Hitman With A Badass System

Chapter 677 Ghost Town

Several hours had passed since Michael had absorbed the Wise Dragon's soul. Michael's power steadily grew toward the Half Immortal Stage. He was pleasantly surprised to see Gaya breaking through to the Soul Refining stage level 7. Unfortunately, they didn't come across any powerful enemies. Instead, they had an eventless journey. They continued to roam around the island. Michael ordered the system to scan the island to find points of interest. But after spending two hundred thousand badass points to locate Adelia's teleportation destination, he only had sixty thousand badass points.

"God killing arrows. Sounds ominous," said Nightmare.

"I wish we had learned about them earlier. Whatever they are, we cannot let anyone else find them, especially the Skyhall or the guardians," said Gaya. Her tone was grave. Judging by the name, these arrows were something that could hurt Michael. He was the only god Gaya had met in her life. Finding her mother was the only way to know more about these arrows.

"Let's find the artifact first. Then, we can worry about these arrows," said Michael. Surprisingly, he was calm.

"Don't you feel everything is coming together?" asked Michael.

"What do you mean?" asked Gaya.

"Wulfric finding my identity, Rowena pretending to be my friend, your mother being a vampire, the god killing arrows," Michael listed out the things in his mind.

"I feel like I won't be able to live two lives for longer," Michael's words shocked Gaya and Nightmare.

"Don't tell me you're planning to reveal yourself as the Dark Lord. The entire Skyhall will hunt you down. The last time I checked, we were not strong enough to take on the Skyhall," said Gaya.

"We can't take on the Skyhall, but we can hide from them,"

Michael started to form a plan if his identity got exposed. The war with Thusia might be a new beginning for him. Ironically, his life ended and started with Thusia. The history might repeat in a few months when he steps onto Thusia.

"System, are you powerful enough to hide me and my subordinates from the Skyhall?"

Michael prayed deep down for the system to say yes. His wish came true when the system answered him.

[Yes. The system would require five million badass points to hide your and your subordinates' presence from any surveillance spells and arrays]

Michael was glad he has a way to hide from the Skyhall.

"Once we find mother, she will know what to do next," Gaya said with absolute trust in her mother.

"We will," Nightmare brushed his head against Gaya's. He rested upon Gaya's shoulder, looking around the treacherous ocean. He was kinda curious to know why the dragon clan had disappeared from the face of the world. Moreover, what caused them to disappear?

Each of them was in deep thought of their own. As they traveled in peace for almost an hour, they found themselves in a valley. For a moment, Michael thought it was an illusion. But it was not. They were actually looking at a lush green valley with several waterfalls around them. With creased brows, they entered the valley, expecting trouble any second.

On the outside, the valley looked lush and beautiful. Even on a gloomy night, Michael could see the vegetation sprinkled around like dust of emerald.

It was surprising to see a place like this in a treacherous ocean. The last time he visited with Lailah, he didn't come across any places such as this.

"How could a single place have so many biomes?" Michael asked himself.

"Look," Nightmare noticed something behind a boulder. He quickly pointed at the boulder to Michael and Gaya. They slowly made their way toward the boulder. The boulder was almost eight feet tall and six feet wide. The round boulder hid something behind. When they reached the boulder, Michael slowly walked around the boulder. As they got closer to the boulder, the air smelled like rotten meat. It made Gaya twitch her nose a bit.

There was a partially decayed body on the ground. Flies buzzed around the body. Judging by the decomposed rate, the body was a month older. Michael and Gaya squatted beside the body to inspect it. Although the robes were decomposed, they could make out a silver sword on the chest.

"It's the crest of Aragoth," said Gaya.

"Disciple or an elder?" asked Nightmare.

Nightmare stared at the body from head to toe. Suddenly, his eyes squinted. He jumped onto the body and placed his ear on the body's chest.

"I don't sense any arch energy in this body whatsoever," Nightmare looked at Michael and Gaya with a bewildered look on his face.

In this world, everything had a trace of arch energy radiation except the junk metal which Michael used to build his drones and Spyders. Even a dead body would radiate a sliver of arch energy. However, Nightmare didn't sense any energy radiation from the body.

"Michael," Gaya furrowed her brows. She poked the dead body's chest. Michael looked closer to see a hand imprint on the skin. It looked as though a fiery hand touched the man's chest when he was alive.  She had seen the mark somewhere but simply couldn't recall where she saw it exactly.

"What could leave a mark like this? Blood Prince?" Gaya tilted her head.

"No," Michael shook his head.

"Blood Prince's corrosion would have corroded the body to the core. The mark may not be the cause of death," Michael gently lifted the body to take a look at his back. As Michael expected, he saw a deep stab wound on the back. Someone had stabbed the man from behind.

Nightmare flapped his wings. From above, he looked around. His eyes fell on something written on the other side of the boulder.

"I may have found who killed him," said Nightmare. Both Michael and Gaya stood up before taking a few steps around the boulder. Shock and surprise emerged in their eyes.

"Noah,"

Noah's name was written on the boulder in blood. Michael shook his head.

"It's not Noah's style to stab someone in the back. Something else has happened here," Michael rubbed his chin. Soon after, he just shrugged.

"I have enough things of my own to worry about. Let's just tell the Aragoth and let them deal with this," said Michael.

His words surprised Gaya.

"Aren't you curious about what Noah was doing in the treacherous ocean? No matter who the killer was, Noah was here. I have a bad feeling about this human,"

Michael halted his steps when he heard Gaya. She remembered where she had seen the mark previously.

(Read Chapter 363 to refresh your memory)

"The mark, I've seen it before,"

Michael slowly turned around.

"Do you remember when I told you Noah possesses a skill to lock someone's cultivation?'

Michael recalled Gaya's tale of Noah taking away someone's cultivation level when she was in the Fire Realm. Since Michael had the system, he didn't worry about Noah's skill. Noah might be powerful and a god like him, but the system was on another level.

"Yes," Michael nodded.

"I think Noah took his cultivation, and someone else stabbed him to death,"

"There is no use in fighting out his death," said Michael, looking at the dead body.

"My first priority is to find your mother. Even if Noah was here to do something important, I don't have enough time to take on a new task,"

"What if he was here to take the curse-breaking artifact you're looking for?" asked Nightmare.

"Then let's hope he didn't get it," said Michael. He moved forward, leaving the body behind. Michael was in deep thought about the god killing arrows and Gaya's mother. He neither had time nor mind to waste on a new problem. Although Gaya had a bad feeling about the man's death, she knew Michael was right as always. She just followed Michael behind.

To their surprise, the valley was void of any mutated beings. Hence, they had a peaceful and uneventful journey. Luckily for Michael, he found several rare herbs on the way. He took his time, harvesting everything. When he exited the valley, he collected more than fifty rare herbs. Each one could be sold for at least a million coins in an auction.

He planned to grow them in his herbal garden at the Sunrise sect.  As they exited the valley, they were welcomed by the familiar misty desolate land. Everything was shrouded in thick white mist. But in the distance, Michael vaguely saw some buildings.

Michael flew toward the buildings. The closer he got to the buildings, the clearer the surroundings became. A path led toward the buildings were torn to pieces by time. Grass filled the labyrinth of cracks, and sand covered whatever was left. Gardens once looked after and trimmed to perfection were now rough and overgrown, returning back to their chaotic natural state.

"What is this place?" asked Gaya.

Some doors were shut tightly, others were broken down. Some forcefully, and others had simply collapsed under their own weight as time continued to eat away at them. Many buildings stood precariously upright despite looking like they had no means to do so. It'd take just a slight nudge of a strong wind to tipple them all over.

What looked like once a pleasant, quiet town was now completely reclaimed by nature. The creaking of wood and grinding of metal on metal was the only sounds in this town now. They were disturbing noises in a disturbing environment.

The scents of fresh bread, various fruits, and all sorts of other foods might have filled the air of the place once. Right at this moment, there was only the smell of death. Although the place looked empty and desolate, Michael sensed several mutated beings around him. They had taken the damaged buildings as their home.

"Human," Gaya whispered.

"I know. Keep walking," Michael calmly said. The creaking noises sounded louder and louder. The mutated beings slowly woke up from their slumber to attack Michael. To Michael's surprise, the mutated beings didn't attack him as he expected. Instead, they watched Michael from the darkness of the broken homes.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind brushed past them. Michael sensed a powerful being for a moment.

"There is something here," Nightmare wrapped his tail around Gaya's neck. The spooky surrounding and the eerie sounds made even Nightmare shudder in fear.