Seemingly turbid yet clear, aromas perversely inverted.

No one anticipated Meng Po's departure and eventual return. Her timing was also extremely precise. She appeared just as Qi Xiu had utilized the Hundred Zhang Sumeru Ruler to vanquish White Impermanence. He was caught at the critical juncture where his old strength had waned, and new strength had yet to emerge.

Sensing something amiss, Qi Xiu's eyes narrowed slightly, and suddenly, thunder was born from the void. At the same time, the Black Water True Skill was also activated, attempting to drive away the Meng Po Soup.

"Stop! Meng Po Soup reacts upon encountering Yuan. You can only dodge it!" Tuo Zhou's warning rang out once more. But by this time, the lightning spreading through the void had already struck the patch of water that appeared turbid yet clear, with scents perversely inverted.

BUZZ—

The palm-sized patch of water behaved just as Tuo Zhou had said. Far from being evaporated by the lightning, it absorbed the force instead, swelling instantly to the size of a millstone and sealing off all of Qi Xiu's escape routes.

This is bad! Seeing Qi Xiu was about to be doused with Meng Po Soup, Tuo Zhou's eyes filled with urgency.

Meng Po Soup caused one to lose memories. For a living person, once all memories were lost, the body would instinctively erupt with a powerful self-protective response. If a formidable cultivator like Qi Xiu were to fall into such a frenzied state, everything within a hundred-mile radius would likely be razed to the ground. That included Tuo Zhou himself! Even if he wanted to lend a hand, the distance to Qi Xiu was too great; he was beyond reach.

Meng Po Soup came pouring down. As Qi Xiu's mind moved to retract the Hundred Zhang Sumeru Ruler and dodge to the side to avoid the Yellow Spring Water that could erase one's memories, just as he was about to lift the Hundred Zhang Sumeru Ruler, he saw countless ashes swirling around. Faintly visible straw ropes tightly gripped the Hundred Zhang Sumeru Ruler, preventing Qi Xiu from pulling it back. The ash surged, vaguely forming a bizarre face that stiffly leered at him.

"You think you've got me cornered?"

With a calm expression, Qi Xiu's hanging left sleeve suddenly swept out. A tremendous force unfurled, directly capturing every drop of the approaching Meng Po Soup.

Universe in the Sleeve!

The crisis at the brink of disaster was thus averted. As Qi Xiu was about to activate the Hundred Zhang Sumeru Ruler to utterly obliterate White Impermanence, a chill suddenly emanated from beside him.

Alarms blared in his mind!

Qi Xiu turned abruptly, only to see a red-clad woman appear by his side. She was petite in stature, with eyes as clear as water. At that moment, a tear was slowly trailing down from the corner of her eye. And as the teardrop slid along the woman's jawline, in the next instant, it eerily materialized out of thin air in front of Qi Xiu's forehead.

DRIP—

The droplet splashed onto Qi Xiu's forehead.

Meng Po... So there were two of them...

Feeling an indescribable, bizarre force instantly take hold of him, Qi Xiu resisted the overwhelming wave of drowsiness surging at him, his hands forming a Daoist Incantation.

Hunyuan Palace! Suppress it for me!

An enormous power rushed into this realm in an instant. The Hunyuan Palace descended, pulling Qi Xiu into it, and his figure vanished into thin air.

Within the Hunyuan Palace, Qi Xiu's body glowed with a golden light. Countless Suppressing Talismans revolved around him, attempting to quell the terrible Divine Marvel of Meng Po Soup. His brows were deeply furrowed; faint lines meandered across his skin, incessantly eroding deeper.

The immense, continuous drowsiness brought a sense of relief to Qi Xiu. It felt as if he could just sleep and no longer have to painstakingly worry about anything. In the center of his mind, countless memories flickered into view. The Divine Marvel of Meng Po Soup began to manifest within these memories, like an exposed roll of film. The memory images gradually turned pale, as if they were about to be washed away.

Can't resist it?

His brow creased even tighter. Seeing that the Suppressing Talismans were unable to suppress the Divine Marvel of Meng Po Soup, Qi Xiu's mind raced, pondering if another Dharma Gate could contain it.

And just as Qi Xiu's memories were being eroded by Meng Po Soup, a simple and unadorned panel, as if formed by flowing ink, faintly emerged.

Hmm?

Noticing the proficiency panel surface on its own, Qi Xiu was slightly surprised. But the next second, a line of characters on the panel gradually became pale and dim, as if it were about to erode away from the panel itself. His pupils dilated slightly. Just as Qi Xiu thought that the Divine Marvel of Meng Po Soup might even affect the proficiency panel, the blurring and fading of the memories in his mind unknowingly came to a halt.

It's not the Divine Marvel of Meng Po Soup affecting the proficiency panel. Instead, the Proficiency Divine Marvel itself has taken the effect of Meng Po Soup onto itself, preserving my memories from being eroded and wiped clean.

He hadn't expected his old companion to be so useful at such a crucial moment. With his memories unaffected, Qi Xiu's mind relaxed. He turned to look at the Dharma Gate on the proficiency panel that was disappearing. His gaze shifted downward, resting on the panel.

An expression of pain briefly crossed Qi Xiu's face. He saw that what was slowly vanishing from the panel was the Demonic Path Technique that had proved to be his panacea: the Black Water True Skill.

Although after cultivating the Hidden Thunder Heavy Pupil and Gourd Sword Skill, the number of times the Black Water True Skill had been used had significantly diminished, the Black Water Talisman formed by the Black Water True Skill was the main component of his Tong Tian He Fu Zhen. Without the Black Water True Skill, the Tong Tian He Fu Zhen could no longer be deployed in the future.

There's a vendetta now.

Taking a deep breath, Qi Xiu remembered the two Meng Pos from before, one old, one young. The Black Water True Skill might not be his primary Dharma Gate, but it was the first grand Dharma Gate from a major compendium he possessed, having accompanied him for decades. Now, it was gone for no reason due to the Meng Po Soup.

If this matter isn't thoroughly addressed, I fear my thoughts will become obstructed, hindering my cultivation.

As the words "Black Water True Skill" completely vanished from the proficiency panel, all memories Qi Xiu had of this Dharma Gate also dissipated from his mind. He only remembered that he had lost a Dharma Gate because of the Meng Po Soup. But as for the name of the Dharma Gate, he could not recall it.

This Meng Po Soup is truly formidable. If I can extract the recipe and replicate it myself, it would surely become a powerful tool.

Quick-witted and having personally experienced the horror of the Meng Po Soup, Qi Xiu immediately set his sights on this wondrous item from the netherworld.

Just as Qi Xiu was considering settling his current affairs before seeking revenge on the Meng Po Clan to snatch the recipe, another line of text on the proficiency panel began to pale and fade away.

It hasn't ended yet?

Qi Xiu's gaze sharpened. He had thought the Divine Marvel of Meng Po Soup had been exhausted by forgetting the Black Water True Skill, but now it seemed the terror of this item was beyond his imagination.

Hmm? That's not right—how did my calligraphy proficiency increase so much?

One second he was pained by the loss of another Dharma Gate; the next, Qi Xiu was astonished to find that his calligraphy proficiency had inexplicably increased by nearly sixty percent! It jumped from the original 11% straight to 71%.

How can this be?

His eyes trembled slightly as Qi Xiu's thoughts tumbled, pondering the causes and consequences.

Could it be that this Meng Po Soup, by a strange twist of fate, has helped me 'respec'?

'Respec'—a term from games in his previous life, meaning to reset existing skill levels to zero, reclaim the original skill points, and then re-upgrade the skills.

It's not impossible. The logic of the Proficiency Divine Marvel is extremely rigid. This so-called Meng Po Soup can erase my memory of the Black Water True Skill, but it can't erase the existing proficiency. So although the Black Water True Skill disappeared, its proficiency directly accumulated in calligraphy. Tsk tsk. The Fourth Realm Black Water True Skill only added sixty percent proficiency to the Sixth Realm calligraphy.

Discovering that although the Dharma Gate was erased, the proficiency had not disappeared, Qi Xiu's faintly aching heart suddenly felt much more comfortable. After all, although the Black Water True Skill was gone, it had added sixty percent proficiency to his calligraphy. To gain that sixty percent proficiency through his own efforts would have taken at least a decade, or even decades, of hard work. All things considered, he could even say he came out with a small profit.

If it's really like this, with the opportunity presented by this Meng Po Soup, I might be able to save myself decades of hard cultivation. Right here, I could advance my calligraphy to the Seventh Realm!

The moment he thought of this, a sharp gleam suddenly burst forth in Qi Xiu's eyes. When calligraphy broke through to the Sixth Realm, he had comprehended the Divine Character. Together with the Martial Character representing Essence and the Dharma Character representing Qi, he had already collected all three major Talisman Scripts of Essence, Qi, and Spirit. As long as calligraphy broke through to the Seventh Realm, he would be able to trigger another qualitative change in the Calligraphy Divine Marvel, obtaining an even more powerful Divine Marvel.

A blessing in disguise!

This was the first reaction echoing through Qi Xiu's mind at the moment. And knowing that the Proficiency Divine Marvel would transfer the proficiency from erased Dharma Gates to calligraphy, he could abandon all his Dharma Gates and skills, aside from his primary cultivation method, "The Secret of the Primordial Dragon-Tiger Scripture." With the Proficiency Divine Marvel still present, and under the enhancement of the Hunyuan All-Encompassing Luminance, he would only need a tenth of the original time to cultivate an even more formidable set of Dharma Gates and skills.

To gain something, one must be willing to give up something else. Break down to rebuild!

With the last shred of reluctance extinguished in his heart, Qi Xiu turned his gaze to the proficiency panel, scanning for which Dharma Gate or skill was about to be erased.

Culinary skills?

Seeing that the next to disappear was the culinary skill, Qi Xiu pursed his lips. The culinary skill was the least used among all his Dharma Gates and Mysterious Abilities. This was mainly because its effects highly overlapped with his Hunyuan Star Absorption Skill. And his focus on this skill had always been low; it had only just surpassed the First Realm by a little.

Once the culinary skill disappeared from the proficiency panel, his calligraphy proficiency increased by another five percentage points.

Only five percent, that's a bit of a loss...

One Mysterious Ability was exchanged for a mere five percentage points. Qi Xiu rubbed his brow; this deal didn't seem very cost-effective.

With the culinary skill gone, the proficiency panel did not fade away. This meant that the divine effect of the Meng Po Soup had not yet been completely neutralized.

And this time, the skill that disappeared truly caused Qi Xiu's heart to twinge.

Upper Clear Bell!

This Mysterious Ability, which had reached the Fourth Realm and could capture Spirit Beings from Outside the Domain, had helped him through numerous difficulties. It was quite useful and was now slowly fading away.

He silently added another heavy entry to the Meng Po Clan's account in his mental blacklist. Qi Xiu stared as the Upper Clear Bell completely vanished from the panel.

The next second, the proficiency percentage behind the Calligraphy Divine Marvel blurred. When it refocused, the original 71% had transformed into a brilliant golden number:

100%!

...

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