Yang Hao summoned all his inner energy and asked X13, “How can I deal with this bug? Should I release some aphrodisiac and knock it out?”
“It won’t work. The golden scarab is hermaphroditic; aphrodisiacs have no effect on it,” X13 replied while flipping through data. “Since you only want the gold, just use your body to collect the gold.”
“Collect the gold?” Yang Hao was puzzled.
“When threatened, the golden scarab will spit out golden pearls as weapons,” X13 finally revealed the plan while activating the anti-gravity device, lifting higher and higher. “As long as you stay in front of it, it will keep shooting pearls at you…”
“You want me to be a human target?” Yang Hao finally understood. Just like Hunyuanzi, X13 was another schemer.
“Exactly!” X13 was already high up in the air, wisely keeping a safe distance from Yang Hao. “It’s only ten kilograms of gold. You just need to get hit by a thousand pearls. It shouldn’t hurt.”
“Shouldn’t hurt?” Yang Hao hadn’t even finished speaking when the scarab had already gathered strength. Its fuzzy jaws opened wide, and a tiny yellow object shot out.
The pearl’s speed far exceeded Yang Hao’s expectations. Before he could even react, he was struck. “Ahh!!! It hurts so much, you damn robot X13! You said it wouldn’t hurt!!!” Yang Hao screamed in agony.
Before his scream faded, a barrage of golden pearls rained down on him. Like bullets from a machine gun, they flew from the scarab’s mouth, tearing into Yang Hao’s flesh.
From far above, X13’s voice floated down: “I said it wouldn’t hurt if you could dodge!”
“What nonsense!!” Yang Hao thought his life couldn’t get any worse. Having a reckless master was already unbearable, and now even robots were ganging up on him. Life was simply unbearable.
In unbearable pain, Yang Hao, unable to endure any longer, quickly used his flying technique to dodge. But soon, he realized it was futile. The golden scarab seemed to have radar; no matter where he dodged, the pearls always flew faster, striking him accurately.
Yang Hao could no longer hold on. Within seconds, his skin was torn and bleeding. To collect a thousand pearls would surely turn him into minced meat.
“What should I do? Think of something quickly!” Yang Hao finally remembered his master Hunyuanzi.
Hunyuanzi, however, remained calm. Since he had no physical body and felt no pain, he even leisurely yawned, “That’s why I always say, crisis-based teaching is the most effective. Normally, no matter how much I teach you, you never learn. But in life-or-death situations, you’ll never forget.”
“Less talk, think of a solution quickly.” Yang Hao sensed that Hunyuanzi truly had a way out.
“I’ve told you so many times, the basic techniques you’ve learned are useless. You’re still flying with the flying technique!” Hunyuanzi grumbled.
“You never taught me any other way to fly!” Yang Hao noticed the pearls could even change direction mid-air after colliding, leaving him nowhere to hide. To his frustration, Hunyuanzi remained indifferent and shifted blame.
“If I didn’t teach you, couldn’t you learn on your own?” Hunyuanzi yawned again. “Theoretically speaking, cultivators can fly on swords, hence the term sword immortal. But…”
“Enough already, no more buts. Get to the point!” Enduring hellish torment while listening to theory from inside his belly, Yang Hao wished he could just crash into something and die.
“But theory is just theory. To truly fly on a sword, one must cultivate to the Yuan Ying stage. Before that, it’s quite complicated.”
Yang Hao finally understood: Hunyuanzi, not suffering any pain himself, was indifferent to his life and death. Enraged, Yang Hao decided to go all out. He stopped dodging, spread his arms wide, and exposed his belly, letting the pearls strike his abdomen directly.
This not only hurt Yang Hao but also affected Hunyuanzi inside him. “Damn it! You evil apprentice! What the hell is this? It hurts so much!”
“I want us both to die together!” Yang Hao bit his lip, enduring unbearable pain. “If you keep talking nonsense, we’ll both die here.”
“I’ll teach you a flying technique called ‘Flying Petals and Phantom Shadows’ right away.” Hunyuanzi finally realized the danger and quickly recited the secret incantation.
The Flying Petals and Phantom Shadows technique was a supreme skill from the Dan-Ding Dual Cultivation Sect, originally created by a female disciple. This technique required the sect’s inner energy to activate. When used, the practitioner would flutter like falling petals in the wind, leaving unpredictable and elusive trails, making it impossible for anyone to anticipate the next movement. Therefore, the technique was swift, strange, and difficult to track.
Moreover, the technique had an even more powerful effect—it could confuse people’s senses. In ancient times, when the female disciple first used it, onlookers became entranced, as if under the influence of aphrodisiacs, completely lost in illusions. Hence, the Flying Petals and Phantom Shadows technique was also known as the “moving aphrodisiac,” becoming one of the reasons the Dan-Ding Dual Cultivation Sect was labeled a heretical sect.
Yang Hao, using the technique for the first time, naturally couldn’t display its full power. However, with his inner energy, he managed to perform it decently, his figure flickering like a phantom, darting back and forth within a small area.
The golden scarab’s pearl attacks indeed lost accuracy. Even with intense firing, it couldn’t keep up with Yang Hao’s phantom-like movements. The scarab seemed to possess intelligence; provoked to fury, it finally opened its jaws wide and spat out dozens of pearls at once. These pearls spread like a fan, sweeping toward Yang Hao and covering the entire area he occupied.
This time, Yang Hao’s technique failed again. No matter how hard he tried to dodge, he couldn’t escape the fan-shaped attack range.
“It’s not working again!” Yang Hao suffered greatly. He didn’t know if the bug was mocking him, but now each pearl targeted his head. Although his inner energy provided some protection, he was still hit all over his head, his face swelling like a pig’s snout.
“Release the swords!!” Hunyuanzi commanded decisively.
Yang Hao now understood his master’s intent. Without hesitation, five flying swords flew out and hovered around him.
“Now I will teach you the sword-flying secret technique ‘Yu’ (Control) from the Dan-Ding Dual Cultivation Sect!” Hunyuanzi’s tone was rare in its seriousness, clearly indicating that this was a true secret technique passed down by the sect.
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