Volume 2, The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 331: Devouring the Blood Shadow
In the empty room, a blood-red handprint slowly rose, and wisps of black energy gradually merged into the blood-red mist, then coiled around Zhou Ziwei's neck.
However, at this moment, Zhou Ziwei, who seemed to have been unconscious, suddenly opened his eyes. Without any wind, an invisible barrier silently formed in front of him, blocking out the strange black blood mist.
Then, two points of silver light burst forth from Zhou Ziwei's body, and he swiftly slashed at the blood-red, hazy figure with an almost invisible speed.
The blood-red figure let out a soft cry. Although Zhou Ziwei was still tightly handcuffed, the figure dared not harbor any illusions. As soon as it sensed something was wrong, it let out a strange cry and turned to float towards the door.
However, just as he turned around, two silver lights suddenly flew out from the wall behind him, combining with the two silver lights that had flown out from Zhou Ziwei's body to form a pincer attack.
The blood-red man cried out in horror, twisted his body again with an extremely strange movement, and then pounced down onto the floor.
Then, at that moment, several more whooshing sounds suddenly rang out, and two silver lights appeared abruptly from beneath the floor and above the roof, simultaneously piercing towards the blood-red figure from an encircling position.
"Baka—" An angry roar came from the blood-red figure, followed by a flash of cold light. Two strange curved blades appeared out of the blood-red figure as if by magic, transforming into two whirlwind-like beams of light that protected the entire body. They clashed with the silver light that shot towards them, producing a metallic clang.
"Crack, crack..." Several sounds rang out, and eight silver lights were all cut down to dust by the tight defense that was like a windmill. They fell to the ground and turned into a series of broken new-style cross darts. Almost every dart was covered with crisscrossing gaps and scratches, which showed how sharp the two curved blades of the blood-red figure were.
Having survived the surprise attack, the blood-red figure seemed not to be complacent at all. Once it escaped the pursuit of the eight silver lights, it showed no intention of turning back. Instead, it plummeted down, its two blood-red hands, like the claws of a wild beast, piercing directly into the hard floor and tearing a circular opening in the ground.
Just as the blood-red figure was about to sink into the ground along with those sharp claws, suddenly, the eight broken new-style cross darts that had fallen to the ground all seemed to come alive and leaped up, fiercely stabbing towards the blood-red figure again with an unstoppable momentum.
"Ah—" A miserable scream suddenly echoed in the narrow space. The blood-red figure paused abruptly, and the ethereal figure gradually became clearer, then transformed into the figure of a pale-faced young man wearing a red robe.
The young man plunged his hands deep into the floor, but his arms were severed cleanly at the elbows by two suddenly appearing new-style cross darts, and his thighs were impaled by two new-style cross darts shot from the left and right.
Four new-style cross-shaped darts were firmly embedded in the vital areas of the chest and abdomen, and blood was flowing rapidly down the specially designed blood grooves on the darts.
With a thud, without the support of its arms, the blood-soaked figure fell from mid-air, the red blood instantly staining the floor a shocking sight.
The pale face stared in disbelief at the figure still tightly handcuffed to the water pipe in the corner, a look of deep regret and unspeakable resentment on its face.
He was being very careful, but he still unknowingly fell into the other party's trap.
Although he had long expected that Zhou Ziwei's abilities would not be so easily subdued by Mr. Zhu's hypnosis, he had just used his Blood Mist Technique to probe him and clearly sensed that Zhou Ziwei's mind was restrained, and he appeared to be in a deep coma.
Little did he know that Zhou Ziwei had secretly laid a trap in this small room, just waiting for this fool to walk right into it...
Koji Ito was very resentful. He felt that he must have ended up like this because he had trusted what others said.
Such a meticulous arrangement could not have been accomplished by Zhou Ziwei alone. Mr. Zhu was probably in cahoots with Zhou Ziwei, and even that idiot Qiao Mulin was just a pawn in Zhou Ziwei's scheme to play the victim.
Otherwise... Zhou Ziwei was clearly handcuffed all over, so how could he have silently laid out fierce hidden weapons all over the house?
However, none of these seem to be the key point. What Ito Koji couldn't imagine was that the eight darts that shot out from all directions had clearly been damaged and knocked down by his Wind Wheel Scimitar, but just as he was about to burrow underground, why did those broken darts, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly come to life and launch such a strange attack on him on their own?
Koji Ito opened his mouth, as if he wanted to voice his question, but as soon as he opened his mouth, mouthfuls of thick blood gushed out.
All the strength in his body leaked out of his young body along with the rapidly flowing blood. In the end, his mouth opened and closed slightly, and then his head tilted to the side. A ninja blood shadow who had passed down his skills for countless generations finally separated from his physical body at this moment and transformed into a pure soul that floated into the air.
The elusive soul was probably due to that strange method of soul inheritance, its solidity and power were far beyond what ordinary people could compare to. Now that it was free from the constraints of its body, its mind did not show the same sense of confusion that ordinary souls experience after losing their physical bodies.
As soon as the faint phantom rose into the air, it immediately cast its venomous gaze upon the figure huddled in the corner, slowly sitting up. A ferocious ruthlessness flashed across its face, which was entirely composed of soul energy. Then, the phantom moved slightly, and instantly a sharp claw was stretched infinitely, viciously stabbing straight down towards Zhou Ziwei's forehead.
The claw, formed entirely of soul energy, was now being used with all his might. It had actually gathered a small portion of the soul energy from the soul body, making it resemble a ruthless soul weapon, its power enough to evoke trembling in every ordinary soul.
However, before the slender claws could pierce Zhou Ziwei's face, the illusory soul saw Zhou Ziwei, who had just sat up, raise his head and give him a strange smile.
How could he possibly see me...?
The soul, without the slightest sense of confusion, knew exactly what state it was in. It simply couldn't believe that after its death, it had become a soul, and that terrifying creature was still able to keenly detect its presence.
Upon seeing Zhou Ziwei's smile, the spirit was startled, instinctively sensing that something might be amiss. Just as it was about to temporarily suppress its deep-seated hatred for Zhou Ziwei and slip away, it saw Zhou Ziwei's lips twitch slightly. Then, to its horror, strange orange characters suddenly emerged from the top of Zhou Ziwei's head, instantly transforming into six enormous orange halos that enveloped him completely…
"No—" Instinctively sensing the terrifying, inherently opposing power emanating from those orange halos, Ito Koji's soul desperately wanted to roar, but having just lost his body, he wasn't yet powerful enough to immediately master the advanced technique of soul roaring. Therefore, he could only tremble under the orange light, being purified into pure soul energy, which was then poured into Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls...
Wow... such powerful soul energy, it's so nourishing for the soul...
Zhou Ziwei was greatly surprised to find that the blood shadow's soul had instantly increased his soul power by over a thousand.
It seems that the power of the soul inheritor is indeed not to be underestimated. Each generation of Blood Shadow is infused with the soul of the previous generation into the body of the next generation, but it is not in the way of resurrection or possession, but in a way of soul fusion.
The perfect fusion of two souls is like this Koji Ito. After being inherited by the soul of the Blood Shadow, he did not lose any of his memories as Koji Ito, but he gained the inherited memories of countless generations of the Blood Shadow.
Therefore, he is both Blood Shadow and Koji Ito.
Each time the two souls overlapped, the result was that the Blood Shadow's soul grew stronger and stronger, reaching a level far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
However, it is clear that the soul of the previous generation of Blood Shadow was not completely infused into the body of the next generation. From the blank souls sealed in the strange spirit tablets that Zhou Ziwei saw in the Blood Shadow's lair in Japan, it can be known that after the Blood Shadow's inheritance, there is probably a peculiar way to separate a part of the soul of the previous generation of Blood Shadow and seal it in the spirit tablet.
Only in this way can we ensure that the next generation of Blood Shadows has enough autonomy and will not be completely controlled by the soul of the previous generation of Blood Shadows.
After completely devouring Blood Shadow's soul, Zhou Ziwei didn't care much about the more than a thousand units of soul power he gained. However, it was the soul memories he obtained from these soul energies that made him ecstatic.
This Blood Shadow has been passed down for countless years, with each generation leaving their most creative insights into the soul imprint of the next. Over time, it has accumulated into a veritable treasure trove of knowledge.
However, the memories within this soul are also astonishingly chaotic because they contain the inherited memories of countless generations of blood shadows.
It is truly remarkable that the inheritor did not go insane due to the chaotic memories amidst such a disturbance of soul memories.
Zhou Ziwei knew that these memories were very precious and that he couldn't sort them out in a short time, so he didn't bother with them for the time being. He simply extracted the soul memory of the burrowing technique from these messy memories and then integrated it into his own original memories...
However, the complexity of this burrowing technique was somewhat beyond Zhou Ziwei's expectations. Originally, it seemed that the Blood Shadow burrowed in very easily, inserting its two claws into the ground and twisting its body a few times, like an eel burrowing into the soil. But in reality, this burrowing technique combined several wonderful ninjutsu to achieve such an effect.
In order for Zhou Ziwei to learn this earth-burrowing technique, he must first master those ninjutsu techniques.
Zhou Ziwei realized that it was impossible to learn the burrowing technique immediately, because the mass of soul memories he had just received was too vast, and it would take some effort to find the secrets of several ninjutsu techniques within it.
But now... it's clearly not the time to cultivate in peace. The commotion that just came from inside has already alerted Mr. Zhu and his bodyguards and thugs outside.
In particular, the blood shadow's shrill scream before its death shocked everyone.
The bodyguards and thugs were just stunned, as if they hadn't quite figured out what had happened. But Mr. Zhu, who was proficient in mental power, keenly sensed that the terrifying aura that originally belonged to Lord Blood Shadow had suddenly vanished. The strong smell of blood emanating from the room made him shudder. Without saying a word, he turned around and fled for his life out of the villa.
After hesitating for a moment, the thugs guarding outside opened the door, only to be horrified to see a mangled corpse inside.
However, they all breathed a slight sigh of relief when they saw that Zhou Ziwei was still handcuffed there unharmed.
Turning around, he saw Mr. Zhu running away like a mouse whose tail had been stepped on. The bodyguard, whose younger brother had been beaten up by Zhou Ziwei earlier, grinned sinisterly. Blinded by hatred, he didn't even care about the corpse on the ground. He just snorted coldly, grabbed a stun gun, and viciously struck Zhou Ziwei on the head...
"Hmph—" A disdainful snort rang out, and Zhou Ziwei suddenly broke free of his grip with both hands and feet. Instantly, more than a dozen handcuffs snapped open at the same time. The ear-piercing "crack" sound startled all the bodyguards present. Then, a chill ran through them like an ice spike in their hearts, causing them to shiver involuntarily.
With a soft "buzz," the bodyguard holding the stun gun was startled and dared not approach Zhou Ziwei any further. He abruptly pressed the button on the stun gun, sending a high-voltage current directly into Zhou Ziwei's body.
"The current... it's been a long time since I've used this to replenish it."
Seeing this, Zhou Ziwei let out a faint, indifferent laugh. With a wave of his hand, a blue electric arc emanating from the transmitter at the tip of the stun baton seemed to possess a spirit, falling directly into Zhou Ziwei's palm. Moreover, normally, after the thug pressed the button, only one arc of electricity should have been released and then immediately disappeared. However, with Zhou Ziwei's gentle wave of his hand, the button on the stun baton seemed to have completely malfunctioned. The electrical energy stored in the stun baton surged out like a flood, all of it rushing out with the first arc of electricity. In the blink of an eye, it all turned into streaks of blue electricity, like small blue snakes, which snaked and twisted a few times in Zhou Ziwei's palm before he casually absorbed them into his body with a faint smile.
After witnessing such a bizarre scene, all the thugs present were completely stunned. After looking at Zhou Ziwei and the mangled corpse on the ground, they suddenly screamed and turned around to run away for their lives.
"Since you want to kill me... then you'd better be prepared to be killed... all of you, leave yourselves here!"
Zhou Ziwei gave a cold, indifferent shout, and with a slight movement of his feet, his figure instantly transformed into a faint phantom, sweeping through the outer corridor like a hurricane. As a result, all the exhausted thugs collapsed to the ground, none of them surviving.
As for Mr. Zhu... he had already been silently stung in the neck by a mosquito guarding the door, causing him to fall into a deep sleep in an instant.
The little mosquito's trick was far more effective than his amateurish hypnosis.
Zhou Ziwei first refined the souls of the dozen or so thugs who died in the corridor into soul beads one by one. Then, he couldn't help but raise a handful of soul beads in his hand, look up at the sky, and let out a triumphant and crazy laugh.
The violent aura emanating from that laughter startled even Zhou Ziwei himself.
Damn it... I'm actually laughing like this... What's wrong with me?
Zhou Ziwei gently shook his head, then looked at the extremely gruesome corpses scattered on the ground, and was once again shocked.
No... this is definitely not something he should have done.
Although these bodyguards and thugs must have done a lot of bad things with Qiao Mulin before, given Zhou Ziwei's past personality, he might not be so quick to kill all of these henchmen.
Even if he were to kill, he would never use such cruel methods; several people had just been dismembered by him.
Blood Shadow... This must be the work of Blood Shadow's soul memories.
Volume 2, The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 332: The Secret of Inheritance
Zhou Ziwei stared blankly at the gruesome corpses scattered on the ground for a moment, then shook his head to himself.
It seems that Blood Shadow's terrifying soul, passed down through at least a dozen generations, is not so easy to absorb...
In the past, Zhou Ziwei had absorbed the souls of countless vicious people, but his mind had always remained extremely clear, and the souls he had devoured had never affected his personality.
Even though in the past, due to absorbing too much soul power at once, some of the malevolent energy in the Sea of Souls was carried into it, this effect only concerned Zhou Ziwei's own safety and did not affect his personality or methods of doing things.
This is mainly due to the miraculous effect of the Six-Syllable Mantra. Basically, the soul power filtered through the halo of the Six-Syllable Mantra has been sufficiently purified, leaving at most some fragments of the soul's memories from its previous life.
These fragmented memories were made without any subjective consciousness, as if Zhou Ziwei had read a book.
Books can provide people with knowledge and the experience of predecessors, but it is impossible to change a person's character simply by reading a book.
However, if it is a book that is exciting enough to give people a sense of awe, then such a book may more or less influence a person's personality.
And now, Blood Shadow's soul is very likely such a book. After more than ten generations of inheritance, his soul energy is already far stronger than that of ordinary people, and it may have undergone some kind of unknown mutation. As a result, even Zhou Ziwei's Six-Syllable Mantra could not purify the special thing carried in that soul. So it is not surprising that it has a slight impact on Zhou Ziwei's personality now.
The best course of action now is to delete as many useless memories as possible from the Blood Shadow's soul, and then condense the soul power obtained from the Blood Shadow into liquid soul power. This way, the other substances mixed in should be purified out, right?
However, the blood shadow has been passed down for more than ten generations, and the soul memories it contains are a vast treasure. If it is to be discarded without carefully appreciating and studying it, then it would be better not to devour the blood shadow's soul at all...
Zhou Ziwei took a deep breath, knowing that things were in such a mess that the police would likely arrive soon. He was afraid that the murderous aura emanating from his soul might become uncontrollable and lead him to kill the police as well, which would be extremely bad. Therefore, he dared not stay here any longer.
Sorting through the blood shadow's soul memories is not something that can be done in a short time. There's no use rushing now; let's leave first!
Thinking of this, Zhou Ziwei immediately flashed to the door of the villa, picked up Mr. Zhu, who had escaped here but inexplicably collapsed and fell fast asleep, and then vanished completely from the spot in another flash...
When Zhou Ziwei returned to the exchange, Li Yifeng, Gu Dongfeng, and the others had already returned as well. As soon as they returned, they learned that the place had been attacked by bandits while they were away, and all the guards had been killed without exception. Li Yifeng and the others were immediately horrified and turned pale.
When they learned that only a few people had died here, and that not a single piece of the jade worth billions had been lost, the group was stunned and could hardly believe their eyes.
Are these bandits idiots? They have nothing better to do than come here and kill so many people, yet they completely ignore these valuables... If they weren't involved and saw with their own eyes that not a single piece of jade was missing, they probably wouldn't believe such a thing could happen.
Just as everyone was discussing and speculating whether the thugs who committed the crime were remnants of General Bamo from Myanmar, a figure flashed at the window, and Zhou Ziwei suddenly appeared in the room carrying a person.
The group had grown somewhat accustomed to Zhou Ziwei's elusive nature lately. Seeing this, only a few children and Liu Xiaofei couldn't help but gasp softly. The others, and even Grandpa Gu Dongfeng, didn't react too strongly.
However, everyone's gaze towards Zhou Ziwei was filled with uncontrollable joy and fervor.
With a loud thud, Zhou Ziwei threw Mr. Zhu heavily to the ground. He then called over Ah Da and Ah Er and instructed them, "Keep an eye on this guy. No matter what, don't let him get away, and don't let him hurt himself. Hmm... I need some peace and quiet for a while. I have some physical issues to take care of. In short... we can't let anything disturb me before I come out. I might be out in an hour or two, or maybe a day or two. It all depends on luck, haha..."
After speaking, Zhou Ziwei didn't dare to give the crowd any chance to ask questions. He left them behind and dashed into his large room in the exchange.
Zhou Ziwei's luck was neither good nor bad. It took him a whole night to finally sort out and clear the soul memories of the Blood Shadow from more than ten lifetimes, and erase all the memories that were useless or, although useful, Zhou Ziwei simply didn't bother to grasp.