"You're wondering why I'd give you such a great benefit, aren't you?" Zhou Ziwei smiled slightly and said, "You're right to be suspicious. There's no such thing as a free lunch. The drop of milky white liquid I just gave you is called the Water of Reincarnation. This liquid does indeed have an incredibly powerful ability to transform your body. One drop can restore ten years of your youth and lifespan, and it will also greatly enhance your physical resilience... If you don't believe me, you can lightly cut yourself with your curved sword... I reckon that unless you slash hard, an ordinary knife can't hurt you at all now."
"Ah...re...really?" Upon hearing this, Masao Mita immediately picked up the curved sword that had just fallen into the corner and lightly slashed it across his exposed forearm.
Although his scimitar wasn't a particularly expensive or high-end knife, it was still made of fine steel and had been sharpened. Normally, let alone slashing at yourself while holding it like this, even accidentally touching the blade with your finger would immediately leave a cut.
But now, when he made a slight cut with the knife, he saw that the skin on his arm only showed a slight white mark, without any breakage or bleeding.
Seeing this, Masao Mita could hardly believe it, and a look of ecstatic joy naturally appeared on his face.
Seeing Mita Masao's expression, Zhou Ziwei smiled and asked, "Well... now you know how powerful this Reincarnation Water is, right? You only ingested one drop. In fact, if you could ingest two more drops... even bullets would have a hard time hurting your skin. And three drops of Reincarnation Water could even make you young again, returning you to your twenties, and giving you terrifying power... However... since this liquid is called Reincarnation Water, it's not all good... In fact, once you ingest one drop, every year, the burning pain that caused you to ingest the liquid will immediately reappear... And if I don't relieve it for you, this burning pain will continue until you die from the pain... And this pain might last for three days, or it might last for... thirty days... Hmm, do you understand what I mean?"
Upon hearing this, Masao Mita felt a chill run down his spine and began to tremble slightly involuntarily.
The pain he had just experienced was truly terrifying. In just a few minutes, he felt as if he had endured half a century of torment. He simply could not imagine what a horrific, unbearable punishment it would be if this pain were to recur and last for several days or even dozens of days.
As expected... there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. This water of reincarnation can bring such wonderful and powerful benefits, but from now on, I'm afraid I'll only be this person's puppet, and I'll have to bless this person to live a long and happy life.
Otherwise… if this old man gets upset and waits until a year later, even if he has handled everything perfectly, if he lets his pain flare up for two or three days before seeking treatment, then… and it's quite obvious that if something unexpected happens to this old man, then no one will be able to cure the deadly poison of the Reincarnation Water in his body, and he will have no choice but to follow him to meet God, suffering several days, or even more than ten days, of torment before his death…
The thought of such terrible consequences fills Masao Mita with a deep-seated fear.
Having just resolved to commit seppuku, he was no longer able to muster the courage to do so after being stopped by Zhou Ziwei.
Moreover... Zhou Ziwei's words just now filled him with wonderful expectations for his future...
If he could obtain the two drops of Reincarnation Water bestowed upon him by Zhou Ziwei, he could revert to his youthful appearance, become invulnerable to swords and spears, and possess unparalleled... oh, I mean, unmatched martial prowess except by this lord. What a wonderful life that would be... Under such a tempting temptation, how could Mita Masao bear to die...
Thus, Masao Mita, who was originally willing to die for his family, completely succumbed to the dual pressure of Zhou Ziwei's intimidation and temptation with a drop of the Water of Reincarnation...
After trembling slightly, Masao Mita finally made up his mind and knelt down before Zhou Ziwei in a humiliating manner, saying in a trembling voice, "My lord, from today onwards, Masao Mita is your servant..."
Volume 2 The Assassin's Nightmare Chapter 286 The Spirit Tablet
For Zhou Ziwei, the immense power of the Mita family was far beyond what Wu Di could match. Furthermore, the enormous wealth and political status of Mita Masao were terrifyingly astonishing. Therefore, after careful consideration, Zhou Ziwei decided to use this method to temporarily control this power, making it his backyard at any time.
Although Zhou Ziwei could indeed kill Mita Masao as he had previously stated, and then transform himself into Mita Masao's appearance to take his place, that would only deceive him temporarily and gain some short-term benefits. It would be impossible for him to maintain perfect control over the entire Mita family for the long term.
Moreover, even if he could, Zhou Ziwei wouldn't have the leisure to stay in Japan and mingle with these Japanese people who annoy him.
Since that's the case, it's better to keep this Masao Mita under our control. Anyway, no one except Zhou Ziwei has ever seen the Water of Reincarnation. As long as Zhou Ziwei doesn't say anything, who knows if that thing can really kill people?
In fact, even without the threat of the lie that the Water of Reincarnation flares up once a year, Masao Mita would surely understand that with Zhou Ziwei's abilities, killing him would be easy at any time, unless he was willing to abandon everything he had, run abroad, and undergo plastic surgery to completely transform himself into a different person, or perhaps escape Zhou Ziwei's pursuit.
Otherwise, as long as he remains in the island nation and is still the head of the Mita family, Zhou Ziwei can take his life at any time.
The difference is that Zhou Ziwei's drop of the water of reincarnation not only planted a bomb in Mita Masao's heart that could explode at any time, but also gave Mita Masao a beautiful dream of returning to youth and possessing great power. In this way, Mita Masao had infinite expectations for the future, and naturally he would never have the courage to commit suicide again.
As Zhou Ziwei expected, under his combination of kindness and coercion, Mita Masao finally broke down completely and willingly became Zhou Ziwei's servant. Since Mita Masao was also the head of the Mita family, it was equivalent to the entire Mita Masao becoming Zhou Ziwei's slave.
To go further... because of the important position the Mita family holds in the island nation, it could even be said that nearly half of the island nation has now become Zhou Ziwei's private power...
This gain is quite considerable, far surpassing Zhou Ziwei's display of power that resulted in the massacre of the Mita family.
Of course... before it's definitively confirmed that Blood Shadow is dead, the Mita family can only be considered a slightly unstable factor, but their impact shouldn't be too great. After all, Mita Masao isn't stupid. As long as he knows that Blood Shadow died once at Zhou Ziwei's hands, then even if that freak has a chance to be reborn, he'll still be nothing more than Zhou Ziwei's defeated foe. If Zhou Ziwei can kill him once, it won't be difficult for him to kill him a second time.
Therefore, Zhou Ziwei did not hide anything from Mita Masao about the possibility that Xueying might not be dead, or that he might have possessed someone else after death. He also ordered Mita Masao to immediately use all the power at his disposal to search for the whereabouts of the person Xueying might be possessing.
The Mita family's influence in the island nation is unparalleled, especially in the vicinity of Higashigang, where their influence is almost ubiquitous. Although Higashiyama is relatively remote, a considerable number of people can still be mobilized there.
With just one phone call, Masao Mita immediately gathered dozens of people to conduct a thorough search of several farms at the foot of Higashiyama...
Meanwhile, accompanied by Masao Mita, Zhou Ziwei entered the secluded courtyard where Blood Shadow used to live in seclusion. From Masao Mita, Zhou Ziwei learned a little about the dwarf who had almost knocked someone over.
The title of "Top Ten Assassins in the World" was something Zhou Ziwei had never heard of before. In fact, unless one had a certain status and influence in a certain field and had access to the world's top circles, one would not have known about the anecdotes of the Top Ten Assassins.
It's important to understand that the world's top ten assassins are not comparable to those rampant assassins and mercenary organizations. Those who can be listed among the top ten assassins are all unfathomable individuals. Given their status, they cannot be hired simply by having money.
To have reached such a position, they must have been in the killing business for many years, accumulating wealth that is beyond calculation and could probably last several lifetimes. So why would they risk their lives for a few coins?
Blood Shadow's name had already made a name for itself on the island for decades, but no one could be sure what Blood Shadow looked like, or even whether he was male or female. Over the decades, countless people had died at Blood Shadow's hands, many of whom were prominent figures.
Ten years ago, during a political upheaval in the island nation, a newly emerging party aspiring to run for the ruling party was almost completely wiped out overnight. This was actually orchestrated by the Mita family through Blood Shadow. Years ago, an elder of the Mita family, namely Mita Masao's uncle, had saved Blood Shadow's life, and Blood Shadow promised to help him three times. The first time, Blood Shadow helped the Mita family assassinate more than ten key members of the Kawashima family, which was then considered one of the two major families in the island nation alongside the Mita family. This allowed the Mita family to seize the opportunity to suppress the Kawashima family and solidify the Mita family's position as the number one family in the island nation.
The second was the major move during that political upheaval, which allowed the Mita family to occupy an important place in the political arena.
The assassination of Zhou Ziwei was the last time the Mita family requested Xueying's help. Xueying originally thought it would be the easiest mission yet, but he never expected to fail in this seemingly simple task.
However, Masao Mita had heard his uncle mention that Blood Shadow was clearly a strong man over 1.8 meters tall... Even though decades had passed, that strong man would most likely be an old man in his twilight years, but he shouldn't be a dwarf who was at most only about one meter tall...
Therefore, Masao Mita always had some doubts about whether the person Zhou Ziwei mentioned was actually Blood Shadow, but he didn't dare to reveal it to Zhou Ziwei.
The courtyard, filled with fallen cherry blossoms, was exceptionally quiet. Zhou Ziwei walked slowly through the courtyard, having already released all the little Kun pets around him to search for any clues in the courtyard.
Soon Zhou Ziwei frowned, quickly walked through a grove of trees on the left, and arrived at a place that looked like an ancestral hall.
An old woman lay face up at the entrance of the ancestral hall, her body covered in blood. There was a large hole in her chest, and her left side of her chest cavity was empty, her heart having been ripped out.
"Grandma Wu...how could she..."
When Masao Mita saw the old woman's corpse, he was shocked. He knew that Granny Wu, who was by Blood Shadow's side, was the only person who had always been by Blood Shadow's side. If Blood Shadow was really not dead, who would dare to kill her so viciously?
Zhou Ziwei glanced at the corpse, then quickly turned his gaze to the small ancestral hall in front of him, where more than a dozen dense souls were hidden.
Zhou Ziwei slowly walked over, and with a solemn expression, he slowly pushed open the door. Instantly, a sinister aura rushed out, causing Mita Masao, who was following behind, to shiver involuntarily.
A dozen or so memorial tablets were placed side by side on a wooden platform. Each tablet bore a bloody mark, but none of them had a name recorded on them.
Zhou Ziwei's pupils contracted slightly, his curiosity growing. In his eyes, each of the dozen or so spirit tablets contained a soul with extremely dense soul power. However, these souls did not possess the illusory appearance of ordinary ghosts in life. Instead, they were like pure soul energy, tightly integrated into the spirit tablets without any fluctuation. If Zhou Ziwei's soul power had not been able to sense them, even someone with the legendary Yin-Yang eyes would probably not have been able to detect the existence of souls in these spirit tablets.
Most of these dozen or so memorial tablets looked old and rustic, covered in dust, and the carved patterns on them had gradually become blurred by the passage of time.
However, only one memorial tablet was brand new, and even the blood-red marks on it seemed not to have completely solidified.
However, without exception, hidden within this brand-new spirit tablet was a soul, or rather, a condensed, immobile soul, and the aura that this soul gave Zhou Ziwei was so familiar.
Blood Shadow... it really is his soul!
Zhou Ziwei paused for a moment. Based on the various strange phenomena he had seen next to the corpse on Dongshan Mountain, he had analyzed that the dwarf might have a similar ability to him, Zhou Ziwei, to transfer his soul into another person's body. If that were the case, it would prove that although the dwarf had only left a corpse there, he had actually transferred his soul into another person's body.
However, at this moment he clearly sensed the presence of that damned dwarf in that brand-new memorial tablet, so... what was going on?
Blood Shadow is indeed dead, but his soul is here instead of residing in someone else's body. Doesn't that mean the truth isn't what Zhou Ziwei imagined? But... if Blood Shadow is truly dead, then what about the spirit tablet here? How could Blood Shadow's soul appear here on its own?
All sorts of questions left Zhou Ziwei's mind in a complete mess, so he simply stopped wasting his brain cells.
Regardless of what these souls were all about, in Zhou Ziwei's eyes, they were simply tempting tonics.
Zhou Ziwei's rampage at the music square in the morning did replenish some of his soul power, but the souls of those ordinary people were of such poor quality that the dozens of dead souls only barely increased Zhou Ziwei's soul power reserves by a few hundred units, which was far from enough to fill his sea of souls.
The souls within each of these spirit tablets appear extraordinary. Only the soul of the dwarf in the newly made spirit tablet seems relatively weak. The souls within the other spirit tablets, however, are all remarkably solid, like soul beads, possessing a density that makes them seem almost tangible. It's unknown how potent such soul power is.
Zhou Ziwei had never seen such a strange soul before. He hesitated for a moment, but then decided not to worry about it. He had a strong, almost blind, faith in the Six-Syllable Mantra. Even if these souls were really strange, as long as they were filtered through the light aura formed by his Six-Syllable Mantra, they would still be restored to pure soul power and some deep memories from their previous life.
If these spirit tablets were placed in the ancestral hall of an ordinary family, Zhou Ziwei might not have been willing to directly transform these souls, preserved through secret methods, into pure soul power just to replenish his own energy.
However… since this was undoubtedly the home of Zhou Ziwei’s enemy, these memorial tablets were most likely left behind by either the elders of the Blood Shadow family or the Blood Shadow’s master. And how good could anyone with some kind of relationship with this Blood Shadow be? So Zhou Ziwei immediately and decisively decided to accept them all…
"Om Mani Padme Hum..."
The six-syllable mantra of Om Mani Padme Hum was recited from the depths of Zhou Ziwei's soul, and immediately transformed into streaks of red light that shone outwards.
A strange, hissing sound flashed from within the halo of light. The souls that had been hiding in the spirit tablets in a daze were suddenly caught off guard and were immediately scraped out of the spirit tablets by the halo.
At this moment, the array of light rings moved in perfect order, relentlessly squeezing, purifying, and filtering one strange soul after another, before swiftly sweeping them into Zhou Ziwei's sea of souls...
An empty soul!
After Zhou Ziwei truly absorbed these souls, he was once again greatly surprised, because in his perception, these souls contained almost no memories and had no subjective consciousness, something he had never encountered before among the countless souls he had absorbed.
This feeling is similar to the difference between a normal person and a person in a vegetative state. Although they look similar, one is lively and energetic, while the other is quiet and only knows how to sleep, never to wake up.
It's no wonder that these souls, despite being so powerful, have remained obediently inside the spirit tablet without moving an inch, because they have completely lost their own consciousness and memories!
However, it must be said that the power of these souls is truly astonishing. There were only a dozen or so soul entities, but after being absorbed, Zhou Ziwei's soul power reserves of just over two thousand directly doubled, reaching nearly five thousand.
Actually, if you calculate it evenly and divide it among each soul entity, it's not that much. Each soul entity only provided Zhou Ziwei with about two hundred soul powers.
Zhou Ziwei was originally worried about the matter of soul power, but he didn't expect that he would solve it all in one go after just one trip to Blood Shadow's lair.
Although Zhou Ziwei's soul sea still has a large storage capacity, he estimates that the nearly 5,000 units of soul power he has stored should be enough to deal with the crisis posed by the black market assassin network.
Besides... doesn't he also have a "battery" on his chest that can provide him with soul power at any time?
When Zhou Ziwei returned to the Donggang International Hotel accompanied by Masao Mita, the people Masao Mita had sent to investigate the area near Dongshan had finally made some progress.
It was learned that this morning, a young man named Koji Ito had climbed up the mountain along the same path that led down from Blood Shadow to do his morning exercise, and he had never come down after that. His family was now searching for him all over the place.
"Koji Ito"
Zhou Ziwei looked at the photos of Ito Koji that Mita Masao's men had collected, memorized the man's name and face, and then decided to go to the Philippine Islands to resolve his important matter first.
As for further investigation, Zhou Ziwei did not pressure Mita Masao excessively, but simply told him to do his best in the investigation.
If they find Ito Koji, as long as Mita Masao can keep an eye on him and prevent him from disappearing again, that will be enough. As for taking action against those people, Zhou Ziwei doesn't believe the Mita family has that kind of strength.
As Zhou Ziwei boarded the plane again, he felt somewhat excited.
He discovered that his force field space could ignore any kind of airport inspection, and even the magnetic field detector could not detect the existence of this force field, so Zhou Ziwei was easily allowed to take it on the plane.
This gave Zhou Ziwei a sense of security, meaning that even if the plane he was on crashed, he could simply step onto the force field and fly down from the sky without worrying about being killed.
Sitting in his seat on the passenger plane, Zhou Ziwei closed his eyes and fell into deep thought.
Knowing about the existence of the world's top ten assassins broadened Zhou Ziwei's horizons. And Blood Shadow, who had almost caused him great harm, was only ranked eighth among the top ten. So… just how powerful would the top three assassins be? Zhou Ziwei was actually quite looking forward to it…
Volume 2 The Assassin's Nightmare Chapter 287 Floating Island
In the vast ocean, a small, indistinct island gradually emerged in the distance, like a tiny pebble in a field, appearing so small and ordinary.
The roar of the engine gradually subsided, and the fishing boat moved slower and slower until it came to a complete stop in the vast sea.
A barefoot, disheveled man, reeking of alcohol, staggered onto the deck and said to Zhou Ziwei, who was standing there gazing at the distant island, "Look... you should see it, right? That's the Floating Light Island you mentioned. I'm sorry... boss, any further ahead is a deadly sea. My little boat really can't continue on. You see..."
The boat captain was truly filled with regret. Why had he drunk those extra few glasses of wine? In a moment of drunken folly, he had actually agreed to take this man to this terrifying, godforsaken place. Although the reward offered by the man was indeed tempting, even the most lavish money could only be spent if one was alive. But... for these small fishermen, the mysterious Floating Light Island was nothing short of a monster that devoured lives. In recent years, almost every boat that had inadvertently approached within five nautical miles of that island had failed to leave unscathed.
I don’t know when it started, but so many reefs and raging currents appeared around that small island, and they would always end up burying a small boat without you even realizing it.
It's really baffling. That island wasn't like this a few years ago. How could so many reefs appear in the sea in just a few years? Could it be that these reefs grow on their own?
When Zhou Ziwei saw that the boat captain had stopped the boat when they were still so far from the island, he couldn't help but frown slightly. The boat captain had patted his chest and said that he would take him directly to the island.