Chapter 25: Angang Does Not Need Such Arrogant People

In the warehouse, Gu Changqing extended his hand, and a blood-red serpent slithered from the familiar corpse, coiling around his fingers. Upon closer inspection, it was clear this was no true snake, but rather a strand of blood as thick as a finger, less than half a meter long, yet behaving as if it were alive. On the surface of this blood, the outlines of countless human faces appeared, their expressions twisted in silent screams, resembling the scales of a serpent from a distance.

“As expected, there’s only resentment, no soul,” Gu Changqing observed the blood serpent between his fingers with interest. The faces on the surface were nothing more than manifestations of lingering resentment.

With a thought, the serpent vanished into his skin, seemingly absorbed. Another thought, and it emerged from his palm, gliding across his body.

The fact that the mother and child specters contained only resentment, not souls, hardly surprised him. He still didn’t fully understand what those two entities truly were.

Yet, ever since he’d begun learning the “Blood Prison Scroll,” everything had become much more convenient. Previously, extracting and refining blood energy required the jade dagger that bore the Blood Sovereign’s legacy. But with the help of those two vials of deep blue liquid, he’d summoned the specters and forged the first shape of the Blood Prison Scroll. Henceforth, he could use this blood serpent to draw and refine blood.

With every act of slaughter and devouring, the serpent would gradually grow into a river, then a sea, of blood.

Those who perished within this sea would have their souls forever trapped, their resentful spirits unable to pass on, suffering endlessly as if confined within a prison of blood.

Thus, this art was named the “Blood Prison Scroll.”

In battle, should he ensnare his foes within, they would be assailed not only by the sea of blood but by myriad vengeful spirits. In the span of a moment, they would be reduced to nothing but blood and water.

A single thread of their essence would be absorbed by Gu Changqing and refined into spiritual energy.

After packing up, Gu Changqing turned and left.

He drove home and, upon parking downstairs, checked his magazine—though it probably wouldn’t help much, it might still come in handy. He stowed the gun at his waist, took the elevator, and as he ascended, the jade dagger danced restlessly between his fingers.

Though he no longer needed it for refining, the jade dagger remained a treasure—unmatched in sharpness and resilience.

He unlocked his door and stepped into the apartment, where light and the sound of the television spilled from the living room.

A man in his thirties, with a short beard, dressed in tight black clothes and trousers, lounged on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other. A bottle of milk rested on the coffee table.

Hearing the door, the man turned with keen interest. “I’ve been waiting for you for two days!”

“Care to come in and talk?”

“Of course. Or you could try to run, if you like.”

“You’re much taller than the files said. Seems the information I got is a bit out of date.”

“And for a grown man to have such good skin… You should count yourself lucky it’s me here tonight!”

The man’s expression was calm, his tone casual—he clearly didn’t regard Gu Changqing as a threat.

Understandably so. After all, what was a mere officer of the Security Bureau to someone like him?

Gu Changqing’s jade dagger flickered with green light and vanished. Unhurried, he walked to the fridge, fetched a bottle of juice, and sat boldly across from the man.

“Nice knife work. Nice composure, too… I’m starting to like you,” the man said, smiling. “Interested in working for me? Provided you hand over what you have, of course.”

“You talk too much.” Gu Changqing waved him off as if shooing a fly, utterly uninterested in his chatter.

From the man’s demeanor, it was obvious he was supremely confident, not remotely concerned about Gu Changqing.

But Gu Changqing believed the world had no need for such arrogance.

First, though, he had a few questions.

“Who are you? Who do you work for? And what exactly was in those bottles?”

The man seemed briefly taken aback, then broke into laughter. “You’re questioning me?”

He slapped his knee and laughed uproariously.

“Bold, but clueless. What makes you think you can question me? That little knife, or the gun in your waistband?”

Gu Changqing bared his teeth in a predatory grin, like a beast ready to devour. Suddenly, the veins beneath his skin bulged and writhed like serpents, his entire body surging with blood energy. The sofa exploded beneath him as he leapt forward, swift as a tiger, hands whipping toward the man’s head with the force of a hurricane.

You’re so full of yourself—I’m really not happy about that!

“Eh?” The man’s smile froze the instant Gu Changqing lunged.

The sight was terrifying—Gu Changqing’s veins standing out like cords, his charge so fierce it felt as if a tiger had leapt upon him with jaws wide. No, even a true tiger would pale in comparison—next to this man, a tiger was nothing but a kitten.

Especially those hands descending toward his skull—they radiated such dreadful power that his scalp prickled with fear. He had no doubt his head would be crushed to pulp if struck.

“Damn it!” the thought flashed through his mind. Wasn’t this man just a Security Bureau officer? And hadn’t he been ambushed and left with amnesia just a short while ago?

He barely raised his arms to shield his head before Gu Changqing’s hands slammed down. With almost no pause, Gu Changqing seized his skull and smashed it into the floor.

Bang!

Flesh and blood splattered beneath Gu Changqing’s fingers, the man’s head exploding into a mess of gore.

“That’s it?” Gu Changqing stared doubtfully at the mangled flesh under his hand, and the man’s body, now missing its head.

“So arrogant just now, and this is all you’ve got?” Not only did the menace in Gu Changqing’s eyes not diminish, it grew even more intense.

He felt as though he’d been played for a fool.

But in the next instant, he saw the blood and fragments on the floor wriggling toward the neck. In less than ten seconds, the man’s head had reformed.

There was a difference now, though—his face was patchy, with large sections of raw flesh exposed.

The man looked up at Gu Changqing. “Unexpected. I didn’t think you were an Awakened, too.”

“And I was a little careless just now.”

“Now I think we can have a proper conversation.”

Gu Changqing reached out again to seize his head, but this time, the flesh on the man’s skull writhed and swelled, enveloping Gu Changqing’s hand and creeping up his arm.

“I told you… I’m not—”

Bang!

Gu Changqing raised his hand, staring at the blood and flesh still wriggling around his palm, pondering a question.

If I put this thing in a pressure cooker, would it die?

Or just turn into a mass of wriggling, cooked meat?

“You can’t kill me, don’t waste your energy,” the man’s head reformed once more, now with only a few scraps of skin left, the rest nothing but quivering, bloody muscle—a ghastly sight.

Bang!

Gu Changqing smashed the man’s head into the ground a third time.

This time, the man’s entire body spread out—blood, flesh, and bone all at once—covering the floor.

The flesh squirmed, climbing up Gu Changqing’s calves.

Gu Changqing grinned. This thing was troublesome, but fortunately, this was just his specialty.

A blood serpent slithered from Gu Changqing’s fingers, transforming into a fist-sized clump of blood that splashed onto the squirming flesh.

“I told you, you can’t kill me… but I can eat you!” The writhing flesh wrapped around Gu Changqing’s leg, a mouth opening on its surface, speaking as it tried to bite into his flesh.

At the same time, countless tiny mouths sprouted from the blood and flesh, trying to tear at Gu Changqing.

But after three seconds, the speaking mouth’s tone changed to panic.

“Wait—what is that?”

He could feel something inside him eating away, his own flesh melting away. At the same time, countless wails of anguish echoed through his very being.

“Stop—let’s talk! Didn’t you want to know who I work for?”

“I much preferred your arrogant manner a moment ago…” Gu Changqing sneered. In his vision, some of the flesh on the floor was dissolving into blood, as if devoured by something unseen.

Gu Changqing then stomped down, sending the flesh clinging to his leg scattering across the floor.