Chapter 17: Return, Transformation, and an Invulnerable Body

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A sudden squelch! The sound of flesh being pierced echoed through the air. Jin Sheng had just raised his long blade to block, but it was already too late.

"Cough, cough!"

Blood spilled from Jin Sheng’s mouth as he looked down in disbelief at the long blade embedded in his throat. How could a seasoned martial artist of the second rank perish at the hands of a brute who only knew raw strength?

With a swift flick, Li Dao drew his sword and wiped the blood off the black iron blade.

As promised, the system’s voice rang softly in his ear:

[Enemy killed: +1.54 attributes]

No wonder he was a formidable opponent. Even a fraction of his attributes was one and a half times that of an ordinary person. Had he not eliminated numerous guards earlier to accumulate extra attributes, he might truly have struggled against the captain before him.

Jin Sheng’s death left the remaining guards like headless flies, each looking around helplessly, unsure of what to do next.

Run!

In moments, that was the only thought left in their minds. Yet Li Dao had no intention of letting such easy prey escape. Gripping his black iron blade, he mercilessly slaughtered the remaining guards.

To these northern barbarians, even if they surrendered, he would show no mercy.

Though Li Dao had been nothing more than a wealthy, reckless noble in the imperial capital before regaining his memories, he still understood the deep-seated hatred between the Northern Barbarians and the Great Qian Dynasty.

Within the Northern Barbarian lands, every man, woman, and child bore resentment against the Great Qian people. Countless lives were lost each year to raids on the borderlands, and since nearly every barbarian was a warrior, the guilt lay on all their shoulders.

"Spare me!"

"My wife and children depend on me, please!"

"Don’t kill me, I surrender!"

But Li Dao’s heart was as cold as the black iron blade in his hand.

An incense stick’s length of time later, only corpses remained around him; not a single living soul was left.

At the same time, his once depleted available attributes had been replenished considerably.

[Owner: Li Dao]

[Physique: 18.07 (Transformable)]

[Available Attributes: 4.63]

"Add points."

Seeing the note “Transformable” beside Physique, Li Dao cautiously attempted to allocate some points. To his surprise, the available attributes did not increase as usual when added to Physique. Instead, the “Transformable” label flickered.

Did he need to complete this transformation first?

Transformation sounded complex. He certainly couldn’t do it here.

"I’ll deal with it later," he thought.

Closing the panel, Li Dao set out to find Xu Hu and the others.

Since he had distanced himself during the fight with Jin Sheng, he wasn’t sure of their situation. But it should be fine. Although Xu Hu and the Madman were severely injured, after drawing away the strongest guard captain, they could still defend themselves against the remaining guards.

...

"Old Ghost, did you kill them all by beating them to death?"

Shen San stared in surprise as the last guard collapsed and died.

Old Ghost, satisfied with the haul, replied, "I never kill people outright. I always leave them a breath of life; they just fail to hold on."

In his view, only those he personally beat to death counted as his kill. Whatever happened afterward was none of his concern.

After spending some time with Old Ghost, Shen San had grown used to his personality.

He kicked the fallen Third Prince of the Luoyun Tribe to the ground and said, "Why don’t you finish this guy off then? We came here to kill him anyway."

"Him?" Old Ghost glanced once and said, "This guy’s full of ailments—poisoned from head to toe. Though young in age, his body is completely depleted from excess indulgence. I don’t want him; do as you please."

"Fine," Shen San said, looking at the prince. "Alright then, time to send you on your way. But don’t worry, I’m not as sadistic as Old Ghost. One quick slash with my small knife, and you’ll leave painlessly."

The Third Prince of Luoyun was losing his composure. He wanted to live, not leave painlessly.

As the dagger drew near, he dropped to his knees, begging, "Spare me! I am the Third Prince of the Luoyun Tribe of the Northern Barbarians. If you kill me, my father won’t forgive you."

Hearing this, Shen San chuckled. "Prince, do you know us?"

"N-No..."

"If you don’t know us, do you really think your father does? Kill you, and no one will ever know it was us."

The Third Prince was speechless.

Suddenly, a spark of inspiration hit him. "Wait, listen to me."

"You don’t look like government men, more like people from the underworld, right?"

"So what if we are?"

"If you were government men, I wouldn’t plead. But if you’re from the underworld, surely someone hired you with conditions to kill me."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

Seeing a glimmer of hope, the prince quickly added, "Tell me the price they offered to kill me. I’ll pay double... no, ten times the price if you spare me."

Before Shen San could reply, a voice came from nearby.

"Do you have fifty lives to pay us back?"

Shen San turned around, pleased. "Boss?"

Seeing that only Li Dao had arrived, he hurriedly asked, "Is that expert dead?"

"Dead."

"Haha, I knew you could do it, boss. That guy really gave me a hard time before."

Shen San laughed heartily.

Meanwhile, the Third Prince trembled at Li Dao’s words.

Before, he had hoped Jin Sheng would come to rescue him. Now, all hope was lost.

Li Dao glanced at Xu Hu and the Madman, noticing their wounds had nearly healed. Seeing Old Ghost nearby, he knew exactly who had done the healing.

He couldn’t help but say, "Old Ghost, your medical skills are much more reliable than your poisons."

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Teased, Old Ghost didn’t take offense and bluntly replied, "My medicine has always been better than my poison."

Li Dao nodded and looked toward the Third Prince. "Is he the target?"

Shen San nodded. "I was about to deal with him."

With a swift motion, the black iron blade pierced the Third Prince’s chest.

The prince looked down at the blade in disbelief. He had wanted to negotiate, but now he was dying.

He could feel his life slipping away.

A few breaths later:

[Enemy killed: +0.06 attributes]

Li Dao blinked in confusion.

He glanced at the fallen Third Prince. How useless must this guy be to yield so few attributes? Even worse than his initial physique.

Oh well, even a mosquito is meat.

Better not return the attributes.

Shen San, just regaining composure, stared in disbelief. "Already killed him?"

Li Dao retorted, "What, leave him for the New Year?"

Shen San was speechless.

The next moment, he approached the corpse and began rummaging through its clothes.

"What are you doing?"

Li Dao was startled by Shen San’s action. This guy looked sleazy enough; was he some kind of scoundrel?

Without looking back, Shen San chuckled, "Killing and looting — can’t waste the goods."

He pulled out a string of beads from the prince’s belongings and asked, "Boss, these beads are good quality. Want them?"

Li Dao realized Shen San’s old habit was acting up again.

"Keep it for yourself," he said.

Shen San stuffed the beads into his pocket and continued searching the corpse.

Li Dao looked at Old Ghost and the others. "Let’s rest a bit. We’ll return to Changgu Town in half an hour."

With that, he found a clean spot and sat down to rest.

After killing so many people, it was impossible not to feel some emotional burden. After all, he was no natural-born killer.

He needed to calm his emotions to avoid truly becoming a bloodthirsty fiend.

Half an hour passed quickly.

Before dawn, Li Dao led the group back to Changgu Town.

...

Inside the main military tent of Changgu Town.

Wei Yun stared in shock at the five standing before him. "You wiped out the entire squad of the Third Prince of Luoyun?"

He had only ordered them to assassinate the prince, not to massacre the entire team. Was that really necessary?

At this, Shen San proudly said, "That’s all thanks to the boss. He single-handedly wiped out nearly a hundred guards and killed that second-rank guard captain. The rest of us were just along for the ride."

Hearing this, Old Ghost smirked, though he wasn’t sure who was really along for the ride. At his age, he didn’t care to argue.

"Oh!"

Wei Yun looked at Li Dao with surprise. "You took down a second-rank expert?"

Li Dao replied casually, "Maybe because he was a dud."

He glanced at Old Ghost, who was a first-rank expert.

Old Ghost: "???"

Wei Yun continued, "Even if he was a dud, your performance was impressive. At the second-rank martial artist level, one who can defeat a hundred armored foes alone is a strong expert."

"Though your opponents weren’t official guards, they were still elite. So no need to be modest."

Li Dao shrugged, saying nothing further.

In his view, the more low-key, the better.

Seeing Li Dao’s unwillingness to talk, Wei Yun awkwardly changed the subject. "After last night’s ordeal, I’m sure you five are tired. Go rest."

Shen San spoke up, "Commander Wei, don’t tell me ‘rest’ means sending us back to the death row cells?"

"Of course not. You’ve helped me a great deal. Each of you will have a private tent to rest in."

Shen San smiled in satisfaction. "That’s more like it."

The five left the main tent and were soon led to five adjoining tents.

Shen San and the others instinctively looked to Li Dao.

"Pick any. Rest well so we can complete the next two missions."

Li Dao entered the middle tent.

The other four exchanged glances and each picked a tent.

Inside, Li Dao saw a bed and a table laden with food.

He didn’t approach the food but instead sat cross-legged on the bed.

Silently, he thought, "Panel."

[Owner: Li Dao]

[Physique: 18.07 (Transformable)]

[Available Attributes: 4.63]

Gazing at the “Transformable” note, he hesitated briefly before decisively confirming with his mind.

The next moment, a shudder ran through him.

A mysterious tearing sensation erupted within his body.

Not just skin or flesh—every cell seemed to be ripping apart. Words could not describe the agony.

At the same time, information on physique transformation flashed through his mind.

When a person’s physique reaches a certain level, they hit a limit. To break through, they must enhance their body’s potential.

Martial cultivators reaching certain limits can break through using true energy, effectively rebirthing themselves—akin to a major realm breakthrough.

But Li Dao was different. Without true energy inside him to aid the breakthrough, he had to rely solely on his physique to surpass the limit.

Ordinary people rarely achieve this, but with the system, breaking the limit was easy—just allocate points. The real challenge was enduring the pain of the transformation.

If he couldn’t endure the pain, then having the system would be pointless.

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Though painful, this method of transformation had benefits unknown to ordinary people.

Each time he transformed, one of his bodily functions underwent a special metamorphosis, granting unexpected advantages.

Understanding the nature of the transformation, Li Dao gritted his teeth and endured.

The system was his secret; he didn’t want anyone to discover his abnormality.

The tearing pain intensified until his whole body grew numb.

Time passed slowly.

Eventually, the pain began to fade.

Simultaneously, he noticed changes in his body.

It was as if... the transformation had begun.

His skin?

Li Dao keenly sensed the changes occurring in his skin.

At this moment, it felt as if his skin was being remolded, undergoing alterations he could barely comprehend.

No matter the changes, they had to be beneficial.

If anyone else had been present, they would have seen Li Dao’s skin gradually darken.

Ten minutes later.

The pain inside Li Dao vanished completely, and he knew the transformation was complete.

"What is this..."

Looking down, he saw his skin had turned a dark black. Yet, to his surprise, this seemed only a layer of dead skin. The real skin lay beneath.

He reached out and tore at the dead layer.

It split open, revealing his true skin beneath.

Compared to before, his skin had become much paler—but not unnaturally so; it was a healthy shade.

But this wasn’t the most remarkable part.

After close observation, he found his skin was still as soft as before, but its texture had changed.

Toughness!

Yes, his skin had become noticeably more resilient.

Li Dao quickly stripped off the dead skin covering his entire body, finding every inch the same.

"Panel!"

[Owner: Li Dao]

[Physique: 18.07]

[Available Attributes: 4.63]

The “Transformable” label had disappeared, confirming the transformation was complete. However, the panel didn’t specify any particular changes.

Might as well test adding points.

With a thought, he tried:

[Owner: Li Dao]

[Physique: 22.70]

[Available Attributes: 0]

No surprises. The supposed doubling of attribute gains after reaching a certain physique level wasn’t evident. It was still a straight increase.

A familiar warmth flowed through his body, reconstructing his muscles and brain.

What stood out was that during this enhancement, his skin showed different changes from before.

This must be the special metamorphosis the system mentioned, though he hadn’t expected it to affect his skin.

"So... it’s become tougher?"

Suddenly, an idea struck him.

He stood and grabbed the black iron blade he had left by the bedside.

Without hesitation, he slashed it across his left arm.

Before this, even with twenty times the average physique, the sharpness of the black iron blade would still have cut him.

He had studied scientific explanations of human strength in a previous life.

A person’s body strength doesn’t always equate to resistance against external force.

In other words, even with strong physique and resistance, injuries still occur due to muscle cushioning limits.

Scientific calculations showed that ignoring a bullet’s impact would require at least ten thousand times normal human strength.

So, unless someone’s body strength was terrifyingly high, injuries from external forces were inevitable.

His experiment now was to test his skin’s resistance.

As the blade moved across his skin, he felt no normal cut. Instead, it was like a dull blade scraping tough leather—the edge couldn’t penetrate.

Looking at his arm, he saw no white scratches—only a red mark that, with his recovery ability, disappeared within a single breath.

Indeed, this transformation enhanced the strength and toughness of his skin.

Otherwise, the blade would have drawn blood or even cut into muscle.

Next, Li Dao tested the maximum force his skin could endure.

With the black iron blade as the instrument, twice the strength of an ordinary person left no mark.

Five times strength left a faint white scratch that vanished instantly.

Ten times strength barely cut the skin, but his twentyfold recovery healed it to a scab in moments.

Finally, at full power, he managed to drive the blade into the muscle.

Still, his dense muscles clamped tightly around the blade.

Remember, this was with the black iron blade. With ordinary blades, the weapon might have snapped before injuring him.

With his current skin strength, he could truly be called impervious to blades and spears.

And this was just the test against sharp weapons.

Li Dao believed his transformed skin held even more miraculous qualities.

Most importantly, his skin’s resistance to external forces would increase alongside his physique enhancements.

A rather profound question then came to him:

What would he do if he ever got appendicitis?

Of course, this was just a passing thought.

With a physique twenty times that of a normal person, his resistance to viruses, bacteria, and so forth was equally enhanced.

What could possibly cause him inflammation?

Moreover, even if inflammation occurred, his immunity would swiftly heal it, making surgery unnecessary.