Chapter 316 – Uninvited Guest
“Hmm? Where is this…”
The sudden change in environment and the extremely low temperature caused a subtle shift in Shun Muto’s expression. Sword energy erupted from his body, enveloping him as he curiously surveyed the desolate and death-filled plain.
At the end of his sight, a tall, thick, jet-black city wall loomed, with strange and irregular buildings visible within.
“Is this the power of an alternate dimension?”
Dispelling the sword energy wrapped around his left hand, Shun Muto used the external temperature to freeze his injured, bleeding wound. However, his brows furrowed.
He had originally intended to break through space and catch up to the black-robed figure to retrieve Yuz, but he hadn’t expected to be brought to such place. Both Shun Muto’s own perception and the environment, completely different from a city, told him that he was most likely in a different dimension.
Shun Muto had encountered enemies with similar abilities within [Shadow] before, but even their executives couldn’t construct such a vast alternate dimension.
“Is it a Talent User or someone who merely controls a key to space? … But either way, I came to the right place this time.”
A hint of seriousness flashed in his lazy, unfocused eyes. Shun Muto hadn’t expected such a result from a simple pursuit. An enemy with such capabilities, if allowed to grow, would pose a great threat to both the Association and society as a whole.
The wrist holding the long sword trembled slightly. Without even seeing Shun Muto draw his sword, several streaks of sword energy slashed out from in front of him, cutting several long-clawed monsters, which were burrowing from underground towards them, into several pieces.
Gently flipping over the ghoul corpse on the ground with his sword tip, a disgusted expression appeared on Shun Muto’s face. However, the aura, so similar to the power Masashi Sakuraba used, confirmed the suspicion he held in his heart.
He took a drag from the cigarette butt in his mouth and exhaled the smoke that had gone into his lungs. Looking up towards the distant city wall, he kicked away the ghoul debris he was stepping on and transformed into an afterimage, disappearing into the desolate plain.
…
“Why do I always have a bad feeling?”
At the entrance of the graveyard hall, Kazumi touched her hood-covered head with a puzzled look, muttering to herself.
The young girl finally put on the Human Skin Cloak. The reason was simple: her half-deformed body was too unsightly.
Normally, Kazumi didn’t feel the need to wear this cloak that concealed her identity within her territory. After all, wearing a cloak in a territory filled with death energy would greatly hinder its conductivity. Moreover, there was nothing she needed to hide in her own territory.
However, the news that Lei had reported the completion of the repair pool to her previously was something that could slightly lift her mood.
Only after completely sacrificing the Corpse Maggot Mother was a pool filled with healing energy, Corpse Fluid, barely completed. Later, when the young girl controlled the Black Coffin to absorb death energy, Lei, being particularly clever, channeled the large amount of death energy that had surged into the territory into the healing Corpse Fluid, compensating for its original flaws.
In his words, there would no longer be any situations like the current Corpse Meat due to insufficient energy, and this treatment could even improve the overall physical energy.
The thought of being able to return to her previous appearance was a great relief to Kazumi.
Kazumi had never cared much about her appearance, but the moment she thought that Shinichi Sato would show disgust because of her looks, she would become frantic and want to destroy everything in front of her.
Therefore, for her inner peace and to continue enjoying her academy life, this was something she had to do.
Well, let’s say it’s a tiny bit for the dog.
Just a tiny bit.
“Whew… It must be a repercussion from that previous incident.”
Shaking her head, she banished the image of the big golden retriever from her mind. Then, the young girl began to seriously analyze her inexplicable palpitations. After all, at that time, she had been on the verge of death. It was completely understandable for her to be mentally tense now.
“This can be put aside for now. The planning for the remaining energy in the territory needs to be done well. And how to use the large number of live people I collected from the city earlier. Although they are so weak that I can’t sense any life force, live materials are always more flexible than dead materials, so I can’t let them wait for death in the Graveyard Hill.”
Bringing up the territory’s basic panel, the young girl muttered to herself while thinking about the territory’s development.
Kazumi had also checked Lei’s report on the usage of the remaining death energy. Besides supplying power to buildings that had never received sufficient energy supply, all the remaining energy was poured into the science and technology talent tree by Lei.
It had to be said that this was a very wise move. After all, a large amount of unprocessed foreign energy gathered together could even blow up the territory directly.
Although the other buildings had always been in a low-maintenance state, even with full maintenance energy, it wouldn’t consume much. The main reason was that Kazumi was too poor before, so Lei, who was thrifty, had to count the energy and use it sparingly, as long as these buildings didn’t have problems when in use.
The technology tree was a complete energy hog. Even with a massive amount of death energy poured into it, it only managed to unlock the first three skills planned by Kazumi: [Death Aura Convergence II], [Intermediate Death Aura Mastery], and [Imperial Guard Reinforcement]. Even the Corpse Crow’s [Blood Meal] couldn’t be unlocked.
What was even more infuriating was that Lei also included a personal request and unlocked [Soul Link].
Although she knew Lei’s intention was out of loyalty and consideration for her own safety as the lord, but please, what danger could she possibly face within the territory? Outside, without [Substitute Doll], she wouldn’t be doing such dangerous things anymore, and it was basically not very useful.
Therefore, in Kazumi’s opinion, this was purely a waste of energy. It would be better to unlock the Corpse Crow technology’s [Blood Meal] to strengthen the Corpse Crows’ combat power. Thinking of Lei’s arrangements for the unconscious people, the young girl could only sigh helplessly.
It wasn’t that Lei hadn’t done well, but due to differences in standpoint and identity, the lich couldn’t think about these matters from a human perspective like Kazumi. Therefore, it was normal for them to have some disagreements regarding the territory’s planning. As long as the general direction was still in line with Kazumi’s expectations, the young girl wouldn’t stop Lei’s responsible behavior.
“Sigh, I still need to go and check on the Graveyard Hill myself.”
Thinking that a lot of the live materials she had painstakingly collected were likely to be killed by Lei, the young girl still felt a pang of pain. She reached out and dismissed the suspended virtual panel, making her next work plan.
Just as the young girl was about to turn towards the city gate, a cold, sharp metallic object was pressed against her neck. A voice that was devoid of emotion yet incredibly sharp exploded in the young girl’s ears and heart, followed by a terrifying aura that gave her no chance to resist.
“Tell me, where is Yuz?”
