The library of H-City once a sanctuary of knowledge had turned into something straight out of a nightmare.
The Corpse King, in his twisted sense of irony, had built his nest here, surrounding the once-proud building with layers of rotting flesh. The air was thick with the stench of decay, so foul that Shane Mountain could smell it even from several blocks away.
Standing atop a high-rise, Shane stared across the ruined skyline. "That smell reaches even here," he muttered, his expression tightening. "Was the Corpse Nest supposed to form this fast? Did my interference somehow speed up the Corpse King's evolution?"
He frowned. That shouldn't have been possible. He hadn't done much to alter the timeline. The serum had only been given to Noah Blaze and Kasumi, and the God Gene existed only in himself and Julian Drake. He'd met the Corpse King only once. None of it should have caused a mutation this drastic.
But speculating wouldn't get him anywhere. Shane had come here for one purpose to take advantage of the impending battle between the Azure Dragon and the Corpse King.
Both were prodigies among prodigies warriors who stood at the very peak of human potential. If he could obtain and absorb their genetic essence, he might also become a once-in-a-lifetime martial genius. That was his real mission today.
A sudden roar of rotor blades broke through his thoughts. Several armed helicopters appeared in the distance, circling the corpse-infested city. Moments later, a voice crackled through his comm device.
"Comrade Shane! This is Command Unit 001. I am Commander Lin, in charge of this operation."
"Talk."
Commander Lin's heart, which had been tight with worry, finally loosened a bit. The intelligence from the Immortal Master had warned them Shane's power was equivalent to that of a full-fledged god-tier being. Someone of that magnitude could turn the tide of battle in an instant. The higher-ups of Huaxia took him very seriously.
Clearing his throat, Commander Lin continued, "Comrade Shane, the Azure Dragon will soon engage the Corpse King. We anticipate a battle of catastrophic scale. We request that you do not interfere."
That took Shane by surprise. He'd expected them to beg for his help, not tell him to stand down.
So they were confident in Azure Dragon or perhaps they simply didn't trust him. Maybe both.
"Well, if they're asking me to stay out of it, they must have their reasons," Shane thought. He lifted the comm and replied, "Understood. I won't interfere in the fight between Azure Dragon and the Corpse King."
With that, he leapt from the rooftop and sprinted toward the Corpse Nest.
There were other powerful entities lurking within the nest perfect prey for harvesting unique abilities.
Commander Lin exhaled in relief at Shane's reply, but when he saw the man's figure streaking toward the Corpse Nest, his face turned dark.
"Damn it! Didn't he say he wouldn't interfere?"
"Sir," one officer said carefully, "he said he wouldn't interfere with the fight between Azure Dragon and the Corpse King. He never said he wouldn't enter the nest."
"I don't need you to explain the obvious! I'm not an idiot!" Lin snapped.
The room fell silent. The commander, still mourning his daughter's death in the earlier attacks, had been particularly short-tempered lately.
Within seconds, Shane reached the western entrance of the Corpse Nest.
Up close, the grotesque structure was even more nauseating walls made of fused flesh and muscle, pulsating slightly as if alive. The air was heavy with decay. Even Shane, who had fought monsters across continents, felt his stomach churn.
"The Corpse King really has a taste for horror…" he muttered. He remembered seeing the creature bathing in human blood once and shuddered. "That's… disgusting."
He stepped into the darkness. Instantly, the world around him went pitch-black. Activating his night vision, the dim shapes of the inner nest came into focus rotting tissue, glistening sinew, and congealed blood covering every surface.
No bones. No corpses. Just endless meat.
"Looks like the Corpse King hasn't started refining blood essence yet," Shane murmured. "Fine by me. Let's collect what we came for."
Earlier, he had sent Julian Drake back to prepare a new underground lab and to officially establish their front company, Titan Biotech Media, which would double as a short-video business. Everything was already in place; Julian just had to follow the plan.
Once Shane gathered enough gene samples from powerful beings, Julian would begin producing the base-grade God Gene for the world's elites. They'd make a fortune and, more importantly, tie themselves directly to the upper echelons of power.
Even though Shane now stood at god-tier strength, he knew better than to get complacent. Beyond god-tier lay the transcendent, and beyond that, the sovereign-class. Those at the very top weren't even bound by physics anymore.
In this world, even a god couldn't act recklessly especially in Huaxia, where the Azure Dragon himself could personally descend with the Nine Dragon Seal to subdue anyone who went too far.
As Shane moved deeper into the nest, a hulking figure emerged from the gloom.
It was Ghost Staff, a former elite from the Special Warfare Division.
In life, he had been a warrior's warrior a man who fought the Corpse King with all he had. But the gap in strength had been too great. The Corpse King had torn him apart piece by piece and resurrected him as one of his loyal undead, reshaping his appearance into a twisted version of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.
Beside him stood another monstrosity a pig-headed corpse easily over five meters tall.
"Hehehe… finally, someone worth killing," Ghost Staff sneered. He glanced at his pig companion. "Go. Let's see what he's made of."
The pig-headed giant roared and stomped toward Shane, its massive hoof crashing down like a falling boulder.
Shane sidestepped effortlessly. His killing intent surged, condensing into a swirling vortex in his palm.
"Rasengan."
Boom!
The spinning orb of death shredded through the pig-beast's body in an instant, reducing it to a crimson mist.
For Shane, it was no different from crushing an insect. He turned his gaze toward Ghost Staff.
The undead warrior's smirk vanished. His grip tightened on his staff. The two locked eyes.
One second. Two seconds. Two and a half
Ghost Staff turned on his heel and bolted.
"What the he ran?"
Shane blinked in disbelief. "Aren't these corpse soldiers supposed to fight to the death?!"
"Hey! Get back here! I wasn't done with you!"
Shane sprinted after him, locking onto the fugitive's location through subsonic resonance tracking. They darted through the fleshy tunnels until, suddenly, Shane burst out into open air.
"Huh? I'm outside?"
He looked around, confused. The sky was still gray and heavy, but this was definitely outside the nest.
"Damn it! I thought he was leading me to the Corpse King! Should've just killed him when I had the chance!"
Across from him, a group of soldiers in tactical gear raised their rifles, aiming directly at him.
"Hold your fire!" a bald middle-aged officer barked, stepping forward with a broad smile. "Everyone, lower your weapons! This is Shane Mountain our own god-tier ally!"
The troops immediately relaxed.
Shane gave a polite nod, amused. "You guys must be part of the main strike team, right? Don't worry, I won't interfere. I'm just looking for a guy dressed like the Monkey King, carrying a staff. You seen him?"
The soldiers exchanged baffled looks.
Whatever they'd expected from a living god, it definitely wasn't that.
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