Chapter 10: Parasite
At a street-side hotel, Huang Tie Kou watched Xu Lie concocting the potion with eager anticipation.
During this time, Huang Tie Kou had diligently followed Xu Lie's instructions, humbly offering divination and fortune-telling to the general public, charging no fees, only providing advice, and never meddling unnecessarily.
As a result, his Sequence 9 Seer potion digested rapidly, and by today, it was fully digested. After receiving Xu Lie's invitation, he rushed to the hotel.
He only begged the immortal to help him advance further.
He no longer wished to return to his past, to continue living the life of an ordinary person. After experiencing extraordinary power, Huang Tie Kou had become deeply infatuated with it, unable to extricate himself.
Xu Lie understood this mentality well, so he openly concocted the potion before him: a goat crystal stained with dragon blood, and a dragon blood rose.
These dragon blood materials were all stolen by the Preparatory Class clone. If not for this clone providing materials, Xu Lie would have nothing to concoct potions with right now.
Following the order, he tossed the ingredients into the pot, and soon obtained a bottle of three-colored potion: "Alright, drink it."
"After drinking it, you will gain the secret to becoming an immortal."
Huang Tie Kou's face twitched slightly with excitement, so thrilled he could barely contain himself, his words even stuttering: "Th-thank you, immortal! Th-thank you so much!"
"After I, after I succeed, I will worship you, great immortal, day and night!"
He didn't doubt for a moment why an Eastern immortal wouldn't refine elixirs but instead made potions.
Without any hesitation, Huang Tie Kou took the Clown potion and downed it in one gulp. The potion was bitter and stung his tongue, as if he had raw-eaten a hundred bitter gourds!
So bitter that Huang Tie Kou's face turned green and pale. After drinking the potion, violent, bloodthirsty emotions surged from his heart.
It was as if some ancient existence was tempting Huang Tie Kou in his heart, telling him to kill Xu Lie! To kill this immortal before him!
Then he could get more, acquire more!
Xu Lie's expression remained unchanged: "Calm your mind. On the path of cultivation, inner demons occasionally arise. If you succumb, you will fall to a lower path."
Yes, yes! Inner demons! I can't be tricked by inner demons!
Huang Tie Kou, who didn't want to be deceived, had no idea where his unbelievably deep trust in Xu Lie came from.
Just hearing a single sentence from Xu Lie, he believed it wholeheartedly without a shred of doubt, trying to calm his inner self and suppress the violent emotions.
A moment later, the violent emotions completely receded, and an indescribable sense of ease welled up in his heart.
Before Huang Tie Kou could even breathe a sigh of relief, a sharp pain struck his glabella.
In the ethereal realm, a vision formed in his mind: a transparent twelve-ringed worm, which actually burrowed into his brain!
At the same time, the abilities provided by the Sequence 8 Clown potion emerged in his mind: enhanced body coordination and balance, increased agility, and the ability to precisely control expressions and body language.
He also gained a spell-like ability to turn paper into blades, and most importantly, enhanced divination, with an intuition that could foresee danger.
Frightened by the vision, Huang Tie Kou shivered. This meant his intuition foresaw an unknown transparent worm burrowing into his brain?
"Parasite."
Before Huang Tie Kou could react, the hotel room door was pulled open from the outside, and a talisman was thrown in.
Confused colors like the Cosmos shimmered, and a transparent worm materialized from the talisman.
Like the clone, it was an ability of the Marauder Pathway's Sequence 4 Parasite, capable of shallow or deep parasitic control over a target, manipulating others.
Huang Tie Kou was terrified, wanting to use his enhanced body coordination and high agility from his advancement to perform a 'plank bridge' dodge.
However, the transparent worm was like a ghost, it didn't need to crawl or wriggle. The moment it appeared, it teleported into Huang Tie Kou's body, completely ignoring spatial distance.
His difficult 'plank bridge' move was utterly useless.
Huang Tie Kou was extremely panicked, because his current state was very strange.
It was as if his body and soul were completely separated. He could see and hear everything outside, but he couldn't control his body.
Only his thoughts were his own; everything else had nothing to do with him.
He wanted to reclaim his body, but he had no idea how, so he could only watch all of this, weak and helpless.
In reality, 'Huang Tie Kou' slowly straightened his body, his terrified expression turning calm: "Tsk tsk, a Clown's body coordination is truly high, capable of any movement."
Xu Lie's main body finally walked in from outside the door: "Then how about you perform a mid-air handstand split 720° rotation for us?"
Huang Tie Kou's face twitched. Thanks to the Clown's ability, his cheeks were genuinely twitching and pulsating: "Main body, how mean."
Wh-what is this?
Huang Tie Kou's remaining sanity was on the verge of madness. Why did the immortal come in from outside the door? Wasn't there already an immortal in the room? Twins?
"Mid-air rotations and such, let's forget about it. Don't I still need to perform the ritual to obtain the Faceless ability talisman? Hurry up!"
"The Preparatory Class clone has already sent word that the Cassell agents have arrived. We need to act quickly."
Feeling his own words, his own voice, Huang Tie Kou's consciousness was almost collapsing: 'You damn! Liar, you liar!'
'Let me out, give it back to me, give me back my body!!!'
'No, you can't keep me locked up like this! You can't do this!'
In the real world, Huang Tie Kou seemed to hear no commotion, urging the main body to mobilize Sefirah Castle and perform the ritual.
Faced with such an 'active' clone eager to solve his problems, Xu Lie's main body really couldn't refuse.
Soon, after an extremely perfunctory 'Six Gods Flower Water' ritual, Xu Lie preemptively obtained the Faceless shapeshifting ability talisman.
Compared to the original Faceless's ability to change faces at will, the talisman was more limited, usable only once to transform into someone else's appearance, and unchangeable.
But for Xu Lie, it was enough.
Meanwhile, on the unnoticed mental plane, Huang Tie Kou had already fallen into despair... At the Preparatory Class, the five agents from the main campus were assigned to student dormitories, male dormitories, of course.
Chen Motong didn't need accommodation and didn't go home to stay.
Her visit to the Preparatory Class this time was merely to help out and earn extra academic credits.
The real mission for this trip was to assist Professor Guderian in recruiting new students, and she needed to catch a flight to Binhai City tonight.
The group of five bid farewell downstairs at the dormitory building.
Although the surveillance footage retrieved by Noma didn't show anyone matching the profile Chen Motong had described.
The agent captain still thanked Chen Motong for the clues: "Thank you for making this trip. If we encounter further difficulties in our subsequent investigation, we hope you, Chen Motong, can provide assistance."
"I can apply to the professor to increase your academic credits."
"Tsk." Chen Motong casually swept back her flame-like long hair, the smooth strands slipping through her fingers: "Captain, if you can call me Nono later, I wouldn't mind lending a hand."
"That's it, I still have to go to the airport, bye now~."
Leaving a carefree remark, the girl turned decisively, her flowing long hair creating a half-arc in the air, particularly attracting passing Preparatory Class students.
This naturally included Xu Lie, who was deliberately watching the group. Fortunately, the main campus agents attracted many classmates, and blending in, he wouldn't be suspected at all.
Chen Motong is going to the airport? Separated from the agents? Another mission?
It seems the main body's plan needs to be adjusted temporarily. He wondered if there were any clones relatively close to the airport.
As he pondered, the agents also left the dormitory building: "Let's go, let's try the Preparatory Class cafeteria and see if it's different from the main campus cafeteria."
"Chu Zihang, you should cherish the time you can eat well, unlike us. After joining the Execution Department, many times, we can't even get a hot meal."
"I remember, Senior."
Xu Lie, who was already preparing to report to the main body, froze. Chu Zihang?
He hadn't expected such an unexpected bonus.
Cassell truly has a wealth of talent.
Thanks to Youmeng Shizhe Z and Qianshui for their recommendation votes, thank you for your support.