Chapter 76: Aching Brain

"What needs to be done?"

After a moment of shock, George quickly asked.

"Put my head and body back together."

"Alright!"

Holding Gune's head in both hands, he swiftly ran over and joined the head to the headless body.

As soon as they connected, the blood within the body, which had not yet lost its supernatural activity, seemed to sense something. Threads of blood emerged from the neck stump and the head's severed end, merging together.

Then a bloody light shimmered at the neck.

After more than ten seconds, Gune gradually began to feel a faint sense of control over his body.

"His blood... it stuck by itself, and it's still healing." George was secretly astonished.

He had never seen a first-rank spellcaster possess such astonishing vitality.

"I've heard blood mages have drawbacks, but their survivability is formidable. Seeing it today, it's truly extraordinary."

"My life force isn't enough. Do you have any high-grade concentrated life potions?" Gune said while manipulating his blood to heal.

"High-grade concentrated life potion? I don't have that." George thought for a moment and shook his head.

"I have some."

At this point, Gune lacked the strength to manipulate his body's source energy to open the green wristband and retrieve the high-grade concentrated life potion.

However, opening the system space was still easy.

With a thought, a first-grade high-grade concentrated life potion appeared beside Gune's right hand.

"I can't move. Help me."

Gune said quickly.

"Alright!"

George swiftly uncorked the high-grade concentrated life potion and poured it into Gune's mouth in one go.

"Uh..."

"Slow... down..."

"Pfft..."

Blood mixed with the emerald-green high-grade concentrated life potion sprayed from Gune's mouth, nearly splattering all over George's face.

"Cough... cough..." Gune's face flushed red from choking.

"If you go any faster, you'll drown me. Cough..."

"Sorry..." George looked a bit embarrassed.

"I have more. One sip at a time, take it slow."

"This high-grade concentrated life potion is potent. I won't die."

"Huff..."

George steadied himself, took the second bottle of high-grade concentrated life potion, and slowly trickled it into Gune's mouth a little at a time.

Feeling the wound at his neck gradually heal and his control over his body return, Gune relaxed.

Looking at George again,

Gune was secretly amazed at the man's strength.

That fourth-rank shadow assassin was no weakling.

Even though he had been hit several times by Gune's Lightning Arc spell and was badly injured,

he was still a fourth-rank intermediate expert of the shadow system.

Yet George had silently crept up behind him and killed him with a single stab.

Moreover, that knife was deep purple, almost black.

While killing, it seemed to drain the life from the victim.

Gune guessed that, given George's peculiar supernatural profession of Time Hunter, it probably drained the target's "time."

"Indeed, George's self-awakened 'Time Hunter' profession is extraordinary."

After about two or three minutes, the bloodstain on Gune's neck gradually faded.

Gune turned over and sat up.

Then he touched his neck and twisted it slightly.

"Crack, crack..."

A crisp sound rang out.

"Huff... Alright, I'm fine now." Gune let out a long breath.

"Thanks!"

Gune looked at George.

"If you hadn't come, I'd probably be dead today. I owe you my life."

George looked at Gune with a very strange expression.

From the brink of death to full of life, Gune had taken only a few minutes.

Such vitality was incredibly astonishing.

"That Blood Curse Master Gewu was the inheritor of the blood mage tradition and expanded it, but I feel that in Gune's hands, this blood mage art might become something terrifying!" George mused inwardly.

Then George looked around, surveyed the area, and returned to Gune's side.

"You... were being hunted?"

"Mm." As he spoke, Gune began to loot the body of the second-rank elven coachman.

Earlier, Gune had unleashed a barrage of Lightning Arc spells.

The controlled second-rank elven coachman and the horse had both been electrocuted to death.

"Those guys probably knew I was an apothecary and wanted to recruit me. If I refused, they would have killed me."

"But they didn't expect me to see through their disguise, and I nearly wiped them all out."

After roughly inspecting the bodies, George was also astonished.

"One second-rank, one third-rank, and one fourth-rank. You almost killed that fourth-rank guy too. Tsk, tsk... terrifying fellow."

"Too bad... I still lost." Gune shrugged.

"Heh heh..." George gave a dry laugh.

"Don't forget, you're only first-rank!" George thought to himself.

"Don't just stand there. That fourth-rank shadow assassin you killed has supernatural equipment and a wristband. That wristband is probably a supernatural storage device. These things are valuable. You killed him, so they're yours." Gune said quickly.

"Even in the middle of a fight, you noticed the supernatural wristband on his arm. That's something."

"Mm." George didn't stand on ceremony and began looting the body as well.

The process of scavenging spoils after a battle was always a pleasant task.

Having finished looting, Gune stood up and looked around.

The wind howled, and the snow grew heavier.

The entire suburban cemetery was covered in a layer of snow.

Only the upright tombstones were visible as black; everything else was shrouded in white.

"My brain aches."

After looting, Gune rubbed his temples, frowning slightly.

Earlier, Gune had wanted to go out in a blaze of madness before death.

But then his vision went black, and his head flew off.

At that moment, Gune was about to die, so he hadn't paid attention to the pain in his head.

Now, with his injuries healed and alive,

Gune once again felt the pain deep in his soul.

"Earlier... I felt like there was a cracking sound."

"A soul fracture?"

"If my soul had fractured, I shouldn't have survived."

"Or maybe, while my soul was injured, my cultivation technique was frantically repairing it, leading to... a mutation?"

"Or perhaps... something else?"

"After all, the 'Soul Seal Codex' I cultivate is itself a contaminated text. Hmm... could something have gone wrong?"

"Luckily, I have reincarnation. Whatever the problem, one reincarnation will fix it. This slight pain deep in my soul isn't a big deal."

After pondering for a moment, Gune looked at George, who had finished looting the bodies.

"By the way, you said you were chasing an enemy?"

"Mm." George nodded.

"Tonight is Blood Night. Sugg Ruins City is a bit chaotic. Many alien races and even some heretics have come out to cause trouble."

"I was tracking a second-rank half-soul mage. That guy was cunning and fled all the way to this cemetery. I finally killed him, and then I heard fighting here. That's when I found you. And then what just happened."

"Sugg Ruins City is a bit chaotic?"

"Or rather, those alien races... are they up to something?"

Gune looked toward Sugg Ruins City.

Through the thick, hazy snow, a crimson darkness made it impossible to see the city clearly.

Just as Gune was about to take out an umbrella,

Boom!

Suddenly, a thunderous explosion echoed violently.

The explosion was more than ten times louder than the one Gune had caused earlier.

The sound came from the direction of Sugg Ruins City.

Both of them quickly looked toward Sugg Ruins City.

Even from this remote suburb, Gune could see the explosion's flames shooting into the sky,

illuminating a large area of buildings.

And in the flames, it seemed a spire atop a dome was blown into the air.

They exchanged glances.

"Let's go!"

Without much hesitation,

they immediately sprinted toward Sugg Ruins City.

Two or three minutes after they left,

nearby, atop a tombstone, an old figure in a black robe silently materialized.

It was a "half-soul" creature holding a scythe, drifting over quietly.

Looking at the corpses on the ground, it spoke softly, its voice hollow, cold, and very hoarse.

"Freshly born souls, so tender and delicious!"

"And these corpses are excellent materials... hehehe..."