29: Chapter 29 Mystical Materials Entered the Database

"Gentlemen, your bones truly live up to your reputations."

Yan Zheng did not stay in the tunnel for long.

The two ninjas who ran away would inevitably return to report the news, so he didn't have much time to clean up the battlefield.

"Collect."

Dark green black mist successively wrapped around the three ninja corpses. Five seconds, three seconds, four seconds later, only three puddles of damp water and a few scraps of cloth remained on the ground.

The system panel popped up three golden notifications in succession within his field of vision.

[Collection complete. Black Sky Ritual Reinforced Bone Material × 1 (Excellent+), added to inventory.]

[Collection complete. Black Sky Ritual Reinforced Bone Material × 1 (Excellent+), Occult Reinforced Muscle Material × 1, added to inventory.]

[Collection complete. Black Sky Ritual Reinforced Bone Material × 1 (Excellent+), Occult Reinforced Muscle Material × 1, Trace Dark Energy Residue Material × 1, added to inventory.]

Yan Zheng: (✦ ᴗ ✦)

Three ninjas, six pieces of material.

He scrolled down the material list on the panel, and a brand-new category tag appeared at the very bottom.

The color of the tag was not the previous gray or dark green, but a dull purplish-red with a faint halo around the border.

[New material category unlocked: Occult Materials.]

Yan Zheng clicked on the purplish-red tag.

Inside, there was only one line of text and one piece of material.

[Trace Dark Energy Residue × 1]

[Description: Traces of Dark Energy remaining after the human body has undergone occult modification via The Hand's "Black Sky Ritual". The concentration is extremely low, and it is meaningless to use it alone. However, if a sufficient quantity is accumulated, it can inject "supernatural attributes" into Undead Creations, granting them partial resistance to occult attacks or causing their attacks to carry an occult erosion effect.]

[Current Dark Energy residue accumulation: 1/10.]

[Unlocked upon reaching 10 units: Undead Creation Occult Enchantment (Basic).]

"One-tenth."

Yan Zheng leaned against the tunnel wall, his fingers tapping lightly on the panel.

"Three ninjas only yielded one piece of Trace Dark Energy Residue, which means not every ninja has residue in their body."

He looked back at the dark passage deep in the tunnel.

"The two who ran away should be of a higher level, and the concentration of Dark Energy on them will also be higher."

Yan Zheng straightened up and looked down to check on his creations.

Skeleton Soldier No. 1's left arm had been severed; the white bone was exposed at the break, and the light of its phosphorus fire was twenty percent dimmer than before.

"No. 1, come here."

The Skeleton Soldier walked to Yan Zheng, its body tilted and unsteady without its left arm.

Yan Zheng picked up the severed arm from the ground and pressed it back onto the Skeleton Soldier's shoulder joint.

"System, repair."

[Repair Skeleton Soldier's severed limb, consume Ordinary Human Bone Material × 1. Execute?]

"Execute."

The dark green black mist swirled around the joint for a few seconds, the severed arm reattached, and the phosphorus fire's brightness was restored.

Yan Zheng patted the Skeleton Soldier on the shoulder.

"Don't block blades next time; that's not your job."

Then he turned to the Stitched Brute.

Most of the seven or eight wounds on the Brute had already regenerated; the deepest wound on its chest was still slowly growing granulation tissue, and the scales were re-covering it.

"The Brute's Adaptive Regeneration is working. With the same dark red blade light, the first cut could slice in two centimeters, but the subsequent cuts could only leave white marks."

Yan Zheng: (ˊ ᗜ ˋ)

"If it encounters the same short blade attacks again, the scales on these wounded areas will be even harder."

"The principle of getting harder the more it fights has been verified in actual combat."

He issued a retreat order, took all his creations back the way they came, and climbed out of the entrance of the abandoned subway station.

As the cold wind blew in, Yan Zheng took a deep breath, and the smell of mold mixed with rust in the tunnel was finally blown away.

March 22nd, 12:30 AM.

Antique Shop Underground Room.

Yan Zheng sat on a folding chair, the system panel in front of him expanded to full-screen mode, with the material list and the newly unlocked category neatly arranged.

He picked up his hot water cup, took a sip, and began to organize the night's harvest.

"Let's see what I pried out of that heavily injured ninja."

Strictly speaking, he didn't pry it himself.

The ninja whose cervical spine was snapped by Skeleton Soldier No. 2 didn't actually die on the spot.

His cervical spine was broken, but the constitution reinforced by the Black Sky Ritual allowed him to hold on for about four more minutes.

During those four minutes, Yan Zheng squatted in front of him and asked a few questions in that gently creepy tone.

"Sir, can you still hear me?"

The ninja's eyeballs rolled in their sockets.

"Very good. I have a few small questions I'd like to ask you; it won't take much time."

A string of Japanese mixed with bloody foam came out of the ninja's mouth, spoken very quickly, the content likely being curses.

Yan Zheng didn't understand Japanese, but that didn't stop him from continuing to ask questions.

"First question, where is your stronghold?"

The cursing continued.

"Second question, how many people are in the stronghold?"

The ninja closed his mouth and glared at Yan Zheng with his last bit of strength.

Yan Zheng sighed and took a scalpel out of his pocket.

"Sir, my time is limited, but yours is even more limited."

The tip of the scalpel pressed against the ninja's collarbone and twisted gently.

Yan Zheng: (ꈍ ∀ ꈍ)

The ninja spoke.

His English wasn't very fluent, but it was understandable.

He said three things intermittently.

First, The Hand's stronghold in Hells Kitchen is located deeper in the western district's underground drainage system, about one kilometer from where they fought.

Second, there are about thirty people stationed in the stronghold, including twenty ordinary ninjas and ten Elite Ninjas who have undergone the complete Black Sky Ritual.

Third, the stronghold Commander's name is Nogami; he is a "Shadow" head of The Hand's New York branch and belongs to the upper-middle tier among ninja ranks.

"What about the blood of the black sky? I heard you have a strengthening potion."

The ninja's eyes flickered, and his lips trembled.

"Inside... the stronghold... there is a supply..."

Then he died.

Yan Zheng put away the scalpel and wiped the blood off the blade.

"Four minutes, three pieces of intelligence. The efficiency isn't high, but it's enough."

After returning to the Underground Room, Yan Zheng wrote all the intelligence on that piece of white paper.

[The Hand Hells Kitchen Stronghold Intelligence]

Location: Deep in the abandoned subway tunnel in the western district, about 1.5 km from the entrance.

Personnel stationed: About 30 people.

Elite Ninja: About 10 (reinforced by complete Black Sky Ritual, combat power far exceeds ordinary people).

Commander: Nogami ("Shadow" level, specific combat power unknown).

Key resources: blood of the black sky (occult strengthening potion, stored inside the stronghold).

Yan Zheng put down the pen, looked at the intelligence, and tapped his fingers rhythmically on his knees.

"Thirty ninjas. Ten of them are Elite."

"Tonight, five ninjas against my squad, and I lost a Skeleton Soldier's arm, and the Brute took seven or eight slashes. Although I won, it wasn't an easy victory."

"If it's thirty, and ten of them are even stronger Elite Ninjas than tonight..."

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ ˘ ꒳ ˘)

"My current combat power is two Skeleton Soldiers plus one Stitched Brute. If I launch a frontal assault on a thirty-person stronghold, the Brute and I will most likely be surrounded and killed."

He stood up, walked to the wall, and looked at the Stitched Brute standing quietly in the corner.

The last wound on the Brute had just finished regenerating, and the surface of the newly grown scales shimmered with a faint, dark red luster, as if it had absorbed something from the ninja's blade.

"However."

Yan Zheng tapped his fingers twice on the Brute's scales.

"Tonight's battle wasn't without gains."

He opened the panel and looked at the new purplish-red tag.

Trace Dark Energy Residue, one-tenth.

Black Sky Ritual Reinforced Bone Material, three pieces.

Occult Reinforced Muscle Material, two pieces.

"Three pieces of Excellent+ quality reinforced bone; this is the first time I've obtained bone material with quality exceeding the Stone Armor Guard's base material."

"If I use these to assemble a new Stitched Soldier..."

He brought up the simulation interface on the panel and tested the combination of Black Sky Ritual bones and existing genetic materials one by one.

The results made his eyes light up.

[Combination plan: Black Sky Ritual Reinforced Bone × 1 + Epidermal Keratin Strengthening Gene × 1. Compatibility: 78%. Estimated creation quality: Elite level (upper end).]

Yan Zheng: (ꉺ ᗜ ꉺ)

"78% compatibility, even higher than the Brute's 71%."

"The Black Sky Ritual bones have already undergone supernatural modification, so their rejection of mutant genes is actually lower."

He closed the simulation interface, put away the panel, and sat back down on the folding chair.

"But now is not the time to assemble a new soldier. My Mental Power limit is nine points; the Brute takes three points, and the two Skeleton Soldiers take two points, so I've already used five points. Assembling another Elite Stitched Soldier would take at least another three points, and the remaining one point of Mental Power would barely be enough to maintain remote vision."

"Either increase the Mental Power limit or compress the current roster of creations."

He picked up the hot water cup and found that the water had gone cold.

Yan Zheng leaned back in the chair, closed his eyes, and calculated rapidly in his mind.

Thirty ninjas, ten Elites, one Commander of unknown strength.

There is also blood of the black sky in the stronghold; if that stuff can also be identified as material by the system, its value would be immeasurable.

But I can't win a hard fight.

"If I can't win a hard fight, I have to use other methods."

Yan Zheng opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the white paper next to the folding chair, the fountain pen ink shimmering under the light.

He picked up the pen and wrote a line of text at the very bottom of the paper.

[Need an ally, or bait.]

The tip of the pen drew two horizontal lines under the words "bait".

Then he wrote another name next to the horizontal lines.

[Daredevil.]

Yan Zheng put down the pen, his lips curving into an extremely subtle arc.

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ¬ ᴗ ¬ ˵ )

"Mr. Matt Murdock."

He spoke to the empty Underground Room, his voice as light as if he were reading a surgical plan.

"I heard you also have a grudge against The Hand."

"If someone told you the location of The Hand's stronghold, wouldn't you be unable to resist going to check it out yourself?"

"When you go to check it out, the ninjas will be busy dealing with you."

"And I'll be in the back picking up the scraps."

He tilted his head back and drank the last mouthful of cold water in the cup, the bottom of the cup facing the sky, not a single drop left.

"Each getting what we need. You reap justice, and I reap bones."

"What a perfect collaboration."