Chapter 293: Imperial Martial Tournament – Part 12 (2/2)

”Dammit! I should have brought a barrier artifact or a gas mask!”

”Remove the fog! We can't see shit!”

Luo Song ignored the complaint and flew into the gas, hiding her presence and her Qi. Yet, she could see everything within the miasma, including Lu Fengxian.

'I see you, but you can't see me! Let see if you can handle my power!'

Luo Song activated her trump card – Petrification Miasma!

Unlike normal succubi, who used their pink miasma to charm men or control them, Luo Song's miasma had another property and usage due to her original race.

She couldn't charm men like the other human-turned-succubus. However, her dwarf bloodline allowed her to use earth element Qi with the succubus' natural ability, turning them into a unique weapon.

When her victim inhaled the brown miasma, Luo Song could petrify their blood, Qi, and essence, transforming them into stone statues and killing them in the process. The petrified victims could also be converted into mud golems, stone golems, stone gargoyle, or stone warriors, depending on Luo Song's imagination and mood.

Moreover, Luo Song could recover her Qi, injuries, and stamina as long as she stayed inside her pseudo domain of brown gas. In other words, this gas-covered area was now her playground.

Now, Luo Song forced the brown gas to enter Lu Fengxian's orifices, trying to destroy him from the inside. The gas entered Lu Fengxian's lungs, stomach, eyes, noses, and ears as Luo Song had commanded.

Lu Fengxian just stood there, inhaling the gas!

Sensing that the brown gas had entered Lu Fengxian's body, Luo Song grinned.

'It's over, you trash! Now, die!'

Luo Song sent her command to her brown parasites inside Lu Fengxian's body!

.

.

.

Nothing happened.

'Huh?'

Luo Song was confused. She ordered more parasites to enter his body.

Lu Fengxian didn't resist. He simply stood still, but he gazed toward her direction.

'He can't possibly sense me, right?'

Luo Song ordered her gas to petrify Lu Fengxian again.

Yet, she couldn't feel the response. For some reason, she could no longer sense her tiny creatures within Lu Fengxian's body.

'What!?'

At that moment, Luo Song realized that all parasites in Lu Fengxian's body had either died or been digested. She couldn't manipulate them anymore.

Then, she heard Lu Fengxian's obnoxious voice.

”Thanks for the food. I was wondering where I should look for an earth element crystal. Your Qi will do.”

WHOOM

Suddenly, Lu Fengxian's body generated a whirlpool, sucking the brown miasma into his dantian. He inhaled everything and converted the parasites and earth element Qi into his power!

The gas that had covered the entire arena disappeared into Lu Fengxian's stomach!

Then

BOOM

Lu Fengxian's cultivation base suddenly increased. From a 3rd-stage weakling, his strength jumped to the late-stage essence gathering realm!

The breakthrough process was completed in 10 seconds!

”IMPOSSIBLE!!”

Luo Song, Li Wenyou, and the crowd was dumbfounded. None of them had ever seen a cultivator breakthrough by using his opponent Qi to boost his strength before, and Lu Fengxian defied all logic!

…

Miaomiao had been paying attention to Lu Fengxian's skills from the beginning. He had guessed that the ex-god protagonist should have a game-breaking cheat ability, but Lu Fengxian's feat was beyond Miaomiao's expectation.

It reminded him about 200%-difficulty 3rd-stage and 4th-stage clones, who could suddenly gain a new power or increase their cultivation base during combat.

'First, he can definitely see the death points or use sword intent. Secondly, he can use the killing domain better than me. And now, he can break through in mid-combat. His foundation, experience, insight, and potential should be the same as those clones.'

Miaomiao sighed and leaned his back against the sofa, 'I guess I'm lucky that his story doesn't involve hunting me or harming my family. It would have been a nightmare to be an enemy of that OP protagonist.'

Protagonists in wuxia novels were categorized into many types, but their stories centered around three common story plots – Counterattack, revenge, and invincibility.

[Counterattack] was simply face-slapping tropes. Protagonists were usually underdogs or unpopular guys. Thus, many villains underestimated them or find trouble with them, resulting in getting face-slapped by the MCs when they were forced to show their strength.

[Revenge] was self-explanatory. Sometimes, Villains harmed the protagonists' friends, family, or lovers in the early story. The protagonists would slowly get stronger and overcome their weaknesses. Next, they would exact their revenge against the hateful villains, completing a plot circle.

The last part was common in most web novels – the ultimate plot armor, aka the [Invincibility]. Sometimes, protagonists could be excessively overpowered to the point that they couldn't get stronger anymore. Yet, they continued their adventure and stories, provoking villains left and right. Afterward, they went through the loops of ”Counterattack” and ”Revenge” with the additional perk of being invincible throughout the stories.

Not many protagonists had this ”Invincibility” perk. But when they had one, not a single villain had a chance to defeat them. Everything in the story or combat scene turned into a face-slapping scene.

Comparing to Xie Tian, the dead man lacked this ”Invincibility” trait since he was a native cultivator who started from zero. He only had [Luck], but he didn't have [Experience] or the [Supreme Cultivation Technique]. As such, his ”Invincibility” was incomplete in his early story.

On the other hand, Lu Fengxian came with extra boosts from the start.

Miaomiao was afraid that Lu Fengxian had this ”Invincibility” perk in his early story since he possessed the [Supreme Cultivation Technique], [Experience] from the higher realm, and [Ultimate Fortune], which made his character in the category of the infamous ”OP MC” trope.

Catching up with Lu Fengxian's growth was impossible. Defeating him with Miaomiao's current strength and resources was also impossibru. Ganging on him with all nascent soul cultivators and Zhao Bao might be viable, but the sacrifices and potential casualties wouldn't worth it.

Miaomiao couldn't think of a way to defeat this man with his current strength, allies, and resources!

'Well, fuck. If I can't be his enemy, be his friend! I just keep being on his good side like how I showered the Ma Clan with fortune. Nothing can go wrong by being a protagonist's friend!'

Ding

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