Blind Spot
Chapter 460 - 421 means method three

Chapter 460: 421 means method three

Black Soil Plains.

Li Chengyi looked up at the sky, the treasure was in hand, and he had no intention of returning to Quling Mansion for the time being.

At such a time, whether as Wang Yichen or any other identity, he was too conspicuous.

So he reverted to his own appearance, chopped down a group of bandits who had come calling, got some clothes and money, and simply settled in the bandits’ lair to tally the treasures he had acquired.

The continuous switching of bodies in a short period of time had caused a huge drain on his consciousness power and a jumble of memory fragments, leading to headaches. So it seems that the ability of Shadow Replacement cannot be used too often.

He must rest and integrate after a period of time.

Bodies lay haphazardly around the bandit village. Li Chengyi sat by the largest black soil house, owned by the village head, gazing towards the rising sun in the distance, feeling inexplicably sentimental.

How long had it been since he’d had such a quiet and peaceful life...

’Unfortunuately... I can’t keep delaying like this...’

The strong perception of the sixth mechanism made him feel more uneasy the longer he stayed here.

As if something was accumulating gradually, waiting for him.

’Fortunately, the Second Imprint will be completed soon. That’s the biggest gain of coming here.’

He picked up a series of treasures laid out in front of him, the first of which was the Dragon Scale Shield.

It was confirmed that the shield was made from the scales of an Illusory Color Dragon.

It was extremely hard and very light.

’These scales... If I could figure out how the Ouyang Family got these things, maybe...’

Gently touching the colorful luster on the shield, Li Chengyi pondered for a moment before continuing to examine another treasure.

This time he brought out nine items altogether.

The Dragon Scale Shield was just one of them.

The second was a pocket-sized, twisted gold mask.

The mask had four eyes, no nostrils, no mouth, and ears like bat wings, with folds and spikes.

He played with it for a while, confirming there were no abnormalities. Clearly, this was just a common gold mask, seemingly with some historical significance.

The rest were either gems or some special medicinal herbs he did not recognize, none of which revealed anything significant.

However, there was one jade sculpture of a qilin with a map-like pattern on its base.

It was unclear what the map depicted.

The strong power of his consciousness allowed Li Chengyi to memorize the map immediately.

After inspecting his loot, his consciousness moved to the Mark of the Evil Flower.

The Purple Magnolia, which previously lacked just a bit of Evil Thoughts, had finally reached completion after contributions from Ouyang Qing and others, achieving its fourth evolution.

The next evolution, the fifth, would be the ultimate form of the Purple Magnolia.

Li Chengyi was quite looking forward to this.

But for now, he was more interested in seeing what changes the fourth evolution of the Purple Magnolia would bring.

He pressed his hand on the Mark of the Evil Flower, touching the column belonging to the Purple Magnolia.

Immediately, a purple light illuminated.

’Purple Magnolia: Magnoliaceae, genus Magnolia, deciduous shrub...’

’Flower Language Technique: Mother of Heart enhanced four times (Nourishment, Derivation, Attraction)’

’Floral Dress fifth evolution at 0%, Evil Thoughts: 0%.’

Attraction??

Li Chengyi remembered that Nourishment allowed the host of the Floral Bead to feed a portion of their physical quality back to him. Derivation allowed the Floral Bead host to go one step further and become a weakened version of the Divine Flower General, with the choice of one main Flower Language Technique.

And this newly emerged Attraction...

As his consciousness focused, the explanation for the new feature of Attraction immediately appeared.

’Feature Attraction: Can call hosts of different Floral Beads across infinite distances to the main body’s side. Each Floral Bead host can use this once every thirty days.’

".....!!" This... You can actually do this!?

Li Chengyi understood the power of the Evil Flower but never imagined it could be so strong. Summoning Floral Bead hosts from any distance, completely disregarding the principle of conservation of energy—where was it even getting such a vast energy source?

To think, if summoned here, opening the Black Sea Passage and traveling such a distance to this place... considering the consumption and risks involved, he wouldn’t have been able to arrive so easily without Professor Mimam’s help.

’Wait a minute! If I can really summon people over, wouldn’t I also be able to be pulled back in reverse?’

’Moreover, due to the rapid flow of time here, this could become a closed training area. Although it would reduce my lifespan, it could significantly shorten the growth period.’

With that thought, his heart heated up instantly.

’Wait, I still need to think about how to get back safely...’

His massive consciousness power began operating swiftly as Li Chengyi stood up.

With the feature of Attraction, his options for maneuvering had greatly expanded.

If the Evil Flower could open a pathway distinct from the Black Sea Passage, then...

’Wait, why don’t I use the Three-ball Silk Floss Flower to collect the necessary knowledge?’

Space Attraction... Reverse transmission... As long as it’s knowledge from the Evil Flower side, perhaps he could gain more... more about this mark.

Right away, he glanced at the sky to gauge the direction and with a leap, his entire body suddenly turned into a black streak, shooting towards the distance.

The Second Imprint, being a Spirit Fusion Imprint, required growth to the body’s limit for the final sublimation—so he was still waiting.

It was as if everything was ready; he just needed to meet the requirement of growing to his utmost.

Unfortunately, the growth of this body seemed far from its limit, despite Li Chengyi feeling it was developing rapidly every day.

But it wasn’t enough, far from enough.

A moment later, he returned to Quling Mansion, wrote a letter to his family in the name of Wang Yichen, sent it off with the Xuan Crow, then went to the plant and flower market, looking for herbs to replenish flower power.

Having previously sought information from Raven House, he quickly found a row of Firmiana simplex planted on the south side of the city.

To be precise, these weren’t three-ball, but single-ball.

Its leaves were not the normal green, but rather a pale red, reminiscent of maple leaves.

Replenishing Flower Qi only took a few minutes, but what was more troublesome was replenishing Evil Thoughts.

So...

He thought of a simpler method.

*

*

*

Wang Yichen’s residence.

Li Chengyi restored his appearance to that of Wang Yichen, strode in through the door, changed his clothes, donned the Official Sword, and put on his waist badge.

Turning around, he stepped out again and headed straight for the streets he was responsible for patrolling.

He had not gone far when he saw Wang Zhijun, leading people in a rush towards him.

Wang Zhijun’s expression was frantic; his lips trembled as he looked at him, unsure of what to say.

"Why have you come?" Li Chengyi asked.

"I’m... just glad you’re back, glad you’re back," said Wang Zhijun, trembling as he stared at Li Chengyi.

He thought that Wang Yichen was gone, had left the city with Ouyang Qing and was buried outside the city by a deliberate accident.

He had been ready to write to the main family to report the death, but unexpectedly, a servant who had been watching here sent back word that they had found traces of Wang Yichen.

"Don’t worry, I’m fine."

"...That’s good! I heard that Miss Qing Er of the Ouyang Family has run away from home and is now missing. Rumors say that she had an awakening of conscience and decided to leave this place for good to start a new life elsewhere. The Family Head of the Ouyang Family is almost going mad," Wang Zhijun couldn’t help saying.

"Miss Qing Er indeed did not give me too much trouble; she just talked to me briefly before letting me go," Li Chengyi sighed. "Looking back now, she might have truly had a change of heart for the better."

"...That truly is something to celebrate!" Wang Zhijun said earnestly.

"No hurry... Follow me to the jurisdiction first," Li Chengyi said.

"Jurisdiction? Brother Chen... What are you planning to do?" Wang Zhijun asked, puzzled.

"Not planning anything... I just feel that, having suffered so much frustration and grievance, how could I not find some compensation to take back?"

Li Chengyi left those words behind and hurried forward, brushing past Wang Zhijun towards the distant streets.

As the deputy of the camp, he naturally had his own patrol jurisdiction.

Moreover, the people of the Ouyang Family would undoubtedly come to inquire upon discovering that he had actually returned. At that time...

The dark streets looked like a black ocean of residences, while the surrounding dense forts and towers were like a mass of towering trees blocking out the light.

Aloft those giant trees resided the high-born bloodline families.

As Li Chengyi walked among the bustling streets, he suddenly felt puzzled.

If bloodlines are trained into the body bit by bit with True Qi, why do commoners occasionally also awaken bloodlines?

Could it be that after a bloodline merges into the body, awakening is not guaranteed, but rather it requires special training methods?

Slap.

Suddenly, he halted in his steps, stopping in place.

On the five-meter-wide sidewalk, the cracked black clay tiles extended into the distance, one after another.

Normally, at this time, the tiles should be crowded with a constant flow of people.

But now, the stream of people parted as if blocked by a reef, moving aside automatically.

Silently, two people emerged from the front and back, blocking everything and creating a bizarre empty cavity around Li Chengyi.

Whoosh, whoosh.

Several sounds of rushing air emanated, and warriors in dark attire dropped swiftly from the rooftops of several nearby houses.

A masked woman in black also landed quietly and gracefully on the flagpole of a shop behind them.

Dressed in a tight silver-chain black outfit, she stood lightly on the tip of the pole, with faint sparks appearing and disappearing around her.

In a matter of seconds, a group of masked people in dark attire had encircled Li Chengyi. They also conveniently blocked Wang Zhijun and his group from approaching.

"Wang Yichen... where did Ouyang Qing go?" the woman behind him asked coldly.

"The people of the Ouyang Family still dare to see me?" Li Chengyi clearly felt a wave of suppression washing over him.

But it was not Evil Thoughts...

Obviously, in the eyes of these people, the current Wang Yichen was regarded as having low strength and unworthy of their attention.

These people evidently came out of curiosity due to Wang Yichen’s sudden return to the city, wanting to investigate for clues about Ouyang Qing.

"What tone is that? How dare you speak to our young mistress in such a manner?" One of the tall, masked men in front, wearing a blue silk scarf around his neck, spoke harshly.

"My tone?" Li Chengyi slowly gripped the handle of his sword. "You wouldn’t be thinking, just because you are Blood Essence Martial Artists, that you can dismiss us True Qi Martial Practitioners and take us lightly, now are you?"

Since they thought he was not worthy and lacked strength... then it was time...

To give them a little shock.

Clang!!

Without waiting for them to respond, in the blink of an eye Li Chengyi’s sword flashed and his body surged forward.

A single strike!!

After the merger of True Qi into his Second Imprint, his physical attributes had increased significantly.

Both the strength he had before and now his speed saw improvements.

With bare-handed strength reaching a baseline of 400 tons, and speed increasing from four times the speed of sound to six times when bare-handed, the increase was immense.

This was the advantage of merging Martial Arts into the Imprint; in contrast to the pure attribute enhancement provided by the Imprint Orb, the augmentation of Martial Arts was more comprehensive.

Remember that this was bare-handed, without any other forms of enhancement.

No Soft Qi, no Floral Dress, no Flower Language Technique, just purely with his physical body.

Unleashing the terrifying speed and strength born of his body.