028 Consecutive Kills (1) 029 Consecutive Kills (2) 030 Consecutive Kills (3)

028 Consecutive Kills (1)

Les and Old Bill had yet to figure out what was going on. They treated Green as prey to fight over for credit, shooting each other sidelong glances as they tried to outdo one another. Old Bill in particular had been an honest, long-suffering worker, but after gaining supernatural abilities, he had become even more vicious and ruthless.

The fat one and the thin one had been senior members of the Tower of Yin Spirits. They had long known that Les and Old Bill were cannon fodder, so they could not be bothered to pay them any attention and merely watched the show. Their strength was not weak. The tall, skinny one was called Jike, an Intermediate Apprentice Swordsman. The other, a fat old man named Jones, was an Advanced Blood Mage Apprentice and a fanatic who aspired to become a vampire.

Jike was actually the so-called High Priest who had given Les the summoning array diagram back then.

Before joining the Tower of Yin Spirits, Jones had been an infamous serial killer. Ten years ago, he had committed over a dozen murders and skinning cases targeting prostitutes in the Royal Capital, even drawing the attention of the Anomalies Bureau. He had been exceptionally cunning and escaped the Royal Capital ahead of time, narrowly avoiding disaster. For the past decade or so, he had concealed his identity within the Tower of Yin Spirits.

Green looked at the two men closing in, as well as Jike and Jones watching from the side. He did not move, his face expressionless.

Penny, backed into a corner, was both furious and anxious. She shouted, "Green, run! Don't worry about me!" In her eyes, Green had only become a Necromancer Apprentice a few days ago. There was no way he could be a match for anyone present. Even if he somehow defeated Les and Old Bill, he would only die at the hands of the other two. His only chance was to flee immediately.

Yet at that moment, a tall Skeleton Soldier clad in full armor suddenly came up from below the stairs. It held a rusty enchanted rifle and raised the weapon to fire.

With a bang, the bullet erupted from the muzzle in a burst of flame. Dense runes surfaced across the enchanted rifle. A streak of white light swirled around the barrel in particular, forming a spiral as it poured powerful Psychic Energy into the brass bullet.

The shot was aimed at Les. With another bang, his head exploded. The bullet's immense force instantly blew off the top of Les's skull, scattering red and white matter everywhere and splattering Old Bill beside him from head to toe.

Old Bill was dumbstruck on the spot. What the hell was this? What happened to Yin Spirits protecting their bodies? What happened to supernatural abilities that feared no firearm attacks?

Even Les, who had been shot dead, could not believe it. His eyes still held supreme confidence at the moment of death. He had never regarded Green as a threat, looking at him as though he were an ant. How ironic.

"Clack, click..."

Amid everyone's shock came the sound of a bolt being worked and a round being chambered.

This enchanted rifle could not fire continuously. It was somewhat similar to a Type 38 rifle, with a five-round magazine. After firing one bullet, it had to be manually chambered before it could fire again.

To Old Bill, that crisp chambering sound was like a death warrant. Les's death had already jolted him awake from the frenzy of gaining supernatural powers. With blood and brain matter smeared all over his face, he stared at the dark muzzle just a few meters away. The formerly honest middle-aged man completely lost his courage. His legs went limp, and he dropped to his knees.

Green remained expressionless. He did not even spare Old Bill, whose face was full of pleading, another glance. His gaze remained fixed on Jike and Jones, one tall and one fat, on the other side.

But before Old Bill's knees could touch the ground, a second gunshot rang out...

The next moment, a heavy corpse thudded to the floor.

It was another shot through the forehead. Blood and brain matter splattered across the ground. The Gun Skeleton Soldier, certified by the Graveyard, was an excellent marksman, equivalent to a sharpshooter trained on thousands of rounds. At this distance, it would have been difficult for it to miss even if it tried.

Only then did Jike and Jones react, their faces revealing shock and vigilance. Penny's expression was even more spectacular. No matter what, she had never expected the Skeleton Soldier Green brought with him to be this formidable, much less equipped with an enchanted rifle. It was simply unbelievable.

Even Green himself was somewhat surprised. This was his first time experiencing the might of a Gun Skeleton Soldier.

It was not that Les and Old Bill had been too weak. The supernatural abilities granted to them by the Yin Spirits were not yet used skillfully, but they were still quite powerful—stronger than Junior Apprentices. If another Novice Necromancer Apprentice had encountered them, they would certainly have been beaten into a miserable state. Unfortunately, they had run into a freak like Green, who had actually equipped Skeleton Soldiers with enchanted rifles. Two bangs later, they were dealt with.

"Hahaha! No wonder you dared track us here. So you were relying on a contracted special undead creature capable of using a gun?" The fat old man Jones suddenly sneered, convinced he had seen through Green's foundations. A savage, vicious glint flickered in his eyes. "But boy, you have completely enraged me. Those two idiots belonged to the Tower of Yin Spirits. They were our property, not people anyone could kill whenever they pleased!"

The tall, thin Jike grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "What a pity. You contracted such an excellent Skeleton Soldier right after becoming an Undead Apprentice. If you had not come here today, perhaps you could have grown into a Formal Mage someday. But unfortunately, you have no future..."

As Jike spoke, he waved his hand. A burst of white light exploded in his palm, and a strange weapon appeared through the mist. It had a long handle and a broad head, heavy-looking, while streams of white air flowed around its surface under the activation of battle aura.

At the same time, the Skeleton Soldier beside Green worked the bolt again, aimed at Jike, and fired a third bullet.

"Haah!" Jike shouted. With astonishing agility, he swung the weapon in his hand, actually forming a visible shield of air before him that blocked the Psychic Energy bullet.

With a ding, the compressed and deformed brass bullet fell to the floor with a crisp sound. Jike immediately burst into wild laughter. "Hahaha! Boy, your Skeleton Soldier cannot hurt me at all. I am not one of those two idiots. I have already fully mastered the divine power within me—ugh..."

Before he could finish, however, it was as if someone had seized him by the throat. His words stopped abruptly.

Jike had blocked one bullet, then kept prattling as he pressed forward. He intended to kill the Skeleton Soldier and capture Green alive as a sacrifice for the Yin Spirits. Due to their shrinking operations and all members going into hiding, the Tower of Yin Spirits had not offered a sacrifice to the Yin Spirit they worshipped for a very long time. That great Yin Spirit dwelling in the distant void had become deeply dissatisfied.

Yet just as his wishful calculations clattered away in his mind, he discovered in horror that five or six Skeleton Soldiers in full armor, each carrying an enchanted rifle, were emerging one after another from the stairwell behind Green. Nor was that all. Two or three armed Skeleton Soldiers had appeared at each of the windows on both sides and the other two doorways. At a rough glance, there were no fewer than twenty of them!

This left Jike and Jones completely dumbfounded. Even Penny, who had been worrying all along, stared with her mouth agape.

If a Novice Necromancer Apprentice had one contracted special Skeleton Soldier, that might still be explained away as good luck. But nearly an entire squad of well-equipped, agile, orderly, killing-intent-filled Skeleton Soldiers with special traits appearing all at once was not something that could be explained by the words good luck.

029 Consecutive Kills (2)

Upon realizing they had fallen into an encirclement, both the formerly arrogant Jike and the unruffled old Jones lost their composure. Their expressions were indescribable, like playing Honor of Kings and thinking the opponent was Bronze, only to find that they were actually a King. That was far too terrifying.

But Green did not give them much time to think. Before coming upstairs, he had already summoned all seventeen Gun Skeleton Soldiers and arranged a simple encirclement. Otherwise, why would he have walked in so openly?

The next moment, gunfire erupted. The first volley, mainly directed at Jike, sent him straight to his grave. The defensive air shield condensed from battle aura that he had been so proud of shattered after blocking only three bullets. In Jike's disbelieving gaze, the remaining bullets struck fatal points—his left eye, heart, left ribs, and groin. He did not even have time to scream before dying cleanly.

With a thud, the body hit the floor.

Green swept his eyes over it without expression. Killing several people in just a few breaths gave him a strange sensation of holding life and death in his hands. He could not tell whether it was excitement or exhilaration. Especially since he had stood there calmly from beginning to end, never needing to lift a hand as his enemies were dealt with. It differed from the hot-blooded thrill of personally charging in with a blade and slaughtering in all directions.

At the same time, old Jones's face turned ashen. The moment he sensed something wrong, he had instantly cast the protective spell Blood Armor, blocking four enchanted bullets. More alert than most, he then summoned a Blood Slave in front of himself. Old Jones had not survived to this day by luck. One could call him cowardly or cautious, but whenever he encountered a powerful enemy, he always followed the same routine: activate Blood Armor, then release a Blood Slave.

This time, that habit had saved his old life again. Blood Armor shattered instantly, but the remaining bullets all struck the Blood Slave, producing muffled thuds like they had hit leather. They actually failed to penetrate it!

Green frowned slightly. That inconspicuous crimson humanoid floating before old Jones had taken several enchanted bullets without harm. It did not even seem to be losing much blood. Could it be some extraordinarily powerful existence?

But he quickly saw through it. Understanding dawned on him, and he sneered inwardly. So that's why it can't be shot through. It's Non-Newtonian Fluid.

Green recognized that this so-called Blood Slave was made from a viscous liquid and possessed the characteristics of Non-Newtonian Fluid, instantly hardening upon impact.

There were quite a few substances with such characteristics. Biological blood and lymphatic fluid were typical examples. This Blood Slave had been refined by a Blood Mage using a large quantity of blood as its primary material, and thus happened to possess this miraculous trait. Its ability to block bullets was hardly surprising.

Since the bullets could not penetrate it, even the bursts of Psychic Energy attached to them could only create ripples across the Blood Slave's surface.

"Y-you... who are you?" Though old Jones had escaped unharmed, he had been thoroughly frightened and broken out in cold sweat. If he had not been habitually cautious, he would already have ended up like that dead fool Jike. Looking at Green again, his heart was filled with terror. He no longer had any will to fight, only to discover that every exit had been blocked by Skeleton Soldiers. He was a turtle in a jar.

Jones's heart sank. He knew it was truly time to risk his life. If he could not break out, death was all but certain. Gritting his teeth, he said, "It seems you definitely will not agree if I ask you to spare me." Without waiting for Green's reply, his body suddenly shuddered and swelled by a third. Red threads surged from every pore across his body. These threads had all been refined through Blood Coagulation. To make them, even he had lost count of how many people he had killed for blood.

In an instant, Green smelled a thick stench of blood. Old Jones's face was twisted in pain. It seemed this spell was not easy for him to use, and he could not maintain it for long. Red light covered his entire body as he charged forward in great strides.

Green remained calm and ordered four Skeleton Soldiers forward for close combat. Gun Skeleton Soldiers wielding enchanted rifles with bayonets were not weak in close combat, while the other Skeleton Soldiers continued firing. At the same time, Green raised his wand and prepared Bone Spikes, ready to cast it at any moment.

Green did not rush to summon the Ghouls. In the current situation, more than ten Skeleton Soldiers were enough to handle things. Unless old Jones broke through in the midst of battle and became a Formal Blood Mage—which was obviously a minuscule possibility. At Jones's age, with his declining body and weakening spirit, he was stuck at Advanced Apprentice Mage. His hope of advancing to Formal Rank was exceedingly slim.

The four Skeleton Soldiers advanced with their rifles leveled, meeting old Jones as he transformed into a massive crimson blood sphere two meters in diameter.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

A rapid series of metallic collisions rang out as the bayonets struck the blood sphere's surface. With their perfect combat experience, the Skeleton Soldiers formed a combat unit and nearly pushed rifle-and-bayonet combat to its limits, attacking in sequence from different angles. Yet this wave of attacks was blocked by the blood sphere surrounding old Jones. The bayonets containing Psychic Energy could pierce more than ten centimeters into it, but no farther.

"Hahaha! Boy, do you think you have me in the palm of your hand just because you have these contracted Skeleton Soldiers?" Old Jones laughed wildly and roared, needing an outlet for the severe pain caused by blood magic. "Back then, even an Advanced Apprentice Mage contracted to an Undead Earth Dragon was drained dry by me. Much less a little brat whose hair has not even grown in yet."

As he spoke, the massive blood sphere shuddered and actually knocked all four close-combat Skeleton Soldiers flying back. Then the sphere rolled rapidly, ignoring the hail of gunfire as it charged straight at Green.

This move had repeatedly proven effective for old Jones when facing powerful enemies. Once the blood sphere gained speed, every enemy would dodge. As long as he forced Green back, he could rush down the stairs and escape. If Green stubbornly refused to retreat, that would be even better—he would crush him to death, then drain every drop of blood from his body.

Green frowned, but did not hurry to dodge. When the blood sphere was only three or four meters away, he flicked his wand and unleashed Bone Spikes. In an instant, a cluster of one- to two-meter-long spikes shot up from beneath the blood sphere.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The rapidly thrusting stone spikes failed to pierce the blood sphere, but they launched it directly into the air. It smashed violently against the ceiling before crashing back down to the floor.

Old Jones had not expected Green to have such a move. He was thrown about inside until his head spun. His age caught up with him; his vision went dark, and he took a long while to recover.

A faint smile appeared on Green's face. He immediately ordered a Skeleton Soldier forward to slowly push its bayonet into the blood sphere.

If they were natives of this world, most would not understand the nature of Non-Newtonian Fluid. Upon finding that they could not break it, they would only use greater force, attacking with more power and speed, which would instead make the blood sphere condensed by blood magic even harder to destroy. But slowly pushing a weapon into it could penetrate the sphere and directly harm old Jones hiding inside like a turtle.

By the time old Jones recovered, a rusty yet incomparably sharp bayonet was already less than a few centimeters from his heart.

"Ah! What is happening? My Blood Coagulation defense is invincible! It cannot be broken!" Old Jones's face was filled with astonishment and terror as he roared madly, trying to roll the blood sphere and avoid having the bayonet pierce his chest. Yet he discovered that more than ten Skeleton Soldiers had surrounded him, firmly pinning the blood sphere he hid within to the spot. Combined with how badly he had been thrown and his present panic, he could not focus enough to control the magic at all. The blood sphere rocked twice but ultimately failed to roll. He could only watch helplessly as the bayonet gradually pierced his clothes, skin, muscles, and bones... before finally slicing open a thick blood vessel beside his heart.

"No!"

Old Jones let out a shrill scream. The light faded from his eyes, and the blood around him dispersed, revealing old Jones within. His magic had collapsed, and he had only one breath left.

"You... how could you break... break my Blood Coagulation! This... this is impossible!" Old Jones demanded with his last strength. Even now, he could not believe that the spell he was so proud of had been so easily shattered by a young junior.

030 Consecutive Kills (3)

Green sneered inwardly. Naturally, he had no intention of wasting words explaining. He was about to order a Skeleton Soldier to shoot and finish the enemy when an angry roar came from outside. "Stop right there!"

With the roar, a mass of black radiance flashed past with a boom, blasting a large hole straight through a cement brick wall. A burly man like a little giant charged in from outside.

The man stood more than two meters tall, wearing heavy, thick armor and carrying a massive axe that looked immensely weighty. Black mist condensed from Yin Spirit divine power coiled around his body. After barging in, he did not waste words, swinging his axe through the air toward Green. A chilling radiance slashed out, forming a black wind blade that swept toward him like a bolt of silk.

"Holy Son..." The dying old Jones saw the little giant and called out weakly, his lips trembling. But his blood had run dry, and the light in his eyes faded away.

"You dared kill an overseer of my Tower of Yin Spirits! Boy, you are tired of living." The little giant called Holy Son glanced at old Jones's lifeless body, contempt flashing through his eyes. There was little affection there. Yet when he looked at Green, his gaze was filled with deep hatred and venom. Clearly, he had not shared much friendship with old Jones, but to him, an outsider killing someone from the Tower of Yin Spirits was an unforgivable crime.

Green met the incoming wind blade by flicking his wand, casting a spike before himself. But rather than erupting upward, it thrust forward to meet the wind blade.

The next moment, the two collided with a crack. The stone spike shattered instantly, but it also canceled out the black-mist-wreathed wind blade. A second spike shot out immediately, followed by another crack...

Five spikes shot out in succession within half a second, finally completely neutralizing the wind blade cast by the Tower of Yin Spirits' Holy Son.

Green had only recently mastered this method of using Bone Spikes. With Level 5 Bone Spikes, combined with continuous practice and experimentation, he could now wield the spell as easily as moving his fingers. As a Necromancer Apprentice, Bone Spikes would be his only offensive magic aside from his summons for at least some time to come.

At the same time, the Gun Skeleton Soldiers received the order to counterattack. They aimed at their enemy, raised their rifles, and fired.

Amid a barrage of gunfire, the Holy Son, over two meters tall, cried out in pain again and again.

Yes, that was right. When the Skeleton Soldiers' enchanted bullets struck his body, they only hurt him enough to make him yelp. Most bullets bounced off his skin. Only three penetrated it, but were tightly clamped by his powerful muscles, which contained Yin Spirit power. They drew only a trace of blood.

Green frowned. "Is this guy a monster? His defense is so strong!"

If not for the fact that this burly man lacked the Psychic Energy gemstone condensed by Formal Rank supernatural beings, Green might even have suspected that he was a Formal Rank evil god priest.

That was right. This hulking man, built more powerfully than a raging bull, was neither a warrior nor a knight. He was a genuine evil god priest, blessed by a Void Yin Spirit.

For the first time, a grim expression appeared on Green's face. This evil god priest was the strongest enemy he had encountered since crossing over. That strange Yin Spirit power in particular meant that one careless misstep could capsize his boat. At this point, he no longer dared hold back. He immediately cast Soul Summoning, summoning the Ghouls. Then he gave Penny in the corner a look, signaling for her to find an opportunity to escape on her own.

Penny was clever enough not to make some melodramatic scene of "If you won't leave, neither will I. If we die, we die together." Seeing that the giant was not paying attention to her, she endured her pain, ran to the window, and flipped herself out.

With a bang, Penny jumped from the second floor. Because of her injuries, she failed to keep her balance. Her feet staggered, and she fell hard on her backside. She bared her teeth as a sharp pain shot up from her left ankle.

As an Apprentice Knight with decent strength, Penny knew her body very well. Though the pain made cold sweat pour from her and was nearly unbearable, she knew no bone had broken. She had likely only sprained her ankle. Gritting her teeth, she hurriedly fled outside.

Even after witnessing Green's strength, she did not believe he could defeat that giant who resembled a Magic Beast. The momentum of him smashing through the wall had been too frightening. She had to find help. If Green died saving her, she would blame herself for the rest of her life.

The battle lasted five or six minutes. By now, the second floor of the unfinished villa was a complete mess. One Ghoul had been cut in half at the waist. Another had been blasted into pulp by tremendous force. Strange black mist wound around half of a third Ghoul's body, rapidly corroding its flesh until only stark white bones remained.

Of Green's five ordinary Ghouls, three had been lost in this battle. Fortunately, the Ghouls had shielded the front, and none of the Gun Skeleton Soldiers had died. Yet this battle also exposed the weakness of the Gun Skeleton Soldiers: their lack of armor-piercing power. Earlier, they had been unable to break the blood sphere old Jones had condensed with Blood Coagulation, and later they dealt pitifully little damage to this evil god priest.

It seems I must find a way to improve the Gun Skeleton Soldiers' attack power. Otherwise, the troop type I painstakingly designed will become little more than a tasteless morsel. Green could not help recalling the enchanted cannon he had bought from Old One-Eye. If I can evolve Cannon Skeleton Soldiers, they may be clumsier, but their firepower will definitely be sufficient. Still, one Skeleton Soldier certainly cannot operate a cannon. Three or four must work together. I wonder whether they can successfully evolve and gain certification from the Graveyard like the Gun Skeleton Soldiers.

While planning for the future, Green walked toward the center of the battle.

At that moment, the evil god priest, more than two meters tall and as strong as a Magic Beast, lay on the ground as a headless corpse. Beside it, the arm of the Hard-Skin Ghoul below its left shoulder bent at a bizarre angle. Highly corrosive black mist clung to it, hissing as its hard flesh dissolved into thick fluid at a visible rate. Yet in its right hand, it held an enormous head. The irregular wound at the neck was drenched in blood, with half a torn spinal column even dangling beneath it. It had actually ripped the head from the body as though pulling up a radish.

Green was immensely grateful that he had obtained this Hard-Skin Ghoul last time. If he had not hidden this strongest combat force from the beginning, then at the most critical moment of the battle, when the enemy held every advantage and believed victory was assured, it could not have caught the evil god priest off guard. Attacking from behind with lightning speed, it had seized the priest by the back of the neck. Its sharp claws, enhanced with high attack power, had finally cut into the priest's flesh, severing his muscles and forcibly tearing off his head.

Even so, the evil god priest's final desperate counterattack had nearly killed the Hard-Skin Ghoul.

The severely injured Hard-Skin Ghoul had only half its life left. If left alone and allowed to be corroded by the black mist, it would die within minutes.

There was no way Green would let it die. He hurriedly recalled it into the Graveyard, feeding it Psychic Energy to repair its injuries. At the same time, the black mist attached to the Hard-Skin Ghoul's wounds—power belonging to the Void Yin Spirit—entered the Graveyard and was directly transformed into Psychic Energy for the Graveyard to absorb.

Seeing this, Green breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had been worried that absorbing power belonging to a Void Yin Spirit into the Graveyard might be risky. Now it seemed that, to this mysterious Graveyard, the existence of a Void Yin Spirit was nothing at all.

After the Hard-Skin Ghoul disappeared, the evil god priest's head fell to the ground and rolled to Green's feet with a thud.

Green bent down and picked it up, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. A prompt had already appeared in his mind from the Graveyard: Supernatural creature body detected. Absorb Psychic Energy?

Green naturally chose "Yes." Just as when he had absorbed magical items before, a ball of light spilled from the mangled head and flowed into Green's hand. The head then turned to powder and scattered across the floor.

When he immediately checked the Graveyard, Green's eyes lit up. Back when he had killed two Demonic Insect Parasites, he had gained only six points of Psychic Energy. Yet this single head alone brought him 128 points.

Overjoyed, Green quickly cleaned up the battlefield. The most important prizes were the evil god priest's headless corpse and the corpses of Jike and Jones. He did not even spare Les and Old Bill. Following the principle that even a mosquito leg was still meat, Green turned them all into Psychic Energy for the Graveyard. The evil god priest's body yielded the most—472 points, not counting the head. Jike and Jones yielded 114 and 156 points respectively, while Les and Old Bill gave 46 and 37 points. Altogether, the Graveyard's Psychic Energy reached 998 points, once again approaching a thousand after the construction of the crypt.