This level of extravagance from Jiang Ke’er felt utterly alien to the minor demons.
No matter how they looked at it, the only explanation that made sense was, ‘I must still be dreaming.’
They couldn’t help but pinch themselves hard.
Yet, even though their skin was bruised purple and they were yelping in pain, they still couldn’t wake from the dream.
When they opened their eyes again, five Grade 8 artifacts—items they wouldn’t have dared to imagine even seeing once in their lives—were still lying right in front of them.
“This is wicked,” Jie Shui muttered, slapping himself frantically until his face was swollen like a pig’s head.
He whispered, “Is this some kind of illusion? Why haven’t I woken up yet? This illusion is too fake; even a three-year-old wouldn’t believe it…”
“If we can’t wake up, then forget it!”
Gan Ruanruan seemed to have a sudden epiphany.
She lunged onto the bed and grabbed the Meteor Dagger, her eyes curving into joyful crescents as she fondled it.
“At least I can get a taste of holding a Grade 8 artifact in a dream… This feels amazing!”
Spurred on by Ruanruan, the rest of the minor demons threw caution to the wind.
Jie Shui grabbed the only pair of gauntlets among the Grade 8 artifacts—the Vajra Wisdom Fist.
A Miao found a set of prayer beads that amplified spiritual power—the Extreme Saint Merit Beads.
Qiao Xiaoxian took the other dagger—Falling Night.
Although Jiang Ke’er already possessed Qing Cheng and Frost Shadow, she selected the only sword among the five artifacts—the Great Thousand Sword.
High-grade artifacts required a drop of blood to recognize their master.
Once the bond was formed, the user would immediately understand how to use the artifact.
The minor demons didn’t hesitate to cut their fingers.
Jiang Ke’er was a bit afraid of pain and didn’t want to prick her finger so crudely.
Instead, she tied a rubber band around her upper arm, pulled out a syringe, and drew a tube of blood from the vein in her elbow.
Then, she sprayed the blood to claim ownership.
As she lay within the blood contract array, the raw power of the Grade 8 artifact bloomed the moment it consumed her blood.
The Great Thousand Sword suddenly became ethereal and unstable, with countless phantom images appearing around its blade.
Immediately afterward, waves of new knowledge flooded Ke’er’s mind, giving her a mastery over the sword as if she had known it for a lifetime!
The Great Thousand Sword actually seemed to be a weapon capable of breaking through the dimensional wall!
Judging by its effects, if the user’s cultivation base were high enough, they could theoretically fly the sword straight into an anime and chop up the villain while watching it!
Even Ke’er was a bit dazed by this thought, but it could indeed break through the barriers between different heavens.
It could attack from inside the Underworld Province Cauldron to the outside, and vice versa.
The sword seemed to possess an innate effect of switching between life and death, reality and void. Ke’er had only ever seen this kind of ability before on Eggy.
Although her movements were significantly restricted after crossing boundaries, Ke’er knew that was simply because her cultivation base was too low.
If she were powerful enough, she could likely use this trait to kill people while remaining invisible!
‘Is this the power of pay-to-win?’ Ke’er giggled foolishly. ‘I think I’m falling in love with this feeling…’
Perhaps for an unlucky person like her, relying solely on hard cultivation wouldn’t be enough to defeat the Tribulation Immortal Hall; she absolutely had to make good use of her “Money Power.”
Her next small goal was to strip the god-tier gear off the Bloodpill Ancestor and then confront the Jiesian head-on.
Of course, the word “buy” had never existed in the dictionary of “Ke’er the Thief”!
After the match, she would have a big business deal to attend to, but before the tournament began, she had some small matters to settle.
“Huh? Qing Yi, why are you putting on a protective suit?” While Gan Ruanruan was busily sensing the power of her dagger, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Ke’er was donning a silver-white protective suit.
She asked in surprise, “Are these artifacts toxic or something?”
“No, you guys just keep synchronizing with your artifacts. I have some things to take care of. Don’t mind me.”
Thanks to the Stellar Transdimensional Training Field, Ke’er still had ten days.
She first built a fully enclosed shack and then carefully took out a small box. Inside the box was a vial of deep blue liquid.
“Protagonist System, start recording for me.”
【Understood.】
“Experimental manual, Day 1: Cultivating strong cold-resistance in the Shenzhou Cultivator Immune Deficiency Virus to ensure stronger transmissibility in cold conditions, while destroying its ability to survive in high or room-temperature environments.”
Ke’er didn’t use the final days for pre-match training. Instead, she hid in the Training Ground and buried herself in her work.
Time flew by during her research.
“Day 2: Commencing the reprogramming of the genetic chain.”
“Day 3: Attempting to reduce the virus’s mutation capability.”
“Day 4, Day 5: Attempting to eliminate symptoms of coughing, vomiting, and total organ failure… Successfully eliminated all external symptoms of the early infection stage.”
“Day 6: Attempting to add transmission via body fluids, spiritual energy gel, birds, rat fleas, and Cloud Boats…”
“Day 7: Attempting to make the virus resistant to all existing drugs, except for Ban Lan Gen.”
“Day 8: Attempting to enhance the virus’s affinity for specific races—targets are primates and those with large amounts of spiritual power stored in their bodies.”
“Day 9: Attempting to set all viruses to mutate on the seventh day of infection. Mutation symptoms: interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, paralysis, coma, internal bleeding, hemorrhagic shock, total organ failure, and gangrene.”
“Day 10: Attempting to set the onset of symptoms to be mild initially and gradually become severe.”
Day 11.
Two hours before the match began.
Ke’er dialed Yiqin’s communication device.
“Shifu, start stockpiling Ban Lan Gen. Monopolize every bit of it on the market, no matter the cost.”
【What have you found out this time…?】
“I’m sorry, Shifu. I want to truly be a villain for once, instead of just a villain living in people’s gossip.”
With that, Ke’er hung up.
She knew that a virus she had cultivated in just ten days on a whim would likely be fragile.
She wasn’t powerful enough to simply create a virus that could destroy the world; she had no idea if those impressive-sounding symptoms would actually work.
Aside from the virus’s inherent super cold resistance and the fact that Ban Lan Gen could easily destroy it, everything else was up to chance.
After all, she had never performed human trials, and her cultivation process was just a random spark of inspiration… she had basically just tinkered with the virus’s genetic chain on a whim. It was completely unreliable.
Still, it should be enough to cause some trouble for certain people.
Ke’er hid the small, transparent, colorless vial in her sleeve.
“It’s time to go out.”
Today was the first battle, the follow-up to the Resurrection Match—the Promotion Slot Challenge.
They had to choose between Team Deities and the Wasteland War Team.
Only by winning would they be qualified to advance to the Finals and compete for the championship.
To be safe, Ke’er chose the Wasteland War Team.
They only had one Dao Seat, and she could use this opportunity to gauge the strength of a Dao Seat holder.
“Keep the Grade 8 artifacts hidden for now. Don’t use them unless it’s a critical moment,” Ke’er instructed. “The Assassin’s Trump Card must be saved for the end.”
“Got it!”
“Time to enter the arena!”
It was now time for the contestants to enter.
However, before stepping through the Victory Gate, Ke’er quietly unscrewed the small vial hidden in her sleeve.