Absolute Gate

Chapter 40 Betting on Life
Wu murmured in despair as he lay down against the wall.

The cliff cypress came panting heavily, each step seeming to pound on his heart.

"If you kill me, your injuries and Fei Peng's injuries will be beyond saving..."

Despite his despair, Wu still refused to give up.

But the cliff cypress said coldly, "Hmph, you still want to struggle?"

"Your repeated near-death counterattacks have brought Fei Peng and me to this state. I can no longer give you another chance."

"The 'incurable' thing you mentioned must also be the effect of the mark of the spirit. As long as I get it, I can heal myself."

“I never intended to inherit your demonic mark; it was meant for my companion.”

"But I didn't expect you to be so troublesome. It's too risky to capture you alive and take you away. Fei Peng has already been hit by the Laughing Grenade and is beyond saving. So I'll reluctantly accept your calamity."

After saying that, he raised his right foot, intending to stomp on Wu Zhong's head.

Seeing that he completely ignored Fei Peng, Wu Zhong was filled with despair.

Wu finally realized that his claim about the ghostly mark was fake, and that people definitely wouldn't believe him.

People will only kill him to verify this.

"Come on, I've been wanting to die for a long time. This trash ability has disgusted me to no end. Take it!"

"Haha, you'll be buried with me too."

His extremely disdainful and indifferent attitude made Ya Bai somewhat surprised.

To reiterate, he wasn't originally the one who was supposed to inherit the mark of the demon god.

Instead, he planned to give it to the weakest member of their team, the brooding guy codenamed Calabash.

Why is this? Because these strange and dangerous things are very dangerous.

There are very few that are completely perfect... otherwise, why would they be called calamities?
So, while it's said that this good stuff is given to teammates, it's also meant to let the weakest one test the waters first, to be the guinea pig.

"Oh? Do you know how powerful it is to possess a calamity-inducing artifact? All enlightened beings yearn for one, and you're already complaining?"

"Disgusting you? How so?"

The cliff cypress tree hovered with its large feet, seemingly probing and asking questions.

This guy cares more about himself than Fei Peng.

Wu Zhong said, "If I were that powerful, would I have fallen to this state?"

"These ghosts and spirits keep draining my life force, and they're getting stronger and demanding more. Today, just one summoning almost killed me..."

"Otherwise, why would Endless Summer go to the trouble of asking someone to transform me into a mad blood clan? It's all to replenish my life force."

Wu Zhong was talking nonsense, but he connected the reason why he became a member of the Mad Blood Clan with the price of the Ghost God Mark.

"So that's how it is. That's why the Mad Blood Clan can make up for the price of the Ghost God Mark..." Cliff Cypress suddenly realized, and at the same time he also remembered that the Mad Blood Clan could heal wounds.

Seeing this, Wu was secretly pleased, but his face was ashen and desperate: "It can't make up for much. Mental illness is finite, but the improvement from ghosts and gods is infinite..."

“Even if I don’t die at your hands, I will die at the hands of ghosts and gods sooner or later.”

"They're getting stronger too fast. I don't know how much of my life they'll take away tomorrow."

The cliff cypress sneered: "The spirits of Mount Lu are growing stronger every day, which is a good thing. The potential of your strange object is quite great."

"Too bad, a fool like you can't handle it. This good stuff is better left to me!"

"Kid, what kind of mental illness do you have?"

Wu blurted out, "Insomnia... Hmm? Why are you asking about that?"

Upon hearing that it was just insomnia, the cypress tree immediately put down its foot and picked him up.

"Ha, what do you mean? Embrace me! Make me a member of the Berserker Clan too!"

Wu Zhong realized that he had taken the bait.

He deliberately lured the other party into asking him to unleash a burst of mad blood before his death.

After all, without the effects of the Mad Blood Clan to replenish life force, inheriting the mark of the Ghost God would be too dangerous, as the Ghost God, who grows stronger day by day and demands ever more, would drain life force until death.

In his current words, the two characteristics seem to be bound together and complement each other.

If Ya Bai wants to inherit the throne, he will definitely force himself to embrace the first time before killing him.

Of course, this was all made up by Wu Zhong, but Ya Bai believed it.

Before, Ya Bai didn't believe anything Wu Zhong said, but he believed this one. As the saying goes, a dying man's words are good. The ashen despair on Wu Zhong's face was not faked, but a real desperate situation.

It's estimated that the cliff cypress was also quite pleased with itself; its unyielding performance must have broken down Wu Zhong's psychological defenses.

He never expected that this guy, even in a hopeless situation, would still make up a story to deceive him.

Could it be that they still harbor delusions of turning the tide?

Wu Zhong certainly had the answer, but he said, "Don't even think about it! Even if I pass it on to you, you'll still kill me. Why should you get off easy?"

"Uh ah ah ah..."

The cypress tree broke his other arm and released an electric shock from its palm, causing Wu Zhong to convulse and feel excruciating pain.

"Boy, you've just embraced me, so I might give you a quick death, otherwise..."

"Do you know how many things in the Disaster Realm can make life worse than death?"

He used verbal threats and electric shocks to torture people.

Wu Zhong scoffed, thinking to himself: I don't believe you for a second. If there were such a terrible thing as the Eternal Thirst Plum, you would have used it long ago. Why are you still talking nonsense?

He knew there was no cliff cypress, but his face showed panic and fear, as if he could not bear the excruciating pain.

He even re-enacted the genuine fear he felt after learning about the eternal thirst for plums on his face.

"No...no, I know...I'll send you the message...just give me a quick death..."

Seeing his panic, the cypress tree smiled with satisfaction, put him down, and stretched out its arm for him to bite the wound on it: "Hurry up, don't dawdle."

Wu Zhong, arms hanging limply, asked in bewilderment, "Biting the hand is fine? Isn't it supposed to be biting the neck?"

The cliff cypress scoffed disdainfully, "It can bite anywhere..."

"You really are a newbie at heart. As a member of the Mad Blood Clan, you don't even know this."

He was clearly familiar with the effects of the Mad Blood Clan, which must be a well-known group in the world of supernatural beings.

With a dejected expression, Wu Zhong slowly brought his mouth to the cliff cypress's arm. There was already a wound, and his teeth were stained with blood. Well, he didn't even get a hair.

This guy isn't sick.

Wu Zhong thought there was no other way, he had to fight!
Now, there is only one way to turn things around, and he has to gamble with his life.

"Send it to you!"

Wu finally exhaled a breath, and in the blink of an eye, the insomnia was directly transmitted to the cliff cypress.

This also made the cliff cypress an instant member of the Mad Blood Clan, doubling its physical fitness in all aspects.

"Ah...that feels great!" Cliff Cypress was overjoyed; he had become a member of the Mad Blood Clan!

After the initial embrace, his entire body's cells were renewed, and his injuries were also somewhat healed, since his cell activity was increased to twice the level of an average person.

But as much as it felt good, the hole in his chest, the opening in his buttocks, and the bullet wounds on his body never healed.

It's just that the large amount of blood lost from the body has been replenished and regenerated.

"Only this much treatment?" Cliff Cypress said somewhat discontentedly.

Didn't they say that the treatment Wu Zhong provided could resolve the issue of something that couldn't be healed?
But he also knew that only repeated mental illness could be cured, and he estimated that the self-healing of the initial embrace was not enough to heal the terrible wounds on his body.

But it was quite good. He was originally at his limit, but he immediately recovered a wave of vital energy.

However, before he could even be happy...

Wu Zhong... took another sudden breath.

With a whoosh, the cliff cypress suddenly felt as if it had fallen from heaven to hell, its body suddenly experiencing waves of exhaustion, and its physical condition plummeted back to its previous state.

"what have you done!"

Cliff Cypress's eyes widened in shock and anger. He had lost the Mad Blood Clan's abilities again, and he immediately struck out.

"It's nothing... I bet I'm the first one!"

Wu Zhong's injuries have recovered somewhat; at least the joint of his right arm has healed considerably and he can move it again.

He suddenly raised his hand, his iron fist whistling as it shot upwards, causing the air to explode.

A rising dragon punch slammed into the chin of the cliff cypress tree.

"Flying door! Front door! Close!"

Wu Zhong punched the cliff cypress tree away.

The cliff cypress lay in a pool of blood, its face filled with shock: The First Generation?

He got up to ask, but found he couldn't open his mouth.

Lips tightly shut! Jaws clenched!
"uh-huh?"

The cliff cypress was stunned. It still had sensation in its mouth, and even control over it, and people could see the muscles around its lips twitching and struggling.

But the lips and teeth seemed to be welded shut with cement, anchored in space, unable to open.

He pointed at Wu Zhong as if questioning what Wu Zhong had done.

Wu Zhong took a deep breath, his right hand spread out, the purple molten bomb ready to be fired.

"It seems I'm not meant to die here."

"So I really am a Super Transformer, the First Generation Mad Blood Clan..."

At this moment, his minor injury is visibly healing slowly.

He now has three times the physical fitness of an average person, and his cell activity is six times greater!
All of this is because he absorbed another portion of the severe insomnia from the cliff cypress, even though this insomnia was the one he had just passed on to him.

The first generation of Mad Blood Clan had a mechanism that allowed them to absorb not only the diseases of mortals, but also the diseases of ordinary Mad Blood Clan members. In other words, they could plunder the mental illnesses of ordinary Mad Blood Clan members along with their corresponding power.

The Embrace also has a mechanism: if the disease spreads, it will not reduce your own health; it will just randomly give you a different disease.

This creates a bug, which could be considered a key advantage of the original game.

After Wu Zhong first acquired the cliff cypress, his illness was no longer 'insomnia' but was randomly replaced by another illness.

As for what illness he has, he doesn't know; the gate to his heart prevents him from falling ill.

Unless it's a very coincidental coincidence that the random occurrence results in insomnia, it's definitely some other illness...

In this way, absorbing the insomnia caused by cliff cypress would be a unique process.

In theory, Wu could work with one person to continuously generate randomness until he obtains all the mentally ill people in the world.

Of course, this kind of attempt is not something that ordinary people can do. It means that it is always random, and you must have a strong mental fortitude to do it, otherwise you are just courting death.

The Blood Clan already had choices, even various strategy paths, and everything was controllable in terms of 'stat allocation,' so why did they have to make it random?
That is to say, Wu Zhong is not afraid of this.

At the critical moment of life and death, he thought of this way of survival and gambled that he was the first generation of the Mad Blood Clan.

He didn't know what the probability was; it might be extremely slim, but he had no choice but to try, otherwise he would die.

Death would mean the end of everything, but fortunately, he made the right gamble and his life was not meant to end.

"die!"

Wu Zhong's purple arm armor finally unleashed a purple-molten bullet.

The cypress tree slammed into the ground and leaped forward, but it was still hit, leaving a hole in its abdomen and its internal organs a bloody mess.

"Ahhh!"

He went mad, and a terrifying burst of blood energy erupted, enveloping him within a three-foot radius.

The crackling electric arcs danced like whips, striking Wu Zhong.

Wu was electrocuted and convulsed, interrupting the second molten purple bomb.

But then he moved his feet, launched himself forward, and delivered a thunderous flying kick!
"Crack!"

The whip kicks whistled, and the air seemed to explode.

With a single, mid-air thrust, it pierced through the protective aura of blood and struck the blood-filled hole in the cypress tree's abdomen with tremendous force.

Strike while the iron is hot, and hit where the wound is most severe; this is basic common sense.

"Oh!"

The kick struck the cliff cypress hard, tearing open the wound in its abdomen and widening it again.

Although the blood hole was incurable, that was to others; to Wu Zhong, it was just a normal wound.

"Waaah..." The cliff cypress tree slid sideways and crashed into the alley wall, collapsing it.

His waist and abdomen were almost broken, and his whole body was hanging at an acute angle on half of the broken wall.

He lost too much blood; if it weren't for the initial surge of blood and essence he received earlier, he would probably be dead by now.

Even so, he was on the verge of death and lay there unable to get up.

Wu Zhong raised his palm, and suddenly a shrill roar came.

"Cliff Cypress—"

The newcomer was Fei Peng, who had a wooden stick stuck in his back, laughed maniacally, and with his buttocks sticking out, he launched a fierce attack across the sky.

"Oh ho ho... Pull it out! Pull it out, ha ha ha..."

……

　P.S.: Sorry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)