Song Nan had spent more than 30 years of his life in Fog City. He had seen many things in his time, and he had not an ounce of fear for anyone he encountered. Even gold-level hunters in Fog City did not want to offend him as he was well known for executing revenge plots on his enemies. Although he was not exceptionally powerful, he surely was a sly man.
However, Lin Huang managed to tackle him and kill two of his men. He was sure to not let him off the hook without a painful reminder of his actions.
"I’m going to kill all the Vile Marionettes in the canyon, see how those two damn kids going to get their Life Seed! So what if they have a vampire? I’ll get some supplies to fight the vampire once I get back to the city. Your vampire will be useless against me then!" he plotted aloud.
Song Nan shuddered a little when he recalled the moment he saw his two men getting killed by Bai. He was afraid of Bai but to him, if he wanted to conquer his fear, he would have to face it. As long as he killed the vampire, he would rid himself of this fear completely. Before he did that, he wanted to kill all the Vile Marionettes in the four footholds. There were only four footholds with Vile Marionettes in Fog Canyon. Song Nan had already cleared two footholds and he left no bodies behind.
Just when he was on his way to the third foothold, two shadows passed by his head and appeared before him. It was a man and a lady. The man was 2.2 meters tall while the lady stood at an average height and built. They dressed strangely, both wearing black capes with a black hat on their heads.
"Who are you?" Song Nan looked at the duo with a posture ready for an attack. They appeared out of nowhere and he could not sense their auras at all.
"We’re on the same team. Let’s walk together," the lady said as she licked her red lips seductively.
"Did the kid send you?" Song Nan asked firmly. He thought it was a trap and the duo was sent by Lin Huang to fight him.
"What kid?" the tall man questioned him as a frown formed on his face.
"Stop talking nonsense with him, let’s just get him," the lady said and leapt up high off the ground.
Song Nan was shocked. His face turned pale when he saw the logo on the lady’s cape as she spun around mid-air. The black cape was flowing with the wind, and there was a white circle in the middle with a purple crow standing on a branch. Song Nan recognized that they were members of the Purple Crow organization. All hunters and adventurers would definitely have heard of the Purple Crows as they were the top criminal organization in the Underworld.
There was a saying on the network about the organization that went, 'Blood will be shed when the purple crow cries’. In the Underworld, the Purple Crow was considered an elite organization. They did not have many members, but all of them were transcendents and all of them possessed terrifying abilities in their areas of expertise.
If Song Nan was just a bully in the smaller footholds, the Purple Crow was an enhanced version of the Mafia. Each and every official member was a world-ranked professional killer. As he stood facing the tall man, Song Nan was like a child being picked on by the grown man. He did not have the ability to defend himself at all. The tall man grabbed him by the collar and the duo flew Song Nan all the way to the middle of Fog Canyon. They then landed next to a crystal clear lake.
"You sure it’s here?" the tall man asked as he tossed Song Nan on the ground like a rag doll and looked at the lady.
"Of course, how would I not know everything I planned for?" The lady said mockingly and rolled her eyes at him. "Scoot aside, you big oaf", she continued.
The man kicked Song Nan hard and he flew backwards. He then took a few steps back himself and stood still. Song Nan was immobilised with a spell the man had casted earlier and he could not move a muscle. He could not do anything when the man kicked him. The lady with red lips stood by the lake, squatted down and placed her palm on top of the lake.
Soon, the lake started boiling. The lady retracted her hand, took a few steps back and watched the lake as it changed. The clear lake became red while it boiled. As time went by, it became a darker shade of red and soon, it was a bloody crimson red. Song Nan was getting uncomfortable looking at the lake as it changed.
"How is it?" the man said as he walked next to the lady with red lips.
"I have been preparing this Netherworldly Water for 12 years. From the color, it looks like it’s ready," the lady replied with a nod and shifted her gaze to Song Nan. "Didn’t we bring a guinea pig to test it out? We shall know after we toss him in," she said, a menacing tone to her voice.
Song Nan heard them loud and clear. However, all he could do was to look at them helplessly. The man picked him up by the scruff of his neck.
"Unseal him before throwing him in or else we won’t be able to see if the experiment shows its results," the lady reminded her partner. Seconds later, the spell on Song Nan was lifted. He begged with the duo immediately, "Please don't throw me in, I can get other guinea pigs for you. I know there are two kids in this canyon that'll work really well…" Seeing the boiling bloody water alone was terrifying enough for him. He knew he'd be screwed if he ended up in the lake.
"I only need one guinea pig," the lady said coldly as she looked at Song Nan with an expressionless face, like he was already dead.
"Toss him in!" she shouted.
The man tossed Song Nan into the lake without hesitation. The duo stood by the lake and observed. The gold-level equipment on him glowed a bright gold and seemed to get absorbed into his body. The duo was stunned by that. In the boiling water, there were strange changes to Song Nan’s body. His skin turned green, his skinny body became muscular, his hands and legs were growing…
Around three minutes later, the changes to his body stopped. Waves of bloody water pushed him to the side of the lake. The two transcendents were excited as they looked at the figure that was once Song Nan, completely transformed on the bank.
"I’m surprised that he actually combined with his equipment and transformed into a Mutated Sword Thrall!" the man said. The idea was unbelievable.
"That’s something new. Let’s search for some guinea pigs to experiment with along with the combinations of equipment when we get back," the lady squealed. She was excited too.
"Should we bring him back?" The man asked.
"It’s okay, let him die here. We just needed to experiment. We’ll come back a year from now and see if he’s still alive. If he is, we'll study his survival in the wild," the lady said. The man shook his head and said, "It seems like the effect of the Netherworldly Water was not exactly what I expected. We can accept it for now," he said.
The man nodded and took out a box that was a sixth of his palm. He then tossed the box in the air. The opening of the box faced the middle of the lake, and the boiling bloody water was swallowed by the box. Within two minutes, the entire lake was sucked into the red box with no water left behind.
The box then flew back to the man’s hand. He closed the box and kept it in his storage face.
"It’s done, can we leave now?" The man asked as he looked at the lady.
"Wait, I found something interesting…" the lady smirked while she looked at something far away.