American variety show world begins with subduing Jason

The night is still long...

Chapter 164 Return

In the hazy space, the enormous dark shadow shifted its shape, its malevolent gaze sweeping across the room with savage intent. The heavy malice enveloped Madison like viscous sludge, making him stiffen and feel as if he were suffocating.

Thanks to her wealthy family and outstanding talent, she was always among the most pampered of her peers from childhood to adulthood, and therefore never encountered any real danger.

Coupled with her consistently assertive demeanor, many people who know her have forgotten that she is just an eighteen-year-old girl.

A girl who feels helpless, fearful, and prone to tears.

In this chaotic space, she seemed to have forgotten her status as a superhuman, crouching there trembling with her arms wrapped around herself, like a little bird frightened by a storm.

The menacing black shadow drew closer and closer. Just as the girl was about to break down and scream, a figure radiating a glowing light suddenly appeared before her, firmly protecting her behind him.

Although the figure was not very tall, it was well-proportioned with long arms and legs. Its soft and smooth muscles moved gently with its breathing. A flowing robe in an exotic style emitted a black and white glow, blocking out all the dirty malice cast by the dark shadow.

A strange, radiant light, like the sun, instantly melted away the little witch's fear. She stared blankly as the figure before her flashed and transformed into a majestic and awe-inspiring divine beast, charging towards the evil and powerful enemy!

Then a deafening roar shattered her consciousness...

"what!"

The girl woke up with a start, gesturing wildly, and almost rolled off the bed. Luckily, her best friend and classmate caught her in time, saving her from the misfortune of getting a bump on her forehead.

"McGrady, what's wrong?" Zoe rubbed her eyes and mumbled sleepily.

"It's nothing..." The blonde girl wiped the beads of cold sweat from her forehead and patted her companion's arm.

"The mental damage caused by the backlash of my mental power during the day was too severe, and I couldn't even control my mental body, so I started having nightmares."

She chuckled self-deprecatingly, "If my mentors knew, they would definitely scold me for not working hard enough on meditation."

After offering a few words of comfort, the blonde girl watched as her best friend turned away and fell asleep. Leaning against her pillow, she glanced at the stars outside the window, her thoughts drifting. She seemed to see again the figure in the radiant robes who had bravely protected her in the moment of crisis.

Madison suddenly felt his heart pounding wildly.

She blinked her eyes, her hands shifting through several positions, and a tiny, transparent insect with cicada-like wings on its ribs quietly took shape. It silently crawled out from the crack in the door, crossed the corridor, and stuck to a door.

The girl lightly pressed her index finger against her earlobe, and all the hidden sounds from the other room came through.

...creak, creak

...whoosh

……

what--!

What are all these things?!

The little witch's expression was a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance, with a hint of something else entirely.

I'm being stupid!

She cursed herself harshly, buried her head in the covers, and curled up into a small ball.

"What's wrong now, McGrady?" Zoe groaned with her eyes closed as she was woken up again by her vigorous movements.

"It's nothing, just an annoying cat meowing!" A muffled voice came from the soft blankets.

……

……

Outside the car window, the vast blue lake had faded into a line on the horizon, and the iconic old church in Victoria town grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the horizon behind.

"Why are you staring at me?"

Zhu Mingyao was a little confused and looked at the blonde little witch on the opposite sofa and asked.

This girl has been staring at me expressionlessly ever since she got on the bus. Is she still holding a grudge about having her belt pulled? Didn't I already explain it to her?

Madison seemed not to hear, still holding his arms crossed, but his almond-shaped eyes glanced sideways behind him, his blue eyes filled with contempt, as if he had seen something dirty.

Zhu Mingyao followed her gaze to the back of the RV, where a small hand was gently resting on the side of a semi-enclosed large bed, peeking out from behind a black blackout curtain.

Even though her boyfriend had given her several healing buffs during the process, allowing her to force herself to return to her room in the early morning and casually pack up and leave, the fatigue from her first encounter with the formation still made it difficult for the fortune teller to endure for long. As soon as she got in the car, she made an excuse to take a nap.

So that's what it was all about... Zhu Mingyao suddenly realized, but also felt a little resentful.

We're a perfect couple, why would we need a monster like you to object?

As if guessing what he was thinking, Madison clenched his pale fingers, narrowed his eyelids, and his aura visibly lowered even further.

Zhu Mingyao swallowed hard, suddenly feeling a little uneasy.

He subtly kicked the travel bag under the seat with his toe, then casually looked away.

While outwardly glancing around, he was secretly thinking to himself:

"She didn't find out that I secretly went into the water, fished out the undead coins, and kept them for myself, did she...?"

Under a clear sky, the silver-white RV sped along the interstate highway, signaling the end of this eventful vacation!

……

……

This piranha attack caused such a huge stir, and it happened in broad daylight, in full view of everyone. Even before we arrived in Jinzhou, the car TV was already showing the related live reports.

It was the early 21st century, with one foot already in the internet age. Information flowed rapidly, and even official forces found it difficult to completely cover up an extraordinary event of this scale.

But the inability to cover it up doesn't mean it can't be distorted.

"So you believe these piranhas are prehistoric creatures that survived from ancient times? That's an amazing discovery!"

Seeing Professor Christopher on TV, looking constipated, giving an interview and spouting pseudo-scientific nonsense that even he himself found hard to believe, Zhu Mingyao knew that the relevant departments had simply conscripted the old professor from nearby, since he happened to be a biological expert living in the area where the incident occurred.

Is this a case of the drastically altered plot of "Piranha" winding its way back to its roots...?

Because of the complicated nature of their trip, the group was summoned by the Special Investigations Bureau as soon as they returned to Los Angeles to explain the situation. To show respect for these meritorious individuals, the meeting was held at a Madison-owned chain hotel.

After a long day of fussing, it was already sunset when he left. Watching his girlfriend, who looked reluctant to leave, being dragged away by Ms. Lisa, Zhu Mingyao could only console himself by repeatedly reciting lines of poetry like "If love between two people lasts forever, why should they be together day and night?"

Anyway, the overall situation is already settled. Besides, people need to have some other ideals besides food and sex.

As a practitioner of the Xuanmen sect who takes the pursuit of Tao as their belief, their primary duty naturally does not need to be constantly reminded by others.

Crawling into the basement, too lazy to sit properly on the futon anymore, Zhu Mingyao casually pulled over a chair and opened the system panel in his consciousness.

Hmm? Diligent practice?

This is what it means to practice diligently!

Every reward point is the result of my hard work and adventures; I've put in a lot of effort!

Chapter 165 Harvest, Level Up

Even though he had seen it privately several times on his way home, Zhu Mingyao was still somewhat dazzled.

It's not that he was shallow-minded, but rather that the string of glittering numbers at the end of the reward points pool was too tempting.

A massive rescue operation on the shores of Lake Victoria saved at least hundreds of lives, including the elimination of a swarm of piranhas and the rescue of two companions from the clutches of a mysterious, deranged vampire.

All together, he had a massive 3,500 points, his biggest gain since transmigrating, almost equal to the sum of his previous years, including several fierce battles.

Having such "wealth" in hand, how to allocate it to maximize its cost-effectiveness is something that really needs careful consideration.

Zhu Mingyao looked at all his attributes and skills, deliberating repeatedly. He looked like a middle-aged man with a hard-earned savings of precious money, browsing through his Steam game library, wanting to spend every penny wisely.

First, if conditions permit, the priority should be to upgrade the level of the [Shangqing Huangting Neijing Jing (Qing)].

Unfortunately, after this immortal technique is promoted to the Innate Realm, the required reward points have increased significantly again. Its high price is completely commensurate with its cyan quality, proving that you get what you pay for. In addition, there is a prerequisite of unlocking the Inner Realm Gods, so it is not possible to upgrade it to LV4 for the time being.

Since the main cultivation technique is not enough to upgrade, then we need to invest more in the auxiliary cultivation techniques.

As for the option of directly adding it to physical attributes, Zhu Mingyao didn't even consider it.

There's no other reason than that would be too wasteful. As the saying goes, human strength has its limits, and this is also reflected in the system's rules for strengthening the body.

When he was still an ordinary person, 100 points could increase one of the three elemental attributes, but as the attribute value increased, the required reward points would also increase proportionally.

Furthermore, when his spiritual energy surpasses a certain limit and reaches the limit of ordinary people, the conventional stat allocation can no longer upgrade him; he can only strengthen himself as his cultivation progresses.

The human mortal body has its limits, and there is only one way to break through these limitations.

I'm not going to be human... cough cough, I'm embarking on a path of transcendence!

Zhu Mingyao estimated the number, and with a slight thought, the reward points were reduced by more than half.

Tiny specks of golden light, as fine as dust, surrounded the skill bar.

[Maoshan Miscellaneous Collection of Yang Fu Classic] LV3—LV4

[Maoshan Miscellaneous Collection of Yang Fu Classic] LV4—LV5

A familiar, clear and subtle Daoist sound echoed in the mind's sea of ​​consciousness. Countless points of light of various colors connected to form threads, which then intertwined and wove together to form ethereal cloud-script talismans. Finally, they merged into more than a hundred different and mysterious talismanic characters. A faint gravitational force was generated between the characters, as if they were about to unite into one.

After advancing two levels, this Taoist technique, which he had been practicing for several years, was finally nearing its limit.

Zhu Mingyao had a sudden realization: when he raised this technique to the highest level LV6, he might be able to form a natal illusory talisman, just like his teacher Zhang Shouzhong, and enter the high stage of the Innate Realm, with one foot on the threshold of the Core Formation/True Talisman Realm.

This realm may seem beautiful, but it is actually like a mirage, utterly ephemeral, and there is no hope of ever advancing to it.

After all, without a primary internal cultivation method to support it, external techniques are just an empty shell.

He stood up and walked to the altar. He picked up a stick of sandalwood incense from the table, silently chanted a mantra, and flicked it gently. The apricot-yellow sandalwood incense immediately changed in the wind, transforming into a small yellow dragon with prominent horns and scales, which flew and swam around the offering table and incense burner.

Just before today, Zhu Mingyao's most powerful Taoist technique, the Dragon Transformation Spell, was...

The trump card that required so much magical effort to unleash back then is not too difficult to use now.

If we encounter a strong enemy again, even if we can't pull off a spectacular "Hundred Dragons of Mount Lu" performance, we can still manage to create a "Nine Dragons Fighting for the Pearl" scene.

In addition, Zhu Mingyao has also mastered several other high-level Taoist techniques, which can be used for offense or defense, to subdue demons and monsters, or to suppress and subdue them. Combined with the various supernatural abilities derived from the [Shangqing Huangting Neijing Jing], he dares to say that among the extraordinary beings of the same realm, there are probably few who have more methods than him.

It's important to understand that even practitioners with proper lineages have their own areas of expertise; not everyone is a jack-of-all-trades.

Take his close friend Bai Ziyuan as an example. Although he possesses the inheritance of both the Yinshan Sect and the Youhun Baigu Sect, which is enough to make 90% of the scattered extraordinary beings envious, he ultimately focuses on the path of the Netherworld Yin Death.

Other methods, such as saving lives, summoning wind and rain, or invisibility and transformation, are not entirely impossible to master, but their skill level would certainly be compromised.

These are cultivators from the Chinese lineage, who are known for their broad abilities. One can imagine how serious the gap between different fields is in other extraordinary professions that require specialization. Not to mention those superhumans who rely on a single, overused skill.