Chapter 185: True True Potential, Ritual Appears on the Body

Chapter 185: True Potential, the Ritual Takes Hold

After returning to his apartment, Zhang Yu resumed his cultivation of the Spring-Autumn Endless Zen.

As he practiced each of the forty-nine postures one by one, the immortal force continuously stimulated the repair and regrowth of every shred of flesh and blood, allowing Zhang Yu’s body—which had withered under brutal training and medicinal abuse—to be reborn as if granted new life.

Spring-Autumn Endless Zen Level 8 (36/80)

Though immersed in cultivation, his conversation with Yun Ni had not been without impact on Zhang Yu.

“The patrol team… are they investigating the matter of the evil god?”

Yun Ni’s concern added more pressure to Zhang Yu’s mind.

Although Zhang Pianpian had asked her to look after him, he did not believe she would continue to care for him if she uncovered the secret of the evil god within him.

To prepare for possible scrutiny by the patrol team, Zhang Yu had to accelerate his ritual preparations, gaining greater anti-surveillance capabilities and more power to interfere with information as soon as possible.

Recalling Zhang Pianpian’s words, Zhang Yu sighed with genuine feeling: “Mastering information, controlling the gap in knowledge—this is the essential skill for anyone who wants to climb the ranks in Kunxu.”

The next day, with all the materials gathered, Zhang Yu brought Fuji and Bai Zhenzhen to the familiar unfinished building to begin Bai Zhenzhen’s wish ritual, as well as their detection and anti-detection rituals.

Inside a room of the unfinished building, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were setting up the ritual site according to Fuji’s instructions.

Fuji spoke eloquently: “Rituals depend on offerings and scale. The better the offerings, the better the effect, the higher the success rate, and the less likely they are to be discovered by the orthodox gods. The larger the scale, the greater the range and reach of the ritual’s effect.”

“Besides that, there are the altar, the medium between man and god, the spiritual artifact, the symbol of the evil god, and the incantations—these are the most basic elements, indispensable…”

Meanwhile, the room was filled with red candles inserted everywhere.

Fuji had transformed back into a tattered cloth doll, placed on an altar made of brass.

Two fully charged smartphones were placed on either side of Fuji, serving as the medium between man and god.

The rented Qi Sea Spirit Root became an excellent spiritual artifact for preserving spiritual energy, held in Fuji’s palm.

As for Fuji herself, being the embodiment of the evil god, she was the most perfect symbol of the evil god.

Four antique items were placed at the four cardinal points of the ritual, their contained incense and prayer power waiting to be drawn and used by Fuji.

“Tai Chi dark abyss, shadows rise and fall, all living beings, with sincere hearts, incense and prayer power, come forth!”

As Fuji pointed through the air, the antiques shattered one by one, and the invisible power released surged into her body.

“Spiritual awareness obscured, believers wander in a trance, truth and falsehood indistinguishable, prayers gather into my pouch, urgent as the law commands!”

As strands of dark-gold divine power emerged above Fuji’s head, Bai Zhenzhen’s body stiffened, and the next moment, the evil god’s power poured into her…

After a long while, as the ritual concluded, Bai Zhenzhen slowly opened her eyes, curiously examining her own body.

“How is it?” Zhang Yu asked. “Are you alright, Zhen?”

A flicker of lightning suddenly flashed in Bai Zhenzhen’s eyes, and then she smiled: “Yu, is this what it feels like to have potential awakened?”

“Is this the power that has always been hidden inside me?”

Threads of electric light burst from Bai Zhenzhen’s eyes, and then arcs of lightning emerged all over her body.

Watching Bai Zhenzhen’s hair rise in the flashing lightning, Zhang Yu exclaimed in surprise: “What exactly has your potential awakened?”

Bai Zhenzhen opened her mouth, and streaks of lightning appeared within it: “It’s hard to say yet. I need to experiment more to understand what’s really going on.”

As the lightning subsided, the strange phenomena emanating from Bai Zhenzhen gradually disappeared.

Regarding the specific changes within her body, Bai Zhenzhen planned to explore them slowly after returning.

The immediate priority was to complete the remaining rituals.

With the two of them working together, they next performed the detection ritual and the anti-detection ritual.

As the rituals concluded, a series of runes flashed briefly on Zhang Yu’s back, and he felt two distinct ritual powers take root within his body.

Zhang Yu tried to activate the power of the detection ritual. In the pitch-black room, a spot suddenly lit up, emitting a unique attraction in his eyes—it was one of the surveillance cameras they had brought.

This camera had been brought by Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen specifically to test the detection ritual’s effect.

“So that’s how it is,” Zhang Yu said, looking at the faintly glowing camera in his vision. He tried to deactivate the detection ritual, and the camera vanished back into the darkness.

“As long as I activate the detection ritual, I can directly see the location of cameras?”

Next, Bai Zhenzhen placed the camera behind a wall on the other side.

When the two activated the detection ritual, they could see the camera directly through the wall.

After several minutes of back-and-forth testing, Zhang Yu confirmed that once the detection ritual was activated, it could help him detect cameras within a 30-meter radius, and ordinary obstacles could not block this detection.

“But in just a few minutes, nearly half of the detection ritual’s power has been consumed.”

“Fortunately, after the detection ritual is completed, as long as it’s in a network environment, it will automatically steal power from the divine power network to recover.” “Calculating it, I’ll have about 10 minutes of detection time per day.”

Ten minutes might not sound like much, but for detection purposes, Zhang Yu felt it was sufficient.

Next, the two picked up pre-prepared test patches to try the power of the anti-detection ritual.

Zhang Yu, whose mana should have exceeded 90 units, now tested at only 85 units. Even after he continued to activate the anti-detection ritual, the mana test data dropped to a minimum of 50 units.

“The anti-detection ritual can be maintained for about one hour per day.”

“It can conceal test data for mana and physical strength.”

Zhang Yu nodded in satisfaction: “Not bad, not bad. This way, I won’t have to be so conspicuous in the upcoming monthly exams.”

Seeing their satisfaction, Fuji said proudly: “See? Didn’t I tell you? These two rituals will help you greatly.”

“That’s how evil god rituals work. If you want to make big money in the future, develop in the dark tutoring world, or even achieve something in fraud, smuggling, or business warfare, the more ritual power you have on you, the better.”

Zhang Yu knew that Fuji said these things only to hope he would help her continue to elevate her rank and increase her power, so she could perform more rituals.

Just like the four antiques consumed in the recent ritual, Zhang Yu strongly suspected that Fuji had inflated the number of antiques needed to supplement her own evil god power.

But for now, this seemed like a win-win situation, so Zhang Yu didn’t bother to argue with her.

Hearing Fuji’s words, Zhang Yu asked: “How many rituals can you maintain now?”

Fuji replied: “I can maintain a total of ten rituals for now.”

“Subtracting the wish ritual, detection ritual, and anti-detection ritual on you two, that leaves room for four more rituals.”

“But don’t rush. The remaining rituals cost a lot of money, so you can leave them empty for now and choose rituals later as needed.”

Zhang Yu then asked: “What do we need to do to let you maintain more rituals?”

Fuji chuckled and said: “Two ways. Either devour the rank of other colleagues—every step closer to the second level of evil god, I can maintain more rituals.”

“Or steal the authority of an orthodox god, but you don’t need to consider that for now.”

“In short, as my rank continues to rise, you will also gain increasingly powerful ritual blessings. One day, you will leap beyond the three loans and escape the five insurances, living a life of freedom in cultivation and wealth.”

“Otherwise, no matter how strong your power, you’ll just be a beast of burden for the ten great sects.”

Afterward, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen tidied up and returned to the apartment near Ziyun High School.

As they entered the apartment building, Zhang Yu tried activating the detection ritual and immediately saw the surveillance cameras inside the building.

After entering the apartment room, he activated the detection ritual once more.

Although he and Bai Zhenzhen had already checked before, now, after thoroughly inspecting the room with the detection ritual’s power and seeing no cameras, he felt more at ease.

And then Bai Zhenzhen kept experimenting with the changes in her body, gradually coming to understand what she could do now that her potential had been unlocked.

Her mana had taken on a thunderous attribute, transforming into a special kind of mana.

Under the enhancement of this special mana, she found that her use of the Lightning Step and her training of the Thunderstrike True Body had both greatly improved.

In particular, the circulation of mana constantly stimulated her muscles and nervous system, significantly boosting her reflexes, speed, agility, and explosive power.

Beyond that, she felt that if she were to cultivate similar techniques in the future, she would achieve twice the results with half the effort.

Finally, there was this...

Zhang Yu watched as Bai Zhenzhen stuck her finger into a socket, her whole body crackling with electric light, and heard her laugh heartily: “Yu! Look, I can recharge my mana by charging up, and the charging itself has a body-tempering effect! From now on, I’ll get stronger just by plugging in!”

“Once my true spiritual root adapts to this new cultivation method, the efficiency will be even higher...”

Zhang Yu first nodded slightly, but then his expression suddenly changed as he stared at the apartment’s electricity meter.

Watching the meter spin wildly, Zhang Yu quickly shouted: “Stop! Stop right now!”

“If you keep cultivating like this, Le Mulan might kick us out of this apartment.”

Bai Zhenzhen reluctantly pulled her finger out of the socket: “Fine, fine.”

“Then I’ll go steal electricity at school tomorrow to cultivate.”

“Hehe, while stealing electricity, I can also use detection rituals to avoid the cameras...”

With the ritual matters successfully concluded, Zhang Yu turned his attention back to his own cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, a night passed. As the Longevity mana circulated, Zhang Yu felt his physical body becoming purer, and the Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen had once again broken through.

Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen Level 9 (24/90)

(The chapter ends)