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Chapter 136 - 135: Ascending Abilities

"What? So nothing happened to you guys after all." Lin Qing murmured, but her expression was somewhat light-hearted.

Chen Xuan silently rolled his eyes. Actually, this was just one of many things that concerned him.

What truly unsettled him was the anomaly in the Ability Store.

But even if he spoke of it, it wouldn’t help; no one could solve it for him. Talking about it would only cause unnecessary panic, so he had kept it buried in his heart for the past few days, not even revealing it to Liu Shuyue.

Everything had to be traced back to two weeks ago.

After the disaster in Chang’an City temporarily came to an end, Liu Shuyue returned two abilities to him. According to her, the abilities were too sinister, and using them made her feel deeply uneasy, so it was better for Chen Xuan to seal them away. Since both Decomposition and Re-Fusion and Flesh and Blood Hunger had been in storage, once they returned to his hands, they couldn’t be traded again, which was probably what Liu Shuyue hoped for.

Chen Xuan could accept her reasoning.

To be honest, even watching from afar, seeing countless roots made of bare muscle strands and blood vessels frantically pouring into Liu Shuyue’s body, he could empathize with her strong discomfort and resistance. If it weren’t for the urgent situation, with the lives of the entire city at stake, she would never use such a demon-like ability.

However, when he used the "one-way retrieval" method to retrieve the two abilities, he realized that something was off.

First, they both changed color, and the descriptions as well!

Now in the inventory, they displayed as follows:

"Curse: Flesh and Blood Hunger" Level 5, purple.

—"You crave to merge with new flesh, new souls, until reaching a state of perfection. As an apostle spreading the fusion gospel, the degree of aberration will be significantly reduced. You are no longer a bottom-tier feeder of filthy flesh before the Great Fusion, for He allows you to maintain elegance."

"Decomposition and Re-Fusion" Level 1, gold.

—"Forbidden +7."

Indeed, the rarity of both abilities had increased by a notch. Especially Flesh and Blood Hunger, its curse effects were controlled.

To prevent the app description from exaggerating, he deliberately equipped them on himself to test... and found that the bloodthirsty impulse still existed but was less mentally disturbing, with desires not as overwhelming. Paired with the Purifying Heart Technique, he could almost completely calm the burning sensation on his body.

As for the degree of aberration, he did not test it. Just in case something grew on him, it would be too awkward. But since the craving for flesh was suppressed, the "significantly reduced degree of aberration" description should also be credible.

If it’s just the upgrade in ability grade, he could understand that.

After all, Liu Shuyue absorbed a massive amount of roots with it and then disabled the defenses of the demon fiend altar with Decomposition and Re-Fusion, which naturally brought a lot of experience.

However, the peculiarity of these two abilities did not stop there.

When returned to the inventory, their text changed!

At first, Chen Xuan thought he was seeing things, but two days later, the morphological change became much more apparent. Tiny tendrils began to grow from the text, as if they were moldy.

A week later, these tendrils had grown seven to eight millimeters long, standing out on the screen. Upon closer look, they resembled tentacles.

The problem is that the app fonts are standard Heiti, how could they grow these tendrils?

Chen Xuan deliberately dragged the abilities around to see if the monitor was malfunctioning. The moment he dragged them, they reverted to normal text, but once placed, the tendrils grew back out to their previous length, giving an eerie feeling.

It couldn’t possibly be a virus on the computer, right?

The inventory didn’t have an option to destroy abilities either, so he could only keep these two abilities at the bottom and pretend not to see them.

But by today, the tendrils had exceeded one centimeter in length, even crossing the boundary lines of the grid, as if striving to climb upwards.

And previously, when they were at the top of the grid, the tendrils grew downwards.

As if something were luring them.

Chen Xuan moved the two abilities again, dragging them to the right corner, hoping to find some clue.

If this thing could affect store abilities, it would be a huge trouble. Lately, he kept spacing out, actually observing if the text was indeed growing on its own.

"By the way, you’ve dissolved the Only I am Venerable Sect. What about those two little guests?" Lin Qing stretched lazily, "Should we occasionally invite them to the store to play?"

"I run an Ability Store, not an amusement park." Chen Xuan flatly refused, "Besides, there’s the Immortal Alliance Governor watching over them; they can directly join the Ascension Platform anyway. Xu Xuanling is heading there too."

"The farewell must have been very emotional. Losing their master and sect, it’s quite pitiful just thinking about it." Lin Qing said, feeling fortunate, "Good thing I wasn’t there."

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but remain silent.

That was partly true.

Although Jiu and Hua weren’t ordinary children, well-educated and mentally robust, that day they cried their hearts out, even sobbing about wanting to join him in the "Immortal Realm."

The problem is there’s no such Immortal Realm, and the store couldn’t hire two child laborers; otherwise, it would surely invite complaints from zealous neighborhood folks.

Besides, Chen Xuan knew that letting them stay in that world was the best course of action. Currently, the Immortal Alliance had reached a consensus: before all cultivators’ strength reached a certain level, they couldn’t possibly retaliate against another world. So the most rational approach was to have some cultivators keep an eye on the Erosion Zone in Chang’an, building fortresses on the outer city walls to prevent the enemy from slipping out. Meanwhile, the majority of cultivators should head to the Western Extreme Coast to participate in the war against the demon fiends.

This large-scale demon slaying battle was the best way to enhance cultivators’ abilities.

As Liu Shuyue said, absorbing demon fiend energy might cap a cultivator’s potential, but its improvement speed was unmatched compared to converting spiritual qi. If it were talented cultivators like the Wei siblings and Xu Xuanling, naturally the latter method of cultivation would be preferable. But for ordinary cultivators without aptitude, enhancing themselves by slaying demons wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since they’d hardly reach the point of birthing an inner demon in their lifetime.

War signifies opportunity.

With Jiu and Hua’s capabilities, Chen Xuan believed they would soon make a name for themselves in the Immortal Alliance, becoming a pair of shining new stars. With the guidance of Xu Xuanling and Xu Yuanqing, the road ahead for them would be quite smooth.

If they had stayed with him, they would miss out on this tumultuous period.

Because of this, Chen Xuan did not follow his initial plan of taking two gold abilities as compensation; he simply took "Spiritual Energy Body," leaving "Cultivation Genius" to them. Taking the "Spiritual Energy Body" wasn’t purely for achievement; it accelerated the arrival of an inner demon, and he couldn’t keep an eye on them all the time, so he eliminated this hazard for them. After all, the "Gemini" already had a double absorption effect, and spiritual qi conversion wouldn’t be a bottleneck in their cultivation.

"What exactly did you tell the Immortal Alliance at the time?" Lin Qing asked curiously, "People can’t just disappear suddenly, right?"

"What else could I say? That a great battle triggered Heavenly Human Sensing, and they wanted to seek breakthrough opportunities alone. As for the disciples of Hot Pepper Village, naturally they were to be dispersed, and they couldn’t find anyone anyway."

"Then the teleportation array can’t be used anymore."

Chen Xuan laughed, "Actually, what’s more missed than the Only I am Venerable Sect is this array. They were still cramming people in the day before I left, trying to send as many cultivators across as possible."

But this wasn’t a crucial problem.

The eastern continent and the west are the same land; carriages can still travel there, just taking a year and a half more. For the long journey of cultivation, this time is wholly bearable.