6kv Chapter 4 Vertical Pupil
Chapter 4 Vertical Pupil
In just a few breaths, a series of unexpected events occurred.
In the brief moment of crisis, Chen Luo's brain short-circuited, and he subconsciously thought about two things.
First, why did this lynx... come back to life?
It had all its feathers plucked out, and it was almost ready to be cooked, yet it still managed to come back to life!
The moment the question arose, the answer immediately came to mind.
This is probably no ordinary lynx, but a demon, a demon cat!
Chen Luo had a toothache. In his memory, his predecessor grew up listening to stories of demons. The demons in the stories were terrifying and could use some incredible supernatural powers and magic that only martial artists could defeat.
The lynx's resurrection can only be explained by sorcery.
"No wonder the Three-Tailed Fox has vertical pupils and looks so fierce."
"But speaking of which, why would there be monsters in the shallow mountains?" he wondered.
He found the lynx in the foothills and initially thought it was just a dead animal. Liu Zhengshan, the mountain guard, didn't notice anything unusual either. Little did he know it was a demonic cat that could rise from the dead.
Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any monsters in the shallow mountainous areas.
"possible..."
"It originally lived deep in the mountains, but was hunted by some predator. After escaping to the outer mountains, it was severely injured and collapsed. I happened to find it then..."
Chen Luo made wild guesses, but had no time to delve into them, his gaze focused on what was in front of him.
Before him, a long scroll floated in mid-air.
As the light shimmered, all sorts of strange creatures were etched upon it.
A headless man wielding an axe and shield, a ferocious beast with five tails and one horn, a black tortoise with a bird's head and a snake's tail... all with different appearances and a myriad of creatures, all knelt in submission to a woman in the center.
Behold the woman with a human face and a snake's body, her appearance was eerie.
What is most captivating are her eyes, one black and one white, seemingly flowing with yin and yang, utterly mysterious.
Chen Luo was shocked by what he saw, and vaguely felt that the woman in the center looked somewhat familiar.
This was the second thing he was thinking about.
What exactly is this so-called "Scroll of Mountains and Seas" before our eyes?
【Mountains and Seas Scroll】
[Editor: Chen Luo]
[Red-faced cat (Huan) spirit detected. Integrate?]
"Is this some kind of cheat code?"
Chen Luo realized what was happening, his heart pounding. He had thought the progress panel was his cheat code, but he never expected there was another one.
Red-faced cat, naughty...
The animal being referred to is undoubtedly the lynx that came back to life.
"However, let's be honest."
"Huan, I remember it's a three-tailed, single-eyed, lynx-like mythical beast from the Classic of Mountains and Seas in my previous life. It seems to match up."
Chen Luo frowned. Could this world be connected to the Classic of Mountains and Seas in some way?
He thought for a moment, but still couldn't reach a conclusion, so he could only say, "Integrate!"
Regardless, let's activate this cheat code first.
As his thoughts settled, nine circular troughs suddenly appeared against the ethereal background of the Mountain and Sea Scroll.
Immediately, a stream of light rose from the body of the red-faced cat lying on the ground, quickly disappeared into the scroll, and embedded itself in the first circular groove in the scroll.
The light spot in the slot flickered, gradually condensing into a strange cat's eye mark.
The essence of the red-faced cat (Huan) has been integrated.
[Gained the gift of vertical pupils]
Vertical pupils: Seeing movement as stillness, night as day, and discerning the significant from the minute.
[Entering the Martial Arts realm unlocks the second slot]
Unfamiliar information flooded my mind.
"This cheat system allows me to hunt down demons, seize their essences, and use them for my own purposes, thus granting me demonic talents?"
"A maximum of nine innate talents can be acquired. Except for the first talent, which has no conditions, the other talent slots require reaching a certain martial arts realm to unlock..."
"First endowment...vertical pupils?"
As Chen Luo processed the information, he felt as if some strange change was taking place in his body.
This change is specific to one area, which is...
--Eye!
He sensed something, closed his eyes, concentrated, and silently activated his innate ability, the vertical pupil.
When I opened my eyes again...
slow!
slow!
That was his first impression.
Time seemed to slow down, and the world seemed to slow down!
The candlelight by the window no longer flickers, but sways slowly as if in slow motion, the boundary between light and shadow resembling a line drifting in a pool of water.
My second impression was clarity.
The shadowy areas, untouched by the candlelight, transformed from their original darkness into a thick layer of gray. The stove, the window latch, even the country road and wild grass outside the window... everything, regardless of its appearance or outline, became clearly visible.
At the same time, amidst the flickering candlelight and the incredibly clear rhythm of its flashing, a fly could be seen swirling around in front of one's eyes with an irregular trajectory.
Chen Luo's mind raced, and he subconsciously extended his fingers.
When I pulled back, the fly was still caught between my two fingers!
Catching a fly with two fingers has become so simple?
The experience was quite magical, as if the fly inexplicably stopped in mid-air the moment he made his move, waiting for him to make his move.
At that moment, Chen Luo suddenly understood the description of vertical pupils in the Scroll of Mountains and Seas.
The phrase "seeing movement as stillness" simply means that he was endowed with unparalleled dynamic vision.
Or rather, it's about reaction time.
In his eyes, all moving objects seemed to have their speed slowed down, becoming sluggish and stagnant.
As for seeing night as day, that goes without saying; it is clearly a powerful night vision ability that allows him to see clearly even in the dark.
Chen Luo was thrilled. As a snake catcher, possessing such amazing ability, he couldn't help but let his professional instincts kick in, and the first thing that came to his mind was catching snakes.
Why are snakes scary?
It's precisely because of the nervous attacks and swift speed of some venomous snakes that people are completely unable to defend themselves. If they don't react in time, they will be bitten and eventually die from poisoning.
But if he possessed dynamic vision that made movement seem still, the snake's pounce and bite would become slow motion, making catching snakes a piece of cake for him!
This is precisely the main reason why some cats can become natural enemies of snakes: cats have extremely fast reaction speeds, and the seemingly terrifying bites of snakes pose little threat to them.
"Vertical pupils were originally an innate quality of the Red-Faced Cat, but I inherited this quality through the Scroll of Mountains and Seas," Chen Luo said thoughtfully.
"So, in what ways is this so-called 'seeing the big picture from small details' manifested?"
According to the panel description, vertical pupils have three effects. He already understands seeing movement as stillness and seeing night as day, but he has not yet experienced "seeing the big picture from small details".
Many more attempts were made, but still no results were found.
About 15 minutes later, Chen Luo suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, accompanied by an extremely strong feeling of hunger.
The magical effect of the vertical pupils also dissipated at this moment.
"Hungry! So hungry!"
"This vertical pupil technique consumes too much energy; it can't be used for long!"
Chen Luo felt his vision go black. He leaned against the wall and staggered to the stove. He skinned and gutted the red-faced cat and stewed it whole in the pot. Before it was fully cooked, he wolfed it down.
The taste of the demon cat meat was strange, and it made him feel nauseous after eating it, but at least it relieved his feeling of exhaustion.
My thoughts also came to a complete awakening from the shock of a series of unexpected events.
【Nine Yang Strength (Beginner): 1/300】
After resting for a while, Chen Luo summoned the martial arts panel, and a look of joy unconsciously appeared on his face.
Sure enough, in that critical moment, I suddenly had an epiphany and broke through on the spot, successfully mastering the Nine Yang Force!
"Life-or-death crises often unleash a person's potential, and the death threat posed by the red-faced cat was a crucial opportunity for my breakthrough."
"This is also the key to my ability to kill that demon cat, not only because the demon was severely injured, but also because I broke through to the first level of strength and unleashed enough power."
Thinking of this, Chen Luo couldn't help but feel a little scared.
If he hadn't broken through, he probably wouldn't be stewing the cat demon now, but the cat demon eating him.
At the same time, he also had some feelings.
"I practiced martial arts diligently for a whole year and only had 73 progress points. But then I had an epiphany and it increased by 27 points."
"It seems that effort is really insignificant in the face of comprehension."
Why are so many martial arts prodigies called geniuses?
It is precisely because of their high level of comprehension that the epiphanies that I can only experience at the critical moment of life and death are just unintentional everyday occurrences for them geniuses.
Take Song Ruokui for example. She is incredibly talented and went from being a beginner to mastering the Nine Yang Force in just seven days!
"But from another perspective, it was precisely because of my year-long accumulation of martial arts training that I was able to unleash my full potential and achieve enlightenment at the critical moment of life and death."
"Hard work is still very important, especially for someone like me who is born with disadvantages."
Chen Luo's gaze was firm, and his thoughts became increasingly clear.
The most urgent task is that although vertical pupils cannot directly improve his martial arts progress, they can greatly help him catch snakes.
In other words, he could earn more money by using vertical pupils, and solving his livelihood problem should not be difficult. He might even be able to raise 480 coins for taxes within seven days.
At that time, there will be more time and energy to focus on martial arts.
Furthermore, as he makes further progress in martial arts, he can unlock subsequent slots in the Mountain and Sea Scroll one by one, gaining more divine gifts to enrich his martial arts cultivation.
This "improvement" may require years of arduous practice, but perseverance will eventually pay off.
With this in mind, Chen Luo got up and walked to the backyard of his house.
The night was quiet, the moon was bright and the stars were few. He silently recited the incantation of the Nine Yang Force, sat in a horse stance in the courtyard, and the evening breeze carried a faint gust of wind from his fists.
As a basic martial art of internal strength, the Nine Yang Force is not complicated to cultivate. It simply involves practicing thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of punches during evening classes to explore and understand the brewing and flow of internal strength throughout the body.
This is his daily routine.
This is also the daily routine of many martial arts school disciples, such as Zhou Xiaoliang and Song Ruokui.
During the day, they toiled to make a living, and in the evening they went to the martial arts school for evening training classes, and then practiced martial arts on their own after returning home.
Day after day, year after year, what sustains this hard work is, on the one hand, the martial arts as the foundation for survival in this chaotic world of demons and monsters, and on the other hand, a restless heart that refuses to be ordinary.