Chapter 229: Spiritual Suppression
“Foreign race?”
Seeing the bloodline phantom revealed by Zhou Ming, the demonic-looking man mistakenly believed that Zhou Ming’s true identity belonged to the foreign races.
A serpent tail replaced his lower body. From the waist down was a snake’s tail, tightly packed purple scales that looked as though they had been carved from amethyst. From the waist up, Zhou Ming’s upper body was bare.
Black hair like a cascading waterfall draped down his back, and upon his head rested a dark-gold crown— the concrete manifestation of the Snake Swarm Will.
Both possessed a demonic aura, yet Zhou Ming radiated a noble and mysterious presence, while the demonic-looking man exuded pure wickedness.
Who was good and who was evil could be distinguished at a glance. After all, most people judged by appearances first.
Their values followed their facial features.
“Snake Devour.”
Using the life essence and bloodline of the Ironthread Giant Snake as a foundation, Zhou Ming manifested the bloodline phantom. However, he could only maintain this state for a very short time.
Not daring to waste even a moment, he immediately unleashed the power of Snake Devour, and his target was not the demonic-looking man himself, but his Beast Tamer beast.
Compared to Beast Tamers, the spiritual consciousness of beasts was far more fragile.
If he were facing beasts from the four major mainstream profession systems, Zhou Ming would never have done this, because those systems all possessed countermeasures against mental attacks.
The beasts of Phantasmal Tamers usually appeared in armor form, and with the Beast Tamer’s support, mental attacks were simply ineffective.
For Beast Knights, their life aura was directly connected to their beasts, their spirits almost unified, making the beast’s spiritual consciousness far from a weakness.
As for Shepherds, even without the Beast Tamer’s direct assistance, the Primary Beast was reinforced by Subordinate Beasts, greatly strengthening its spiritual consciousness.
Beast Spirit Sorcerers did not even need to be mentioned, as they specialized in manipulating Spiritual Power.
However, for Crimson Apostles, their Blood Beasts were merely mediums for controlling blood power. Their protection of a beast’s spiritual consciousness was far inferior to that of the four mainstream Beast Taming systems.
Zhou Ming was already at the High-level Professional Rank, while the demonic-looking man was only at the Entry-level Professional Rank. With the gap in rank combined with a mental attack, the Blood Beast’s spiritual consciousness was instantly erased.
Before the demonic-looking man could even react, the Blood Beast that had been sent flying had its spiritual consciousness completely annihilated within a few breaths.
“Ah—”
With the death of his beast, the demonic-looking man immediately suffered spiritual backlash. The Crimson Tentacles he had just unleashed instantly dissipated.
Zhou Ming’s actions had been far too fast.
The moment he manifested the bloodline phantom, while the demonic-looking man was still in shock, Zhou Ming directly used Snake Devour on the Blood Beast that had been knocked away.
Before there was any chance to respond, Zhou Ming relied on the difference in rank to carry out absolute spiritual suppression.
“Li Hu.”
“This subordinate is here.”
At this moment, due to Zhou Ming’s influence on the Ironthread Snake bloodline, Li Hu and the others had already regained their ability to move. Using the residual Snake Soul Curse Seal, they temporarily sealed the Ironthread Snake bloodline will.
“Take him and the beast’s corpse back to the camp at the fastest speed and hand them over to me.”
As soon as the words fell, the bloodline phantom manifested by Zhou Ming finally could no longer be maintained and vanished before Li Hu and the others.
Inside the meditation room, the Zhou Ming who had been imposing just moments ago could no longer maintain the Serpentfolk Form.
Using the power of Descending Possession to fight across distance made Zhou Ming look extremely impressive, but in reality it placed an enormous burden on his Spiritual Power.
His current state was like someone who had fought an entire night in a sea of women— his face pale as paper, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead, and his entire body radiating extreme weakness.
Fortunately, the demonic-looking man did not know Zhou Ming’s true condition. If he had chosen to defend desperately from the beginning to stall for time, or denied Zhou Ming sufficient preparation time, the outcome would not have been the same.
It truly proved the old saying— villains always die from talking too much.
Sitting cross-legged in the meditation room, Zhou Ming reviewed the various methods he had tested and researched. Seeing no omissions, he immediately entered meditation to recover his energy.
Within the Spiritual Sea, as Zhou Ming entered a meditative state, a mirror-like lake gradually appeared.
Soon after, a cold and serene silver moon slowly rose. Gentle moonlight spread a layer of silver frost across the lake’s surface, while a lunar reflection appeared within the water.
In the next moment, the silver moon reflection began to change. A colossal white-bone serpent wearing a dark-gold crown leapt from the lake, bathing in moonlight.
Under the moon’s radiance, the white-bone serpent appeared somewhat illusory, as if existing between reality and unreality.
Hidden within emptiness, yet bearing the intent of manifesting into reality.
This was a new meditation method Zhou Ming had comprehended by combining the White Bone Contemplation Meditation Method, the Moon Lake Meditation Method, and the Abyssal Dragon Meditation Method— the Heart-Observing Moon-Gazing Diagram.
Using the lake to reflect the moon, illuminating the true heart; hidden in nothingness, waiting to act at the proper time.
Though a crawling serpent, it possessed the ambition to swallow the moon.
This was Zhou Ming’s true heart.
As Zhou Ming fully entered the meditative state, his Spiritual Power gradually recovered.
More than an hour later, when Zhou Ming sensed Snake Guard Li Hu and the others arriving outside the small building, he ended his meditation.
“My lord.”
Li Hu and the others, waiting outside the small building for summons, immediately bowed and greeted Zhou Ming when he appeared.
“Mm.”
Zhou Ming swept his gaze across them. Seeing the unconscious demonic-looking man and the dead Blood Beast already brought back, he then turned his attention back to Li Hu and the others.
Although he had helped stabilize their bloodlines, their conditions were still problematic. The aura of Ferocious Beast Berserk remained rather pronounced on them.
Seeing this, Zhou Ming activated the bloodline power within his body and, combined with the Snake Swarm Will, condensed a serpent shadow.
With a single pointed finger from Zhou Ming, the serpent shadow split into more than a dozen strands and merged into the residual Snake Soul Curse Seals on the Snake Guards.
“I have reinforced the Snake Soul Curse Seal for you and also enhanced the bloodline potential within your bodies. Strive to master the power of the Thunder Type-3 Revolver as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
Hearing Zhou Ming’s reward, the group was instantly overjoyed and hurriedly bowed in gratitude.
Zhou Ming did not dwell on it and casually gestured for the Snake Guards to leave.
After Li Hu and the others departed, Zhou Ming looked toward Aina, who was hiding in the kitchen.
“Aina, come out and help move things.”
“Yes.”
Hearing Zhou Ming’s not-so-standard foreign-race language, Aina hurriedly trotted out.
Seeing that Zhou Ming had not taken out his anger on her, she immediately let out a sigh of relief.
“My lord, where should I move them?”
“The second floor.”
After speaking, Zhou Ming walked straight toward the second floor.
Upon hearing the command, Aina glanced at the demonic-looking man, a trace of pity appearing in her eyes.
However, she dared not disobey Zhou Ming. She directly grabbed the demonic-looking man, then hoisted the Blood Beast and carried both into the second-floor laboratory.
As for the demonic-looking man, Zhou Ming removed his Spatial Storage Equipment and tossed it aside, not waking him immediately.
Instead, taking advantage of the free time, Zhou Ming began dissecting the Blood Beast, studying how it differed from ordinary Ferocious Beasts.
After all, this was Zhou Ming’s first encounter with a Blood Beast. To him, it was an entirely unknown field, waiting to be slowly explored.
The specially made surgical knife, empowered by bloodline power, emitted a faint red glow as it sliced through the Blood Beast’s muscle tissue. An extremely浓烈 blood stench began to spread.
Back in the kitchen, Aina relied on her keen sense of smell and immediately noticed the changes in the second-floor laboratory.
She had originally planned to simply reheat the now-cold food, but instead decided to prepare an entirely fresh meal.
She kept reminding herself.
A qualified maid must ensure that her master eats freshly cooked food.
It seemed she was quite good at following her heart.