Beidao Yu said, "Butler, there were so many clones of Dark Crow just now, what skill is that? Give my Thunderbird one too."

The butler lowered his head in shame, "I'm sorry, young master, I couldn't tell what skill it is either. Wait, I'll go ask."

After finishing the battle, Li Cunxu returned to his room.

After all, the incident of the blue-black big bird attacking the airship made him lose the mood to enjoy the scenery below.

Knock, knock~

The butler knocked on the door and handed over a gift.

"I'm very sorry to disturb you, sir. I'm here to find out which skill was the clone skill of Dark Crow earlier, and by the way, where we can buy that skill."

Li Cunxu pushed the gift back.

"Dark Crow doesn't have a clone skill, only a curse skill. I can teach it if you want to learn, but it's very expensive. However, are you sure you want your young master to learn it?"

Curse skill? Curse skills that even dogs don't learn? To learn it, wouldn't you have to contract with a curse-type pet beast? If the master finds out that I let the young master learn this garbage attribute, he'd kill me.

"No, no, sorry for the intrusion."

The butler's face changed dramatically, he quickly shook his head and left in a hurry.

Li Cunxu chuckled, all big families are like this, proud and arrogant, despising attributes that aren't advantageous, afraid their children will develop an interest in them and go astray.

"Dark Crow, your self-created Illusion Crow Curse is strong. I'll reward you with a Blood Banquet Holy Meal."

Li Cunxu used a curse-type resource to make a Blood Banquet Holy Meal called Cursed Stewed Noodles for Dark Crow to eat.

The Illusion Crow Curse is a self-inflicted curse skill Dark Crow comprehended through self-mutilation.

The Illusion Crow Curse uses the eyes as the medium for cursing others. As long as the eyes see Dark Crow, they'll fall under the Illusion Crow Curse, which makes one subconsciously ignore Dark Crow's true body and regard the illusion made of curse energy as the true body.

For example, just now, the Illusion Crow appeared on Thunderbird's shoulder, and the sinking of Thunderbird's body never really happened; it was just Thunderbird and Beidao Yu's imagination.

The Illusion Crow Curse drains the stamina of those cursed, doubling the number of Illusion Crows every time an existing one is killed, and with each additional Illusion Crow, the draining speed doubles.

This is why the stamina-abundant Thunderbird quickly ran out of energy, as thirty-two Illusion Crows were draining its stamina simultaneously.

The Illusion Crow Curse has many advantages but also many drawbacks.

First, once the opponent learns of the Illusion Crow Curse, they can avoid the curse by not looking at Dark Crow from the start. Without a curse, the illusion is useless.

Secondly, as long as Dark Crow is on the field, even if cursed, one can attack the hiding Dark Crow with area-wide skills.

Of course, if not controlled properly, hurting the illusion will give it a chance to double in number.

Additionally, creatures without souls aren't affected by the Illusion Crow Curse. For example, on surveillance video, there are no Illusion Crows; Thunderbird appears to be battling air, with Dark Crow's true body clearly visible wherever it hides.

Finally, the Illusion Crow Curse lasts shortly; after half an hour without seeing Dark Crow, the curse dissipates on its own.

After devouring the Cursed Stewed Noodles, Dark Crow gazed intently at Li Cunxu, wanting another bowl.

"There's no more. Although there's plenty of holy blood, there's no curse-type resources left,"

Li Cunxu shrugged, indicating there were no curse-type resources available.

Dark Crow turned its head in disappointment.

The scarcity of curse-type pet beasts also results in the scarcity of curse-type resources, with the few available often being snatched by Curse Masters.

The tournament was over.

Li Cunxu successfully claimed the third-place prize, quietly inconspicuous, and acquired a return airship ticket, though Beidao Yu was displeased.

Beidao Yu didn't believe Li Cunxu, who could defeat him, was only a third-place winner; he thought Li Cunxu should be the champion.

The airship was about to arrive in Mechanical City.

Many people rushed out of their rooms to admire the view of Mechanical City.

Towering metal structures rose like an iron forest piercing the skyline, with steam trains weaving amongst them, leaving trails of long white smoke, like red blood cells delivering nutrients through veins.

The only blemish was the thick black smoke emitted from factory chimneys at the city's edge, casting a perpetual haze over Mechanical City's sky, blocking out the sun's intense rays, allowing only a few strands of light through in some gaps.

As some of the Mechanical City air blew through the ventilation, many people gagged at the metallic powdery rust smell mixed with the scents of oil, gasoline, and bizarre chemical gases.

Those unaccustomed really found the smell intolerable.

The airship company was savvy in business, selling air purification masks, and Li Cunxu bought one too.

Knowing the poor environment surrounding Mechanical City, Li Cunxu understood it was Mechanical Emperor's deliberate doing, designed to limit the rapidly advancing city on its tracks.

Mechanical City held the potential to become a Holy City, as the eleventh city beneath the top ten alliance Holy Cities. It should have become a Holy City long ago, but Mechanical Emperor held it back, preventing it from gaining such status.

On reflection, being an undercover, why would Mechanical Emperor help humans build a Holy City?

Mechanical City's advancement to its current state was beyond Mechanical Emperor's expectations; initially, the intent was only to create a second or third-tier city for convenient human sacrifices to the Crowned Evil God. Unexpectedly, mechanical pets gained popularity, propelling Mechanical City's rapid progress with an outpouring of support.

In just a few decades, it surpassed many deeply historic ancient cities.

The airship took a special tour around Mechanical City's central square, allowing passengers to appreciate the statue of Mechanical Emperor.

The gigantic mechanical statue of Mechanical Emperor was crafted with countless gears and springs intricately combined, and with the movement of the internal gears, the whole sculpture seemed ready to spring to life at any moment.

"This statue can also animate into a mechanical pet capable of piloting high-level technology, but unfortunately, it was prepared by Mechanical Emperor for himself."

Beneath the statue were twelve round stages corresponding to the twelve hours of the zodiac. When the time arrived, the corresponding stage would activate, and mechanical artists would rise to perform dances meticulously choreographed for flawless precision beyond measurement, expressing the beauty of mechanics through dance.

The stories behind their performances hailed Mechanical Emperor's great deeds in saving the world during the Great Catastrophe.

Li Cunxu watched the mechanical dance, eyes flashing with disdain.

Mechanical Emperor was truly shameless, as these dances were secretly orchestrated by him to continuously reinforce the narrative of his greatness.

The airship landed at the airport.

Li Cunxu didn't hurry to disembark, as it was currently the most crowded time with everyone getting off the airship.

The airship carried many passengers, over three thousand in total.

Disembarking them all would take some time.

Bored, Li Cunxu, and Dark Crow played a game of Gomoku again.

These days, Li Cunxu no longer played Gomoku with Little White Spider, as he couldn't win at all. Even using AI, he could only tie a game.

As for Xiaoruan, Xiaoruan played Tic-Tac-Toe; Gomoku was still too difficult for it.

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