Eliminating Evil and Removing Scoundrels

After returning home, Luo Zhiyuan began his training with even greater intensity. He stopped going out even when Xu Xin, his father, or his mother asked him to play, focusing entirely on improving his strength. This led Xu Xin to complain that Luo Feng used to only care about training, and now their son was just as obsessed at such a young age; she threatened to settle the score with Luo Feng!

Luo Feng actually felt quite wronged. He didn't quite understand why the little guy was pushing himself so hard. He had once told his son not to overexert himself and to go out and play like a normal child, but Luo Zhiyuan always insisted he wasn't interested in such things. Luo Feng could only tell him to be careful not to hurt himself and leave it at that, even letting his son use the gravity room.

By now, the gravity room was practically Luo Zhiyuan's own. Hong and Thunder God had both reached a bottleneck in their training and were preparing to break through to the Star Level, so they hadn't come over for a few days. Luo Zhiyuan locked himself in the gravity room, constantly practicing the movement technique Ghostly Shadows, body force, and soul techniques.

Luo Zhiyuan had already reached the second level of Ghostly Shadows and was working hard toward the third. The second level allowed him to create one afterimage while moving, appearing in a different location to attack the enemy simultaneously, confusing them and disrupting their senses. Luo Zhiyuan could now manifest three afterimages, though the third level required nine to be considered mastered.

He was working so hard on Ghostly Shadows because every time this movement technique leveled up, it unlocked new combat styles; reaching the third level would provide a significant boost to his strength. If an enemy had highly sensitive senses or strong spiritual energy, they could distinguish which of the second-level figures was the afterimage and which was the real body, allowing them to bypass the afterimages and attack him directly, which posed a significant threat.

However, once he reached the third level and had ten figures in total, he could move freely between the positions of those ten afterimages. Even if an enemy had strong spiritual energy, it would be difficult to quickly determine the real one among the ten, greatly increasing his safety and making his attacks far more flexible and unpredictable.

To accelerate the training of his combat techniques, Luo Zhiyuan had taken advantage of his family's distraction to split off five avatars and sneak them out. He found relatively safe spots in the wilderness far from human activity to train together, constantly transmitting his insights back to the main body. At his current pace, it wouldn't take long to reach the third level of Ghostly Shadows.

He didn't create more avatars because splitting his focus too much would leave him without enough spiritual force amplitude to practice soul attack techniques. This would easily alert Babata, as he had always been practicing Ghostly Shadows, body force, and soul techniques in rotation.

After exhausting his body with Ghostly Shadows and body force training, Luo Zhiyuan would begin practicing soul techniques. He was currently working on a hypnotic illusion, using spiritual force to suppress and influence the target's consciousness, inducing a fatigue that originated from the soul. Once the target's willpower was insufficient, they would fall into a deep sleep.

The duration of the sleep was influenced by the target's own willpower and the intensity of the practitioner's spiritual force. In severe cases, the target could fall into an eternal slumber. While in this state, the target's soul had zero defense, allowing the practitioner to guide them and extract secrets from their memory in the form of dream-talking.

Hypnotic illusion was a soul technique frequently used by illusionists. When a confession couldn't be extracted through interrogation, illusionists would use this technique to hypnotize the target, so it was quite widespread; Yunmo Planet also possessed the specific training methods for this illusion.

While practicing this technique, Luo Zhiyuan couldn't help but think of the Zerg Queen's nest still slumbering on Earth. He estimated that the master of Yunmo Planet must have used a similar hypnotic technique to put the Zerg Queen into a permanent sleep, which was the only reason Luo Feng would be able to take the Queen as a soul slave in the future.

Actually, Luo Zhiyuan had some ideas about this Zerg Queen as well. He could consider asking Luo Feng for some of the Queen's body tissue after he enslaved her; it would be quite exciting to try and create a Queen avatar!

In late September 2062, Luo Feng suddenly told his family one evening that he was going out for a month of closed-door training. Luo Zhiyuan's heart stirred; he knew this was when Luo Feng would leave Earth for Qiu Long Planet, 320,000 light-years away. He helped Luo Feng comfort the family, saying that he was grown up now and could protect everyone while his father was away, which made the family smile and eased the awkwardness of Luo Feng's lie.

The next day, Luo Feng boarded the Black Dragon Mountain X81 spaceship that Babata had repaired and flew away from Earth. Luo Zhiyuan watched Luo Feng leave, knowing he would return in a month with a large amount of Purple Light Dew to improve the physique of the people on Earth. He didn't need it himself, but it was a fundamental turning point in history for the physical improvement of all Earthlings.

After Luo Feng left, Luo Zhiyuan returned to his frantic training mode, even more intense than before. Although he had absorbed a lot of combat experience, it was all from monsters, so his close-quarters combat had a very distinct beast-like style. He had never fought a human before, which meant that if he were to fight one, he would only know how to use monster-countering methods, which embarrassed him.

Babata gave him a suggestion: although most warriors on Earth were hunting monsters, there were still some who would try to ambush humans in the wilderness to make ill-gotten gains, as it was much safer than hunting monsters directly.

In Babata's eyes, these people were scum whose existence held no positive value for humanity, so he told Luo Zhiyuan he could eliminate some of these evil warriors. It would be a way to rid the world of evil while gaining combat experience against humans—the best of both worlds.

Luo Zhiyuan agreed with the idea, packed his things, and left home, telling his family he was going out to practice movement techniques to keep them from worrying. To avoid affecting his research on Ghostly Shadows, Luo Zhiyuan secretly split off ten avatars to train in the wilderness, while his main body began his campaign to purge the scum on Earth.

Since Luo Zhiyuan currently had the appearance of a seven or eight-year-old child, he only needed to carry some valuable items and wander around relatively chaotic areas to attract malicious gazes. Thus, he used himself as bait and began his mission to eliminate the scum.

A small, thin figure with a large backpack walked through a chaotic ruin. This was the first fishing spot Luo Zhiyuan had chosen, an area where warriors often hunted monsters.

Luo Zhiyuan displayed the speed and strength of a beginner-level martial arts student on Earth, moving slowly and continuously through the shadows. His backpack was bulging, and one could see animal fur sticking out from the top opening—it was a level 4 apprentice monster he had killed on his way through the wilderness. He estimated it was worth over ten million Earth coins to the HR Alliance. He had checked before leaving; this value was enough to tempt greedy humans, which was exactly the bait Luo Zhiyuan had prepared.

Soon, a five-man team followed behind Luo Zhiyuan. One was a level 5 apprentice, and four were level 4 apprentices. After observing him for nearly an hour, they gradually surrounded him.

The burly level 5 apprentice youth in the team spoke to him from about fifty meters away: "Little kid, what are you doing? Carrying such a big backpack, if you don't get rid of the blood scent, you'll attract quite a few monsters to attack you. You should be careful."

Luo Zhiyuan put on a nervous expression and said with a slightly trembling voice, "I'm preparing to go back to the supply base. What are you doing surrounding me?"

"Haha, don't be nervous. We saw you walking here alone without anyone else, so we were curious and wanted to ask if you needed help. We aren't bad people."

Luo Zhiyuan turned pale and hurriedly said, "Oh, oh, my teammates are right behind me. I'll go back to the supply base and wait for them. I don't need your help, thank you very much."

The leader glanced at another person in the team, who shook his head, indicating he hadn't seen anyone following the kid. The leader then revealed a vicious expression and said in a low voice, "We didn't see anyone following you. It's too dangerous for you to be alone. Let us escort you; we'll only charge a small fee. Just the materials in your backpack will be enough. You shouldn't have any objections, right?"

Luo Zhiyuan pretended to be terrified, shaking his head rapidly and shouting in a low voice, "No, don't do this. I'm very strong! If you bully me, I will fight back!"

"Hahahaha, then let's see you try. Do it!" The youth shouted to the other four, and they all launched an attack, charging toward Luo Zhiyuan with large blades in their hands.

Just as one of the gunmen was about to raise his weapon to aim, Luo Zhiyuan glanced at him, used a spiritual shock on him, and ignored him. Watching the four charge at him together, he smiled wickedly and said, "I told you I was strong, but you still wanted to bully me. Don't blame me for fighting back!"

In the four men's suspicious eyes, they paused for a moment. Instead of rushing to check on their teammate who had suddenly fallen to the ground, they continued to approach Luo Zhiyuan while shouting to ask what was wrong and if he had been ambushed, but they received no response, which made them feel quite uneasy.

The leader looked around, found nothing unusual, and shouted again, "Hurry up and finish this kid, then go see what's wrong with number five! Make it quick!"

The four raised their weapons again and attacked Luo Zhiyuan. But to their astonishment, no matter how they attacked the little guy in front of them, none of them could land a hit. Every time they were about to strike, they would inexplicably hit empty air.

Luo Zhiyuan simply used the first level of Ghostly Shadows, waiting for the four to attack with a playful expression. Once he confirmed they all intended to kill him, he put away his desire to toy with them.

He condensed four strands of spiritual force and struck each of their brains. As he approached their consciousness, he used the hypnotic technique to suppress their minds. Soon, all four collapsed to the ground, falling into a deep sleep.

Using his spiritual force to move all five people into a half-collapsed building, Luo Zhiyuan sat to the side, still feeling some internal struggle. After all, in his thirty-plus years of life across two lifetimes, he had never actually killed a person. In his past life, he didn't have the guts, and in this life, he had only killed monsters. Killing monsters and killing humans felt very different.

Luo Zhiyuan looked at the faces of the five men. They still had ferocious or terrified expressions, which made him feel very uncomfortable, so he turned them over. Not seeing their faces was out of sight, out of mind.

After struggling for a while, Luo Zhiyuan thought about how all five of them had wanted to kill him for his money, and judging by their coordinated formation, it probably wasn't their first time doing something like this. If it hadn't been him, another lone warrior might have lost their life.

He closed his eyes, gave himself a pep talk, and used the Soul Fusion technique on them one by one. Luo Zhiyuan sat on the ground with his eyes closed, beginning to absorb their combat memories.

Sure enough, he discovered in the memories of these five guys that this wasn't their first time committing evil. They had successfully robbed others' prey many times before, and most of the victims had been killed to silence them.

The five of them had a clear division of labor: some specialized in finding prey, some in scouting, some in main attacks, and some in covering their tracks. To them, monsters weren't prey; lone or heavily injured human warriors were their prey.

Luo Zhiyuan opened his eyes and took a deep look at the five corpses on the ground. He whispered to himself that if you walk by the river often, you're bound to get your shoes wet; this was their just deserts. If he weren't capable enough, he likely would have died in the struggle himself.

To prevent such a possibility, Luo Zhiyuan steeled his resolve. He was lucky to have transmigrated into such a magnificent world; if he died again, he didn't believe he would get such a good opportunity. He still wanted to enjoy this wonderful journey of life.

No longer struggling, Luo Zhiyuan stood up, brushed the dirt off his pants, turned, and walked out of the ruins, continuing his fishing. He needed to grow as quickly as possible; the combat experience from the five men was far from enough, as their strength was very low. Before leaving, he took some of their hair; he might need it.

In the ruined city, there was fighting between humans and monsters everywhere, and even robbery between humans. Here, the law of the jungle was fully displayed.

Inside a dilapidated shack, two figures appeared. One was sturdy but covered in bloodstains, crudely bandaged. The other was a seven or eight-year-old child carrying a large, bulging backpack, clearly filled with many items.

The two seemed to have rested enough, came out of the shack, and walked toward the city exit, appearing to have made some gains and preparing to return.

This was Luo Zhiyuan and his avatar. This avatar had the appearance of one of the men he had killed earlier, but Luo Zhiyuan had added some wounds and applied simple makeup to the avatar, making it look like it had suffered serious injuries. It walked very carefully, as if afraid to aggravate the wounds.

Luo Zhiyuan felt that this combination of a large and a small person might be more likely to arouse others' greed. After all, a child appearing alone in the chaotic wilderness was very strange, and most people would become more cautious. Like the five people before, they had followed him for a long time before daring to attack, which wasted too much time.

Now, this combination of a large and small person was still special, but an injured warrior with a child carrying a backpack, looking like a father and son, might lower many people's guard.

As long as they dared to provoke him, Luo Zhiyuan could now kill them without any psychological burden to gain more combat experience. After all, he had already killed people—five lives, in fact!