Chapter 83.1: Demonic Transformation Rampant, The Strength of One Hundred and Eighty Cauldrons! (I)

Lu Changsheng stepped forward, his expression grave. It was not that he lacked the courage to charge at Old Wang; rather, he knew he could not. There were far too many blank insects, swarming from all directions and flooding the street. There was simply no way to avoid them.

Recently, Lu Changsheng had studied these insects extensively. They fed only on fresh blood and flesh, and their black shells were extremely sturdy, so much so that even a direct strike would fail to crush them. Their mouthparts were likewise hard and razor sharp, which meant that they could penetrate anyone’s body, regardless of their physique. Even a Divine Strength martial artist would be in trouble if swarmed by these things. One or two insects posed no threat, but a large swarm was another matter entirely.

Voosh!

Of course, Lu Changsheng was different. When the black tide surged toward him, his blood qi erupted with a thunderous roar, condensing into a cloud above his head.

The cloud instantly morphed into a crimson barrier around Lu Changsheng, but the black insects swarmed him in the blink of an eye. From a distance, his entire figure was wrapped in layer after layer of insects. It looked like a grotesque, black hive.

“Hah!” Old Wang snorted, knowing how bloodthirsty those insects were. If swarmed by them, even a Divine Strength martial artist was sure to die.

As for the other martial artists, who had pinned their hopes on Great Hero Zhuang to save them, their faces turned deathly pale.

“No way… Great Hero Zhuang is a Divine Strength martial artist. Could it be that even Great Hero Zhuang…”

They could not bring themselves to say it out loud. If even Great Hero Zhuang was defeated, what hope did they have left?

It felt as though time had frozen. One second, two, three… That was all it took for Old Wang’s smile to fade away.

Those bloodthirsty insects should have already drained Zhuang Shisan, leaving him an empty husk. However, he was still standing, firmly in place. The fact that he was on his feet meant he was still alive, but that made no sense.

“How is that possible? How could he withstand tens of thousands of those bloodthirsty insects?” Old Wang’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Crrrrrr…

A strange, rasping sound rang out.

The black insects fell from Lu Changsheng in large chunks, piling on the ground. The threads of the Silken Thread Sword had pierced the insects, revealing Lu Changsheng’s figure. He appeared unscathed, and his body seemed to be sheathed in a layer of blood qi.

Those insects were indeed fearsome, able to penetrate flesh effortlessly. However, blood qi was unlike flesh. In fact, it was not even a tangible substance; rather, it was somewhere between the illusory and the physical. As such, those insects could do nothing to Lu Changsheng as long as the blood qi covered his body.

That alone would normally not make much of a difference. After all, projecting blood qi outside the body usually consumed a great deal of energy. However, Lu Changsheng could draw his blood qi back into his body as long as he did not project it farther than three zhang. Even when he used the Silken Thread Sword to kill the black insects, the threads never strayed far from him, remaining within arm’s reach.

The expenditure of energy was, therefore, negligible. With the terrifying blood qi he possessed after six rounds of marrow transformation and blood replacement, this kind of energy expenditure was nothing to Lu Changsheng.

“Is that all you got?” Lu Changsheng sneered, his murderous aura flaring up. Never before had he wanted to kill as badly as he did in that moment.

Of course, his viciousness could never compare to that of a demonic martial artist who treated an entire city as mere food for his cultivation. Even though Old Wang bore the visage of a human, his mind and instincts were anything but human.

Crack! Woosh!

Lu Changsheng stomped the ground and shot forward, leaving a large crater in his wake. He closed the gap between him and Old Wang in an instant and threw a vicious punch. The strength of sixty cauldrons erupted at once.

Bang!

Old Wang blocked the punch with his arm. The limb had bulked up and was thick with coarse fur, looking no different from that of a beast.

“What fearsome strength… As expected of the Divine Strength martial artist! Hehe, but you’re still too slow. After absorbing so much blood, I am already at the final step of my cultivation. AHAHAHA!” Old Wang broke into a crazed laugh.

At that moment, his once frail-looking body swelled up. Blue veins bulged and turned black, and several lumps rose from his head. Within moments, his frame stood nearly one zhang tall.

The sight sent a chill through Lu Changsheng’s heart. There was no mistake about it.

Demonic transformation!

When it came to demonic martial artists, the most important factor was whether they could transform. If they could not, their strength was limited. But if they transformed, they were essentially jumping from the Body Tempering Stage straight to the Divine Strength Realm.

Whizz, whizz, whizz!

At such close range, Lu Changsheng immediately unleashed the Silken Thread Sword. Countless threads of silken sword light shot toward Old Wang’s heart, skull, and other vital spots. However, his transformed body felt like an impenetrable wall. The threads failed to even leave a mark, which spoke volumes of Old Wang’s physical prowess.

A demonic martial artist relied on the strength of the flesh. In this regard, they far surpassed the Divine Strength martial artist, who still depended on a combination of physical strength and blood qi.

“Is this all you got? You’re barely scratching an itch,” Old Wang sneered, barring his jagged teeth before bringing his fist down on Lu Changsheng.

Bang!

Lu Changsheng managed to block with his arms, but his entire body shook from the tremendous impact. Old Wang’s strike had been nothing special, and yet Lu Changsheng felt like he had taken real damage from it.

“Gh… Second Divine Dragon Transformation…”

He did not hesitate a second. The blood within his body surged violently, while his muscles, bones, and even his skin underwent rapid enhancement. This secret technique directly amplified the entire body.

At that moment, Lu Changsheng’s physical prowess was doubled, and the blood qi above his head also surged to twice its previous level.

Woosh!

By activating the Divine Dragon Transformation, Lu Changsheng had instantly stepped into the Hundred Cauldrons Stage. With his strength reaching one hundred and twenty cauldrons, his blood qi seemed to undergo subtle, inconceivable changes.

Lu Changsheng himself could not clearly sense the change, but the others could see it distinctly. From afar, the blood qi cloud above his head seemed to shift into a crimson giant. Only the upper body had formed, and even that remained faint and indistinct.

Regardless, the crimson giant unleashed a terrifying pressure, and Old Wang felt it most keenly. His expression tightened slightly, betraying disbelief.

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