Old Days

Chapter 168

"What… what exactly are you people?"

At this point, no matter how slow-witted Blood Baron was, he could tell that something was wrong. Whether it was Quicksilver or this strange girl, neither of them could possibly have existed in the wasteland.

Moreover, judging by how well they knew him and their initially warm attitude, these people seemed to be quite familiar with him. But Blood Baron could guarantee that he had never met any of them.

He stared blankly at Quicksilver for a moment before a guess suddenly surfaced in his mind. He could not help stammering.

"Impossible, impossible. The timeline was fixed long ago. You can’t possibly have the ability to travel through time. Could it be… you’re not from this world?!"

"Hmph, you caught on pretty quickly." Kara snorted and casually tossed him onto the ground.

Blood Baron lay weakly on the ground. The instant he said those words, he regretted them, because he knew that anyone capable of traveling between worlds was no ordinary being. There was very likely something even more terrifying behind them.

He did not know what these people wanted, but he had guessed their origins. To keep that secret, he had clearly put himself on their kill list.

"Don’t, don’t kill me. Please, I was forced into it. Red Skull threatened me into doing it. I’m a victim too. Look at me now—the criminals abandoned me and my clan. You have to believe me."

Blood Baron was terrified out of his wits. After all, he was not like Dracula, some being who could never truly die no matter how many times he went around in circles. If he died, he would really be dead. After living for so many years, Blood Baron still valued his life dearly.

"Don’t worry. We won’t kill you." Zhang Ye stepped forward two paces and spoke calmly as he looked at Blood Baron.

"Really?" Blood Baron raised his head.

"For now." Zhang Ye’s gaze was indifferent. "I need you to tell me everything you know about the wasteland. At the same time, I need a scouting force. You have great value, so I won’t kill you."

"Scouts…" Blood Baron opened his mouth, seemingly unable to process it. "B-but I’m a villain. Aren’t you afraid I’ll betray you, or tell Red Skull about you?"

"On this lawless land, I need to make use of everything. You’ve wandered for so long already. Do you still want to live a life worse than death? Follow me, and I’ll let you drink warm blood. But betray me, and I’ll let you experience what it feels like to be watched by the sun."

As a cold-blooded creature, Blood Baron inexplicably shuddered at Zhang Ye’s words. Trembling, he replied, "Rest assured, I will never betray you."

"That isn’t enough. I’ll use some magic on you. I picked up some interesting contract magic from Mephisto before. Don’t worry—so long as you don’t betray me, this contract won’t harm you." Zhang Ye smiled.

These contracts from the Hell Dimension were demons’ specialty. In ancient times, many witches and wizards who signed contracts with demons studied this kind of sorcery. They transformed demon contracts into Black Magic, using them to capture powerful servants to protect them while they cultivated.

After a long period of evolution, this Black Magic gradually became more widespread. By modern times, even an ordinary person could learn this Black Magic to capture ghosts or goblins.

But the Black Magic Zhang Ye had learned was naturally not that kind of commonplace stuff. What he used was a genuine Demon Contract, and the reason Zhang Ye could use this ability was something he had to "thank" Mephisto for.

Mephisto, that old monster, had set him up before and stuffed countless demon souls into Zhang Ye’s body. With the Time Twister’s help, the negative energy from those demon souls could not affect Zhang Ye, but the fragmented information mixed within them still caused him quite a few problems.

As the saying went, fortune and misfortune went hand in hand. While being affected by the fragmented information from countless demon souls, Zhang Ye was also continuously learning the powerful abilities unique to demons.

An ordinary wizard might spend a lifetime struggling and still fail to learn such high-level forbidden knowledge. Fortunately, Zhang Ye had wielded immense power at the time. It was like adding an advanced information processor to a computer, allowing Zhang Ye to pick up plenty of magic he had been unable to learn before.

"Tell me. How did you survive all these years? Also, I want intelligence on the forces under Red Skull and the others. All of that is important to me," Zhang Ye said.

"Fine." A man had to bow his head under a low roof. Blood Baron knew that his life was now in the hands of these three people, and he had no choice but to comply with their demands.

After carefully choosing his words, Blood Baron slowly sank into his memories.

"Red Skull was the one who approached me first. He knew I was at odds with Captain America, so he hoped I would join his alliance. After all, my clan had a certain degree of combat power even back then."

"Red Skull did not trust me, and there were many plans he never told me about. But I didn’t care at the time. All I wanted was to make those heroes pay, so I led my offspring into Hydra’s ranks and waited for the day the final battle would come."

At this point, Blood Baron let out a heavy sigh, sorrow filling his eyes.

"When the battle began, I was assigned to the New York battlefield. It was the main battlefield between the villains and the heroes. Nearly every notable figure fell there. I thought I would be able to kill Captain America with my own hands, but in truth, I searched everywhere and never found him."

"The first hero to fall was Iron Fist. According to the intelligence Red Skull gave me, my clan ambushed him before he could put on his suit. But he was very strong. Even though it was an ambush, the battle dragged on for a long time before it ended. By the time we reached the streets, the fighting had already reached a fever pitch."

"I didn’t know what had happened outside. All I knew was that the streets were covered in corpses, and countless streams of blood flowed across the ground and into the sewers."

"As I followed the bodies in search of the main force, I ran into Baron Strucker. He shouted for us to retreat immediately. At the time, I thought our operation had failed. Only later did I learn that it had not failed—the heroes had all been killed."

As they quietly listened to Blood Baron’s account, Zhang Ye and the other two wore different expressions, each lost in their own thoughts.

After a pause, Zhang Ye finally asked, "Then how did you end up like this? More importantly, you clearly took control of the entire world. Why did Earth become what it is now?"