Within the endless stretch of violet grassland, the wind drifted gently across the land. Each blade of grass shimmered faintly, as though fragments of starlight had been scattered upon the earth.
Zhang Wen stood quietly in the middle of that tranquil space.
Before him knelt twenty four figures arranged in perfect order.
The Black Crow Secret Unit.
None of them spoke.
Yet the loyalty radiating from their bodies was clearer than any oath that could ever be spoken.
Every one of them possessed an Affinity of one hundred.
There was no hesitation. No wavering. Not even the faintest shadow of betrayal had ever surfaced in the hearts of these people.
They were blades hidden in darkness.
Blades that would strike whenever he commanded.
And throughout the time that had passed, the efficiency of the Black Crow Secret Unit had already proven that his investment had never been wasted.
Now it was time to elevate them.
Zhang Wen observed them silently.
His objective had never changed.
True power did not lie solely in strength.
It lay in the control of resources and interests.
He did not desire temporary wealth gained through slaughter or obtained through the system.
What he desired was a structure capable of generating profit endlessly.
He did not wish to become the kind of person who suddenly became rich overnight like someone who had won the lottery, living freely without restraint, only to awaken one day and discover that everything had vanished without leaving even a trace behind.
For that reason, he had chosen a different path.
He would use money to create more money.
Create opportunities.
Create power.
Create a future.
Rather than allowing everything to slip through his fingers simply to satisfy fleeting pleasures that would ultimately leave nothing but emptiness behind.
He constantly reminded himself of one truth.
The wealth he had obtained must never become the end of his efforts.
It must become the beginning of everything.
The question he asked himself was never how this wealth could be used for enjoyment.
The true question was always the same.
How many more times could this wealth work in his place to create a future that would never run dry?
Even if the system disappeared one day.
Even if everything he relied upon collapsed.
He would still stand on his own two feet.
And there was another goal that had never left his mind.
Revenge.
The Gu Family.
And Zhang Lingyue.
Zhang Wen’s gaze turned colder the moment those names surfaced in his thoughts.
The Gu Family was not a power belonging only to this world.
It was a clan from a far greater realm.
And Zhang Lingyue had already become the concubine of the branch leader of the Gu Family within the Fate Heaven World.
Acting without preparation would be no different from seeking death.
Therefore he would not rush.
There was no need.
Because the Gu Family had not even found him yet.
What he needed now was time.
And when that moment arrived…
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He would sweep everything away in a single strike.
Leaving no chance for resistance.
And beyond revenge, there was still one more thing he continued to search for.
The sealed memories.
And the secrets hidden within his younger brother.
…
Whoosh!!
Twenty four transparent water spheres formed in midair, instantly enveloping the bodies of all members of the Black Crow Secret Unit. The spheres drifted upward and arranged themselves in a perfect circle. Spiritual energy began to circulate slowly as each of their bodies entered a deep state of slumber.
At the same moment, twenty four water clones of Zhang Wen appeared.
Each clone stood at a designated position, precisely controlling the drop of blood before them along with a massive blood sphere formed at the center of the formation.
Dark crimson droplets slowly began flowing out from the bodies of every Black Crow member.
The smell of blood spread across the violet grassland.
An enormous number of corpses were taken out.
Bodies from several forces within Heavenly Sword City.
Bodies from the Sword Mountain Sect.
Bodies belonging to various powerful figures who once possessed great reputations in the southern region of the Black Wind Continent.
All of them were crushed.
Refined.
Absorbed.
They became nourishment within the massive blood sphere.
Thin channels of energy extended outward from the core, connecting precisely to the twenty four blood droplets surrounding it.
An overwhelming amount of life force began transferring continuously.
At present, Zhang Wen possessed two Emperor level blood droplets.
Two Half-Emperor Level Nine droplets.
One corpse belonging to a Half-Emperor Level Three expert.
In addition, there were thirteen Saint Emperor corpses.
Two from elders of the Sword Mountain Sect.
Eleven from powerful experts of other forces.
There were also fifty one Saint King corpses.
And three hundred ninety seven Saint corpses.
All of this was the accumulated harvest from Heavenly Sword City, the Sword Mountain Sect, and the many forces he had wiped out.
Zhang Wen’s gaze settled upon the two Half-Emperor Level Nine droplets.
He had already chosen the candidates in his mind.
Huang Ran.
Ye Xin.
The two women with Golden Luck whom he had captured earlier.
The main reason was simple.
Both possessed Sacred Bodies.
Their physical constitutions clearly surpassed every member of the Black Crow Secret Unit.
Although the Black Crow members possessed superior combat experience and battle skills, their greatest limitation was their bodies.
Only three among them possessed Mystic Bodies.
The rest had ordinary constitutions.
A Sacred Body combined with the power of a Half-Emperor Level Nine expert under his direct control would unquestionably be far stronger.
As for loyalty…
Zhang Wen had never cared about that.
Each blood droplet was only the first layer of restraint.
Thousands of additional restraints were already embedded within the bodies of Huang Ran, Mu Ling, and Ye Xin.
No matter how strongly their hearts resisted, their bodies would never be capable of disobeying his commands.
Unless certain rare circumstances occurred.
For example…
Kang Hao.
The one who had fought against his water clone.
As for the Half-Emperor Level Three corpse that had yet to be refined, Zhang Wen had not yet chosen a candidate.
But he knew one thing clearly.
It would never be given to the six individuals he had selected for the trial.
Because those six possessed both talent and comprehension.
There was no need to burn away their potential prematurely.
…
Zhang Wen stood before the enormous blood droplet suspended quietly in the air. Within it, the countless corpses that had been fused together continued to release an overwhelming pressure without pause.
His fingertips moved slightly.
Every motion was precise, almost without the slightest waste. Threads of spiritual energy as fine as silk seeped into the blood droplet, gradually separating something from the corpses within.
What he extracted was not blood.
Not souls.
But the origin of special bodies.
Lights of many colors slowly rose from the blood-like liquid, as if the essence of life itself was being refined directly. Origins of Mystic level, Earth level, and Heaven level bodies were separated perfectly, without losing even the smallest fragment.
For bodies of those levels, Zhang Wen could completely extract their origin.
But when it came to Sacred level bodies, everything became different.
Even he could not extract their origins completely.
The extraction rate ranged only between five and ninety percent. And the stronger or rarer the body was, the more difficult it became to pull its origin free.
He lifted his hand slightly.
A drop of pure blue light appeared above his palm.
This was the origin of his own body.
The Pure Water Sacred Body.
It belonged to the Sacred level, yet its strength was only considered average within that category. He could extract approximately ninety percent of its origin, which meant a portion of its true power would inevitably remain lost.
As for the origins of Mu Ling, Ye Xin, and Huang Ran, the difficulty was even greater.
Some bodies yielded only five percent.
The best among them did not exceed sixty percent.
Zhang Wen was not surprised.
His current strength was still limited.
More importantly, Sacred bodies were extremely rare. Most individuals born with such bodies were absorbed by Great Emperor level forces the moment they came into existence.
Because of that, those forces had nearly monopolized the path to the peak of the cultivation world.
Those who possessed Sacred bodies rarely died meaningless deaths.
Therefore, among the corpses Zhang Wen had collected, there was not a single remaining origin belonging to a Sacred body.
His gaze turned toward the twenty four members of the Black Crow Secret Unit floating within the water spheres.
They remained in deep sleep.
Every part of their bodies had opened completely, ready to receive power.
Zhang Wen’s fingers moved again.
An enormous number of special body origins began merging together. Bodies of the same type across different levels fused and layered upon each other, gradually evolving into higher forms.
Multicolored lights twisted like newborn stars.
Then they separated precisely into twenty four streams.
Zhang Wen had not chosen randomly.
Every stream was adjusted according to each individual’s body structure, meridian network, and potential.
Heaven level body origins formed from countless fused origins were the highest level that could be produced stably.
One by one, they merged into the bodies of the Black Crow members.
The moment the fusion began, all twenty four bodies trembled simultaneously.
Veins bulged violently.
Spiritual energy erupted uncontrollably before being suppressed by the water spheres, preventing the power from exploding outward.
Their bones began to change.
Their meridians expanded.
Flesh regenerated as if undergoing evolution.
Soft cracking sounds continued endlessly, as though their original bodies were being destroyed in order to create something greater.
Zhang Wen watched the process calmly.
The Black Crow Secret Unit of the past had merely been blades sharp enough to use.
But after today…
They would become weapons capable of standing at the higher levels of the cultivation world.
And this…
Was only the next step of the force he was building for the day when everything would finally be within his grasp.
