Corpse Collector

"Let's get out of here. This isn't a place to linger."

"985 will keep expanding their search radius. Let's find Old Xia first."

Luo Yi lit a cigarette and led the way. In the night, its sparks glimmered like twinkling stars.

Wu Zhong and Yang Chunsha followed. "Master Luo, do you know where Brother Xia is?"

Luo Yi shrugged. "Huh? I don't know. Just find a corpse with a name and tell him."

"That guy has safehouses all over the world... He's probably lying on some sunny beach right now."

Wu Zhong and Yang Chunsha froze. "Huh? A corpse with a name?"

Luo Yi tilted his head. "Hm? You didn't know?"

"Heh, he never told you? His ability could be called Corpse Collector. As long as he says he'll collect someone's body, he'll instantly teleport near that corpse."

"It works on living people too. So long as he promised to collect their body, once they die, he'll be forcibly teleported to them no matter where they are."

Wu Zhong understood. So that was his ability.

No wonder they had arranged to meet at a funeral home. Even if he didn't know the deceased, he knew their name because he had looked into it beforehand.

No wonder, before teleporting away from the tunnel, Xia Heng had tossed down a severed head. There were no corpses in the tunnel; if he teleported away, he wouldn't be able to return.

Wu Zhong had never heard Xia Heng talk about collecting anyone's body, so it must work if he said it quietly or even just recited it in his mind.

He had actually guessed part of this ability long ago. He just hadn't known it could be used on living people, allowing him to promise in advance to collect their bodies.

The key was simply knowing the name and making sure the area around the target was relatively safe.

"Master Luo, is it really okay to reveal Brother Xia's secret just like that?"

Luo Yi rolled his eyes. "What's the big deal? Spend more time around him and you'll find out sooner or later. This ability is easy enough to figure out."

Wu Zhong pursed his lips. "I'm really curious. How did you and Brother Xia meet?"

Their relationship felt strange to him. They were close friends, yet they were also wary of each other—especially Xia Heng, who guarded against Luo Yi.

Wu Zhong needed to figure out just how close they really were.

Luo Yi chuckled as he hurried along. "At first, we were opponents. We clashed during a mission where our objectives conflicted."

"Then, while he was withdrawing, I discovered that he could teleport. He didn't know I could split off my shadow and hide a clone in his."

"So when it attached itself to him, his teleportation took my shadow along too. That meant I always knew where he was."

"But we didn't have any deep grudge against each other. Our missions had merely conflicted. I was curious about him, so I kept chasing him. I could always find him."

"It was like hide-and-seek, you know? At first, he wouldn't even talk to me. He acted all cool. But later, he realized I must have some way of marking him, so he started chatting with me and probing at my abilities."

"Haha, like I'd tell him. Then that guy pretended to invite me for drinks, poisoned me, and lied that it was some kind of logic bomb. Heh, I drank every last drop, and nothing happened."

"After that, he started going out of his way to wait for me in all sorts of strange, even godforsaken places. And sure enough, I caught up to him every time..."

"He wasn't cool at all in private. He was hilarious. After every mission, he had to take a bath first, and he even played with rubber duckies."

"Anyway, he'd suddenly see me while washing his feet. I'd show up when he was sleeping and recharging. I'd pop out of nowhere while he was on a mission..."

"That's how it went. One chased, one ran, and all sorts of things happened. Over time, we chased up some feelings. I called him a cunning rabbit with three burrows, and he called me a lingering ghost."

"Sometimes we got into trouble, and I happened to be there, so we faced it together. Back and forth, we saved each other a few times."

"In the end, I finally wore him down until he gave in... and that's how we became bros. I could melt even an iceberg! Hehe."

"I'm telling you, before he met me, that kid didn't have a single friend. He trusted no one. It took me a lot of effort to melt that block of ice."

Wu Zhong listened, enthralled. So that was how the two had become friends.

Luo Yi's ability happened to counter Xia Heng's perfectly. His shadow could merge into Xia Heng's, causing Xia Heng to carry Luo Yi's clone with him wherever he teleported.

That meant Xia Heng's teleportation was practically half-disabled. Wasn't Luo Yi naturally impossible to shake off?

Fortunately, Luo Yi had harbored no ill intent. He had merely chased Xia Heng out of curiosity and mischief. Over time, the two had developed a bond through all that chasing.

Xia Heng was cool and icy toward strangers, but once someone learned his secrets, they would see another side of him. Like last time, when Xia Heng had gotten drunk at a karaoke bar and howled like a wolf right in front of Wu Zhong...

It felt a little like, You've already discovered so many of my secrets anyway, so I can't be bothered pretending to be cool anymore.

So it wasn't the first time. Luo Yi had melted him after all. Were introverts really just extroverts' toys?

No, he hadn't been completely melted. Wu Zhong knew Xia Heng still kept a guard up against Luo Yi.

Tsk. Wu Zhong wondered what Xia Heng had been through that he couldn't fully trust even his only friend. Maybe that was simply the way to survive.

Of course, Wu Zhong believed Xia Heng had his reasons for doing so, and naturally wouldn't expose it.

And since Xia Heng kept a guard up even against his best brother, Wu Zhong could hardly be blamed for guarding against Xia Heng too.

The moonlight was hazy.

The three traveled through the mountains and forests late at night, relying solely on their physical bodies.

This was the most discreet way to travel. They used no vehicles, and every direction was a path as they crossed the terrain as if walking on level ground.

There was no need to mention Wu Zhong. His speed had suddenly become the fastest.

Twenty times the physical prowess was no joke.

He shot forward like lightning, feeling like a sports car racing down the highway. The forests on both sides of his vision flew past in a blur.

With senses and reaction speed ten times those of an ordinary person, he could easily avoid obstacles in the woods.

At that moment, he was the fastest, while Yang Chunsha was the slowest.

But that was no problem. Wu Zhong simply grabbed her with one arm and carried her up. She weighed barely over a hundred jin and felt light as nothing, barely slowing him down.

"You don't need to wait for me, kid. Run at full speed." Seeing that Wu Zhong was deliberately slowing down, Luo Yi curled his lip.

Wu Zhong blinked, then stopped holding back. With a whoosh, his speed surged again!

The wind howled as the trees around him streaked past at breakneck speed.

He glanced back, only to see that Luo Yi was still keeping up. He wasn't any slower than Wu Zhong.

"Huh?"

Wu Zhong noticed that beneath Luo Yi's raised pant legs were jet-black calves.

They looked as though they were wrapped in a thin, glossy black membrane, and it had sent his strength soaring.

"What is that..."

Luo Yi caught up beside him. "Nothing much. Just Armament Haki."

"..." Wu Zhong stared blankly.

Even the cigarette between Luo Yi's lips remained perfectly upright despite the fierce headwind... It was coated in Haki, appearing as a black cigarette.

"Holy shit..."

"Master Luo, I'm impressed."

Luo Yi chuckled. "You've improved fast too. This morning, you still had an ordinary person's physique. By tonight, you're already this strong."

"I have you to thank for helping me become a first-generation Madblood Clan member," Wu Zhong said.

Luo Yi waved a hand. "That's what happens when different anomalous items are paired together. Some traits might look useless on their own, but once combined, they could soar to the skies. As long as the combination fits, getting stronger is easy as hell."

"The main thing is that your mental shield is tough enough... I'm first-generation too, but mine is damn useless. Randomly getting mental illnesses? I can't afford to gamble on that."

"Oh, right. You're at twenty times now, yeah?"

"Your effect grants nineteen times," Wu Zhong said. "Counting my own physical condition, it comes to twenty times."

Luo Yi nodded. "Yeah, that's right. Under the current international classification system, there are only nineteen major categories of mental illness."

"The so-called random cost of the first embrace means randomly selecting one subtype from each of those nineteen major categories. In other words, the random pool contains at most nineteen kinds."

"Of course, there are plenty of other mental illnesses in the world, but you'll have to collect and absorb those yourself. They won't appear in the first-embrace random pool."

Wu Zhong understood. "So that's how it is. I was wondering why there were only nineteen when there are so many kinds of mental illness."

Luo Yi smiled. "This is actually better. It means that once a first-generation Madblood Clan member has filled up all nineteen, any future draws are guaranteed to be duplicates."

"And then you can just grab anyone and absorb from them to restore your health."

Wu Zhong nodded. "Right, that's better."

After the previous battle, he knew the rule that duplicates only restored health was the more useful one.

Improving one's physique was generally something to do during peaceful times, when one could pick suitable targets from various psychiatric hospitals.

Restoring health, meanwhile, was something needed in dangerous situations, when one's life hung by a thread.

How could icing on the cake compare to help in a snowstorm?

If Wu Zhong had possessed a reliable way to replenish his vitality by absorbing illnesses during that earlier battle, he would have beaten Arborvitae flat long ago. How could he have nearly died several times?

Luo Yi smacked his lips. "What people envy most about the Madblood Clan isn't the boost to physical prowess."

"How many times can that increase you by? Do you think everyone has a mental resistance-type effect?"

"The most important thing is staying alive. Vitality is the most fundamental thing. Whether it's longevity or healing injuries, you need it. That's the Madblood Clan's true core advantage."

"And the first generation best embodies the sheer power of the Madblood Clan effect."

Yang Chunsha couldn't help interrupting. "Can ordinary Madblood Clan members advance into the first generation?"

Luo Yi rolled his eyes. "You're thinking too much. It's impossible. Once you become an ordinary Madblood Clan member, that's fixed."

"Even if a first-generation member strips your effect away and gives you another first embrace, you still won't qualify to become first-generation."

"Only someone receiving a true 'first' embrace can do it. You only get one chance at the draw, and there must also be an empty first-generation seat among the Thirteen Clans."

Wu Zhong licked his lips. "Does being in the same clan have any other effect?"

Luo Yi said gloomily, "Yes... If a first-generation member dies, every ordinary Madblood Clan member in the branch they passed down will die too."

Wu Zhong was shocked by those words, and Yang Chunsha shuddered even more.

"Huh?" Yang Chunsha's effect had been passed down by Wu Zhong, and Wu Zhong was first-generation.

"So if he dies, I get buried with him?"

Luo Yi nodded. "Unless he passes on a first-generation member who establishes an independent branch, every ordinary Madblood Clan member he spreads belongs to his clan."

"They live and die with their clan leader."

Wu Zhong and Yang Chunsha looked at each other. He could barely hold it together.

Yang Chunsha wore a miserable expression. "If my effect gets stripped away, can I avoid being buried with him?"

"You can," Luo Yi confirmed.

Wu Zhong looked at her. "Do you want me to strip it from you? If you do, I can absorb it from you right now."

"Uh..." Yang Chunsha fell silent.

Wu Zhong smiled and said nothing more. Yang Chunsha didn't make another sound either.

She was already tied to Wu Zhong by the same rope. Now, the knot had merely been pulled tighter. She knew too much, and Xia Heng would never allow her to leave the team.

In that case, would giving up the Madblood Clan effect really mean she wouldn't die?

She might as well hold tight to this power and develop it with everything she had.