High-Level Immortality (35K)

"Mercenary Tao’s perception range is enormous, estimated at over five kilometers. The bait site has been destroyed."

"Mercenary Tao’s regeneration ability and immortality do not originate from negative-energy creatures such as vampires or demons. Holy spells have had no effect…"

"That’s all, boss Millennium Worm. Good luck…"

Splat!

It sounded like a watermelon being smashed apart. Millennium Worm’s expression grew increasingly cold. He sat atop a white clay bird. It was flying quite fast, but his two teammates were too far away. It would take him dozens of seconds to reach them.

Team member YT10337043 (Cub) has died.

Millennium Worm immediately turned around and flew in the other direction.

After analyzing the information Wildfire had sent back before dying, the Blackwater members concluded that Mercenary Tao possessed some powerful form of perception. At the very least, Wildfire, who had fired from over three kilometers away, had been immediately located.

Therefore, during this operation, Cub, who was responsible for support, and Ghost Wolf, who was responsible for mobility, had set up a disguised prop three kilometers away while hiding their real bodies even farther off.

But judging from the situation, Mercenary Tao had still found them.

Ghost Wolf, wreathed in purple-black mist, had also seen the notification of Cub’s death. His heart turned cold, but he was not especially saddened. He merely calmly considered the intelligence Cub had transmitted before dying.

All Reincarnators within Blackwater shared an understanding: during battle, they would continuously send back information about their opponents. That way, even if they died, the team could obtain intelligence, analyze it, and formulate counters, allowing the other members to avenge them.

Ghost Wolf stood in this abandoned clearing. The withered yellow weeds rose nearly to his waist, and because of that, he clearly saw an unusually powerful gust of wind blowing in from afar.

"Mercenary Tao is suspected of possessing the ability to control wind."

"Ghost Wolf, retreat first. Mercenary Tao can’t kill me."

Millennium Worm gave the order. Ghost Wolf had already spotted his captain flying toward him through the air, his face and hands completely shrouded in purple-black mist.

Although he generally served as the team’s logistical support, his superpower was actually extremely powerful: a rare spatial teleportation ability. Even though he did not like that work, he had to admit that being able to hunt Plot Characters in that world and obtain the superpower he wanted had made him very fortunate.

"Don’t worry, Captain. I’ll gather a bit more information for you before I leave."

The purple-black mist produced by his body possessed the properties of another dimension and could completely teleport anything enveloped by it to a location stored in his memory.

This ability combined offense and defense. As long as resources were continuously invested into advancing it, its eventual strength was bound to be formidable.

With Ghost Wolf’s current ability, he could teleport to coordinates within a hundred kilometers. The reason Millennium Worm had been able to silently appear near Mercenary Tao’s little building was because Ghost Wolf had scouted the area beforehand and obtained the coordinates.

If his own combat ability had not been so weak, today’s operation should have involved him teleporting Mercenary Tao to the ambush site for execution.

Buzz—

As though stepping out of the wind, Mercenary Tao appeared less than ten meters in front of Ghost Wolf. The violently swirling air around them gradually settled. Ghost Wolf confirmed the intelligence in his heart, and the mist immediately enveloped him completely.

"Captain, Mercenary Tao doesn’t control the wind. He turns into wind!"

"I’ll leave the rest to you."

The black mist thickened, the space within began to rotate, and the coordinates started to distort.

Ghost Wolf saw Mercenary Tao merely standing in the distance and quietly watching him. Had he seen through the nature of his ability and decided not to risk being teleported away?

Ghost Wolf felt his body beginning to twist, and he relaxed slightly. Although this teleportation ability could negate most attacks, it still had certain weaknesses.

Before the teleportation was completely finished, parts of his body would remain uncovered by the black mist.

Suddenly, Ghost Wolf felt a terrifying aura erupt from Mercenary Tao’s body. Like a hurricane sweeping past, it washed over his body in an instant.

The world before his eyes seemed to turn black. The overwhelming aura blanked his mind for a moment.

This is… Conqueror’s Haki?!

The next instant, golden Ripple mixed with purple-black Satsui no Hado wrapped around a hand whose muscles bulged inch by inch. It viciously pierced in from outside the black mist.

Crack—splat!

The shield around his body shattered in an instant. Then a terrifying force stabbed into his neck. The icy chill and agonizing pain jolted Ghost Wolf awake.

He stared at Mercenary Tao, whose left hand had plunged entirely into his neck. His face twisted in an instant. His trachea and throat had been pulverized, and his neck had nearly been torn completely apart.

I’m going to die?

I’m going to die! At the very least, I’ll take this hand with me!

Ghost Wolf opened his mouth in a hoarse roar. Blood sprayed through the black mist. The mist suddenly contracted, and space completely collapsed toward a void coordinate as the teleportation finished.

Boom!

The terrifying potential energy of the collapsing space collided with Bai Cangshu’s left hand, unleashing an unimaginable shockwave.

Bai Cangshu was sent drifting backward in an instant. Millennium Worm, who had flown over at high speed, leaped from the clay bird. The bird immediately crashed into Bai Cangshu and exploded violently.

Team member GL14775421 (Ghost Wolf) has died.

Millennium Worm landed on the ground, his hands twitching. When he turned around, Mercenary Tao emerged from the explosion as expected, the injuries on his body rapidly healing.

The power of his Explosion Release was enough to blast apart the opponent’s surface defenses, yet it could not kill him.

And… Millennium Worm looked at Mercenary Tao’s left hand. That hand truly was unusual. Even Ghost Wolf’s teleportation ability had been unable to sever it. That arm… was dangerous.

Bai Cangshu looked at Millennium Worm, who remained calm as he continuously analyzed his abilities. With a flash of light in his hand, two Scarlet Drop Cards appeared, and the smile on his face grew increasingly warped.

"The reason they died was probably because they followed such a weak captain."

Bai Cangshu found that he was beginning to understand why villains in so many stories liked to spout so much trash talk before a fight. When facing a beast that used rules and rationality to disguise itself as a respectable gentleman, he found it hard to resist the urge… to slowly tear apart its chains and see what that beast truly looked like.

Millennium Worm froze, then looked at Bai Cangshu as though he were already dead.

The two smaller mouths on his body opened once more.

"Kneel!"

Compared to an extreme curse command like death, curse commands that interfered with movement, such as stop or freeze, consumed far less and came at a much lower cost.

The moment Millennium Worm uttered the curse command, his figure vanished as well. Naturally, he knew Body Flicker Jutsu, this kind of high-speed movement. He spread his hands apart, and white clay, like unformed gelatin, spewed from the mouths in his palms.

Millennium Worm rapidly circled Mercenary Tao, intending to completely cover him with a large amount of explosive clay before detonating it and killing him.

Although Mercenary Tao displayed the traits of immortality as well, immortality was not absolute invincibility. Most forms of immortality required the consumption of something in order to revive.

As long as one could kill enough times, even low- and mid-level immortality could be broken!

He did not believe Mercenary Tao could compare to him in that regard.

Whoosh!

Purple Satsui no Hado flared like flames. Millennium Worm was struck in the face by the energy, and his facial skin felt as though countless needles had pierced through it. It was the agonizing pain of massive cellular necrosis screaming through his nerves.

As his pupils trembled, he realized Mercenary Tao had not knelt at all. He had merely bent down. Millennium Worm’s eyes shifted, and he noticed blood flowing from Mercenary Tao’s ears.

This bastard… punctured his own eardrums the instant I activated the curse command?!

By mutilating himself, he had prevented himself from receiving the effects of the curse command…

Millennium Worm’s gaze shifted again. He saw Mercenary Tao’s lips curl apart. His left hand formed a blade, and purple-black Satsui no Hado swept out like a fan-shaped slash, instantly cutting across his neck.

Splat!

Blood shot into the sky. The head rolled several times before finally stopping in Mercenary Tao’s hand.

Bai Cangshu held Millennium Worm’s head, looking at his still-open eyes with a mocking tone.

"See? I told you that you were weak…"

Then he abruptly turned. His right arm instantly swelled to an abnormal size. Borrowing the momentum of his turn, he hurled the head toward the distant, multicolored sky, where the Spirit World Infested Zone lay.

Boom!

The throw was so powerful that the head launched like a missile. It tore through the air with terrifying force, trailing white vapor behind it before disappearing from Bai Cangshu’s sight.

Ajin was an extremely special bloodline ability that possessed exceptionally high immortality. In terms of immortality on the level of flesh and blood alone, Ajin’s survival ability even surpassed cell-level revival like that of Majin Buu. Naturally, it far exceeded Muzan’s and Bai Cangshu’s current ability to revive from flesh and tissue.

No matter how their physical bodies were destroyed, Ajin would revive again. In terms of survival alone, it was already close to the highest-tier bloodlines.

However, this near-true immortality also had a weakness. Ajin revival was close to a Conceptual level form of regeneration.

In other words, an Ajin’s bodily tissues were actually closer to a special informational state. Normally, they were no different from ordinary human flesh, but after death, the Ajin’s bodily information would be "read" again and a body would be regenerated.

Every revival would begin from the largest remaining piece of bodily tissue. This revival first reclaimed the lost flesh and tissue from the body, completing the entire process from decomposition to reconstruction. If a portion of the body was too far from the largest body part, the Ajin would regenerate a new corresponding tissue.

This special revival mechanism created a new issue. Just as Bai Cangshu had done now, if an Ajin’s head was thrown far enough away, even into an unreachable space, the Ajin would be unable to reclaim that part of the body and would choose to regenerate it instead.

But if even the brain was replaced with a new one, the memories within the old brain naturally could not be preserved. In a sense, this method could kill an Ajin socially.

Looking at the headless corpse swaying as it fell, Bai Cangshu saw large amounts of black particles gathering. A new head was forming.

Bai Cangshu was very curious whether, under such circumstances, this Ajin who had lost his Reincarnator memories would still be classified as a Reincarnator.

A sharp pain pricked between Bai Cangshu’s brows. The sensation of being locked onto by killing intent made him immediately realize there was another enemy.

The next moment, he suddenly raised his left hand.

Bang!

Bai Cangshu took two steps back. A long, narrow golden bullet fell from the center of his left palm. Electric current flickered across his left hand twice before vanishing.

The Left Arm of the King was not merely hard. It could not be damaged by any form of energy, making it true absolute defense.

He turned to look southeast. The shooter was extremely far away, more than ten kilometers away, beyond the detection range of his current Mantra.

Bang!

Another special bullet accelerated by electromagnetism came flying over, knocking Bai Cangshu back two more steps.

The person hiding in the distance seemed to be deliberately provoking Bai Cangshu, firing shot after shot without pause. Bai Cangshu retreated step by step. Of course, they might also have been preventing Bai Cangshu from trying to kill this Ajin.

"Mercenary Tao, don’t be in such a hurry. I’m here to kill you…"

The air thundered and trembled like rolling lightning. An incomparably deep and powerful voice carried through the air, mixed with formidable inner force.

Simply hearing it made one feel their mind being affected.

Bai Cangshu looked at the Ajin whose revival was nearly complete, then at the golden bullet by his feet.

"Ha… there’s another expert?!"

Bang!

Bai Cangshu launched himself into the sky, then used Moonwalk to leap forward through the air. On the broken asphalt road, he saw a red-haired man slowly tearing off his upper clothes. The man held a great saber radiating intense coldness in a reverse grip.

Seeing Bai Cangshu approach through the air with Moonwalk, Red Dust revealed a fanatical smile. He stepped forward, gripped the blade with both hands, and slashed down fiercely.

The next instant, Bai Cangshu felt the air for thousands of meters ahead of him get emptied in an instant. A massive blade of light hundreds of meters long appeared above the man’s head and fell in a flash.

Six Forms of Arrogant Cold!