Chapter 6: Soul-Stealing Star Grasp (Patreon)

"Old Lu!"

After pondering his newly acquired cheat for what felt like ages, Haru still couldn't make heads or tails of it.

After several failed attempts to figure it out, and getting nowhere, he finally gave up for the moment. He turned his attention to the young boy standing nearby, who was currently staring at him like he was some kind of monster.

"Old Lu?"

"Huh? Ah, Little Shishu, you called me?"

"Yeah, come here for a sec."

"???"

"..."

Ignoring the clearly bewildered and adorable young master, Haru waited for him to step closer before placing a hand on his shoulder.

Then, he focused on connecting with the large disc and willed it to activate.

"Little Shishu, what are you doing? Just so we're clear, I might not like women, but that doesn't mean I like men either."

"Shut up."

"Oh."

Lu Yinghua quipped but obediently stood still.

On Haru's end, as he activated the large disc, it gave a faint flash. The next moment, a portion of Lu Yinghua's cursed energy (qi) was involuntarily drawn out and sucked into him.

It worked!

"What is this? Soul-Stealing Star Grasp?!"

Instead of panicking, Lu Yinghua looked utterly astonished.

To him, this was exactly the effect of the "Soul-Stealing Star Grasp" technique—a martial art that allowed the user to drain an opponent's energy through physical contact.

It was one of the many, more unorthodox skills in Luo Hao's vast arsenal. He'd experienced it firsthand. Because he was still young and hadn't mastered the basics enough, Luo Hao hadn't taught him this particular technique yet, but he was well aware of its power.

He never expected that not only had Haru mastered the Peerless Divine Art, but he also knew the Soul-Stealing Star Grasp?

What kind of monstrous talent was this?

Here he was, still struggling with the fundamentals of the former and not even qualified to learn the latter.

And yet Haru had already mastered both?

It wasn't fair. Was heaven playing favorites?

Lu Yinghua was stunned, standing there dumbfounded without resisting, letting Haru drain his cursed energy.

Meanwhile, on Haru's side, after successfully siphoning a portion of Lu Yinghua's energy and trying to channel it into the large disc for storage...

The very next second, Lu Yinghua's energy was outright rejected!

It was more like... if he stored Lu Yinghua's energy, it would contaminate the vast, terrifyingly pure cursed energy already accumulated within the disc—energy that belonged solely to the Sect Leader.

It was singular and incredibly refined.

Mixing in Lu Yinghua's energy would be like a single mouse dropping ruining a whole pot of soup, making it impure and muddled.

Unless... he first converted or expelled all the energy currently stored within the large disc, then he could start storing other people's energy.

"..."

It wasn't that he couldn't force it to store the energy, but doing so would only make the conversion process inefficient and more trouble than it was worth.

It was like mixing sand into rice. You could still cook it and eat it, but it would be gritty and unpleasant.

It seemed the large disc simply found Lu Yinghua's cursed energy too inferior!

"Ugh... L-Little Shishu?"

Just as Haru made this discovery and was about to experiment further to see if the disc had any other functions...

He noticed that Lu Yinghua, who had just recovered his spirits, was now sweating profusely and trembling again. He looked utterly haggard, like someone who had pulled several all-nighters in a row.

"Hmm? Ah, sorry, sorry. I got a bit distracted."

Seeing this, Haru quickly snapped out of it and withdrew his hand.

If he continued any longer, this young master in front of him would probably be rendered useless.

So, why was he even practicing the Peerless Divine Art? Wasn't he clearly more suited for the Energy Devouring Art?

"Huff... Huff..."

Once free, Lu Yinghua shot Haru a deeply resentful look.

His master was like this, and now his little shishu was too. He felt incredibly unsafe around them, never knowing if he might just drop dead unexpectedly one day.

Seeing that Haru was done, Lu Yinghua decided to drop his questions. Right now, he just wanted to get as far away from both of them as possible to preserve his own life.

On Haru's end, seeing Lu Yinghua walk away to another spot to continue his meditation, he didn't bother the unlucky kid further. His research on the large disc was on hold for now. Instead, he turned and unleashed the energy he'd just absorbed from Lu Yinghua with a single palm strike aimed at a distant mountain hollow.

BOOM—

A powerful blast of energy shot out, a massive palm wind striking a giant boulder in the hollow, creating a thunderous roar.

The force was significantly greater than his usual strikes, powered by the bulk of Lu Yinghua's cursed energy.

Witnessing this, Haru's eyes lit up.

Even if he couldn't use it for storage or conversion, it seemed like a pretty decent offensive technique—stealing someone else's cursed energy and using it against them?

Well now, that had a certain "returning the sender's gift" flair to it!

"Old Lu, go check over there in a bit, see if you can scavenge anything."

"Huh?! So you can have an extra helping, is that it?"

"Kid, what nonsense are you spouting? Besides, you're the one who plucked the feathers, skinned it, and grilled the meat. I just happened to be passing by, worried you couldn't finish it all by yourself, so I thought I'd help you out a little. That's all."

"..."

I've never seen someone so shameless!

If he could, Lu Yinghua really wanted to say that out loud.

But alas, rank is a killer, and so is seniority.

All the dirty, hard work fell to him, and in the end, he was the one who had to take the blame too.

It's true what they say: not only are beautiful women dangerous, but handsome, dashing men are just as bad.

At this rate, he felt he wouldn't just develop a "phobia of women"—he was probably going to come down with a "phobia of men" pretty soon too...