Chapter 575 - You Dare Absorb Even My Strength?

A small frontier nation lay along the west coast of the Northern Reef Continent. The country was little-known as its steep mountains and dense jungles made travel difficult, so the land was quite poor. The only things worth praise were its spectacular waterfalls and the uniquely charming landscapes of peaks and rivers.

The Narcissus Grand Falls formed the kingdom's largest southern cascade system. The green mountains rose steep and majestic. Massive white torrents roared from broken cliffs, hurling untold tons of fresh water downward.

Boom, boom, boom...

The ground itself trembled. When the waterfalls smashed onto rock, they burst into sheets of spray, billowing like huge milky clouds. Looking up from below, each white waterfall stood like a sky-bearing pillar thrusting into the clouds. One could not help but sigh at nature's might and mankind's insignificance.

Yet, a black-and-crimson speck shot upward against the flow along that white pillar. In the blink of an eye, it spanned the immense length and reached the cliff summit.

Tap.

Metal war boots landed hard on a huge boulder at the cliff's edge. A tall figure in a dark-red robe faced the gale. Long hair whipped about, revealing an unnaturally pale face. His gloomy handsomeness from his sharp, deep-set features was marred by an excessive chill.

"Necro... reincarnation, this... unbelievable technique... actually has... succeeded. Yet, alas, it bears risks... and cost... I... can feel that most... of my memories are gone... Moreover, I have also... lost... certain other things..." The red-robed man muttered, stumbling over his words.

It was as though he had only just awakened from long slumber and even forgotten how to speak. He raised slender fingers to press his temples, as his brows faintly knotted. Whatever he pondered seemed to give him a headache.

"

Ha...

it comes again..." The red-robed man shut his eyes. His body shook violently, every muscle straining as web-like veins crawled over his neck and half his face.

He opened his eyes, now eerily vacant, as if unfocused. "I am the Gate Organization's seventy-second deputy leader... Blood Demon Diaz... I shall go to Gafa Kingdom and bathe its Covert Martial Arts Practitioners in blood! Kill them all! Every last one! With the means I wield best..."

Swoosh, plunk!

The blood-red silhouette leaped straight into the water. Dimly, one could see a vast crimson tide surging upstream above the falls. The tide kept sinking, its colour fading until only its outline lingered.

***

At that same moment, within one of the Gate Organization's three most critical strongholds...

The stronghold was a dim mountain, with both jet-black and bloody red rocks, suffused with murderous malice. As a result, not a tree grew there, not even weeds.

It was even darker inside the hollowed out mountain. The air flowed with a thick scent of death, as though centuries of decay had pooled. It settled, fermented, and grew so heavy it seemed ready to drown a man.

Any Covert Martial Arts Practitioner below pugilist would likely suffocate and perish in moments since the overlapping currents of Qi had formed a strange life magnetic field. The field cloaked the mountain, extinguishing all life. One could not stave off its intrusion without reaching combat artist level and mastering the use of Qi. This peak was a realm of the dead.

At the same time, it served as an enormous coffin and a bizarre altar. The body of the Seventh General King, Bask, was inside that coffin. He snapped his fingers and a ring of bronze wall-lamps flared, sweeping away the gloom.

He looked up to a macabre scene. The cavern walls were honey-combed with giant holes, neatly arrayed layer on layer, enough to make one's skin crawl. Within each hole rested an ice coffin, exuding a chilling air. One could see the corpses sleeping inside through each translucent lid.

They were every generation's deputy leaders of the Gate Organization, the true wielders of its power. Each deputy leader had once been an extreme combat artist, ranked at least in the world's top three of their era. Even dead, their mere corpses leaked a faint yet dreadful aura that set hearts pounding.

There were more than fifty coffins. Throughout the Gate Organization's history, save those utterly destroyed, mysteriously vanished, or far too ancient, the remaining deputy leaders' remains had all been gathered in this one place. They were prime material for reincarnation experiments!

Of course, that did not mean all fifty-plus deputy leaders could be revived. Some had suffered wounds too grave; their wills had shattered and no Qi remained. Others were too ancient; whatever Qi lingered had drained away over endless years despite ice-coffin preservation. Otherwise, a World of Calamity spirit might fail to resonate with the corpse's Qi, ruining the experiment.

After such exclusions, those still fit for necro-reincarnation numbered only the ten most recent deputy leaders. Of these ten, five faced difficulties which made success unlikely, leaving five who could complete the rite.

Among the five, Armor Ghoul had already been revived then slain two years ago. Blood Demon had just been revived and was now carrying out the Gate Organization's orders. The remaining count was three deputy leaders.

A massive black ritual pattern spread like a spider web at the cavern's center. It was a vortex shaped like an eye. Three coffins floated quietly in a pool in the middle of the eye.

Embedded Blue Tear Eyes beneath the pool walls cast gorgeous light upward.

"Seventy-fourth deputy leader, Dark Star Mitchell."

"Seventy-first deputy leader, Calamity-Soldier Alonzo."

"Sixty-ninth deputy leader, Ice Bird Moss."

Standing upon the vast black eye, Bask gazed at the coffins with feverish eyes. "This is our Gate Organization, the heritage of the world's foremost order! Even though this generation's Holy Fist Demon Phoenix is dead and I remain the sole General King, with but a brief respite we can still unveil enough strength to upend the world! Four extreme combat artists against an entire era?"

"Every plan Lord Xiadu commands will proceed smoothly with this much strength! Alas, necro-reincarnation emerged a bit too late; the Eternal Archipelago battle two years ago was too rushed. Otherwise, we'd never have needed to ally with Whale King Arlington or Lava Shaman of the Totem Temple. Our Gate Organization alone could have exterminated the Covert Martial Arts world... and strangled Cassius, master of the Golem Sect!" Bask's eyes shone with excitement mingled with regret. A sliver of hatred flickered at Cassius's name.

He believed that when Holy Fist Demon Phoenix and three other extreme combat artists had joined forces, their defeat at Cassius's hands was chiefly because Whale King Arlington and Lava Shaman were too weak to help. Had those two been replaced by two deputy leaders revived via necro-reincarnation, the situation would have been vastly different, and the outcome could have changed entirely.

What a pity, what a pity... The regret of two years past now seemed ready for redress.

The Gate Organization would again have four top-tier forces, all deputy leaders revived by necro-reincarnation, each a summit of his age. Even Cassius himself would pay dearly should he dare appear!

Bask had decided: once the current experiment succeeded and three strong powers were added, the Gate Organization would shift from defense to offense and actively hunt Cassius down. They would mount a direct assault and behead him!

"A shame we were overly cautious and tested revival on Blood Demon alone first. Otherwise, this assault would feature not one fighter, but four peak experts appearing together... Then the Dark Hunter Organization, the Covert Martial Arts world, and the Golem Sect would be thrown into panic!"

Having survived the Eternal Archipelago battle by luck, Cassius had become Bask's inner demon. Whenever he woke from nightmares with heart pounding like thunder and drenched in sweat, he vividly recalled that dreadful figure rushing at him, leaving four horrifically slain masters behind hum.

Thus, Bask obsessed over targeting Cassius to the point of mania.

"Kill that man! I must kill that man!"

***

Several hours later, at Twin-Blade Fist headquarters in Gafa Kingdom...

Every structure and courtyard lay ruined. Corpses were strewn among broken walls. Their faces were contorted, their eyes frozen in unimaginable terror. Blood collected in pools everywhere.

The pools gleamed like rubies under the sunlight. Suddenly, the blood began to move, drawn by some force.

All the streams converged, forming a spiral vortex around Blood Demon Diaz, who stood gazing silently toward the sky. The blood was absorbed by his dark-red robe. The crawling blotches upon it grew more uncanny, exuding unspeakable darkness.

Diaz's empty eyes gradually cleared. He lowered his head and examined his pale hands.

"It has changed... transformed. This body now bears traits of a dark creature, fitting my Blood Demon art even better. Now my Qi can fuse with the blood inside my body and be released or recalled at will. After slaughtering these Covert Martial Arts sects, I absorbed their blood and with it, their Qi. My power may thus keep growing in this eerie fashion..." Diaz clenched his fist, a strange pleasure thrilling him.

"Moreover, after absorbing the blood, the barrier that dulls my mind vanishes briefly. So long as I continue killing, I can remain clear-headed at all times... And not muddle about... like some obedient puppet machine..."

"

Heheh

, one more reason to kill." A morbid smile spread over Diaz's pallid face. "I like it... Let the slaughter continue. This nation's Covert Martial Arts sects are far too feeble. It seems I'll need barely half a day, not a whole one."

A blood-red figure soared skyward and streaked southeast. For a moment, the clouds and airflow seemed tinged with crimson.

An hour later, amid the bloody ruins of Ghost-Heart Fist, Diaz walked slowly across the ground overgrown with weeds, eyeing a burly man who had died standing in a punching pose. The man's face still bore a crazed snarl, utterly without fear.

"I loathe that look in his eyes..." Diaz waved casually, exploding the man's skull. A mist of blood arced through the air.

Diaz slowly turned, surveying the tall corpses strewn among weeds and plain. He frowned slightly. Those bearing black tattoos were utterly unlike the Ghost-Heart Fist disciples. They were leagues higher in both strength and fighting will. Even facing an invincible foe like him, they had flung punches with mad resolve!

Such death-defying ferocity felt rather unpleasant. After brief thought, Diaz felt a vague pain in his head again. He swept his right hand and decisively absorbed the Ghost-Heart Fist practitioners' blood, tattooed men included.

"

Ah...

Wonderful. Makes me almost addicted..." Diaz exhaled with pleasure, eyes narrowing in comfort.

Almost the same time, far away, a slowly moving carriage collapsed with a roar. A dreadful aura rioted over a wide area. The two black horses neighed once and died of fright on the spot.

"S-Sect Master, w-what... is wrong!?" Odo was forced to the ground by the immense pressure, bent like a shrimp as he forced the words out of his mouth.

"Heheheh... hahahahaha..."

A figure stepped forth from the carriage's wreckage. The laughter grew, shaking the air until the stones on the ground trembled. There was a savage rage in the laughter.

"Someone has struck at our Golem Sect. Fifteen full members were just slain, and even the power I granted them was stripped away. This fool is bold indeed!" Cassius's eyes were dark, as though shining with dense black light. "They even dare to absorb my power? Are they rushing to be reborn?!"