"Sun Wukong?"
The tactical team members looked at each other in bewilderment. They had been holding this perimeter for a while and hadn't seen any mythical monkeys.
The balding middle-aged man, Uncle Tu, spoke up. "No, we've been right here. No one—human or Corpse Brother—has come out through this exit recently."
"I see." Ren Kurogane turned around, preparing to head back into the nest.
CRACK!
The ground buckled, and a crimson blur erupted from beneath the earth. A fist larger than Ren's entire torso lunged straight for his face.
Ren calmly raised his arm, his palm meeting Erduo's massive fist with a dull thud, stopping the momentum dead.
Simultaneously, a whistle of wind cut through the air behind him. Ghost Stick lunged from the writhing walls of the nest, his specialized staff spinning toward Ren's skull!
"Erduo! Ghost Stick!"
Seeing their former comrades now turned into undying, mindless puppets, Yan Yan of Team Two felt a bitter pang of grief.
"Look out! That guy—!"
Yan Yan's warning died in her throat as she watched Ren. With effortless movements, he parried the combined assault of the two specialized variants. A smirk played on his lips. "Long You, are you trying to infect me using these two? It seems you haven't learned enough yet. You lack a proper understanding of modern technology."
In the heart of the nest, the Corpse King's brow furrowed slightly as he listened through the shared consciousness of his puppets. But before he could test Ren further, the connection was abruptly severed!
The Northern Exit.
The Corpse King wanted to infect him, but he didn't realize Ren was already essentially a perfect lifeform. The Corpse Virus was the very source of Ren's evolution; he had decoded it long ago. Infecting him? Impossible.
Even in the absolute worst-case scenario where the virus "took hold," Ren's consciousness would remain intact. He'd simply walk the path of the Little Golden剛 from the original story—except Ren was infinitely more powerful.
Ren moved with blinding speed. With two casual strikes, he dismantled Erduo and Ghost Stick, scattering their remains across the pavement. He then followed up with a wave of killing intent, performing a "secondary disinfection" to ensure every cell was vaporized.
What was their fate in the original story? I can't remember...
Having dealt with the puppets, Ren turned to Uncle Tu. "I thought Qinglong was coming. Where is he?"
"Qinglong will be here shortly. He asked us to stall for time," Uncle Tu replied with a kindly smile. If he weren't standing amidst a pile of monster remains, no one would suspect this friendly middle-aged man was the legendary "Butcher."
"Alright then, I'm heading back in. Don't worry, I won't interfere with the King," Ren waved a hand and turned to leave.
Uncle Tu suddenly called out, "I've heard foreign infiltrators have breached the eastern and southern perimeters. If you're bored, feel free to clean them up."
"Got it. Consider it done."
As Ren's figure vanished into the gloom, the younger members of the team finally let out their breath.
"Holy crap! How does someone even train for that? He just one-shotted the corpse-forms of Ghost Stick and Erduo!" Yan Yan panted.
"Who knows," Uncle Tu chuckled. "At least he isn't an enemy. And if he's helping us take out foreign invaders, that makes him a friend."
The team was momentarily stunned by the leader's blunt logic, but they couldn't find a single flaw in it.
"Phew... spoken like a true leader!" Yan Yan took a deep breath—and immediately regretted it as the stench of the nest hit her.
Ren re-entered the hive. Guided by his senses, he made his way to the eastern sector, arriving just in time to see the Corpse King's Black and White Protectors engaged in a theatrical battle with a group of Japanese ninja.
They were literally performing an opera while harvesting lives with every gesture!
Just a bunch of low-level Earth-tier ninja, Ren noted. He manifested a blood-red greatsword and swung. A condensed arc of energy swept through the room, bisecting the entire group in a single flash!
Against a God-level powerhouse, these ninja and mid-tier variants never stood a chance. The stronger ones barely managed to keep their upper torsos intact; the weaker ones were shredded into a fine mist.
Ren walked among the carnage, dipping his fingers into the cooling blood. As he absorbed the samples, he gained fragments of their power and memories.
Devouring them directly like this is too slow. I should bottle the blood and have Tiancai refine it into Lineage Factors. That way, I can assimilate their abilities completely, Ren thought. His own "Killing Aura" had been awakened precisely this way using Xiaofei's genetic material.
After collecting samples from the ninja, Ghost Stick, and Erduo, Ren's harvest was mostly complete. He had considered hunting the vampire "K," but considering the man was walking around with a collection of Divine Artifacts, Ren decided to play it safe for now.
I'll wait until the Gates of Hell open to harvest the vampire bloodline.
With the eastern sector cleared, Ren turned to leave. Just as the few survivors thought they were safe, the world turned a blinding crimson.
Ren had left them a parting gift: a Rasengan infused with highly compressed chakra and a heavy dose of Killing Intent.
BOOM!!!
On the eastern flank of the nest, the mound of writhing flesh suddenly erupted. A mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and the resulting shockwave rattled the surrounding skyscrapers.
In the center of the nest, the Corpse King finally felt a pang of genuine alarm.
"If a strike like that hit me directly, even with my immortality, I'd be severely wounded," Long You muttered. He realized it was time to leave H City.
He had planned to recover more of his strength before moving out, but now, he felt he couldn't stay another minute. He immediately summoned his subordinates, ordering them to gather the condensed Blood Essence. He needed to absorb it and stabilize his God-level strength in a safer location.
As his minions scrambled, Long You's gaze fixed on the shadow of a boy walking leisurely toward the southern gate.
"Ren Kurogane... I've memorized your face! Next time we meet, I will personally infect you!"
Leaving a harsh word for the empty air, the Corpse King took his "captives" and fled H City.
Ren, meanwhile, reached the southern gate. He didn't know who was waiting there yet. Since he had killed the Blood Lotus Protector earlier and the body hadn't fallen into the water, he wondered if the King had still managed to salvage the corpse to create a "Qinglong Protector."
"I'll know once I get there."
At that same moment, two dark shadows entered the nest from the west. Moving with practiced lethality, they cut through the guarding variants, their sights set directly on the Corpse King!