Chapter 41: Mark’s Soul Returns
Nexus was a little surprised that the people he met weren’t high-ranking hunters, yet they had this kind of potential.
Maybe in this era, humanity had countless layers of talented people emerging. People with potential equal to or even greater than Ron’s could probably be found everywhere.
But it didn’t really matter. Nexus accepted disciples on a whim because his goal wasn’t to build a powerful force or gain fame.
[Nexus! Say something!]
The system was getting anxious. Not because it thought Ron was the best, but because it doubted Nexus’s way of accepting disciples.
Every time it looked at Mark, the system got annoyed that Nexus had accepted someone so ordinary. Most importantly, Mark didn’t know how to flatter the system, and his attitude was terrible, leaving the system very dissatisfied.
Right now, Ron could at least be considered a decent disciple by the system’s standards. If they didn’t act quickly, Nexus might recruit another piece of trash that the system would hate.
"Recruiting disciples is my business. There’s no point in you interfering."
Nexus glanced at the system before walking over to Ron. Nexus reached out his hand, making Ron flinch, but Ron still stood still, waiting for Nexus’s next move.
Unlike what he imagined, where something extraordinary would happen, Nexus simply gave his shoulder a few light pats.
The pats were so gentle that Ron’s battered body didn’t feel the slightest discomfort, as if it were nothing more than a gentle breeze passing by.
"Just try to stay alive until that day."
"Thank you, sir."
After receiving Nexus’s approval, Ron happily lowered his head before turning around and leaving... Well, not that quickly since he was injured and really couldn’t run.
The system suddenly fell silent. For something as talkative as it was, going silent definitely meant it was plotting something. Whatever it was plotting, Nexus had no interest in exposing it.
As if some angel were watching over this place, the moment Ron left, Mark’s body... More precisely, the two halves of Mark’s body began to glow.
Two streams of light flew out and merged together, forming a complete whole. That fused light gradually took on a shape that looked like Mark.
Mark’s soul had no clothes on. He was just floating there naked in midair. Fortunately, neither humans nor hunters had any way to see him, and no recording device could capture him either.
"W... What’s happening to me?"
Mark frowned tightly and held his head with both hands. Something about his memories didn’t seem right. Clearly, just a moment ago, he had been overflowing with confidence and had easily caught Ron’s punch with one hand, but as for what happened after that, he couldn’t remember at all.
[You idiot, what makes you think you deserve to become the first cultivator of the Cultivation Academy? You just got yourself killed again. You’re such a damn piece of trash that you don’t even know how you died.]
Even though the system liked Mark’s arrogant attitude earlier, the current dumbfounded expression on his face was incredibly irritating to it.
On top of that, the system held grudges. Just now, because Mark was so useless and got himself killed again, Michael had scared it half to death. If Nexus hadn’t stepped in and spoken up for the system, it would have been reset already.
"How is that possible?"
Mark’s eyes widened. He obviously didn’t believe the system’s words. But when he turned to Nexus for confirmation, all he got was a nod.
"No way. I clearly felt myself overflowing with power. How could that big guy possibly defeat divine power?"
Maybe because his mind was still floating from experiencing divine power, even now Mark hadn’t noticed that he no longer had a physical body.
[What an ignorant mortal. You don’t know a single thing, yet you keep acting like you understand everything. That power was never yours. I only lent it to you so your body could recover. If you don’t believe me, then open your eyes and look around.]
The system was taking more credit than it deserved. Part of it did come from the system, but another part had clearly come from heaven.
But since Mark wasn’t qualified to know, and Nexus didn’t expose it, the system could boldly tell such an outright lie.
"Fine, I’ll look. What could there even be to see..."
Mark had barely curled his lip in disdain at the system’s words before he froze when he saw a mangled pile of flesh and blood splattered across the road.
It was so badly destroyed that it was completely unrecognizable, leaving him feeling nothing but disgust at first. But the moment he noticed the lower half belonged to him, his face twisted.
"I... I died that horribly? My body was split in half, and the upper half was smashed so badly you can’t even tell what it is anymore."
Piecing everything together, Mark bitterly realized that he had died so fast his brain hadn’t even had time to react.
[What are you standing there in a daze for? Don’t tell me you still haven’t realized who went through all the trouble to keep you alive?]
The system spoke impatiently. Sure enough, the more it compared them, the more it wanted Ron to be the first disciple instead of Mark.
For the moment, Mark wasn’t in the mood to talk to the system after seeing the state of his own corpse.
Only now did he notice that his body was nothing more than a 3D projection instead of a physical body. On top of that, floating around naked in public like this completely freaked a young man like him out.
At this moment, dying wasn’t nearly as terrifying to him as being naked in the middle of the street. His skinny body, even in soul form, hadn’t changed at all. If anyone saw this pathetic body of his, he would definitely become a laughingstock across social media.
Mark was clearly blowing the whole thing out of proportion. There were hundreds of thousands, even millions, of videos of naked people on social media. Mark was truly naive to think he could become "famous" that easily.
"Lord System, Daddy System, greatest system in the universe! Do you have any way to bring me back to life? Please! Only you are the one truly great existence capable of saving me."
Seeing that Nexus remained calm as if nothing had happened, Mark immediately understood that the only one who could really help him was that infuriating system.