I became a god by treasure hunting after arriving 500 years early-Chapter 388 - 291 The Uses of "Shape Skill" and "Qi Skill

Lu Yuan now had the Tree of Life in his mind and dozens of buffs on his body, granting him astonishing defensive power.

If he just played defensively, relying on the soul-damaging Eternal Spark, Lu Yuan could slowly win.

Soul attacks were considered noble and dealt true damage. Currently, only the dream ability of the Opium Poppy, the Eternal Spark, and the "Spirit Word" technique were known to directly target the soul.

Even rarer were items that could defend against soul attacks—only Immortal Level equipment!

However, such a sluggish strategy of victory by attrition was, frankly, beneath Lu Yuan.

He wanted to win fair and square!

The moment his opponent locked in on his joint, Lu Yuan initiated a thought movement, dislocating his own arm with a sharp jerk. Bending his legs slightly, and using his left foot as a pivot, he executed a backflip using his seized upper arm as the radius and flipped over Shu Huangfeng.

Following that, Lu Yuan heard a "crack" as his arm twisted 180 degrees.

He landed behind Shu Huangfeng’s head. Gritting his teeth and without any niceties, Lu Yuan delivered a knee strike to the back of the opponent’s head.

Copper Skin Stone Bone!

Shu Huangfeng’s eyes turned red as he bellowed.

"Ah!!"

His body turned bronze.

A burst of red flames exploded from the back of his head like a detonating bomb, blasting the surrounding Yellow Sand into the air.

But the power of the Eternal Spark continued to invade, and the divine skill "Copper Skin Stone Bone" couldn’t hold up.

Blood started flowing from his nostrils again as his soul was damaged.

With no other option, Shu Huangfeng let go of Lu Yuan’s arm and fled a hundred meters away.

"My arm is broken, let’s see if you concede defeat!"

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Unexpectedly, the next second, Lu Yuan raised his arm, gave it a fierce twist, and the broken bones and meridians miraculously reattached themselves.

Moving his body a bit, it didn’t seem too much worse for wear.

"What ability is this?!" Shu Huangfeng couldn’t help but blink and asked aloud.

In fact, Lu Yuan had taken advantage of the Tree of Life, its overwhelming life force filling his entire body, restoring even broken bones in an instant.

"Sir, you are indeed extraordinary in battle. But I’ve had strong healing abilities since I was young, a minor injury like this heals quickly."

Shu Huangfeng fell silent, rolled up his sleeves, and burst into wild laughter, "Very well, let’s see if your shield is tougher or my spear is sharper!"

An even more brutal hand-to-hand combat began.

To the spectators, the match seemed evenly matched, with gasps erupting from the stands whenever the Golden-clothed Rat-man launched a fierce attack.

The humans were on edge.

Then Lu Yuan parried those red-glowing punches and took the opportunity to counterattack.

But, secretly, the fight was one-sided.

The Golden-clothed Rat-man knew very well that with just fists and feet, he couldn’t defeat his opponent.

Moreover, the soul damage would accumulate over time, leading to his defeat.

However, after exchanging blows for over a dozen rounds, he noticed the soul damage had disappeared.

Only the pure Spark Energy remained.

If it was just physical attacks, "Copper Skin Stone Bone" could completely withstand it.

Shu Huangfeng shouted angrily, "A loss is a loss! Are you deliberately going easy on me? Are you looking down on me?!"

Lu Yuan replied softly, "Since you discarded an Epic Level treasure sword, I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you. Our human race doesn’t have such swords, so consider us even."

"An evenly matched game, I won’t take advantage of you!"

Shu Huangfeng snorted coldly, taking some comfort in his heart and accepting this grace.

He thought to himself, "If I hid underground, I could end in a draw..."

"But... that would look too unsightly."

More than a hundred Spirit Essences was face, which was more significant to him.

As the leader of the Shu Mi Dam Civilization, losing face meant losing substance, something undesirable to him.

And so, for the sake of face, he suddenly uttered a syllable from his pointed, thin mouth, "This human warrior, you are indeed formidable. But I haven’t used my life-saving skills yet. Shall we call it a draw in the end?"

"I am the leader of the Shu Mi Dam Civilization; I cannot concede defeat so easily."

"Even if it’s a draw, you’d still win and receive a hundred Spirit Essences."

"If you won’t agree, my only option is to hide underground, and we’ll still end in a draw, just with a less pleasant sight."

This was the first time Lu Yuan had encountered someone openly suggesting a fake match.

Seemingly to show off his drilling ability, the Golden-clothed Rat-man "swooshed" and disappeared into the ground.

The next second, he emerged not far from Lu Yuan and charged with a punch.

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The speed of drilling was nowhere near that within the Yellow Sand Domain, but this Skill was indeed top-notch for escaping.

"As expected of a race that survived the Epoch Disaster..." Lu Yuan sighed to himself.

He had Spatial Teleportation but couldn’t teleport into the soil.

This Alien Civilization wasn’t very friendly at first, but that’s how the hidden rules of the Eighth Epoch were.

Moreover, whether or not these rules would become popular in the Ninth Epoch remained an unknown.

Plus, these Ratmen indeed had considerable value for exchange; Lu Yuan pondered for a moment and decided to give them face.

After all, even a draw meant gaining a hundred Spirit Essences—and he still didn’t know exactly what that was.

"How do you want to fight?"

"Just keep fighting like this!" snarled the Golden-clothed Rat-man, baring his teeth. "We’ll fight a little longer, exhaust ourselves, then find an opportunity for a draw."

"Come on, let’s have a thrilling fight!!"

Lu Yuan remained silent, launching a kick that caught the Mouse King who had lunged at the lower route and was somewhat distracted, sending him flying.

A burst of gasps rose from the surrounding crowd.

"Wow-ga!" The Golden-clothed Rat-man scrambled up from the ground, his scream seething with anger.

Cheating under the watchful eyes posed some difficulty, with many skilled individuals in the crowd. Too obvious moves could easily give them away.

So both sides continued to fight normally, back and forth.

...

This battle raged fiercely; one swift as lightning, the other solid as a rock.

It was as if they fought from the creation of the Pangu Continent to its destruction, with the very essence of the Way nearly worn away.

The Golden-clothed Rat-man, who started with a frenzied attack, resorted to stealthy strikes later on, exhausting every trick in his arsenal.

His treasure armor was stained with dust, blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were bloodshot.

And Lu Yuan, having spent so much time amidst the dust, was covered in dirt as well.

But he himself was rather fine, thanks to the Tree of Life’s terrifying recuperative power. Even if the battle continued for three days and nights, it wouldn’t be a problem.

The Ratmen grew increasingly agitated.

"His Majesty the Mouse King not using weapons is such a bad move!!"

"You’re wrong, not using weapons is a good thing. The opponent has hit His Majesty a few times; if weapons were involved, wouldn’t His Majesty risk having an ear chopped off?"

"Ah, true enough. But the Yellow Sand Field can’t be activated indefinitely... His Majesty is obviously tired, and his movements aren’t as fast as before."

"Don’t worry, the opponent is tired too! With His Majesty’s ability to Earth Escape, victory is not easy to come by, nor is defeat!"

...

On the human side, however, things seemed very relaxed though the situation appeared perilous.

Out of absolute trust in Lu Yuan, coupled with his noticeably unused trump cards, they even started chatting leisurely.

"Mr. Cat, we should also think about setting up a management system for ’Shape Skill’ and ’Qi Skill,’" suggested Jin Dongliang suddenly.

"The number of ’Divine Skills’ is limited after all. ’Shape Skill’ and ’Qi Skill’ are the ones that can be widely disseminated."

"And then there’s the issue of domains... if possible... can we purchase some related knowledge?"

These great masters had been stuck at Level Six for many years.

Domains, something that, in the past, would appear once in a millennium, were only graspable by hidden geniuses who stumbled upon them by chance.

But now, every Purple-clothed Ratman knew some.

They naturally coveted the higher Extraordinary Level, not just for the boost in battle capacity, but mainly for the significant increase in lifespan that it offered.

"Indeed, this needs serious discussion," Old Cat mused with narrowed eyes.

"Shape Skill" and "Qi Skill" were previously taught through the "souls" of human ancestors.

This method was indeed ghastly and had low reproducibility.

Humans made a simple modification: letting Green Grass Paradise inscribe the knowledge, then letting people learn the skills in dreams.

But a person’s soul can only hold so much ability.

Random learning only diminishes one’s potential and disperses one’s focus.

Additionally, since the Extraordinary Spark could effectively replace many abilities, research in this area had not been extensive.

However, things were different now. The emergence of "War Rules" meant the presence of masters was indeed necessary.

It was impossible to have Lu Yuan fight all the battles alone.

Therefore, research in this field had to be restarted.

"And there’s also the matter of weaponry; we have too few divine weapons on our side," said Jin Dongliang. "At best, we have Rare Level, which is slightly inadequate for battles of this calibre."

Humans had plenty of high-quality wood, so they weren’t short on armor.

But the lack of rare metals made it difficult to forge divine weapons.

This was a pressing issue that needed to be addressed, even Lu Yuan himself didn’t have any particularly good offensive weapon.

Old Cat said, "Don’t rush, once Lu Yuan wins, these Ratmen will become more amiable, and we can exchange knowledge slowly."

...

Another half-day passed, and both sides were nearly spent.

The Golden-clothed Rat-man finally spoke up with a dusty face: "How about we call this one a draw?"

Lu Yuan dusted off his clothes: "That’s fine... I appreciate your condescension, Shu Huangfeng."

The Ratmen were all in a frenzy—a draw again? Wouldn’t that cost them 100 Spirit Essence?

But now, with the standard established and the opponent uncontested, there really was no other choice.

The Golden-clothed Rat-man picked up his sword from the ground, returned to his tortoise shell, and heard a litany of complaints.

"His Majesty is confused for not using the sword."

"We could’ve won earlier."

He replied bluntly, "What do you know!"

"Just a mere hundred Spirit Essence, we’ll earn it back."