Chapter 3 : : Undying Body Art

Lancer then turned to the woman and spoke "Joyous Dream Fairy, You have helped me enough, today our contract is finished, you are free from now on,"

The woman blinked her eyes at him, then she became anxious, finally she bit her lower lips and tightly held his right hand, as she said "Little Angel, did I do something wrong, why are you talking like that. I already forgot about that deal long ago, this fairy loves you so how can you say that?"

Lancer's face was stiff when he heard the word 'Little Angel', he turned to look at the long-haired man, who wore a serious expression like he didn't hear anything.

He sighed and spoke "Joyous Dream Fairy, I don't have any treasure left on me much less an inheritance, I have sold it all and exchanged them for money to increase his political influence overnight. If I really had one then I would have given it to you as a parting gift,"

When the woman heard his words, her face became dejected, she tightly pressed her chest with her hands, like her heart was breaking, her eyes became teary, she started sobbing as she spoke "Little Angel, do you think I am that kind of woman? I'm sincerely telling you about my feelings, you have broken my fragile heart,"

'Why do every single one of them is eyeing the Undead Body Art like they can't live without it,' Lancer shook his head.

Lancer ignored her sobbing and looked at the man seriously.

"Right, you have served me all these years and showed your absolute loyalty, I believe that in the future you can take the Red Hand Legion to new heights…." Lancer said.

Right wasn't his real name but the code name he used to carry tasks.

Right raised his eyebrow, he understood the meaning of his words but had no idea why he said that right now.

Seeing his confused expression, Lancer slightly smiled.

"I will cut long story short. From tomorrow onwards you will be the new leader of Red Hand Legion," Lancer said with a serious expression. He then took out a red crystal pendant with a tiny palm print on it and gave it to him.

Right took the pendant and stared at him in the eyes for a while then spoke "Legion Rule No. 41, there cannot be a new leader as long as the previous one is alive,"

"Hehehe… I know, that's why I said 'From Tomorrow Onwards'," Lancer said with a faint smile, Right was about to speak but Lancer interrupted him again "Legion Rule No. 3, a subordinate needs to follow every command of the leader without any question or doubt,"

Right didn't say anything and closed his mouth after hearing his words.

The woman on the side abruptly stopped sobbing when she heard his words and looked at him with a serious expression.

"As the new Sect Leader, you can ask for any one technique, treasure, pill recipe… anything from me, so which one would you like?" Lancer said.

"Wait! Didn't you say that there is no treasure on your body? You stingy Little Devil… Humph," Joyous Dream Fairy snorted.

Lancer ignored her.

Right didn't think for more than five-second before speaking "Undying Body Art,"

Joyous Dream Fairy's eyes shined.

Lancer smiled. He had already expected it, the lure of Undying Body Art was something no Martial Artist could resist.

"Undying Body Art? There is no such thing, what they think Undying Body Art actually is…" Lancer removed his robe as he spoke, he then reached out and lifted his innermost upper wear, the soft silk armour.

Right was confused by his words and actions but the second his eyes landed on Lance's chest, he frowned.

His whole chest was covered in blue veins in a spiderweb-like pattern starting from the center of his chest. At the center, there was something akin to a peanut size green crystal embedded on his chest, but after a closer look, Right realized that it looked more like a plant seed, the seed was stuck on his chest, several thin green roots were coming out from it had drilled in his chest. It was hard to tell if the green veins visible all over his chest were really veins or the roots of that seed.

"Haha… Ugly isn't it?" Lancer said with a smirk.

Right didn't speak and just stared.

"Ugly? That word is an understatement, it's scary, creepy, gross, awful, and horrible. Little Angel, it's been only one month and you started to look like a real Little Devil. Your six-pack abs got covered by that weird seaweed," Joyous Dream Fairy said straightforwardly.

Lancer acted like he hasn't heard it and spoke.

"It's one of my refining, the thing I made after combining all my knowledge of Witch Craft and my time as a Royal Herbalist. At that time what I intended to make was a herb that could prolong one's lifespan to live longer but the experiment failed and this was the product.

Undying Flesh Seed… It can grant you Rapid Regeneration ability in exchange for the continuous supply of Qi, immeasurable pain, high-quality nutritious food, and timely supply of your enemies' lifeforce. The recipe to make it is highly complex yet incomplete, most of the herbs required are something I made myself with artificial cross-breeding and some of the herbs used are already on the verge of extinction.

One Undying Flesh Seed can only have one host so it's useless to give it to you, furthermore, it needs a timely checkup and repairing even if someone else obtained it and start using it, without my knowledge and skills, it would just be courting death… and a painful one at that. You see the condition of my chest? It's because I was fighting for so long without providing it the necessary input," Lancer said while looking at the sky.

Right nodded. From the words, he could guess that there was no way for him to have it.

The woman touched her chin, she now knew that passing down undying body was not possible.

"Listen Right… In this world, no one is invincible as long as it is a living being it will have a weakness, the difference is just if you know it or not.

Because of the rumors of Undying Body Art, people see me as an unkillable monster and many consider me as an immortal being but if it's a battle of attrition and I used up all the Qi in my body then this seed will start to suck my vitality from the body to regenerate my wounds like just now, and with that my death will not be far away. Hmm… We don't have much time, quickly ask for what you want," Lancer said as he stared at the floating white clouds in the blue sky.

"I want Leader to chose it for me," Right said after some thinking.

Lancer was not surprised, this answer was also within his expectations, he took out a finger size jade slip from his pocket and gave it to him.

"It's Beast King Body Refining Technique, I obtained it from an inheritance of a Righteous Martial Artist. It can let the user gain a physique strong enough to kill Demons with bare fists, you can use it to reach the Martial Ancestor stage in the future. I don't walk on the Strength Path so I didn't use it but it's good for you," He said.

Right took the small scroll and nodded, he then looked at Joyous Dream Fairy and spoke "If you are tired of adventuring, or will be in the future then you can come to Imperial Mansion of Silver Phoenix Empire, you can live and cultivate there with the status of a Concubine,"

"Oh, did my charm moved you? See Leader this wolf is eyeing a little ship like me," Joyous Dream Fairy said in a flirtrees tone.

"Do not misinterpret my words, I am only telling you that you can be my concubine in name to enjoy the benefits, I have no intention to die while sleeping. As long as you don't eye my treasury I can do that much for your help so far," Right said without any change in expression.

"Humph, whatever I have nothing good to do these days anyway," She said then looked at Lancer.

"Now what? Still love me?" Lancer asked with a chuckle.

"Nah! You are too domineering for a kind maiden like me, I want obedient soft honey without a brain," Joyous Dream Fairy waved her hand.

Whether it was Right or Joyous Dream Fairy. The relation between them was only that they shared the same idea, as for death and losing companion, they had seen and felt it too many times. All of them had their own world to take care of, their hearts were tempered by the blood on their way, showing grief, regretting a decision is something they won't do for each other.

Lance experienced this feeling too. In the past, he had several comrades but with time they fell one by one, some weren't able to get past through bottleneck and died because of old age, some died in an accident, or got killed by their enemy. It was the same for others, it was the reason for which they all love and enjoy what they have instead of showing sorrow for the fallen ones… This is the life of a Martial Artist who walks on a Martial Path.

"Haha… I won't be surprised if you already got bored by two or three of them. Well, goodbye you two," Lancer said in a gentle tone.

Joyous Dream Fairy took a deep breath then said "Good Bye,"

"Good Bye, Leader," Right nodded too then turned around and started walking away. Joyous Dream Fairy also followed behind.

Lancer touched his chin, pondering about something. He suddenly smirked then shouted at Right.

"By the way, be careful from your father's second wife and sixth concubine. They helped me in giving him a green hat after he issued my arrest warrant," Lancer shouted from behind.

When Right who was quietly walking away with a solemn face heard this, he stumbled in his footsteps and almost fell to the ground.

"Pffttt hahaha…" Joyous Dream Fairy started laughing without any restraint.

"And yeah, your third brother's wife was actually my ex…." Lancer was just speaking but Right wasn't able to take more of it and jumped towards a tree, in the next second he turned into a fleeting shadow and left.

"Hey, wait for me," Joyous Dream Fairy too jumped on a tree branch and followed behind him.

"Tsk… No fun," Lancer smiled at their disappearing backs.

After they left, the smile on his face disappeared and he became expressionless. He walked to the corpse throne and sat on it.

Lancer pulled up his left sleeve and looked at the circular tattoo on his wrist.

It was a simple tattoo resembling a circular pie chart, 50% of the circle was of red colour, 49% of the circle was of pitch-black colour and the last 1% was of green colour.

Lancer sighed, he raised his head and again looked at the floating clouds.

'Fukkk it all, I'm not satisfied. I was living a comfortable life, my sharp memory was enough for me to secure a good rank in the college, I had a side job as a professional beta tester, I could play all day while earning money for it. My family wasn't rich but we were happy, we used to go on picnics on weekends. I had a carefree yet caring girlfriend, I had my buddies that used to go on a movie marathon with me… It took only one night… one night that turned everything into nothing. If I had this strength back then then I wouldn't have died, I wouldn't have let them die,' Lancer clenched his fists tightly, his nails ripped his skin but no blood came out, the injury healed in a flesh. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

Lancer was once an earthling, that became the victim of the bio war, the third world war, that resulted in a mass genocide.

For him, one day he went to bed while talking to his friend on phone, and the next time he opened his eyes, he was in the hospital.

By the time he realized what happened, his whole city only had 10 survivors including him, he lost everything in one night, it was a nightmare and to make it worse, the condition of his body at that time was worse than a half body paralyzed patient. He could feel his body rotting away day by day but couldn't move it,

He didn't want to die, the rage, unwillingness, sorrow, pain, hatred became his driving fuel, he wanted to pay back the one who did it, he wanted to let the one who started it feel the same pain. Death was a luxury for other patients like him but he still wanted to live, his desire to live had reached an unprecedented level. The doctor took his behaviour as a mental breakdown but after one month he did something beyond their imagination, he overcame the illness by sheer will but by that time his physical body was like a candle flame that fluttered before extinguishing, he died just after 4 hours his body overcame the illness.

After two months of suffering, he was finally freed… from life.