Chapter 65

Holding the Poison-Resistant Necklace (Three-star Magic Tool) in his hand, Zhuge Xiang took a deep breath and tightly gripped the secret letter given to him by his mother. The necklace required a Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm, with an attack range of 12-18. Its unique active ability was to suppress poisons of Two-star and below for one day, with the effect halving for each level above Two-star. It had a durability of 30/38 and weighed 2.

Glancing down, the information about the necklace naturally appeared in Zhuge Xiang's mind. A Three-star Magic Tool? Overjoyed, he quickly stored it in his storage belt. Although the increase in attack power was not significant, the effect of suppressing poisons was very practical. Of course, the most important thing was that he had taken Li Ling's Poison-Resistant Necklace, making it impossible for Li Ling to suppress the poison in his body.

"Damn it! Give me back my Poison-Resistant Necklace!" Seeing Zhuge Xiang put the necklace away, Li Ling felt a faint pain in his abdomen. Panicked, he ignored Zi Xiang and Lu Yuling, and the silk threads on his body snapped as he lunged at Zhuge Xiang.

After much effort, Zhuge Xiang had finally taken the Poison-Resistant Necklace. How could he possibly give it back? He kicked off the ground and retreated rapidly. The Pursuit Boots increased his movement speed by 30%, and with the Bloodlust skill, his speed increased by 50%. Although Zhuge Xiang's strength was inferior to Li Ling's, their movement speeds were not far apart.

"Want to take back the Poison-Resistant Necklace? We'll see if you have the ability," Zhuge Xiang said coldly as he retreated, not intending to attack. He quickly ran out of the storage room, with Li Ling chasing him frantically. In a hurry, Li Ling swallowed a pill to slow down the poison's effects, but he knew he couldn't hold on for long.

One chased, the other fled. Zhuge Xiang and Li Ling's figures darted through several interconnected rooms. Zhuge Xiang's speed was not slow, and he had the Burst Step skill to help him in critical moments. It was impossible for Li Ling to catch him. Although the pill slowed down the poison's effects, the pain in Li Ling's abdomen grew more intense, accompanied by a numbing sensation. If he had a mirror, he would have been horrified to see that his face had turned a strange blue, and his breathing became increasingly difficult.

The Bloodlust skill lasted only one minute, and Lu Yuling and Zi Xiang couldn't keep up with Zhuge Xiang's speed. They waited in a room filled with half-finished puppets and spirit stones. As the one-minute mark approached and Li Ling's poisoning worsened, Zhuge Xiang ran to Zi Xiang and Lu Yuling, ready to fight.

Although the Body Tempering Realm was strong, the poison from a Two-star Upper-grade demon beast was not easy to resist. In less than a minute, Li Ling's poisoning had become severe, and the chase with Zhuge Xiang, which required full-speed running, had accelerated the poison's effects.

With the cracked mechanical puppets, Lu Yuling's silk threads, and Zi Xiang's Ninth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm attacks, along with Zhuge Xiang's Bloodlust-enhanced slashing blades, Li Ling, with his Body Tempering Realm cultivation, would normally have no problem overwhelming them. The gap between cultivation levels was not easily bridged, but the poison from a Two-star Upper-grade demon beast was also very powerful.

Although Zhuge Xiang's Bloodlust soon lost its effect, leaving him in a weakened state, Li Ling was also in a terrible poisoning state. Three minutes later, Li Ling, entangled by Lu Yuling's silk threads, had his skin turn a deep blue, and he spat out black blood. Finally, the wolf-type mechanical puppet pounced and fiercely bit into Li Ling's body.

Li Ling, entangled by the silk threads and deeply poisoned, had no strength to break free. Although his physical defense was strong, the wolf-type puppet had no sense of pain and tore at him relentlessly. The two rolled on the ground, causing a mess as numerous spirit stones and unfinished puppets were scattered.

Seeing Li Ling rolling and screaming on the ground, Zhuge Xiang, Lu Yuling, and Zi Xiang did not move to attack. There was no need to. Although the wolf-type puppet couldn't kill him, it was enough to suppress him. The poison had fully taken effect, and there was no need for further action.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of struggling, Li Ling's body stopped moving, and he lay still. At the same time, a familiar system prompt sounded in Zhuge Xiang's mind.

"Ding, killed a Second Layer Body Tempering Realm cultivator, gained 690 experience, obtained Hand Speed Scroll."

"Ding, level up 1, gained 1 skill point, current level: Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm."

The continuous system prompts caused a slight tremor in Zhuge Xiang's qi, as if breaking through some kind of constraint, making it more robust. The weakness from the Bloodlust skill also disappeared with the level-up.

Sensing the aura emanating from Zhuge Xiang, Lu Yuling and Zi Xiang looked at him in surprise, amazed that he had broken through at this moment. Lu Yuling, who felt it most deeply, was surprised by Zhuge Xiang's rapid growth but did not ask much.

Finally, the powerful disciples were dead, and Zhuge Xiang and the others breathed a sigh of relief. Lu Yuling put away the wolf-type puppet and turned to search through the unfinished puppets, while Zi Xiang hurriedly collected the spirit stones on the ground. Although the materials were valuable, they were hard to sell, unlike the spirit stones.

Zhuge Xiang did not rush to collect the spirit stones but took out the Hand Speed Scroll from his storage belt and examined it.

Hand Speed Scroll (Special Consumable): No level requirement, increases attack speed by 250% for 30 seconds.

After a simple look, Zhuge Xiang put it back in his storage belt and took out the "Qi Shield" skill book. The Hand Speed Scroll might be useful later, but the "Qi Shield" skill book was something he could use immediately.

Finally reaching the Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm, which Zhuge Xiang had been eagerly awaiting, was for the "Qi Shield" skill book.

When entering the Ice Maiden's Legacy Tomb, Zhuge Xiang was only 1000 experience points away from leveling up. By killing Lu Xiaoman and others, he had hoped to reach the Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm, giving him the strength to resist Li Ling. Unfortunately, they only provided 800 experience points, falling short of the breakthrough. Fortunately, after a fierce battle and successfully taking Li Ling's Poison-Resistant Necklace, he finally managed to kill him.

Why did Zhuge Xiang have confidence in facing Li Ling head-on after reaching the Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm? The reason was the "Qi Shield" skill book. As the name suggests, it was a defensive skill that Zhuge Xiang had obtained during his rampage on Green Willow Peak. Although the skill book required Body Tempering Realm cultivation to learn, Zhuge Xiang had a special item that allowed him to learn it at the Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm.

With the "Qi Shield" skill book, Zhuge Xiang took out a white ball the size of a baby's fist from his storage belt. Holding the skill book in one hand and the white ball in the other, a broad smile appeared on his face. This white ball was the skill ball that Zhuge Xiang had obtained when he defeated Lu Yuling in the competition.

Skill Ball (Special Item): Can force the learning of skills up to five levels higher than the user's current level. Current available slots: 3.

The "Qi Shield" skill book required Body Tempering Realm cultivation, but with the skill ball, Zhuge Xiang could learn it at the Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm. Therefore, he had been eager to reach this level. Due to the special effect of the skill ball, he hadn't encountered suitable high-level skills since the competition, so the skill ball had remained unused in his storage belt.

Without hesitation, Zhuge Xiang learned the "Qi Shield" skill book, deducting one skill point. Immediately, he felt a sense of enlightenment, and a new skill icon appeared in his skill tree.

Looking at the information for "Qi Shield," Zhuge Xiang was overjoyed. When he had reached the Fifth Layer Qi Cultivation Realm, he had saved his skill points. Overjoyed, he didn't hesitate to allocate the extra skill point to "Qi Shield," bringing it to the "Mastery" level.

Qi Shield (Mastery): Active skill, increases defense by 80 + 30% when activated, consuming 5 MP per second.

At the Mastery level, "Qi Shield" greatly pleased Zhuge Xiang. With his current equipment, his defense had already exceeded 70 points. If he activated "Qi Shield," the 30% increase would add over 20 points, plus the additional 80 points of defense, bringing his total defense to over 170 points. This defense value was comparable to that of a First or even Second Layer Body Tempering Realm cultivator, as the Steel Secret Medicine could only provide 150 points of defense.

Although the MP consumption was high, with 5 points per second, and Zhuge Xiang's current 200 MP, the skill could not be maintained for long. However, there was no denying that the skill was very powerful. Once activated, except for attack power, Zhuge Xiang could match a Body Tempering Realm cultivator.

After looking at the Hand Speed Scroll and learning the "Qi Shield" skill, Zhuge Xiang didn't spend much time. However, at this moment, Zi Xiang suddenly pointed at an unfinished puppet and said, "Look, what's wrong with this puppet?"

Shifting his attention from the "Qi Shield" skill book, Zhuge Xiang saw that Zi Xiang was pointing at an unfinished humanoid puppet with a glowing spirit stone embedded in it. The puppet's array patterns emitted a faint light, powered by the spirit stone.

"Oh no! It must have been when Li Ling was entangled with my puppet just before he died, and the spirit stone accidentally hit the puppet's central mechanism. We need to escape quickly," Lu Yuling quickly put away an unfinished puppet and said urgently, then used the Lingbo Steps to run toward the exit.

An unfinished puppet left by the Ice Maiden? Although it was incomplete, Zhuge Xiang and Zi Xiang were still shocked and did not hesitate to follow Lu Yuling, running out as fast as lightning...