Lime Powder Greeting

The guest room's sitting area, near the fireplace.

Yan carefully moved his head. Fortunately, the Evil Soul Master was busy indulging his filthy urges and did not notice the subtle movement.

"This is..."

Yan cautiously scanned his surroundings. His gaze suddenly froze. Scattered around him and the other boys and girls were several chunks of white material. Judging by their outlines, they appeared to be white stone figurines. Most had been damaged when they hit the floor, some breaking into several irregular pieces.

These white stone fragments were not particularly hard. Their broken surfaces had tiny sandy pores, as though they had been carved from a rather fragile type of rock.

"This is... a limestone figurine. And it was carved from scraps at that. No wonder the seller specifically warned us not to drop them..."

A few memories flashed through Yan's mind. Liya had bought these figurines for them on the road here to cheer them up—little white doll statues. More than a dozen of them had cost less than one Silver Soul Coin. They were not worth much, but their material was a kind of industrial raw material from Yan's memories.

Limestone, also known as bluestone, was scientifically called calcium carbonate. The finest varieties of this stone were dark blue-green and extremely hard, making them excellent carving materials that were not easily damaged. The little figurines Liya had bought for Yan and the other children were clearly not precious stone carvings of that kind, but carvings made from leftover scraps. Yet to Yan, they were even more useful.

The broken surfaces of these white fragments were milky white and uneven, with tiny sandy pores. There was also some white powder on the floor. This milky-white limestone was considered leftover waste when bluestone was quarried, but industrially, it was actually the purest raw limestone ore.

Calcium carbonate itself was white. It only turned blue-green when mixed with other elements. Pure white limestone was considered scrap material among building stones, but in terms of purity, this kind of pure white limestone had the highest calcium carbonate content.

When calcium carbonate was heated at high temperatures, it underwent a chemical reaction and produced calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. Calcium oxide had another name—it was the lime powder essential for ambushing people in martial arts worlds.

Yan's situation was perilous. The Evil Soul Master was about to do something unspeakably vile to Liya, the older sister who had always taken care of him. And judging by this man's conduct, he was clearly no good person. Once he was done, wouldn't Yan be as good as dead too? He had to find a way to save himself.

But after weighing the difference in strength between them, Yan realized that he and the children lying on the ground had not even seen how the man had arrived. They had merely heard a strange buzzing sound before feeling dizzy and collapsing unconscious. That proved the other party's strength was absolutely beyond anything Yan could confront head-on.

As for running away, he had considered sneaking off while the bastard was doing his dirty business. But any movement might draw the man's attention, and Yan had no confidence he could escape unscathed once that happened.

In this situation, if he wanted to save himself, he could only weaken his opponent first and then create an opportunity. And after carefully looking around, lime powder was the best choice he had found.

"Don't let me down, Dawn Sprite."

Yan murmured silently in his mind. Then he carefully moved his hand, slowly gathering several scattered white stone fragments into his palm bit by bit. A change immediately came over his hand.

Using the obstacles around him to conceal himself from the bedroom's line of sight, he actually reached his hand into the blazing fireplace.

An extremely faint pulse of energy flashed by. Yan's entire arm immediately became like granite, while dark red flames surged within the fireplace. The temperature of the burning logs, which had only been a few hundred degrees, instantly soared to over a thousand.

"Hm? The fireplace? Did it burn something? Why did the temperature suddenly rise so much?"

Inside the guest room bedroom, Blood Bat Rassoul had stripped naked and was preparing to climb into bed when his body stiffened. He glanced toward the door. The fireplace flames, originally orange-red, had turned dark red for some unknown reason. The strange sight caught his attention.

He did not go out to investigate directly. Instead, he circulated his Soul Power. His First Soul Skill lit up, and a strange, subtle wave of sound rapidly swept through the entire hotel with him at its center. His expression then relaxed slightly. "I didn't find anything unusual. Was I overthinking it?"

Beside the guest room fireplace, Yan was filled with tension, but his luck was indeed good. Rassoul ultimately did not leave the bedroom. As Rassoul slowly turned around, the little boy cautiously withdrew his hand and stuffed a palmful of white powder into his pocket.

"Uncle Lycett, Xiao Lan, Little Tiger... what happened to you..."

Inside the bedroom, when Rassoul turned back and walked toward the bed, ready to pounce, a childish voice suddenly rang out from the sitting area beyond the bedroom. He could not help frowning and turning his head to look toward the sitting area again.

"Little Yan, run!"

Liya had recovered a little strength by then, at least enough to speak. When she heard the voice, she immediately cried out for the little boy to run. Yet it seemed to have the opposite effect—the little boy who had cried out appeared to be coming toward the bedroom instead.

"Sister Liya."

The call was accompanied by approaching footsteps. Rassoul gave Liya, who had not recovered much strength, a mocking smile. Then he walked toward the bedroom door and saw a little boy stumbling all the way to the entrance. The two faced each other at less than two meters apart.

"Ah..."

Just as a cruel bloody gleam flashed through Blood Bat Rassoul's eyes, a sea of snow-white abruptly filled his vision. The spray of white powder struck him squarely in the face, and the searing pain in his eyes made him cry out uncontrollably.

He had let his guard down. He had never imagined that a child would ambush him. Lime powder coated his eyes, and he instinctively began to tear up, only for the even more intense burning pain to make him howl without end.

Lime powder was scientifically known as calcium oxide. When it came into contact with water, it reacted violently, producing calcium hydroxide while releasing intense heat. If it got into someone's eyes and was handled improperly, it could even burn their eyeballs until they festered and collapsed.

The eyes were one of the human body's vital weak points. Having them burned until they festered was agony that cut straight to the bone—absolutely unbearable.

Blood Bat Rassoul had been wanted by Spirit Hall for so long without being captured. Both his strength and willpower were above average. But even someone like him could not endure the pain when his tears mixed with the lime powder and caused a violent reaction.

Bang! Bang! Bang...

Rassoul flailed wildly in every direction, venting his agony. The guest room's walls and furniture immediately suffered for it. All kinds of objects flew and shattered, and the scattered fragments even blasted large holes into the walls.