Fourth Tier: Heart Light

"Only this many Reincarnators were found?!"

Bai Cangshu was somewhat dissatisfied. The total number of Reincarnators had always been a mystery. Reincarnators were short-lived beings; every moment, some died while being deployed on missions, while new Reincarnators were recruited by the space.

But in a highly repressed country like Korea, Bai Cangshu believed it was actually quite suitable for the birth of Reincarnators. Even with a total population of only around fifty million, there should have been no problem with the number of Reincarnators exceeding a hundred.

"These are only the Reincarnators found through Xu Zhiyu’s list. Next, I’ll have Chairman Li Xianhou fully mobilize the March Group’s channels and resources to help us uncover more Reincarnators, perhaps even… artificially created Reincarnators."

Li Qingzi addressed her grandfather as "Chairman Li Xianhou," a distant form of address, because she considered herself independent of the March Group now.

She controlled the assets Bai Cangshu valued most. Therefore, to prevent him from developing a negative impression of her and her family, she had decided to separate herself from the Lee Clan.

Bai Cangshu noticed the woman’s little thoughts, but he had no interest in them.

Many rules in this world would change sooner or later, now that Reincarnators and supernatural power had truly begun affecting the established order.

People like Li Qingzi and Li Xianhou could only be considered perceptive, but they were not clear-headed enough.

There was no need to express such an attitude to him at all. That included Li Xianhou deliberately sacrificing his eldest son and kicking him out of the family so that Li Qingzi, who was closer to him, could take power.

To Bai Cangshu, such matters were trivial.

From now on, everyone should understand that authority and power were the options most closely linked together.

He could seize everything because he possessed power.

And if some Supreme Expert wanted to seize Korea at this moment, then no matter how close these two were to him, they would ultimately side with that Supreme Expert.

Conversely, he was not afraid of Li Xianhou and Li Qingzi betraying him. By now, he was already vaguely an entire major tier stronger than Li Qingzi.

The battle in the One Piece World had contained all sorts of unstable factors that led to Li Qingzi’s defeat. But after these past few missions, Bai Cangshu had already broken through his shackles. His rate of growth far surpassed Li Qingzi’s, who had merely gained a new bloodline and slightly strengthened her Haki.

As Li Qingzi spoke, she suddenly felt every hair on her body stand on end. Goosebumps rose across her smooth, delicate skin from the bone-deep chill.

She looked up and saw Bai Cangshu’s eyes examining her from head to toe. There was no lust in his gaze, only the assessment of prey, inside and out.

What gave her that chilling sensation was the faint, almost imperceptible Satsui no Hado.

Li Qingzi’s pupils contracted. Even though she had long understood Bai Cangshu’s nature, she still felt no small amount of disappointment and shock at this moment.

But the feeling passed in an instant. The next moment, Bai Cangshu had already turned away and merely said with a light chuckle,

"You’ve become somewhat complacent."

Bai Cangshu lifted Li Qingzi’s chin. The next moment, an utterly irresistible and terrifying force appeared, and Li Qingzi felt as though she had been lifted in front of him like a kitten.

Her expression was somewhat stunned. She had previously sensed that her Strength attribute did not hold much of an advantage, but that was completely different from this current overwhelming power.

This display proved that Bai Cangshu’s Strength attribute had likely surpassed hers by a great deal.

Crushing.

This was what it meant to be crushed in strength.

"You…"

Bai Cangshu felt every muscle in the woman’s body tense in an instant. This beautiful body contained the power to shatter walls and buildings barehanded. With a sword in hand, she could even split a mountain hundreds of meters tall with a single strike.

He slowly pressed apart Li Qingzi’s tensed muscles. He was not venting lust; he was merely preventing her from straying down the wrong path.

"Woman, you need to understand. The Agency, the Republic of Korea—both are nothing more than Paradise for my amusement."

His fingers gradually slid down from her chin until they rested above her violently beating heart.

Li Qingzi’s chest heaved intensely, and her pupils dilated slightly. With Bai Cangshu’s current power and martial cultivation, he probably only needed to jab with force to kill her…

But she could not resist, and she… did not resist.

She felt the Satsui no Hado flowing across the surface of her body. That trembling sensation of being wholly captured by a stronger predator strangely gave rise to a pleasurable thrill.

The corners of her mouth curled up beyond her control, and her eyes and brows seemed to open slightly as well. At that instant, some essence within the woman was also awakening.

Bai Cangshu sensed Li Qingzi’s change. His brows twitched as an intrigued expression appeared on his face, and his fingers continued sliding downward.

But faint footsteps were already approaching.

The woman’s Observation Haki was not weak. She quickly woke from that pleasure, unable to understand what had happened to her. She could only cough twice, break free from Bai Cangshu’s grasp, straighten her collar, and deliberately put some distance between them.

Yet the old butler, who had brought servants carrying all kinds of high-end fresh ingredients, immediately spotted the flush behind Miss Li Qingzi’s ears.

He hurriedly lowered his head, waved his hand, and summoned the others to lower their heads as they withdrew.

Such things had always been common in conglomerate families. He simply did not understand why Li Qingzi, the eldest granddaughter of the March Group, seemed not to hold the dominant position in this relationship.

Li Qingzi continued reporting on the Reincarnators in The Agency, as well as the reactions and changes in countries around the world after the vice president of the Free Federation confirmed the existence of Ability Users during a live broadcast.

But Bai Cangshu was not listening at all.

His hair drifted slightly as the change that had just occurred in Li Qingzi replayed continuously in his mind.

At that instant, he could sense that something special seemed to emerge from within the woman—something real, beyond all disguises and false appearances.

At that instant, the fluctuations of her Haki, spirit, and even soul had all been incomparably intense.

It could be said that only Li Qingzi in that instant had been extraordinarily vivid, like a… real person?!

Bai Cangshu had grown increasingly accustomed to using terms like human woman instead of people’s names when speaking of them, because deep down, he could not sense anything special about most humans.

They were like images in black-and-white photographs, unable to stir even the slightest emotion in him.

But Li Qingzi just now had been vivid like a person in color.

What… was that?

Bai Cangshu began to feel that he might have been heading in the wrong direction. The heart was not something exclusive to those idealists.

The heart did not point solely toward those noble glimmers of humanity.

Perhaps every human possessed their own dazzling Heartlight!

As Bai Cangshu thought of this, his hair began flying outward without restraint. The corners of his mouth and his brows relaxed. He had actually passively entered a state of Limit Break Spiral rotation.

Bai Cangshu simulated Li Qingzi’s thought process from just now, and that pleasure in his heart appeared.

His eyelids lowered, seeming pleased yet also sighing. A golden radiance emerged from the surface of his body. Li Qingzi suddenly realized something was wrong and looked up at Bai Cangshu, only to discover that he was slowly floating up from the ground.

The golden radiance spread from Bai Cangshu’s body like a phantom, immediately enveloping her within it.

At that instant, she suddenly lost her perception of the outside world. Her Observation Haki… had failed?

She tried gathering Armament Haki, but it had no effect either. Moreover, the strength throughout her body began draining away. An unnatural weakness and terror washed over her, and Li Qingzi seemed to see a vast space where countless black wraiths lunged at her.

What about Demonic Power… Li Qingzi suddenly erupted with intense Demonic Power, saving herself from the panic of losing all her strength.

She panted heavily and looked at Bai Cangshu, only to find that he had already landed on the ground. The golden radiance had also vanished.

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