The Great Oni
Volume Benoni Chapter (35)
"The last one is drug-dealing, Gang Chief. That's actually our main income."
The former Gang Chief—now downgraded to Elder chief" under the new Gang Chief, Li Fan—was explaining the business matters.
Li Fan sat at the head of the table, holding the rank of Gang Chief.
Arsham sat in the seat beside him, appointed as Second Gang Chief.
"All right—whatever you do, just don't go overboard. If you have to, rob those rich families— I want one hundred million dollars every week."
Li Fan spoke lazily, resting his chin.
Elder chief gulped, forcing a bitter smile.
"Without the banned businesses the Gang Chief forbade—no drugs, no trafficking— a hundred million a week is rather high…"
"I already said it: if necessary, hit the notorious tycoons; you can even kidnap those scumbags. Do whatever you like—what I want is one hundred million a week. No arguments."
"Anyway, what matters more is: why are all of you this strong?"
Li Fan asked, full of curiosity.
Boss-in-chief blinked in surprise.
"Ah—Gang Chief doesn't know about the Black Winter Rose?"
Li Fan shook his head.
"Black Winter Rose? Never heard of it—this is the first time."
Boss-in-chief bowed his head and began to explain.
"The Black Winter Rose is a flower extremely difficult to grow. You can't water it with plain water— only fresh, living human blood works."
"Why do we grow it? One day a stranger suddenly appeared, overwhelmed us with power, and forced us to submit. Then he injected us with a certain medicine."
"That medicine made us unbelievably strong."
"He said that if we wanted more of the drug, we had to take care of these flowers."
Elder chief spoke without pausing.
"Oh." Li Fan nodded once.
"Then how do you contact that man for the drug?" he asked, pressing the key point.
"He comes on the first day of every month to collect the rose sap. But today is June 2…"
Elder chief trailed off.
"Hm. Don't you have his phone number or something?" Li Fan asked again.
"We do have a number, Gang Chief, but we were told never to call without reason."
"If you have one, call him. Tell him something's wrong with the flowers and make him come here."
Li Fan cut him off.
"Uh…" Elder chief hesitated.
"That guy's stronger than we are—Gang Chief, do you intend to attack them?"
He could no longer read Li Fan's thoughts.
"Yeah… right now I'm thinking maybe it'd be nice to absorb his whole organization and put someone I like in charge."
Li Fan gave a faint smile.
"…All right. I'll call right away."
Fearing the knife at hand more than the distant blade, Elder chief agreed.
He phoned for about five minutes, wiped his sweat, and exhaled.
"He's coming, Gang Chief."
"Mm." Li Fan nodded, pulled out his phone, and started playing a game.
"Oh—make me a bank card. Deposit one hundred million into it; that'll be this week's tribute."
Li Fan said while gaming.
"Yes, Gang Chief," Elder chief replied, face stiff and miserable.
"Then let's go have a look at the Black Winter Rose sap," Li Fan suddenly pocketed his phone and said.
"It's on the rooftop greenhouse where we planted them, Gang Chief," the Elder-chief replied and led the way.
When they reached the rooftop, they saw the Black Winter Roses growing inside a glasshouse.
There were seven rows, around thirty plants per row, so roughly two-hundred-ten plants in this rooftop level.
Li Fan, full of curiosity, walked closer to inspect.
The roses looked just like ordinary roses; the special thing was their black petals were wet and glistening with viscous sap.
Because Li Fan's sense of smell was excellent, every breath brought a faint blood scent.
Yet from the roses came an even stronger woody fragrance that blended with the blood smell.
"Hmm, this is interesting," Li Fan murmured and examined carefully.
Those black petals seemed soaked in blood, all slick and glistening with sap.
The key point: within that sap was a power Li Fan could not quite identify.
More important: Li Fan sensed that with his Demon-Energy Master he could absorb that power.
Arsham crouched, touched a flower, and said, "It smells really nice—my sister would probably love it."
Li Fan nodded.
Next he extended his hand and activated the Demon-Energy Master.
"Shiiii…" An uncanny sound rippled through the air as visible red energy strands streamed from the sap into Li Fan.
Within four seconds he had absorbed all the power from the two-hundred-ten plants.
During those four seconds the roses slowly withered; the once-beautiful black blooms now shriveled away.
Because of the Demon-Energy Master, Li Fan felt physical pain, yet he endured without changing expression.
He smiled, sensing the new lifeforce and strength rising in his body.
From those two-hundred-ten plants he had gained the physical toughness of roughly one Martial King.
In addition, his life-energy increased by about two thousand years.
Such strength and life-force were nothing to Li Fan himself, but with the Demon-Energy Master he could pass them on to others and build an entire army.
Even more intriguing: those saps had absorbed blood for only about one day.
If the flowers drew blood for an entire month, how much more would his power and life-energy grow? It was fascinating to consider.
"This is…" Elder-chief and the other bosses clutched their chests when they saw the roses wither.
They had poured thousands of liters of blood to keep the plants alive.
Now Li Fan had sucked them dry in seconds—just thinking about the months they would need to regrow made tears well in their eyes.
"Gang Chief, the Reaper Envoy has arrived," a gang member ran up and reported.
"Mm, good," Li Fan nodded and headed downstairs.
Li Fan's group sat back down on their chairs and waited for the other party.
Before long, someone came up from the floor below.
With a single glance, Li Fan felt that person's life-force surge like a huge wave.
The man did not look very old—about thirty—wearing a full Western suit, sunglasses, neat hair and beard; overall a good-looking fellow.
Right now he did not seem in a good mood: he frowned slightly, looked at Li Fan, and asked,
"Did your gang leader get replaced?"
"Whatever—what happened with the Black Winter Roses?"
The Reaper Envoy spoke in a curt, arrogant tone.
Yet no one answered him; they just stared.
"Dog bastards—what's wrong with you?" the Envoy cursed, wiping his shades.
At that moment Li Fan, who had been sitting on a chair, vanished and reappeared behind the man, delivering a straight kick.
Behind the sunglasses the Envoy's eyes widened; he instantly crossed one arm and one leg in a scissor block to stop Li Fan's kick.
"BOOM!"
A huge sound burst out, air gusted, the floor cracked, and the whole slab collapsed.
Immediately Li Fan and the Reaper Envoy both crashed down to the first floor.
"What kind of creature are you?" the Envoy growled, still falling, and kicked at Li Fan.
Li Fan dodged lightly.
"Hee-hee—you're interesting," Li Fan smiled coldly.
The Envoy looked at his trembling arm and shuddered.
To outside eyes it seemed he had blocked easily, yet in truth that kid's kick had cracked the bones in his arm.
"Hmph!" The Envoy snorted and released his Martial Spirit.
At once, a three-metre-tall phantom polar bear appeared behind him and merged with him.
Instantly the Envoy's height stretched to about seven feet; muscles doubled in size; his body became covered with the white fur of a polar bear.
His shirt tore off; what remained of his trousers hung ragged.
His glasses shattered, revealing eyes like a bear's.
In addition, his fingernails grew long and triangular like an animal's claws, and fangs protruded from his mouth.
All this description sounds long, but in reality the Envoy transformed from normal human to half-polar-bear in only half a second.
The bear-man vanished with supersonic speed, reappeared before Li Fan, and slashed with his claws.
Because of the bear-man's speed, Li Fan's pupils shrank; he had to leap back.
"Shiii—"
Though the claws did not strike directly, arcs of claw-light shot out, raking across Li Fan's chest.
"Ha-ha—die, little vermin!" The bear-man laughed, stepped right up to the now-stationary Li Fan, and tried to bite with his fangs.