The Demon's Blade
A blonde Asian lady wearing a tight-fitting, black, leather jacket which revealed her immensely curvy body, approached Yang Chen and walked around him as if she was catwalking. Turning to Nine-tailed Arctic Fox, she said, “Ninetails you stinky fox, I didn’t expect you to actually get anything done.”
Ninetails snorted in contempt. “Stupid Cat, do you expect everyone to be the same as you, to only know how to fight but not how to use your brain?”
“If you’re talking about using your brain, how can anyone rival Noriko Okawa?” the lady referred as Stupid Cat said before turning her gaze to the man with white hair who led the others inside.
Although it could be seen that the man was old, his face was vibrant and healthy while his skin was smooth, not the slightest sign of aging could be spotted. With his gaze fixed on Yang Chen, his eyes looked like cold water which didn’t hold any ripples.
Yang Chen looked at the white-haired man and the man and woman who followed him behind. They were the two jinnins he met a few times—Hannya and Tanuki. However, Tengu was nowhere to be seen.
Yang Chen didn’t know that Tengu had long been killed by Hannya.
Hannya held a complicated expression when she saw Yang Chen, while Tanuki sneered, as if he saw something very comical.
The three other people who walked inside as well, wore blue leather jackets. They were the power-users from the American Blue Storm!
One of them was Judy whom he released from the battle in Tibet!
Judy’s charming face was pinkish and warm. Evidently, she was overjoyed to see Yang Chen injured. Back then, Blue Storm suffered a major loss and got heavily humiliated because of Yang Chen. She previously relied on Venus’s protective talisman to stay alive. Today, she brought two other members and the two strong Japanese associations to deal with Yang Chen!
The appearance of another three people puzzled Yang Chen.
One of them was a cardinal from the Vatican while the other two armored swordsmen were from Knights of the Holy Palace!
Yang Chen didn’t know why even the Vatican was involved to deal with him.
“Your Majesty Pluto, we meet again,” Judy said with a smile.
Yang Chen took a step back to lean on the door frame. He noticed just how strong the poison was, as his body slowly weakened. He couldn’t even stand straight and stable anymore.
“I was just wondering how Takamagahara managed to develop a poison that even I’m susceptible to, even if they’re strong… Now I understand why, even you guys are involved…” Yang Chen smiled bitterly.
If Yang Chen had to guess just who had the ability to develop an effective poison against him, or even a drug, it could only be Blue Storm.
Expectedly, Judy nodded as she admitted. “Your Majesty Pluto, this drug we made specially for you is one of a kind in the world. Because of your unique body type, poisons made from ordinary elements cannot harm you. So, we chose to use a radioactive element called polonium as the main ingredient. The concentrated polonium element which cost us 40 million US dollars in addition to another 200 million for the remaining elements and various development costs… are all in the tea you consumed earlier.”
“Polonium, is it…” Yang Chen lowered his head to look at the teacup he drank from earlier. Some of the characteristics of polonium included transparency and lack of flavor, so it was totally normal for him to fail to identify its presence. “You guys spent almost 300 million US dollars just to develop a drug used against me. Isn’t that too wasteful?”
“Not wasteful at all…” Judy walked forward and gazed at the dagger pierced into Yang Chen’s heart. Smiling coldly, she said, “Your Majesty Pluto, haven’t you noticed that your senses became really slow? You couldn’t detect Miss Ninetails’ killing aura nor could you tell she was going to stab you with a dagger. Most importantly, your body isn’t as tough and your wound… can’t recover itself anymore… These are all effects caused by the radioactive elements. Alpha particles can effectively suppress your self-healing ability, and can weaken your body tissues by repeatedly colliding.”
Yang Chen finally understood his poor senses were caused by the drug as well, which allowed Ninetails to succeed so easily!
Thus, not only did the drug affect his physiological functions, it also suppressed his senses and thinking ability!
“Actually, I have to thank Your Majesty Pluto for not killing me last time. After I returned to the headquarters, I managed to provide lots of direct information,” Judy said. “The strength of Gods comes from the combination of their bodies and consciousness. According to the legend of Treaty of Gods, being non-God individuals, we don’t have to be afraid since your ability is constrained. After all, you can’t unseal your true ability against non-Gods. I bet Your Majesty Pluto mustn’t want to disobey the treaty, unless you want to be the common enemy of all the other Gods. As a result, this drug designed specially for you alone was born.”
Yang Chen smiled coldly. “It must’ve been tough for you to use nuclear technology against me. However, do you guys possibly think this can kill me…”
“We can’t.” The person who spoke was the white-haired man who was the leader of Yamata Sect, also a Chinin—Noriko Okawa. Evidently, this entire plot was set up by him.
“Both of us used to be assassins in Zero. Although we weren’t close, I understand you more than anyone else.” Noriko Okawa spoke Japanese in an monotonous manner, sounding extremely lifeless. “Although most people don’t know this, I’m fully aware that you only managed to snatch the God status of Pluto, from the leader of Zero, through ‘God killing’. I know that Gods are theoretically eternal and indestructible, but if their bodies were destroyed, they definitely couldn’t immediately revive. As far as I know, once the body of a God is destroyed, he’s left no choice but to reincarnate… while reincarnation certainly couldn’t be done within tens of years…”
Yang Chen’s pupils shrank. His understanding towards God tier has reached such a level!
Noriko Okawa continued speaking, “So, regardless if we can snatch God’s Stone from your hands, as long as your body gets destroyed today, you won’t form any threat towards us!”
Yang Chen laughed. “Didn’t I give you all God’s Stone long ago? Why are you talking about it now?”
“That one is fake…”
Noriko Okawa basically squeezed these words out of his mouth. Painfully, he said, “Your means is indeed clever. You managed to trick all of us… I thought you’d hand in the real God’s Stone for the woman you love, but it’s still fake at last… The real God’s Stone must be hidden away by you in some corner!”
“Your Majesty Pluto, Leader Okawa got visits from quite a lot of enemies after getting the fake God’s Stone. Even when he told others that his God’s Stone was fake, no one was willing to believe him. This is indeed a wicked act,” Judy said before sighing.
Yang Chen felt that it was fun. Looking at them, he said, “You guys from Blue Storm should be one of the forces that are going for God’s Stone, otherwise you wouldn’t get together with Yamata Sect like now.”
“That’s right, but so what if that’s the case? As long as a deal is beneficial to us, we don’t mind spending some time,” Judy said with a smile.
Yang Chen turned his attention to the three members from the Vatican who had remained silent all this time. “I’m really curious about something. Do the people from the Vatican want to snatch God’s Stone as well?”
Using Italian, the cardinal replied, “Your Majesty Pluto, I’m Bruno from the Japanese parish. I came here today because you promised the Dark Parliament an alliance agreement. This is negative news to us at the Vatican, so we decided to join this time.”
Yang Chen felt dismal. I shouldn’t have signed anything with Lilith since the beginning. It got found out at all. I’m usually not afraid of this, but my body may really be destroyed today.
“I think Mr Cardinal doesn’t have to step in yourself.”
Noriko Okawa waved his hand at a sword holder nearby. An old-looking katana suddenly flew into his hand.
“Pluto, do you know what this sword is…”
Without saying anything more, Noriko Okawa pulled out the blade from the sheath.
The gleam from the blade flashed in front of Yang Chen. It could be seen that lots of scripture were written tightly on the katana, while a lifelike ancient dragon was carved on its side…
“The demon's blade, Mystical Masamura?!”
Yang Chen immediately thought of the name, with the reason being the sword was really too famous in the assassination scene.
Before Yang Chen truly became an assassin in Zero, legend had it that the first assassin from Zero owned that weapon Mystical Masamura. There wasn’t concrete evidence on who the assassin was.
Masamura was the most common type of blade during the Edo period. Compared to other weapons which would mostly get worn out quickly, it was sharper and tougher, hence the name the demon's blade.
After that, the first ancestor of Okawa shogunate got killed by a masamura. As a result, the usage of masamura as a blade was utterly banned before a huge number of them got destroyed!
However, the strongest masamura which held a curse of bloodlust was left. This blade had Mystical Lotus Sutra engraved all over its body together with a dragon carving. As soon as the blade was dipped in blood, its dragon carving would shine in red, allowing the sword to unleash its overwhelming power.
No wonder Noriko Okawa was so trusted by the first-generation Pluto. So he used to be the highest-ranked person in Zero!
“You look like you know what it is.” Noriko Okawa touched the blade with one of his hands. Proudly, he said, “The reason today’s plot is planned here is only because this is the ancestral home of Okawa clan. Killing a God here is still a glory to us. Our ancestor from Okawa was killed by a demon's blade, while the strongest demon's blade still belongs to Okawa clan.
“You’re an opponent worthy of dying by this blade. Even if your true ability is contained by the drug, it’s still worthy for me to kill you with a masamura.”
After Noriko Okawa finished speaking, he pointed the blade at Yang Chen. “Let me ask you one last time. Where’s God’s Stone?”
Yang Chen was in agony even when all he did was breathe. If it wasn’t for his body type and the pure internal energy of Endless Resolve Restoration Scripture, he would’ve died hundreds of times as a result of his heart being pierced.
“I won’t tell you even if it means I have to reincarnate today,” Yang Chen said with a smile. “Furthermore, it’s not certain yet if you’re able to take my life.”
“How ignorant!”
Following his yell, the demon's blade in his hand behaved like a frightened goose!
Yang Chen looked extremely pale as he violently spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. Lowering his head to have a look, half of the demon's blade had already entered his chest…
Except the poisonous dagger with gold lines, his heart was pierced by a demon's blade as well at the same time.
The drug developed by Blue Storm made him so sluggish that he didn’t even have time to think of dodging the attack, not to mention his body completely lost the ability to move!
Yang Chen dazed. Feeling dizzy, the energy in his body rapidly leaked while his vision started to get blurry…
Finally, the world turned into complete darkness!