Chapter 859: Gathering Info
~Crunch~ Crunch~ ~Crunch~
~gulp~
“And there we go… that should be enough.” Lin Wu said upon eating the thirtieth slum dweller.
~DING~
——
DATA NODES OBTAINED: 30 memory nodes, 5 mixed nodes.
ANALYZING: Data nodes
DATA NODES: Analyzed
DATA BANKS: Updated!
——
“Perfect.” Lin Wu said with a smile and memories started appearing in his mind.
It was no longer uncomfortable or painful for him to see memories like this. And he didn’t need the system to buffer them for him either. His mind and soul were now strong enough to bear them without any conflicts or issues.
Lin Wu simply browsed through the lifetime memories of thirty humans in a matter of minutes.
“Mmm… conflicts in the slums… the thieves’ guild… assassination of Suzhou Group’s daughter… abductions…” Lin Wu obtained a ton of information from the slum dwellers.
None of it was something that stood out for him, but it was still good to know it all. The system had also analyzed it all and cataloged it accordingly.
A couple of windows were presented on the side of Lin Wu’s field of vision, but he dismissed them for now.
‘We’ll check after we got more.’ Lin Wu thought to himself as he moved on to the next area.
He had eaten thirty slum dwellers and had picked them from different parts of the slums. A majority of them were just normal humans that either had no cultivation base and were in the body tempering realm or had very low Qi refining realm cultivation.
Though there were also outliers in it all.
For example, Lin Wu consumed a Core condensation realm cultivator among them too. It was actually a young woman who was hiding in the slums. Lin Wu had picked all his targets as those that would not be noticed easily and since this woman was hiding in a shack alone with no one around, she was the perfect choice.
And it was certainly worth it as Lin Wu got some interesting information from her memories.
She was apparently a noblewoman of a nearby kingdom, but had been conspired against and sold to some slave trader in Tieba city. She had managed to escape the trader, but her cultivation base was restricted due to a poison she had been fed.
“Perhaps in another reality she might have become a peerlessly beautiful woman who would return after recovering and her cultivation base would surge after being cured. She would then charm the princes of many kingdoms and become a queen, taking revenge against those that wronged her.
Alas… I exist in this reality~” Lin Wu chuckled to himself.
While entertaining him with thoughts like this, Lin Wu soon reached the next area, which was the mediocre or average area where most of the population resided. Even the slum had a large population reaching the millions.
With how clumped and close it was, it was hard to tell that sometimes. But the system was accurate and sensed each and every person in the slums, barring the two areas that were protected by isolating arrays.
That’s right!
The slums weren’t without their own powerhouses either. In fact, there were three Dao Shell realm experts in the slums, as well as a Dao Treading realm expert.
Lin Wu was sure that there were more hidden here, especially in the two isolated areas. Though the three Dao Shell and one Dao Treading realm, elders weren’t flaunting their status either.
The place they stayed in was similar in scheme to the other buildings of the slums, albeit they were still durable. If one looked closely, they would understand that it was all a facade and the real building underneath the illusory formation was actually normal looking.
The system had also sensed a lot of spirit Qi and other energy fluctuations from the buildings, prompting Lin Wu to think that it was a black market or a warehouse of some sort.
If not for the fact that Lin Wu was still in the process of assessing the entire Tieba city and didn’t want to cause chaos right away, he would have already raided it.
“My chaos will come after planning… it will be planned chaos, ahah~” Lin Wu laughed at his own pun before checking the map.
~Ding~
——
NOTIFICATION: Suitable targets have been highlighted.
——
The system picked several targets that were the most likely to be unnoticed. Lin Wu went through them and simply chose the one that was closest to him.
“That one it is…” Lin Wu muttered as he slithered towards a certain building.
The building in question looked like a common tea house, but it was filled with cultivators.
~CRASH~
“You imbecile! How many things have you broken this month?” A crass voice was heard in the tea house. “I’ll show you!”
~thud~
The man with the crass voice lifted his leg and kicked a servant boy, who was trying to gather the broken fragments of a tea set.
The patrons of the tea house watched one with interest, as smiles dressed their faces. This bit of conflict was just entertainment to them and they couldn’t help but enjoy it.
“AH!” The servant boy was stuck and was knocked on his side from the kick.
The fragments of the tea set pierced his hands and shoulder under him and blood was drawn. The boy had no cultivation base of his own and was merely in the first stage of the body tempering realm.
“F-forgive me, lord!” The servant boy pleaded.
“Forgive you!? You dare ask that!” The so-called lord kicked the servant boy again, almost breaking his bones.
“Enough!” A loud voice was heard from the back of the tea house.
The so-called lord looked towards the source, while the other patrons wondered what twist would happen next.
“Oh? Is the young master going to stop me?” the lord questioned the man who had shouted.
“Are you joking? Take this shit outside, I don’t want my tea time to be disturbed.” The man replied.
“HAHA! I see. Very well, I’ll let the lord have his tea in peace.” The so-called lord said before pulling the servant boy from his hair and dragging him out to the back.
~tch~
“I’ve been waiting for the owner to beat up that servant boy for weeks.” One of the patrons said while clicking his tongue.
“I know right! My bet is now useless.” Another man on the table next to him said.
“What bet?” the man asked.
“You don’t know? We have a betting pool going for a month now. We’re betting on how long it will take for the boy to die and how the tea house owner will kill him.” The other man replied.
“Ah! Can I still join in?” The first man asked.
“It will be useless now. The terms of the bet were only applicable if they happened in the tea house.” The other man replied.
“What a shame…” the first man shook his head.
And while the patrons of the tea house were discussing the fate of the servant boy, he was being dragged to an ally behind the tea house. His face was covered with tears and his lips twitched in pain.
And yet he didn’t cry out loud, for he knew that only more suffering would present to him if he did that.
The tea house owner was a ruthless man whom he would have never worked for if it were not for the fact that he was the only one willing to employ him.
~thud~
Upon reaching the end of the alley, the tea house owner tossed the servant boy against the wall.
The boy felt his head hurt like hell from the impact, while his back felt like it was being torn. At the first level of body tempering realm, his defenses were non existent, thus bearing such a heavy impact was dangerous for him.
“Hump! I knew I should have killed you the first time to broke my property.” The tea house owner said as he pulled out a blade from his waist.
“N-no… please… no…” The boy pleaded as he saw the edge of the blade glint.
“It’s too late… or perhaps there was never a chance for you.” The tea house owner said with a smile. “Trash like you should have never left the slums.” He spat out.
The boy shuddered with fear as he saw the blade reaching his neck. He was frozen with fear and couldn’t resist, even if he wanted to. But he also knew that his strength was nothing compared to the tea house owner who was at the Core Condensation realm.
If not for the fact that the teashop owner was holding back from the start and wanted to kill the boy slowly, just the first kick alone would have been enough to kill him.
“Now then… let’s have some fun shall we?” the tea house owner said as he rested the blade against the servant boy’s neck, slowly pressing and moving it millimeter by millimeters across the neck.
Blood dripped out from the neck of the servant boy, just like the tears streaming down his face nonstop.
‘Why doesn’t it end quickly!?’ the servant boy screamed in his heart as searing pain spread across his neck.
The cut on his neck was now three centimeters long, but wasn’t as that deep. The tea homeowner deliberately controlled his strength to not cut off the flesh too easily.
But now the blade was about to reach the boy’s trachea, and when it passed over it, the boy wouldn’t be able to breathe.
~Slick~
~COUGH~
But then, in the next moment, the servant boy felt warm blood all over his face and chest.
His eyes were wide open as he witnessed a long tentacle hanging out of the Tea house owner’s chest.
