky, causing them to forcefully ram into the building to escape and resulting in the collapse of several structures. It was also because a certain biological laboratory in the Central Hospital housed nearly a hundred white mice used for pathology experiments. The moment Spiritual Energy erupted, these white mice began to mutate into demons. Not only did their physical size change drastically, but their attack power also increased tenfold or even twentyfold. The vast majority of people in and around the hospital were basically killed by the attacks of these mutated rat demons.

Liu Zimo had specifically mentioned this issue in his "Self-Help Guide." In fact, it wasn’t just the hospital laboratories; he had also mentioned other high-risk locations prone to mutation, such as zoos, pet shops, breeding farms, and slaughterhouses. It was just a pity that no one truly took his warnings to heart. As a result, many tragedies that shouldn’t have happened were still unavoidable. Under these circumstances, it wasn’t hard to foresee that Liu Siqi would once again die at the onset of the Demon Calamity.

What had truly surprised and shocked Liu Zimo just now was this: his Heaven-Stealing Superpower could actually exploit the dead! Just as his "good brother" Liu Siqi died, he received Liu Siqi’s final gift across space—a massive amount of medical knowledge and surgical experience, along with an even rarer amplification to his Spiritual Power and Divine Soul strength. He had essentially done nothing, yet he had effortlessly shared and inherited half of Liu Siqi’s medical knowledge and surgical skills. At the same time, his Spiritual Power Cultivation had also greatly improved due to the increase in his Spiritual Power and Divine Soul strength!

Liu Zimo sighed deeply in his heart, "This kind of ability... is simply too heaven-defying!

"Sharing their fortune when they are alive, and inheriting their legacy when they die! From life to death, it simply doesn’t let slip a single opportunity to take advantage and reap the benefits!"

He undoubtedly had a deeper understanding of his Heaven-Stealing Superpower now. When a person died, their fate was severed. The Shadow Lock vanished without a trace, and the so-called binding naturally ceased to exist. Therefore, Liu Zimo had gained another available binding slot, as his bound targets changed from (12/30) to (11/30). This, perhaps, was the only way to release a binding!

"It’s just a pity about Liu Meimei. She most likely suffered the same disaster as in her previous life," he thought. Thinking of that pretty nurse, Liu Zimo couldn’t help but shake his head slightly in regret. He actually had a rather good impression of Liu Meimei. He had originally planned to find a chance to lend her a hand and help her avoid this fatal tribulation within the hospital. Looking at it now, plans truly couldn’t keep up with changes. What a pity!

[Your good brother Jiang Tianxiong was down on his luck and plagued by disasters. He was killed on the spot under the attack of a Red Centipede Demon, his soul returning to the heavens!]

[The ’Heaven-Stealing’ Talent Attribute has been passively triggered. You have inherited half of the final gifts left by your good brother Jiang Tianxiong before his death: Martial Arts Talent +5, Martial Arts Cultivation +10, Martial Arts Experience +50, Spiritual Power +3, Divine Soul Strength +5.]

[Your good brother Jiang Tianxiong has gone offline. Currently bound targets: (10/30)]

Hearing the prompt echoing in his ears once more, Liu Zimo felt even greater astonishment, and his expression uncontrollably underwent some subtle changes. "No way?! How did another one die?!" he thought in shock.

It was one thing for Liu Siqi to die early. After all, the hospital was a severely afflicted area, and the probability of encountering danger and dying was extremely high. Liu Siqi’s death was not out of Liu Zimo’s expectations. But Jiang Tianxiong shouldn’t have! That old guy had consumed Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures at the very beginning of the calamity to improve his physique, stepping onto the Martial Dao ahead of others. When receiving the baptism of Spiritual Energy, he had directly broken through to the Copper Skin Realm. His personal strength could be considered quite excellent during the early stages of the calamity. Furthermore, their Longtai Group had a formidable security team, and they were protected by an Iron Bone Realm bigshot like Zhao Jiahong. How could he have died so easily?

In Liu Zimo’s memory, Jiang Tianxiong had thrived in the Post-Apocalypse for thirty years. Even at the age of eighty, he was still alive and well, remaining one of the three great tycoons in Sanyuan City the entire time. How could he be so unlucky this time, directly going to see God on the very first day of the Demon Calamity?

"Was it a Red Centipede Illusion Demon?" Thinking of the Red Centipede Demon mentioned in the prompt just now, Liu Zimo couldn’t help but shake his head slightly. "Then it’s no wonder. The Red Centipede Illusion Demon was the nightmare of all low-level Martial Artists at the beginning of the Post-Apocalypse!

"For Jiang Tianxiong to encounter such a Soldier Level Illusion Demon on the first day of the Demon Calamity, he really was terribly unlucky!"

Liu Zimo naturally knew what kind of existence the Red Centipede Demon was. It was a Soldier Level Illusion Demon that ranked even higher than the Illusion Demon Rat. Its hallucinogenic abilities were five times stronger, if not more, than that of the Illusion Demon Rat. An ordinary Copper Skin Realm Martial Artist simply couldn’t resist its Illusion Charm. In the early stages of the calamity, the lethality and destructive power of this kind of Red Centipede Demon were not in the slightest bit weaker than an Iron Bone Realm Martial Artist. However, the Red Centipede Demons were scarce in number. Out of every hundred thousand Outer Realm Demon Beasts that descended from the sky, there might not even be a single Red Centipede Demon mixed among them. Moreover, unlike Illusion Demon Rats that liked to live in groups, Red Centipede Demons were generally solitary. They liked to secretly control their prey and suck out their brains. Not many people actually encountered them at the beginning of the calamity. Otherwise, if these things had appeared in swarms in major cities like the Illusion Demon Rats, the human Federation probably wouldn’t have even had the chance to build defensive lines before completely falling. That was why Liu Zimo felt that Jiang Tianxiong was truly cursed with terrible luck—he had practically won the lottery to encounter something with a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance.

"But to be fair, Jiang Tianxiong’s final gifts are much more generous than Liu Siqi’s!" he thought. After his initial surprise, Liu Zimo began to absorb and undergo the Refinement of Jiang Tianxiong’s final gifts with peace of mind.

When a person died, it was like a lamp going out. Human life was the most worthless thing in the Post-Apocalypse. Having witnessed far too many partings of life and death in countless Demon Calamities and city defense battles, Liu Zimo had long passed the phase of being overly sentimental and lamenting the fragility of life and the arduous fate of the human race. Furthermore, neither Liu Siqi nor Jiang Tianxiong had much of a relationship with Liu Zimo. Naturally, he wouldn’t take their life or death to heart. The consecutive deaths of two "good brothers" had directly fattened Liu Zimo up. Not only had his Martial Arts Talent and Martial Arts Cultivation greatly increased, making his Golden Body more robust and his martial prowess stronger, but even his Spiritual Power Cultivation had soared to the peak of the Spiritual Essence Realm! Thinking about it this way, it actually felt pretty good.

In fact, if his moral bottom line wasn’t still intact, Liu Zimo would even have had the evil impulse to randomly bind a batch of "good brothers" and then directly kill them to harvest the rewards like cutting leeks. For a brief moment, Liu Zimo even began to suspect that perhaps this was the true way to use the Heaven-Stealing Superpower.

"Advisor Liu! Advisor Liu?!" Yang Sisi’s crisp and innocent voice awakened Liu Zimo from his wild thoughts.

"Your eyes looked terrifying just now. Did something bad happen?" she asked.

Liu Zimo took a deep breath. With a flow of his Spiritual Thought, he forcefully dispersed all the wild impulses and reveries in his mind. If this were before his rebirth, when he was all alone without any ties, he might have unscrupulously and ruthlessly done whatever it took to make himself stronger. But now, things were different. His family was still alive, and not long ago, he had been invited to join the Military Staff Department as a specially invited Martial Arts Consultant. More importantly, even without resorting to those evil and sinister methods, he could still rapidly elevate his Cultivation Realm in the Martial Dao. Since that was the case, why would he abandon the smooth path of the Great Dao and walk down that dark, wicked road instead? Figuring this out, Liu Zimo immediately felt his state of mind clear up. The haze completely vanished, and a gentle, peaceful smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

"It’s nothing. I just thought of some past events, but they’re already behind me!" Liu Zimo replied softly. "Let’s go. We’ll continue our journey!"

Afterward, he re-identified their direction and continued flying due east.

Seeing this, Yang Sisi couldn’t help but secretly sigh in relief. Advisor Liu’s eyes just now, along with the icy aura radiating from his body, had felt incredibly terrifying. The oppressive pressure had made her afraid to even breathe too loudly. Was this the imposing might of a Golden Body Realm Martial Artist? The aura he inadvertently emitted was so soul-stirring that it made it impossible to raise even the slightest thought of resistance! He was so powerful, yet so terrifying!

Yang Sisi clenched her fists tightly, secretly warning and motivating herself. "One day, I, Yang Sisi, will definitely become a Golden Body Realm expert like Advisor Liu!"