The wind whistled past Hattori Harris as he leaped rapidly between buildings, like a bat in the night…
His master had sent the message almost ten minutes ago, and he had come from inland, while his master, Simon, was fleeing towards the sea, widening the distance and causing him immense anxiety.
Simon's signal was the highest level; he had told them, his apostles, that they must arrive within ten minutes of receiving it… or he might die!
Therefore, Hattori Harris had no choice but to disregard everything, overdrawing his supernatural power to temporarily alter the nature of his leg enhancements, greatly increasing his jumping ability, allowing him to leap between skyscrapers and rush to Simon's location.
Moreover, even a dangerous-level enhanced supernatural being like him could be shattered to pieces if he were to fall from a height of several hundred meters. In such a situation, even the powerful regenerative abilities Simon had granted might not be effective.
Hattori Harris's haste and recklessness weren't driven by loyalty to Simon, but rather by a conflict of interest—specifically, the interest in survival. On one hand, there was the possibility of immortality, capable of healing any injury; on the other, the possibility of immediate death as an apostle after losing his master.
He had no other choice!
A few minutes later, the tall buildings thinned out, and just as they crossed a seaside residential area and were about to reach the sea, suddenly, golden light radiated from the dark sea ahead, like a blazing sun rising. For a moment, it gave the illusion of the sun rising in the night!
However, the blazing sun didn't last long, perhaps only half a second. What followed was a volcanic eruption of billowing steam and shockwaves. All the windows of the houses facing the sea shattered, and thick steam rushed out, quickly coating Harris's body with a layer of glistening water droplets.
"Master...!"
At the same time, Hattori Harris felt the inexplicable connection between himself and Simon suddenly weaken by more than eighty percent. His face paled. Although he couldn't confirm that they would definitely die after Simon's death, the rapid wound healing and the prospect of eternal life were now out of the question.
He stood on a rooftop, waiting for the pungent sea vapor to dissipate. In the process, he was astonished to discover that although the inexplicable connection between his master Simon and him had weakened considerably, it remained, like a thread still connecting them, never truly severed.
Moreover, the magnificent, sunrise-like attack from before had not reappeared. Apart from a scene of chaos, the beach seemed to have returned to calm. However, his keen ears detected alarm bells gradually gathering from all directions. Before anyone arrived, he had to find his master first.
Although the mysterious master might still be there, Hattori Harris decided to take the gamble. After all, the temptation of immortality was greater than any other temptation in the world!
At the bottom of a massive sandpit where the sea was surging and overflowing, Harris dived in and dug out his dying master, Simon. His clothes were gone, only the stumps of his wings remained, and his body looked as if he had been hit by a cannonball, exposing his pale bones and blood-red entrails mixed with sand.
The pink muscle threads on his outer skin writhed and stretched like tufts of tube worms, trying to interlock and cover his body again, but the process was incredibly slow…
Simon's breathing was barely a whisper, as if it might stop at any moment.
"Put…" Simon's lipless teeth uttered a few weak words, emitting a hissing sound, and when his eerie green eyes stared straight at him, even the most ruthless assassin felt a chill run down his spine.
But he couldn't disobey his master's command, so he leaned closer to listen intently. "Give...your..."
The voice became clearer, and Simon's neck trembled as he lifted it.
"Your...blood...give it to me!"
Before Hattori Harris could react, two arms, their muscles severely mangled, suddenly clamped down, forcing his head back. The stench of blood filled the air, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a gaping maw snapping at him.
And it was aimed at his own carotid artery!
In a moment of panic, Hattori Harris jerked to the side, narrowly avoiding a fatal wound, but the excruciating pain still shot through his neck and shoulder. Beneath the agony, blood seemed to be drained away like a trickle, and half his body suddenly went cold.
He could barely utter a scream.
Meanwhile, the muscle filaments in Simon's body grew rapidly, as if injected with growth hormones, interlocking and covering his internal organs in one minute, and regrowing smooth skin tissue in three minutes. Hattori Harris, meanwhile, was now bluish-white all over, his eyes bulging, almost like a dead man.
But Simon never stopped drinking blood, even as the skin completely regenerated and fine hairs began to grow. Finally, Hattori Harris was emaciated, devoid of any color, looking as if he had aged twenty or thirty years, his hair turning white visibly, strand by strand.
Only then did Simon shake his head regretfully and release his blood-stained lips.
If he had just drunk the blood of Yoshiwara Tsubaki, he would have almost completely recovered. But a dangerous-level enemy was irrelevant. Although he appeared to have recovered externally, countless tiny wounds remained internally, penetrating to the cellular level.
Such wounds, like those from nuclear radiation, are the most difficult to heal. More importantly, to withstand Hoshina's powerful attack, he had almost exhausted all his strength to avoid being blasted to smithereens. Yet, his strength was so weakened that he couldn't even heal the surface damage.
If it weren't for his pet 'hound' arriving in time, he, with his arrogance, would likely have followed in the footsteps of jealousy and rage…
Looking at the 'hound' he had nearly drained alive in his hands, Simon felt no gratitude whatsoever. Instead, he felt it was a burden. Although Hoshina had only launched one attack and disappeared, it might have been due to carelessness and could return at any moment.
Carrying this 'hound' was too inconvenient, but he didn't want it to fall into the hands of those who arrived. So, he simply threw the emaciated Shiki Island man back into the crater, activated his telekinesis, and had the surrounding sand bury him until the crater was full.
Then, naked, he turned and swam into the sea… He was returning to Shikijima, and this time… he would never set foot in Shen City again until he was fully recovered.
And to recover, he needed to involve two women. Swimming in the water, Simon murmured, "Yoshiwara Tsubaki-hime, the Nine-Layered Divine Child…"
One was the Cherry Blossom Queen, the other—the guardian deity of Shikijima.
******