Chapter 549: Chapter 270: Unbreakable Glazed Body
The moment the three words "Glazed Pure Body" appeared, light returned to Zheng Xiu’s vision. The tingling numbness covering his body receded like the tide.
When Zheng Xiu fell to the ground, Snake was startled. She flipped over, straddling him to hold him down, and grabbed the Antitoxic Pill from the table, intending to shove it into his mouth.
In Snake’s eyes, Zheng Xiu was completely unconscious. His breathing was as faint as a thread, and he looked to be at death’s door—practically with one foot in the grave.
What she didn’t know was that Zheng Xiu, ecstatic about his breakthrough, had already forgotten her existence. He sank his consciousness into his Heart Prison, sat at the Game Table, and poked at his Incarnation to check the Attributes of his Zheng Er Incarnation.
[Name] Zheng Er
[Alias] Evil Child
[Birth] scholarly family
[Age] 10
[Muscle Strength] 36 (Innate Divine Power, Powerful Strength, Fists of an Ox)
[Step Technique] 28 (Peerless Speed)
[Resistance] 41 (Glazed Pure Body)
[Appearance] 18 (Fine-featured)
[Will] 13 (Easily Distracted)
[Destiny] 18 (Blessed by Fortune)
[Physique] 12 (Child’s Build)
[Scholarship] 30 (Erudite, Well-read)
[Traits] Inspiration (Masterful), Fist Skill (Entry), Coiling Dragon Eighteen Slashes (Peak of Perfection), Intuition (Masterful), Taunt (Masterful)
It worked!
A breakthrough!
The first time Zheng Xiu achieved a "breakthrough" was when he created Zheng Baimei.
He had used the "No Merchant is Honest" Talent Skill, which in one fell swoop caused a breakthrough in Zheng Baimei’s Scholarship stat, upgrading it to Enlightenment.
Back then, it felt like cheating. But this time, Zheng Er’s attribute breakthrough was something Zheng Xiu had achieved step by step, accumulating it bit by bit.
This was an epoch-making achievement.
In his Heart Prison, Zheng Xiu fiddled with the Deceitful Object as he pondered the principles behind it.
’Clearly, every attribute has a bottleneck, something like a "limiter."’
’Or maybe... a lock?’
’Uh... the bottleneck of being Human?’
’The limits of a Human?’
Regardless of which attribute it was, once it broke through, it meant one was no longer a mere mortal.
Before the breakthrough, Zheng Er’s Constitution attribute had three flashy "affixes" after it. Now they were all gone, leaving only "Glazed Pure Body." It had an air of Returning to the Essence, which was remarkably similar to Zheng Baimei’s "One Smell, Thousand Realizations."
After checking the changes to his Incarnation’s Attributes, Zheng Xiu suddenly remembered Snake was still outside. He didn’t have time to study the effects of "Glazed Pure Body" and withdrew his consciousness from the Heart Prison. The moment he opened his eyes, he felt a soft, slippery, cool, and smooth body pressing down on him, its scales rubbing against his clothes.
Snake’s face was a mask of anxiety, her forehead beaded with sweat.
As Zheng Xiu opened his eyes, Snake put on a tragic, heroic expression and began chewing the Antitoxic Pill in her mouth.
"Did you... poison yourself?"
Seeing this, Zheng Xiu asked with some uncertainty.
Snake shuddered, let out a little "EEP," and then—GULP. In her fright, she’d swallowed the Antitoxic Pill.
"I-I-I... I swallowed it!" ℴ𝗆
Snake looked miserable and pitiful.
’It suddenly dawned on Zheng Xiu. ’Don’t tell me this girl was trying to imitate one of those cheesy scenes from Ximen Bei’s melodramatic books, where the heroine chews up the medicine and feeds it to the hero mouth-to-mouth?’’
His expression darkened. "You read Ximen Bei, too?"
Snake stared blankly and asked back, "You don’t?"
"I... don’t!" Zheng Xiu pushed Snake away and scrambled to his feet. "I’m fine now."
"But I’m not!" Snake huffed, pointing at Zheng Xiu’s nose. "If you were fine, why did you pretend you weren’t? I accidentally swallowed the Antitoxic Pill!" Snake rubbed her flat belly.
’Zheng Xiu froze. A poisonous snake ate an Antitoxic Pill?’
’That was like a poisonous snake taking a bath in realgar wine.’
A pang of guilt hit Zheng Xiu. He asked with concern, "What will happen... now that you’ve eaten it?"
"I’ll get a stomach ache!"
Snake replied, full of indignation.
’...’ He had worried for nothing.
In any case, Zheng Xiu was thrilled that Zheng Er’s Constitution had broken through. He was eager to study the effects of the "Glazed Pure Body" and was about to send her away when he suddenly recalled his personal motto: "The sea of learning is boundless, and there’s always more wool to be fleeced." He asked tentatively, "Could you... try biting me again?"
This time, Snake seemed genuinely angry. She gave a sinister laugh, "Heh heh," and bared her fangs ferociously. CHOMP! She bit down hard on Zheng Xiu’s neck.
This bite was excruciatingly painful for Zheng Xiu, as if she’d bitten right on a nerve. The feeling of comfort plummeted to a freezing point.
’Apparently, whether Snake’s bite felt good or not depended entirely on her mood.’
Zheng Xiu rubbed the bite mark as a line of text floated before his eyes.
’This isn’t right. It’s not this type of venom.’ The minuscule gain made Zheng Xiu realize that the snake venom that had caused his breakthrough and this "angry" venom were two completely different things. Rubbing his neck, he said, "The other one, the... ’Intertwined Snake Venom.’"
Snake looked bewildered. "What intertwined?"
"Intertwined Snake Venom."
Hearing this, Snake grew even more confused and gave him an odd look. "What are you sleep-talking about?"
’Huh?’
’How strange.’
’It seemed Snake herself didn’t know she possessed a toxin far more potent than her regular venom.’
’Or maybe... she didn’t really understand herself?’
Zheng Xiu tried a different approach, asking if she had a more powerful venom. Snake suddenly seemed to remember something, and her face turned red. ’There’s a chance!’ Zheng Xiu thought. Snake became coy and hesitant, stammering and playing hard-to-get. After she’d demurred for a good while, Zheng Xiu was forced to play his trump card. "If you give me some more of that snake venom, I’ll tell you where the Big White Snake is."
Snake was dumbfounded. "You know where my mother is?"
"Heh heh!" The boy grinned smugly. "Of course I do! If I’m telling a single lie, may Heaven strike me down with lightning and may I die a horrible death!" As he spoke, he pulled out a small white jade porcelain bottle from the table. He shook it and winked at Snake. "Squeeze a little in here for me, would you?"