Chapter 328: 【ascend To Demonhood】!
Yuan Zhu sent out three subordinates to participate in the competition tonight. Orc No. 1, whom he had high hopes for, immediately revealed his true colors after encountering a true Martial Arts expert, relying only on his strong physique to withstand rounds of attacks, ultimately defeated without any power to resist.
A Miao had anticipated this outcome and instead comforted Candle: “Don’t be disappointed. Your Orc training is good, with a solid foundation. Just hand them over to me for a bit of tempering, and they’ll surely shed their mortal bodies and exchange their bones.”
Yuan Zhu said flatly: “Then I’ll borrow your auspicious words.”
“No big deal.”
Not long after, No. 1 was led into the private room dejectedly. The arrogant spirit that had just ignited in him hadn’t even erupted before it was struck down, leaving him dispirited.
Weak, it was really too weak! Facing that Warrior Monk, it had no power to parry at all. Now, it was far inferior to its four Orc subordinates, completely changing from its previous confident and high-spirited attitude.
…
Without waiting too long, the host took the stage again, specially introducing tonight’s brand new contestant, the mysterious Goblin Martial Arts master who calls himself [Bull Warrior]!
After hearing ‘Goblin’, the audience below booed loudly, with a few bald guys even shouting the classic: “Refund!”
However, more audience members were quite interested in ‘Goblins doing Martial Arts’. After all, before this, people rarely saw Goblins fighting in the arena.
Because these things are universally recognized as weak, lowly, stupid, with poor learning ability. They might be able to steal tools discarded by humans and use them as weapons for pack hunting. But ‘Martial Arts’ that pursue exquisite moves are far from something such low-level creatures can master.
As the host’s words fell, a ‘Goblin Fighter’ wearing a ‘Bull Warrior hood’, though short but with a sturdy build and full muscle lines, appeared below the arena, raising both hands in a provocative pose, instantly launching a visual attack on the entire audience.
Weird gasps of cold air and cursing voices instantly filled the air.
However, [Bull Warrior] remained unmoved, suddenly accelerating in a sprint, and as it approached the arena, it suddenly jumped, tucking into a somersault in mid-air, landing flexibly and swiftly on the corner pillar.
Then it continued posing in a golden rooster standalone provocative stance, immersing itself in its performance art, oblivious to the world. It maximized mental pollution on the audience from all directions, deepening the first impression.
Its opponent was an ordinary human who looked relatively skinny. Because the Hall Master didn’t favor the Goblin, and to make the match exciting without embarrassing Yuan Zhu, he specially picked this relatively mediocre fighter.
When the match started, the opponent seemed to have received prior instructions, using rich combat experience to keep his strength at a level half a tier above the Goblin, putting on a thrilling beating show for the audience.
Bull Warrior, blessed by the [Brain Eggplant CPU] and with real-time tactical feedback from Coach A Tiao in the private room, barely blocked and parried, occasionally launching doomed counterattacks.
Every round of Bull Warrior’s attacks landed with solid hits, yet it persistently launched counteroffensives, and was beaten again in a way that perfectly fit the audience’s stereotypes. This undying Goblin spirit, the wretched and real process of taking beatings, and the signature provocative poses designed before each counterattack, all won the audience’s approval.
Especially when it was beaten until its limbs trembled and convulsed, unable to even stand, the audience, who had suffered mental pollution and visual damage, let out a long breath, the negative emotions pent up in their hearts finally vented and released, feeling exceptionally satisfied!
Hearing the relieved cheers from the audience area, A Miao said: “Judging by the reaction, your ‘Goblin Fighter debut’ is quite successful. If defined as villains or punching bags, combined with their unique demonic mental pollution and more proficient and exquisite Martial Arts… they should be able to perform long-term, become professional sandbags, and hype up the Martial Arts Hall’s contestants.”
Yuan Zhu immediately thought of his former ecological niche, which was to help others upgrade. He nodded silently; at least [Goblin Strongman] could profit. But he hoped more to create a WWE-style [Goblin Fighting Theater].
…
After several rounds of matches, it finally entered the most popular [No Limits Deathmatch] time.
His [Chicken Warrior] perhaps received special attention from the Hall Master and was directly arranged for the first match. Yuan Zhu chose the ‘No Limits Hand-to-Hand Deathmatch’ mode for ‘Chicken Brother’.
Perhaps influenced by the previous [Bull Warrior], Chicken Brother, wearing special straps combat clothes and a ‘chicken mask’ on his head, faced continuous cursing as soon as he appeared. The noisy voices merged into “Get off! Get off!” as the main chorus.
Chicken Brother faced the insults unmoved like a mountain, instead climbing onto the arena proactively, turning to show his back to the crowd, then raising his left hand to stroke his head, squatting in horse stance, right hand stroking his crotch, performing a series of ‘Iron Mountain Reliance’ dance moves in response.
This audience-provoking scene instantly ignited the crowd’s anger.
“Kill it! Kill it!” “Beat it to death!” “Bloody finish!” “Brutal strangle!” roars came one after another.
The host stood by, unable to suppress a grin at the corner of his mouth. He secretly sighed in his heart: the two Goblins on stage tonight, though not strong, were too good at stirring up the atmosphere and emotions.
At this point, more and more people were betting on the Goblin’s opponent to brutally execute it.
Before the ‘betting time’ ended, Chicken Brother’s opponent for tonight’s life-and-death duel also made a grand entrance: “Next, welcome our killer friend from the deep sea, [Yu Ren. Baimu]!”
Hearing this name, the audience erupted in waves of cheers.
A fish-headed monster with crooked eyes, a retarded temperament, skewed gaze, blue skin, and a chubby body wobbled onto the arena.
Then, it blankly raised a pair of chubby arms, exposing short thick thumbs and three fingers, emitting a low voice: “MuMu! MuMu!”
Thus, the audience cheered even more enthusiastically and indulgently in response.
The silly fish head “MuMu!” even more vigorously, then grinned foolishly.
Yuan Zhu said in surprise: “What the hell is this thing?”
A Miao: “Yu Ren, refugees escaped from the sea. If you want, I can go to Taixi to order a few for you.”
Seeing that retarded gaze, Yuan Zhu shook his head: “Uh… never mind.”
…
Ten minutes later, the match officially began.
The moment the match bell rang, the originally silly and dazed Yu Ren Baimu suddenly had bloodthirsty and ferocious eyes. Its body slightly crouched forward, then sharp metal back fins tore through the clothes, ejecting from the spine position on its back.
Immediately after, sharp metal blades shot out from the tips of its four fingers on both hands, sharp metal fish fins also tore and grew from the elbow positions, and it charged madly toward Chicken Brother in big strides.
One could see the blood vessels and meridians under Baimu’s skin now reflecting circuit pulse lights, looking exactly like a humanoid robot wrapped in a layer of fish skin.
Yuan Zhu widened his eyes and directly cast [Detect Evil] to appraise. The [Soul Crystal] gave him a ‘Neutral Faction. High-Energy Creature’ perception feedback.
Through his own [Holy Light System] appraisal, this thing was a pure ‘biological’ entity, not some ‘mechanical life’, and the evil nature of the pollution in its body was not high, with relatively stable properties. In other words, it was still a Good Faction thing?
Yuan Zhu: “What are those glowing circuits in its body? Meridians?”
A Miao shook her head: “Strange guys crawling out from the sea, said to be unique power flowing from some external universe, widely spread in the deep sea. These years, ocean races frequently try to land on the surface, contact human society, and engage in investment cooperation. Taixi has a [Deep Sea Power Company], a product of cooperation between the Ocean Faction and human society. I heard they developed a brand new and stable [Lightning Magic delivery technology]. These ocean species can operate ‘Lightning Magic’ power within their bodies.”
A Miao’s explanation made Yuan Zhu feel that this [Yu Ren]’s unique power was related to some alien technology. The art style was too sci-fi.
“Snake Snake, do you think this guy’s ability performance resembles the ‘tech power’ from your hometown?”
“Huh?” Little Spicy Stick was stunned upon hearing this and quickly explained, “Boss, you incubated me with your own soul information. Though born from the [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture], I essentially only inherited Earth’s scientific view, plus familiarity with the [Immortal Scripture] operation manual, that’s all. But as far as I know, this blue-skinned fat-headed fish’s ability doesn’t match the [Rune Technology] behind the [Immortal Scripture]. The electronic meridians under its skin give me a ‘biotechnology’ feel from Earth sci-fi movies.”
Yuan Zhu was quite disappointed: “You’re not from the same path?”
He had thought that in this otherworld, he unexpectedly encountered forces from the universe belonging to the [Immortal Scripture]. After all, this fish’s appearance gave him a highly technological sci-fi illusion, feeling very compatible with the ‘dataized soul program’ behind the [Immortal Scripture].
…
On the arena, fierce combat erupted.
Fat-headed Yu Ren Baimu’s strength far exceeded all previous fighters. Facing Chicken Brother who came on stage to die comically, it showed no mercy, attacking brutally and bloodily, the metal blades on its fingertips flashing with electric arcs that caused severe paralysis even on a graze.
Yuan Zhu knew his own Goblins’ level all too well.
Their ‘Frog-Type (Power) transformation’ hovered at 30-40% muscle demonization.
As for combat experience, they had barely any accumulation. Being able to execute smooth and flashy moves relied entirely on the [Brain Eggplant CPU] controlling the motor nervous system, plus biological instincts engraved through repeated training and conditioned reflexes.
Now, the fake Chicken Brother faced a fish-headed simpleton with top-tier killing talent, proficient in Martial Arts, long-tempered in deathmatch arenas, ruthless and merciless.
After barely enduring three rounds, it couldn’t hold on. The opponent toyed with it like prey, tearing deep wounds visible to the bone on Chicken Brother’s face, left arm, and back, blood splattering.
After smelling the blood, Yu Ren Baimu became even more berserk, charging close recklessly, and at Chicken Brother’s right rib position, swung the metal claws ejected from its fingertips, dealing inertial damage. Several ribs were smashed and broken by the heavy blow, directly piercing the tough muscles and lungs.
Baimu kicked out, sending Chicken Brother flying three meters, rolling continuously on the ground, crashing into the railing, starting to cough violently, spewing large amounts of bloody foam, clearly not long for this world.
The audience below the arena, however, went mad with fervor, cheering loudly “Kill it! Kill it!” “Execute! Execute!” “Baimu! Baimu!”
…
At this time, A Miao, watching from the side, also shook her head. She commented: “Your Goblins look clever, but they’re all quick-blooming flower racks without real fierce combat experience accumulated. So I favor your envisioned [Goblin Fighting Theater] more. In performance matches like this between non-Goblins, they’ll quickly revert to original form. Whether the first Orc or the two Goblins after, all exposed serious deficiencies.”
Yuan Zhu sighed, disappointed: “Is the performance that bad? I wanted them to make a name.”
But A Miao said: “Fame comes in many forms; it’s not just about superb Martial Arts or brutal fighting styles. Sometimes, being fearless of death, mad enough, charging at the strong like mad dogs in continuous suicide attacks, is also very watchable. Since you’re willing to send it to the deathmatch arena, you don’t care if it lives. So why not let it go completely mad? You… should have a way, right.”
Awakened by A Miao at this moment, Yuan Zhu suddenly realized that the Orcs’ and Goblins’ Martial Arts rapid successions were all built on the [Brain Eggplant CPU].
When cultivating them, he overly emphasized the [Brain Eggplant]. Even in arena battles, he secretly set them to fight using the ‘artificial intelligence Martial Arts program’ built into the [Brain Eggplant]. Thus, their routines and responses were quite rigid and sluggish.
After all, without the [Brain Eggplant], they only had meager ‘conditioned reflexes’, and would die even faster. Their brains and intelligence couldn’t control their bodies, let alone perform Martial Arts.
But now it was different! ‘Chicken Brother’ was already beaten into a critically injured state, failing to make even one ‘provocative pose’ from start to finish to strengthen the audience’s impression.
Its current convulsing and coughing blood appearance was ready to be covered with a white sheet and declared open for the feast. Even A Tiao, sitting nearby providing remote tactical corrections to the fighter via [Anti-Law], was powerless to turn the tide. He could only watch it await death.
Since that’s the case, why not, as A Miao said, give it freedom, let it go completely mad, ultimate sublimation, and pull the on-site viewing atmosphere to the highest climax?
…
Thus, Yuan Zhu decisively lifted the restrictions on the [Brain Eggplant CPU].
Even more, he modified the built-in program parameters of the [CPU], completely releasing the ‘Goblin Strongman”s constraints on its own [Power Path], entering berserk state.
It is well known that any [Supernatural System] involves actively accepting ‘polluting power’ and constraining, restricting, and utilizing it.
Different types of polluting energy have corresponding utilization methods (cultivation ways), gradually making them controllable, at the cost of one’s own deep pollution, maintaining rationality and achieving symbiotic balance.
But conversely, if completely releasing control over the ‘pollution’, one can erupt with terrifying power at the cost of erosion and distortion. The cultivator themselves will thoroughly fall into uncontrolled, disordered pollution expansion state. Distorted, uncontrollable, and indescribable.
This is: [Ascend to Demonhood]
“Awoo——!”
Accompanied by a shrill howl, the originally lying corpse-like convulsing Chicken Brother suddenly arched his body backward, hands painfully grabbing the ‘Chicken Warrior hood’, standing up. His upper body bent backward, roaring at the sky, emitting an extremely painful wail.
The next moment, Chicken Brother’s muscles uncontrollably swelled, proliferated, and grew larger, emitting dense ‘Shadow Black Mist’ and even stronger [Frog-Type Pollution Reaction] from within.
Immediately, its skin made ‘rip! rip!’ tearing sounds.
The terrifying muscles grew too fast, directly bursting the skin. Dense tight black-red muscle fiber patterns stitched into massive powerful muscle groups, with pale yellow ‘high-pollution Body Tempering Fluid’ secreting from the gaps, dripping to the ground.
The originally 1.23-meter short Goblin now swelled into a 1.2m wide, 1m thick, 1.8m tall muscle monster.
As for Chicken Brother’s original head?
This thing was not within the transformation range of [Frog-Type Pollution (Power Path)], so the muscles above its neck (facial muscles) crazily proliferated, spiraled and twisted, continuously elongating…
Ultimately, massive black-red interwoven muscle tissues squeezed and exploded the skull and brain inside the head. Countless muscles intertwined, spiraled, twisted, and elongated into a over-1-meter-long, highly elastic spiral meat cone. Like the meat tentacle behind Demon Man Buu’s brain, dangling in front of its body.
“Holy shit!!!”
From losing control and rampaging to completing muscle demonization transformation, Chicken Brother’s entire process took less than 1 minute, truly miserable and too rapid.
Yuan Zhu was strongly shocked by the completely demonized and out-of-control ‘Chicken Brother’ on the arena, whose muscle build still vaguely retained three parts of skinned bullfrog style. This ‘instant Enter Demonic Path’ scene was indeed somewhat terrifying and horrifying, yet also a bit hot-blooded.
The on-site audience also let out waves of surprised screams. Once everyone calmed down, they erupted in even more intense mad with fervor cheers!
It was too exhilarating, too brutal, too crazy! Completely beyond expectations—unexpectedly, a contestant chose ‘distorted mutation’? This personality was too explosive, too abstract!!!
Around the arena, the moment Chicken Brother’s muscles rampaged, four light screen barriers shot out, isolating the arena from the outside, allowing everyone to watch freely without worrying about being affected by the pollution riot.
