Chapter 239: Manipulating Plot Armor

Subduing the divine dragon's heart should be an impossible task for a mid-stage essence gathering realm alchemist. Yet, Cao Mao grabbed it with both hands and fused his fire element Qi and gold element Qi together, trying to seal the will of the dragon, so he could compress the heart as a pill ingredient.

The will of the dragon heart woke up again. It pulsed, unleashing its killing intent toward Cao Mao, attempting to crush his soul and his brain.

Cao Mao's soul was unaffected by the mind attack, but his physical body couldn't.

He felt like someone had crushed his heart to pieces. Blood gushed out from his eyes and ears as the pressure destroyed several veins in his skull and shattered his eardrums.

Yet, Cao Mao persisted. He negated the damage with the recovery effect of the spring water, which kept coming out from the ring in his mouth.

The heart also kept struggling, sending the second and the third wave of pressure to crush Cao Mao's brain.

Again, Cao Mao braced the impact and focused on fusing his element Qi in the heart.

The dragon's willpower was slightly weakened every second. However, Cao Mao's condition also deteriorated as his golden blood began to clot inside his brain.

At this rate, he would die first!

The dragon heart's power was still out of Cao Mao's league. After it unleashed the fourth wave of pressure attack, both Cao Mao's eyes shattered!

"BRAT!"

"MIAOMIAO!"

"BOSS!"

Jia Wenhe, Ju Shoufen, and Ma Moxi panicked after Cao Mao's eyes exploded from the inside and gushed out various colors of liquid.

"... I'm fine."

Even then, Cao Mao calmly poured spring water into his mouth, slowly regenerating his eyes. He didn't need to use them at the moment, so he had directed the damage toward them, using his own eyes as a decoy against the dragon heart's attacks.

Furthermore, he had died countless times in ITS. Simple pain, such as losing his eyeballs, was nothing compared to the gruesome Mortal-Kombat-like sparring matches in the space.

Changes also occurred inside his body. His bone marrow, which had been producing golden blood, began to absorb life essence from his dantian.

After the bone marrow absorbed enough life essence, it attracted wood element Qi. Fire element Qi and lightning element Qi were also no exception. The stem cells ate everything as it evolved once more.

However, these element Qi was not enough. These cells demanded something else that Cao Mao didn't have.

Cao Mao also felt it. Because of such hunger for more Qi, he had another inspiration to deal with the heart and his gold Qi.

Cao Mao gritted his teeth and shouted with a hoarse voice.

"Is there anyone that can use wind element, water element, earth element, or other basic elements other than fire, lightning, and wood? Please pour them into my bones!"

Jia Wenhe, Ju Shoufen, and Ma Moxi widened their eyes in astonishment. At a time like this, was he still planning to cultivate?

Zhao Bao reacted first. He flashed and reappeared behind Cao Mao's back. Then, he pressed his palms against Cao Mao.

The monk poured his light element Qi into his bone marrow.

"Light element may be an advanced element, but it is compatible with every basic element! Use it as a medium if you want to fuse them together as one!"

Zhao Bao had figured out what Cao Mao had planned to do. He didn't hesitate to help regardless of what motive Cao Mao had.

Ma Ping also came to the rescue. He placed his hand on Cao Mao's shoulder, "I have wind and metal element Qi. Take as much as you need."

Pang Lingming followed suit. He touched Cao Mao's other shoulder, "I have earth Qi. Let me help you."

White Album, who was dormant within Cao Mao's body, also replied to her master.

'I'll help you convert some of your life essence into the water element.'

Ju Chen also got back to her feet and staggered toward Cao Mao. She placed her hand on his head without saying anything, but she injected her blood element Qi into his circulation system.

Even yin slaves, who had no element Qi to support Cao Mao, followed Ju Chen's example. They touched Ju Chen's back and used her as a medium, injecting their life essence to support Cao Mao.

Ding

[OG-Buddha is moved to tear by the power of friendship!]

[OG-Buddha has gifted you 1,000,000 liters of yin and yang essence.]

Ding

[The power of friendship had empowered your Heavenly Fate Fragments.]

[Both fragments have been restored!]

[All your Heavenly Fate Fragments are now active!]

Although Cao Mao couldn't see anything at the moment, he could sense everybody nearby. He could also hear the system's voice, which echoed in his head. As if it knew that he couldn't see the system screens, it directly sent a voice transmission to his mind, telling him about the changes.

A faint smile appeared on Cao Mao's face. He appreciated all the help he had received.

'Right. Protagonists and main characters are always brokenly OP when they use the power of friendship. I've been acting like a protagonist these days, haven't I? Oh, isn't there another broken plot that can help me? Can I use that as well?'

For the sake of exploiting the mysterious plot armor that he had, Cao Mao intentionally thought about his past struggles and the events that everyone had been through together.

Cao M first encounter with Wei Yuan, the trial events, and their first time in the underground mine,

The time when he had met the yin slaves,

The time that he had saved them through sex,

The time that he had eloped with Wei Yuan and rescued everyone out of the brothel,

The time that he had entered Ju Shoufen's garden for the first time,

Many flashback memories resurfaced while Cao Mao was gathering everybody's Qi. Strangely, it neither hindered nor distracted him. Even the time seemed to have stopped for a moment.

Ding

[Your Heavenly Fate Fragments have resonated with your [Flashback].]

[The [Power of Friendship] has resonated with your [Flashback].]

[Your Qi, physical strength, mental strength, and your cultivation have been temporarily enhanced for one minute!]

Cao Mao almost burst into laughter as he started to like the protagonist's most cliché plot-armor skill.

For some reason, he could also hear background techno music, which usually appeared in Japanese Anime when a protagonist had turned the table during a desperate situation.

Overwhelming with emotion, Cao Mao mimicked a battle cry of a certain orc protagonist.

"BUL'TAR!!"

As soon as Cao Mao uttered the word, his tattoos shone in white light, and his Qi pushed back the dragon heart's domineering killing intent.

Now, Cao Mao had an opening to do whatever he wanted with the dragon heart and his body.

With all the necessary element Qi, Cao Mao manipulated his gold element and life essence, directing every type of Qi into a formation.

Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Wood, Metal, and Blood, the seven basic element Qi and one unique element Qi entwined together, forming an octagram formation. The gold element and light element acted as their buffer, protecting them from canceling out the opposite element. As for Cao Mao's life essence, it concentrated at the center of the octagram formation, creating a yin-yang diagram at the center.

As soon as the formation had been completed, every piece of Cao Mao's bone disintegrated!

Then, the formation instantly reconstructed a new set of skeleton systems, replacing the old one, including Cao Mao's faulty golden bone marrow.

The new bone marrow hummed as if gathered Cao Mao's life essence from his dantian and the remaining spring water in his stomach to nourish its stem cells.

This time, his bone contained light element Qi, golden element Qi, and six basic element Qi. It started producing colorless blood cells, which contained every basic element!

However, the bone marrow didn't produce light element Qi nor golden element Qi. Both energies stayed in the bone marrow, serving as pillars of the stem cell foundation.

Ding

[Your Child Daemon Physique has evolved into Lessor Daemon Physique.]

[Your Golden Orc King Bloodline has been mutated into Primordial Orc Bloodline.]

BOOM!

As soon as Cao Mao's bone had been completely reconstructed, his aura expanded and began dominating over the dragon heart's killing intent.

As if both of them had a domain battle, both forces repelled each other, protecting their master. However, the dragon's heart kept losing.

Cao Mao gained the initiative during the plot-armor moment. He injected his newly unified Qi into the dragon's heart to trap to seal the will of the dragon.

The killing intent and the domineering presence of the dragon's heart faded. Within a minute, the will was sealed, and Cao Mao was free to do anything to the heart!

As soon as the dragon's heart had been sealed, everybody celebrated for a moment. Then, they realized that there were three more hearts to subdue.

Everyone gazed at Cao Mao in doubt if he had enough power to defeat the will of the other three divine beasts. They had united their power to subdue one of them, and they had already spent more than half of their Qi.

Cao Mao could read the mood. He encouraged them, "Everything will be alright. My bone marrow has evolved just now. It can regenerate Qi and Essence faster, so we won't have any problem dealing with other hearts."

He also gazed at the incomplete pylon tower, which kept releasing life essence to the air, "We also have the tower. I think we can refine the divine pill with our strength."

The girls, Ma Clan's members, and Zhao Bao nodded in agreement. However, the alchemist elders frowned and gave Cao Mao an odd look as they had doubts, but they didn't want to ruin the mood.

Jia Wenhe's face cramped, 'Wasn't he trying to stop his gold Qi from rampaging? His gold Qi has been replaced with the unified Qi, so his objective has been met. Isn't the divine pill unnecessary anymore?'

Ju Shoufen also wanted to rebuke Cao Mao out loud, 'If you have planned to process the hearts one at a time, why the fuck did you release all seals at once, you stupid idiot!'

As the two elders didn't know about Kunwu's quest, Ju Shoufen and Jia Wenhe inwardly facepalmed, believing that Cao Mao was an idiot genius without common sense. They planned to lecture him about common sense later after they had done with the divine pill.

...

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

While Cao Mao and the elders had been subduing the will of the other divine beasts, Mao Xueyan stared at the heart of Divine White Tiger in shock.

"Isn't that our deity's heart? What are they doing?"

Dandan and the fox cub were also nearby. They also observed the scene in confusion.

Dandan tilted her head. Then, she slipped her right hand in between her breasts and pulled out a white-jade token, "Look. Our deity's token is still glowing. Isn't he still alive?"

Mao Xueyan turned to Dandan. She also took out her token to check.

It was a similar token, which contained the will of a sacred beast, the White Tiger, who they had believed to be their deity.

Curious, Mao Xueyan inserted her Qi into the token and used it to communicate with her god.

"Your Holiness, I saw a group of humans with a heart of a divine white tiger. Is it yours or is it from one of your relatives?"

Then, everyone could hear the voice-transmission of their deity and his long yawn.

[Child, that heart is not ours. I'm still taking a nap with all my concubines on Kaplan Plane. All sacred white tigers are still alive and kicking. I don't know what you're talking about.]

Everyone was baffled. They wondered which sacred white tiger's heart that Cao Mao and the gang had been processing.

"If that heart doesn't belong to one of our deities, then whose heart is that!?"