RedX43
patreon
[HP] 81: This Time, It's a Permanent Stand
🕑 Added 2025-08-06 15:30:02 +0000 UTCLouis felt incredibly lucky to have drawn the Bug Arrow. It had to be karma rewarding him for all the good deeds he'd done.
Good deeds? Well, getting the mischief-loving Slytherins to behave properly should definitely count as one, right?
The Bug Arrow was a tool that could grant a Stand. As the source of such power, its value was beyond measure.
Without hesitation, Louis aimed the arrow at his own palm, ready to stab himself with it.
As long as you survive the stab from this arrow, you gain a Stand.
And with the Dog Talisman and Horse Talisman in his possession—plus the fact that he'd previously awakened a Stand temporarily using a trial voucher—there was absolutely no risk.
Unexpectedly, just as he was about to strike, the sharp arrow squirmed like a living creature, twisting away from his hand and circling around to stab directly at his heart.
Louis raised an eyebrow. The thrust looked fast, but for someone of his level—it was nothing. He could easily dodge it.
But he didn’t.
He let the arrow stab into his chest, piercing his heart.
His expression didn’t change at all, as if it wasn’t his heart that had just been skewered. Even more disturbing, he casually pulled the arrow out of his body right after it stabbed through.
If the arrow had a mind, it was probably in shock. It had seen bold people before, but never someone who could take a heart shot and still look so unfazed.
Louis coughed up some blood, then wiped it off his lips.
That bit of blood was from the arrow grazing the edge of his lung and irritating his trachea. For a normal person, this would’ve been fatal, but with both the Dog and Horse Talismans, Louis had already healed by the time the blood hit the floor.
Then the arrow’s effect activated.
With the same appearance as before, the Stand “Faceless Phantom” manifested in the world once more.
"Wonderful. Now Louis and Dio Brando can exist at the same time," he said as he wiped his hands clean of the blood. Since his clothes were torn and bloodstained, they were now unwearable. He simply took off the damaged undershirt.
“A tear alone would be tolerable, but there's blood too. Not worth wasting the Horse Talisman to fix it,” Louis muttered as he pinched the shirt into ashes.
After storing away the arrow, he pulled out another dazzling golden insect.
The Golden Silkworm King—this draw’s only medicinal-type item, and Louis’s first time seeing a perfect-grade medicine.
[Golden Silkworm King: King of all Gu insects. Suppresses all Gu-based poisons. Grants immunity to all toxins after ingestion and doubles internal energy.]
(T/N: "Gu" insects, also known as "Gu worms" or "Gu poison," are a concept from Chinese folklore and traditional medicine, not a specific type of insect. They are often associated with black magic and witchcraft, particularly in the context of southern Chinese cultures. Gu involves the use of venomous creatures, like snakes, scorpions, and centipedes, to create a potent poison by forcing them to fight and cannibalize each other in a sealed container. The resulting concentrated poison is then believed to be used for various purposes, including manipulation, causing illness, or even death. )
In the Legend of Sword and Fairy game, it was a special item that could instantly level you up. But that was in a game. In the real world, there were no levels, so that effect didn’t apply. Instead, its real-world effect was even more powerful.
Forget the detox and poison immunity—the part about doubling internal energy was basically like a super cultivation pill. Unfortunately, Louis had no cultivation system. The only things remotely related to internal energy in his body were his spiritual power and a sliver of Qi magic.
After thinking for a bit, Louis decided it was best to just eat it. He figured he wasn’t likely to walk the cultivation path. Sure, the system might spit out some insanely overpowered cultivation technique one day—but he didn’t feel like he needed it.
Immortality? He already had that with the Dog and Horse Talismans. Power? The strongest wizard in this world was probably Dumbledore. Right now, Louis could already go toe-to-toe with him—70/30 odds in Louis’s favor. And if it came down to a sneak attack, he had a 99.9% chance of instantly killing Dumbledore. That last 0.1%? Just to be polite.
So why bother cultivating? Slacking off sounded way better.
Which meant there was no reason to save the Golden Silkworm King.
After hesitating for a second, Louis looked at the golden insect, eyes shut tight, and then, with a hardened resolve, tossed the whole thing into his mouth and swallowed it.
He hated bugs, but in the face of benefits, what was one little bug?
As soon as it hit his stomach, a warm, burning current surged up from his abdomen to his chest, then to his head, before plunging straight down to his dantian like a freefall.
During this process, Louis’s spiritual power grew at a shocking rate. Because his base spiritual power was already large, the amplified growth was tremendous.
Behind him, Faceless Phantom involuntarily appeared. As a manifestation of his spirit, any increase in Louis’s spiritual power meant a direct power-up for the Stand. Its muscles were visibly bulking up. What had previously been the strength of a healthy young man was now evolving toward the power of a fully grown Siberian golden tabby...
In contrast, his Qi magic saw only a slight increase. It became more active, though, and Louis could clearly feel it was trying to enhance the power of his talismans. The funny part? Instead of feeling stronger, the talismans actually felt a bit weaker.
“If the talisman powers have increased, then why do I feel like they’re weaker?” Louis frowned, deep in thought—but no matter how hard he pondered, he couldn’t figure it out.
That left him frustrated. And when Louis got frustrated, he liked to mess with people. Unfortunately, the Slytherin students had been exceptionally obedient lately, and he couldn’t bring himself to bother them.
“Perfect. Now that my Stand is back, maybe it’s time to pay Voldemort a visit. If my calculations are right, his mount should be about to give out,” Louis said, glancing at his Stand. He noticed that its destructive power had leveled up from C to B.
Now it could at least deliver a proper Ora Ora Ora. Combined with its B-level speed, its destructive force was nothing to scoff at.
“No worries—even if my Stand can’t Ora Ora Ora, my Stand’s Stand can Muda Muda Muda,” Louis grinned as Faceless Phantom morphed into the image of Dio Brando.
“Let’s find a chance to give Voldemort a little surprise.”
And that “chance” took an entire month to come around.
Because Louis got sidetracked by his own affairs.
He’d assumed that since he could draw well, carving should be no problem. But once he actually started carving for real, he discovered his usually nimble fingers had suddenly turned as clumsy as if filled with three tons of lead.
He’d already ruined over a dozen thumb-thick pieces of wood Hagrid had given him.
In the end, Louis had no choice but to summon his Stand for the job.
Since a Stand was a physical projection of one’s spiritual power, controlling it was incredibly intuitive. As long as Louis could imagine the image, it could sculpt it—carving statues was child’s play.
But statue-making required meticulous attention. To make sure the statue accurately represented Hermes, Louis had to get every detail absolutely perfect—down to the tiniest contour. As a result, the carving took a long time. After a whole month, only the outline was finished.
And thus, Voldemort and Quirinus Quirrell were spared from another round of persecution—for now.
How fortunate.
***
