If he were to use it continuously without restraint, it would have a certain impact on his health.
Today, Zhuihun unleashed three consecutive sword strikes, and the last two were followed by the Soul-Slaying Sword strike with almost no interval between them. As a result, Zhuihun was practically completely exhausted.
Of course... if that abyss demon hadn't escaped, then even though he was already exhausted, Zhuihun would definitely have risked sacrificing some of his life force to kill that scourge on the spot. However... fortunately, that guy ran fast, so Zhuihun didn't have to risk his life.
Otherwise... if Zhuihun had used his sword again just now... he probably would never have had any hope of reaching the level of a Spirit Master in this lifetime.
While Zhuihun was completely exhausted and collapsed to the ground like a dead dog, Zhou Ziwei was in no better shape. He felt as if his body was practically charred inside.
When the two abyss demons saw that Zhou Ziwei had devoured all the soul imprints they had preserved beforehand, they were so horrified that they risked their lives, each sending a wisp of evil energy formed from soul power into Zhou Ziwei's body.
Under those circumstances, Zhou Ziwei dared not hold back in the slightest. Every inch of his body was precious, and he absolutely dared not allow those two evil energies to invade his sea of soul.
Therefore, in a fit of rage, Zhou Ziwei directly transformed all the remaining attribute-less energy within his body into pure fire energy, which then blazed fiercely within him…
This burning sensation was like self-mutilation. Although it blocked the evil energy of the two abyss demons, it also burned his own flesh until it was charred and tender.
That's right... it's charred inside and tender outside, because the fire is burning from the inside out of his body. So the innermost muscle tissue and subcutaneous fat are basically almost charred, while the surface of his body still seems smooth and intact, making him look like a beautifully sculpted little boy.
"Thump—" Not long after Zhuihun sat down, Zhou Ziwei fell straight backward like a wooden stake and crashed to the ground.
Fortunately, although Zhou Ziwei's body was severely damaged, his soul power was not lost at all. At this moment, he immediately controlled the alloy suit on his body to send out several alloy knives, which then flew into the air and skewered the corpses of the three ordinary people who had been killed by Zhuihun's Hundred Transformations, like skewering candied hawthorns. Then, he used the alloy knives to bring them above his body...
Then, the alloy knives suddenly transformed into a meat grinder in the next moment. With the blades flying everywhere, the three corpses were immediately shredded into a bloody mess of powder, which then fell down and buried Zhou Ziwei, who was lying below, deep inside.
Knowing that Zhou Ziwei was healing himself, Zhuihun didn't disturb him. He simply dragged his tired body a little further away... No wonder, anyone would be terrified to see such a bloody mess right in front of them.
Although Zhuihun isn't exactly timid—he wouldn't feel any fear even if you made him sleep in a pile of corpses—if you made him sit in a pool of flesh and blood… that's not just something to be afraid of; the sheer disgust could make someone nauseous to death.
However, Zhuihun knew that Zhou Ziwei was probably healing himself and couldn't stand being disturbed, so he didn't dare to go far away, fearing that he might be attacked.
After all, this is enemy territory. There was one abyss demon that escaped, and besides that, every M army soldier here is also their enemy.
Zhuihun naturally dared not be careless in this regard, so he simply moved a small distance away to avoid the blood and gore flowing from the pool of flesh onto his body, and then obediently sat there to watch over Zhou Ziwei.
Although Soul Chaser is extremely weak now, unless the abyss demon that just escaped returns, Soul Chaser is not afraid of ordinary soldiers coming here.
The abyss demon was clearly terrified. Before leaving, it not only abandoned the evil energy that had trapped in Zhou Ziwei's body, but also removed all its bones, leaving only its most primordial soul energy to escape through the earth. Given its cowardice, it seems unlikely that it will ever be able to escape again.
Sure enough... the two remained quietly in the silent underground passage. After only a few moments, they suddenly heard voices coming from inside. Zhuihun was initially tense, but after closing his eyes and listening intently for a while, he breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that it was just ordinary soldiers who had broken in, and that the terrifying abyss demon was not there.
Of course... if that abyss demon has now completely infiltrated the soul sea of a human soldier and firmly controlled him, then Soul Chaser would have no way of knowing it from their appearance and the sound of their footsteps.
Once Zhuihun understood this, he dared not let the group of soldiers who might have infiltrated the Abyss Demons get close. He immediately used his remaining strength to launch ten small spiritual weapons and then slaughtered the group of soldiers who had broken in as if they were melons and vegetables.
In an instant, they slaughtered all thirty-odd soldiers who had entered the passage, leaving no survivors!
This terrified the commander outside. Knowing that sending troops in like this was practically suicide, he abandoned the futile effort and, after a moment's hesitation, resolutely issued an order to fill the pit… He ordered all the officers and soldiers of the military base to work together to blow up the underground section of the base with explosives. Then, the exit above, and the large pit that Zhou Ziwei had forcefully created with earth energy, were filled with rubble and debris. Finally, a road roller was even deployed to compact the filled pit several times, hoping to bury the two terrifying killers underground, ensuring they would never rise again…
Zhuihun was fully aware of the military's methods, but he made no attempt to stop them.
So what if they just block their way out? That's not a big deal. You have to understand that there's almost nowhere on Earth that can truly trap Zhou Ziwei or his Soul Chaser. What they fear most right now is the endless entanglement and disturbance.
After all, Zhuihun himself had suffered great losses, and if he didn't recuperate properly, his strength would probably decline significantly.
Zhou Ziwei was in even worse shape. Apart from some of his bones and organs remaining relatively intact, his body was completely charred inside and out. He couldn't even speak or move a finger. In desperation, he had to bring over the three corpses to use as nourishment for himself. He could only try to rebuild his body first.
Zhou Ziwei continuously infused the remaining cells in his body with massive amounts of soul power, filling them with vitality. Then, as if possessed, he began to devour all the severely damaged and carbonized cells, absorbing the nutrients he could and expelling the rest.
Then, these absorbed nutrients are used to break down and create new cells.
At this moment, Zhou Ziwei's metabolism was at its limit. Cells that take an average person twenty-nine days to complete a growth cycle could complete a cycle in him in less than a few seconds...
In this way, in just a short while, Zhou Ziwei had devoured and decomposed the charred cells accumulated in his body. At this point, Zhou Ziwei was practically skin and bones... There was no way around it; the loss of flesh and blood in his body was too severe. Although he had devoured the charred parts again with his active cells, the nutrients he could actually absorb from them were negligible. So, after he had cleared away all the dead cells and tissues in his body, he was basically just a skeleton and a skin... Looking at his current state, he was quite comparable to those abyssal demons from before...
Zhou Ziwei gave a bitter laugh to himself, then began to slowly devour the pile of flesh and blood cells pressing down on him, extracting their nutrients to allow his own cells to divide again...
With Zhou Ziwei's full effort, the process wasn't too long. After all, Zhou Ziwei had sculpted bodies for others more than once before, so he was quite familiar with the procedure.
This time... Zhou Ziwei's entire body was damaged by more than 70 percent of his body, so the surgery he underwent was definitely a super major operation, requiring the replacement of at least 70 percent of his body's tissue cells... which is almost no different from recreating a body.
Now that he had this opportunity, Zhou Ziwei naturally wouldn't hold back his physical weaknesses for the sake of being wicked... After more than an hour... Zhuihun saw the pile of flesh on Zhou Ziwei's body sinking down little by little at a visible speed, and slowly most of it was absorbed into Zhou Ziwei's body, making Zhou Ziwei's figure look much bigger all of a sudden.
What is this kid up to?!
After a long period of meditation, Zhuihun finally managed to stabilize his aura. He estimated that his strength had recovered to at least half. Even if the abyss demon that had escaped the net were to return, he would have the ability to kill it with a single sword strike. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and stand up.
Because the underground base has been completely sealed off, the air here is starting to feel thinner, but there is no difficulty breathing yet, so Zhuihun is not worried about it.
Seeing that Zhou Ziwei's appearance had become extremely strange, they couldn't help but click their tongues in amazement, muttering to themselves that Zhou Ziwei was really restless... even while healing his wounds, he was causing trouble.
Shaking his head inwardly, Zhuihun stood up and began to look around with a small flashlight he carried with him.
He doesn't have Zhou Ziwei's ability to shine easily, and he used to live in the wild frequently, so flashlights and the like are essential household appliances he carries with him.
After this godforsaken place was abandoned by the military high command outside, it naturally stopped supplying electricity to this place, so it had become pitch black all around. However, in this darkness, Zhuihun could vaguely see three faintly glowing spots. He had already noticed this when he was meditating and adjusting his breathing there, but his condition had not yet stabilized, so even though he saw it, he did not dare to move.
At this moment... having recovered half of his strength, he naturally couldn't wait any longer. He quickly stood up and used his flashlight to search for the three faintly glowing spots...
"The Immortal Crystal Heart... God... I'm not seeing things, am I?! There really is a second one here..."
When Zhuihun discovered that the thing that was faintly emitting a light was actually an immortal crystal heart left behind beneath the black robes and withered bones of the abyss demons, Zhuihun was greatly shocked.
As a veteran spiritual warrior and a renowned assassin king for decades, Zhuihun was well aware of the rarity of the Immortal Crystal Heart. However, he never expected to see two of them in the same place today... Oh, wait... I just vaguely saw two other places emitting a faint light. Could it be... could it be that the light in those two places is also... is it also this thing?
No way! How could there be so many immortal crystals in this world? That would be insane!
Zhuihun shook his head vigorously, then walked to the other two places to check with some hesitation. When he discovered that these two places were also the locations of the black robes and withered bones left by the other two abyssal demons, he was dumbfounded.
That's right... There are three sets of black robes and skeletons left here. Although the last one escaped by burrowing underground, it only took away a pure soul energy body. As for its physical possessions... it didn't take any of them with it and left them all behind.
After searching through the two piles of bones, Zhou Ziwei indeed found two more crystal-clear immortal hearts.
At this moment, Zhuihun was holding three sparkling Immortal Hearts in his hands, and he almost cried... This is too much... He always thought that these Immortal Hearts were treasures that were only seen once in a thousand years. Ordinary people would not be able to get one in their lifetime, let alone just see one. That would be a blessing that would take several lifetimes to achieve.
But why does this feel like some kind of cheap, common junk? How come... I can find so many of these here so easily... Could someone be playing a prank, putting fakes here to annoy me?
Thinking of this, Zhuihun couldn't help but use his still-recovering spiritual power to thoroughly examine the three Immortal Crystals again. The results proved that not only were all three genuine Immortal Crystals, but their quality also seemed to be much better than the first one he had obtained…
God, what grudge do you have against me? Why are you playing this trick on me?
The pitiful king of assassins held three immortal crystals in his hands, speechless and questioning the heavens... If he had known he could obtain such high-quality goods, he shouldn't have been so greedy... Now look what happened... He took one for himself, but it was the smallest and lowest quality. And to make himself feel more at ease, he said he only wanted that one, and any other acquisitions would all belong to Zhou Ziwei.
Good heavens... you might as well just strike me dead with lightning.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 644: Grown Up
Although the King of Assassins, Soul Chaser, had killed countless people throughout his life, as a powerful figure, he valued his promises above all else. Once a promise was made, there was no possibility of going back on it.
That's why he was so depressed and resentful at this moment, just like a young wife who had been abandoned and was now tearful and heartbroken when she saw the three immortal crystals she had found.
However, it must be said that no matter how angry the old man was, he never once thought of keeping the three immortal crystals for himself. He didn't even have such a thought. He just kept cursing himself for saying that sentence and letting Zhou Ziwei benefit from these three good crystals.
Even if he doesn't kill himself... he can at least take one more of these three to give to his precious daughter Emily!
The incredibly frustrated Soul Chaser squatted a dozen meters away from Zhou Ziwei, holding three Immortal Crystal Hearts, wallowing in self-pity for a long time before finally hearing a rustling sound coming from Zhou Ziwei's direction.
Zhuihun hurriedly picked up his flashlight and shone it in that direction. He was immediately taken aback and jumped up from the ground. He patted the magical artifact, Hundred Transformations, that was on his body, and immediately released twelve black gold swords.
"Who are you and why are you here?"
With a wave of his hand, Zhuihun shot the twelve black gold swords into the air, which were arranged in a fan shape around him, making him look ready to attack at any time.
Where Zhou Ziwei had just fallen, most of the flesh and blood that Zhou Ziwei had chopped into a pile with his alloy knife had disappeared, leaving only a small amount of dirty blood staining the ground.
Zhou Ziwei's small figure had disappeared, and a young man who stood up was about 1.85 meters tall, of average build, neither handsome nor ugly, and completely naked, covered in blood.
"Who am I..." The man touched his blood-stained face speechlessly, then seemed to realize something, and waved his hand lightly. Instantly, a thick mist quickly formed in the air, growing thicker and thicker until it completely enveloped the young man.
"This...this is..." Zhuihun was dumbfounded when he saw this. Although he had seen many strange people in his life, he had only ever seen Zhou Ziwei, who could directly control water and fire.
But now... this person in front of him can obviously also control water energy. He had personally witnessed Zhou Ziwei use this method of condensing water vapor out of thin air. At that time, his precious daughter was covered in blood after being "resurrected" by Zhou Ziwei. Zhou Ziwei condensed a cloud of water mist in this way and then easily washed his daughter's body clean.
Could this person be that kid? But... how could that be... even though young people grow taller quickly, it can't be this ridiculous!
The mist quickly dissipated, revealing that the tall young man had washed himself clean. However… to Zhuihun’s surprise, he had put on a very well-fitting casual outfit in such a short time, and his attire… gave Zhuihun a very familiar feeling.
"You...you really...are you him?"
Zhuihun's question was indeed somewhat inexplicable, but he believed that if the person was indeed the one he imagined, then he would definitely be able to understand.
"Of course I am who I am."
The young man chuckled, then shook his head, touched his nose, and said, "Have I really changed that much? That can't be! I didn't want to become a pretty boy everyone loves, so I deliberately darkened my skin a little. My features are still the same, exactly as they were... Hehe... Sorry... Senior Soul Chaser, actually... this is my true self. The little kid you saw... hehe, that's what I looked like after my body was damaged. Actually... I could reshape my body, but... I don't have the interest to disassemble and reassemble myself for no reason. So... I've been coping with it for a while now. But this time the injury is too severe, there's no way... I have to replace most of my internal parts. Since that's the case, I might as well take this opportunity to repair myself and return to my original appearance."
"What...you...it really is you, kid." Upon hearing this, Zhuihun carefully examined Zhou Ziwei's facial features again, and then realized that...the guy in front of him now clearly looked like that little brat when he grew up...or rather, it wasn't quite accurate to say he grew up, but rather he looked like an enlarged version of that little brat. Combined with the way this guy turned his qi into mist earlier, and the aura emanating from the clothes he was wearing...Zhuihun finally confirmed Zhou Ziwei's identity and believed his unbelievable words to ordinary people...this kid...he really was that little kid in disguise.
Even though he believed Zhou Ziwei's words, Zhuihun still touched his forehead and was dizzy for a long time before he had to accept the fact. After that, the king of assassins obediently handed over the spoils he had just collected - three immortal crystals - to Zhou Ziwei.
Although Zhuihun handed it out without any hesitation, his cheeks still trembled slightly, clearly... the temptation of this thing was just too great for him. It had just passed through his hands and been handed over to someone else. To say that he didn't feel any pain would be a lie.
"This is... something we found on the remains of those three black-robed monsters... It seems that each of the black-robed monsters carries one of these Immortal Crystal Hearts... Hehe... I didn't expect these monsters to be so wealthy... One for each of them, could this be a treasure nurtured by the black-robed monsters themselves?"
“I don’t think so!” Zhou Ziwei casually took the three Immortal Crystal Hearts, then paused slightly and said, “You… gave them all to me.”
Zhuihun snorted helplessly and said, "Of course they're all yours. Didn't we agree before? The first Immortal Crystal Heart is mine, and even if I manage to acquire many more, I won't want a single one, hehe... You're lucky, kid... It seems that of these four Immortal Crystal Hearts, the one I got first is the worst quality. And look at your three here... oh dear... I bet even the best one is worth two or three of my Immortal Crystal Hearts..."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziwei used his soul power to penetrate the three Immortal Crystals in his hand, and discovered that it was indeed true... The energy contained in these three Immortal Crystals was much greater than that in the first one, especially one Immortal Crystal which contained approximately 400,000 units of soul power... Together, these three crystals had a reserve of almost one million units of soul power. If he could find a way to extract all the energy from these Immortal Crystals and completely convert it into his own strength in a short time... then he could definitely increase his strength significantly again in a very short period of time, returning to his original level of over one million units of soul power, and perhaps even further...
However, if these things can only be worn on the body, relying on their own penetrating ability to slowly transfer the soul energy inside into one's body little by little, then... even if these three Immortal Crystal Hearts were to take ten or eight years, they might not be able to absorb them all.
But passive absorption like that... would really be a useless thing for Zhou Ziwei.
Seeing Zhuihun's reluctant yet pained expression as he looked at the three Immortal Crystal Hearts in his hand, Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but find it both amusing and funny... Then he thought that while he was concentrating on healing his injuries by gathering his soul power, Zhuihun had found these three Immortal Crystal Hearts nearby all by himself. If he had hidden them then, Zhou Ziwei might not have known about them at all.
However, Zhuihun took the initiative to hand over the entire Immortal Crystal Heart to himself, which showed his great generosity.
That's what you call a true man of his word... He's hundreds of times better than those hypocrites who talk a lot but don't deliver.
In fact, Zhuihun killed almost all of these abyss demons by himself today, and he also found all the spoils of war by himself. If he really wanted to keep them all, Zhou Ziwei would definitely have nothing to say.
Zhou Ziwei naturally wouldn't be so shameless as to keep all three Immortal Crystal Hearts to himself. After thinking for a moment, he took out the largest one from the three Immortal Crystal Hearts and said, "I know that Senior Soul Chaser always keeps his word. If he says he only wants one Immortal Crystal Heart, he will never take a second one. If... I say I want to give you another one, you will definitely be unhappy and think that I am insulting you, right?"
"That...that's for sure."
Zhuihun trembled inwardly at Zhou Ziwei's words, though he couldn't help but shout in his heart, "Fine... come and humiliate me! Humiliate me to death!" But Zhuihun naturally wouldn't say such shameless words out loud. He could only proudly raise his head, showing his disdain for the three Immortal Crystal Hearts.
Actually... he himself no longer had much greed for those three Immortal Crystals. After all, whether he could advance from the Great Spirit Martial Master to the Spirit God Master realm, one Immortal Crystal was enough. If he still didn't advance after using one Immortal Crystal, then it would prove that his inability to advance had nothing to do with the accumulation of spiritual power. It seemed that he was still lacking in some other aspect, which caused his cultivation to be stuck here for so long.
Although Zhuihun felt that one Immortal Crystal Heart was enough, he still had his beloved daughter on his mind. He thought that if he could get an Immortal Crystal Heart for his daughter, it would make his already incredibly talented daughter even more powerful. In a dozen years, she might even surpass him, her father.
But no matter how much Zhuihun longed for it, he couldn't bring himself to break his promise, so he could only swallow his pride and pretend he didn't care.
Seeing Zhuihun's arrogant attitude, Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but find it amusing. He quickly cleared the room slightly and said, "However... although Senior Zhuihun is a man of his word, I, Zhou Ziwei, am not the kind of person who would betray his principles for personal gain. So... I plan to give this largest and best Immortal Crystal to Emily. Hehe... you father and daughter are like family, so if she gets this good thing, it's no different from what you, sir, received. Isn't that right?"