Chapter 435 90: Global Manhunt

The man was none other than Hel, the person in charge of this Dark Web branch.

"What's the situation with this Lu Chao?" The man in the black suit looked out the window, asking without turning his head. His tone was somewhat cold.

Hel lowered his head slightly and answered truthfully, "According to our intelligence, he is a Superpower Team leader from the Superpower Bureau.

"He hails from the Rhombus Ring City Circle and killed the only son of a Biotechnology headquarters director. A week ago, after the Rebel mopping-up mission concluded, he vanished. The Superpower Bureau publicly announced his disappearance."

"Missing?" The man in the black suit raised an eyebrow and turned to look back, as if he found the word amusing.

Unsure of what the man was thinking, Hel explained, "It's likely that the Superpower Bureau wants to protect him. After all, he violated Alliance law, and the Alliance Country can't openly shelter him. In all likelihood, they want to use this method to hide and secretly protect him, preventing other megacorporations from finding an excuse to attack them."

After considering his words for a moment, Hel lowered his voice and continued, "Furthermore, I heard that Biotechnology also wants to take their anger out on Lu Chao's family and friends to force him out of hiding.

"But it seems that Mr. Ji arrived and personally taught that Guniao a lesson, warning him not to implicate anyone else."

As his voice faded, the room fell silent for several breaths.

The man in the black suit eventually nodded and said nothing more, seemingly planning to pass on this bounty commission. Seeing this, Hel breathed a sigh of relief. He had genuinely been worried that this VIP would provoke the Superpower Bureau.

"Sir, if you have any other needs, just call me anytime," Hel said respectfully after confirming there was nothing else. Leaving behind a silver briefcase, he tactfully departed.

CLICK!

As the door closed, the room returned to silence.

Although the man in the black suit maintained a cold and hard expression, a trace of complex emotion gradually filled his eyes.

"Mr. Ji..."

Lu Chao sighed with emotion. He hadn't expected things to change so quickly. After the decisive battle at the Red River, he had dove into the river, disguised his appearance, and returned to Red Maple. It wasn't that he was cowardly and backing down; rather, compared to himself, he was actually more worried that Zhao Yuanqing, Zheng Wu, and the others would be implicated.

He could certainly rely on the Titan's Power to fight a head-on decisive battle against that Transcendence Level powerhouse from Biotechnology. But what about after that? Biotechnology had branch offices in every city circle on Earth Star, and their headquarters might even have powerhouses above the three levels standing guard.

If he couldn't take them all out in one fell swoop, then whether it was Zhao Yuanqing and Chen Xiao, or his master Luo Qianshan and the others, they would all suffer retaliation. In other words, if he wanted to go against Biotechnology and shake them to their core, the prerequisite was to eliminate this future trouble first.

Over the past few days, he had actually been hiding in the dark, keeping a vigilant eye out for these matters. Thinking of this, he realized, "I owe Mr. Ji another favor..."

Lu Chao's eyes were somewhat complicated. He truly hadn't expected the other party to come to the Red Maple City Circle and personally step forward to help him protect Zheng Wu and the others. Without a doubt, with the other party's warning, even Biotechnology would have to restrain themselves a little.

Thinking of this, Lu Chao gradually made up his mind. Finally, he looked at the item placed on the desk before him. It was a brown leather case, over a meter long. He unzipped it and looked at its contents. A glass box the size of a human head contained a crimson Blood Crystal, and besides that, there were quite a few corresponding purification materials.

As soon as he had returned to Red Maple, he had immediately snuck back to his apartment building and taken away his important belongings, including the metal sphere and his Dark Web identity card. In addition to those, there was an unregistered bank card and a pitch-black long blade with some cracks.

Both came from Wu Yuntao. The former contained about ten million Alliance Coins. And the latter was the biological weapon the other party had used at the time—the Ink Blade. Cold, sinister, bloody... a special aura emanated from it, making one feel uncomfortable.

Lu Chao reached out and touched it. It felt ice-cold, making his skin crawl.

According to his previous understanding, biological weapons fundamentally belonged to the realm of Biological Transformation. Compared to ordinary alloy combat blades, they retained a certain special biological consciousness to some extent. If one could reach a state of coexistence with it—such as through subjugation or cooperation—one could control it.

Just like at this moment, upon close observation, many tiny cracks and damages could be seen on the surface of the Ink Blade. Even though it was an inanimate object made of some biological material mixed with alloy, it now seemed to have its own consciousness, repairing its damage at an extremely slow speed. Furthermore, wisps of black patterns were spreading from the hilt, attempting to cover his arm and drill into his blood vessels and muscles to extract nutrients.

BUZZ!

In an instant, Lu Chao's consciousness jolted. He seemed to see a black lifeform on a mental level. It was formless and immaterial, yet it possessed special fluctuations similar to life. Intense emotions of greed and desire emanated from it, as if it wanted to devour his Qi Flame, blood, and more, in order to heal its injuries. Without a doubt, this was the Ink Blade's biological consciousness.

Seeing this, Lu Chao narrowed his eyes and immediately erupted with the power of his Observation Method.

BUZZ!

His black pupils transformed into crimson suns of fire. The powerful Observation Method released an invisible mental aura, turning into a blazing sun within his spiritual mind. It erupted with invisible high temperatures, suppressing and melting the black lifeform. In the blink of an eye, the Ink Blade's black consciousness rapidly faded away, completely collapsing.

In contrast, Lu Chao discovered that his own consciousness could actually smoothly invade the Ink Blade. "Oh?" he uttered in surprise.

"So that's how it is," he thought, quickly understanding the profound mystery of biological weapons.

The Ink Blade's previous biological consciousness was too cold and sinister, making it incompatible with him and extremely difficult to control, which was why he chose to obliterate it. However, this did not mean that the Ink Blade had been reduced to scrap iron. The reason biological weapons were special was that, aside from the influence of biological consciousness, they also had the powerful effects of biological materials.

And fittingly, because of the Fixed Star Observation Method, his mental consciousness was far stronger than an ordinary person's, allowing him to replace the role of the biological consciousness and directly control the Ink Blade.

In an instant, a flash of insight struck Lu Chao, and he comprehended the multiple effects of this Ink Blade. First, it integrated offense and defense.

BUZZ!!

With a thought, formless black patterns covered his entire body, wrapping around him. In the blink of an eye, Lu Chao, holding the black blade, was clad in black armor covered in cracks.

He observed, "Under normal conditions, its sturdiness is actually comparable to manganese steel alloy.

"Moreover, if I let it absorb my own vitality and blood, it can temporarily upgrade its quality and become even harder."

Lu Chao flourished the blade, feeling quite satisfied. If his identity as Lu Chao couldn't easily make a public appearance in the future, he naturally had to keep many of his methods restrained and couldn't casually show them to others. And fittingly, Wu Yuntao had hidden things very well. Few people knew the true function of this Ink Blade. Plus, it could easily alter some patterns to slightly change its appearance, completely allowing it to be used as a new fighting weapon.

Besides that, he noted, "An energy-absorbing effect." Lu Chao's eyes flashed as he discovered the sinister aspect of this weapon.

Because of the special nature of biological materials, it possessed a certain energy-absorbing effect. It could absorb the Qi Flame of others to boost itself, and even convert a certain proportion of it into his own Qi Flame. If he could completely refine it, it would naturally become his own power.

He thought, "No wonder Wu Yuntao broke through so quickly.

"It seems he used this weapon to injure people and absorb the Qi Flames of Martial Artists quite a bit... It was precisely because of this that he rapidly completed the Qi Flame accumulation for the Limit-Breaking Level."

Lu Chao grew thoughtful. He felt that this weapon was extremely effective at countering Martial Artists. If he hadn't had the Focus state and the effect of highly efficient energy manipulation to forcefully feed it until it was full, he might have had to expend a lot more effort.

As for absorbing Qi Flame and converting it for his own use, he wasn't too interested in that. Unless the other party's Qi Flame came from the same source technique, it would be incompatible with his own attributes, making it extremely troublesome to refine. Moreover, it could easily cause one's Qi Flame to become unstable, which was detrimental to subsequent improvement. It would also have a certain impact on Qi Manipulation Skills, affecting one's control over their own power.

Thinking of this, Lu Chao gradually controlled the Ink Blade to return to its original form. From time to time, he infused some Qi Flame into it, allowing it to absorb the energy and speed up its repair. During this time, he conveniently looked at the silver briefcase Hel had left behind.

Opening it, he saw two items inside. One was a crystalline medicine that was completely orange-yellow, placed in a transparent box. It was none other than the Essence of Qi. He had spent a full 1.3 million Alliance Coins to trade for it from an anonymous person on the Dark Web.

The other item was a five-hundred-milliliter bottle of pale blue liquid, also obtained through a transaction on a Dark Web channel.

In an instant, data from his intuitive sense surfaced in his mind:

[Ming and Qing Spirit Spring]

[Quality: Basic]

[Consumption Effect: Upon consumption, slightly strengthens the spirit and removes mental pollution...]

Lu Chao's eyes lit up, and he nodded. He said to himself, "The purification materials are finally gathered."