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
Watching Chase and Hal leave, Toledo turned to the backyard where Shadeless was still examining the corpse."Master Shadeless, since we didn't retrieve the item from the target, why did we still reward those two?" Toledo asked."Even though we didn't find the item, this is definitely the right person. You don't need to worry about this anymore. Just focus on your own tasks. After reporting these two, they'll fill the vacancies left by those who were lost earlier," Shadeless said, dismissing Toledo.Shadeless then took the body and left the shop from the back, pulling out a crystal to sense for any traces. Sure enough, the body had a faint hint of the divine crystal's presence, but it was on the verge of dissipating.Either the divine crystal was handed to someone else by the deceased, or it was taken after he was killed.The only ones with the opportunity to take it were those who had fought him. Shadeless' eyes darkened as he thought about this.Even outside the shop, he could n
Chase only had time to shout a warning before a powerful force struck him from behind, sending him flying dozens of meters and tumbling several times before coming to a halt.He was badly injured and struggling to get up when he heard another thud and saw Hal lying on the ground in the same position. It seemed Chase's warning had not been effective.Chase finally stood up, spitting out several mouthfuls of clotted blood. He looked back. As expected, it was Shadeless from Shadow Pavilion. After attacking them both, Shadeless did not make another move."Master Shadeless, what's the meaning of this?" Chase asked.Shadeless just stared at Chase and Hal, not intending to answer. These two did not have the power to fuse or absorb the divine crystal. They probably did not even know what it was.Seeing that Shadeless was not going to speak but also was not attacking again, Chase helped Hal up from the ground.Hal was clearly more seriously injured and was barely able to stand with Chase'
"Chase, have you encountered any difficulties? Is that why you're leaving in such a hurry?" Harold asked in the hall of the city lord's manor."No, no. It's nothing serious. I've already troubled you for a long time, and I have some important matters to attend to," Chase replied smoothly.He thought it best not to mention his infiltration into Shadow Pavilion to Harold. Although they had gotten along well in the past few days, their relationship was not deep enough to share such secrets."Does this have to do with the fleeting battle in the city last night? Don't worry, as long as you're within Eagle City, no one would dare cause trouble," Harold said, his confidence and imposing presence making Chase believe Harold could indeed stand up to Shadeless."Lord Scanlon, you're overthinking it. There's nothing wrong. I simply want to travel and gain more experience."For a moment, Chase considered staying in the city lord's manor and dealing with Shadow Pavilion from there.However, h
After leaving the city lord's manor, Chase waved to the Scanlons and swiftly departed.Shadeless had been in a foul mood recently. The great opportunity that had been within his grasp disappeared because of his hesitation to take action personally.He toyed with the crystal in his hand. He had obtained this one by ambushing someone on the brink of breaking through to the martial lord realm.Upon returning to the Eagle City base, Shadeless planned to refine this crystal, which was not a true divine crystal. However, he sensed another divine crystal through it, leading to the subsequent events.Detecting that the divine crystal was in the hands of a young marquis at the early stage of the realm, Shadeless wanted to avoid alarming Harold. He assigned the Shadow Pavilion operatives to handle it, thinking four individuals of the same level would easily capture the young martial artist.Shadeless was already imagining himself refining the divine crystal and ascending to the martial mona
The pieces did not fall but floated in the air.No one expected this.This included the officer who was guarding the corpse. His eyes widened at this incredible sight.Chase could sense spiritual energy gathering at the corpse."Could it come back to life?"He guessed what would happen.The giant's imagery suddenly opened his eyes as if answering Chase's question and got up.That was when the floating crystal pieces fell to the ground. They glittered like fragments of diamonds.The giant stood up, looking like a colossal spirit.Fortunately, the round hall, which had a radius of about 165 feet and was about a hundred feet high, was just enough to fit him."You… are… dead."The giant spoke one word at a time very slowly, but everyone heard him.It was a relief to the officer to see the giant pointing his fingers at Chase. The giant belonged to the Worthingtons and recognized who was the enemy.Chase and the others were surprised too. The only thing real on this giant was it
"A god's corpse?"Chase did not think this was possible. After all, this world's limit was a martial monarch. A god?Even though Chase would become a martial god again after leaving this world, his abilities were still far from a real god. There had to be something unique about that corpse for others to think that it was a god.This was Chase's initial thought.Walter and Willow did not believe it either."Could it be the corpse of an ancient giant beast?" Walter guessed.As a Two-Headed Giant Python, many ignorant humans he met mistook him for a Snake God or even a dragon. Weaker humans who met cultivators would also mistake them for gods."Talking about this doesn't help. Why not just lead us there?" Chase said to Cyril."Alright."Cyril led the group into the ancestral home. The place was surrounded by guards who looked like they were in a daze. All of them were equipped with sophisticated tools. Most of them had guns and grenades on them.A portion of these men possessed
That was too bad!Chase sighed when he saw what had happened.Greedy Wolf's blade intent was newly formed and not perfect enough. It could only suppress the minds and souls of ordinary people. Anyone with slight cultivation could fight against it.However, Chase had at least achieved a small part of his plan. This time, he channeled his vital energy and swung down his blade. A giant image of Greedy Wolf roared behind him.An image of a colossal wolf walking in the snow under the moonlight appeared in everyone's consciousness. It lunged at the defensive formation shielding the Worthingtons' ancestral home. The officer and everyone else inside the ancestral home heard a loud crack. It was shrill to their ears.That was impossible!The officer could no longer hear anything from the outside world. There was only fear and anger in his eyes.How did Chase break the defensive formation when its energy source had not been exhausted?He could only roar about this silently. There was n
The swing of his blade created a ripple in the air, and everyone watching was astonished.The officer realized that there was no vital energy used in that swing after sensing it via the formation. That was pure physical strength. However, the defense formation was sustained using stored vital energy.Below the base of the ancestral home was a giant space storing Dark and Light Emeralds and spiritual stones. They were mainly used to replenish the formation.According to reports from below, they had exhausted a hundredth of the reserves just to defend against one swing of the blade.That would mean Chase could exhaust the first level of the defense formation's reserve energy if he swung his blade at the formation a hundred times.The office was shocked at the data. However, upon further thought, he figured Chase would not last if he were to attempt swinging his blade down a hundred times. After all, he had clearly put in full energy for that one swing of the blade. There was nothing
What was the point of having such a strong defensive formation? They were like ragdolls to someone as powerful as Chase.Willow was proud of this. She was now a resident fan and Chase's groupie. She had started making plans to turn Chase into her slave and bodyguard.The others moved quickly to get inside during the short moment when the defensive formation was broken. Bright lights suddenly burst out from inside the Worthingtons' ancestral home.They watched as flashes of brilliant lights displayed formations in the air like electric currents. After the lights connected, the defensive formation was strengthened once more. The cracks on its formation lines were repaired, and the shield became thicker than before.Chase attacked with a rain of swords. The usual clanging from the attack turned into muffled sounds.It looked like the Worthingtons had placed a lot of effort into their defense. Their defense formation was unexpectedly strong.Chase saw how the rain of sword attacks di
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.