In a fishing village near the ocean, fresh blood flowed and dripped from the rocks into the sand, dying it bright red.
The villagers collapsed one by one, losing their lives.
Several undeads who exuded an ominous aura slowly approached a statue covered in grime and algae.
"This trembling sensation coming from my bloodline, is this the Progenitor?" a black-haired undead clutched the black leather cloak over his body and muttered.
"What 'Progenitor', he was nothing but a lucky caveman" but the black-haired undead's words were quickly cut off by a man with a tattoo on his face: "Wasn't it you who provided us this information, Mi Yi?"
The black-haired dryly laughed in embarrassment, but didn't deny the other party's words, his gaze was focused on the mask being held in the statue's hand.
"Completely clueless about blood aura applications, as well as any of the secret techniques derived from blood aura, let alone awakening, he has already fallen behind by a thousand years" the tattooed undead was also focused on the mask in the statue's hand, his gaze burning with desires: "As long as they have the mask, anyone can become a Progenitor"
He was only a second-generation undead. Of course, a second-generation undead was already a considerable bigshot by this point in time, but having lived for so long, he gradually understood the limitations of the undead.
All undeads in this world originated from the Progenitor's flesh – Xu Fu's flesh – this flesh was the true core and essence of any undead. First-generation undeads had about one finger's worth of Xu Fu's flesh, even after a thousand years, despite using the flesh of others to nurture it, they had only been able to gain another finger's worth of flesh at most.
Second generation undeads were even worse, having been created by first-generation undeads with a single strand of flesh. The tattooed undead had been developing himself for over hundreds of years but had only managed to grow his core into a small fingertip.
At first, the tattooed undead also believed what the first generation undeads told him and worshipped the Progenitor. They believed that the Progenitor was chosen by God, becoming the Progenitor by being bestowed a 'Divine Revelation'. And then he met Mi Yi, a runaway member of the Mi clan.
From him, the tattooed undead learnt more about the origin of the undead, which was nothing but a single mask. Their so-called 'Progenitor' had been nothing but a lucky man who happened to pick up the mask. Using information from the Mi clan, they used their bloodline connection to finally find this place, where the statue of their great 'Progenitor' had just been fished up by a group of humans.
"Of course, the only one who can obtain this mask is me alone, isn't that right?" the tattooed undead was the only second-generation undead among this entire group, he glanced around: "Once I've sublimed and become the Progenitor, I will promote your bloodline to the level of first-generation undeads, you are all my descendants so I won't treat you badly"
Having agreed on how to split the benefits while also secretly applying his pressure as their senior, the tattooed undead approached the statue, or rather, the stone demon mask in the statue's hand, immediately grabbing it without hesitation.
"Not a single unusual phenomenon" the tattooed undead was a bit disappointed, but this was within expectations: "Should I just take it with me?"
The tattooed undead then drew his bronze sword and swung towards the statue's wrist, but the statue was completely unaffected, instead, it was the sword that became chipped.
The tattooed undead narrowed his eyes, then swung again with all his strength. With a loud 'clang', the broken blade of his sword struck and destroyed a nearby building, the hilt of the sword was also knocked away from the tattooed undead's hand, landing on the nearby sand.
Watching the intact statue, the tattooed undead's expression sank. The statue was holding tightly onto the mask with one hand, if unnecessary, the tattooed undead really didn't want to come into direct contact with the statue.
Xu Fu's final message had been passed down to this day: [Use the blood of the enemies to resurrect me], while the message called for 'enemies', no one really knew what would happen if the undead came into direct contact with the statue.
Sensing the desiring gazes of his foolish descendants behind him, the tattooed undead understood that some risks were unavoidable, he then got closer to the statue and pressed his face against the stone mask. Even though one of the statue's fingers were blocking him somewhat, it should be fine as long as there was a layer of fabric between them.
The tattooed undead's ambitions were increasing more and more. While making sure to not approach the finger too closely, he could clearly feel that the mask was releasing something to gradually improve him, but it was incredibly slow.
He kept putting his face closer and closer towards the stone demon mask, he gradually stopped paying attention to the finger entirely; at least, until he suddenly sensed an abrupt burning sensation on his face.
"Too slow…" an ancient and profound voice resounded. The tattooed undead only felt a sharp pain throughout his body before his consciousness disappeared altogether.
Cracks began to form all over the statue, Xu Fu's naked body once again came back to life. The tattooed undead who was now slumped on his hand began to liquify, then was quickly absorbed into Xu Fu's body through his finger.
His perfect physique laid bare under the sunlight of the seashore appeared almost like it was glittering. The tattooed undead's memories were being casually read by Xu Fu, going through the one thousand years of history, the development of the undead tribe, as well as the Mi clan's insistent targeting of them.
"Mi… Liang survived?" although Xu Fu hadn't actually been through a lot, his biological level far exceeded that of the tattooed undead, which allowed him to easily digest the other party's memories.
A pair of inhuman eyes turned towards the trembling third-generation undeads. Xu Fu maliciously grinned, licking his lips with his bright red tongue. Under bloodline suppression, the undeads immediately attempted to run, but before that, Xu Fu's figure had already disappeared.
Very soon, only two living beings were left in this entire fishing village, the resurrected undead Progenitor Xu Fu, as well as Mi Yi, who had been kneeling in a single spot ever since Xu Fu's awakening.
"Why did you not run? Traitor of the Mi clan, and my descendant"
The 'descendant' Xu Fu was referring to carried many layers of meaning. Both Mi Yi and Mi Ze were direct descendants of Mi Liang's bloodline, so they were actually Mi Liang's descendants. However, even without considering how Xu Fu and Mi Liang originally came from the same tribe, the fact that Xu Fu's hand had fused with Mi Liang's body meant that every descendant of Mi Liang carried a little bit of Xu Fu's bloodline. Furthermore, now that Mi Yi had been converted into a third-generation undead, he could naturally be considered to be Xu Fu's descendant, thus there was nothing wrong with how Xu Fu referred to Mi Yi as his descendant.
"I was unwilling to accept reality. Why is it that we descendants of the Mi clan live to fight the undead throughout history, but we all end up dying young? I know just how talented both my father and uncle were, but both of them exploded and died before they even reached 40 years of age, I simply cannot accept that!"
Mi Yi looked up towards Xu Fu, his gaze filled with fear and unwillingness. Thanks to their bloodline connection, Xu Fu understood perfectly that Mi Yi's fear wasn't towards Xu Fu himself, but rather the fear of his life being gradually destroyed from within, he was afraid that his talents would go to waste as well.
"How interesting…" Xu Fu grinned, then reached out one hand towards Mi Yi's head, then pierced through it: "Then I shall grant you a chance to display your talents"
Black flames abruptly burst forth, the leather cloak over Mi Yi's body also began to display changes following the manifestation of these flames. Thin pieces of skin began to take flight, each of which contained what seemed like vengeful spirits, revealing that the cloak was actually weaved together using human skin. At the same time, a mark in the shape of a hand could now be seen on Mi Yi's bare back.
Being forced to retreat, Xu Fu thought about how interesting this world of one thousand years later was.
Blood aura applications, their derived secret techniques, as well as the most crucial 'awakening' had all been explored, and Mi Yi was displaying strength at the level of an awakened individual.
The so-called 'awakening' was a state that both the undead and practitioners of Aura Summation from the Mi clan were capable of achieving. When the body and willpower achieved the uppermost limit of synchronization, they would be able to activate some sort of unique ability. These abilities were similar to the emotion abilities of the living statues, but no one was really sure why Aura Summation was able to achieve the same effects as awakening.
As he gained this knowledge, Xu Fu instantly understood them. Blood aura was easily created with a single thought, he managed to grasp even secret techniques that required expert control of blood aura without any issues, in fact, he was modifying them to better fit himself.
Even awakening took Xu Fu no more than a moment of thought. Using willpower to control one's body and connect to the deepest part inside oneself.
Like water flowing downstream.
Xu Fu smoothly felt the awakening of his so-called True Spirit, but then his expression became madly warped.
[Another 'me', if you ever manage to reach this place, then I have some unfortunate news for you. The shadow of that entity has covered the entire world and every being within it, including you, including me. All of us are nothing but toys in that entity's hands, our destinies are being manipulated by them, as well as our futures]
[That entity… that entity is about to become the manipulator of everything, at which point we would thoroughly become pawns in their hands, losing even the chance to escape]
[The Mi clan, the emperor, the Ultra Space-Time Squad, any strong individuals you can find in your world, you must gather them. Gather every bit of strength you are able to gather and escape from that entity's shadow]
[Another 'me', you must use all of your talents and power, against your and everyone's true enemy: The Guide of Wisdom, Manipulator of All Things, Grid of the Divine flame, Origin of Disaster, World Divider------ Negary!!]
