Immediately afterwards, the drill-like structure in front of him began to spin rapidly at a speed far exceeding that of an ordinary electric drill, and then... the man followed the large electric drill head and plunged into the ground...
"Damn, is this a magical artifact or a Transformer? How can it transform like this?" Zhou Ziwei was truly shocked by this guy's performance. He finally understood that the magical artifact controlled by the monster was composed of hundreds or even thousands of thin steel rods, and these rods could obviously be combined into various shapes according to the master's wishes.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 598: The First Assassin
The drill bit, transformed from a magical artifact and controlled by spiritual power, was far sharper than any other drilling equipment in the world. In the blink of an eye, it had already drilled down to a depth of nearly a hundred meters.
Zhou Ziwei was shocked and dared not linger any longer. He quickly continued to merge his earth energy with the surrounding environment. As a result, the soil and rocks in front of Zhou Ziwei became softer than tofu. Zhou Ziwei then broke through the layers of soft, tofu-like soil and rapidly dived into the depths of the earth.
Having long since grasped the mysteries of the earth's energy, Zhou Ziwei felt completely at ease moving underground, even more so than a fish diving into deep water. While Zhou Ziwei's speed in the air was much slower than the man chasing him, his speed underground was noticeably faster.
However, he was only slightly faster; at most, he could only create some distance between himself and the person behind him, preventing them from catching up. But to completely shake them off would be extremely difficult. After diving more than thirty kilometers underground, Zhou Ziwei began to feel that the elemental energy within his body was gradually becoming depleted.
This surprised him greatly, but fortunately, the earth's energy underground was becoming increasingly concentrated, forcing Zhou Ziwei to slow his descent. He continued to descend slowly while constantly absorbing the earth's energy surging in from all directions. He used some of this absorbed energy to propel himself further down, while storing the remainder gradually in his middle dantian. He continued to descend for another ten kilometers or so. Because Zhou Ziwei needed to absorb earth energy, his speed was greatly limited, allowing the other guy to quickly close the distance.
Zhou Ziwei was speechless. He didn't know what was wrong with this guy. He was chasing him all the way up and down the mountain. The two of them seemed to have no grudges or hatred. There was no killing of his father or stealing of his wife. Why was he so relentless? Zhou Ziwei continued to maintain his current speed, letting the person behind him get closer and closer. He was seizing the time to quickly absorb the earth's energy and convert it into attribute-less energy to store in his middle dantian.
When the person behind him was less than thirty meters away, Zhou Ziwei suddenly turned around, opened his mouth, and let out a powerful, silent killing move—the Soul Roar.
Zhou Ziwei knew how powerful this guy was, so he didn't hold back at all. He immediately unleashed an absolute killing move. The Soul Roar was emitted by Zhou Ziwei with pure liquid soul power, which instantly consumed a massive amount of soul power. The power it could achieve was already the limit of this move.
However, to Zhou Ziwei's utter surprise, the strangely shaped magical artifact controlled by the person behind him suddenly emitted a dazzling light immediately after he let out that soul roar. Then, countless flashing lights emanated from the steel bars of the artifact, and thousands of starlight converged, bursting into a loud bang. A blazing ball of lightning shot out from the tip of the artifact, instantly entangled with the soul power emitted by Zhou Ziwei's soul roar, and then scattered and dissipated in less than a second with a "boom".
Both Zhou Ziwei's soul power and that person's spiritual energy vanished into nothingness during this encounter.
Goodness, that's really fierce. It looks like a hardline approach won't end well...
Zhou Ziwei frowned inwardly, then shouted loudly, "Senior behind me, I don't think I've offended you! We can talk things over, there's no need for this, is there?"
Although there is no air tens of kilometers underground, sound can still travel through solid materials, it's just that it's more difficult for sound to travel through solid materials.
For an ordinary person, it would be difficult to transmit sound across a layer of earth tens of meters thick, but this was not a problem for Zhou Ziwei. He had plenty of ways to easily transmit sound.
The man paused for a moment after hearing Zhou Ziwei's voice, then a chilling voice, as if it came from hell, rang out: "You still say you haven't offended me? Hmph... Where did you take my daughter's soul? Quickly return my daughter's soul, or... I'll skin you alive."
Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, and said, "Your daughter's soul... what do you mean? I don't have any..."
Zhou Ziwei only managed to utter half of his grievances before abruptly stopping. He suddenly remembered that in that sanatorium, he had killed quite a few people in one go and, not wanting Kniel's soul to have a chance to escape, he had casually recited the Six-Syllable Mantra. As a result... he had attracted this evil star. It seemed that while he was reciting the Six-Syllable Mantra, he had somehow purified and absorbed the soul of this guy's daughter as well.
Good heavens, this joke has gone too far! Zhou Ziwei really didn't intend to randomly absorb other people's souls. However, after his soul power rose to a million, once he started chanting the Six-Syllable Mantra, the halo formed by the mantra covered such a wide area that even Zhou Ziwei didn't know exactly how many kilometers it covered.
As long as the Six-Syllable Mantra is recited, regardless of whether Zhou Ziwei is willing or not, all the wandering ghosts within the range of the Six-Syllable Mantra will be absorbed by him. He has no choice but to accept it.
Zhou Ziwei was able to possess another body and be reborn by relying on this Six-Syllable Mantra. Afterwards, he relied on this Six-Syllable Mantra to gradually accumulate profound soul power, which is why he has such strength now. It can be said that without the Six-Syllable Mantra, there would be no Zhou Ziwei as we know him today.
However, it seems that developing the Six-Syllable Mantra to a certain extent may not be all good things. If he is not careful, it may bring him great trouble. Last time, he provoked a burlap monster, and this time it is even more outrageous. He has actually provoked a character who is ten times more powerful than the burlap monster.
The most fatal thing is that... he seems to have inadvertently eaten someone's daughter's soul. This grudge is so huge that it can't be resolved at all.
The reason he could easily shake off that burlap monster last time was mainly because there wasn't much of a grudge between them. The reason was simply that Zhou Ziwei had taken away a wisp of earth spirit energy from the earth spirit spring that he had guarded for many years.
Although that incident caused the burlap monster a great loss, it was nothing compared to eating the soul of someone's relative.
No wonder this guy behind him was like he'd taken Viagra, chasing Zhou Ziwei dozens of kilometers underground without showing any sign of backing down. And judging by his attitude, even if Zhou Ziwei burrowed all the way to the Earth's core, this guy would still be determined to hold on tight.
Although the two haven't officially fought yet, Zhou Ziwei is aware that the guy's strength is probably much greater than his own. Of course... if Zhou Ziwei were to fight with all his might and use every trick in the book, he might have a chance to put up a fight.
However... Zhou Ziwei also felt somewhat guilty... In the end, he had inadvertently taken someone else's daughter, and now that the victim had come knocking, he was already hesitant before even making a move. How could he possibly use his real trump cards on this person?
Sensing the person behind him closing in, Zhou Ziwei quickly increased his speed, maintaining a distance of at least thirty meters between them. He then continued, "Um... I'm truly sorry, I did indeed perform a ritual to release some wandering spirits just now, but I didn't expect it to include your daughter. However... my Buddhist incantations are only effective for releasing wandering spirits; they generally have no effect on the living. Could it be... your daughter... is actually..."
"That's right... my daughter is a lost soul."
The man behind him desperately urged his magical artifact to break through layers of solid ground as he chased after Zhou Ziwei, coldly snorting, "Although my daughter is a wandering ghost, she has been with me ever since she lost her physical body. She has never done anything wrong and has willingly remained a spirit by my side as her father. What does this have to do with you, you dead monk? Who asked you to perform a ritual for her? Give me back my daughter! If you don't return my daughter today, I... I will definitely turn you into a wandering ghost too, lock your soul, and torture you for a hundred years. Otherwise, I will be unworthy of being the world's number one assassin back then."
"What...you...you are the number one assassin, Soul Chaser, who was ranked first among the world's top ten assassins back then."
Zhou Ziwei was almost speechless with shock at what the person behind him said.
Seriously?! How did I end up messing with such a jinx...?
The top three of the world's top ten assassins are always extremely secretive, and they are all free assassins who are not controlled by the Black Market Assassin Network. Zhou Ziwei has a deep connection with the world's top ten assassins. In order to deal with the Black Market Assassin Network, he has a considerable understanding of the world's top ten assassins. However, he still doesn't know much about the top three.
A few days ago, when Xiaoxin was digging for secrets online, he accidentally found an old post that had been buried for many years in a very secret elite assassin forum. It vaguely introduced some information about the world's top ten assassins.
The information in that document about the fourth to tenth ranked assassins in the world was very comprehensive, even more so than the information Zhou Ziwei had collected from Kyzylem.
However, the people who originally ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth on that post are different now. It seems those original assassins have either perished or retired, and were replaced by newcomers like Kyzylem and Werewolf. In fact, Zhou Ziwei recently eliminated several of the world's top ten assassins, making a re-ranking necessary. According to the post, the fourth through tenth positions on the world's top ten assassin list have changed hands many times, with a new generation of assassins appearing almost every three to five years.
After all, being an assassin is extremely risky, even for those at the top of the world's top ten assassins. The more powerful an assassin is, the more dangerous the missions they take on are compared to those of ordinary assassins. Therefore, despite their strength, their casualty rate is still higher than that of ordinary assassins. However, the top three on the world's top ten assassin list have remained unchanged for at least thirty years.
This is not only because the top three are at a level that makes it difficult for them to fall from grace, but also because they have rarely taken on any missions in the last twenty years.
In fact, all three of them are practically retired. However, because of their special identities and outstanding skills, even if they have truly retired, as long as they do not officially declare their complete retirement, no one will dare to rashly remove their names from the list of the world's top ten assassins.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Black God sits in charge of the black market assassin network, ranks the world's top ten assassins, and seems to have the domineering presence and charisma to control the world's assassin community.
Ultimately, however, he could only evaluate those ranked fourth and below among the world's top ten assassins. He had no right to comment on the top three, nor did he have the guts to remove them from the list before confirming their deaths.
Perhaps because those three legendary figures in the assassin world have not appeared in public for many years, very few people know anything about them. Even the post that Xiao Xin dug up from the elite assassin forum only briefly mentioned the names of those three.
The number one assassin in the world's top ten is nicknamed "Soul Chaser," the second is nicknamed "Mountain Mover," and the third is known as "Corpse Fiend." As for what these three look like or what their special characteristics are, Zhou Ziwei knew nothing. However, given the strength of the person chasing him, since he claimed to be Soul Chaser, one of the world's top ten assassins, he couldn't be wrong; surely this person wouldn't impersonate someone else.
"That's right... I am Zhuihun. How dare you, you rat, plot against my little daughter? Are you scared now?" The man who called himself Zhuihun roared angrily, and chased even faster, instantly shortening the distance between the two to about twenty-five meters.
If he could close the distance by just five meters, reducing it to within twenty meters, then Zhuihun would be confident he could stop this slippery creature. It was only because they were underground, especially dozens of kilometers deep, where the soil and rocks were incredibly hard, that Zhuihun couldn't attack from a greater distance.
If this were on the ground or in the air, Zhuihun would be confident of killing him with a single blow.
Zhou Ziwei felt Zhuihun getting closer and closer, and his enormous magical artifact, resembling a Transformer, seemed to be stirring restlessly as the distance between them closed. Zhou Ziwei was slightly startled and quickly increased his speed, temporarily shutting down the process of absorbing the earth's energy. He dived downwards for a considerable distance until the distance between them was about thirty meters. Only then did Zhou Ziwei slow down, maintaining a speed roughly the same as Zhuihun's. As he continued to descend, he said, "Senior Zhuihun, whether you believe it or not, I dare say... if I really wanted to fight to the death, even if you are the world's number one assassin, renowned for decades, you might not be able to kill me. It's even possible that you would be killed by me instead. If we were to fight head-on, the most likely outcome would be mutual destruction. So..."
"Perhaps you are right." Zhuihun did not show the arrogance and contempt that a long-standing peak expert should have shown in response to Zhou Ziwei's arrogance. He simply interrupted Zhou Ziwei through gritted teeth and said, "But even if we are both injured, or even if we perish together, today I will make you, a junior, pay for my daughter's life."
Well, it seems this old guy has gone mad.
Zhou Ziwei cursed inwardly, knowing that this way he would probably never be able to solve the problem. Even if he had accumulated enough attribute-less energy and could use absolute speed to escape the Soul Chaser underground, if this guy was determined to fight him to the death, then he probably couldn't escape even if he tried to hide for a while.
After all, the Earth is only so big. With the abnormal speed and powerful spiritual search ability of a creature like Soul Chaser, even if Zhou Ziwei escapes to the ends of the earth, he can't withstand this guy's endless search. And even if Zhou Ziwei can evade it... if he dares not show his face from now on to avoid this guy, then he will never have any freedom again. Just thinking about such a life is enough to make one feel desperate.
Therefore, although Zhou Ziwei was confident he could escape from Zhui Hun's clutches, he didn't flee immediately. Instead, he planned to find a way to completely resolve the trouble he had caused today. Perhaps he could simply kill the world's number one assassin, or… make the number one assassin let go of his resentment and stop constantly causing him trouble. Killing Zhui Hun was undoubtedly extremely difficult, almost impossible.
His enormous spiritual weapon was both offensive and defensive, making it difficult to break through. Perhaps only Zhou Ziwei's blood-red butterfly, mutated from the black-robed monster's blood in the underground city, could still be of some use. After all, the blood-red butterfly's ability to corrode spiritual energy wasn't just for show; no matter how powerful the Soul Chaser was, his spiritual energy would likely struggle to withstand it.
There was only one Crimson Butterfly. While it could be used to corrode someone else's spiritual weapon, the Soul Chaser's weapon was simply too large. Even if he didn't dodge and let Zhou Ziwei corrode it, it would probably take Zhou Ziwei half a day for it to take effect. And that half a day... was enough time for the Soul Chaser to kill him several times over.
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 599: I Can Revive Her
After pondering for a long time, Zhou Ziwei realized that killing Zhuihun was unrealistic. Zhuihun was an extremely tough nut to crack, and if he didn't do it right, he would break his own teeth. Moreover, the fault of the conflict between the two of them originally lay with Zhou Ziwei; Zhuihun was a pitiful victim.
Zhou Ziwei simply couldn't bring himself to kill him to silence him; that seemed too unkind. So… after hesitating for a moment, Zhou Ziwei decided to address the root of the problem: resurrecting Zhuihun's daughter. This idea was insane, but even without today's events, Zhou Ziwei had long wanted to try it. The possibility of resurrecting someone was practically zero. Zhou Ziwei wasn't a god, and his soul-manipulation abilities couldn't bring someone who had been dead for a long time back to life.
Moreover… the soul of the Soul-Chasing Daughter had already been decomposed and purified by Zhou Ziwei's Six-Syllable Mantra, leaving only a fragment of her memories from her previous life, while her true soul consciousness had long since been extinguished. Therefore, theoretically speaking, it is impossible for the Soul-Chasing Daughter to be resurrected.
However... while Zhou Ziwei cannot revive a dissipated soul, he has a way to recreate an independent soul entity.
The personality and other aspects of the independent soul entity can be entirely determined by Zhou Ziwei when he creates it. If Zhou Ziwei also incorporates the memories of his daughter from her previous life into this independent soul entity at the same time as creating it, then it is essentially equivalent to resurrecting the soul of his daughter from her previous life.
This so-called "basically equivalent to" is, of course, just a self-deceptive statement. In reality, the two souls are completely different individuals. However, as long as Zhou Ziwei makes this independent soul possess a relatively complete memory of a person and has similar personality traits to that person in life, it is not unreasonable to say that the person has been resurrected. At least, it is possible to fool them.
Zhou Ziwei had never tried creating an independent soul within a person before, so he was quite eager to try. Although he felt the pursuing soul getting closer and closer, he simply stopped running, turned around abruptly, and shouted, "Alright... stop chasing me endlessly. I have indeed taken your daughter's soul, but... she still has a chance to be resurrected..."
Zhuihun had been chasing Zhou Ziwei relentlessly for half a day, but the further he got, the further away he fell. He felt his spiritual energy being rapidly depleted. He didn't know that if he continued to burrow deeper into the ground, even if he managed to kill Zhou Ziwei by then, he probably wouldn't have the strength to return to the surface. However, the thought that his daughter would disappear completely from the world, leaving him with nothing left to cherish, made him indifferent. So be it! As long as he could tear the man who killed his daughter to pieces with his own hands before he died, what did it matter if he died?
Just as Zhuihun was determined to increase his speed by risking injury and intercept Zhou Ziwei no matter what, he suddenly saw Zhou Ziwei stop running and abruptly stop in front of him.
Overjoyed, Zhuihun accelerated forward and finally closed the distance to within twenty meters of Zhou Ziwei for the first time.
But just as Zhuihun gathered a massive amount of spiritual power, intending to launch a devastating attack to kill Zhou Ziwei on the spot, he heard Zhou Ziwei say that his daughter still had a chance to be resurrected. He was completely stunned.
The immense spiritual power had been concentrated on his large, bizarre spiritual artifact, which resembled a Transformer. The dense spiritual power caused the entire artifact to radiate a bright, small sun, emitting bursts of dazzling light. Even though it was more than ten meters away from the soil, Zhou Ziwei could feel it.
Without a doubt, if Soul Chaser were to unleash this attack, it would create an incredibly terrifying force. It wouldn't be impossible for Zhou Ziwei to be physically destroyed once again under this guy's attack. As expected, he is the number one assassin on the world's top ten assassins list. With such a terrifying killing move, who in the entire world could withstand it?
Zhou Ziwei couldn't help but secretly rejoice that he hadn't been long-winded and had gotten straight to the point, allowing Zhuihun to stop his attack in time. Otherwise, if he had said a few more words, his soul might have had to rush around looking for a suitable body to be reborn... Of course... that is, provided that his soul could survive Zhuihun's attack.
Given that the nickname "Soul Chaser" contains the word "soul," and considering that he once protected the soul of a lonely ghost who had long since lost her physical body, it's likely that this guy has some understanding of the form of a soul. This guy hates Zhou Ziwei to the bone, and if he discovers that Zhou Ziwei's soul is immortal after death, he certainly won't let it go either.
"You... what did you say?" The light emanating from the enormous magical artifact began to tremble violently, revealing the turmoil in its owner's heart. "You said my daughter... she can... can be resurrected?"
“Of course I can…” Zhou Ziwei smiled smugly and said, “Others may not be able to do this, but for me… well, although it is still a bit difficult, it’s not a huge problem.”
"You...you're lying to me? You...you're not God...even God can't necessarily bring the dead back to life, so what makes you dare to say that?" Zhuihun was clearly not someone who could be easily fooled. After experiencing extreme mental turmoil at the beginning, he immediately realized that Zhou Ziwei was probably trying to deceive him in this way, and immediately shouted angrily: "If you are lying to me, then please stop lying! I will not easily believe you."
After saying that, he rapidly activated his spiritual power, and the huge spiritual artifact became even more dazzling under the stimulation of his spiritual power.
"God is nothing but a mythical figure, of course he can't help you, but I truly exist..." Zhou Ziwei chuckled coldly, saying, "Can't you see that I am actually a person who was reborn after death? Uh... you should be able to scan my spiritual energy to know my approximate appearance, right? Then you should also be able to see that I look like a five or six-year-old child! And do you really think that a five or six-year-old child can possess the strength to contend with the world's number one assassin? Heh... I suppose you have killed countless people in your life, but have you ever encountered someone as difficult to kill as me? Is this really the strength that a five or six-year-old child can possess?"
"Ah...so you...you really are...you really have died once." Upon hearing Zhou Ziwei's words, Zhuihun trembled violently as if struck by lightning. As he trembled, the enormous spiritual artifact he controlled emitted terrifying energy fluctuations, as if about to explode. Zhou Ziwei, who was standing close by, was terrified, his face changing color. He was genuinely worried that if this guy lost control, he would blow up the spiritual artifact in his hand. The danger of that artifact exploding was believed to be no less than the explosive power of a small nuclear bomb. At such close range, even if Zhou Ziwei's physical strength were ten times stronger, it would be useless. He would definitely be turned into ashes in an instant, with no chance of survival.
"Don't get excited, don't get excited..." Zhou Ziwei quickly comforted him, "At such close range, I can't run away anyway. You should withdraw your spiritual power first! Don't accidentally go overboard again, hehe... It's okay if you kill me, but your daughter will really have no hope of being resurrected."
Upon hearing this, Zhuihun gave a soft hum and said, "Very well... But if I find out that you are lying to me... you can probably guess what kind of crazy revenge you will suffer."
Without saying another word, Zhuihun began to gradually withdraw the spiritual power he had poured into the artifact and return it to his body. As a result, the dazzling light on the artifact gradually dimmed.
"Speak! What are your conditions? How can you help me resurrect my daughter?"
After a long while, Zhuihun finally managed to suppress his excitement and casually asked in a nonchalant manner.
There's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Zhuihun didn't believe that Zhou Ziwei would be so kind as to come and resurrect his daughter, even though Zhou Ziwei had just taken his daughter's soul.
Originally, Zhuihun thought Zhou Ziwei was sent by some enemy of his, specifically to torment him. But if Zhou Ziwei actually had a way to bring back a long-dead ghost to life... and even took the initiative to come to him, then this person's ambitions must be quite grand.
The Soul Chaser had never known that there were powerful individuals in this world who enhanced their abilities by absorbing the souls of wandering ghosts, so he naturally assumed that Zhou Ziwei's act of absorbing his daughter's soul was intentional. Little did he know that it was simply a case of Zhou Ziwei accidentally taking an extra bite without realizing it.
"Ahem... well..." Zhou Ziwei coughed awkwardly. He originally wanted to say that as long as the old man stopped sticking to him like a piece of chewing gum, it would be fine. But then he thought that if he really said that, the old man might not be so sure that he had the ability to revive his daughter.
Moreover... since this number one assassin of the era has offered to let me ask for an exorbitant price, wouldn't it be foolish to give up such a good opportunity? Besides... the amount of soul power required to rebuild an independent soul within a person's body would be astronomical, possibly even more than the amount of soul power used to create Shin-chan.
If I pay such a high price and gain nothing in return, then... that would seem like I'd be letting myself down!
After a moment's thought, Zhou Ziwei said, "My request is not high. I only hope that Senior Zhuihun can occasionally help me with some small favors in the next ten years."
"So... you want me to be your bodyguard for ten years."
Soul Chaser snorted coldly and said, "I'm afraid I might not live that long, and... I can't entrust my future to you. Therefore... I can only promise you three years... For three years, I will be your henchman. Of course... even as a henchman, I have my own dignity. Don't bother me with small fry. Asking me to kill such people is an insult to me, and I will not listen to you."
"Very well...very well..." Zhou Ziwei was overjoyed upon hearing this. He hadn't expected it to be so easy for him to find the world's number one assassin as his bodyguard. Well...although this bodyguard might not be very obedient, it would be enough to use him to solve some tricky problems. As for some insignificant small fry, Zhou Ziwei could easily handle them himself, so there was no need to make this big shot come forward.
And if he encounters an enemy of the same caliber as the Azabu Monster again, or if he were to take action when dismantling the Black Market Assassin Network, he probably wouldn't have any reason to refuse!