"You're spreading lies! When have I ever killed hundreds or thousands of people?" the woman retorted upon hearing the accusations against her."Chase, you must not listen to this ghost's deceitful words," one of the men pleaded."Yes, Chase, you must take action for us. If you weren't here today, we might have become her victims," added another, clearly convinced by the rumors they had heard."Have any of you actually seen this woman kill anyone?" Chase asked, trying to reason with the men. He did not want them to think he was simply using his strength to protect the woman.Seeing Chase defend her, the woman calmed down. She lowered her head and stayed silent."Well, no. We haven't seen it ourselves. It's all just hearsay," one man admitted reluctantly."There you have it. None of you have seen it with your own eyes. It's all based on rumors, which tend to become exaggerated. From my observations today, this woman had no intention of harming you. She was just quietly observing ne
"If you keep following me, I'll take action. Don't think you can do whatever you want just because I saved you," Chase warned, trying to scare her off.However, the woman seemed confident that Chase would not hurt her. She was displaying a fearless expression."Go ahead, do it. You're strong, and I can't resist anyway. Come on now. I'm not even going to fight back," she said while drifting closer to Chase, acting as if she were at his mercy.Chase raised his hand, pretending he was about to strike her on the forehead.The woman did not move or evade. She just stared at Chase, convinced he would not actually hit her.After a moment, Chase had to lower his arm, feeling it start to go numb from holding it up."You can follow me, but stop asking so many questions, okay? Otherwise, I really won't let you tag along," Chase conceded. He realized he could not bring himself to harm someone who refused to fight back."Okay," the woman quickly agreed, clearly set on staying with Chase."W
As a mere ghost, she had not achieved any great feats, yet she was granted a dwelling akin to a blessed sanctuary.What had she done to deserve this? Initially, she was only grateful and a bit curious, so she followed this seemingly kind-hearted man for a while.Now, seeing this sanctuary, she felt both fortunate and more determined to follow Chase."Yes, you can reside inside here. Just try not to come out and scare people," Chase instructed."Thank you, Mr. Collins," Rolfene responded formally. In some tribes here, young men with some strength liked being addressed with respect, so she hoped calling him 'Mr. Collins' would be well-received.Rolfene pondered silently."By the way, do you remember much about your life? Tell me about it," Chase asked casually, deciding it was best not to reveal he was not a native."I don't remember much, but there are some things. If you don't mind, I'll share," Rolfene replied."Alright. Just tell me what you remember. And don't call me Mr.
There seemed to be a lack of confidence in him despite the praise.Rolfene was dramatically blunt as she said, "It can't be that you don't have some sort of tactic when dealing with supernatural beings like me but can't do any damage if the fighting were to get real, right?"The more she talked about it, the less confidence she had as she watched herself being surrounded from all four corners at the city gates.Chase glared at Rolfene."Stand to the side and watch. You'll find out how powerful your boss really is!"Rolfene knew she was on the losing end and kept quiet. She made a mental note to escape the moment she sensed something wrong.Chase was not bothered by what Rolfene was planning.He rushed to the front with the Dragon Abyss Sword in his hand as his feet pushed forward.Chase even had time to ask while in mid-air, "Who are you?"No one replied to him.It was a group of people who lived life at the edge.Those who enjoyed announcing their names out loud in public w
At the same time, the Dragon Abyss Sword was flying in the air in the opposite direction, piercing right through the back of the other man who was attempting to escape.It went through the man as a clean blade and exited his body covered in blood.Both men died on the spot.As for the trained muscled man, Chase had seen him making an escape into the city district from the city gates. Chase had no choice but to give up going after him. All he did was leave a trace of consciousness on that man.It was not difficult to kill him, but Chase had to find out what exactly was happening.Why would this group of men ambush him for no reason?Chase gave this some thought and guessed this could be because of the divine crystal.However, he wondered if they tried to assassinate him because of the divine crystal or if these people had sensed the divine crystal and were lying in wait. There was a chance they had no idea who possessed the crystal.There was a huge difference between both reaso
Scanlon was unlike the average commoner as he had experienced huge events before.He calmed down and asked, "Young man, did you come into Eagle City from the rear gates?""Yes, I did. Is there anything you need, sir?" Chase replied."Did you see or hear anything at the city's rear gates?" Scanlon finally asked without revealing the truth of the matter."No, I didn't. The city gates were quiet when I walked in. No one was out there at all," Chase pretended not to know anything."Oh, I see. What are you doing here at Eagle City, young man?" Scanlon relaxed quite a bit when he saw the young man in a green shirt acting cordial."I'm not here for anything much. I just happened to pass by this place. There's only wilderness all around here, and it's a difficult situation for me. I was thinking of spending a few nights in Eagle City to recuperate my mind and cultivate," Chase gave the most common excuse.Scanlon hesitated. The young man in the green shirt did not look like a bad man an
The people who died did not belong to the tribe and were people who had just arrived at the city gates.Moreover, Chase might look young, but he was quite powerful. It was better to know less about what happened to avoid any trouble. Harold asked Chase the question based on this attitude."About three to five days," Chase told him a random timeline. Three to five days should be enough time for him to investigate how the divine crystal had attracted attention."Alright. It's agreed, then. You may stay in the city lord's manor for these five days."Harold called out to Scanlon and instructed him to bring Chase to a private little courtyard on the east of the manor.Even though Chase was not willing to stay in the manor, it was not a good idea to reject Harold's offer at this time. Staying at the manor would only make it inconvenient for him to investigate anything.After leading Chase to his accommodation, Scanlon, who was always careful when conducting work, quickly met Harold ins
Rain was still falling heavily outside the window. It was not often to see such heavy rain, but it was still somewhat expected.Chase's ears moved slightly. He seemed to have caught the sound of children laughing and playing in the alley outside the courtyard.Not long after Chase finished a glass of wine, he heard the soft voice of a woman sobbing.He was unperturbed by it. After that, there was a series of coughing from an old man that slowly got further away.The courtyard Chase was staying at was situated on the very far end of the east side. It was at the end of the alley and was a dead end.Chase put his wine glass down and poured more wine into it. He walked out of the room with the glass in his hand. He opened the door, and for a quick instant, it looked like the sky was raining blood.It happened in a blink of an eye before everything returned to normal. There was nothing unusual besides the moist air billowing around the courtyard.Chase moved a chair to the door and s
When Willow and Cyril saw Walter attack, they both thought he had acted too recklessly. As expected, alarms blared throughout the Worthingtons' ancestral home.Warning lights flashed wildly as the guards swarmed out of the compound like ants from a nest.Chase stared in disbelief.In the programming world, there was a popular principle known as the Duck Test. If it walked like a duck, quacked like a duck, looked like a duck, and pecked like a duck, then it was probably a duck.This so-called ancestral home, aside from its exterior resembling a military base, had military-grade alert systems and personnel. By the duck principle, without a doubt, this was a military base."Is this ancestral house hiding some kind of secret? Why is the defense so tight?" Chase asked Cyril.Cyril was equally stunned by the scene. "My mentors just told me the Worthingtons' ancestral home is very important. I don't actually know what's inside… But now, it seems I underestimated how much it means to the
In Walter's understanding, even among ape-type beasts, it was nearly impossible to move so effortlessly between high-rise buildings using only physical strength—let alone doing so with such speed, like Chase just did.Willow, being a practitioner focused on soul-based and spiritual techniques, had also trained her body somewhat recently. However, she was nowhere near Walter's level and definitely far below Chase's.When she sensed that Chase had surpassed her even while she was fully employing both her movement techniques and vital energy without using any vital energy at all, she went numb inside."Chase is just a genius. I can't compare…" she said to comfort herself.In the end, even with her top-tier body movement techniques, she arrived at Cyril's location more than ten minutes later than Chase. Seeing everyone already waiting on her, she felt slightly embarrassed."Sorry, I was too slow.""It's fine. We were just taking a break anyway. What's ten minutes?" Chase waved it off
Chase and his group arrived at the rooftop of a tall building next to the Worthingtons' headquarters."That whole building over there belongs to the Worthingtons," Cyril said, pointing to the rooftop across from them where the giant words for 'Worthington Group' were displayed.For Willow and Walter, this was their first time seeing the high-rise buildings of modern society. Everything felt fresh and fascinating. They were curiously scanning the surroundings.Chase glanced at the crowds below and frowned. "This isn't a good place to fight them. There are too many civilians around. One misstep and it'll be a disaster.""Is that a problem?" asked Walter, the Water and Fire Two-Headed Giant Python. Although currently in human form, he still carried a beast's mindset and did not see anything wrong with the idea.Cyril, hearing Chase's concern, immediately understood he did not want to harm innocents. However, Walter, as Chase's contract beast, seemed surprisingly indifferent to human
In the Worthingtons' headquarters, Ricky looked at Dominic, who was still stunned from the earlier battle, and shook his head.Dominic clutched his throbbing head and asked, "Is there really no way to get all this weird junk out of my mind?""To clear it out, I'd have to work with Carla and treat you for nearly a full year. And that's only if we return to the nether realm. Here? It's practically impossible," Ricky snorted."You're a peak martial nirvana cultivator, and you've already mastered the Nine Nefarious Holy Fist, a top-tier yellow-ranked technique. You even have the Two Evils of Hell by your side, so why did you insist on fighting that kid one-on-one? Wasn't his destiny aura bright enough for you to realize who you were dealing with?"After explaining the difficulty of healing him, Ricky could not help but scold Dominic in a tone full of frustration. From his perspective, their side had been at a disadvantage ever since entering this so-called Dark and Light Mineral Ore.
"Aren't you going to help your companion?"Cyril pointed at Walter, whose massive python body was still twitching on the ground."Oh, he'll be fine in a bit," Chase replied calmly.He knew Walter had just been frightened by Silly Husky's soul-based attack.At that moment, Chase finally grasped the full extent of Greedy Wolf's power. The next time he encountered Dominic, he would make sure the man paid dearly.He began reciting the Tranquil Mind and Spirit-Clearing Mantra, dispelling the lingering effects of Greedy Wolf's soul attack from Willow and Walter.As for Cyril, he managed to recover on his own, which did not surprise Chase. After all, Cyril was the protagonist of this world."Just now, were we trapped in some kind of illusion left by the enemy?" Willow, still shaken, finally snapped out of it and recalled the terrifying scene."No, that was a special soul-based attack from my Greedy Wolf blade. Sorry about that," Chase offered an unusually rare apology.The indiscrimi
Although there was no physical damage, the soul damage was very real. It was exactly that soul damage that allowed Chase to subdue Walter."Master, has the soul damage on your Greedy Wolf increased again?" Walter asked.Soul damage? How could a blade cause soul damage?Willow and Cyril were both stunned.With their current strength, neither of them had experienced it directly and had no idea that Greedy Wolf had already awakened a spirit—specifically, a star spirit aligned with slaughter.Hearing Walter's question, Chase suddenly recalled that the spirit within Greedy Wolf—Silly Husky—possessed astonishingly strong soul power.When they first met, it had disguised itself as a deadly blade spirit, radiating a terrifying killing intent that had completely fooled Chase.Fortunately, his own soul was resilient enough not to be tricked. He had eventually seen through Silly Husky's bluffing and recognized it as more bark than bite.Now, Chase wondered if Dominic could have been affec
Being the only one who had previously faced Chase's Greedy Wolf, Stone stood frozen in disbelief.He had always believed that as a stage-nine martial god, the gap between himself and Dominic, a peak martial god and an elder of the Nefarious Deity Sect, was merely half a step. Yet now, he had witnessed something that shattered his assumptions.His most powerful dark beast, the Crimson-Scaled Nether Serpent, was electrocuted to death in an instant. Then, even when he gave it everything he had and struck with Greedy Wolf, he still ended up at a disadvantage.Meanwhile, Dominic had taken on Chase's full three-pronged assault—including a direct strike from Greedy Wolf—with nothing but his bare skull and stood his ground.It was at that moment that Stone finally understood. The gap between him and Dominic was far larger than he had ever imagined.There was simply no comparison.He and Cherry had once considered challenging for the Supreme Elder title at the sect's year-end assembly, ho
This should be easy enough!"You brat! Dying at my hands is your greatest honor. Save your breath!" Dominic shouted as he launched the Nine Nefarious Holy Fist.His body swelled in size, his shirt bursting open to reveal muscles that were as hard as stone. They gleamed under the morning sun. The sight left Willow and Walter utterly stunned.An opponent who exploded out of his shirt right at the start? That was rare enough. However, to see a Supreme Elder doing it against a junior… Was this not a bit overkill?Facing him directly, Chase wore a serious expression. His consciousness detected an overwhelming vitality radiating from Dominic, so dense it even suppressed the aura of killing intent.After easily defeating Stone earlier, Chase's impression of the Nefarious Deity Sect had dropped a notch. He had thought that after so many rounds of body refinement and reinforcement by the Dark and Light Emerald Lotus, his physical strength should be at the top tier.Yet this Dominic, the s
The answer soon revealed itself.A sizzling noise rang out as the Crimson-Scaled Nether Serpent lunged at Chase with its jaws wide open, clearly intending to end his life in one bite.It thought to itself smugly, 'This fool is too slow. He's dead for sure.'However, to everyone's surprise, the serpent suddenly spasmed mid-air. Electric arcs danced across its scales as smoke began to rise from its body. Twitching uncontrollably, it looked like it had been struck by lightning. It fell straight to the ground like a thick rope within seconds, utterly limp.Stone stood there, dumbfounded.He had not expected his Crimson-Scaled Nether Serpent to be defeated so quickly. Sensing that the serpent was now truly and completely dead, his eyes flared with rage.Chase actually dared to kill his dark beast?!His expression turned grim. Black energy spirit surged from his body, and the demon-headed broadsword on his back gleamed with a menacing red light, eager to be unleashed. Even those nearb