He had to revert to his flesh-and-blood form, but he remained cautious and created a clone. This way, if his main body died, the clone would survive and could slowly recover.
Su Ze held the Scorpion Tail Needle and carefully pricked his own arm. His skin, which even bullets couldn’t pierce, was easily pierced by this fine needle.
Su Ze’s entire body jolted. This tiny needle made him feel a sense of danger; even his soul trembled as if it had been attacked.
Immediately after, a surge of poison erupted from the Scorpion Tail Needle, spreading throughout Su Ze’s body in the blink of an eye.
His mind instantly grew sluggish, and even his soul began to quiet down.
He tried to reach out and pull the poisoned needle, but he found his body was no longer under his control.
Just then, Su Ze’s body seemed to form some kind of connection with the Scorpion Tail Needle. A continuous stream of special energy poured out of the Scorpion Tail Needle and into Su Ze, where it was slowly absorbed and reacted with his body.
Su Ze’s consciousness grew increasingly blurry. With a THUD, he collapsed to the ground, smashing a deep crater into it.
An unknown amount of time passed. Just as Su Ze felt he couldn’t hold on any longer and was about to fall asleep, the poisoned needle in his arm turned to dust and dissipated.
The special energy that had flowed into him was also completely absorbed.
Su Ze suddenly snapped awake, and the poison’s effect on him vanished instantly.
He sat up, closed his eyes to comprehend what had happened, and immediately understood. His "Needle Strike" skill had absorbed the power of the Scorpion Tail Needle and completed its upgrade. The poison from the Scorpion Tail Needle had now become a part of the "Needle Strike" skill itself.
Of course, he wouldn’t be affected by a poison he now controlled; it was as if he had instantly gained immunity to it.
As expected, the upgraded "Needle Strike" skill became a Tier 6, S-rank skill.
After all, it was already infinitely close to being a Tier 5 skill before the upgrade, and since it had absorbed a Tier 6 extract, advancing to Tier 6 was a predictable outcome.
Needle Strike (Tier 6, S-Rank): Concentrate all your body’s power into a single point to unleash a piercing strike with five times the normal power. After the Qi Force penetrates the target’s body, it will trigger an explosion and infect the target with Sleep Poison (this poison affects both the body and soul, causing the target to fall into a deep sleep, eventually leading to death in a state of eternal slumber).
The skill had jumped two whole tiers. The main enhancement was to its attack power, which increased from double damage to five times the damage. Additionally, the associated poison was massively improved.
Although the original "Weakening Poison" wasn’t weak, its biggest drawback was its slow activation time. The stronger the opponent, the slower it took effect.
But the effects of this Sleep Poison were instantaneous. Unless the opponent was vastly stronger than Su Ze, it would take effect immediately. Even if they didn’t fall asleep on the spot, their condition would be severely affected.
If they fell completely into a deep sleep and no one woke them, they could literally "sleep to death."
Therefore, the poison was also lethal.
Furthermore, this poison not only worked on the physical body but also on the soul. When Su Ze was poisoned just now, even his soul had rapidly grown sluggish and begun to drift off to sleep, preventing him from staying conscious enough to take any self-saving measures.
’The "Needle Strike" skill seems to be developing in a direction that attacks both body and soul. That’s a good path to take.’
Su Ze was lost in thought. He possessed immense Spiritual Power but had no means of spiritual attack. ’If "Needle Strike" could be upgraded to include a spiritual attack ability in the future, it would finally put my Spiritual Power to good use.’
All in all, Su Ze was very satisfied with this skill upgrade.
It also raised his power by another level. If he were to encounter the four Venerable Powerhouses from the Evolution Divine Teachings again, he was confident he could handle them easily without Mr. Ya’s help.
Now, he only had two Tier 4 skills left: "Regeneration Body" and "Furious Waves."
It was fair to say his skill upgrade speed was astonishing, but this was also related to his extensive network and connections.
The Lin Family used their channels to help him gather materials, he had a direct supply from the national treasury of Lin Hua Country, and he could pick whatever he wanted from the Evolution Technology Headquarters Treasure Vault. Who else could receive such treatment?
Other Venerable Powerhouses would find it difficult to receive such preferential treatment. They had to miserably collect materials on their own, a process that could take an unknown amount of time.
Moreover, Su Ze had two major advantages over others. First, he had a strong sense for upgrade materials and could detect them from a great distance. Second, he could upgrade skills by absorbing Wondrous Items, something no one else could do.
With the skill upgrade complete, Su Ze took a moment to familiarize himself with it before continuing on his way to Vita City without further delay.
...
「Luofan Country, Vita City.」
On the street, a large crowd of raggedly dressed paupers formed a long line, holding up signs, pulling banners, and waving their fists as they marched in a protest.
These were all believers of the Evolution Divine Teachings. They claimed that the accusations about the Teachings’ crimes were all baseless slander and a conspiracy by blasphemers, and they called for the Evolution Divine Teachings to be allowed back into Luofan Country.
Mr. Ya blended into the crowd on the sidewalk. Watching the massive procession, he couldn’t help but sigh and shake his head slightly.
’Some people aren’t worth saving, nor do they deserve to be saved.’
’You can save a person in distress, but you can’t save a foolish one.’
’If you pull an unfortunate man from the water, he’ll thank you.’
’If you pull a fucking idiot from the water, he’ll curse you out and then turn around and jump right back in.’
Aside from a few with ulterior motives, nearly all the protestors were paupers from the slums.