195: Chapter 194 Ninja Raid

After being refined for half an hour by the positive aura of the infinitely amplified Eight Extremes Yin-Devouring Array, that emerald became even more deep green. Miraculously, even the strength of the material itself was enhanced to a certain extent. If the energy a normal person's body could carry was set as one unit, the capacity of this huge emerald octahedron could reach ten thousand units. Although its capacity was far inferior to the human body in relative terms, it was superior in being safe and controllable. Moreover, his creation was quite crude; this energy storage device was like a cultivator's magical treasure, and what he had produced could only be considered a roughly processed vessel embryo of raw materials. Like a battery, its capacity could be further expanded through continuous improvements in material selection and craftsmanship in the future.

He created another fist-sized energy storage device and injected two-thirds of the Corpse Qi into both the large and small storage devices. He placed the small one ten kilometers away and then controlled the Corpse Qi energy within it to reach a predetermined frequency, creating resonance between the two. After several repeated experiments, he confirmed the phenomenon of long-distance wireless energy transmission he had discovered. The same type of energy could attract each other at specific vibration frequencies. The larger volume generated a greater attractive force than the smaller one, pulling the smaller volume to move, just like two magnets of different sizes placed on an absolutely smooth surface; as long as there was a slight difference in size, the smaller one would move faster than the larger one. In short, it utilized the consciousness from the mass of negative energy obtained from Xiao Xia's body as a medium to establish an energy connection with that zombie, forcibly seizing the zombie's energy with a powerful energy volume. The purpose was merely to reduce the zombie's threat, not for the energy itself.

The tools were ready, but he still needed to find a sparsely populated place to set up the energy storage device. Otherwise, the opponent's counterattack causing energy instability might lead to the device exploding. According to the energy level estimation of the Corpse Qi, an explosion would be comparable to a ten-thousand-ton TNT equivalent suitcase nuclear bomb, which could easily kill thousands of people across several blocks, and the leakage of Corpse Qi would also cause unpredictable long-term harm. The best place was, of course, in the ocean. The Peninsula Hotel was only about five hundred meters away from the coastline in a straight line, so it could be placed in the soil layer of the seabed a few kilometers offshore. At such a distance, even an explosion would not cause any harm.

Just as Cao Xiao activated the Detection Function to find a suitable location, he discovered an unexpected situation. On the rooftop of the hotel building, a sneaky figure was tying a bundle of rope to an exhaust pipe. Dressed in black with a masked face, a black cloth covering his head, and a long sword on his back, this was the attire of a Japanese warrior often seen on TV. Sneaking around in the dead of night, he was either a thief or an assassin. Looking at where the person placed the rope, it was clearly aimed at the windows of his row of rooms. Since he lived on the top floor, the person's target was very likely himself. Seeing how agile and flexible the person was, far exceeding that of an ordinary human, he was definitely a practitioner. Then this person should be a legendary Japanese ninja. Not knowing how ninjas classified their cultivation realms, Cao Xiao could still roughly judge that his strength was equivalent to the Obvious Power realm of a martial artist.

If the other party was coming for him, it was a bit strange. Only Japanese people could hire a Japanese ninja, and he seemed to have offended only one Japanese person—the time he beat up that young master of the Horii family at the Shengfeng auction. But was such a small matter worth taking his life? More strangely, how did the other party find him? He hadn't seen that Horii today, had he?

Unable to figure out the situation for the moment, an Obvious Power level ninja posed little threat to him. He didn't plan to disturb the bodyguards; he would first leave the suite to ensure his own safety and then watch how things unfolded.

Cao Xiao leaned against the hallway wall with his eyes closed, but his mind was focused on every move of the ninja. By now, the person had tied the rope, made a dead knot a few meters down, drew the Katana from his back, and held it in his hand. Gripping the knot with one hand, he vaulted over the railing with a kick. After leaping nearly two meters, his body turned in mid-air. Using gravity and the pull of the rope, he straightened his legs and dived accurately through the window of Cao Xiao's room. After entering, he bent his legs and rolled on the floor; the entire process was smooth and fluid, with no sense of hesitation or any sound. He thought the ninja would stop to observe the room first, but unexpectedly, after cushioning the impact, the ninja pushed off the floor with one hand to stand straight and leaped half a meter high toward the bed like a bird. The pitch-black Katana in his hand slashed straight toward the bulge in the quilt, and with a fierce strike, it even cut through the solid wood bedboard.

Based solely on the feeling from his hand, the ninja discovered something was wrong. He paused warily for a moment, then moved quickly through the suite to find the target. After finding nothing, he decisively jumped out the window, grabbed the rope, and climbed back to the rooftop. After cleaning up the traces on the roof, the ninja used his extraordinary skills to bypass the hotel's surveillance and actually entered a room on the seventh floor. When he took off his mask, the person who appeared in Cao Xiao's eyes was a lean, middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance and dull, lifeless eyes; one would never associate him with the powerful ninja from just now. Another young man's figure appeared in this room, pacing back and forth anxiously as if waiting for something. Seeing the ninja return, he greeted him with surprise and began to spout Japanese.

"Hattori-kun, I'm sure you won't let me down. I want to see the photos," the youth said expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Lord Horii, it wasn't successful this time. The intelligence you provided was incorrect; the target was not in the hotel. You've wasted a promise for nothing. Leave immediately! Actually, you still have one more chance. If you're willing to use it, I can gather intelligence myself before taking action," the lean middle-aged man said regretfully.

"No need. The opponent has undergone great changes recently, with many retired special forces bodyguards carrying firearms by his side. Your failure this time will alert him, and he will increase security. To succeed, we'd have to fight head-on, which isn't a wise choice. Hattori-kun, let's save the last chance for later. Let's go!" The youth was very disappointed upon hearing this, the resentment on his face hard to hide, but he didn't lose his reason. After finishing with a helpless bitter smile, he grabbed his suitcase and prepared to leave.

Cao Xiao returned to his room; he didn't want to make a scene about this. Looking at the ruined quilt on the bed, he felt some regret. This guy really didn't want him to sleep! He should have just given that ninja a burst of gunfire just now. He still couldn't figure out how this kid showed up here or how he had miraculously targeted him. Looking at the clean cut on the quilt, he could imagine how sharp that Katana was. If he had really been asleep, they would have truly succeeded while he was defenseless, and he would be like the quilt, neatly cut in half at the waist. Even if they didn't succeed, he still had to pay the hotel for the damaged bed. Cao Xiao added this small debt to his tally. As an acquaintance, Cao Xiao felt he had to return the favor and give the Horii kid a big unexpected surprise as a gift. That ninja couldn't be let off either; he was so indifferent about killing, and his movements were like they had been practiced countless times—he had definitely killed many people. Even if their assassination attempt today didn't succeed, it gave him a reason to take them out. His eyes darted around, a wicked smile appearing on his face, and he immediately had an idea, but he had to finish the task at hand first.

He lay down helplessly on the sofa. He was originally looking for a suitable place to set up the energy storage device, but he hadn't expected to stumble upon a fortune first. For nearly two hundred years, Hong Kong had served as a major trading port between China and the West, with dense and frequent shipping traffic. There were many undiscovered shipwrecks in the nearby waters. As long as something was of value, he collected it and threw it into his space. The gold, silver, gemstones, porcelain, and other high-value items he obtained were countless; he didn't even pass over corroded metal. He swept through all unclaimed buried items within a ten-kilometer radius, including those on land. What made him happiest was unexpectedly finding a wine cellar that had been sealed and forgotten for decades under an old Western-style villa, which contained many aged red wines.

There were over thirty large and small oak barrels, and of the five hundred-plus bottles, over four hundred were perfectly preserved, all from world-renowned wineries. It seemed the original owner of this cellar was either a red wine collector or a seasoned old drunkard. After testing the components, he found they were perfectly drinkable. The oldest of these red wines reached over eighty years, and even the youngest was forty years old. Over nearly half a century, many had become unique items. Even the lowest quality among them had developed a unique flavor after decades of cellaring; any bottle put on the market could crush a Lafite and would only be seen at auctions. Cao Xiao didn't care about the value of the red wine; he didn't actually like drinking it that much. He didn't have the class to slowly decant and taste wine; he'd rather brew a cup of black tea if he had that kind of leisure. If he could trade them for white spirit of the same age, he'd be willing to do a ten-to-one swap. What he cared about was that with this batch of red wine, he wouldn't have to drink other red wines in any setting in the future. There was no helping it; once this stuff was brought out, it was an unmatchable level of taste, and no one would swirl a goblet and talk nonsense with him for ages anymore.

He inspected the various harvests in his space with satisfaction, chuckling to himself for a good while before slowly coming back to his senses. Fortunately, Horii and that ninja were not in a hurry to leave Hong Kong and had only moved to another hotel. Since they were still within his control, he could focus his energy on getting things done.

He quickly found a relatively deep area of the sea and buried that huge energy storage device a hundred meters deep in the seabed. Even if something went wrong and caused a big stir, people would only think it was a geological shift or an underwater volcanic eruption. He placed the zombie consciousness medium inside and mobilized a large amount of positive aura on the outer surface of the octahedron, leaving only one point as an energy inlet. Everything was ready. Cao Xiao took a deep breath to keep himself calm and began to adjust the Corpse Qi energy vibration frequency. After reaching the matching point, in less than three seconds, the energy stored within began to change, suddenly starting to increase. In ten seconds, the amount increased by one percentage point, and then the speed of increase gradually accelerated. After twenty seconds, it was up by four points; twenty-five seconds, eight points; and at thirty seconds, it reached twenty points. But then, it strangely became steady, at only about two points per second. This steady phenomenon could not happen naturally; the smaller the volume, the greater the traction, and it should only keep accelerating until the opponent's energy was completely absorbed. This was clearly that zombie interfering with the energy transmission through some means, but being unable to cut the connection, it could only try its best to stop the energy loss.

Cao Xiao was also startled; the critical moment had arrived, and whether he would succeed or fail was about to be revealed.

This balance lasted for less than five seconds, and then the absorption speed became slower and slower. After another ten seconds, when the absorption efficiency decreased to 0.5 points per second, it was completely interrupted, and not a single bit of Corpse Qi energy could be absorbed anymore. Cao Xiao was somewhat disappointed. Up until now, he had absorbed a total of forty points of energy. The Corpse Qi accumulated by that zombie over thousands of years was definitely more than this; even adding what he had absorbed before, it was at most half of its total Corpse Qi. He hadn't achieved full success, but it could be considered a heavy blow, at least reducing the zombie's strength by a third. He still regretted not making a larger energy storage device. If he had made one a hundred meters in diameter, he didn't believe that zombie could resist it. But it was too late for such thoughts now; since it could forcibly interrupt the process this time, such a method wouldn't work next time now that it was on guard.

He was in no hurry to retrieve the energy storage device but left it where it was, cautiously detecting the changes in that consciousness body, guarding against any bizarre retaliatory measures that might come at any moment. Sure enough, a minute later, that fragment of consciousness became nearly ten times stronger out of thin air. It fiercely broke free from the constraints of the positive aura and mobilized the massive amount of Corpse Qi in the storage device to start a riot. Moreover, it seemed to follow a certain pattern. Within just two seconds, it actually affected the stability of the energy storage device and even began to corrode the emerald. Cao Xiao didn't dare to be careless and immediately moved it into an independent small space within the research space, forcibly cutting off the mysterious connection between that consciousness body and the outside world.

But once inside the space, the Corpse Qi continued to riot under the autonomous control of the consciousness. Cao Xiao immediately mobilized all his positive energy to suppress it. As the Corpse Qi was continuously consumed, a large amount of Yuan Energy was constantly generated. It took a full half-hour to completely exhaust all the Corpse Qi inside. Only that strengthened consciousness body and a vast amount of Yuan Energy remained in the storage device. In the Yuan Energy environment, the consciousness body no longer fluctuated; instead, it began to slowly weaken. Cao Xiao still had a use for it and couldn't let it be annihilated just like that. But for now, he could only temporarily use positive energy to seal it and keep it in the storage device. This fragment of consciousness that had undergone changes seemed to have independent thought, and Cao Xiao wasn't comfortable just leaving it in the space; he couldn't be sure if this thing could escape through the space barriers. However, he wouldn't use the Yuan Energy converted from the zombie's Corpse Qi himself, fearing there might still be undetectable harmful substances left behind. Therefore, he had to find a subject to use it on immediately. Humans were not an option, so it could only be an animal. Marine life was far from humans and shouldn't be ferocious. After taking the trouble to search through the marine life within a ten-kilometer radius of the sea, a group of lovely ocean spirits soon became fixed in his mind.