Chapter 48: The Monster in the River

Creeping forward, the man opened the door as quietly as possible, feeling a surge of secret triumph when he noticed the young man gazing out at the Yellow River without any reaction.

Walking on tiptoe, he approached Ao Xin stealthily, raised the heavy axe in his hands, and brought it down with all his might.

Clang!

A resounding crash echoed through the air as a tremendous recoil slammed back into the man.

The force of the rebound was so violent that it sent him tumbling backward onto his backside.

When he looked down at the axe in his hands, the blade was completely curled and ruined!

It was as if he had struck solid steel!

Ao Xin turned his head with utter calm. He had naturally been aware of the man’s approach from the very beginning.

Yet, how could a coward who had merely managed to flee the city—someone who hadn't even unlocked the qualifications to practice Haki—ever hope to breach his skin?

The physical enhancement granted by the Azure Dragon fruit, combined with the reinforcement of the Bronze Skin realm.

Even without activating Busoshoku Haki hardening, his body was far from anything a mere mortal's axe could cut.

"Wh-What kind of monster are you!"

The man stared in sheer disbelief. "A zombie? You're a zombie!"

At that moment, the only explanation his mind could reach was the existence of those corpses with hideously hardened flesh.

Though, the young man standing before him lacked the characteristic livid spots of the undead.

Reaching out, Ao Xin gripped the man by the throat. "Do you want to live, or do you want to die?"

Sensing that he could speak, the man realized this being was no zombie. Feeling the iron-vise grip around his windpipe, he stammered out in terror, "I want to live! I want to live! Spare me, brother, I didn't mean to do it!"

"Hmph?"

Ao Xin’s eyes narrowed into dragon-like slits. "Cut the crap! Get into the river and find a piece of pitch-black ore!"

"If you find it, I’ll spare your life!"

Deprived of air, the man choked out, "No problem! I'll go right now!"

He hadn't even processed what specific object he was supposed to look for; his sole desire was to make Ao Xin release his grip immediately.

Ao Xin let go, and the man coughed violently before asking,

"There are plenty of black stones. Are there any other distinguishing features?"

"None."

Ao Xin shook his head. It was precisely because Seastone was so intensely ordinary that it took a long time before anyone realized it existed within the Blue Star.

Only then had people begun using it to forge weapons and defensive fortifications.

"This—"

The man wanted to argue, but meeting Ao Xin’s gaze, which was filled with lethal intent, he swallowed every word back down his throat.

Standing at the riverbank, he looked at the churning, violent currents, and his legs turned to jelly.

In previous years, quite a few people had been dragged into the vortexes of the Yellow River and perished.

If he jumped in like this, could he really survive?

Yet, feeling the overwhelming pressure radiating from the figure behind him, he dared not disobey.

At that exact moment, three muscular corpses sensed the aura of a living human and charged rapidly toward Ao Xin.

The man turned pale as death, his lips trembling uncontrollably.

"It's over, it's over! I'm going to be eaten by zombies!"

During the time he had spent hiding in the small hut, he had witnessed zombies devouring humans and evolving.

He also knew that these muscular corpses, whose flesh had ceased to rot, possessed far more ferocious combat capabilities.

Now, with them this close, fleeing was entirely out of the question.

Yet, a scene unfolded before his eyes that left him even more thunderstruck: this monstrous youth raised the steel whip in his hand and, in a mere three strikes, shattered the skulls of all three muscular corpses.

Brain matter splattered across the ground, attracting even more of the undead to gather in the area.

Having effortlessly annihilated the three muscular corpses in an instant, Ao Xin glanced indifferently at the man. "Still waiting?"

"I'm going! I'm going right now!"

Shivering uncontrollably and daring not delay any further, the man gritted his teeth and leapt into the torrent.

He might die in the turbulent river, but if he didn't jump, he would die immediately!

Ao Xin stood upon the riverbank. With the slaughter of those three muscular corpses, a growing number of zombies wandering through the city were drawn to the disturbance.

They craved human flesh, yet they also hungered to devour the bodies of their own kind to evolve.

A massive horde of ordinary zombies and muscular corpses swarmed forward. Ao Xin stood his ground as his steel whip rose and fell in a relentless rhythm, the pile of headless corpses growing larger by his side.

Even when he was occasionally bitten by a zombie, their teeth failed to pierce his hide, let alone infect him.

Reaching out with his left hand, he caught a zombie by the throat as it clamped onto his arm. With a sharp squeeze, the creature's neck snapped cleanly.

Its head rolled away, and the body collapsed limply to the ground.

His Haki grew stronger with every passing second; to these zombies, every single strike of his was a one-hit kill!

The corpses around him had piled up into a small mound, forcing Ao Xin to step out from the heap to avoid being buried entirely.

The outskirts were sparsely populated with few zombies, and the wave of attackers was quickly decimated by his hands.

Retrieving a bucket, he scooped up some water from the river and rinsed off the steel whip.

He had crushed too many skulls, and the weapon was stained with a layer of grey matter that was frankly quite revolting.

After washing it clean, he exhaled a breath of fiery heat, roasting the surface of the steel whip until it was bone-dry.

Examining it closely before his eyes, the weapon—obtained from the Temple of the Thunder Ancestor—seemed subtly different from before.

The rust on its surface was gradually peeling away, revealing its original luster.

Moreover, wielding this steel whip day in and day out, he could feel Haki permeating through it at an astonishing speed.

It was even faster than the Supreme Grade weapon he had traded for in his past life.

Yet, he knew the innate quality of this steel whip fell short of a true Supreme Grade weapon.

Still, if things continued at this pace, a steel whip deeply transformed and tempered by Haki might eventually attain the quality of a Supreme Grade weapon.

"Perhaps this is why it is classified as equipment in my personal status interface."

Ao Xin murmured to himself, hoisting the weapon onto his shoulder. The steel whip felt noticeably heavier than before.

"Why would the weapon in the hands of a pre-apocalypse deity statue possess such miraculous properties?"

Unable to figure it out, he recalled that in his previous life, he had never heard of any powerhouse using a steel whip as their weapon; everyone relied on armaments redeemed from the God-Bestowed Space.

Or perhaps weapons obtained from the mystic realms that would emerge in the future.

Alternatively, after the descent of the Second Divine Blessing, they sought out Zanpakuto.

Such mortal-made weaponry had never played a prominent role.

Gazing out at the river, he noted the difference from the comic books: after the apocalypse descended, Seastone would manifest in all rivers.

Naturally, the greatest concentration of Seastone remained deep within the vast oceans.

Only lakes and ponds were devoid of Seastone.

Moreover, those bodies of water seemed to possess a mysterious cleansing power; even if water carrying Seastone factors flowed into them, it would be purified.

With Seastone having just appeared recently, the concentration of its factors in the river was still low enough for him to wade in, provided he didn't make direct skin contact with the stone itself.

As time went on, however, rivers and oceans would truly become forbidden zones for ability users!

The turbid river waters remained still for a long time. Just as Ao Xin assumed the man had perished in the current, the fellow suddenly broke the surface.

Clutched tightly in his hand was a small, black stone.

"B-Boss!"

He yelled out, but just as he was about to haul himself onto the bank, a dark shadow surged from the river currents. Before the man could react, he was dragged back beneath the water.

On the surface of the river, nothing remained save for a spreading pool of blood.

As the blood dissolved into the current, the small black stone sank down into the depths alongside it.

"Was it that thing? So its mutation originated from the Bian River after all."

Ao Xin stared intently at the water's surface. This was precisely why he had refused to enter the river himself.

Though the Seastone factor wasn't overwhelmingly potent yet, it was still enough to induce weakness in his body.

If he were to cross paths with that creature down there, he likely wouldn't stand a chance of winning.