144: Chapter 144 Against the Rain

Tang Long almost cursed out loud.

Those damn capitalists are just unreliable; what kind of crappy medicine is this?

This isn't even a matter of effect; these are basically two completely different skills!

While this aura was undoubtedly powerful, he didn't have any support skills at the moment.

Well, it wasn't exactly none.

At the very least, his strongest skill—Divine Guard—now showed a prompt indicating its duration had doubled. In other words, it could increase from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

It was strong, but useless right now.

In his anxiety, he noticed that the rate of his blood loss had slowed down. He stared at his status panel for a good while but couldn't find any relevant changes.

After a few more seconds, he temporarily deactivated Unyielding Body for two seconds.

He found it.

Under the Reverse Rain aura, the damage reduction of Unyielding Body was significantly increased. It was hard to calculate the exact amount, but it definitely hadn't reached 60%.

The effect didn't match the prompt information; there was a clear downgrade.

He couldn't look into the specific cause right now, but it was enough to survive this phase.

On the other side, Miao Manman was completely stunned.

The moment the aura appeared, she was startled, but she had no time to escape and couldn't flee anyway, so she was covered by it.

As the raindrops formed from golden-green light brushed over her like solid objects, her body couldn't stop trembling slightly, and she was completely unable to comprehend the scene before her.

“Don't be afraid. This is my power; it won't hurt you.”

Tang Long had stabilized his position by now and was not panicked at all.

Now his only fear was... that the potion's effect wouldn't last long... so he needed to speed up the process as much as possible.

“There's a lot of commotion here, and the light patterns might leak out. Do you want to notify certain people so we don't attract trouble?”

Miao Manman hurriedly waved her hands. “Don't worry! This place was arranged for me by Commander-in-Chief Qi of the National Defense Army. No one will come to check!”

“Good. Now immediately help me light all the spirit incense and spirit tobacco.”

Miao Manman agreed and quickly opened and lit the ten sticks of spirit tobacco Tang Long had brought.

Rolling smoke continuously gathered toward Tang Long's body—blood-red, black and white, and gray—interweaving around him, as if draping him in a mysterious cloak.

As time passed, more and more Spirit Blasts leaked from Tang Long's body. The power of these Spirit Blasts had already surpassed ordinary Spirit Blade Battle Qi.

Even the thick concrete floor and walls were constantly being carved with dents and cracks by the chaotic Spirit Blasts.

Although Miao Manman had retreated over a dozen steps away, she grew increasingly worried.

“Tang Long, are you okay?!”

Tang Long gave a casual smile. “Don't worry. I'll do my best to control the escaping Spirit Blasts; I won't tear down your house.”

“I mean your body—can you still endure it?”

“Me? I'm fine! In fact...”

Before Tang Long could finish his sentence, another thunderous boom erupted from his body.

The massive spiritual energy that overflowed simultaneously not only sent Miao Manman staggering back but the resulting airwave even forced distinct wave-like cracks into the ground.

A few seconds later, the impact of spiritual energy stopped, but the room was already a mess.

Tang Long stood up, looked around, and gave Miao Manman another slightly awkward smile.

“Sorry about that. That last bit was indeed hard to control, and I ruined your floor.”

Miao Manman was speechless at this point.

She quickly approached and looked him up and down carefully, but she still couldn't understand it.

The energy from the overflowing Spirit Blasts was already so terrifying. According to the manual, the final Spirit Blast's power would be five to ten times stronger. Why was Tang Long's body completely unharmed instead?

However, after looking for only about seventeen or eighteen seconds, she suddenly turned her head away.

Blushing, she ran into the next room and soon came out with a large bedsheet.

“I don't have any men's clothing here. Use this for now; I'll go out and buy some for you in a bit.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Only then did Tang Long notice that his clothes were basically ruined.

Damn!

She was circling around looking at me just now; she didn't see anything... 'VIP level' content, did she?

“I'll rest for an hour and then try to help you once. You can start the preliminary preparations now.”

“Okay.”

Seeing Miao Manman quickly head back to the next room and prepare more than one set of clothes, Tang Long didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

“You're just starting; there's no need for this during the second ring. I meant for you to prepare the cultivation method and spirit stones.”

“Better... be prepared, just in case they're needed.”

Tang Long shook his head helplessly, planning to wrap himself in the sheet and take a shower first.

But then Miao Manman asked, “Are you... not going to take back this golden-green light rain you're releasing?”

Tang Long's face twitched slightly, and he sighed silently in his heart.

Yeah, he really should put away his 'divine powers.'

The problem was... he couldn't control this thing.

To be fair, the forbidden drugs developed by the Jiang Family were quite remarkable.

The several types of drugs he tried today were all buff types; they had definitely been screened.

But the randomness was too high, and the stability was too poor. It would be an exaggeration to say they were useless, but you wouldn't dare rely on them at a critical moment.

Fortunately, after just a few more seconds, the aura suddenly flickered out and vanished without a trace.

Tang Long took a shower, came back wrapped in the bedsheet, and seized the time to continue practicing Barbarian Blood.

The Barbarian Blood Breathing Technique was currently at level eight. At his original cultivation efficiency, it would have been absolutely impossible to raise Barbarian Blood to level nine in ten hours.

But his spirituality was now doubled, and he had ample resources. If he could ignore the slight wear and tear from accelerating his breathing cycles, there was a decent chance.

An hour passed quickly, and Miao Manman proactively asked to try the Open-Ring Forbidden Method, requesting Tang Long's guidance and assistance.

It had to be admitted that a Spirit Body indeed had a huge advantage. When Miao Manman was forming her ring, the spiritual energy was nowhere near as violent as his had been.

Unfortunately, her vitality was too weak—more than five times lower than Tang Long's was at the start.

Her health bar was too short; she simply couldn't last until the end. Even using invincibility would be futile.

Nevertheless, Tang Long gave her plenty of comfort, telling her to wait patiently for a few days and that he would definitely find a way.

In fact, low health wasn't a huge problem. If he could master a healing skill as soon as possible—even just one—he could just brute-force her level up enough to endure it.

The problem now was: the players had only been logged in for one day; could they have produced any skills?

The Class Instructors had them for sale, but the prices were exceptionally expensive for low-level accounts; they couldn't afford them.

Unless... I give them money?

Thinking of this, Tang Long realized the money in his inventory was a bit low.

The total was only the twenty thousand blue sea coins he'd earned from quests. As for money obtained through other channels, like what he won at the casino, the system didn't recognize it at all.

There was a big job tonight, though. Old Lv's quest could give a million, but considering he would likely need to throw around a lot of money in the future, Tang Long had to consider asking him for more.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was afternoon.

Miao Manman had left at some point, leaving a message saying she had bought him new clothes and that he should just leave when he was ready without worrying about anything.

Mad Dog had also sent a message, wanting to check on his status.

As expected, Lv Yang had also sent a message.