Gambling with His Life

Wu Zhong lay by the wall, murmuring in despair.

Arborvitae approached with ragged, vicious breaths, every step seeming to stomp on Wu Zhong's heart.

"If you kill me, neither you nor Feipeng can be saved from your injuries..."

Despite his despair, Wu Zhong still refused to give up.

But Arborvitae said grimly, "Hmph, still trying to struggle?"

"Your repeated last-ditch counterattacks have reduced Feipeng and me to this state. I won't give you another chance."

"That 'Incurable' ability you mentioned must also be an effect of the Ghost-God Mark. As long as I obtain it, I'll be able to heal myself."

"I never intended to inherit your Ghost-God Mark. I was going to give it to one of my companions."

"But I didn't expect you brat to be this troublesome. The risk of capturing and taking you away alive is too great. Feipeng has already been hit by the Laughing Grenade; he's beyond saving. So I'll reluctantly accept your Calamity item."

With that, he raised his right foot, intending to crush Wu Zhong's head.

Seeing that he did not care about Feipeng at all, Wu Zhong was utterly despairing.

Wu Zhong knew his claim about the Ghost-God Mark was a lie. The other man certainly would not believe it.

In a situation like this, the man would only kill him to verify it.

"Come on, I stopped wanting to live a long time ago! This trash ability has disgusted me sick. Go ahead and take it!"

"Hahaha! You can come keep me company in death too."

His utterly disgusted, resigned expression made Arborvitae somewhat suspicious.

As he had said, he was not originally the one meant to inherit the Ghost-God Mark.

It had been intended for the weakest member of their team, a secretly lewd man codenamed Gourd.

Why? Because Calamity items were dangerous.

Very few of them had entirely beneficial functions... otherwise, why would they be called Calamity items?

So while they said they were giving this good thing to a teammate, they were also having the weakest person test the waters first—as a test subject.

"Oh? Do you know how powerful it is to possess a Calamity item? Awakened ones all long for one, yet you're acting disgusted by it?"

"It disgusts you? How exactly?"

Arborvitae held his huge foot hovering in the air and deliberately probed further.

This guy cared more about himself than Feipeng.

Wu Zhong said, "If it were really that amazing, would I have ended up like this?"

"These ghost-gods keep draining my life force. And they keep getting stronger, demanding more and more. When I summoned one today, I nearly got drained to death..."

"Why else would Endless Summer go to such trouble to get someone to turn me into a Madblood Clan member? It was to replenish my life force."

Wu Zhong spouted nonsense, linking the reason he had become part of the Madblood Clan with the cost of the Ghost-God Mark.

"I see. So the Madblood Clan just happens to offset the price of the Ghost-God Mark..." Arborvitae suddenly understood. At the same time, he recalled that Madblood Clan members could heal injuries.

Wu Zhong secretly rejoiced, though his face remained ashen with despair. "It can't offset much. Mental illnesses are limited, but the ghost-gods' growth is limitless..."

"If I don't die by your hands, I'll die by the ghost-gods' hands sooner or later."

"They're getting stronger too quickly. Who knows how much of my life they'll drain tomorrow?"

Arborvitae sneered. "The ghost-gods of Mount Lu grow stronger by the day. That's a good thing. Your Calamity item has enormous potential."

"Too bad an idiot like you can't handle it. Better hand such a treasure over to me!"

"Brat, what mental illness do you have?"

Wu Zhong blurted out, "Insomnia... Hm? Why are you asking that?"

The moment Arborvitae heard it was only insomnia, he lowered his foot and hauled Wu Zhong up.

"Heh, why else? Embrace me first! Turn me into a Madblood Clan member too!"

He took the bait.

Wu Zhong had deliberately lured him into demanding that Wu Zhong pass on his Madblood blood before dying.

After all, without the Madblood Clan effect replenishing his life force, inheriting the Ghost-God Mark would be far too dangerous. The ever-strengthening ghost-gods, with their ever-growing demands, would drain him dry.

By Wu Zhong's account, the two traits seemed bound together, complementing one another.

If Arborvitae wanted to inherit it, he would surely force Wu Zhong to embrace him first before killing him.

Of course, Wu Zhong had made it all up, but Arborvitae believed him.

Arborvitae had not believed a single word from Wu Zhong before, yet he believed this one. As the saying went, a dying man's words were kind. The bleak despair on Wu Zhong's face was no act; he truly was at the end of the road.

Arborvitae probably felt smug too. Wu Zhong's repeated failure to kill him must have shattered his mental defenses.

He never imagined that this guy, trapped in certain death, would still make up stories to deceive him.

Could he possibly still be dreaming of turning the tables?

Of course Wu Zhong was. But he said aloud, "In your dreams! Even if I pass it on to you, you'll still kill me. Why should I let you have it so easily?"

"Arghhh!"

Arborvitae broke his other arm and released an electric shock from his palm. Wu Zhong immediately convulsed all over, pain piercing to his very core.

"Brat, embrace me, and I'll give you a quick death. Otherwise..."

"You know how many things in the Calamity Realm can make life worse than death, don't you?"

He threatened him with words and tortured him with electricity.

Wu Zhong sneered inwardly. Yeah, right. If you had something as terrifying as the Eternal Thirst Plum, you would've used it already. Why waste your breath?

He knew Arborvitae did not have such a thing, but his face showed panic and terror, as though he could no longer endure the agony.

He even recreated the genuine fear he had felt upon learning about the Eternal Thirst Plum.

"Don't... don't. I understand... I'll pass it on to you... Just give me a quick death..."

Seeing his panic, Arborvitae smiled in satisfaction. He set Wu Zhong down and extended his arm, letting him bite the wound on it. "Hurry up. Stop dragging your feet."

Wu Zhong's arms hung limply as he said blankly, "Just biting your hand is enough? Aren't I supposed to bite your neck?"

Arborvitae snorted disdainfully. "You can bite anywhere..."

"You really are a rookie at heart. You're part of the Madblood Clan, yet you don't even know that."

He was clearly familiar with the Madblood Clan's effects too. It seemed they were quite a well-known group in the Calamity Realm.

With a desolate look, Wu Zhong slowly moved his mouth toward Arborvitae's arm. There was already a wound there, and blood stained the tips of his teeth. Fine—he could not drain even a trace of sickness.

This guy was not ill.

No choice. I have to gamble!

At this point, there was only one possible way to turn things around. He had to wager his life.

"Take it!"

Wu Zhong exhaled, and with a thought, directly passed his insomnia on to Arborvitae.

That instantly made Arborvitae a member of the Madblood Clan, doubling his physical attributes in every respect beyond those of an ordinary person.

"Ah... incredible!"

Arborvitae was overjoyed. He had become a Madblood Clan member!

After the embrace, every cell in his body was renewed, and even some of his injuries recovered in the process. After all, his cellular activity had risen to twice that of an ordinary person.

But while it felt good, the hole in his chest, the gate in his ass, and the bullet holes across his body had not closed.

Only the huge amount of blood he had lost was replenished and regenerated.

"Only this much healing?" Arborvitae was somewhat dissatisfied.

Hadn't Wu Zhong said the healing effect he granted could resolve the issue of wounds that could not heal?

But he also knew that only draining a duplicate mental illness counted as healing. The self-healing from an embrace was probably not enough to mend such horrific injuries.

Still, it was pretty good. He had already been at the end of his strength, yet now he had recovered a good deal of blood and vitality.

However, before he could even rejoice—

Wu Zhong suddenly inhaled again.

With a rush, Arborvitae fell from heaven into hell. Waves of weakness crashed through his body, and his physical attributes abruptly dropped back down.

"What did you do?!"

Arborvitae's eyes widened. He had actually lost the Madblood Clan's abilities again. Furious and shocked, he swung a hand at Wu Zhong.

"Nothing... I bet that I'm a progenitor!"

Wu Zhong's injuries had recovered somewhat. At the very least, the broken end of his right arm had healed considerably, allowing him to move it.

He suddenly raised his hand. His iron fist howled upward from below, making the air boom.

An uppercut smashed explosively into Arborvitae's jaw.

"Flying Gate! House Gate! Close!"

Wu Zhong sent Arborvitae flying with a single punch.

Arborvitae fell into a pool of blood, his face full of shock. A progenitor?

He climbed up, wanting to ask, only to find that he could not open his mouth.

His lips were sealed shut! His teeth clenched tight!

"Hm?"

Arborvitae was stunned. He could still feel his mouth and even control it; the muscles around his lips visibly twitched and struggled.

Yet his lips and teeth seemed welded shut with cement, as though space itself had anchored them in place. He could not open them.

He pointed at Wu Zhong as though demanding to know what he had done.

Wu Zhong took deep breaths, spreading the five fingers of his right hand. A Purple Molten Bomb was ready to fire.

"Looks like my life wasn't meant to end here."

"So I really did undergo a superior transformation. I'm a progenitor of the Madblood Clan..."

At that moment, his minor injuries were slowly healing before the naked eye.

His physical attributes were now three times those of an ordinary person, while his cellular activity was six times greater!

All because he had absorbed another case of Arborvitae's severe insomnia, even though it was the insomnia he himself had passed to Arborvitae moments ago.

Progenitors of the Madblood Clan had a special mechanism: not only could they drain the illnesses of ordinary people, they could also drain the illnesses of ordinary Madblood Clan members. In other words, they could plunder an ordinary Madblood Clan member's mental illness along with the power corresponding to it.

The embrace also had a special mechanism: passing the illness on did not reduce one's own illness; it merely replaced it with a random one.

Thus, this created a bug—or perhaps it was simply the progenitor's advantageous mechanism.

After embracing Arborvitae, Wu Zhong's illness was no longer insomnia. It had been randomly replaced with another illness.

As for what illness it was, he had no idea. The Mind Gate prevented him from having an episode.

Unless, by some coincidence, it had randomly become insomnia again, it had to be some other illness...

And in that case, draining Arborvitae's insomnia again would mean it was no longer a duplicate.

Theoretically, Wu Zhong could work with one person to keep rerolling illnesses until he acquired every mental illness in the world.

Of course, ordinary people could not use this method. It meant constantly taking random illnesses, and one absolutely needed Mental Bastion for it. Otherwise, it was simply courting death.

Other Madblood Clan members originally had choices. They even had all sorts of progression paths, with every "stat point" allocated under control. Why would they randomly roll?

Only Wu Zhong was unafraid of this.

At death's door, he had thought of this path to survival and gambled that he was a progenitor of the Madblood Clan.

He did not know the odds. Perhaps they were incredibly slim, but he had to try. Otherwise, he would die.

If he died, that would be the end of everything. Fortunately, he had won the gamble. His life was not yet over.

"Die!"

Wu Zhong's purple armguard finally fired a Purple Molten Bomb.

Arborvitae slapped the ground and sprang away, but he was still hit. A hole was blasted through his abdomen, leaving his organs and flesh a bloody mess.

"Arghhh!"

He went mad. Terrifying blood energy erupted, shrouding the space around him.

Crackling arcs of electricity lashed about like whips, striking Wu Zhong.

Wu Zhong convulsed from the shock, and his second Purple Molten Bomb was interrupted.

But his feet moved, launching himself forward in a thunderous flying kick!

Crack!

His whip-like leg howled, making even the air boom.

A midair strike directly swept aside the blood-energy protection and slammed viciously into the bloody hole in Arborvitae's abdomen.

Strike where it hurt while he was down. That was basic common sense.

Bang!

The kick struck Arborvitae hard, tearing open and widening the bloody hole in his abdomen once more.

That bloody hole might be incurable to others, but to Wu Zhong, it was naturally just an ordinary wound.

"Urgh..." Arborvitae flew sideways and smashed through the alley wall.

His waist and abdomen were nearly broken, and his body hung at a sharp angle over a half-collapsed wall.

He had lost too much blood. If the embrace had not replenished some of his blood and vitality just now, he would likely already be dead.

Even so, he was barely alive, lying there unable to rise.

Wu Zhong raised his palm when a shrill roar suddenly rang out.

"Arborvitae—"

The newcomer was Feipeng. With a wooden stick shoved into him from behind, he laughed maniacally, ass raised, and charged through the air with explosive force.

"Oh-ho-ho... Pull it out! Pull it out, hahahaha..."