59: Orc Ancestors

Great Shaman Zhaka, seeing that the situation was not right, slammed his withered arm, sending out black mist that pushed the Chief's corpulent body towards the crowd.

Then, he chanted an obscure incantation, and his entire body instantly disintegrated into countless tiny black particles, vanishing into the air like coal dust scattered by the wind.

Chen Xu reacted swiftly, firing his firearm at the black mist!

Bang!

The bullet passed through the black mist.

"Zhaka! You beast!" The Chief, dazed from being thrown, struggled to get up, his fleshy face contorted with rage. "You damned traitor! I shouldn't have saved you back then; I should have let you be sacrificed and burned to death!"

Chen Xu pressed his long firearm against the Chief's throat: "Hand over all your treasures, and I will spare your life."

The Chief raised his head: "Orc warriors would rather die in battle than surrender!"

Chen Xu punched the Chief on the bridge of his nose, and with a crisp sound of bone cracking, two streams of nosebleed gushed out.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" The Chief, who had been so defiant just moments before, immediately slumped to the ground like a deflated bag, covering his deformed nose and begging for mercy indistinctly, "In the underground treasury, I'll take you there."

"Very good, lead the way." Chen Xu followed the Chief to the underground treasury—a cave half the size of a football field. Piles of gold coins glittered with dazzling light under the torchlight, various jewel-encrusted weapons and armor were casually stacked in corners, and in the deepest part, there were even more than a dozen oak barrels filled with magic crystals.

The Chief had lied to Leige before; he had never been willing to hand over all his treasures. How could he possibly be willing?

The Chief rubbed his hands obsequiously: "You see, all of these are yours. Can you let me go now?"

"Anything else?" Chen Xu said coldly.

"No... nothing else..." The Chief's eyes darted unnaturally.

The firearm in Chen Xu's hand let out a chilling click, and the cold barrel pressed tightly against the Chief's forehead.

"Still daring to lie to me!" Chen Xu's finger gently squeezed the trigger. "One more lie, and I'll blow your head off."

The Chief's thick lips trembled as he scrambled and crawled towards a corner of the treasury.

His gold-ringed fingers fumbled on the stone wall, then suddenly pressed an inconspicuous protrusion.

With a muffled sound of mechanisms turning, the seemingly solid stone wall slowly moved aside, revealing an even more hidden secret chamber.

In the secret chamber stood a set of ferociously designed black armor, glowing with an eerie metallic luster under the torchlight.

Next to the armor hung a yellowed, ancient map, marked with various mysterious symbols in dark red pigment.

The Chief knelt on the ground: "This is... this is the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor left by the Orc ancestor, the Bloodrage. All the Orcs in our tribe have tried, but none could wear it. Legend has it that a powerful warrior will wear it, gain the power of the ancestors, then take this full map of the Chaotic Continent, inherit the ancestors' will, and conquer the entire continent."

Chen Xu narrowed his eyes, the firearm still aimed at the Chief's head: "Anything else?"

"This time, there really isn't anything else!" The Chief frantically kowtowed, his forehead bleeding from hitting the stone slab. "I even handed over the ancestors' holy artifact!"

Chen Xu's lips curved into a cruel smile: "Then you can die now."

"No! Aren't you humans the most trustworthy?" The Chief shrieked hysterically, "You promised not to kill me!"

"Humans are indeed the most trustworthy," Chen Xu's finger slowly pulled the trigger, "but humans are also the most cunning. In your next life... I hope you get a chance at Reincarnation as a human."

"Bang!"

The lead bullet from the firearm blasted the Chief's head into smithereens, and blood splattered radially onto the stone walls of the secret chamber.

What was astonishing was that the blood droplets splashed on the black armor seemed to be absorbed, seeping into the metal surface, and the entire armor suddenly erupted with a dazzling blood-red light.

"Divine Armor! It's definitely Divine Armor!" Chen Xu exclaimed.

The moment Chen Xu's palm touched the armor, rows of translucent text appeared in his vision, as clear as equipment descriptions in a game:

【Bloodthirsty Battle Armor】

Quality: Legendary

Attributes:

【Blood Thirst】Absorbs enemy blood to repair damage and enhance defense

【Ancestor's Rage】Activates to gain ancestral combat instincts for a short period

【Conquest Mark】Wearer can sense the location of Secret Realms marked on the map

Warning: Long-term use may lead to bloodthirsty frenzy.

Although there were side effects, Chen Xu couldn't care less.

It was the Early Stage of his venture, and he needed to take risks!

Chen Xu took a deep breath and lifted the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor, which glowed with an eerie blood-red light.

The moment the armor's metal surface touched his skin, it wriggled like a living creature, emitting a spine-chilling metallic grinding sound.

The ferocious spikes mercilessly pierced into Chen Xu's limbs and torso.

Ah!

Chen Xu let out a painful roar.

Blood flowed along the grooves on the armor's surface, activating the ancestral runes.

Each rune that lit up was accompanied by excruciating, bone-gnawing pain—like millions of cannibal ants gnawing at his marrow, or molten lava rushing through his blood vessels.

Shen Nanzhi, Cheng Xue, and the others were tense: "Chen Xu, are you alright! We'll help you take it off."

"Don't come closer!" Chen Xu knelt on one knee, veins bulging on his forehead, sweat mixed with blood continuously dripping.

His teeth gnashed: "This is... a test... I can... endure..."

Chen Xu released all the lightning elemental Qi from his magic core.

Blue electric arcs fiercely collided with the blood-red light on the armor, exploding into waves of energy within the secret chamber.

His pupils sometimes turned a furious red, sometimes returned to a calm black—this was his lightning elemental Qi battling the ancestral blood within the armor in a desperate struggle.

"Submit... to me!"

With a deafening roar, Chen Xu's magic core underwent a qualitative Breakthrough.

The originally singular lightning elemental Qi fused with the blood elemental Qi from the armor, forming a red and blue intertwined magical vortex around him.

When the last trace of crimson was devoured by the lightning, everyone felt an unprecedented pressure—that was the magical fluctuation possessed only by a High-Level Magician.

"Blood Lightning!"

As Chen Xu raised his hand, a crimson energy beam streaked with blood-red lightning howled out, blasting a three-meter-diameter crater in the distant stone wall.

Amidst flying debris, he slowly straightened his body, new magic flowing endlessly within him.

Chen Xu not only conquered the Bloodthirsty Battle Armor but also broke through from a Beginner Magician to become a High-Level Magician.

The difference between a High-Level Magician and a Beginner Magician is that a Beginner Magician can only cast single spells, while a High-Level Magician can cast composite spells.

Shen Nanzhi and the others stared dumbfounded at Chen Xu, who stood amidst the Blood Lightning. Had Chen Xu become a Super Saiyan??

Chen Xu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, revealing a confident smile: "Congratulations to this armor for making a wise choice!"

Ma Gang ran in, gasping for breath: "Chen Xu, I've searched the entire tribe, but I haven't found Wu Hao. That guy might have already run away!"