Chapter 78

Until he found out that the fruit of life is a tree on earth that can only be seen in a special place. And there are only thirty trees that can produce the fruit of life and they only grow in those specific locations. But all of those trees already have an owner and all of them are a terrifying organization. And to get his hands on the so-called fruit of life he either needed something worth the value and it can't be traded with money.

But even though he worked harder than anyone could think it was still not enough. His efforts were nothing in front of them. It was like he was working so hard to escape a maze but found out soon that every way was blocked and the end was not existing. 

'F*CK Why has God forsake me like this. What have I done wrong?' he cursed in his heart as he continued running through the forest and kept his focus in front of him. He didn't dare leave his sight in front of him or the consequence was dire and it will be the end of his journey.

As he kept cursing in his heart he also remembered his struggles and after that, he was already on the verge of giving up because he was now exhausted and because of his old age his stamina had already decreased. But although he was already so old he was still as strong as a bull and much more stronger than any other person. 

After another minute he had already travelled 10 km and was still running continuously but his calf had already gone numb and his muscle was on the verge of breaking down. 

Keiji looked at the old man using his senses and predicted that this old man would get caught after travelling another 19 km and it would end up just a little beside the road where he and Mia were going. 

They still rode their bike casually and travelled along until Mia sensed something to her right. She stopped and looked to see if Keiji could feel what she had sensed but to her disappointment, it seems that Keiji didn't feel it. At first, she thought that Keiji was stronger than her but now she started to doubt it. 

"Why?" Keiji asked.

"I think a high-level player is fighting each other in that direction," Mia said as she pointed towards her right with a seemingly complex look.

"Really!? but I can't see anything," Keiji pretended that he couldn't see anything as he looked through the direction Mia pointed at.

"No, I think it is about 10-20 meters away although I can vaguely sense them," Mia casually explained as she kept trying her best to gauge their level.

"Then how can you sense them?" 

"I don't know it is just natural for us especially once you get used to this feeling in the game you will be able to tell what was happening," Mia explained without looking at Keiji she was still focusing her gaze on the forest.

"It seems that there is one high-level player which is a cultivator in that direction fighting some normal high-level player," Mia said as she tried to gauge if she could help. Based on the energy fluctuation she knew that the old man was on the verge of breaking down and she could also sense that this old man was a cultivator because of how the energy around him acted differently. 

"A cultivator? " Keiji got piqued he didn't know the difference between a cultivator and a high-level player in this world especially his power doesn't rely on the energy of the world like cultivation and players his power rely on his blood and unlike cultivator who only controls the surrounding energy, he instead was absorbing this energy and storing it in his blood and becoming their own energy that strengthens not only their individual powers but also their overall strength. 

His senses are based on his own ability to sense the surroundings by releasing some of his gaseous fluid in the air which he can control. He could see anything in the surroundings that was covered by the gaseous fluid that was released by his body. This is the uniqueness of Keiji and his race: they have the ability to control their blood to their will and all cells in their body. 

In the past when vampires still reigned over the world the more cells you could control the more powerful you were and Keiji could control every single cell in his body which means he could control more than thirty trillion cells before. But that is not the end of it because as vampires started to compress their blood the cell in their bodies also started to increase. And that is why it is so hard for vampires to increase their strength because if they don't use any special technique the cell will die due to compression of the blood. And if a cell dies it will also spread through the whole body if not extracted carefully. 

He looked more and focused more at the old man and the other burly figure who was wearing a black suit. 

…

After running for another two minutes he finally knew that he would be caught so he chose to fight back instead and face the enemy. He positioned himself and breathed the air in the surroundings and his vitality increased significantly. He regained a little bit of his strength.

"You old man we finally caught up to you, Do you think you could escape our pursuit," a man emerged through the darkness and was standing at the branch of a tree. 

The old man didn't speak and continued breathing. He couldn't do it earlier because it would decrease his speed. That is why he keeps trying to increase his vitality so that if there is a chance to escape he would immediately embrace it.

"Hmph, even if you regain full of your vitality you can't escape." The man said as he gestured his hands and countless shadows emerged through the dense forest. The old man could see ten more shadows emerging and surrounded him. At that time he already knew that his chance of escape went down from 5% to 0.1%.

But even though the chances are only 0.1% that he could escape, he would not give up because it also meant he gave up on the life of his grandson.

"Old man give back the fruit of life and we will let you die peacefully," the man spoke as he looked at the pouch that was tied in the man's hips. 

"No, I will never give this back even if it caused my life." the old man said persistently.

"Okay, it's your choice. Attack makes sure you won't kill him."

After giving the order a knife shot through the forest and was going towards the old man. The old man senses the incoming dagger and he skillfully uses his right arm and grabs the hilt of the dagger that was still rotating mid-air as he spun around and go with the flow of the dagger and uses its current force and redirected the dagger to one of the assailants that were already running towards him. 

After doing so one of the assailants dash forward with a dagger in his hands and stab his dagger towards the old man but the old man moves like a snake and dodge the knife by inch while another assailant also stabbed its dagger towards the old man but then old man's palm hit the dagger's side and it caused the dagger to change its trajectory and it hit the wrist of another assailant who was also trying to stab then an old man. 

The old man moved around his body sidewards then crouched before bending his arms and his palms shot through one of the assailant's jaw that caused it to fly upwards and while his arm was still in the air he bends it and his elbow hit the back of the man who was trying to stab him.

But then a dagger protruded from the back of the old man but it didn't hit any main blood vessels or organs. Although the old man used only one of his arms he could still fight toe to toe with the ten assailants. 

After a minute the old man was now on his knees and kneeling on the ground. Countless wounds surrounded his body as blood kept spewing out of it. He was already lying down and was hoping for a miracle to happen. 

He thought ' If God really exists please just this once help me. I still need to protect my grandson and help him live. I promise that I will devote myself to you. I never kill or harm anyone, I never abuse my power or anything, I never trick and take advantage of anyone so please just this once help me…"