229: Chapter 229 The True Form of the Styx River! The Ninth Order Descends!

Samuel's pupils constricted to a point.

That pitch-black mark adhered to the top of his head, seeping downwards along his skin.

There was no blood, nor was there any wound.

Wherever the mark passed, his hair, flesh, and even the remnant Divine Radiance lost all color.

He squeezed half a syllable from his throat.

"Ca..."

A hundred meters away, an Abyss Knight with a shattered breastplate suddenly propped up his upper body.

The captain's insignia on his shoulder armor flashed for a split second before being extinguished by the backlash.

Through the scattered rubble, he still recognized that mark.

In the entire Inquisition, only one person could carve it onto the Soul of a living being!

"Lord Charon?!"

The knight captain's breath hitched, his voice cracking.

"What are you doing? He is the High Inquisitor!"

His words were not yet finished.

On the other side, the Mountain Demon, having been beaten back into human form, shuddered, its hair standing on end.

It smelled a scent.

It was like the acrid gas leaking from the seam of a stopper after berserker serum had spoiled in a sealed jar.

That was not the Divine Radiance of the Divine Court.

It was the aura of flesh aberration from the Tongyuan Society!

The Mountain Demon could no longer bother with playing dead; it propped itself up with its arms and shifted half a meter backward.

The movement tugged at its broken bones, and its chest felt stifled, yet it kept its eyes locked on that shadow.

"Grey Falcon?!"

Tiger Fiend followed up with a hissed remark, its ice-blue vertical pupils filled with disbelief.

"You... how many years have you been lurking in the Divine Court?!"

Grey Falcon.

The most mysterious intelligence chief beneath the seven Councilors of the Tongyuan Society.

No one had ever seen his true face.

They only knew his codename, and his near-paranoid control over the Tongyuan Society's intelligence network.

Every time the Councilors needed cross-border intelligence, military archives, or live samples, Grey Falcon could always deliver them in advance.

The Mountain Demon had once suspected that at least half of the defectors in the Tongyuan Society had been taken by Grey Falcon for some unspeakable experiments.

But it had never thought of Charon of the Divine Court.

From the moment they entered the Black Spider Canyon, all the intelligence, all the routes, all the "perfectly timed" opportunities...

Were all manipulated by this person from behind the scenes.

They were not the hunters.

From beginning to end, they were just pawns.

On the other side of the pit floor, Ye Xiao had just pulled his body out of the rock layer.

He wiped the corner of his eye with the back of his hand, and using the remaining light of the Divine Radiance, he finally saw the side profile of that shadow.

His temples were neatly groomed.

The corners of his eyes carried fine lines from years of smiling.

This face, he had seen it in Jiangcheng.

More than once.

"Boss... Boss Zhou?"

Ye Xiao propped himself up with both hands, his mouth agape for a long time.

"Aren't you the one who runs the clubhouse?!"

Three names.

Three factions.

The same face.

The brains of everyone in the sinkhole crashed simultaneously.

The shadow's movements paused.

As if he had heard something quite interesting, he tilted his head to look at Ye Xiao.

The shadow clinging to his face sloughed off, revealing a gentle, middle-aged visage.

The black robe also receded into his skin, replaced by a well-tailored grey shirt.

Finally, a pair of black leather shoes stepped out of the shadows.

The movement was composed, as if returning to his own living room.

"Young Master Ye, long time no see."

Ye Xiao's Adam's apple bobbed.

Zhou Kui turned his gaze to the others and smiled contemptuously.

"The Ferryman of the Divine Court, the intelligence lunatic of the Tongyuan Society, the Law-abiding merchant of the Federation..."

As he finished listing them one by one, Samuel beneath his palm had already lost the strength to struggle.

"But they are all just skins convenient for getting things done."

Zhou Kui turned around to face everyone.

"Twenty years."

"It is time to wrap up this game of house."

Samuel's two fingers were still twitching.

He had sacrificed most of his life, Origin, and Soul; now, he couldn't even turn his head and could only squeeze a faint sound from the depths of his throat.

"Trai... tor...!"

Zhou Kui leaned down, close to his ear.

"High Inquisitor, your mission is complete."

That Ferryman mark submerged completely into the top of Samuel's head.

The Divine Radiance Origin and Soul fragments on Samuel were drained completely; his skin rapidly turned grey and withered, and the faint heartbeat in his chest was also taken away.

In Su Ming's gravity perception, the mass feedback belonging to Samuel was disappearing.

Unlike his Mass Devouring.

The matter constituting that body was being converted into another state.

"Hey, Zhou!"

Su Ming stood where he was, his expression not like he was facing a threat from a powerful being, but more like a neighbor who had stolen his package.

"I only free-loaded off your presidential suite for a week at most, right? You chased me all the way here just to snatch the peaches? Isn't that a bit uncalled for?!"

He did not make a move.

Let the bullets fly for a while first.

What if this guy becomes more valuable after transforming?

Zhou Kui's movements paused slightly.

"Captain Su, you are still as humorous as ever."

He folded his hands in front of him, and the air pressure emitted by the dark red bone armor on his body pushed the rubble under his feet outward in a circle.

"There is no need to use such words to stall for time."

"From the first time you showed your prowess in Jiangcheng, I have been watching. Every metamorphosis, every battle, including the good stuff flowing in your body... nothing has escaped my eyes."

Su Ming's eyelid twitched violently.

Damn it, are you really a perverted stalker?

"Screw you, you damn thief! Don't try to get chummy with me!"

"Trying to pull a zero-dollar purchase right in front of me? You better be prepared for the price!"

As he spoke, the twelve Abyss Knights moved simultaneously.

The [Ferryman Mark] on their arms lit up on its own, and pitch-black patterns spread from their arms to their limbs and chests.

The knight captain looked down, his breath hitching for a beat.

When setting out, Charon had personally carved the Ferryman Mark for each knight, claiming it could guide their Souls back to the Divine Court after they died in battle.

They had always regarded this thing as an honor.

Until this moment, when the mark turned around to gnaw at their bodies.

"Charon..."

The knight captain wanted to cut off his arm, but his muscles twitched, and his fingers remained motionless.

"These marks, did you leave them on purpose...?"

"What else?"

Zhou Kui responded softly.

Then he did something no one had expected.

He ripped open his shirt.

He plunged his hands into his own chest.

His ten fingers sank into his flesh.

"Crack!"

His sternum split open from the middle to both sides.

There was no blood on the flipped-out bone surface, only a circle of black carvings.

Zhou Kui's chest cavity was exposed to everyone.

There were no internal organs inside.

A palm-sized, gloomy spring was slowly rotating between his ribs.

Light hitting the edge of the spring immediately bent inward.

The twelve Ferryman Marks lit up simultaneously with the spring, and dark blue streams of light connected along invisible trajectories.

Su Ming pivoted on his toes, blocking the front of Ye Xiao and the others.

"Night Crow, take them back."

Night Crow did not ask further questions; he grabbed Young Master Gu Lingfeng's shoulder and retreated.

Ye Canglan dragged his injured body and wrapped his last two energy spider legs around Ye Xiao.

Zhou Kui smiled.

It was exactly the same as when he greeted guests at the clubhouse.

But paired with the opened chest cavity and the black abyss slowly rotating within...

Su Ming's back teeth felt sour, and he felt a bit nauseous.

It was not fear.

It was purely physiological disgust.

"The Ferryman Mark is just a coordinate."

Zhou Kui said softly, as if introducing the daily special to a customer.

"And I am the Styx itself."

As he spoke, the sound of flowing water came from within his chest cavity.

Twelve streams of gloomy light gushed out from that spring.

They swept across the ground toward the twelve knights.

The knight captain was the first to be covered.

The dark gold heavy armor on his body lost its luster.

His flesh and Origin were extracted from the gaps in the armor at a speed visible to the naked eye; in a few short breaths, only the empty standard heavy armor and dark gold heavy sword remained, clattering to the ground.

[Styx Ferrying] only ferries the Soul and Origin of living beings; soulless mundane iron objects are not in the ferrying sequence.

Seeing this scene, Su Ming loosened his clenched fist slightly.

Twelve sets of dark gold heavy armor.

Twelve formation-inscribed cross swords.

Twelve sets of inner linings and spatial bracelets.

A rough calculation, at least three million mass points.

Three million!

If he dares to swipe these as well, he, Su, will go on a killing spree today.

He stood where he was, not moving, his fingertips lightly rubbing his chin.

This operational logic of "dismantling targets and gathering energy" was somewhat similar to his own Mass Devouring.

No rush to interrupt.

He couldn't devour corpses; at most, he could exchange them for some merit points.

Might as well see what exactly this guy will turn into.

Only three seconds.

The twelve knights couldn't even let out a scream.

The Ferryman Marks sealed their voices.

After being covered by the dark blue light streams, the twelve bodies turned into light particles one after another.

Twelve beams of gloomy light were retracted into his chest cavity.

The rotation speed of the spring suddenly increased.

Zhou Kui brought his hands together.

His sternum closed back up.

The skin healed along the midline, leaving only a thin dark red scar.

The torn shirt was covered by the black shadow surging from within his body, and in the blink of an eye, it was restored to completeness.

The next instant, cracks exploded from beneath his leather shoes, extending outward for more than ten meters.

His muscles bulged in a form that violated human ergonomics, his shoulder blades protruded outward, and his spine emitted a dense cracking sound.

His body surface was covered with a layer of dark red high-dimensional bony scales, and on each scale faintly flowed the remnant Divine Radiance Law of the twelve knights.

The space in the sinkhole, which had just calmed down, twisted again.

Middle Stage of the Eighth Realm.

Late Stage of the Eighth Realm.

His aura surpassed Samuel's previous Peak state, and still did not stop.

Peak of the Eighth Realm!

Still climbing...

Breakthrough!

The spatial structure of the entire sinkhole emitted a faint groaning sound.

Early Stage of the Ninth Realm!

Ye Canglan's last two energy spider legs shattered completely.

He slumped to the ground, his face grey and dejected.

This Realm... was no longer something any of them could contend with.

Zhou Kui slowly raised his right hand.

He sliced a thin cut on his left wrist with his index finger.

A drop of very pale blood seeped out.

The red that should have been there only occupied a thin layer; inside, it already emitted a silvery-white luster.

But the silver was not uniform, with a few wisps of dark black Impurities mixed in between.

He stared at that drop of blood, the curve of his mouth deepening.

"As expected, still a little bit short."

He gripped his wrist, and the bloody cut closed on its own.

Zhou Kui looked up, his gaze passing over everyone and landing on Su Ming.

The skin on Su Ming's back tightened slightly.

He had seen that kind of gaze on Scorpion King's face.

And he had also seen it on Samuel's face.

But when the previous two looked at him, there was at least the normal logic of "kill him" or "capture him for merit."

Zhou Kui was not.

The expression on this guy's face was like a madman who had been squatting in a laboratory for twenty years had finally collected the last reagent.

"Those short-sighted idiots in the Federation are training you as a military recruit."

"The Tongyuan Society offered a ten-billion bounty, wanting to slice you up for research."

"The trash of the Divine Court is even more ridiculous, arrogant enough to want to purify you directly."

Zhou Kui walked one step toward Su Ming.

With every step he took, the rock layer beneath his feet would shatter and sink by half an inch.

"They don't know what they have missed."

"Only I know."

He stopped twenty meters away.

"You are the most perfect Silver Blood container on this planet."

Silver Blood container?

Su Ming subconsciously touched his arm.

Multiple mutations, Child of Star Remains, inferior cyborg, King of Posers, Silver Blood container...

Everyone is redefining the product.

The dark red scar on Zhou Kui's chest lit up again, and the sound of water from the Styx spring came from within his body.

"I calibrated the spring with the corpses of the Divine Court and built the ferrying path with the Beast Emperor Bloodline of the Tongyuan Society."

"The Origin of the twelve knights is already in place."

"Samuel's Soul completes the coordinates."

"Twenty years of planning, tonight it is all in place."

His voice began to tremble, and the ecstasy in his tone finally burst its banks.

"As long as I drain your blood and complete my final ferrying puzzle..."

"What Cardinal of the Divine Court! What Beast Councilor of the Tongyuan Society! They are all nothing but waste beneath my feet!"

Zhou Kui spread his arms.

The dark red scales flickered in his wild laughter.

"The Pope of the Divine Court, the Master of Tongyuan, the four great Marshals of the Federation..."

"All will kneel at my feet!"

"And I, Zhou Kui!"

"Will be the one born on this planet..."

"The first True God!"