Chapter Ninety-Seven: Expansion and the Dragon

The experiment had succeeded.

Liu Tian watched the changes in the bodies of the men who had drunk the blood of madness.

As he had expected, every one of them saw a comprehensive enhancement in physical ability, while also awakening one to three animal abilities.

Perhaps it was because he was the source of the magnetic field power in this world, or perhaps because the blood of madness itself carried the power of inheritance and bloodline. Liu Tian’s blood could awaken power in people who had no talent at all, or whose talent was exceedingly weak.

He had already experimented on a few people before, but their physical condition and mental will were far inferior to those hundred men carefully selected this time. As a result, the animal abilities they awakened were basically only one each, and almost all of them were the most common types, such as ultrasonic detection or chameleon skin.

Once they drank the blood and awakened their powers, Liu Tian could sense their position no matter how far away they were. If someone like Chu Zihang drank a dozen drops at once, they could even converse through consciousness across distance.

However, she had drunk so much that, in theory, she ought to have awakened some animal ability as well. Was it because of that unknown bloodline, or because she had already awakened it and simply did not know how to use it?

Liu Tian pondered.

The transformation brought by the blood of madness was extremely swift. In just three minutes, everyone had completed their change. Intense hunger and emptiness surged from within their bodies, but this group of mercenaries, who had just glimpsed a new world, forcibly endured it through sheer willpower.

After all, with their senses now completely renewed, they could already perceive how powerful Liu Tian truly was.

A presence as overwhelming as a natural disaster.

“Very good.”

Liu Tian turned his head and gave a light flick of his finger. Four prepared manuals fell into Shao Qian’s hands. From top to bottom, the names of the secret martial arts were: Thunder Step, Phantom Footwork, Savage Bull Force, and Iron Armor Skill.

These were a complete set of secret martial techniques specially created by Liu Tian. They enhanced agility, movement, strength, and defense. Because each one focused on only a single aspect, their amplification was not extreme, and the difficulty of cultivation was low. With the complete annotations provided, people who already had some foundation could learn them on their own.

Added to that, with the boost of the blood of madness, they were perfectly suited for mass cultivation of subordinates.

As for Shao Qian, who had done so much work, Liu Tian naturally had not forgotten him. Before coming here, he had already made Shao Qian choose between half a drop of the blood of madness and a complete set, including all annotations, of first-rate secret martial arts called Flowing Wind Technique.

After understanding the possible side effects of the blood of madness, Shao Qian chose the Flowing Wind Technique, which allowed control over airflow, for the sake of his child.

Of course, safety was not the only reason. There was another: although the Flowing Wind Technique came with annotations, part of it still required guidance. By choosing this set, Shao Yifeng would also be able to receive much of Liu Tian’s instruction.

After all, even a minor official can bask in the light of the chancellor.

“Shao Qian, take them to eat. Leave the rest to you.” The next matters no longer required his personal attention, and Liu Tian gave his orders. “As for the other side of this world, gather everything you can about strange legends and ancient origins. As for the reward, for now use the basic rules I established before.”

Two months later!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Holding a wooden sword whose hardness was no less than steel, Chu Zihang was fighting a monster covered in scales, with golden eyes and claws so sharp that a single direct clash could leave deep marks on the wooden blade.

So this was the so-called Dead Servant, born after dragon blood broke through its critical threshold? It was worlds apart from Odin.

Flipping through the documents in his hand, Liu Tian thought to himself.

Because they had already learned some of the relevant information in advance, after gathering together, discussing things, and obtaining power sufficient to kick open the door, in just two short months his subordinates had organized the basic intelligence of the hidden world beneath human society.

Dragons, hybrids born from dragon blood, and the so-called sorrow of blood that naturally estranges them from ordinary people; and Dead Servants, the so-called immortal beings born when the proportion of dragon blood exceeds the limit.

Under a burst of unprecedented initiative, several top mercenaries worked together to shatter multiple dragon ruins and capture a living Dead Servant.

That was no easy feat. After all, in just two months, these mercenaries were still in the midst of rapid improvement.

At this stage, they had to help the Black Prince Group wage corporate warfare, explore various dragon-related matters, and diligently practice martial arts.

Although by now they had adapted to the enhancement brought by the blood of madness, their progress in secret martial arts was still far from reaching a bottleneck.

The blood of madness, born from Liu Tian’s own body and further transformed by the instinctive persona of the Great Serpent, constructed on the basis of white light, possessed effects whose principles even Liu Tian and the Great Serpent could not yet fully understand.

Even a mere trace of it was enough to support them in cultivating the four most basic secret martial arts all the way to the threshold of becoming fighters, with no bottleneck whatsoever.

And now, even the most gifted, the hardest working, the fastest among them had only barely reached the martial artist stage, still in the period of rapid advancement.

Not only that, but the blood of madness itself granted them physical qualities no weaker than hybrids, along with a recovery speed beyond that of ordinary humans. If combined with secret martial arts, and setting aside spirit words, they would only be tougher and stronger than those so-called hybrids.

That tedious sorrow of blood—merely an instinctive feeling that others are beneath you, unable to understand or comprehend you, which is why your kind gathers together.

After gathering together, they then use blood ties as the bond, working in concert between East and West, hollowing out society, acquiring wealth, and seizing power. No wonder history took such a sharp turn after the war.

With blood ties as the foundation, and that sorrow of blood as well, it is indeed easier for them to entangle one another than under normal circumstances.

Having understood only the most basic, the most fundamental things, together with his observations over the years, Liu Tian had already more or less grasped the essence of this society and the direction of its future development.

If no other force interfered, and society were left to evolve naturally, it would sooner or later give birth to the final victor who would seize everything.

But universal free education and measures that run counter to the instinct of the great conglomerates suggest that there is a formidable enemy forcing them to do this—something like the dragon race.

Let me think. Since that fellow cosplayed Odin so convincingly, it must be Norse mythology.

Norse mythology together with dragons.

The despair dragon, Nidhogg? A world fated to perish? The collapsing world tree?

Heh, I think I have more or less guessed it.

If that is the case, then Lu Mingfei, that fellow with potential no less than Odin’s— is he Nidhogg, or the world tree? Or perhaps, after the world is destroyed, the new god who will carry on the new world?

Forget it. There is no point pondering such boring speculation.

The existing information only allows me to think this far, but Liu Tian no longer wished to delve deeper into the matter. After all, so-called prophecy, in most cases, is merely the will of the strong.

If one is strong enough, and resolute enough, then one’s own will becomes the true prophecy that determines everything.

Now that it had been confirmed that everything related to dragons seemed to carry some trace of the source point, Liu Tian inevitably had to step into this apocalyptic calamity.

Only, whose apocalypse was it really? And who had brought it down? That remained undecided.

As Liu Tian was thinking, a breeze slowly brushed across his face.

A faint wind rose gently.

Chu Zihang, having already gathered all the relevant information, no longer wished to keep delaying. With one hand, he lightly brushed across the wooden blade, and leaping flames quickly spread over the wooden sword.

Though the flames seemed fused with the blade, a closer look revealed that they were always separated by a gap of about an inch.

Then Chu Zihang’s figure vanished instantly from where he stood. A tearing sound cut through the air, and the monster known as the Dead Servant was split into two halves, burned by flames from the center out.