Chapter 17: The Pureblood Clan and the Uncle of Inner Strength
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I have already made myself perfectly clear. If circumstances are what people make them, and Zheng Zha still chose that path after all this, Qian Gu would have nothing more to say.
Fortunately, Qian Gu had established his reputation during Resident Evil 1. Everyone on the team respected him by now. Even Zheng Zha—the thick-headed brat who would one day become a muscle-bound gorilla—began to think things through properly.
Someone else, however, had reached a decision faster than Zheng Zha.
Mu Gang slapped the table. “I decided a long time ago. There’s no harm in listening to Qian Gu, so I’ll go first with the enhancement.”
Qian Gu looked at the middle-aged man. After considering the woman he had created, he already had a fairly good guess.
“Something centered on internal energy? Authentic qigong?”
“Mm.” Mu Gang nodded.
Most men of his generation had been shaped by martial-arts films. As children, they had read Jin Yong and Gu Long, dreaming of wandering the world with a sword at their side—or of standing alone against an entire city.
But as they grew older, those fantasies gradually faded, shattered by the coldness of reality.
And yet—
Here, in the Main God Space, Mu Gang felt that he had recovered the passion of his youth: a burning fire long since frozen beneath the chill of reality.
“My recommendation is that you go for it.”
Although Qian Gu had done an excellent job dispelling the illusions surrounding internal energy, he had no intention of dictating how his teammates should spend their points. His view was much the same as Chu Hao’s.
When someone acts out of love and conviction, that passion can drive the birth of miracles beyond imagination.
Of course, Zheng Zha had to be stopped from making certain choices. So did Zhan Lan. A pure internal-energy path could only be called mediocre—not the finest route in the Main God Space. But one of them choosing a negative enhancement and the other ultimately being crushed by a “God-Striking Stone” would simply be too ridiculous.
“I’ve decided too.” Zheng Zha finally concluded his internal struggle. “After looking through the options, I’m choosing the vampire enhancement.”
The chosen one of the version, indeed.
The mutated vampire bloodline could hardly be called mediocre. It was, in fact, remarkably outstanding. The principal path of several powerhouses from the First Era had been precisely this one. It had merely lost out to the wild flights of fancy conceived by certain sixth-order experts.
Unless—
One pursued the path of a vampire magic swordsman.
Qian Gu was gratified. At least the first step had been achieved: the thick-headed Zheng Zha had finally managed not to charge headfirst into trouble.
“Zheng Zha, with your current side-story rewards, you can strengthen yourself all the way to Rank C and still have points left over.” Qian Gu smiled faintly. “That should make you the strongest among us.”
“Just luck. Pure luck.”
That was what he said, but the vampire enhancement belonged more to the spellcasting category, and it did not improve physical attributes by much.
After Zheng Zha and Mu Gang completed their enhancements, their raw data told the story plainly. Zheng Zha had only one attribute above three hundred: cellular vitality, which surpassed Qian Gu’s by a considerable margin. Some attributes were not even twice those of an ordinary person, such as muscle-tissue strength.
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As for Mu Gang, there was even less to say. Yet in terms of the physical statistics displayed on paper, the qigong enhancement gave him a slight edge. His muscle-tissue strength was even a little higher than Zheng Zha’s.
Naturally, none of this took energy amplification into account.
After watching the two of them complete their basic enhancements, Qian Gu turned to Zhan Lan. “What about you?”
“Me?”
Zhan Lan thought quietly for a while. Then she looked at Qian Gu and asked, “What role are you aiming for?”
“For now, I’m in a support role.”
Qian Gu pointed toward Zheng Zha and Mu Gang, who had just finished strengthening themselves and were grinning like two overgrown boys. “I simply don’t have the same talents they do.”
“You’re a man, yet you’re trying to steal the support position from a weak woman like me?” Zhan Lan began to sob theatrically.
“All right, all right.” Qian Gu waved his hand, unable to bear it.
As for Zhan Lan—she was, after all, one of the most formidable mental specialists of the First Era. Properly cultivated, she would become a genuine combat asset.
“For the time being, I don’t recommend that you purchase any powerful enhancement.”
Qian Gu flicked a sheet of paper toward her. “What you need right now is equipment. In a couple of days, I have a plan to carry out.”
“Hm?” Zhan Lan’s brows drew together. “What are you planning?”
“To survive more effectively.”
The answer did not surprise Zhan Lan. In the Main God Space, where one was thrown into a terrifying life-or-death cycle every ten days, the question of how to survive better was destined to become an inescapable subject of thought—and action.
She merely examined the enhancement recommendations in her hands.
“Dragon blood?”
Zhan Lan found one of the recommendations somewhat unexpected.
“It isn’t expensive. Only one hundred reward points.”
Qian Gu had never intended to keep the dragon-blood enhancement to himself.
In the Main God Space, becoming strong on one’s own did indeed mean becoming truly strong. But before one could reach the summit, one needed teammates capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with them until death. The stronger one’s companions, the greater one’s chances of survival, and the greater the opportunity to climb the staircase leading to ultimate power. It was a trade that could only yield profit.
After Zheng Zha and Mu Gang had played around long enough, Qian Gu called them back.
“Sit down. I’ll tell you about the second recommendation: dragon blood.”
He explained the benefits of the enhancement. As for its origin, the myths and legends of the real world were the best endorsement. The tale of those who bathed in dragon’s blood had endured for ages, while dragon-slaying epics remained an eternal theme.
“Damn, that’s something!”
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Zhang Jie slapped the table, visibly exhilarated. “Kid, you really have figured out the Main God Space! Even this old man isn’t as familiar with it as you are. Honestly…”
“Brother Jie, isn’t it enough that we have Qian Gu?”
Zheng Zha was excited as well, and then he said something that made Qian Gu’s heart jolt.
“Forget everything else. From now on, if you say east, Qian Gu, I’ll never say west. I’ll follow your lead in everything.”
Qian Gu panicked.
He panicked completely.
He had actually forgotten about the ape-man duality: the stronger the team’s brain, the more severe Zheng Zha’s transformation into a gorilla would become.
Had he just stepped on the accelerator?
“You four go redeem the enhancements first. We’ll discuss what comes after that later.”
The four of them contacted the Main God and each redeemed a syringe of dragon blood. It was only ordinary dragon blood, worth one hundred points—not blood from any of the three great legendary dragon species. Back then, Qian Gu had been gambling on the possibility of becoming a draconic bloodline sorcerer. Fortunately, he had bet correctly. Otherwise, the enhancement would have merely raised his physical attributes by four hundred points. Why spend an extra two hundred reward points for that?
With those points, he could have bought two spells. Wouldn’t that have been a better deal?
The agony of the dragon-blood enhancement was no exaggeration. In an instant, the Main God platform rang with wails, curses, and shrieks of despair.
Qian Gu held a tall wineglass, sipping a fizzy soft drink beloved by shut-ins, and clicked his tongue twice.
“Your willpower really is weak.”
“Hiss—”
Zheng Zha drew in a sharp breath. Relying on the cellular vitality and immune function granted by his vampire bloodline, he finally endured the ordeal and completed the enhancement.
His cellular vitality reached four times that of an ordinary person. His immunity was roughly three times greater, while his muscle-tissue strength and neural response exceeded two and a half times normal. It was a complete transformation, bringing him almost to the level of a special-forces soldier.
Well…
A special-forces soldier from the “Infinite Multiverse.”
Everyone knew that Zheng Zha’s real world was the setting of an urban power fantasy. There, every special-forces soldier was a king among warriors, possessing physical abilities three times greater than those of ordinary people and mastery of all kinds of techniques. Hidden ancient clans even contributed members who possessed innate internal energy.
That’s right. We’re talking about you, Cheng the Lecher!
After a while, the dragon-blood enhancements were more or less complete. Even Zhan Lan, judging purely by her outward physical attributes, had reached twice the strength of an ordinary person.
Qian Gu tapped the table, drawing everyone’s attention to himself.
“Next comes the third step. That is…”
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