Chapter 5: First Spirit Ability, Successful Escape?
"Decaying Body!"
Chen Ming stood up and shouted in a low voice. No matter how he looked at it, this name did not sound righteous at all. As the deep yellow Spirit Ring beside him lit up, a special power burst from Chen Ming's body.
In his Martial Soul Possession state, Chen Ming's swollen and firm body, like a bloated balloon, began to secrete a layer of green substance that looked like grease. This substance formed a gelatinous film over the surface of his body, almost like moss.
As Chen Ming circulated his Spirit Power and moved around, that moss-like substance continued to squirm without pause, making him look like a rotten piece of flesh that was still somehow alive and moving.
Although this layer was not thick, Chen Ming could clearly feel a major increase in his defense. As for resistance to abnormalities, he did not notice any obvious change.
He looked around, then cautiously patted a nearby rock. Upon impact, the moss-like substance peeled away from his body and stuck to the rock like glue, while the missing section on Chen Ming's body was quickly replenished by more of the substance wriggling over from nearby areas.
However, because the rock was not a living thing, the follow-up effect could not be tested.
Chen Ming estimated that this moss-like substance was probably the source of the poisoning effect mentioned in the Spirit Ability's close-contact effect. If an enemy attacked him at close range, this layer would stick to them. If his own fist hit an enemy, contamination would occur as well.
After conducting a simple test of his Martial Soul's Spirit Ability, Chen Ming dispelled it and dropped onto the ground with a plop, then began taking huge bites out of the Carrion Giant Lizard's flesh.
To prevent future predators, or things like the Locust Fish that could even gnaw through wood, from eating all of his prey, Chen Ming decided to consume the Carrion Giant Lizard in batches, turning it into nutrition inside his own body before continuing on his way.
During the process of eating the flesh, Chen Ming could feel his Spirit Power growing slowly but clearly as he continuously digested it. However, exactly how much it had grown, Chen Ming had no way of measuring.
After obtaining his 1st Spirit Ring and slightly raising his Spirit Power, Chen Ming's basic physical abilities improved significantly. Even his movement speed increased greatly.
After walking like this for several days, other colors finally began to appear in the surrounding earth-yellow World. Some dry trees stripped bare of bark stood alone in the distance, and some luggage and daily necessities had been discarded in a mess by the roadside.
Although Chen Ming's ability to survive increased greatly while in the Martial Soul Possession state, once he noticed that he might be nearing a place where humans lived, he forcefully suppressed his instincts and deactivated his Martial Soul Possession, changing from a green sphere back into a thin, black-haired child.
Because he had remained in the Martial Soul Possession state for too long, the moment he deactivated it, Chen Ming felt as if his body had turned into boiled noodles. He could not find even the slightest trace of strength anywhere in himself. He felt like a fish that had dried out from dehydration, completely unable to adjust to his state after releasing Martial Soul Possession.
It took more than 10 minutes before Chen Ming was barely able to adjust both his body and his state of mind. He tied together the ragged scraps of clothing on his body to cover the important parts below his waist, then stepped barefoot onto the dry soil and continued moving forward.
Finally, after walking for a full day and night, Chen Ming at last saw traces of green.
"99 percent, a rare treasure!"
Chen Ming urgently pulled up a clump of Blue Silver Grass by the roadside, shook the dirt off it, and greedily stuffed it into his mouth. Although Blue Silver Grass was just a weed, tough and bitter, to the point that even livestock would refuse to eat it if they had a choice, to Chen Ming, who had just crawled out of Hell, this Blue Silver Grass was practically a delicacy from the heavens.
Weeds, leaves... Chen Ming stuffed every bit of green he could see into his mouth, unwilling to let any of it go.
Although, without Martial Soul Possession, Chen Ming did not possess that terrifying digestive power capable of even breaking down Locust Fish, the awakening of his Martial Soul had permanently strengthened his digestion. Even in his normal state, eating these things would not burden his stomach, and any contamination or hidden danger they carried could not erode his body.
After eating for a long time, until his stomach bulged high, Chen Ming sat down on the ground with a thud and let out a long sigh.
"I will definitely survive," Chen Ming said silently to himself in encouragement.
As the plant fibers were digested in his stomach, Chen Ming felt his condition improve slightly. Although he still looked very thin, his limbs were noticeably thicker than before. He no longer looked like a skin-and-bones skeleton, but rather like an undernourished child.
Following the marks of the road, Chen Ming continued onward. But after only a few hours, he was stopped at a checkpoint by several fully armed soldiers wielding long spears.
"Who are you? A refugee?"
The soldiers at the checkpoint wore leather armor covered with straw capes. Their heads were protected by metal helmets, and their faces were hidden behind strange masks that resembled the beaked plague doctors from Europe's Black Death in Chen Ming's previous life. Their hands were covered by leather gloves.
Almost every inch of skin on their bodies had been hidden in some way for isolation, and a strange herbal scent could be smelled from them.
The long spears in their hands were also abnormally long. They were closer to pikes than spears, measuring around 2.5 to 3 meters in length. The spearheads carried a faint dark red color, as though they had only recently been stained with fresh blood.
No matter how one looked at it, this was a very mature and highly practiced response to a plague.
Vaguely, Chen Ming could smell a strong and ominous aura of death.
Just by looking at these 2 fully armed soldiers, Chen Ming felt as though he were staring at 2 meat dumplings wrapped in zongzi leaves. The fresh scent of living people continuously poured into his nostrils, stimulating his saliva to secrete uncontrollably.
When Chen Ming realized that he had developed an appetite for humans, he felt a chill of fear. He used every bit of willpower he had to forcibly suppress that twisted instinct.
"Yes, I fled from Sanhe Village." Looking at the spearheads blocking his way, Chen Ming took a deep breath, raised both hands, and spoke in as harmless a manner as possible.
"Sanhe Village? Doesn't ring a bell." The 2 soldiers exchanged glances. Only after realizing that they could not even see each other's expressions through their masks did they turn back to Chen Ming.
"Do you have it?" One of the soldiers rubbed his fingers together and made a universal gesture toward Chen Ming.