The black sphere looked only the size of a grain of rice, and didn't seem to have any destructive power at all. Generally speaking, such a small thing, even if it was filled with the most powerful explosives, wouldn't have much power.
But the piece of dead wood seemed to sense something the moment the black orb shot towards it, as if it had stepped on a spring on the ground, and with a "whoosh," it sprang up from the ground and flew straight into the air...
However, no matter how fast the withered wood moved, it couldn't possibly be faster than the flow of Zhou Ziwei's soul power. The black bead was a low-level soul bead that Zhou Ziwei had wrapped with his soul power. The speed at which it was launched was basically the same as the speed at which Zhou Ziwei's soul power was released. The distance of more than ten meters was covered in the blink of an eye. So, the instant the piece of withered wood bounced off the ground, the rice-grain-shaped soul bead, wrapped in soul power, crashed heavily into the ground...
In an instant, the Soul Pearl exploded, transforming into countless strange rays that completely enveloped everything within a one-meter radius... A perfectly round crater with a radius of one meter instantly appeared on the ground. Although the withered tree-like object that had been launched into the air escaped quickly, a small portion of it still remained within the Soul Pearl's decomposition range. In the blink of an eye, that small portion of the withered tree turned into a cloud of powder that fell directly into the circular crater in the ground.
A shrill scream suddenly rang out, and the remaining half of the dead tree that had been flung into the air suddenly transformed into a strange figure. This figure was crimson red like blood and only a little over half a meter tall... or perhaps it was originally taller, but now its legs had completely disappeared below the knees, so the whole person was only a little over half a meter tall.
Blood gushed out from his thighs, making him look as if he were covered in blood.
His initial momentum to launch him into the air was abruptly halted. He tumbled in mid-air before plummeting to the terrifying circular pit below him... into the pile of powder formed from complete decomposition... With a "poof," he was completely engulfed in the powder and then vanished.
Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback, then a surge of overwhelming anger rose in his heart.
That guy actually escaped! Zhou Ziwei never expected that the guy, whose legs were both severely injured, could still dig a hole in the ground faster than a rat and then crawl straight in...
Zhou Ziwei had just escaped death and had already listed this dangerous guy as someone who had to be killed. He really didn't want to let him escape, but the range of his soul power was only twenty meters, and the guy was running too fast. In the blink of an eye, he had descended countless meters and disappeared from Zhou Ziwei's senses.
Moreover, that guy was really good at digging holes. The soil he dug out from the ground would be quickly filled behind him, so the passages he opened up would be blocked again at the same time. Even if Zhou Ziwei wanted to follow him underground, he couldn't.
Zhou Ziwei took a deep breath and first recalled the three new cross-shaped darts that had fallen into the thick fog. Then he quickly sensed all his remaining insects and instructed them to guard the various passages down the mountain. If there was any abnormal situation, even if they saw a rabbit running down the mountain, they were to immediately notify Zhou Ziwei.
The dwarf's illusion was quite impressive. Of course, Zhou Ziwei didn't believe that the guy really knew any magic. It was probably similar to an animal's instinct for disguise. He could quickly blend into the environment by changing some of his own characteristics, turning himself into a stone or a piece of wood... But that was just a superficial phenomenon that could only deceive other people's eyes.
No matter what he becomes, he's going to run anyway. Zhou Ziwei hardened his heart and decided to prevent anything that could move from running down the mountain during this period.
He simply didn't believe that the severely injured dwarf had any real skill and could possibly stay underground forever.
Unfortunately, he only has six Kun pets left, so the area he can block is very limited.
There are only two or three paths down this mountain, which is not very big to begin with. If the other party is a normal ordinary person, it would not be difficult to block him on the mountain as long as these two or three paths are blocked.
The problem is that the guy can even burrow underground, so he's obviously an unconventional person who doesn't follow the usual path. For him, there's no such thing as a road. Every corner of the entire mountain could be a passage for him to descend. So guarding the entrance is completely useless to that dwarf.
However, Zhou Ziwei really had no better method than this, and could only place his hopes on luck. He did not have the six insects guard the intersections and wait in vain, but instead each took charge of a section of the area and patrolled around the mountain. Once they were lucky enough to find that guy, as long as they kept an eye on him, that guy would be doomed.
The red mist began to dissipate gradually after the dwarf fled, while Zhou Ziwei remained in the same spot, staring blankly at the sky above him... because he could sense that... even after all this time, the force field he had created in his haste had not dissipated.
This was completely beyond Zhou Ziwei's comprehension. In his mind, the force field could only last for less than a second, and it would dissipate immediately as soon as it appeared.
But this time... this force field space seemed to have solidified, and it just stayed there motionless...
Zhou Ziwei slowly raised his hand and carefully probed into that force field space. From the touch of his hand, he could hardly sense anything. It was clearly just a ball of air, no different from the air in other places on this mountain peak.
However… in his perception, that space was completely different, as if… it were a part of Zhou Ziwei's own body…
He had somehow acquired a limb that was as thin as air?
Zhou Ziwei scratched his head, looking puzzled. Then, an idea struck him. He grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and tossed it into the air…
Suddenly... the sand that had been thrown into the air, upon entering a force field, was instantly frozen in place as if struck by a spell, completely unaffected by inertia and gravity, remaining still without continuing to rise into the air or falling to the ground.
Zhou Ziwei was somewhat dazed. After a while, he suddenly woke up and then felt that the space connected to his consciousness was rapidly drawing away his soul power.
Although the amount extracted was not large, it was continuous, like a tap being turned on. Zhou Ziwei felt his soul power flowing out continuously from there and then disappearing without a trace.
Damn... what is this? My soul power is quite strong, but it can't withstand this kind of outflow!
Zhou Ziwei was horrified and hurriedly flung away the sand that had been trapped in the force field. He then noticed that the flow of his soul power within his body suddenly slowed down.
Although the soul power within him was still continuously disappearing, the rate at which it was flowing out had become so slow as to be almost negligible...
So that's how it is. It seems that as long as my soul power sustains this force field space, it can exist indefinitely. And... whenever I use this force field space to control anything, it immediately and continuously consumes a large amount of soul power.
Zhou Ziwei thought for a moment, then strode out of the dead zone that had just been washed by the red light where he had fought the dwarf. As he walked, the force field space followed him like a shadow, never leaving his side.
Zhou Ziwei bent down and picked up a fist-sized rock from the ground, then tossed it upwards, causing it to fall back into the force field above his head. As expected, he could still completely control the rock with his will, defying the laws of gravity, and it remained motionless in mid-air. However, at that instant, the soul power within his body suddenly flowed even faster, like tap water.
Damn... This is just a rock, and it's already draining so much soul power. If a living person were controlled in this force field space, wouldn't the soul power consumed be even more terrifying? Hmm... Controlling a living person... Well... I wonder if I could control myself?
Zhou Ziwei's eyes lit up at this thought, and with a thought, the strange force field space hanging above his head slowly floated down and stopped in front of him...
Zhou Ziwei took a deep breath, closed his eyes to calm himself down, and then suddenly leaped up, heading towards that force field space...
"Thump—" But who knew that the force field space seemed to move synchronously with Zhou Ziwei's body unless he used his mind to control it.
So... just as Zhou Ziwei leaped forward, the force field also moved forward at the same time, resulting in Zhou Ziwei landing in empty space and nearly twisting his ankle.
Zhou Ziwei scratched his head, puzzled, took another deep breath, and then, while using his mind to keep the force field stationary, he controlled his body to leap into the air again...
With a "whoosh," Zhou Ziwei leaped into that force field space. At the same time, his consciousness transmitted a command to levitate in the air, and then... a scene that excited Zhou Ziwei appeared... he could actually stand in mid-air as if he were standing on an invisible piece of land, completely ignoring the laws of gravity, and remain motionless.
But after a moment of surprise, Zhou Ziwei began to feel a deep sense of heartache.
If his soul power consumption was like a tap when he was controlling a stone to float in the air, then now it's like a small stream.
In just a few seconds, hundreds of units of soul power had already disappeared...
Oh my god, the price is really high...
Zhou Ziwei felt a pang of pain in his heart, but he didn't rush to jump down. Instead, he tried to use his consciousness to propel the force field beneath his feet forward rapidly...
Volume Two: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 278: Blood Shadow Inheritance
Koji Ito was the son of a farmer. After graduating from university, he did not choose to join well-known large multinational companies like his classmates. Instead, he returned home to inherit his father's profession and continue to be a farmer.
Of course, in an island nation with a population so large it's like a crowded sardine can, owning a piece of private land to develop a farming business is definitely more enviable than starting as a junior employee in a large company.
Even if a girl chooses to marry, she will still choose the son of a farmer, rather than the son of a department head at Panasonic.
Therefore... Koji Ito's future is bright, and his life is the envy of many.
As one of the world's leading developed countries, island nations have long since popularized agricultural mechanization, and farmers no longer need to toil in the fields every day with a hoe in hand.
Therefore, Koji Ito's daily workload is actually very small, and since he is still at an age full of energy, his daily morning exercise has become an indispensable daily habit for him.
Koji Ito's home is located at the foot of Higashiyama. Every morning, he would run along the rugged mountain path from his home to the ancient pavilion at the top of the mountain, sit there quietly for a while, breathe in the fresh mountain air, and then go down the mountain back home.
Perhaps because he went to bed early last night, Koji Ito woke up half an hour earlier than usual today. Since he couldn't fall back asleep anyway, he simply got dressed and started his daily, rain or shine, mountain climbing routine early...
The sky was just beginning to lighten when Koji Ito had already reached the halfway point of the mountain. He looked up at the dark mountaintop and estimated that he might be able to see the sunrise once he reached the summit. This made him even more cheerful, and he ran faster than usual.
Suddenly, he seemed to trip over something, and Koji Ito fell face-first to the ground.
What bad luck... I just bought this sportswear, and I tripped and fell the first time I wore it. I hope I don't tear the clothes.
Koji Ito cursed a couple of times as he got up and looked at his clothes. Luckily, his new sportswear was of good quality. Although he was covered in dust from the fall, there were no tears on his sportswear, even on his calves that were scraped raw by the stones.
Koji Ito breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and glanced back at the path he had come from. He saw a piece of dead wood lying across the path he used to take every day, and couldn't help but frown.
He was thinking that he would have to go down the mountain via this path again, and he didn't want to trip over it again.
If you trip while going uphill, you'll at most fall down, but if you trip while going downhill... you might very well roll all the way down the slope to the bottom. In that case, even if you don't die, you'll be half dead.
So Koji Ito went back and planned to clear the dead tree to the side of the road.
However, just as he bent down to pick up the piece of dead wood, he suddenly saw the "dead wood" crack open with a snap, and then a withered arm reached out from inside and grabbed his neck tightly.
Koji Ito had never seen anything like this before. He was so frightened that he almost lost his mind. He tried to open his mouth and scream, but his neck was being strangled so tightly that he couldn't even breathe, let alone make a sound.
"Kid... if you don't want to die, don't yell..."
Not only did the piece of dead wood grow an arm, but it could even talk... An old voice rang in Ito Koji's ears, startling him again. He stared wide-eyed and looked around, only to find the surroundings completely bare, without a single mouse in sight. He finally realized that what had just been told to him was... was indeed the piece of dead wood right in front of him.
"What are you looking at... I'm talking to you... cough cough..." With a slight cough, the piece of dead wood in front of him trembled violently a few times, and then, under Koji Ito's gaze, it transformed in the blink of an eye into an old man with a wrinkled face... only half a body, but even that remaining half of his body was much shorter than that of an ordinary person.
The old man gasped for breath a few times, then rolled his eyes and glared fiercely at Ito Koji, saying, "If you behave... I won't kill you; in fact, I'll give you a huge benefit. But... if you dare to shout or scream, believe me, I can blow my breath and make you die without a burial place..."
After saying that, the old man suddenly turned his head and blew a breath at a small tree about three or four meters away by the roadside.
The breath exhaled instantly transformed into a faint red mist, enveloping the entire sapling. In the blink of an eye, the red mist dissipated, and the once vibrant sapling instantly turned into a withered tree. Its leaves fluttered down, and even the bark rotted away, creating numerous holes.
Koji Ito witnessed this astonishing scene and was so shocked that his eyes widened and he remained speechless for a long time. He almost forgot that his neck had been choked so hard that he couldn't breathe.
Seeing the man's reaction, the old man smiled sinisterly and then released Ito Koji's neck. As expected, Ito Koji was so frightened by the old man's terrifying ability that he didn't dare to breathe loudly, let alone shout.
"Have you seen my skills?" The old man proudly raised his head and said, "You probably don't know who I am, right? Hehe... Would you like to hear my story?"
Koji Ito nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, partly because he dared not disobey the old man's wishes, and partly because he was indeed fatally curious about the identities of these two people.
Putting aside the old man's ability to kill a tree with a single breath, the fact that he disguised himself as a dead tree without revealing any flaws even at close range is enough to arouse endless curiosity.
The old man's expression turned somewhat melancholy. He remained silent for a moment, seemingly recalling his past. After a long while, he softly said, "My real name is Miyamoto Juro. Because my family was poor and had many children in my early years, and I was born a dwarf, so... so when I was five years old, my parents abandoned me in the mountains, leaving me to fend for myself. But Heaven didn't want this poor man to die so easily. Just when I had been alone in the mountains for three whole days, almost starving to death, I suddenly encountered a dying old man... The old man looked so fierce... He was covered in blood. When I saw him, half of his body was gone, and there was a large gash on his stomach. I could even see his intestines writhing inside, but not a single drop of blood flowed from his wound..."
The old man paused slightly, as if recalling a scene from years ago that he would never forget… After a while, he continued, “The dying old man fell from a big tree. He saw me, such a pitiful little child, sitting alone on the ground wiping away tears. He was slightly taken aback, then reached out and touched me all over. He sighed a few times, muttering that he didn’t have much time left, saying that although the child’s constitution was a little lacking, it was still passable. So he squatted down and asked me, ‘Little child, are you very hungry? Are you very afraid of dying?’ I immediately nodded frantically. Then the old man flicked a pebble, which shattered a huge rock next to him into several pieces… like this now…”
As he spoke, Miyamoto Juro picked up a small pebble from the ground, pinched it between three fingers, and flicked it outwards with a sudden "bang." A watermelon-sized rock by the roadside was instantly shattered into pieces by this tiny pebble.
Miyamoto Juro originally intended to use a gentle force to shatter the stone without making a loud noise, but his energy was now scattered, and he couldn't accurately control the force of his strike, which resulted in such a startling sound.
Hearing the sound of the stone exploding, Miyamoto Juro was startled and looked around in alarm. Seeing no response, he breathed a slight sigh of relief and then spoke quickly to Ito Koji, saying, "When I saw that old man's move, I was completely dumbfounded, um... just like you are now. Then I heard the old man ask me... ask me if I wanted to have the same ability as him and become the next Blood Shadow successor? I don't know what Blood Shadow is, I only know that the old man is really powerful, almost like a legendary god."
Of course I wanted to learn that skill too. Without thinking, I immediately nodded frantically… then timidly asked the old man… if I wanted to become his apprentice and learn from him. The old man smiled, pointed to his half-missing body, and said: “Look at me, can I still teach you? Hmm… you are my apprentice, but… you are also me, because I am the Blood Shadow. And if you do as I say, you will become the next Blood Shadow, fully inheriting my abilities. Then you can say… I am you, and you are me…”
As Miyamoto Juro spoke, a strange glint seemed to appear in his eyes. He paused again, glanced around cautiously, and then continued, "Then I asked the old man what he wanted me to do. I thought he would make me swear to be loyal to him forever, but who knew that the old man would actually say... that I should bite his neck and drink his heart's blood... I was so scared that I didn't know what to say."
The old man sighed and said that this was how the Blood Shadow Sect had passed down its power for generations. The entire Blood Shadow Sect had always had only one person, never more than two, because there was only one Blood Shadow. For the next generation of Blood Shadow to inherit the power of the previous generation, they had to bite the neck of the previous Blood Shadow and drink the heart's blood. In this way, they could immediately inherit all the abilities of the previous Blood Shadow and become the new generation's Blood Shadow successor...
"Hehe, although what he said was indeed terrifying, and probably not many children could accept it, you have to understand... I was almost starving to death at the time. I thought that even if a mouse came along, I would swallow it whole. And at that moment... I knew that if I bit the old man's neck and drank his blood, I would become a god-like being who could almost fly and disappear into the sky... So... I didn't hesitate to bite down..."
Miyamoto Juro, looking at Ito Koji with a strange expression, said, "I've told you so much, now you should understand, right? I... just like that old man from back then, suffered a fatal injury, and I'm afraid my days are numbered. And you are the only person I've encountered... You are truly remarkable... I think if you were to inherit the title of Blood Shadow, you would become the most powerful Blood Shadow in history... So? Are you ready? If you want to become the new Blood Shadow, then don't hold back, bite my neck with your mouth, and drink my heart's blood! Afterward... you will become a Blood Shadow even more powerful than me..."
Miyamoto Juro stopped there and immediately closed his eyes. He no longer suppressed his wounds, and blood began to gush out from his legs like a fountain. His face turned even paler, and the wrinkles on his face seemed to double in that instant.
In his haste to escape Zhou Ziwei, Miyamoto Juro hadn't had time to heed the wounds on his legs, and he was digging a hole as fast and with all his might as possible. As a result, by the time he crawled out, he had lost at least two-thirds of his blood... For an ordinary person, even losing a quarter of their blood volume would be enough to kill them. Miyamoto Juro was, after all, a formidable figure. Despite losing two-thirds of his blood, he managed to stay alive thanks to a strange and evil technique. However, he knew that if things continued like this, even if he was rushed to the hospital, he would not escape death. Left with no other choice, he had to take this final step...
Koji Ito stared blankly at Juro Miyamoto, whose life force was clearly waning. After a long while, he finally couldn't resist the urge to fight back against the strong. He gritted his teeth, then lowered his body with trembling hands and bit down hard on Juro Miyamoto's neck...
With a "whoosh," Zhou Ziwei streaked across the mountaintop like lightning, then, like a race car driver whose brakes had failed, his body lurched backward and he crashed heavily onto the grass with a loud "thud."
Damn... how could it be so fast!
Zhou Ziwei stepped onto the force field space, wanting to test whether this thing could carry him flying. The experiment proved that not only could it really carry him flying, but the speed of flight was also quite abnormal. Basically... it seemed that the force field space moved as fast as his thoughts... Of course, in reality, it should not be able to reach such an abnormal speed, because this was in the air, and his body moving in the air still generated considerable air resistance.
So even if the force field space can indeed reach the same speed as the flash of thought, this speed will definitely be greatly reduced when carrying such a burden.
However, Zhou Ziwei was certain of one thing: no matter how much of a discount they applied, if he were to fly in this force field space, he would definitely be many times faster than any aircraft in the world… well, maybe even comparable to the speed of a space shuttle…
However, he was completely unprepared. In the blink of an eye, he quickly activated the force field space beneath his feet. As a result, the force field space moved too fast, and his body immediately lost its balance. He only managed to hold on for less than half a second by relying on his reaction speed and agility, which were many times greater than those of ordinary people. Then he was slammed to the ground hundreds of meters away. Fortunately, he had been flying close to the ground the whole time. If he had flown any higher, he probably would have broken both his legs, if not died a heroic death.
Zhou Ziwei rolled over and got up from the ground. With a thought, he summoned the force field space that had flown far away back.
After checking the amount of soul power he had just consumed, his initial excitement immediately cooled down completely...