"You said he's imprisoned in a for-profit private prison?" Illumi's attention was caught by the words "private prison" from Jin Bradley, and he inquired.
"That's right, a purely for-profit, completely illegal private prison, code-named [Execution Ground]."
"The person in charge there is named Hannibal Bane. He has over a thousand army veterans and a black market company under him, equivalent to a small organization," Jin Bradley added. Illumi pondered deeply and said, "Alright, you contact him through the black market and see if you can acquire Kipsiyler through a transaction."
"Understood." Jin Bradley hung up the phone. Illumi put his phone back in his pocket. When he returned, Silva and Kikyo had already left.
"Young Master Illumi, it's mealtime now."
"Master and Madam are waiting for you."
Only Gotoh remained, bowing slightly to him with a cold expression, and said. "I know." Illumi replied, stepping towards the mansion's dining room. Gotoh followed closely.
When Illumi arrived at the dining room, besides Silva and Kikyo, his grandfather Zeno Zoldyck was also present.
"Grandfather." Illumi softly called out, coming to Zeno's side and sitting on a chair.
"Mm." Zeno nodded softly, squinting his eyes, his gaze sweeping over Illumi, and said, "Your aura is much stronger than the last time we met."
"It seems you've used all your killing time for cultivation." Zeno finished speaking, picked up his chopsticks, and began to eat. The others only began to move after Zeno started.
"Do you need a mission?"
"I have many commissions here; I can transfer one to you." Illumi Zoldyck, sitting opposite him, now looked blankly at him and said.
"Yes, my money is almost used up anyway." Illumi chuckled softly. All his money had been invested into the company, leaving only ten million Jenny for daily expenses, airship travel, and so on.
"You owe me one. If I need your help with a mission in the future, you cannot refuse." Illumi Zoldyck picked up a piece of fish belly, placed it in his bowl, gently toyed with it, then chewed it a few times and swallowed. The fish was very clean; all the bones had been removed by the chef.
"Don't talk about missions during meals." Silva interrupted. Illumi and Illumi Zoldyck both fell silent simultaneously. The only sounds at the dining table were the clatter of chopsticks and porcelain bowls, and little Milluki's "iya" cries from his seat.
Ozma Federation, Marta City.
In the emergency department chief's office, Dr. Cliff leaned his left hand on his chin, while his right hand moved the mouse back and forth on the desk.
"Sigh, am I too tired?"
After a long time, Cliff rubbed his temples and sighed. He had searched for a long time but still hadn't found the source of his unease. As time passed, he became increasingly fatigued. The feeling of unease was suppressed by mental exhaustion, leading him to believe that the unease was caused by overwork.
Cliff thought of his wife and children, and smiled with relief in his heart. His son was nineteen years old. He used to be mischievous as a child, but after entering high school, he started to study hard, perhaps because he got tired of playing. He eventually got into the Ozma Federation National Medical University, making him very proud. His daughter was still in her first year of high school. Influenced by her brother, her academic performance was also excellent, consistently staying in the top ten of her grade.
Bored, he took out his phone and browsed through photos of his wife and children.
"Time for bed." Cliff placed his phone on the desk, got up, and walked to the bed in the emergency room, ready to lie down and sleep.
"Tap tap tap..."
Suddenly, a rapid series of footsteps echoed in the silent corridor. A nurse frantically pushed open the door to the chief's office and burst in. The nurse was panting heavily, her face pale, and her lips trembling.
"Dr. Cliff... d-died..."
Cliff was initially a little annoyed by the other party's rudeness, but hearing the nurse's disjointed words, his heart tightened, and he quickly got up.
"What died? Speak clearly!"
"Died, the patient who was sent in earlier with fever and vomiting, died..."
"What!? How is that possible!?" Dr. Cliff immediately got up, rushed past the nurse, pushed open the door, and strode towards the ICU ward, his face turning green.
How did he die? How could he die? How long has it been? He died before we even had time to notify? What a joke!?
Arriving on the floor where the ICU ward was located, Cliff immediately dashed down the corridor. He reached the ICU ward, put on the prepared isolation suit, and entered. Inside the ward, several nurses looked extremely uneasy. Dr. Talia saw him coming and immediately pulled back the curtain around the isolated bed, letting Dr. Cliff enter.
The isolated bed was covered in brown vomit. The patient's face, pillow, quilt, bed edges, and the floor were a mess. The patient lay on the bed, mouth wide open, eyes bulging, bloodshot, and his face still showed the intense pain he experienced before death, as if he had undergone some inhumane torture.
"What's the situation?" Cliff observed for a moment, then looked at Dr. Talia beside him. Her lips, hidden behind her mask, slightly parted.
"Acute renal failure, perforated bowel bleeding, and abdominal effusion..." Dr. Talia's face, hidden beneath her mask, was extremely grim. Cliff also knew that the patient's severe vomiting and acute diarrhea earlier, if left unchecked, could indeed be fatal. However, he hadn't expected death to come so quickly, so suddenly, leaving them completely unprepared and unable to intervene.
"Why didn't you notify me earlier?" Cliff's face was grim, and anger surged in his heart.
"It was too fast; we didn't have time."
"Based on the patient's condition, after switching to other antibiotics, his condition improved briefly."
"But then, the patient suddenly started vomiting violently and experiencing diarrhea again, along with a persistent fever. Before we could even notify anyone, he died..."
Cliff was startled after hearing Dr. Talia's explanation. "Immediately notify the director and all leaders. Also, are the patient's family members here?"
"The patient's family members have been notified, but they're still on their way."
"Don't notify the patient's family members yet. Wait until they arrive at the hospital to tell them."
"Collect the patient's blood, vomit, and feces for separation culture and identification. This incident is unusual."
"Our previous tests might have overlooked something."
With that, Cliff turned his head and looked at the nurses in the room, his anger flaring.
"Are you deaf!?"
"Hurry up and do it! And call someone to disinfect!"
"Yes!"
Several young nurses shivered and hastily began to move. Cliff looked at the patient lying on the bed. The sense of unease that had been suppressed in his heart reappeared, and it was even stronger.
One month later, Kukuru Mountain, Zoldyck Family Mansion.
In the center of a stream lake in the Zoldyck family's backyard park, there was a rockery. Illumi was currently sitting cross-legged on a relatively flat stone on the rockery.
"Splash..."
The surface of the lake suddenly rippled. It was the carp in the lake rising to the surface to breathe. It didn't notice that black waterweeds were slowly approaching it from under the water as it surfaced to breathe. When it noticed, the "waterweeds" had already completely surrounded it, forming a semi-circular shape, trapping the carp and a good amount of lake water within.
"Splash splash splash..."
The carp struggled wildly within, but to no avail. The semi-circular "aquarium" slowly moved, coming before Illumi.
"Shadows can not only be used as offensive means but also as defensive and trapping means." Illumi looked at the struggling red carp in the semi-circular aquarium. With a thought, the black semi-circular aquarium instantly vanished. The carp, along with some lake water, "splashed" back into the lake, flicked its tail, and disappeared into the water.
"Swish!"
With a thought, Illumi's mind moved. A large amount of shadow formed a gigantic pure black sphere, enveloping himself.
"Boom!"
A tremor sounded from inside the gigantic sphere. It was Illumi's fist striking the wall made of shadows. The gigantic sphere "swished" and disappeared. Illumi reappeared on the stone.
"Whether shadows form walls or weapons, or anything else, their strength is even higher than diamonds."
A mass of shadow continuously transformed in Illumi's hand, first into a sphere, then a pistol, then a key.
"How about this?" Illumi thought, recalling an interesting concept.
"Swish swish swish..."
Following Illumi's thoughts, a large amount of shadow shot out from beneath him, forming a massive pure black eagle in the air before him.
"Boom!!"
A pure black giant eagle plummeted from the air into the lake, stirring up several meters high splashes.
"As expected, as long as I understand the creature's structure, I can form it." Illumi looked at the giant eagle that appeared before him, a satisfied smile on his face.
"I just don't know if it can fly." Illumi thought to himself, his eyes narrowing slightly. Might as well try.
"Boom!"
With a thought from Illumi, a tremor sounded, and the giant eagle's wings suddenly spread. The pure black giant eagle's wingspan extended to an exaggerated fifteen meters, precisely what Illumi had modeled after the giant eagles in Gregorius National Park.
"Whoosh!"
Illumi leaped onto the giant eagle's back, mentally controlling the pure black giant eagle's movements.
"Boom!"
With a tremor, the giant eagle's wings violently flapped, launching it out of the water like a black sword, soaring straight into the clouds.
"This speed is not bad." Illumi's lips curled into a smile. The giant eagle formed by his ability, due to its body's strength, flew significantly faster than its prototype. Its speed was almost comparable to that of a large jet.
And beneath Illumi's feet, a wisp of shadow surged from the giant eagle's back, wrapping around Illumi's feet, holding him firmly on the giant eagle's back.
"Then, next, let's test the reconnaissance function."
Illumi thought to himself. A pair of crimson eyes suddenly appeared in the giant eagle's dark eye sockets. Although they weren't the eyes of an eagle, these eyes had excellent vision. Even at several thousand meters in the air, they could clearly see animals on the ground.
Everything the giant eagle saw was relayed back to Illumi's brain. Illumi frowned tightly, feeling a little unaccustomed to it.
"Phew..."
After a long while, Illumi finally adapted to this ability of shared vision. Having an extra pair of eyes suddenly felt quite strange.
"Let's test its aerial combat capability next."
Following Illumi's thoughts, the giant eagle flapped its wings again, diving towards the forest below. Its crimson eyes scanned the ground, searching for prey.
"Squeak squeak squeak..."
Suddenly, monkey calls echoed in the forest. The giant eagle's pupils moved. It clearly saw dozens of monkeys chattering on several large tree branches, pointing at the pure black giant eagle flying above their heads.
"Prey found." Illumi's lips curled into a smile. The giant eagle's wings flapped once.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
From the giant eagle's wings, numerous slender black lines suddenly shot out, aiming at the chattering monkeys on the branches.
"Thud thud thud..."
One monkey after another was pierced by the black lines shot from the giant eagle's body. The black lines coiled around the monkeys' corpses, sweeping over the forest, startling countless birds and beasts in the forest, who shrieked in terror and fled in panic.
"Whoosh!"
The giant eagle soared over the forest, its powerful airflow stirring up a gust of wind, creating a wave of emerald green.
"From now on, I can fly by myself without needing an airship." Illumi's lips curled into a smile. He looked at the rapidly passing scenery below, feeling utterly exhilarated.
"Let's go see that volcano." Illumi looked up at the volcano on Kukuru Mountain's summit. The giant eagle flapped its wings and flew towards the volcano's summit.
"Whoosh!"
The giant eagle carried Illumi into the dark clouds at the volcano's summit. An extremely unpleasant gas filled the air; it was the smell of sulfur.
"A dormant volcano." Illumi frowned, enduring the foul smell, and controlled the giant eagle to dive towards the volcano's crater. The closer they got, the more pungent and irritating the smell became. The volcano's crater had no heavenly pond, no plants, only cracked ground and white gas continuously rising.
"Maha Zoldyck cultivates in a place like this?" Illumi found it hard to imagine, but at the same time, a trace of doubt arose in his heart.
A year ago, he had felt an inexplicable sense of crisis from this volcano. Now that he had ascended the volcano's crater, he no longer felt that sense of crisis.
"Is it because my strength has increased?"
"Or for other reasons?"
Illumi wondered. Although his strength had indeed increased significantly compared to a year ago, it wasn't so strong as to ignore that level of crisis.
"Could it be that Maha Zoldyck is no longer on Kukuru Mountain!?" A possibility flashed through Illumi's mind, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was true.
"Could it be that, because of the great battle last time, something happened to his body, so he left Kukuru Mountain?"
"Then where did he go?"
"Where could he resolve the changes in his body, or rather, suppress the changes in his body?"
Illumi frowned in thought. The giant eagle continuously circled above the volcano's crater. Among the monkey corpses entangled by black lines, a few were still "squeaking," apparently not fatally injured.
"Throw them down." Illumi was annoyed by the monkeys' squeaking. The black lines entwining the monkey corpses turned into black smoke and suddenly vanished.
"Squeak squeak squeak..."
The pathetic group of monkeys was thus thrown into the volcano's crater by Illumi. The few remaining live monkeys were smashed into pulp amidst a series of terrified squeaks.
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