Hello, Welcome to Merit Supermarket (SUPERMARKET)
After staring at the surreal and breathtakingly beautiful starry sky for a while, Lao Shi finally snapped out of his daze.
He reached up to touch his eyes, feeling the eyeballs moving beneath his eyelids, then touched his throat, his intact collarbone, and his strong, healthy hands. After a long silence, he finally burst into laughter.
"To be honest, at first, I thought you’d fed me drugs."
Jiang Chenyi, standing beside him, twitched his eye in exasperation at the man’s words, but he quickly let it go.
"Does it feel too unbelievable to you?"
Hallucinogenic drugs could make people lose their grip on reality, and for someone who had been tortured for a year, suddenly regaining a healthy body must indeed feel like a dream.
It was precisely because he understood this that Jiang Chenyi wasn’t angered by his words.
But not being angry didn’t mean the man’s words weren’t offensive!
He grabbed the man by the collar, snorted, and dragged him away from the scene.
Lao Shi, being dragged along, laughed heartily, but his laughter soon turned into sobs as he covered his face with his hands.
Meanwhile, inside and outside the hospital room, everyone was waiting for the final outcome.
Those inside the room felt a pang of anxiety when they saw the two disappear, fearing they had misplaced their trust.
But not long after, they saw Merit IOUs materialize out of thin air. The terms stated that they had voluntarily lent their Merit to Lao Shi for the transaction, and the repayment would be gradually settled in the days to come.
They didn’t look carefully and just hastily signed their names, afraid that the IOU might become invalid if they delayed.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long.
Two figures emerged from the void. What caught their attention first wasn’t the young man walking in front, but the man being dragged behind him and was wailing loudly.
“Lao… Lao Shi?!” The people at the police station were so shocked that their voices cracked, thinking he was crying because the deal had failed.
But soon, someone noticed that the bandage on Lao Shi’s eye was gone.
Lao Shi raised his head with tears streaming from his now intact eye as he looked at his companions. Then, he scrambled to his feet before rushing forward to embrace his brothers tightly.
“I’m back! I can see!”
These two sentences encapsulated all the hardships he had endured over the past year.
Everyone present couldn’t help but feel joy for him.
Even the unfamiliar officers from Xiaocheng, seeing the stark contrast in Lao Shi’s condition before and after, felt a mix of sorrow and surprise, their eyes red as they hugged him.
“Brother, you’ve made it through this. Surviving such a calamity means good fortune awaits!”
Jiang Chenyi opened the door and locked eyes with the woman standing at the front. When she noticed the black thread around the young man’s neck had disappeared, she covered her mouth in delight.
At that moment, Lao Shi also looked over. Seeing his wife’s face, now marked by the toll of time, his joy turned to guilt.
“I’m sorry…”
Over the past year, the people he had wronged the most were his parents, wife, and daughter.
Ayi rushed forward with tears pouring down her face once more and sobbing so hard she could barely speak.
The others, seeing Lao Shi looking just as he had over a year ago, were too stunned to speak.
His eye was back, his voice was restored, and his collarbone seemed healed… Though his injuries were still present, they were nothing compared to before!
Jiang Chenyi stepped aside to give the family some space after quietly slipping a business card to Lao Shi’s father. After waving goodbye to the Chief and the others, he prepared to leave.
But before he could go, Lao Shi caught up to him and shared a crucial piece of information—a clue that could send everyone in that village straight to hell.
“Why didn’t you say this earlier?”
The young man’s gaze was calm, seemingly unbothered by the fact that Lao Shi had withheld the information.
Lao Shi sighed helplessly, “It’s not that I didn’t want to. I couldn’t say it, couldn’t write it. But why I can now… I’m not entirely sure myself.”
He wasn’t sure, but Jiang Chenyi could guess. Perhaps the possession of his body had caused some damage to his brain, leading to partial memory loss.
“I understand. Focus on recovering for now. Leave the rest to us.”
With this clue, if they could gather enough evidence, even Director Long could request the military to drop a bomb and bury the entire village.
Thinking this, he made a call—not to Director Long, but to Huo Yunxi.
When the other party answered, his breathing was slightly labored.
The young man, who hadn’t reacted to anything in a long time, nearly stumbled down the stairs at the sound of his voice.
He quickly grabbed the handrail, took a few deep breaths, and revealed the clues he had just discovered: "In the cave where you rescued people, in the innermost piece of land, there is evidence buried about the Dai people using the village as a base for smuggling and human trafficking, as well as the villagers helping the Dai people harm their own compatriots."
With these two pieces of evidence, it was enough for the military to take action, as the smuggled goods included a large number of firearms.
This was evidence that Lao Shi had secretly obtained by sneaking into the village. Unfortunately, before he could take it out, he was discovered.
Fortunately, he had buried it in a very hidden place.
But what he never expected was that this place would become his prison for a year.
"How are you doing now? Have the victims been rescued? Have you been discovered? Do you need support?" If so, he would come over immediately.
Huo Yunxi flatly refused: "No need, you should go back and rest. They can't escape from here anymore."
His eyes had completely turned silver, and at the same time, a silver line encircled the land within a five-kilometer radius of the village.
Unless he allowed it, no one within the circle could step outside.
They had not gone unnoticed by the villagers when they were rescuing people, but how could these ordinary people be a match for the Celestial Master and the Spirit?
Not to mention, Wu Tuan, a mere cat, could easily toy with them.
So these people could only stay in the village while cursing helplessly.
Huo Yunxi brought out all the victims and had the three Celestial Masters take them to the hospital, while he had other matters to attend to.
"What's the matter?" Wei asked, somewhat puzzled.
Huo Yunxi repeated Jiang Chenyi's words, and upon learning that there was also smuggling of firearms here, the three of them gasped in shock.
"They are truly audacious!" they exclaimed, astonished that someone would dare to smuggle firearms!
Huo Yunxi glanced back at the group of people. The villagers were all red-faced with anger, but even now, these people had not taken out any firearms to resist. It seemed that the Dai people didn't trust them enough to leave them with weapons to use.
However, it was fortunate that they hadn't been given any, otherwise, the old man's family wouldn't have been so lucky to survive until their arrival.
He waved his hand and disappeared in a flash of silver light before everyone's eyes.
Wei watched the light and looked around before whispering to his uncle, "Uncle, so Spirits are this powerful..."
This was his first time witnessing the abilities of a Spirit, and it seemed even more formidable than his uncle.
Wei Yuanshou glared at his nephew and gave him a firm knock on the head.
"That's a humanoid Spirit! The rarest kind of Spirit!" Not to mention, the other party already possessed immense Merit and Baleful Aura.
Even if the other party were still alive and had become a Celestial Master, they wouldn't be a match for him.
Gu Chen watched the uncle and nephew with amusement. Since Wei's Master had been dealt with, the child had been following Wei Yuanshou because he feared that the young man might go astray.
Fortunately, Elder Gu acted very promptly. The child had been misled when he made mistakes, but his heart had not been tainted, and he had not committed any unforgivable wrongs.
There was still hope for him.
As soon as he heard that they were here to help Mr. Jiang, he was the first to volunteer without even asking about the reward.
Previously, they had been somewhat confused, but now, thanks to the child, after this matter was resolved, their powers would surely become purer.
Meanwhile, Huo Yunxi had returned to the cave.
However, compared to the last time, the cave seemed as if someone had set it on fire as it was filled with the stench of burning.
Wu Tuan was squatting at the entrance of the cave, extremely reluctant to enter due to the foul smell, and even took several steps back.
But! He had a dog-like human beside him!
"Meowww!" Wu Tuan was about to leave when he was picked up by a pair of large hands.
As everyone knows, Spirits do not have physical bodies.
Therefore, the cat's claws left no marks on Huo Yunxi's body, and the man didn't feel a thing.
Well, not entirely without feeling.
Huo Yunxi placed a hand on Wu Tuan's head and said emotionlessly, "Don't act cute. I'm not Chenyi; I'm not falling for your tricks."
Wu Tuan widened his eyes while looking at the other in horror
“Act... act what?’
Wu Tuan felt a bit creeped out. How could a cat act cute to a dog?
He refused!
However, no matter how much the black cat struggled, he was still forcibly taken into the cave by Huo Yunxi.
Inside, the stench was overwhelming. Wu Tuan clung to the dog-like human's arm with his black tail curling around his nose in an attempt to block out the smell.
They reached the innermost part of the cave, where Huo Yunxi placed the black cat on the ground and pointed to the foul-smelling earth beneath their feet. "You take one side, I'll take the other. If you find something, give a shout."
Wu Tuan originally wanted to let out a sigh, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the foul stench rushed in, making his feline face twist in disgust. His tail slapped the ground several times in frustration.
But there was no other choice.
With this man around, Wu Tuan had to follow his instructions.
The Black Cat extended his paw before digging into the ground like he was scooping cat litter. His tail wasn’t idle either as it also acted like a shovel to swiftly scooping up the surrounding soil.
After digging half a meter deep, they finally found the evidence Lao Shi had buried.
The man and the cat exchanged a glance, both wearing a sinister smile on their faces.
As they walked out, they heard strange noises coming from the village entrance.
Climbing to a higher vantage point, they saw the villagers holding hoes and other tools, and digging into the ground where the silver circle was located.
But those people didn’t know that Spiritual Power wasn’t attached to the ground. No matter how deep they dug, as long as they couldn’t break the circle, they would never be able to leave.
Huo Yunxi and the Black Cat stayed near the village and informed Director Long about the evidence and urged her to come immediately to make the arrest.
However, before that, there was one more thing he needed to take care of.
"Meow~" Wu Tuan cooed in a high-pitched voice with his soft body rubbing against Huo Yunxi’s leg as he acted cute
Then, he extended his dirt-covered paw and tail toward him with his big green eyes sparkling.
Huo Yunxi: "..."
‘Ew…’
"Can’t you clean it yourself?"
‘Don’t cats lick their paws and tails to keep themselves clean?’
In response, he received another sickly sweet meow.
In the end, he gave the cat a thorough cleaning. But just as he finished, Huo Yunxi’s face was met with a slap from the cat’s paw.
Wu Tuan stepped on his face, leaped over his head, and flew away.
Huo Yunxi, hit by the ten-plus-pound chubby cat (?) on the bridge of his nose, nearly fell to the ground.
"Ungrateful! Cats are such ungrateful little creatures!" he muttered under his breath then was suddenly struck by the thought of finding a dog Spirit.
Unfortunately, Spirits were hard to come by.
It all depended on luck.
But he forgot that since Jiang Chenyi had encountered such a rare Humanoid Spirit like him, it was clear that the young man’s luck was quite good.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have found Wu Tuan later.
Perhaps hearing his muttering, Wu Tuan, who had run off into the distance, suddenly let out a sharp cry, as if issuing a warning.
"Achoo!" Feeling uneasy and about to teleport, Jiang Chenyi suddenly sneezed.
His nose itched, as if someone was talking about him.
He hadn’t listened to Huo Yunxi’s advice to go back and rest, curious about what the evidence contained.
As soon as he landed, he was pulled into a hug, and the other person skillfully began infusing Spiritual Power into his body.
The cool sensation instantly dispelled his dizziness. Jiang Chenyi rested in Huo Yunxi’s arms for a while before opening his eyes.
"No more. At most, I’ll use teleportation once a day from now on."
This time, even with Huo Yunxi’s help and perhaps also because he had teleported twice in a single day, although he wasn’t dizzy anymore, his head still felt a bit swollen.
Huo Yunxi gently stroked the young man’s back, feeling the bones beneath his palm. His heart softened, and he decided to continue nourishing this person once everything was over.
Jiang Chenyi seemed to have lost some weight again.
A hint of heartache flashed in the man's eyes, but he kept his decisions to himself while silently handing over the evidence to the young man.
"Interesting... truly interesting..." The more Jiang Chenyi looked, the more he felt that the people of this village deserved to be torn to pieces.
Among the evidence, he also saw a familiar face—someone from the human trafficking organization that had been busted in Chashan City. The weapons they had were also purchased from here.
No wonder those people could produce Gatling guns before... It's a pity that during the interrogation, the leaders stubbornly refused to talk. So, it turns out this is connected to the border.
He contacted Director Long again to ask her to notify the military to come as soon as possible.
Fortunately, based on Huo Yunxi's earlier phone call, the military leader was already nearby, so diverting to the mountain village wouldn't take much time.
But faster than the military was Director Long and her team.
"What's the situation now?"
Jiang Chenyi handed over the evidence he had. Some of the evidence was beyond the jurisdiction of the public security department.
The more they looked, the angrier they became. Like Jiang Chenyi, they wished they could tear the entire village to pieces.
However, Director Long, having been on the battlefield before, took a few deep breaths and calmed her emotions.
"Fortunately, the military has brought quite a few people. Otherwise, we'd have to wait again."
This time, they had no choice but to act.
Jiang Chenyi's eyes were fixed on the scene below.
The previously aggressive villagers, realizing they couldn't escape, began to wail, crying and trying to call the police.
But the area had long been cut off from all signals. Whether it was calling the police or notifying others, it was impossible.
Even satellite phones couldn't get through.
When the military arrived, the leader's pupils trembled violently upon seeing Huo Yunxi's face.
He looked so much like him!
He suddenly remembered what his mother had said on the phone. The disbelief he had felt was now shattered.
They really had a great-grandfather here!
The man stared at Huo Yunxi for a long time, almost to the point of mental confusion.
Huo Yunxi noticed his gaze and was initially displeased, but upon seeing the man's face and his empty, bewildered eyes, the displeasure vanished.
Forget it, he's a member of the Huo family.
"Lao Huo, snap out of it!" Director Long slapped the man, who took a deep look at Huo Yunxi, wiped his face, and focused on the evidence Director Long had presented.
The next second, the 1.9-meter-tall burly man angrily punched a tree trunk, leaving a deep fist mark.
"Don't get angry. Hurry up and arrest them. We'll deal with them all at once!"
The man quickly regained his composure, but his face remained dark.
He gave orders to his soldiers to surround the entire village.
"No firearms?"
"No, only cold weapons like knives."
The man thought for a moment, finding it hard to believe that a village committing such heinous crimes didn't have a single firearm.
He didn't believe it.
Huo Yunxi thought for a moment, then slightly frowned. "Actually... they might have explosives..."
The Dai people hadn't provided them with guns or cannons, but during the rescue of the victims, he occasionally saw materials for making bombs.
Although it wasn't much, producing it wasn't difficult. Some might just need to be mixed together and then ignited with a flame.
The man wasn't surprised by this and even felt somewhat reassured.
"I told you, they must have some trump cards left."
It's one thing for one person to be foolish, but it's unlikely that everyone would be that foolish! They wouldn't leave without a single trump card.
He discussed the village's terrain with Huo Yunxi, aiming to sneak in and capture everyone without touching those materials!
However, as they were talking, Jiang Chenyi slowly stood up from under the tree with his gaze gradually shifting to a certain direction.
Huo Yunxi was the first to notice his unusual behavior and followed the young man's line of sight, which led to a stretch of forest.
It was also their border area.
"What's wrong?" He immediately abandoned his "descendant" and quickly approached Jiang Chenyi.
The young man pointed to a spot on the opposite mountain: "Just now, I felt something enter."
Huo Yunxi's expression darkened instantly as his sharp eyes fixed in that direction.
After Jiang Chenyi pointed it out, he also vaguely sensed an unfamiliar presence not far away.
"Keep discussing, I'll go take a look." Just as Jiang Chenyi turned around, Huo Yunxi grabbed him.
"Wait for me." He quickly added to the man: "The general terrain is like this. If you fail, don't ever say you're from the Huo family again."
After speaking, he followed Jiang Chenyi without looking back.
The man was somewhat dazed as he watched helplessly as Huo Yunxi's figure disappeared into the darkness.
After a while, he slowly uttered a word: "Huh???"
By the time he wanted to stop them, the two had already vanished from sight.
Not only had the figures disappeared, but the cat had also run off long ago.
The man's mouth twitched, suddenly feeling as if his ancestor had forgotten his descendants in the face of beauty...
He shook his head, dispelling this bizarre thought, and continued discussing the action plan with Director Long and the others.
Huo Yunxi had already provided a rough outline of the terrain, along with several key locations. This information was enough for them to proceed with their operation.
Meanwhile, Jiang Chenyi and the others quickly arrived at the previously indicated spot.
The young man crouched down until his palm was completely pressed against the ground, sensing the faint traces of aura left there.
"It's someone like a Celestial Master. If they were from Dai Country, they would be Spirit Masters. It's a pity; we should have had those three Celestial Masters come at this time."
Although he spoke of regret, his eyes were constantly observing the surroundings.
Wu Tuan sniffed at the spot where Jiang Chenyi's finger was pointing, then sneezed, seemingly disliking the scent there.
However, as a cat, his sense of smell was far more sensitive than that of humans.
Wu Tuan quickly sensed the nearby aura and found the direction from which the scent was coming.
The two followed behind the cat, with Jiang Chenyi effortlessly pulling out the Black Umbrella to shield their figures.
Not long after, three pairs of eyes saw: in a small house about five hundred meters away from the village, three people with distinct appearances and attire appeared.
Upon seeing them, Jiang Chenyi immediately knew who they were.
They were indeed Spirit Masters from Dai Country.
But it was unclear where these three had come from and what they intended to do here.
After finding the people, Wu Tuan returned to Jiang Chenyi's shoulder, quietly watching their movements.
The three people on the other side were completely unaware that they had been spotted,and was still fiddling with the lock on the house's door.
While Jiang Chenyi was still pondering what this place was, he suddenly felt a slight tug on his palm.
Looking down, he saw that Huo Yunxi had taken his hand before his fingers trace some lines on Jiang Chenyi's palm.
He kept his head down, so Huo Yunxi didn't notice the slight tremor in the young man's pupils. After finishing the writing, Huo Yunxi found it strange that Jiang Chenyi showed no reaction.
"Chenyi?"
Huo Yunxi leaned down and whispered into the young man's ear.
But he was too close that his lips almost brushed against Jiang Chenyi's ear with his voice like a gentle breeze blowing into it.
In that instant, Jiang Chenyi felt all the hairs on his body stand on end and a tingling sensation spread from his ear down his entire body, so intense that he almost cried out.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, he bit his tongue and use the pain to suppress the itch.
Even so, Huo Yunxi, the culprit, still saw the young man's ears instantly turn red.
And this faint redness spread from his ears to both sides of his cheeks.
Although it was dark, Jiang Chenyi's skin was excessively pale, and after becoming a Spirit, Huo Yunxi's eyes were exceptionally sharp, so how could he not notice this change?
The man's dark eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had seen a beloved treasure.
Just as the atmosphere between the two was becoming increasingly strange, a black cat's head suddenly appeared between them.
"Meow?"
‘What are you two doing? Those three weird humans are about to tear the house down, and you're not stopping them?’
Wu Tuan's appearance quickly restored Jiang Chenyi's calm. He rubbed his ears while recalling the strokes Huo Yunxi had written on his palm earlier, and immediately furrowed his brows.
Ancestral hall?
They clearly look like people from Dai Country. What are they doing in this village's ancestral hall?
The young man's eyes, filled with confusion, turned to Huo Yunxi. Unfortunately, the man shrugged, as he himself wasn't very clear either.
Jiang Chenyi took a few steps forward, almost standing at the entrance of the ancestral hall, before he finally saw what the others were doing—there was actually a hidden passage beneath the village's ancestral hall!
The two exchanged glances, both eyes flickering with a hint of surprise and suspicion.
Huo Yunxi had been to this village twice before and had never noticed anything unusual here.
Jiang Chenyi narrowed his eyes and assessed the situation. He now suspected that even the villagers themselves didn't know that a hidden passage had been dug beneath their ancestral hall.
As soon as they saw the three enter, Jiang Chenyi immediately threw out an abacus bead, jamming it just as the hidden door was about to close.
After a long while, when they could no longer hear any movement from below, they finally opened the hidden door and cautiously stepped inside.
Worried there might be traps, Jiang Chenyi picked up Wu Tuan, preventing him from running around.
Wu Tuan was very obedient. Sensing something strange about the surroundings, he didn't struggle to get down.
After entering through the hidden door, they found themselves facing a very long staircase.
Huo Yunxi counted as they walked, and it wasn't until they had been walking for a full five minutes that they finally stepped onto level ground.
The staircase was pitch black, with not a single source of light. If they hadn't been extraordinary individuals, they wouldn't have been able to see the path at all.
In Huo Yunxi's eyes, the sides of the staircase were hollowed-out caves. If one were to accidentally fall, they would surely meet their death.
Now, before them was a corridor, and at the end of the corridor stood a heavy, thick door.
Jiang Chenyi casually traded for a Universal Card, but just as he was about to enter, Wu Tuan stopped him.
The cat silently meowed at him, and Huo Yunxi couldn't understand what he was trying to say. However, Jiang Chenyi nodded and took two steps back with Huo Yunxi.
Huo Yunxi: ???
Had he missed something? Why could Jiang Chenyi understand what a cat was saying?
His heart was filled with questions, but there was no one to explain, nor was there time to explain in such a place.
Wu Tuan nimbly jumped down from Jiang Chenyi's arms before striding over to the door in cat-like steps. He pressed his body against the ground and then transformed into a green light and slipping through the crack in the door.
Ordinary cats can squeeze through small gaps, so as a Cat Spirit, he could naturally slip through even narrower cracks!
Even if the crack in the door was too narrow for the thinnest finger to fit through.
The two of them waited quietly outside the door, and soon, the door opened without a sound.
Jiang Chenyi's face lit up with a delighted smile. He returned the Universal Card to the supermarket and then walked through the door with confidence.
But as they stepped inside, Jiang Chenyi's smile vanished abruptly. Both their pupils trembled violently as they stared in horror at what lay before them.
The room was filled with corpses, and they were all processed corpses.
The corpses were not all piled together but were instead placed in individual boxes, resembling transparent coffins or display cases.
Looking at the faces of the corpses, it seemed they were all from Huacheng Country...
When Huo Yunxi and Jiang Chenyi saw this scene, their hearts sank abruptly, followed by a chilling cold, and finally, an overwhelming rage.
They didn’t know what these people were doing, but displaying the corpses one by one was clearly not a good sign!
Huo Yunxi, with his keen eyes, noticed that the bodies still bore the scars from their lives, indicating that these individuals had endured various forms of torture before their deaths.
Tortured in life and denied peace in death... How much pain they must have suffered.
Jiang Chenyi slowly closed his eyes, sensing the lingering wails of sorrow in the air.
He could hear them—the final and most intense cries of their hearts before death.
Though some of these cries had faded with time, others remained as the cries were preserved by intense resentment.
Seeing the young man’s face gradually turn pale, Huo Yunxi knew he was once again exhausting his spiritual energy.
He gripped the umbrella handle in Jiang Chenyi’s hand and wrapped an arm around the young man’s shoulders, worried that Jiang Chenyi might collapse from overexertion.
"It hurts... Why does it still hurt even after death?"
"Beasts! They’re all beasts! What are they doing? Let that child go!"
"Poison... the virus... We can’t let this virus spread..."
"This isn’t poison... Celestial Master! Find the Celestial Master... They’re using the resentment of the dead..."
"I don’t want to harm anyone... Burn us... Burn all the bodies... Heavens, please let someone discover this place soon!"
Fragmented cries echoed in Jiang Chenyi’s ears. After listening to each one, he opened his eyes, only to feel his vision darken.
Huo Yunxi’s preparation proved useful. Seeing Jiang Chenyi on the verge of collapse, he exerted strength and lifted the young man into his arms.
Jiang Chenyi didn’t care about the awkwardness of the position. He clung tightly to Huo Yunxi’s shoulders and pressed his head against the other’s neck.
Then, suppressing a strong urge to retch, he recounted everything he had heard to Huo Yunxi.
This place was likely an altar, and the corpses were tools carrying a special virus, intended to be released during the final ritual to spread the infection.
And that virus was cultivated from resentment.
"Heh... The resentment used to cultivate the virus was extracted from the victims, then forced back into their bodies, turning them into the living dead to be unleashed."
As for the purpose—since this was the work of people from Dai Country, their goal was undoubtedly to target Huacheng Country.
Huo Yunxi’s grip on the umbrella handle tightened until his knuckles turned white.
If it weren’t for the fact that the umbrella was a product of the Supermarket, it would have likely shattered in his hand.
Jiang Chenyi continued to lean on Huo Yunxi. Based on the cries of the victims, he had mapped out the layout of the factory.
He pointed in a direction—that was where the most crucial altar was located.
As long as they destroyed the altar and these corpses, the plans of the Dai Country people would be completely thwarted.
The three individuals who had come here were likely trying to move these things away or set up some defenses underground to prevent discovery by the military.
However, they never expected that the moment they appeared, they were already being watched by two pairs of eyes.
Following Jiang Chenyi's instructions, Huo Yunxi moved forward. The young man's forehead seemed to be dripping with sweat, and he felt his neck was damp.
Once this matter was over, he would definitely take someone back and properly replenish their energy.
They continued walking for a while and indeed saw those people.
The three of them were mixing a kind of pigment, the bright crimson color reminded him of some unpleasant things.
"Kill them!"
A cold yet soft sensation brushed his ear—it was the young man's lips pressing against it.
In a moment of mental blankness, Huo Yunxi's body reacted faster than his mind. He swiftly closed the umbrella, holding Jiang Chenyi with one hand while using the umbrella as a weapon with the other. He dashed to the nearest person and thrust the umbrella into their body.
"Supermarket, transaction—Possessing the Five Virtues: Wisdom, Trust, Benevolence, Righteousness, and Courage!"
As soon as the words were spoken, Huo Yunxi felt his strength increase more than twofold—not just strength, but also speed, reaction time, and more.
The umbrella in his hand pierced through one person's body. The other seemed completely unprepared and only realized they had been attacked when a sharp pain erupted in their chest.
The other two noticed something was wrong and were about to counterattack when a golden light suddenly flashed before their eyes, followed by a massive Golden Abacus smashing into their faces.
The third person couldn't match Huo Yunxi's speed.
The umbrella, just pulled out from the first person's body, was immediately thrust into the third person's body. The attacker moved like a cold-blooded killer, without a hint of hesitation.
The umbrella was large, even when closed, it was thicker than an adult man's arm.
Huo Yunxi seemed to have lost control of his strength. The first person was fine, but when the second person fell, there was a complete hole in their chest.
But it wasn't over yet.
The person who had been struck by Jiang Chenyi's Golden Abacus had just regained consciousness from the dizziness when Huo Yunxi swung the umbrella at them. The tip of the umbrella became the sharpest weapon as it sliced through their neck.
As the person fell while clutching their neck that was gushing blood, their eyes were filled with disbelief.
‘How had none of the three noticed that outsiders had entered the altar?’
The moment they fell, Jiang Chenyi collected their Souls before tightly binding them to the Golden Abacus, where they would be tormented day and night by the Merit.
After finishing this, he gently patted Huo Yunxi, instructing him to notify the army and Director Long to come over.
"Now, let me rest for a bit."
Then, he would figure out how to explain everything later.
Huo Yunxi looked at him, feeling a pang of heartache, but...
The young man sat beside the three corpses, waving at Huo Yunxi: "Hurry back. Once we're done here, we can rest."
Huo Yunxi sighed deeply before stuffing Wu Tuan, who hadn't lifted a finger the entire time, into the young man's arms. He looked solemnly at the Black Cat: "You must protect him well, or I will never tolerate your existence."
This time, Wu Tuan didn't throw a tantrum but nodded heavily.
Seeing the man and the cat like this, Jiang Chenyi couldn't help but laugh: "I'm not exactly a useless person, you know."
However, no one listened to him.
It wasn’t until after Huo Yunxi left that Jiang Chenyi retracted the smile from his face and turned his gaze to the corpses not far away.
There was one thing he hadn’t told Huo Yunxi earlier—these corpses carrying the "virus" could be filled with fragmented Souls and used as humanoid biological weapons.
And now, he had to destroy these corpses before anyone else arrived.
No one could guarantee that, once these corpses were taken back, one might be secretly stolen or the "virus" inside extracted for research.
So, he had to personally ensure that everything was completely destroyed.
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