Chapter 405: I Thought I Was Rude Enough, But I Met Someone Even More Uncivilized

After Roy left, Qi Suian didn’t leave right away.

With his foot speed, it would take him at least a day to reach Kapuli Village.

Then, investigating and gathering evidence would take another day. By the time he returned to Fisher Castle, at least three days would have passed.

As a Discipline Priest, his physique and Spirit were still at a normal human level, though his training pushed him closer to the physical limit.

Unless he used some Divine Technique that Qi Suian had never seen.

That would be the only way for him to achieve rapid movement, much like Baron Fisher.

When Baron Fisher transformed into a bat, his flight speed far surpassed that of any natural bat, allowing him to travel from Fisher Castle to Kapuli Village in a short amount of time.

However, Roy had accepted the horse and guide Qi Suian offered, which indicated that he likely possessed no Divine Techniques for flight or acceleration.

So, Qi Suian decided to stay at Fisher Castle for the time being. The main reason was that a certain opportunity hadn’t yet fallen into his hands.

He didn’t know what this opportunity was, but he was clearly leaving empty-handed if he left now.

Furthermore, he needed some time to further consolidate his power.

He was also waiting for his fuel to finish burning.

Not Baron Fisher of the Blood Race, but the corpse of the Green Tide Lord from before.

That one-third portion of the Green Tide Lord’s corpse had provided Qi Suian with 9 armor points, granting him 3 module slots.

As for Baron Fisher, he was still burning; he wouldn’t be consumed so easily.

The main reason was that Fisher’s Blood Race bloodline was extraordinary, so it would take a while to burn completely.

Qi Suian wasn’t too concerned. After all, it was all stewing in his pot.

’The evolution is complete. And it was three consecutive evolutions at once. This feeling is truly wonderful.’

The Tai Sui God had completed its evolution—or rather, he himself had. An upgrade originating from the very depths of his logic made Qi Suian sense the change.

’Too bad. The Tai Sui God’s upgrades are ultimately in service of the modules. The improvement to itself isn’t that significant.’

Qi Suian didn’t feel much of a change. It was like a brief shudder—over in an instant, and unimpressive in retrospect.

’Its truly powerful aspects are the potential for infinite module slots and the ability to improve module quality. The rest is pretty mediocre.’

Qi Suian took out three module components. They were designed to reduce damage from blunt weapons, sharp weapons, and firearms, respectively—modules that were part of the AI’s plan to perfect the Tai Sui God.

Even though Qi Suian had merged with the Tai Sui God, the plan could still proceed.

[SSS-Rank Multi-Layer Composite Shock-Absorbing Buffer]

[SSS-Rank High-Elasticity Resilient Absorption Structure]

[SSS-Rank Ultra-High-Speed Energy Deflection System]

Blunt weapons, sharp weapons, and firearms—these covered all sorts of attacks. With these three modules, Qi Suian could now mitigate the vast majority of all incoming damage.

Moreover, it wasn’t just him. Even modules for shields, defense, and materials would gain corresponding effects. His derivatives, such as the Fei and Fiber Worms, would even inherit these benefits.

However, being derivatives, they couldn’t obtain the full effect.

They were just one module among many, after all. At best, they would have a synergistic effect, but they couldn’t benefit from the complete package.

’I originally planned to make the Tai Sui God tankier, but now it’s ended up making me tankier instead.’

Qi Suian took a moment to feel the changes. Although he used modules like mimicry and transformation to maintain a human appearance, there were indeed underlying changes.

He released the transformation of his hand, revealing its true form—a mixture of steel, flesh, and bone.

’The evolution didn’t provide much of a boost, but enhancing the modules has increased my own strength by at least ten percent.’

’The scope of what they cover is fairly narrow, otherwise the increase would have been even greater.’

’My past self couldn’t even scratch my present self now.’ Qi Suian transformed his hand back to normal, a smile spreading across his face.

Once that was dealt with, his attention returned to his original plan.

Namely, to research the Enhancement Stones, Enchantment Stones, and Refining Stones.

He hadn’t prioritized researching Poison Nova. It didn’t matter if he lacked skills; it wouldn’t affect his killing efficiency.

These three stones, however, could make him stronger. If his research succeeded, he would undoubtedly become much more powerful.

Beyond that, he also began a new round of research into improving his virus talent.

He intended to upgrade his SS-rank Talent, the Divine Ladder, to SSS-rank, but his progress on that front was essentially zero.

In contrast, his research on the three stones was advancing by leaps and bounds, thanks to the data gifted to him by the world’s will of the Ghost World.

They contained three types of rules that, when applied to items, could produce effects of enhancement, enchantment, and optimization.

To Qi Suian, these were all extremely important abilities.

For example, if he first used Refining to optimize the Tai Sui God’s base attributes to their limit, and then fully Enhanced and Enchanted it, wouldn’t that elevate its power to a whole new level?

Moreover, the greatest use for these three effects wasn’t on the Tai Sui God, but on his modules.

Although the modules were all SSS-rank, there were still differences between them.

For instance, some were composite modules. While versatile, they weren’t as powerful as single-function modules. These three stones could completely compensate for that deficiency.

However, he needed to solve one problem: their randomness.

The enhancement from Enhancement Stones was based on probability, the attributes granted by Enchantment Stones were random, and the refining from Refining Stones resulted in fluctuating stats.

Therefore, using them didn’t guarantee an improvement; it was even possible for an item’s stats to decrease.

What if an enhancement failed? What if he enchanted an item with a useless attribute? Or what if he refined an excellent stat, only to make it worse?

Not to mention, the three types of stones were consumables. Each time one was used up, it would surely require a solidification effect to recover it.

Qi Suian estimated the recovery time would be at least a month, comparable to the cooldown of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

So, he wasn’t in a hurry to turn them into modules. It wouldn’t be too late to install them after he found a suitable manufacturing- or production-related module.

After all, he needed to use them in large quantities to get good results. Otherwise, with so many modules to upgrade, refreshing them just once a month meant he’d be at it until hell froze over.

He hadn’t been on this path for very long. How could he have so much spare time to waste?

Fortunately, fully researching these three stones was not going to be an easy task anyway.

Having the data meant his progress was rapid, but that was just the learning phase. After learning, he still needed to digest and absorb the information, then innovate upon it to transform it into knowledge tailored to his own needs.

Adaptation was the hardest part. Because he was working with a unique set of data, Qi Suian couldn’t conduct large-scale experiments. He could only proceed with extreme caution, which further slowed his progress.

His goal was to eliminate the randomness of the three stones and make their effects targeted.

Qi Suian wanted to be able to simply input energy and achieve his desired enhancement, enchantment, or refining results, without relying on chance.

Despite the fast progress now, this project might end up being even slower than his research into the SSS-rank virus talent.

He was tackling this research first not only because he needed it, but precisely because it was so difficult.

Skills like Poison Nova, Poison Burst, and Envenom were fundamentally just applications of energy. Modifying them wouldn’t be nearly as difficult.

[Warning: Swarm of bats approaching. Suspected Blood Race presence.]

The AI sent a timely reminder.

Qi Suian had been focused on his studies, so his awareness of the outside world was naturally lowered.

When one is completely focused, how could they spare the attention to check their surroundings?

That’s why he had the AI to help.

Alerted, Qi Suian glanced up and saw the report provided by the AI.

The bat swarm was about ten kilometers away and closing in.

"Their speed is no slower than Baron Fisher’s," Qi Suian murmured.

As a member of the Thin Blood Clan, Baron Fisher had avoided contact with the rest of the Blood Race to maintain his identity as a human Baron.

He had no sire, and he had disposed of his mother quite thoroughly, so his identity was perfectly preserved.

Even among the ghouls he kept, only his mistress—whom he had silenced—knew his true identity. The others were kept in the dark.

So, theoretically, no one from the Blood Race should have shown up at the castle.

Puzzled as he was, Qi Suian prepared for a confrontation.

A sinister wind blew open the heavy castle doors—an ability likely formed from the Blood Race’s dark powers.

The swarm of bats flew straight in. So impolite. Didn’t even bother to knock.

The swarm of bats coalesced, forming into a tall, curvaceous woman.

Qi Suian’s keen senses picked up the scent of blood on her.

’Another beauty... I’ll interrogate her, then toss her into the Melting Furnace as soon as possible. Don’t want her causing me any unnecessary trouble.’

The last time he’d encountered a beautiful woman—Nangong Yuan, the Grand Commander of Celestial Capital in the Ghost World—Lanlou Mansion had ended up exploding.

Now here was another one. Who knew what would happen this time.

The woman looked Qi Suian up and down, then said arrogantly, "You half-breed piece of trash."

She insulted Qi Suian the moment she appeared.

"You uncivilized mutt." Qi Suian thought he was already plenty rude, but there was always a bigger fish. He’d just met someone with even worse manners.

He sent a massive slap across her face, knocking her to the ground on the spot.

He followed up with a flurry of Turtle Fist, beating her until her face was swollen like a pig’s, then found a rope and strung her up upside down.

He even slit her throat and began to drain her blood.

This Female Vampire didn’t seem to be from the Thin Blood Clan, but from one of the Thirteen Clans. Her blood wasn’t a foul, corrosive liquid.

Instead, it was a gas, like a black mist.

Lighter than air, it began to float upward.

The woman was completely stunned. She hadn’t even had time to react before Qi Suian beat her senseless and hung her up.

"You half-breed! How dare you treat me this way?" Her wounds healed rapidly, and the swelling on her face quickly subsided.

She then dissolved into a wisp of mist, broke free from her bonds, and spat a stream of venom at Qi Suian.

The venom splattered across Qi Suian’s face but had no effect whatsoever. He casually wiped it off and flicked it to the floor.

"So troublesome," Qi Suian muttered, grabbing the vampire who had just broken free and slamming her back to the ground. He landed two heavy punches.

This time, he aimed precisely—not to disfigure her face, but to knock her into shock-induced unconsciousness.

Two punches later, her eyes rolled back into her head.

"This corpse still has human-like reactions. There are pros and cons to that." Qi Suian dragged the Female Vampire toward a secret room in Fisher Castle.

It was a place Baron Fisher had used for his "entertainment." Many people had died there.

However, it was also extremely well-hidden, making it a perfect place for Qi Suian to conduct some of his own experiments.