The blood-colored avatar picked up the Skeleton General's crystal and immediately, a potent Essence Energy surged into Zhou Wen's body like a boring drill that opened up a brand new path.
After this force slowly disappeared, a notification popped up on the game screen: Absorbed Skeleton General Crystal. Learned Legendary Essence Energy Skill—Penetrating Pierce.
Zhou Wen had already been prepared to suffer damage, but he was surprised that everything had happened rather smoothly.
With a Mortal stage body, one could only fuse with Mortal Essence Energy Skill Crystals under normal circumstances. If one forcefully fused a Legendary Essence Energy Skill, their bodies would suffer an immense impact. The consequences ranged from damaged meridians to instant death.
Zhou Wen had relied on his body being far stronger than the typical Mortal stage, and with no fear of death in-game, this gave him the courage to absorb the Skeleton General Crystal. Everything went smoothly and other than the pain of having an Essence Energy passageway open up in him, there wasn't any damage dealt to him.
"Is this the case when played in-game or is this an effect of Lost Immortal Sutra?" Zhou Wen couldn't be sure of the reason, but ultimately, it was a boon for him.
After glancing at the provided information in-game, Penetrating Pierce was a Rank 1 Legendary Essence Energy Skill. However, Penetrating Pierce was an Essence Energy Skill that required a spear-type weapon to deliver maximum force.
"Li Xuan, come out here!" Zhou Wen was planning on switching dungeons to try his chances at killing the Silver-Winged Flying Ant in Ant Nest when he heard a woman's voice sound at the villa's entrance. At the same time, the doorbell kept ringing.
Li Xuan probably wasn't home and he was the only one inside.
Although Zhou Wen heard the doorbell, the visitor had come for Li Xuan. Since the latter wasn't home, he didn't have any intention of opening the door. He continued gaming while sitting on the sofa.
"Li Xuan, I know you're home. If you don't come on out, don't blame me!" After pressing the doorbell for quite some time, the woman still refused to give up.
Zhou Wen completely ignored her and pretended not to hear her shouts. The doorbell's ringing didn't disturb him in any way, so he continued gaming.
Zhou Wen imagined that the woman would leave quickly, but to his surprise, the woman stopped after yelling for a while. Then, two seconds later, there was a loud bang followed by two thuds. The door had been kicked open!
The woman dashed into the villa and saw no one in the living room, so she headed straight upstairs.
She appeared to be very familiar with the place, rushing straight for Li Xuan's room. Without knocking, she kicked the door open.
"Li Xuan, there's no hiding today!" Seeing the room empty, the woman headed down the corridor and kicked open one room after another.
When she reached the second room, she saw Zhou Wen gaming while leaning on the bedhead.
Seeing a person, the woman was delighted. However, she immediately wore a look of disappointment when she realized that it wasn't Li Xuan. She glared at Zhou Wen and asked, "What's wrong with you? Didn't you hear me screaming?"
"I did," Zhou Wen answered as he gamed, not even looking up at the woman.
"Why didn't you answer when you heard me?" the woman said, peeved.
"You were looking for Li Xuan, not me. What should I say?" Zhou Wen answered in passing.
The woman was instantly at a loss for a rejoinder. She glared at Zhou Wen fiercely and asked, "Where's Li Xuan?"
"He's out."
"I know that he's out. I'm asking you where he is." The woman didn't feel that there was any need to be polite in front of this fellow.
"I've no idea," Zhou Wen answered very succinctly because he really had no idea.
Just as the woman was about to say something, her phone rang. She picked up the call, said a few words, and prepared to turn to leave as though there was something pressing.
But after taking a few steps, the woman seemed to think of something. She rushed back in front of Zhou Wen and yanked him up by the arm. "Follow me. Count it as helping me. At the very least, you can make up the numbers."
"Who are you? I don't know you." Zhou Wen frowned slightly, wishing to free himself from the woman's grasp.
"For you to stay here, you must be one of Li Xuan's trashy friends. How can you not even know his elder sister? You enjoy life with Li Xuan all thanks to him. Is there a problem helping his sister with something?" The woman seemed anxious, pulling Zhou Wen as she walked out.
Zhou Wen was immediately rendered speechless. He wasn't a trashy friend as she described, but it was true that he was living at Li Xuan's place at his expense.
"Let me go. I can walk on my own. What help do you need from me?" Zhou Wen thought about it and felt that if it wasn't anything serious, he could always help as payment for rent.
The woman didn't loosen her grip upon hearing that. She continued speaking as she walked. "Don't worry. I'm only getting you to make up the numbers. I don't have any hopes of you doing anything. Just don't screw things up."
Without even knowing the name of Li Xuan's sister, he was pulled out of the villa.
A motorbike was parked at the villa's entrance. After throwing the helmet that hung on the handle to Zhou Wen, she got on and said, "Come on up."
When he saw her tall figure in a pair of short boots, t-shirt, and jeans, with black curly hair freely cascading down, he found a heroic vibe to her. She was very different from the women Zhou Wen had previously met.
However, Zhou Wen didn't have any other thoughts about it. After putting on the helmet, he sat behind Li Xuan's sister.
"Sit tight." As there was only one helmet, the woman naturally didn't have one to wear after giving it to Zhou Wen. When the engine roared to life, her curly hair began flailing in the wind, sweeping across Zhou Wen from time to time.
On the streets of Luoyang, one could occasionally see experts riding all kinds of dimensional creatures. In contrast, this was rarely seen in Guide City.
Vehicles and Companion Beasts followed their own paths looking somewhat bizarre and harmonious.
Companion Beasts were taking on an increasingly important role in the Federation. Work that many humans and machines were unable to complete required the help of Companion Beasts.
With powerful Companion Beasts, not only did it strengthen oneself, but it could also provide service to all of humanity.
The woman drove extremely fast, swerving through traffic in a harrowing manner. However, she was surprisingly stable, without showing any signs of emergency braking.
Zhou Wen sat behind her, with his hands still on his phone gaming. The journey didn't affect his ability to game.
After riding for quite a while, Li Xuan's sister—Li Weiyang—impression of Zhou Wen improved after not feeling any hands placed around her waist.
She had never had a good impression of Li Xuan's bad company. If she wasn't in a rush to get Zhou Wen to make up the numbers, she wouldn't have brought him along. She originally had imagined that Zhou Wen would hug her waist to take advantage of her while riding on the bike, but none of that happened. Even his body hadn't made any contact with her, as though he was deliberately keeping a distance.
I never expected Li Xuan's friends to show some manners, Li Weiyang thought as she subconsciously looked back at Zhou Wen. It would have been fine if she hadn't looked back, but with that one look, all her favorable impression was gone.
She originally imagined that Zhou Wen was being a gentleman, but when she looked back, she realized that Zhou Wen was still gaming on his phone, having the time of his life. From the way he was engrossed in it, it looked as though he wished to be in the game itself.
From the looks of it, I was overthinking things. How could any of Li Xuan's friends be a gentleman? Li Weiyang thought to herself in a self-deprecating manner.