Chapter 167: Blood Drop

Chapter 167 -164: Blood Drop

In the night sky, amidst dark clouds.

Jiang Chaosheng sat upon the Black Cloud Throne, returning to the South Sea with the dark clouds.

He gently rubbed the key to Antique Shop Zero hanging around his neck, his mind slowly turning.

All the lost Taboo Items in the Northeast had been collected.

But from the experiences of the past few days, Jiang Chaosheng sensed something unusual.

The previous user of the Black Magic Doll was killed by a Taiping Daoist.

The previous user of the Penalty Fire Flintlock Gun was killed by a Taiping Daoist.

Wang Xiuqiao was being oppressed by members of the Taiping Dao.

After he recovered the Five Immortals Candle, he ran into the Taiping Daoist—Wang Zhen—at the gate of Li Ying’s courtyard.

‘Now that I think about it,’ he mused, ‘if I hadn’t taken the Five Immortals Candle first, would Wang Zhen have taken it instead?’

Therefore, a struggle between Extraordinary Beings had been taking place in the Northeast all along.

Jiang Chaosheng suddenly got a bit theatrical.

He felt that the Taiping Dao was like a supervillain organization from a novel, slaughtering all kinds of Extraordinary Beings.

Jiang Chaosheng muttered to himself,

“How interesting. Just like an action anime.”

Jiang Chaosheng felt a sense of absurdity.

A covert war among Extraordinary Beings had clearly been raging in the Human World for a long time.

For ordinary people, this struggle was a secret beyond their wildest imagination.

And yet, even after becoming an Extraordinary Being himself, he had stayed as far away from those secrets as possible.

It sounded unbelievable, even absurd.

Jiang Chaosheng also understood why.

‘My power level is far beyond that of the Taiping Dao.’

‘The struggles of mortals are simply too trivial from my perspective.’

He didn’t know if the West had organizations like the Taiping Dao, but Jiang Chaosheng believed they couldn’t be as strong.

Even if they were, it wouldn’t be by much.

‘The Taiping Dao schemes against Extraordinary Beings, while I am deciphering the secrets of gods and devils.’

‘The two are on completely different levels in every respect.’

Suddenly, Jiang Chaosheng froze, his hand still in the posture of stroking the key to Antique Shop Zero.

He was like a statue frozen in time on the Black Cloud Throne, his eyes vacant and lifeless.

A Taboo Item had reawakened. He was perceiving the item’s information and location.

After ten or so seconds, Jiang Chaosheng snapped out of it.

He narrowed his eyes, his expression turning grim.

“The Spear of Destiny… It’s in the South Sea?”

Item 0-04, the Spear of Destiny.

Legend has it that in 33 AD, the Holy Son was nailed to the Cross.

A Roman centurion named Longinus, seeking to verify if the Holy Son was dead,

pierced his side with a long spear.

The blood and water that flowed out subsequently healed Longinus’s nearly blind eyes.

This event was hailed as a miracle.

This spear, stained with holy blood, became a Sacred Artifact of the Holy Church.

For over two thousand years, the kings of the West have searched for this spear, firmly believing it symbolizes destiny and can bring victory.

Item 0-04, the Spear of Destiny, was precisely that spear which had pierced the Holy Son.

However, this spear was not the complete version of the Spear of Destiny.

In the Manager’s handbook, Li Qinglian had once recorded information about the Spear of Destiny.

He had encountered the still-dormant Spear of Destiny in the Germanic Empire.

Due to the turbulent times and his own insufficient strength, he was unable to retrieve it.

This is how Li Qinglian recorded it in the Manager’s handbook:

“Upon observing this spear, its head is already broken, seemingly snapped in a fierce battle;

the shaft is covered in a dense network of cracks, like a spider’s web, and crumbles at a touch. One can imagine the ferocity of the perilous conflict that day.

It seems that because the spearhead was broken, it has lost its Divine Power, leaving only the resentment of the Holy Son. What a great pity!”

Jiang Chaosheng frowned and muttered to himself,

“Even if it has lost its spearhead and Divine Power, a Spear of Destiny left with only the resentment of Jesus would still be unimaginably malevolent.”

Jiang Chaosheng gently caressed the Nine-tailed Fox Demon Core in his robes.

“Faster.”

‘The entity within this Spear of Destiny is the complete resentment of a god. It’s more than ten times stronger than Lucifer’s remnant soul!’

‘I’m probably the only one who can contain it.’

If that thing is allowed to continue reawakening, an extremely terrifying anomalous event will occur in the South Sea.

Not to mention the South Sea is my home base. If the South Sea turns into a dead city, I’ll lose the ability to trade Taboo Items.

Of course, there was also the worst-case scenario.

‘What if that thing prevents me from returning to the South Sea? Then I won’t be able to provide Soul Power to the Taboo Sculpture, and I’ll fall prey to the curse of Antique Shop Zero!’

Daji’s voice rang out:

“As you command, my lord husband!”

The speed of the dark clouds surged dramatically!

…

「Zhangjia Village.」

A car sped to a halt in front of a residential courtyard.

The young man had an honest, simple face and wore a heavily wrinkled suit.

His name was Liu Tianming, and he was the manager of Chengfu Construction Company.

Liu Tianming scrambled out of the car and ran toward the courtyard, shouting,

“Sister Wang, Sister Wang!”

Liu Tianming had been terrified by Wang Xiuqiao’s last phone call, which had sounded like her final words, and had immediately rushed over.

The moment he entered the courtyard, he froze, and cold sweat dripped down his face.

There were two bodies in the courtyard!

Liu Tianming looked at Wang Xiuqiao, who was kneeling in the center of the courtyard, and swallowed hard.

“S-Sister Wang, what on earth happened?”

Wang Xiuqiao finally snapped back to her senses and looked at Liu Tianming.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t we say tomorrow?”

Wang Xiuqiao stood up, rubbing her sore legs. She looked at the two bodies in the courtyard, a little frightened.

“Well, since you’re here, you can help me bury them.”

Liu Tianming was completely obedient to Wang Xiuqiao.

‘Even if Sister Wang did something terrible, it must have been the other party’s fault.’

‘Sister Wang’s character is beyond question.’

‘Besides, she saved my life.’

Suppressing his fear, Liu Tianming rolled up his sleeves and said,

“Don’t you move, Sister Wang. Let me handle the rough work.”

Liu Tianming walked forward to move the bodies.

Suddenly, Liu Tianming felt a chill as the air temperature dropped in an instant.

He looked up and saw Wang Xiuqiao staring in terror at something behind him.

Liu Tianming froze for a moment, then slowly turned around. His eyes went wide.

“Holy crap!”

He cried out and fell right on his butt.

‘What kind of monster is this?!’

It wore red armor and was covered in white fur.

It looked like an ape in armor, but also like… a furry zombie from a horror movie!

Liu Tianming asked, trembling,

“Wh-what are you?!”

The monster opened its mouth, breathing out a cloud of frigid air.

“Bloodstain Department—Blood Drop.”

Its voice was grating, like a sound scraped from a corpse’s dry throat.

Wang Xiuqiao’s pupils contracted sharply.

‘The Tang Dynasty had its secret department, the ‘Unscrupulous People’; the Ming had its ‘Jinyiwei’.’

‘The Bloodstain Department was the secret organization of the Qing Dynasty, and its members were called Blood Drops.’

‘This thing… could it be a Qing Dynasty zombie?!’

The monster glanced at the bodies in the courtyard, its neck creaking and groaning as it twisted its head to look at Wang Xiuqiao.

“The banner. Where is it?”

Wang Xiuqiao’s eyes widened.

‘It’s here for the Black Banner?’

The monster walked toward Wang Xiuqiao, step by step.

Each step was heavy, leaving deep footprints in the dirt courtyard.

Originally, Prince Heng was going to take it, along with two Taiping Dao members, the Drunkard and the hunchbacked old man, to hunt down Dusk.

But Prince Heng suddenly sensed the deaths of the two Taiping Dao members and changed his strategy on the fly.

Prince Heng led the zombie army to corner Dusk himself, and sent this Blood Drop to investigate the place where the Taiping Daoists had died.