Chapter 12 - Spoils of War
12: Chapter 12 Spoils of War
12 -12 Spoils of War
“What’s going on?”
Zhang Xiaoman looked at the anomaly in his palm, a wave of confusion rising in his heart.
“Why did this pattern on my hand suddenly light up?”
He brought his hand closer to his face, wanting to see what exactly was happening.
“Eh?
It’s gone again?”
But just as he withdrew his hand, the faint white light that had just appeared in the center of his palm abruptly disappeared, and the Seven-pointed Star Array returned to its previous state.
“Strange…”
Zhang Xiaoman looked at his palm and tentatively stretched out his hand again.
At that moment, the light flared up again.
“Could it be…”
His eyes narrowed, and he immediately had a guess.
Slowly bringing his hand closer to the ground, with this movement, the light in the center of Zhang Xiaoman’s palm became increasingly bright.
“The reason this Emblem on my hand is glowing…”
His heart began to thump excitedly, thrilled by the anticipation of solving the puzzle.
“Is probably related to this black bead on the ground!”
As he spoke, his hand already reached out to the bead, which was emitting a dark black luster.
At that moment, the light from the Seven-pointed Star was incredibly dazzling.
“It looks like this extraction feature I’ve never understood, its purpose is right here.”
Zhang Xiaoman thought excitedly, his eyes sparkling with vitality.
He slowly moved his hand forward, and just as it was about to touch the black bead, a sudden change occurred.
He suddenly felt a searing pain in his palm, which made him quickly withdraw his hand in fright.
“What…
what’s going on?
Why does it hurt so much?”
He looked at the object on the ground with some suspicion, thinking about retreating.
“No, this black bead is clearly related to the Seven-pointed Star on my hand.
How can I give up at this moment?”
Zhang Xiaoman gritted his teeth, his eyes shone with determination.
Once again, he stretched out his hand, this time ignoring the pain in his palm, turned his head, and stared unblinkingly at the changes under his right hand.
The black bead started to emit countless thread-like strands of energy that surged towards the Seven-pointed Star Array.
These energy waves flowed visibly fast, and in just a moment, the black bead had shrunk to the size of a ping-pong ball.
“The Array is absorbing it!”
Zhang Xiaoman saw this scene, and he had a clear judgment about the extraction feature.
“Extracting Essence Qi means absorbing the Essence Qi of monsters.”
Seeing that the black bead was completely absorbed, a smile appeared on his face, and he began to conclude:
“It seems that in the future, whenever I come across the bodies of these monsters, I can use the Array on my hand to extract their Essence Qi!”
As the Seven-pointed Star Array dimmed again, a long-missed System notification sound suddenly resonated in his mind.
“Ding, Essence of Shadow Demon absorbed, points increased by 10.”
“Points!”
Zhang Xiaoman was struck by an epiphany upon hearing the System’s notification.
“So the so-called Essence, once extracted, turns into points in the System Store!”
“It looks like I need to reconsider my understanding of this System.”
He casually picked up a small bottle from the ground and stood up.
“I originally thought this was just a lucky goody-two-shoes that relied on lotteries to get by, I never expected it to possess such a ferocious ability.”
Shaking his head, Zhang Xiaoman’s gaze shifted toward a spot not far in front of him, which was emitting specks of purple light.
He could vaguely see what seemed to be a floating light ball.
Pinching the Holy Water bottle in his hand, which had less than a third remaining, Zhang Xiaoman slowly moved towards the source of the light.
For some reason, he didn’t feel much fear in his heart at the moment.
On the contrary, an inexplicable sense of anticipation had emerged.
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Perhaps it was because he had just experienced a battle of life and death, or perhaps he sensed from the changes in the environment that there was no danger nearby, or it might even be that the hidden soul of adventure in his heart was stirring things up.
At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman felt somewhat strange to himself; he couldn’t believe that he could be so bold.
“I must be crazy…”
He muttered this as he approached the glowing orb.
Zhang Xiaoman steadied himself with a hand on a tree, slowly drawing nearer.
In front, the source of the faint glowing light finally appeared before his eyes.
“What is this…thing…”
He marveled to himself, with his eyes reflecting a stretch of purple flowing light.
At the center of Lake Island, a distorted patch of purple light was floating conspicuously.
The patch of light quietly hovered about a meter above the ground.
Around it, streams of purple light roiled continuously, resembling streaks of lightning, sinister yet beautiful.
However, what didn’t match with this beauty was that there was not a single sound around this patch of light; the roaming lights flickered continually but remained completely silent.
Jin Bao also ran over, sniffed around the base of the wall, lifted his leg, and squeezed out a couple of drops of dog urine.
“Rustle rustle rustle.”
Zhang Xiaoman heard the noise by his feet, looked down to see that Jin Bao was digging the earth where he had just urinated, then shifted his gaze away once again.
“What is the relationship between this thing and that Shadow Demon from before…”
He pondered internally, stepping forward tentatively.
“Hmm?”
At that moment, a sudden burning sensation came from his hand.
Zhang Xiaoman quickly raised his hand to check and saw that the Seven-pointed Star Array in his palm was emitting light again, and this time the light was much brighter than before.
“Could this be… another monster corpse?”
He looked incredulously at the purple patch of light a few steps away.
“Let’s give it a try!”
Saying this, he gritted his teeth, held out his right hand in front of him with the palm facing the light ball, and cautiously approached it step by step.
As he moved, the Seven-pointed Star Array suddenly emitted an even more dazzling white light.
Zhang Xiaoman felt a heat from his palm more intense than before and nearly pulled his hand back reflexively.
However, after regaining his senses, he did not feel the urge to retreat; instead, excitement flickered in his eyes and a barely concealable joy spread across his face.
“This seems to be a big one!”
He said, keeping his arm extended forward, and took small, deliberate steps toward the light patch.
As the distance closed, the burning sensation in his palm grew even more intense.
“Ah!”
A restrained shout rang out in the quiet surroundings.
At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman felt as if his right hand was immersed in hot water, the pain was unbearable.
That pain originated from a spiritual level, as if flames were scorching his soul, indescribably agonizing.