"Is that so? Hal, your information is always so reliable. I'm really benefiting from it," Chase said."Not at all, but I do hope you'll share any news about the person in the portrait with me as well," Hal replied. Although his words sounded casual, his expression clearly conveyed that he expected some valuable information in return for what he had provided.Hearing that, Chase responded, "Of course, of course."Their conversation was pleasant overall, and when Chase took his leave, Hal even walked him downstairs.After leaving Hal's inn, Chase went to the tavern he frequented. He looked for a secluded spot, removed his disguise, and reverted to his true self before heading back home.On his way back to the small house, Chase continued to ponder how he could fake his own death to infiltrate Shadow Pavilion. Upon seeing Chase's dilemma, Lucas offered a suggestion, "Find a corpse and destroy the face. That should do the trick.""But will the fake really pass as me?" Chase was int
"Yes, sir. Please go ahead and absorb it," Chase said. He then sat down cross-legged, patiently waiting for Lucas to provide feedback.Within half an hour, Chase suddenly felt a surge of heat within his body. He remained calm, knowing that this was the result of Lucas digesting the divine crystal.He guided the heat flow to circulate through his body once. As he began the second circulation, the heat flow diminished until it completely disappeared. It was now fully absorbed by Chase.However, when Chase checked internally, he found that his cultivation level hadn't increased at all. He released his aura entirely in disbelief, confirming that there was indeed no change. Puzzled by this, he retracted his aura again.In that brief moment, many people in the city sensed his aura. Several individuals rushed out of their rooms, but as the aura quickly vanished, they could only look around in confusion and give up.Among those who noticed were Hal from the inn, Toledo from the shop, an
After breakfast, Harold and his wife felt that Chase seemed more genuine. Previously, he had been so calm and composed, almost unnaturally so for someone his age.Once Wanda led Rania away from the table, Chase returned to his usual demeanor. It was not that Chase had feelings for Rania or anything, but he naturally had a soft spot for gentle and fragile women."Chase, my young friend, why don't you settle down in Eagle City instead of wandering around? We have everything you could need here," Harold suggested with a hint of meaning in his tone."A man's ambition should know no bounds, Lord Scanlon. Please don't make light of such things," Chase understood immediately and changed the subject.Reluctantly, Chase asked, "Lord Scanlon, do you have any prisoners on death row?""What do you mean by 'death row'?" Harold was puzzled.Oops, they did not understand what 'death row' meant here."I mean people who have committed serious crimes and are awaiting execution," Chase explained.
It was clear that Lucas was more invested in this matter than he had been in any other before, likely due to the divine crystal.Hearing Lucas' reassurance, Chase no longer hesitated. With a single thought, a foreign consciousness appeared in his mind. Chase sensed it and confirmed that he could indeed expel this consciousness at any time and force Lucas back into the Dragon Vein Secret Realm.As Lucas took control of his body, Chase retreated into his mind. He felt a strange sensation. He was able to perceive and see what his body was doing without actually controlling it. It was a peculiar feeling.Though Lucas' control over Chase's body wasn't as fluid as Chase's own, it was adequate."Who are you? What do you want?" the prisoner asked nervously after seeing Eddard bring a stranger over and then leave. While controlling Chase's body, Lucas instantly moved into the cell without a word. He struck the prisoner unconscious with a single palm strike.Chase then witnessed something
Chase found it amusing to see the prisoner so wary. He was just a late-stage true master of martial arts. Chase had killed several marquises of martial arts, so this guy was nothing to him."So, what does my benefactor want from me? As long as it's something I can do, I'll do it," the prisoner said quickly, assuming Chase had freed him to do some task. He was eager to save his own life."I don't need you to do anything. You're safe now, so you can leave," Chase replied, not wanting to waste more time talking to a doomed man."Can I really go?" The prisoner still could not believe it. After all, he was a notorious criminal and had long since stopped believing in others' goodwill.Chase did not say anything more. He just pointed to the door, indicating that the prisoner was free to leave.Hence, the prisoner did not hesitate and walked out the door, soon disappearing into the night. Was Chase really going to let him go? Of course not. Chase had already placed a trace of his consciou
"Definitely. Of course." Seeing Chase agree to his proposal, Hal readily made an empty promise.Who knew what would happen in the future? Besides, after completing this task, he would have the upper hand once he joined Shadow Pavilion."What are you waiting for? Let's hurry," Hal urged, his previous dissatisfaction vanishing."Alright, Hal. I'll lead the way." Chase then led Hal through various turns until they reached the inn.Hal then saw fake Chase sitting on the second floor, drinking. To make the scene more convincing and to ensure more witnesses, Chase pretended to act impulsively, but Hal held him back."Hey now, there are too many people here. It's not good to attack in public. Besides, that person seems to be an early-stage marquis of martial arts. We should wait for a better opportunity," Hal advised."You're right, Hal. I was too hasty," Chase replied, though he was inwardly irritated.What was going on? Hal had been in such a hurry before, and now, he was hesitant af
"Maybe it's because he was drunk?" Chase quickly came up with a plausible excuse."Maybe," Hal said as he took out the portrait to compare. It was indeed the same person.The people in the inn were shocked to see a regular customer killed just outside the door. They stood there, feeling stunned."Someone's been killed!" After a moment, the inn's patrons realized what had happened and shouted, waking up many in the dead of night."Hal, let's take the body back to claim our reward. This isn't the place to stand around," Chase reminded Hal while lifting the corpse though he actually wanted more people to witness the scene. Hal agreed."Right," Hal responded, shaking off his confusion. This was not the place to hesitate, so he followed Chase to Toledo's shop.The sound of their knocking echoed at the door of the closed shop."Who's there?" A lazy voice answered from inside. It was Toledo."Toledo, it's me and Hal!" Chase replied eagerly."Who are you?" Toledo still did not recogni
"This is Master Shadeless. Why haven't you greeted him?" Toledo scolded Chase and Hal as he brought the old man over."Greetings, Master Shadeless!" Chase and Hal both said in unison, lowering their heads respectfully. Hal was sincere in his hopes of joining Shadow Pavilion. As for Chase, he also showed sincerity as he wanted to play his part convincingly."These are the two guys I mentioned earlier. They brought back our target. The one on the left is Chase, and the one on the right is Hal," Toledo introduced Chase and Hal to the old man."Mm," the old man replied indifferently, turning his attention to the corpse on the floor. After examining it briefly, he pulled out a dim crystal from his pocket and began to sense it.After a moment, he said, "Yes, it's him. But the item we're looking for is no longer on the body." He then glanced at Chase and Hal.Toledo quickly asked, "Did either of you take anything from the body, something that looks like this crystal?""No, Toledo. After
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