"Luke, my young friend, we truly have you to thank this time."
Erioh Kure’s condition had stabilized. The moment he saw Luke, he openly expressed his gratitude.
The Worm had indeed sent an extravagant lineup for this attack. All three of the Connector’s highest-ranking subordinates had come. They were unquestionably formidable.
But after Luke killed those three men and Tiger Niko’s disciples, the remaining Worm operatives were nothing to worry about. He swiftly moved through every corner of the building, wiping them out and adding quite a bit of growth to Prison Demon.
Still, there had been too many Worm agents involved in the invasion. Two or three managed to escape. Who would have thought they had even deployed a submarine? Clearly, the Death Merchant had supported this operation from behind the scenes.
Luke did not particularly care. He had already killed all the big shots, and the smaller fry would not add much growth anyway. Letting them return to report what happened was fine.
Luke appreciated Xavier and the Connector’s friendship, but he had no appreciation for a global terrorist organization like the Worm. Killing them was killing them. He had been looking forward to meeting this world’s strongest fighter anyway.
"You should focus on recovering first. If you really want to thank me, why not teach me a few more of your clan’s secret techniques?"
Luke smiled. He was interested in the Kure Clan’s other martial arts as well, but he had been too embarrassed to bring it up before. It would have seemed rather greedy.
"That will not be a problem. I trust that you will not pass them on to anyone else."
Erioh Kure nodded readily. They had already taught Luke their clan’s most fundamental secret technique, Removal. In comparison, their other martial arts no longer seemed especially important. If Luke was interested, Erioh was more than happy to oblige.
"Then I’ll thank you in advance. I’ll also discuss martial arts with Raian some more."
Luke replied politely.
"Let’s put that aside for now."
Erioh found Luke increasingly agreeable, but a new concern arose in his heart. "You killed the Worm’s leader. I’m afraid that will bring trouble."
"Shen Wulong?"
Luke asked, despite already knowing the answer.
Erioh nodded gravely. "You may not know this, but thirteen hundred years ago, the Kure Clan was still united. We were defeated and scattered by an immortal named Shen Wulong."
"Do you truly believe he is an immortal?"
Luke asked curiously.
Erioh frowned. "Much as I hate to believe that immortals exist in this world, according to our clan records, Shen Wulong has existed in this world for at least five thousand years."
He explained patiently, hoping Luke would understand the gravity of the situation. "The Kure Clan originated in a great eastern nation. Five thousand years ago, our ancestor Wu Hei established the Kure Clan and spread its branches. Using a secret technique called Huisheng, he has continuously reincarnated within our clan. The Edward Wu you killed today was one of Wu Hei’s Huisheng vessels."
"It sounds remarkable. I heard of that secret technique among the Eastern Wu Clan as well."
Luke nodded. Huisheng was really a kind of transfer of memories and personality. Strictly speaking, it was not true reincarnation. The successors had to spend more than a decade listening to those memories. To Luke, it was a little cheap.
And in cases like Wu Hei’s, every generation had several Huisheng vessels. By now, it was difficult to say these people were still Wu Hei at all. At best, they were knockoff copies that had inherited some of Wu Hei’s memories.
"Since you understand Huisheng, I will not explain it further. The important point is that our ancestor did not invent Huisheng. Shen Wulong taught it to him. That means Shen Wulong has existed for at least five thousand years. He may even have been around since humanity first existed."
Erioh’s analysis was reasonable. Wu Hei had already existed five thousand years ago, and Shen Wulong had taught Wu Hei Huisheng. That meant Shen Wulong had been unfathomably powerful even then.
And considering Shen Wulong had remained so powerful all this time, he must possess a technique more advanced than Huisheng—one that could achieve true reincarnation with virtually no loss. Otherwise, there was no explanation for why he had remained so perfect, even growing stronger with time.
"He really doesn’t fit this world’s power scale. Everyone else cultivates martial arts, while he’s cultivating immortality?"
Luke laughed. It was the exact thought that had come from the bottom of his heart when he read the manga back then.
Honestly, he did not think this world’s masters posed much of a threat to him. Even Kuroki Gensai only struck him as someone whose martial arts were exquisitely refined—worthy of learning from and exchanging techniques with.
But in a real fight to the death, Luke stood alone at the very top. Even if everyone on this island attacked him together, he believed he would be the one left standing atop the mountain of corpses.
Shen Wulong was different. That thing was genuinely on the level of an immortal. He did not even fit the setting of the Kengan world, wielding an unreasonable power called "logic."
Within Endspace, Luke had not been able to see the manga’s "ending." Or perhaps the portion he had seen already was the ending, because no one could defeat Shen Wulong. There would be little point in continuing the manga.
But now that he had been sent into this world, a true "ending" might become possible.
"Cultivating immortality?"
Erioh’s expression turned strange at Luke’s description. "That is not entirely inaccurate. The Wu Clan leader and I have discussed this before. We believe Shen Wulong may be a manifestation of Earth’s will—a child of this planet. That is why he is so absurdly beyond the rules."
"Earth’s will and all that... that’s a little too ridiculous."
Luke did not accept that explanation. "As far as I’m concerned, he is still within the bounds of humanity, just like me. And I am obviously human."
"That’s not necessarily true."
A voice drifted over at that moment.
Luke turned to look. It was Kazuo Yamashita. He had been completely at a loss amid the chaos, and in the end, he could only stay beside Raian to feel even slightly safe.
Kazuo had just listened to their conversation and instinctively blurted out what was on his mind.
"What do you mean by that?"
Luke asked, somewhat displeased.
"Ah, I-I didn’t mean it like that! I meant that you’re not human—no, that’s not right! I meant that you’re so strong, you don’t seem human. No, that doesn’t sound right either..."
Watching Kazuo Yamashita panic, Luke gloomily glanced at his Charm stat. He thought it was above average, meaning he had the appearance of a normal human man. How could he possibly not look human?
"Karla, do I look strange?"
Luke turned and asked Karla.
Karla rapidly shook her head. "You’re very handsome to me, Luke."
Luke was reassured. As expected, he was a normal human being. He then returned to the main topic. "I don’t know how he has stayed ‘alive’ for so long, but as long as his physical abilities remain within the scope of humanity, there is no reason I cannot kill him."
"Confidence is a good thing. Perhaps you truly can break Shen Wulong’s myth."
Erioh said, "After the tournament ends, come train at our clan’s territory. There may be some things there that can help you."
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