Chapter 190: Armor Fusion!
"Before midnight, I'm going into closed-door cultivation for a bit. You two go do your own thing."
Xiang Xiaoyuan blinked her big eyes at Chen Huai’an, who had two tissues stuffed up his nose.
"Governor, you've lost quite a lot of blood... Are you really okay?"
She glanced at the backseat of the car. Blood was everywhere—on the seat, on the floor—easily over a thousand milliliters.
Then, she took another look at Chen Huai’an’s pants.
Menstrual bleeding could be ruled out.
It wasn’t that she had a weird imagination—it was just that some sinister entities had completely absurd abilities. They had encountered one before that could make men pregnant with ghost infants, so a male-period-inducing entity wasn’t entirely out of the question.
Chen Huai’an got out of the car and went inside.
Zhao Ying and Xiang Xiaoyuan exchanged glances, then silently looked up at the drizzling sky.
Chen Huai’an spent an hour fully refining the energy he had absorbed from the sinister entity.
"The first volume of the Heavenly Demon Technique—Blood Cocoon Refinement—is complete."
He clenched his fist, his skin now covered in blood-red scales. As he flexed his fingers, the tightly adhering scales twisted slightly, almost like living things.
Looking in the mirror, he saw his entire right arm swollen and armored with scales, his veins bulging like writhing purple dragons under the lamplight.
"This look is way too demonic..."
Chen Huai’an frowned.
And this was just his arm.
If this spread across his whole body, wouldn’t he look like a full-blown demon?!
Sure, he hadn’t met a Demon Slayer stronger than himself yet...
But the world was vast—there were always stronger people, just as there were mountains beyond mountains and lightning beyond lightning!
What if some particularly powerful guy saw him and thought he was a demonic cultivator or a sinister entity?
He needed a heroic and righteous battle cry to counterbalance his evil appearance.
One second of high-intensity brainpower later, he had an answer.
"Xiang Xiaoyuan, Zhao Ying, come in for a moment."
The two women entered, confused.
Without hesitation, Chen Huai’an activated his full power.
In an instant, blood-red scales enveloped his entire body, and his frame swelled to nearly twice its original size. He no longer looked remotely human—he resembled a bipedal monster.
Xiang Xiaoyuan turned pale as a sheet, teeth chattering.
Zhao Ying instinctively took a step back, gripping the Tang blade at her waist with a grim expression.
She had felt that something was off about Chen Huai’an ever since he came back from the ruins.
And the amount of blood he had lost in the car...
Even a Demon Slayer shouldn’t be perfectly fine after losing that much.
Was he finally revealing his true nature?!
Zhao Ying clenched her jaw.
Trouble always came at the worst times.
Just as the two women entered full battle mode—
Chen Huai’an’s mouth split into a sinister grin, revealing sharp fangs.
Then, with a voice as deep as a thousand truck engines revving at once, he bellowed—
"BLOOD DEMON ARMOR—FUUUUUSION!!!"
Xiang Xiaoyuan: "???"
Outside the room, Zhao Ying and Xiang Xiaoyuan both let out a deep sigh of relief.
"For a second, I really thought the Governor had been possessed by some sinister entity..."
Xiang Xiaoyuan patted her chest, still shaken.
"Who wouldn’t think that?" Zhao Ying muttered.
She took out her stun baton and zapped herself, hoping the mild pain would help her nerves settle.
"If he’d waited one more second before shouting that ridiculous phrase, I swear I would’ve swung my blade at him... Not that it would’ve done much."
"The Governor’s new ability seems incredibly powerful. It must be from his companion spirit. The real question is—what’s the cost?"
Xiang Xiaoyuan glanced into the room.
Chen Huai’an was in there, hunched over his phone, occasionally letting out a weird little chuckle.
The glass divider was fogged up, but from the outside, she could vaguely see what was happening inside.
The Governor had claimed he was in closed-door cultivation.
But that laugh had nothing to do with cultivation.
That was the laugh of a man who had been... starved... and had finally found the right website.
Zhao Ying was about to reassure Xiang Xiaoyuan—
Two jets of blood sprayed from Chen Huai’an’s nose.
The blood splattered onto the ceiling.
Meanwhile, inside, he was sitting cross-legged, seemingly deep in meditation.
"...So this is the price of power."
Blood trickled down from the ceiling.
Even though the view was hazy, the sheer danger of it was palpable.
One must always pay the price for what they gain.
Zhao Ying finally understood.
The Governor, who normally seemed carefree and unserious, had always been fighting against demons and sinister entities in his own way.
He was trading his lifespan for strength.
Those blood sprays from his nose were the proof.
Chen Huai’an picked up his phone, glanced at it—
And immediately, another two blood jets erupted.
This time, there was no doubt.
Looking at his phone = drawing power from his companion spirit.
The nosebleeds = the price he had to pay.
Xiang Xiaoyuan couldn’t hold back her emotions any longer.
Wiping away tears, she sniffled, "The Governor is too dedicated, too selfless... And to think I doubted him before! He must be the one suffering the most over Bearded Guy’s death!"
Zhao Ying lowered her head in silence, then let out a long sigh.
"The Governor... We should treat him better from now on. Even if he doesn’t have long left, he’s still our provincial Governor. Even if headquarters won’t acknowledge him, I will!"
Originally, their support for Chen Huai’an had been more out of necessity than choice.
Both Zhao Ying and Xiang Xiaoyuan had fully accepted him as their Governor.
Meanwhile, inside the room, Chen Huai’an was completely unaware of the deep emotional bond he had unintentionally formed with them.
He was too busy nosebleeding all over the place while watching a martial arts demonstration video featuring Li Qingran.
"Holy sh*t... This is too damn good!"
He had known Li Qingran had a great figure.
But this time, he had seen it in full detail, and his suspicions were confirmed.
If he had to describe it in the most scientifically precise way possible—
The curvature ratio of her waist to hips had shattered the limits of the Cartesian coordinate system. The Riemann manifold, when visually observed, was causing a gravitational lensing effect!
He had wanted to find a beautiful mathematical equation to encapsulate her divine proportions.
But in the end, he realized—
No mathematical formula could ever do justice to Qingran Baby.
Jinde Ancient Town—Bone Porcelain Ruins.
Lin Chen and Huang Gubei had been waiting for some time.
As the clock hands aligned perfectly at midnight—
A pair of blinding headlights cut through the darkness, making them squint.
From the light, a tall figure emerged.
His stride was arrogant, exuding a main character aura.
Even his two subordinates behind him were walking with exaggerated swagger.
As he drew closer, Lin Chen finally saw him clearly.
It was Chen Huai’an... with two tissues stuffed in his nostrils.
"You’re here. But your nose..."
Chen Huai’an raised a single finger, his eyes deep and brooding. A cold smirk curled at his lips.
"This is the price of gaining immense power. Just a little lifespan, just becoming a monster that all fear.
As the saying goes—I walk not into the Great Thunder—cough—I walk into Hell so that others don’t have to.
Only I, Chen. Huai. An, will remain."
Lin Chen stared at him like he was a complete dumbass.
But before she could speak—
Chen Huai’an formed a hand seal.
He visualized Li Qingran’s technique in his mind—
He saw the white mathematical formulas...
The perfect geometric curves...
His eyes narrowed, and the tissues in his nose instantly turned red.
"Hidden in darkness? So what...
Tonight, I will leave you nowhere to run!
Dragon-Seeking Guidance!!!"
A golden light shot into the sky—
Transforming into a dragon, diving straight into the Bone Porcelain Ruins.