"Enough, if you want the Lazarus Pit, I'll give it to you."
Ra's al Ghul, who had just declared that the Demon's Head was not threatened by anyone, compromised with a hint of anger born from worry and fear.
"Don't you dare threaten me with Talia!"
The abilities of the person before him were terrifying. His warriors and ninjas couldn't even put up a slight resistance against him.
This was a powerful enemy he had never encountered before. He didn't have many things he cared about in this world, and a rare sense of unease washed over him. He wasn't confident he could protect his daughter from this person's killing intent.
"There's a Lazarus Pit deep in the Rocky Mountains. You can get what you want from there."
Ra's al Ghul, his face etched with humiliation, uttered a string of coordinates.
In reality, there was more than one Lazarus Pit on Earth. He had searched for them everywhere, using them to establish important bases.
He would never reveal the one at the League of Assassins' headquarters to the person before him.
Otherwise, the headquarters of the organization he had spent centuries painstakingly building could be destroyed by him with little effort.
"Take him with us, Clark."
Not intending to trust him so easily, David handed Ra's al Ghul over to Clark and said.
He wasn't particularly set on the Lazarus Pit in the Middle East; any healing effect would suffice.
If the location was closer and he could retrieve the water sooner, his father, Jonathan, would also suffer less trauma.
"Where are you taking him?"
Batman broke through the dome, his cape unfurling as he descended, his deep voice echoing.
His gaze fell upon a somewhat disheveled Ra's al Ghul with a complex expression.
"I think you are the true Ninja Master."
Ra's al Ghul had been his mentor during his training with the League of Shadows. He had taught him much, even hiding his true identity behind a mask, becoming an unfathomable monster to inspire greater fear – that was also something he had taught him. At that time, they were mentor and friend.
"That monk-robed Ninja Master is just a puppet you put forward."
"No, when I'm not around, he truly is the Ninja Master."
Ra's al Ghul looked at his most accomplished disciple, his face filled with emotion.
From the familiar lower half of his face, he recognized his former student at a glance. He had also guessed long ago who the Batman appearing in Gotham not long ago was.
"You really did as I taught you, hiding your vulnerability behind a mask."
"Enough, our conversation ends here. If he hasn't lied to me, I'll spare his life and bring him back for you to deal with."
Eager to save his father, David frowned, no longer willing to give the mentor and disciple time to reminisce.
This time, Batman had helped him by providing a clue.
With that, he and Clark vanished from their spot, heading towards the Rocky Mountains with Ra's al Ghul.
...
The Rocky Mountains, known as the backbone of North America, stretch for thousands of kilometers from north to south, composed of numerous famous and unnamed mountain ranges.
On an unnamed branch of the Rocky Mountains, at an altitude of over two thousand meters, the air was thin.
The mountain peaks were covered in snow, a magnificent sight, before a stone palace.
Whoosh!
David and Clark, carrying Ra's al Ghul, suddenly appeared, a gust of wind swirling snowflakes behind them.
"We're here."
"I saw a pool at the bottom of the palace."
Clark used his X-ray vision and saw a pool-like structure at the base of the stone palace, heavily guarded. He felt a surge of joy.
Once he retrieved the water, he could return to save his father.
Having a pool didn't necessarily mean it was the real one. David wasn't that naive. He coldly warned Ra's al Ghul, who was shocked at their swift arrival in the Rocky Mountains.
"You'd better not have lied to me, or you can start preparing a coffin for your daughter in advance."
Dozens of assassins dressed as ninjas leaped out from the stone palace, surrounding them and treating them as formidable enemies.
David glanced at the miniature cameras hidden among the branches of the tall snow-laden pines around them and withdrew his gaze.
"Your setup here is quite advanced."
"All of you, stand down."
Ra's al Ghul, shock still lingering on his face, commanded the ninjas. Looking at the familiar surroundings, his heart was thrown into turmoil.
He couldn't fathom where these two had come from, bringing him from Gotham across thousands of kilometers to the Rocky Mountains at speeds exceeding sound in less than half an hour.
It was one thing if it was just one of them, but the critical point was that both possessed such unimaginable abilities.
"What exactly is your origin?"
I have encountered things unimaginable to ordinary people during my travels.
But I've never seen beings like you."
"You don't need to know that."
Ignoring the ninjas who had sheathed their weapons but still stared intently, wanting to rescue their master, David and Clark took him deep underground the palace.
A stone chamber carved from a cave, containing a pool of emerald green.
In the dim light, the glowing green water made Clark's face look somewhat green. Disliking the color, he instinctively felt something was wrong and looked at his brother.
"Is this really the pool you said has so many wondrous effects?"
It didn't look like a holy spring that could bring people back from the dead, but rather a product of demons.
"This is the Lazarus Pit?"
David frowned. It was his first time seeing the fabled spring of resurrection. He crouched down and reached his hand into the water.
"Of course it's not good. The Lazarus Pit can heal all wounds, bring people back from the dead, and grant immortality. But if overused, the pool exacts a price, such as driving people mad. The good go in, the bad come out."
Ra's al Ghul stared at his reflection in the pool and sneered.
He had long known about the water's corrupting influence on the mind, but he didn't believe he had been changed; everything was his choice.
"Hm?"
Clark looked at his brother in surprise. David hadn't mentioned this beforehand.
"Stop with the nonsense, my brother."
David had Clark take out the water skins he carried. He stood up, flicking the pool water off his hand, feeling no energy from it.
"You should know, drinking too much water can also lead to poisoning and death."
Some comics say the Lazarus Pit is due to an impure Dionysus Factor—a liquid metal that grants immortality. Others say it comes from magical energy, which is why it has these abilities.
"I don't know about other pools, but this one seems to come from the Dionysus Factor."
Looking at the emerald green water, his eyes narrowed, and a sudden idea struck him.
Even though his ability to manipulate energy wasn't at its peak and he couldn't absorb magical energy yet, his perception of energy was incredibly sharp.
"Perhaps it amplifies negative emotions and brings out a person's dark side..."
But without mentioning dosage, it's all just talk. Even without soaking in any pool, after a bad day, some people can turn into a madman like the Joker.
People naturally experience negative emotions. If they aren't strong enough, like fleeting moments of low spirits or irritation, they're forgotten in an instant.
Clark hesitated, deciding to listen to his brother. He had no other way to save their father.
"It's still better than Dad dying from poison."
He filled a water skin that was half his height.
"We can go back now."
Clark glanced at Ra's al Ghul with concern. His brother had told him to wear the blue hood to hide his identity, so he hadn't called David by name and hadn't revealed that they were here to save his father.
"Wait a moment."
With the pool water secured as a backup, David felt bold enough to try something.
His eyes shot lasers into the pool.
The emerald green water began to evaporate rapidly.
"What are you doing?
Are you going to destroy it?"
A blinding light illuminated the dark stone chamber. Ra's al Ghul was shocked, his face turning ugly. Although he controlled more than one Lazarus Pit, being captured and forced to reveal the location of one was humiliating enough. Now, to have his Lazarus Pit destroyed before his eyes.
However, he remained rational and did nothing.
Clark looked on with confusion.
"If you don't want to be buried here, shut your mouth!"
David unleashed terrifying cosmic energy from his eyes, heating the pool water to a boil.
The DC world has many kinds of magical metals, such as Nth Metal, Amber Gold... and so on. The Dionysus Factor is named after the Greek god Dionysus, who represents rebirth.
Pure Dionysus Factor can grant rebirth and immortality, without the ability to drive people mad.
"If I can obtain pure Dionysus Factor, Father's recovery will be more stable."
And...
"With the Dionysus Factor, an incident like today will never happen again."
David gritted his teeth. He would venture into hell and face demons to save his parents' lives.
But if there was a way, why not nip that possibility in the bud beforehand?
The pool, dozens of feet wide, evaporated completely in the blink of an eye, leaving behind melted earth and stone that turned to boiling magma. The chamber filled with a foul, sulfurous odor.
But David didn't stop; instead, he increased the energy output.
The air in the stone chamber grew thin, forcing Ra's al Ghul to turn and flee, unable to breathe.
At the bottom of the pool, a magma basin tens of meters wide had formed. His point of focus had been heated to over the surface temperature of the sun, reaching tens of thousands of degrees and still climbing.
Terrifying heat emanated throughout the stone chamber. Only Clark could withstand the temperature; if Ra's al Ghul hadn't left, he would have been reduced to ashes by now.
There was still no sign of any metal.
David frowned.
"Could the Dionysus Factor here be too scarce to form, or has it sunk to the bottom of the magma?"
Just as doubt began to creep in and he was about to give up—
Above the magma, droplets of shimmering emerald 'liquid' coalesced, as if alive, forming a pool of liquid metal about the size of a thumb, floating on the magma. They remained distinct, like oil and water, refusing to mix.
David's expression brightened. He moved and ran onto the magma. The magma acted like solid ground beneath his incredibly fast feet as he picked up the pool of dark green liquid metal and returned to his original spot.
Hiss!
Sensing the Dionysus Factor in his hand trying to burrow into his body, David instantly used an energy ray to cut out a stone test tube and contained it. He shook it, but there was no leakage.
"Is this what you wanted, David?"
Clark walked over, a look of confusion on his face, examining the contents of the test tube.
"What's it for?"
"It'll be safer to save Father with this."
A glint flashed through David's eyes as he gripped the test tube.
"Now, we should head back."
I posted nearly six thousand characters today, split into two chapters.
I saw comments saying I shouldn't boast about 3k characters. I wasn't trying to say I wrote a lot; it's that some readers are new to Qidian and don't know that chapter prices are based on word count. They might mistakenly think I arbitrarily raised the chapter price and then stopped reading. I don't have that authority, and Qidian doesn't grant authors that kind of power.
Regarding updates, I'm slow with my hands and have been writing as much as I can. I can usually manage around six thousand characters a day, occasionally bursting to eight thousand. I wish I could write tens of thousands like Eagle, that would be ten times the pay. I'm not an idiot; if I could do that, I would. The problem is my limited typing speed.
Finally, thank you for all your support. I'll do my best to keep updating.
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