Chapter 213: Death Cycle (XI)

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Chapter 213: Death Cycle (XI)

Shang Ke slowly opened his eyes and returned from death once again. Di Kui was crouched beside the bed, quiet as a chicken. The moment he saw Shang Ke wake, his eyes lit up.

Shang Ke sat up. The tattered blanket covering his chest slid down, revealing smooth, flawless skin. Not a single trace of their previous “battle” remained on his body.

Unable to resist, Di Kui reached out as though intending to scratch that unblemished skin. Shang Ke hurriedly dodged, but he was still a step too slow. A sharp nail swept from the side of his waist across his abdomen.

Shang Ke inwardly groaned. Not again—he was about to be torn open! Yet the expected pain never came. He felt only a faint tingling itch. Looking down, he was astonished to find that Di Kui’s nail had not left so much as a mark.

Puzzled, Shang Ke ran his hands over himself. His skin felt supple, his muscles firm and even. Had his body become… tougher than before?

While he was examining himself, a shadow suddenly fell over him. Di Kui supported his lower back, tilted his head up, and captured Shang Ke’s lips. The icy touch made Shang Ke shiver lightly.

Di Kui shifted position and settled Shang Ke onto his lap, greedily drawing in his scent.

Shang Ke leaned back slightly. Don’t tell me this guy wants another round?! The reaction below was obvious, and their positions were certainly convenient. The only difference was that this time Shang Ke did not feel nearly as uncomfortable. Di Kui was still using tremendous strength, yet somehow he was no longer hurting him. It definitely was not because the Zombie King had mastered miraculous technique overnight. Shang Ke’s body really had… evolved.

Di Kui appeared to notice the difference as well. His large hands roamed over Shang Ke’s body, occasionally poking him just to watch the skin dimple beneath his finger and spring back again. He entertained himself quite happily.

Then he got carried away and used a little too much strength, poking a bloody hole straight into Shang Ke’s waist.

Di Kui: “…”

Shang Ke: “…”

Shang Ke really could not handle this style of flirting…

Di Kui laid Shang Ke back on the bed, bent down, and began licking the wound.

Shang Ke could not tell whether it was his imagination, but the injury seemed to be healing faster than before as well.

Could the zombie virus in Di Kui’s body be causing him to evolve? Shang Ke looked at the man buried against his chest and seriously considered courting death one more time. Since his body had already strengthened, surely this time would not be quite as catastrophic as the first… right?

Clearly, a certain someone had truly reached an unprecedented realm through the art of “dying.”

While Shang Ke was still wavering, Di Kui suddenly stopped. Bracing his arms on either side of Shang Ke, he stared at him without blinking, golden flames burning in his eyes. After a moment, he bent down and pecked Shang Ke on the lips, then reluctantly withdrew. He rummaged through an overturned box, found a baby bottle that was still more or less intact, put it in his mouth, and sat naked beside the bed to concentrate on “drinking milk.”

Shang Ke stared at him in astonishment. This guy actually had moments when he did not insist on forcing things?! If the enormous erection between Di Kui’s legs were not still standing proudly at attention, Shang Ke might have thought he was no longer interested. So this was the Zombie King’s self-taught version of “consideration”?

In that case, Shang Ke had no intention of wasting such rare thoughtfulness. He gave Di Kui an approving smile.

Di Kui caught the smile from the corner of his eye. His expression barely changed, but the line of his brows softened ever so slightly, and inexplicable satisfaction filled him. If he knew that this rare act of “consideration” had cost him another chance at perfect carnal harmony, who knew how he would react…

Shang Ke roughly tidied the room, mainly putting his own belongings back in order. There was nothing he could do about the rest of the damage. Fortunately, the landlord had not come knocking, or Di Kui might very well have slapped him to death.

With so many experts gathered in the base, the landlord was probably accustomed to this sort of destruction. As long as compensation was paid, mercenaries were generally allowed to wreck whatever they liked. Of course, if someone refused to pay, then it became a question of who could beat whom. A powerhouse on Di Kui’s level was clearly someone the landlord knew better than to provoke, even without ever exchanging blows.

Shang Ke, however, was not the sort to skip out on a bill. He sought out the landlord himself to discuss compensation and, while he was there, asked about the Shadowmoon Mercenary Group.

The landlord answered respectfully, “This zombie horde came very suddenly. Several of the experts believe a powerful zombie may be hiding near the base, so they’ve decided to remain here for the time being, until the threat is eliminated.”

As he spoke, the landlord’s face twitched uncontrollably, as though some invisible pressure were steadily plucking at his nerves.

That pressure was naturally not coming from Shang Ke, but from a certain Zombie King standing behind him.

Di Kui stood ramrod-straight at Shang Ke’s back, staring coldly at the landlord three steps away as though looking at a corpse.

Under that stare, every hair on the landlord’s body stood on end. First his face trembled, then his lips, hands, and feet joined in.

Seeing this, Shang Ke pulled a baby bottle from his bag and stuffed it into Di Kui’s mouth. Cradling the bottle, Di Kui lazily leaned against Shang Ke’s back and gradually withdrew his killing intent.

The landlord’s eyes widened as if he had just seen a ghost.

Shang Ke did not care in the slightest that Di Kui’s image as a peerless expert had just been mercilessly demolished. He simply continued questioning the landlord.

Once he had a general grasp of the situation, Shang Ke formed a plan. Since he had chosen the route of being killed by the “protagonist,” he needed to find some way to stay near Huo Xuan—or at the very least, not stray too far from him.

The reason Shang Ke had previously refused to bring Di Kui into a human base was that he had been far too vicious. But after their recent period of adjustment, Di Kui had learned to control his emotions and restrain his killing intent. As long as no one provoked him, there was little reason to fear a massacre. Besides, Shang Ke still possessed the divine artifact known as the baby bottle. At a critical moment, it might even “save the world.”

Their original room was no longer habitable, so the landlord arranged another one for Shang Ke and Di Kui.

The next day, after resting, Shang Ke brought Di Kui to Shadowmoon’s recruitment area. By now, most people knew that Huo Xuan was with the Shadowmoon Mercenary Group. Applicants swarmed in, packing the recruitment site shoulder to shoulder.

Shadowmoon, however, was recruiting only mercenaries at Level Six or above. Anyone weaker could do nothing but watch the excitement.

“Look! Isn’t that Lord Zuo Xian?” a mercenary suddenly shouted excitedly, pointing in one direction.

Everyone turned. A figure flashed between several floors before landing lightly in an open space not far from the recruitment area.

The crowd immediately opened a path and respectfully greeted Zuo Xian.

Zuo Xian gave a slight nod, then walked directly toward Shang Ke and Di Kui.

Following his path, the crowd quickly noticed the two men among them. One was peerlessly handsome and carried an otherworldly air; the other was tall, powerfully built, and imposing. Two people this striking should have drawn attention immediately, yet somehow no one had truly registered their presence until Zuo Xian approached them.

“You two, my lord would like to see you.” There was only one person whom a Level Nine ability user would address as “my lord”—Huo Xuan.

A wave of hushed exclamations swept through the crowd as everyone began guessing who these two men could be. It was not unusual for Huo Xuan to meet with powerful experts. What was extraordinary was that Zuo Xian himself had come to invite them. Even Bai Mu, the once-famous captain of the Shadowmoon Mercenary Group, had never received such treatment.

Anyone important enough for Zuo Xian to personally invite was either someone extremely close to him or a super-expert no weaker than Zuo Xian himself. Then people remembered the astonishing clash of power during the zombie siege. One of the two forces had already been confirmed as Huo Xuan’s. Could the other have come from one of these men?

At that thought, the crowd’s gazes toward Shang Ke and Di Kui immediately changed.

Shang Ke hesitated over Huo Xuan’s invitation. As the two opposing extremes of this world, Di Kui and Huo Xuan were not men Shang Ke wanted meeting face-to-face. They had nearly started fighting even with a door between them.

Although Huo Xuan was the key to completing Shang Ke’s mission, there was no real need for excessive contact. Unless absolutely necessary, Shang Ke would rather keep them apart.

But refusing Huo Xuan in front of so many people… would that be humiliating him too badly?

Wait. Wasn’t Shang Ke’s mission to “be killed by Huo Xuan”? If so, why should he worry about offending the man? Quite the opposite—he ought to do everything in his power to draw hatred. The higher Huo Xuan’s hatred value, the easier the mission would become!

At that moment, Shang Ke automatically activated the high-difficulty death-seeking mode: 【Deliberately Oppose Huo Xuan】.

Having made up his mind, Shang Ke was just about to deliver an aloof rejection when Di Kui spoke first. “Let’s go.”

Shang Ke: “…” The breath he had drawn got stuck in his throat.

Go where?! Aren’t you supposed to hate Huo Xuan? This is exactly when you should stomp all over his face and leave him utterly humiliated! (Huo Xuan: Why must we hurt each other like this…?)

Shang Ke caught hold of Di Kui and said to Zuo Xian, “Sorry, we have something to take care of outside the city, so I’m afraid we can’t accept the invitation. Please convey our apologies to Boss Huo.”

The moment he said this, everyone stared at him in disbelief. The strongest man in the world had summoned him. A Level Nine expert had personally come to receive him. Under the eyes of the entire crowd, he had actually… refused!

Murderous looks shot toward Shang Ke from every direction. Di Kui’s gaze sharpened. He gave a cold snort, and the air vibrated. Everyone present except Zuo Xian took a synchronized step backward, so perfectly aligned that they might have drilled it in advance.

The crowd was stunned into an eerie silence.

Behind his back, Zuo Xian’s hand clenched into a fist. That single “hmph” had nearly shaken even him. This man was much stronger than he had originally estimated. No wonder Huo Xuan had treated him so seriously.

“Let’s go.” Di Kui wrapped an arm around Shang Ke’s waist and swaggered away beneath everyone’s stare.

Zuo Xian did not stop them. He merely watched them leave with an expressionless face. With Huo Xuan’s breadth of mind, he naturally would not care about such a trivial slight—but Zuo Xian did.

The crowd finally came back to themselves and was just about to denounce the pair’s arrogance and rudeness when they realized that Zuo Xian had disappeared at some point as well.

Shang Ke’s claim that they needed to leave the city had only been an excuse, but Di Kui took him completely seriously. A few teleports later, he had already carried Shang Ke outside the base.

“Where?” Di Kui asked.

Shang Ke thought for a moment. Since they were already outside, they might as well collect some spirit crystals. Full spirit crystals normally formed only in red-eyed high-rank zombies or above, though a few white-eyed intermediate-rank zombies occasionally produced fragments.

Shang Ke told Di Kui to sit quietly to one side and drink his milk while he charged off to fight the zombies himself. Partly, he wanted to improve his combat ability. More importantly, he wanted to stimulate the world-essence shard inside him.

The three world-essence shards—Dark Realm, Bright Realm, and Soul Tempering—had respectively fallen to Di Kui, Huo Xuan, and Shang Ke. Di Kui and Shang Ke possessed undying bodies, while Huo Xuan had refined Bright Realm into his sword and achieved unity between man and weapon. In a sense, all three had already stepped onto the path of immortality.

The System had told him that he could kill Di Kui, while Huo Xuan could kill him. The key clearly lay in the world-essence shards. Shang Ke simply did not know how to use the power of Soul Tempering, which was probably one reason he remained weaker than the other two.

Even if he was destined to die, he still intended to struggle first. At the very least, he wanted to grasp the power of his world-essence shard before that happened.

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