Desiccated Corpse

Inside the gym, Bai Ye was enduring Peter's frenzied beating.

From his back to his arms and thighs, and finally directly at his chest and abdomen.

The struck areas first turned red, then bruised, and eventually the flesh split open and bled.

Half an hour later, blood continuously seeped from wounds all over Bai Ye's body, dyeing his clothes bright red and turning him into a bloody mess.

But Peter Parker was in worse shape than Bai Ye. After swinging the Steel Rod for half an hour straight, he let go of the rod, which was stuck with Bai Ye's flesh, and sat down on the floor.

"Why'd you stop?" Bai Ye asked in confusion as he looked at Peter slumped on the ground. He was the one covered in blood, yet he still hadn't fallen. Why had the one doing the beating collapsed first?

"Bai, I've hit you more than ten thousand times already. My arms are so sore I can barely move them."

Peter Parker kneaded his arms and looked at his friend like he was a monster. An ordinary person would have been reduced to pulp by now, yet this guy had held his horse stance without even a wobble in his footing.

"You... young people really have no stamina these days," Bai Ye said dissatisfiedly.

He clearly had a Constitution of 2.8, yet he needed a break after only half an hour. Even a production team's donkey wouldn't dare slack off like that.

Still, despite his dissatisfaction, Bai Ye knew that this really was the limit of Peter's stamina.

Although Peter's Constitution stat was seemingly 2.8, Bai Ye knew that Constitution represented physical defense, stamina, aptitude, and recovery speed.

Perhaps only Peter's physical defense had reached the peak value of 2.8, while the other three were far behind. Unlike Bai Ye, whose panel stats grew across the board.

"Then take a break first. We'll continue in half an hour. I'll keep training," Bai Ye said helplessly.

Even as he spoke, all the bleeding wounds across Bai Ye's body had already stopped bleeding and begun to heal. He only needed another four or five hours to fully recover.

Looking at his lively friend, Peter could only step aside and ask, "Bai, how long am I working today?"

"I can keep you here all day," Bai Ye said as he grabbed an iron weight and punched forward.

"That's not what I meant." Peter was speechless. "I'm asking when I get off work tonight."

"It's six now. You can go home at ten," Bai Ye said. "Remember to come here immediately after school tomorrow."

"Got it." Peter nodded helplessly.

But he had already taken the twenty thousand dollars, so there was no way to refuse. He felt as though a thick wall made of money now stood between him and Bai Ye.

Ten minutes later, Peter had mostly recovered his strength and resumed striking Bai Ye all over. After hitting him for half an hour, he would rest for ten minutes, repeating the cycle over and over.

During the process, Peter also began to notice that as his activity level increased, his already formidable stamina and strength were slowly improving.

It seemed that potential within him that had never been developed was being activated through training.

That discovery made Peter take the work seriously. He became willing to cooperate in hammering Bai Ye, greatly improving the training's effectiveness. By ten that night, he was even somewhat reluctant to go home.

He dragged things out until eleven. Only when Peter was exhausted to death did he leave the gym. After he left, Bai Ye, having lost his XP pack, also stopped training.

His Constitution experience bar, which had only reached 1.7 that afternoon, had soared to 1.7+0.2 (70%) after a night's training. Tomorrow, it would definitely rise another 0.1.

Marveling at the usefulness of Spider-Man as an XP pack, Bai Ye took out paper and a pen from the corner and began writing down the Purple Mist Divine Skill he would teach Smith tomorrow.

With his Spirit stat at 1.7, Bai Ye now possessed nearly photographic memory and millimeter-level precision.

Holding the pen, Bai Ye rapidly copied the text without any tools or assistance, both hands moving so fast they left afterimages.

In just two hours, Bai Ye had reproduced the entire Purple Mist Divine Skill, along with Yue Buqun's annotations.

After finishing, Bai Ye put away the manual. Feeling that the blood-soaked wounds on his body had yet to completely heal, he simply sat cross-legged on the cold marble floor and began gathering qi.

An hour later, after three strands of Purple Mist True Qi had formed in Bai Ye's Dantian, the wounds on his body had completely healed. After eating something to fill his stomach, he stood up and continued training.

He had now discovered that he seemingly no longer needed sleep. The damage caused by staying up late had begun to fall below the rate at which his body healed.

I'm starting to seem less and less human. Bai Ye silently thought to himself, hoisting the iron weight beside him and beginning his workout.

Late at night, most of New York City was asleep. Only a small number of people were still struggling toward their own goals.

In the hallway of a residential building in Brooklyn, a woman in her twenties stood wide-eyed, her body shriveled and dried out as she lay dead outside her home.

"Too late again."

Standing before the desiccated corpse was a man nearly six-foot-three tall. He had blue eyes, slicked-back black hair, and a tall, muscular build beneath his trench coat.

A white skull was printed on the T-shirt over the man's chest, making him look utterly murderous.

The man crouched down and gently moved the woman's head aside, revealing two bloody holes in her neck.

"Damn vampire bastards," the man cursed under his breath as he rose to his feet, turned, and walked into the darkness. He then took out his phone and dialed a number.

"Hello, Matt? When will your body be ready for a mission?"

At the hospital, Matt, who had returned to his hospital bed, said awkwardly, "Victor, I might need another two weeks before I can walk normally. Do you need my help with something?"

"It's those vampire bastards that never seem to die. Those freaks used to be restless, but their hunts followed a pattern and stayed within certain areas. This month, though, there have already been seven bodies drained dry. I suspect they're planning something big."

"What about Blade? I thought vampires had always been his territory?" Matt's expression turned serious.

"I tried to find him, but he completely went off the grid yesterday. That's why I came to you."

"How about I recommend someone to you?"

"Who?"

"That student who was on TV a few days ago. I think he has a lot of potential, and I want you to teach him," Matt said.

"You know I don't like training rookies, but I'll keep an eye on him. Compared to him, I appreciate that Murder Demon more."

"Murder Demon? Who's that?"

"The mutant who wiped out three gangs over the past two days. I think his methods are right up my alley." Victor hung up after saying that.

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