Ling Chen had nowhere to stay now. Though killing Scarface hadn't caused much of a commotion, the once-intact doghouse had been badly damaged.
Hiding there was practically impossible, so he needed to find somewhere new to lie low.
"I wonder if Slaughter City has any sewers?"
But Ling Chen was only speculating. If he dug any deeper here, he'd probably hit magma.
Without somewhere new to stay, though, he feared he'd face an endless pursuit from now on.
"Right, I wonder where Scarface lived. He must have had a place of his own!"
Thinking of this, Ling Chen looked at the Soul Tool on his finger.
With a slight infusion of Martial Soul Origin, he activated it.
Ling Chen took stock of what was inside: about three hundred Gold Soul Coins, some food and water, a few changes of clothes, and a key.
The food and water were enough to last about a year, something Ling Chen hadn't expected.
Gold Soul Coins were useless in Slaughter City. Yellow Spring Dew, on the other hand, was the real hard currency here.
The clothes inside were far too big, so Ling Chen could only make do with them. As for the key, it was obviously for Scarface's former residence.
Finding it would still take some effort, though.
Rather than that... he'd better search the bodies first!
He had to grow stronger little by little if he wanted to leave this place. He had only three years.
He just didn't know whether his body could withstand the corrosive killing intent for three years.
Some parts of Slaughter City were home to mindless Slaughter Wanderers who attacked anyone indiscriminately.
The main reason was that drinking Yellow Spring Dew for too long caused toxins to build up in the body.
Their hearts would gradually be overtaken by emotions like anger, agitation, and a craving for slaughter. Combined with the constant corrosion of killing intent, this turned many into Slaughter Wanderers.
Ling Chen was still small, yet killing intent had been corroding him for over three months. On top of that, he had already killed someone.
His own killing intent had grown much denser, but he had also developed an uncontrollable temper. That was not a good thing for him.
However, for some reason, after Ling Chen left the dark alley, there were far fewer corpses to be found here.
"Strange!"
Ling Chen approached a corpse. He didn't rush to search it, but instead examined its condition.
It was headless. Judging from the cut and the bloodstains on the ground, the victim had clearly been killed by a single blow that severed his head.
Yet the head was nowhere to be seen, and the corpse was also missing a leg.
The wound on the leg was ragged, the flesh mangled. There were dried bloodstains nearby, as if the leg had been dragged away.
Before transmigrating, Ling Chen hadn't known anything about forensics, so he couldn't deduce anything useful for now.
Still, one thing was clear: someone here was mutilating corpses!
This affected Ling Chen somewhat. The amount of Martial Soul Origin in a corpse depended on the strength of its Martial Soul and how intact the body was.
When a Soul Master died, most of their Martial Soul Origin dissipated along with their soul. Naturally, very little remained in the corpse.
The Martial Soul Origin left in a corpse would also leak out through the Soul Master's orifices and wounds, leaving Ling Chen with very little to collect.
If he hadn't yet awakened his Martial Soul and his six-year-old body weren't so weak, it wouldn't be long before the intervals between his Martial Soul condensations kept growing longer.
"Looks like I'll still have to kill people to collect Martial Soul Origin. Searching the bodies left behind won't work in the end."
After collecting the corpse's Martial Soul Origin and Soul Ring, Ling Chen continued toward the next body.
There were three corpses lying here in total, but the second one was almost too gruesome to look at.
Its abdomen had been torn open, and its internal organs were gone. The corpse's face was unrecognizable. Ling Chen hurriedly collected its Martial Soul Origin and left.
As for the third corpse, it had no limbs!
Touching the mutilated body sent a strange sensation coursing through Ling Chen. What kind of person could do something so perverse?
Suddenly, Ling Chen felt a chill down his back, as if some terrifying thing had set its sights on him.
Ling Chen immediately hid. He couldn't be mistaken about this feeling. It was killing intent!
Ling Chen didn't know why he could sense killing intent, but now wasn't the time to think about it. The one bearing that killing intent was here!
A low voice rang out. It sounded familiar to Ling Chen, yet he couldn't quite place it.
The voice was filled with displeasure, as if it had sensed something trespassing on its territory. The low growl instantly turned into a warning roar!
"A lion's roar!"
Ling Chen was somewhat surprised. By rights, there shouldn't be any Soul Beasts in Slaughter City.
The King of Slaughter, Tang Chen, was in charge here. There was no way a Soul Beast could have slipped inside.
Even Tang San, who had the Wishful Treasure Pouch that could hold living creatures, wouldn't casually bring a Soul Beast in, much less let one loose to roam Slaughter City.
Who here didn't want to get out? Someone might capture the Soul Beast and take it to the Hell Slaughter Arena, breaking the rules of Slaughter City.
Still, the situation in front of him was rather abnormal.
Ling Chen held his breath, doing his best to suppress the restless killing intent inside him. The lion was getting closer and closer!
Gradually, the lion stopped approaching and turned to gnaw on the mutilated corpses instead.
Ling Chen breathed a little easier and cautiously peeked out, wanting to see what the lion looked like.
He hadn't known what to expect, but the sight gave him a real shock!
It was a strange creature with a lion's head and a human body. Rather than a strange creature, though, it looked more like a Soul Master's Martial Soul had fused with their body.
Ling Chen had noticed illusory lion claws flickering in and out of view on the creature's hands. As it fed, its body seemed to be slowly growing more solid.
The Lion-Man before him could no longer be considered human.
Gripping the Green Steel Sword, Ling Chen slowly edged toward the Lion-Man as it fed.
The feeding Lion-Man seemed to sense a surge of killing intent, and hurriedly turned to look.
But in the blink of an eye, Ling Chen struck, bringing his sword down at the Lion-Man's head.
However, the Lion-Man's head didn't come off from its body as Ling Chen had expected.
Instead, the Green Steel Sword left a long gash across its neck before catching on the bones there. The Green Steel Sword, which had once cut through iron like mud, had finally met its match.
"How could this be?!"
Ling Chen had killed people before. When he'd cut off Scarface's head, the Green Steel Sword had sliced through it as effortlessly as a blade through water. The situation now was truly hard to believe.
"Come on, man! We're both made of flesh. What makes you so special?!"
But the response wasn't human speech. It was an enraged lion's roar, followed by illusory lion claws hurtling straight at him!
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