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In a dark cave, there wasn't a trace of light, and underfoot was a sticky substance like crusted snot that made squelching noises with each step.
The air was filled with a sour and strange odor.
However, for Tao Yu, this was hardly an issue, as the pitch-black cave did not affect his vision.
It was only upon seeing two aliens on the ground with their acidic blood splattered all over from being blasted that Tao Yu couldn't help but feel speechless.
"Next time, I should get some paint to mark the aliens, to easily identify them..."
With a locator, Tao Yu finding the alien nest was only to be expected.
With the help of temporary recruits, the narrow confines didn't give the aliens any chance to rush at them.
It wasn't until the interior of the alien nest sensed something wrong and increased their reconnaissance that the cannon fodder aliens began to suffer casualties.
But the most tragic was the one in front of him, which was entangled in a fight with another alien right before Tao Yu, its tail flailing wildly.
Because it was a hasty conscription, the connection was nowhere near as tight as with Little Black, leaving Tao Yu momentarily stunned.
A tiger-shaped strike layered with force hit its mark, and between two choices, it directly hit his own side.
Even the hostile alien it was fighting seemed equally stunned before being casually struck by another of Tao Yu's punches.
Turned into two clumps of pixels.
"It's just the mutual understanding that's gone, otherwise I wouldn't have known I hit the wrong one."
Tao Yu looked at the temporary recruit on the ground, remained silent for three seconds, then stepped over the sizzling acidic blood in the corrosion zone and continued forward.
Alien corpses oozing acidic blood littered the path. Although Tao Yu was careful to step on their shells, his tactical boots still revealed his big toe.
"I hope later..."
Before Tao Yu could finish his thought, a sudden sense of impending danger alerted him through his Spirit Perception.
What was that?
The next moment, Tao Yu's Dynamic Vision caught a streak of silver light flitting through the darkness.
Bullet Time!
Without hesitation, he activated it, and the scene before him slowed to a frame-by-frame sequence.
A high-speed rotating boomerang, following the turn of the corridor with incredible throwing skill, automatically curved towards him.
In Bullet Time, the trajectory of the boomerang was clear, along with the distorted air flow hugging its surface.
An alien cannon fodder just grazed by the boomerang was sliced through the middle like butter.
After that, without losing momentum, it bore down directly on Tao Yu...
A tilt of the head, the fierce wind of its passing sliced by, taking with it a few strands of hair.
A cut also formed on Tao Yu's earlobe.
"This must be Wino's leftover boomerang... that big fellow..."
Touching the cut on his ear, feeling the slight pain, Tao Yu's breathing began to change.
The sound of his heart pumping seemed almost audible, each beat carrying a thick, plasma-rich impact.
He then called over Wino, Cao Shaolin, Little Black, and the last cannon-fodder Alien to guard him as he unhesitatingly absorbed the Yuan Force of the heart.
A stream of chaotic information was suppressed by Mental Immunity; the impact of the data was quite disordered and complex, with high levels of contamination.
"Without learning the Meditation Technique or having related innate talents, an ordinary person probably couldn't withstand it..."
Tao Yu was surprised by the flow of information.
He then sensed the rough details of the skill information—it seemed to be an ability that enhances the heart, almost complete but just short of a little, though the rest could be filled in directly with Yuan Force.
Without hesitation, Tao Yu filled in the remaining gap with the few hundred Yuan Force he had just absorbed, completing the skill.
Heart Strengthening: A product of fusing a Pioneer parasitized by an Alien after an Alien implantation, it can increase heart function without rejection.
"Hey, not bad."
Tao Yu felt that this ability was a pleasant surprise; while not top-notch, it was quite practical.
Alien implantation and mechanical enhancements were quite strong, and could even be considered shortcuts!
The painstaking effort of improving through Breathing Techniques and cultivating various abilities could easily be surpassed by a single implantation surgery.
Years of arduous training to reach the limits of the human body and then continuously breaking those limits could be easily eclipsed by the innate strength of a brown bear with a single slap.
Uncle Hu was actually a good example.
Past hard training was inferior to one arm replacement!
But Tao Yu had always politely declined such enhancements, opting to possibly consider them for his Zombies, but not for himself.
Yet now, these implants, once optimized by the Alien, had turned into products of Yuan Force, eliminating the side effects!
"Goodness, if based on different Alien implants, could there be enhancements for other organs? This..."
Tao Yu pondered, aware that the Suns siblings had not yet captured such prey, and the only special Alien information made public was that of the strongest Python Alien.
This skill could potentially be useful to both siblings.
"Forget it, let's pretend I don't know."
His eyes flickered briefly, and Tao Yu ultimately sighed; he could deal with any offending Alien implants later.
Looking at the one hundred Yuan Force consumed for Deification, Tao Yu knew that this ability's Deification might not bring many surprises.
As the Yuan Force flowed in, he felt his heartbeat becoming more pronounced and more intense, blood flow accelerating, and blood pressure rising.
But a moment later, it slowed down again, even beating slower than before!
However, the amount of blood pumped out with each beat increased, surpassing the efficiency of before.
And when necessary, it could speed up again, pushing the heart rate beyond the original limits of the heart!
Heart Strengthening · Improved: Omitted, increases the speed of Qi-Blood generation, accelerates physical recovery, and increases certain physical limits.
The increase wasn't very significant, but the two attributes were important, making it a minor treasure.
What confused Tao Yu the most was that this level 1 skill had no training technique!
Even if he wanted to invest Yuan Force, the efficiency was quite low.
Trying to stimulate it with the Basic Breathing Method, Tao Yu's eyes brightened slightly
"It's like a solidified ability that can improve with daily training. While using Yuan Force to speed up is not cost-effective, everyday practice can help incidentally, and its potential is not small..."