The biology prodigy, an A-level Overlord from Dark Totem, was killed by Chen Fan with a flick of a finger.
Never did Jason think that he was so powerless before Chen Fan. If not because Chen Fan's curiosity in the power of an Extraordinary One, Chen Fan could have unscrewed his head off his shoulders even before Jason had the chance to summon the wood element.
"Professor… Professor Chen?"
A shaken voice came up from a corner.
Chen Fan looked over and saw a terrified Xue Jiao. Jason's power seemed like the stuff of legends. However, Chen Fan was even more powerful than Jason since he had killed Jason with a flick of a finger. Xue Jiao felt it difficult to take in all that had happened. She had never seen the Extraordinary Ones, the underground world, Grandmaster Martial Artists; before today, she had never thought such things existed.
"Will you be in trouble since you killed Jason?"
Xue Jiao lowered her head and said under her breath. Although Chen Fan could have killed people easily, she could not bring herself to fear Chen Fan.
"Doesn't matter"
Chen Fan summoned a ball of green flame and landed it on Jason's dead body. Suddenly, Jason's corpse turned into a puff of dark smoke and in less than a second, the body was gone.
Chen Fan snapped his fingers and the vines and boughs that were summoned by Jason turned into countless rays of green light as they shot toward Chen Fan.
Xue Jiao rounded her eyes and watched in disbelief. If there wasn't anything strewn around in the room, no one could tell that Jason was ever here.
There was one more person that needed to be taken care of.
They both turned around and saw Han Dongyu who was still hiding in the corner, covering his head with both arms. Fear and shock flickered in the eyes.
Jason's disappearance didn't seem to cause much suspicion from other people.
After all, this biology prodigy was well known for his carefree lifestyle. Even the event organizers thought that he had sneaked away to another country for his personal vacation. Plus, everyone's attention was on Chen Fan and therefore no care had time to care about him.
However, the news about Jason's death quickly spread through the underground world and shocked everyone.
Jason the Tree Herder was one of the most powerful Overlords in the Dark Totem. Dark Totem had only a small handful of members whose powers were on par with him. Although the Dark Totem was only a mid-tier organization among the Extraordinary community, it was the most powerful among its mid-tier peers. The death of Jason also carried other news to the Dark Totem: the existence of the heavenly water.
Meanwhile, inside a mysterious ancient castle somewhere in Europe.
The wall of the gorgeously decorated room was painted with murals created by painting masters. Two long blades were set in the shape of a cross on top of the fireplace mantel. Above the crossed blades were a pentagram depicting a demon. Any furniture, let it be the sofa, desk or even the teacups were a few hundred years old antiques that were worth tens of thousands of euros.
Inside the room sat four statuesque men. They were either surrounded by shadows or flashing lightnings. They represented powerful forces that controlled entire regions.
Meanwhile, one of the men who seemed to be surrounded by dark clouds received a phone call. After he heard the message, his face became gloomy.
"Theseus, my friend, why the long face?"
Across the room, a blond handsome young man said with a smile as he put down the coffee cup.
The blond young man knew that the man in the shadow was the leader of the Dark Totem. He was a powerful Overlord that dominated the underground world and his name is Theseus, the Phantom. He had the ability to control shadows and was considered the most powerful Assassin in the world. He was born to be an assassin.
"Zoro, my beloved disciple, Jason is dead," Theseus said with a husky voice.
"The Tree Herder, Jason was dead?"
The blond young man was Zoro the Thunder King from Hong Sect.
Zoro paused a second as he tried to come to terms with what he heard. Jason was an A-level Overlord under the age of thirty and therefore, Zoro had heard of his name. His death had caught him by surprise.
"The death of an A-level Overlord would be a big loss to any organization. Plus, Jason was so talented and so… young. What a pity." Zoro lamented.
Any A-level Overlord would be a leader of most small to midsize organizations. People such as Linhu could have dominated the entire Alaska. Others such as Tang Yuanqin dominated an entire province of a superpower nation. Although Jason seemed extremely vulnerable before Chen Fan, he was considered a mighty Overlord among his international peers.
"Before he died, he sent us a message, saying that he had discovered the whereabouts of the Heavenly Water of Life in China," Theseus said heavily.
"Heavenly Water of Life?"
Zoro and the other two guests were all stunned by the revelation.
The Heavenly Water of Life was ten times more precious than diamonds to an Extraordinary One. The Heavenly Water was able to bring out an ordinary person's full potential and unlock his supernatural abilities hence becoming an Extraordinary One. Most Extraordinary Ones were awakened with the external stimulation such as the Heavenly Water of Life.
"Where is it? I am looking for it as well." Zoro narrowed his eyes as tiny flashing balls of lightning wondered in his eyes.
"Thunder King, you are from the Hong Sect, why do you need Heavenly Water of Life?" Another member of the Dark Totem asked curiously. He was an old man wearing a white robe. He was surrounded by a powerful energy that seemed to be able to pick him up into the air at any moment.
The sight of the speaker alerted Zoro.
Arthur, The King of Wind. He was one of the three masters at the Dark Totem. He was able to harness the power of airflow and control wind. The other two leaders of Dark Totem were Theseus the Phantom and The Abyssal Titan.
The three were the most powerful Extraordinary Ones in Dark Totem. Any one of them was as powerful as Zoro himself, if not more so. Theseus the Phantom was the most deadly of the three and he was able to kill Grandmasters.
However, with the backing of the Hong Sect, Zoro did not fear them. A powerful international organization such as Hong Sect was untouchable. Compared to the Hong Sect, the Dark Totem was far behind in terms of power and influence. If not because of Theseus, Zoro would never take the Dark Totem seriously.
"Jason said that he had discovered the Heavenly Water of Life in China. He sent out the message right before he was going to obtain the water. However, half an hour later, the signal on his tracker disappeared." Theseus said heavily.
"His locator was made of a special alloy, and it was nearly impossible to destroy it. Only a Grandmaster or a perfected cultivator could have pulled it off." The old man in a white robe said with furrowed brows.
Everyone looked at Zoro.
The Hong Sect originated from China and therefore, they expected Zoro to know much more about China than them,
"Did he say who has the Heavenly Water of Life before he disappeared?" Zoro got right down to the point.
"Hold on, let me take a look." Theseus fished out his cell phone and announced a few words in broken Chinese. "Beixuan Chen? He is a biology professor from Jin City University. He could be an Extraordinary One as well."
Arthur and the others were confused by the unfamiliar name. Plus, all Chinese names sounded the same to them.
However, Zoro suddenly pulled a taut face and gasped.
"What's going on, mate? Do you know Chen Beixuan?" Theseus asked with furrowed brows.
"Dear Lord Phantom. Do you remember the death of Blacksnake?" Zoro bowed slightly and then asked seriously.
"You mean the King of Assassins from Blood Skull?" Members of the Dark Totem looked at each other fearfully. Of course, they remembered the incident involving a billion-dollar bounty and the death of an elite member of the Assasin's guild. The death of Blacksnake dealt a heavy blow to all assassins in the world. Death of a powerful assassin did not happen too often.
"That's the one. The person who killed him was Chen Beixuan. The most powerful martial artist in China." Zoro said heavily.
"Chen Beixuan!"
Everyone was stunned by the revelation. Even Theseus's eyes were suddenly clouded by concern.
Although he lived in Europe, he had heard of Chen Fan many times. After all, of all the unsavory members of the underground world, not many of them could have done away with a Grandmaster.
"If the Heavenly Water of Life is in his hands, I doubt that Dark Totem alone would be able to get it from his hands." Zoro had recovered his normal nonchalant expression. He said with a shrug of the shoulder.
Theseus, and Abyssal Titan both pulled a gloomy face and said nothing.
No one wanted to offend a Super Overlord, not even Theseus. Although he was also a powerful Overlord, he was afraid that Chen Fan would pick on his other disciples in the Dark Totem. He had no doubt that Chen Fan could have slaughtered the entire Dark Totem if he wanted to.
"I have heard that Chen Beixuan made his name by killing the Super Overlord Lei Qianjue in your sect. Afterward, your set had even posted a billion-dollar bounty. Have you given up on the revenge already?" Theseus said with a cold smirk.
"Of course not." Zoro cracked a smile. "But it is none of your business."
"That being said, if we join forces, we might be able to defeat Chen Beixuan." Zoro carefully offered the bait.
Arthur and the others gave each other a knowing look and then nodded in the end.
Let it be Jason's death or the Heavenly Water of Life, they could not let either of the matters slide. Knowing the power of their opponent, they reckoned that joining forces with Hong Sect was their only chance to achieve anything.
After using a secret art and erased Han Dongyu's memory, Chen Fan visited all the business tycoons. Jason's warning was on point. These international companies were nothing but greedy leeches. They would not easily give up on their pursuit of profit.
"This China man is full of himself. He thought that a few words would be able to deter us the Addison International?"
After Chen Fan was gone, the old man with an aquiline nose complained to his assistant hotly.
"He is too naive to think that we will follow the rule of law, little does he know that international companies like us are above the law." The assistant Andrew shrugged and said.
"This is a trillion-dollar asset, a miracle cure for all ailments. No company would pass up the opportunity. We might as well get it before anyone else does. The board members wouldn't rest with ease until we secured it."
"It seemed that he was pretty adamant in holding on to the recipe." The old man with an aquiline nose said slowly. "Inform the Headquarters right now and contact the mercs and assassins. We need to do some digging to find out the locations of his relatives and kidnap them all. I am curious to see if he values his secret over the life of his family."
"Mr.Grant, do you think it's a bit too much at this point? Maybe we can try to offer a better price first?" Andrew said with furrowed brows
"No, no! It's not too much, it's not enough! He is a rich man with a stubborn mind, making him a hell of a tough nut to crack. Luckily, I am pretty experienced in dealing with people like him."
The man with an aquiline nose said with a cold smirk.
Suddenly, the door swung open and an attractive secretary with large bosom walked into the room, holding a stack of papers.
"Mr.Grant, the headquarters had just sent a message to call back any action against Chen Beixuan. We are only allowed to negotiate with peaceful means."
"Damn it! What the heck is wrong with those idiots at Headquarters?" The old man's temper flared. "How are we going to make this stubborn asshole change his mind without using other means? I thought those old foxes always pride themselves for being greedy vultures, why did they suddenly become so docile?"
"We are not alone in this. Layton Life Inc. from the US and Genetech from the UK adopted similar tactics." The attractive secretary said with a confused look,
"How is that possible? We are supposed to be as aggressive as alligators, why do we act like a bunch of meek lambs?"
The old man lamented perplexedly.
"That's because Mr. Chen seemed to have a very complicated background." The secretary said with furrowed brows. She then read the fine print on one piece of paper. "His hidden identity is the most powerful Overlord in the Chinese Martial arts community, Chen Beixuan."
"The number one Overlord in China, Chen Beixuan?"
The old man paused a second and suddenly remembered a rumor he had heard, and then he grew silent without complaint.