Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 854 His strength has increased dramatically, it's terrifying!
"And what a commotion you've made... cough!"

Malone coughed and pointed upwards: "You just absorbed the black mist that permeates the Sin Domain into your body, and the absorption efficiency was terrifying. The black mist formed a funnel with a diameter of at least one kilometer above your head!"

Is it really that exaggerated?
Li Zheng was quite surprised. He clearly felt that there wasn't much gray energy entering his body, and after it was refined into black energy, it was even less.

"So what are they doing?"

Li Zheng stood up and faced the residents of the outer city.

"They think your absorption of the black mist is too dangerous, and they're worried you'll turn into a twisted being in the Sky Dragon Clan's territory. They want to kill you before you become twisted. Cough... Ugh!" Malone coughed again, then vomited a mouthful of purplish-red blood, his aura weakening.

Fighting is forbidden within the territory of the Heavenly Dragon Clan, but Li Zheng's act of absorbing the black mist has caused panic among all the residents of the outer city, who have disregarded this restriction and started fighting within the Golden Light Zone.

If Ma Long hadn't risked his life to protect him, Li Zheng's cultivation process wouldn't have gone so smoothly.

"Thanks."

Li Zheng pulled Ma Long behind him, activated the translator, and addressed the group of outer city residents in a loud voice: "Gentlemen, I was commissioned by the terminal to conduct research on the black mist, which caused some misunderstandings. This research was developed by the terminal and is highly secure. My ability to remain sober and communicate with you is proof of that."

The terminal would randomly issue some mandatory tasks from time to time, and the tasks were extremely dangerous. The excuse that Li Zheng found best matched the perception of the residents of the outer city.

Only mandatory tasks issued by the terminal would make people risk being distorted to conduct such unreliable research.

"Next time there is a dangerous mission, we must inform the residents of the surrounding outer city in advance."

From within the crowd, a mechanical voice, seemingly emanating from beneath a black robe, declared: "The terminal issues tasks regardless of the life or death of the executor, but we are innocent."

Among the outer city residents who could appear in the territory of the Celestial Dragon Clan, some were afraid of death, and some were not.

But everyone believed that they could die in the battle against the Twisted Ones, at least that would be a worthy death.

But it would be such a shame if some unlucky soul who was forced to perform a task by the terminal died inexplicably.

The group of men in black robes slowly retreated, knowing that Li Zheng had accepted the "forced mission." There were still some people around, but now they all retreated to a great distance, fearing that someone might suddenly twist and affect them.

Seeing this, Li Zheng breathed a sigh of relief. All the original power in his body had been destroyed. Whether it was the genetic abilities such as the Demon Thunder Wings that he had absorbed at the beginning or the genetic matrix that Yan Bujin had developed later, they were all completely destroyed.

Currently, Li Zheng only possesses the internal energy he gained from cultivating the demonic art, and because of his unique physique, he cannot even determine his current strength.

Apart from a few moves I learned from Zhan Zhouzhou, all my previous fighting techniques need to be redeveloped.

"How badly are you injured?" Li Zheng turned to Ma Long and asked, "Can you recover?"

He didn't know if Malone's current condition was suitable for the treatment methods developed outside the city.

“Yes, but it will take time.” Malone was out of breath, but forced himself to smile bitterly. “Those guys are ruthless when they fight. If I hadn’t turned into this mess, they would have torn me to pieces in one fell swoop.”

He was momentarily unsure whether he should be glad that things had turned out this way.

Li Zheng took out a bottle of healing medicine and handed it to Ma Long: "Try this and see if it works for you."

Malone recognized it as something for treating injuries and took it, saying, "Thank you."

His personal space disappeared, and all the items and props he had collected and accumulated were also lost.

After drinking the medicine, Malone closed his eyes and sensed it: "It's useless, it doesn't work for me."

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng frowned slightly: "It must be because your body has completely transformed into a substance entirely different from that of the myriad races, which is why the healing medicine is ineffective."

This is troublesome. Malone's injuries are very serious. Without the help of medical aids, it's hard to know how long it will take for his body to heal on its own.

"Tsk."

Malone spat out a crystal: "In comparison, my intuition tells me that these are needed to heal the injury."

Twisted Magic Crystal?

A look of realization flashed across Li Zheng's eyes.

That's right.

Malone is now a twisted being, so the strong side effects of the Twisted Magic Crystal on others might actually become a supplement for him.

"Since it's useful, don't be shy with me." Li Zheng waved his hand generously: "Use it freely, and if you need more, I'll go kill another batch for you."

"That's enough."

Ma Long broke out in a cold sweat. Just now, Li Zheng had killed at least a thousand Twisted Beasts in a single charge, and each Twisted Beast represented a Twisted Magic Crystal.

Thousands of Twisted Magic Crystals were stored in Malone's abdominal space. Not only could so many Twisted Magic Crystals heal his injuries, but Malone even felt that if he absorbed them all, they might further enhance his strength.

However, it's hard to say whether there are any side effects. Moreover, ordinary people absorb the energy in the distorted magic crystals very slowly, unlike Li who absorbs spirit stones one by one in the blink of an eye, as easily as eating sunflower seeds.

Li Zheng waited for a long time, but Ma Long did not improve. He then decided to go out and find some twisted beasts to test his current strength.

But thinking of how dutifully the other person had stayed by his side while he meditated and cultivated, Li Zheng dismissed the idea, sat down next to Ma Long, and took out a spirit stone to play with in his palm.

He dared not cultivate at this moment.

Firstly, I realized during my cultivation that I had reached a bottleneck, and continuing to cultivate would have little effect.

Secondly, once he begins cultivation, he loses control over the outside world and has no sense of time, which can easily lead to uncontrollable consequences in a place like the Sin Domain.

So he just idly played with the spirit stones, while also thinking about what to do next.

First of all, it has been confirmed that the Myriad Evil Demon Art can be cultivated by absorbing the black mist of the Sin Domain, and judging from his current cultivation results, this cultivation does not seem to have any side effects.

But as I said before, he knew that his physique was special, so the results and process of his cultivation could not be used as a reference.

Therefore, in order to obtain more accurate results, he should find a group of people with a spirit of sacrifice to pass on the Ten Thousand Evils Demon Art, and give those people a batch of spirit stones to try and experience it, using multiple cases to confirm whether it really has no side effects. "However, the demon art clearly states that the more one cultivates to the later stages, the stronger the spiritual energy in the body becomes and the more uncontrollable it becomes, ultimately resulting in death by exploding body."

Li Zheng reviewed his own findings and found that, apart from feeling that the spiritual energy absorbed into his body during cultivation seemed to have sentience, he did not have any other sensations.

Perhaps it was because of a special constitution that completely tamed the spiritual energy, or perhaps it was because this world was not the world that could not be fully described, and the rules of the spiritual energy had also changed.

Or perhaps I haven't cultivated myself to the point of losing control, or perhaps...

"Could it be mental energy at work?"

Li Zheng had some ideas in mind.

He had previously speculated that the principle of the materialization of spiritual entities was the same as that of the "primordial spirit" in the world of Yan Bujin, both being a kind of transformation of the soul form.

Could it be that the reason why Reiki possesses "intelligence" is that Reiki itself is some kind of microscopic life form?
Such microscopic life forms do not conform to the rules for generating "intelligence," so "spiritual energy" may also be a whole, sharing the same "brain," which is actually a kind of existence similar to spiritual power.

Based on this speculation, perhaps a strong mental force can counterbalance or even restrain "spiritual energy," thus preventing it from causing trouble once it enters the body.

Similarly, the last speculation can also be linked to the fact that this world is isolated from the world that cannot be fully described.

If spiritual energy truly shares a single "brain," then the barriers between worlds isolate spiritual energy from the "brain," so the spiritual energy here might not be as violent as the man described.

These are all just speculations at the moment, and we need to use enough cases for comparison before we can draw any conclusions.

The experiment takes time, and Li Zheng... or rather, everyone in the entire matrix, lacks time the most.

At this point, there are only two years left before the emotional tide sweeps across the Blue Star. In just two years, unless hundreds or thousands more people with monstrous physiques like Li Zheng appear, it will be too late.

"It would be great if the cells of the host could continue to clone."

The terminal stated that the original body was completely dead, and the clone itself had unbreakable shackles, making it impossible to clone again based on the original body.

Therefore, only Li Zheng remains as the "Formless Body".

"wrong!"

Thinking of this, Li Zheng's eyes suddenly lit up: "I'm not the only existing clone. There are also a large number of traitorous clones in the Destiny organization in the wilderness. If I can capture them and brainwash them with the memory extraction device, they might be able to be used by me!"

Li Zheng was eager to try. If he weren't still tasked with finding the leader of the Nine Heavens Regiment, he would have liked to immediately return to the outer city to discuss the action plan with the terminal.

The Destiny Organization never imagined that Li Zheng, who was originally on the defensive, would actually take the initiative to seek them out.

After waiting for a long time, Malone finally breathed a sigh of relief after absorbing another twisted magic crystal: "My injuries have stabilized. As long as I don't engage in intense battles, I won't die for the time being."

"Then let's go."

Li Zheng stood up and said, "You just need to follow me. If there is any fighting, leave it to me."

He didn't know exactly how strong he was after cultivating the Myriad Evil Demon Art, but he shouldn't be weaker than he was before he cultivated it.

After all, the original source of power was no match for the power cultivated by the Myriad Evil Demon Art.

"why?"

Ma Long stood up and walked behind Li Zheng, saying, "Why do I still feel like a piece of trash in front of you even though I've become stronger?"

Whether before or after Li Zheng practiced the Ten Thousand Evil Demon Art, Ma Long always had a hunch when he looked at Li Zheng—if he were Li Zheng's enemy, he would die within three moves!

"Don't underestimate yourself. Among those who entered the Matrix together, you're already very capable," Li Zheng said sincerely.

At least after becoming infinitely close to a twisted state, it still maintains a clear mind and has not yet shown any signs of being affected by the Sin Domain. Just doing this is extraordinary.

The two left the Heavenly Dragon Clan's battle intent domain and once again ventured deeper into the Sin Domain.

This time, the two did not rush on their way. Since Li Zheng lost his Thunder Wings, he temporarily had no means to fly freely and could only choose to walk with Ma Long.

There were a few flying devices left in the capsule residence before, but when flying with those things, they cannot be controlled as freely as the Thunder Wings when encountering combat, and their speed is a bit slow for Li Zheng now.

Moreover, Li Zheng wanted to find a few twisted beasts to practice against and test his current strength, so he figured he could go slower.

As they ventured deeper, Li Zheng found a group of twisted, alien beasts wandering aimlessly.

He was about to step forward to make a move when he noticed something strange.

Previously, whenever I appeared in the sight of the Twisted Beasts, they would immediately launch a frenzied attack.

But this time, even when he was almost in front of the twisted beasts, they completely ignored him and Malone.

"Has the entity behind this changed its mind?"

Li Zheng frowned slightly, pondering, "Or is it that I used the Black Mist of the Sin Domain to cultivate demonic arts, so to some extent I was mistaken for one of our own by the twisted beasts?"

While pondering, he raised his hand and summoned the Black Dragon Spear, then crouched slightly and sprang up instantly.

The man swept the gun tip across mid-air.

Bang!
A massive, mountain-sized twisted beast was sent flying thousands of meters by a single, casual shot from his spear, knocking down all the other twisted beasts along the way and tumbling into a heap.

"Such powerful strength!" Li Zheng was overjoyed.

When he swung the spear just now, he clearly did not deliberately mobilize the power of the Ten Thousand Evils Demon Art, but the sphere in his dantian seemed to sense something and actively released a stream of power to infuse the spear in his hand.

Such terrifying power was achieved with just a casual strike. If the power of the Zhan Shi sword technique were added, even a deep purple-level twisted beast would be no match for him!
It truly lives up to its reputation as a mystical cultivation technique originating from the world of immortal cultivation.

Horror!