Moral Interrogation

"Don't complain to me about your master! If you tell me this, you'll still worry I'll report you to him. Will you even spare my life later?"

"I said I don't serve nobles. I'm here partly because I have a deal to make with your master, and partly because I have my own agenda."

"So you're a butcher too?"

As the conversation reached this point, the person in charge stopped, turned around, and faced Qin Xia.

Staring into Qin Xia's eyes, the middle-aged man, not particularly intelligent, conveyed a sense of moral interrogation.

"So you're a butcher too," the person in charge continued. "Except you don't butcher scum, you butcher nobles. But you're still a butcher, still an executioner, still a killer. You just don't butcher scum, but in terms of methods and morality, what's the difference between you and the scum butchers you killed?"

Hearing this, Qin Xia looked into the person in charge's bright eyes, which clearly held a moral interrogation, and his actions and expression clearly showed he was deep in thought.

The person in charge continued to stare at Qin Xia with his bright eyes.

He clearly believed that butchering nobles was wrong and immoral. He, who had been promoted by a controlling lunatic for his obedience, clearly lacked the cunning to stall for time or find an opportunity to escape through moral questioning.

"Yeah," Qin Xia said, his expression one of sudden enlightenment, as if a great truth had dawned on him. "If I butcher nobles, then I'm no different from those butchers, am I?"

"Mmm-hmm," the person in charge nodded.

Qin Xia lowered his head, his expression gradually becoming pained, clearly caught in the torment and struggle of his thoughts.

The person in charge watched Qin Xia lower his head, still interrogating him with his gaze.

But then, the person in charge noticed Qin Xia suddenly lift his head slightly, his eyes meeting his for a fleeting, eternal moment.

"Screw you!"

Qin Xia sprang up, his feet together, and delivered a flying kick that sent the person in charge through the library doors ten meters away.

The person in charge rolled for over a dozen meters on the ground before stopping. A belt gifted by Tarkos, which he wore for escape, injected him with a serum, rapidly repairing his body.

"I never engage in internal conflict. I never interrogate myself morally."

Qin Xia walked past the person in charge with his head held high, his tone firm and arrogant.

"But don't think I lack morals. On the contrary, I believe my moral standards are a beacon in this cesspool of a world and universe!"

"So I have a certain confidence."

"Everything I do is justice, the materialization of noble moral principles in the material universe. The ripples and consequences of my actions, the people and things I change, they are the materialized entities of abstract spiritual concepts like morality and justice in the material universe!"

"..." The person in charge got up, no longer daring to say anything.

"Shut your mouth, stand there, and wait. Do whatever I ask." Qin Xia casually pulled out a book and began to read.

"Patriarch Tarkos didn't send you here to kill me," the person in charge insisted. "He sent you to kill his brother who came to see me today!"

Qin Xia, annoyed by the nagging, frowned and stared at the page, replying impatiently, "I'm not here specifically to be an assassin, so I can't be bothered to figure out who I'm supposed to kill. Today, you and that lunatic's brother will die!"

"..." The person in charge fell silent.

Qin Xia walked to the bookshelf, his sharp, eager eyes scanning the titles, and finally settled on a book placed in the most prominent position. He immediately reached for it and began to flip through it quickly in front of the person in charge.

In the person in charge's eyes, Qin Xia turned pages at an astonishing speed, yet his expression was serious, not like he was trying to appear cultured for the sake of his own image as an immoral noble butcher.

A period of silence passed between them.

The person in charge suddenly remembered something and asked, "What about my master's brother? What if he really sent you to kill his brother? Won't you mess things up?"

"I know where he is, I know what he's doing, and I have a hundred ways to make him come to me, instead of me wasting time looking for him."

Qin Xia continued to read.

The person in charge lowered his head in resignation, then his eyebrows shot up in surprise as he discovered a layer of frost clinging to the surface of his shoes.

A moment later.

Ailong Tal emerged from the suddenly opened doors of the underground protective facility.

The intense gunfire and shouting had stopped. The intruders were nowhere to be seen, but he was certain they had killed all the hundreds of guards in the manor.

Ailong's best course of action, the best his mind could conceive, was to flee.

This was indeed the correct decision. If Qin Xia were here, he would also consider Ailong's choice to be completely correct.

However, as Ailong fled, he saw the ground covered in corpses and the extremely tragic scene of battle. His heart grew increasingly fearful, and he even began to wonder if he should return to the underground facility.

But after much hesitation, Ailong finally forced himself to persevere and trudged through the bodies.

He ignored any side paths and walked straight ahead, his will telling him it was the right way.

Slowly, quietly, the noble passed by the library and saw lights within.

Ailong cautiously observed, first seeing the person in charge of the arena.

If the person in charge hadn't invited him to his home as a guest, he wouldn't have found himself trapped tonight.

And in front of the person in charge, who stood with his head bowed, beneath a massive bookshelf filled with books, stood a towering figure nearly three meters tall, dressed scantily, holding a book in his hands.

"Come in. I was planning to go to the underground facility to catch you, but now you've come yourself."

Just as Ailong was about to slip away quietly, he heard the towering figure's words and was stunned to realize he had been discovered.

Not believing he could match the other party, Ailong obediently walked into the library.

The pale-faced manager turned his head to look at Ailong, who returned a fearful glance before standing beside the manager.

"You know, even though I'm a warrior, I really enjoy reading and learning."

The imposing figure turned around, his gaze fixed on the book in his hands.

Ailong instantly recognized him as the executioner from the gladiatorial arena who had killed all his sons.

Ailong, whose parents both shared the surname Tal, had a poor memory, so his ability to recognize Qin Xia so quickly was itself a result of Qin Xia's psychic power.

By dividing half of his focus to sense and lock onto Tal, Qin Xia could exert simple influence on his mind. While not enough to turn a person into a puppet, Qin Xia firmly believed that with a little more development and time, this application of psychic power would prove immensely useful.

"My master definitely wants you to kill him!" the gladiatorial arena manager reiterated. "He told me to invite Ailong to the manor tonight!"

"This is your manor, not mine..." Ailong suppressed his fear and tried to defend himself.

Although Ailong was a general.

Compared to the butcher before him, who had turned the magnificent manor into a scene of countless corpses and rivers of blood, ninety-nine point nine percent of the enemies Ailong had faced in his life seemed weak and powerless.

Facing a true warrior, not a commoner who brought disaster upon himself for a displeased glance, Ailong lacked the courage.

"Which one of you is the noble he's referring to?"

Qin Xia faced Ailong and the manager, but his eyes weren't on either of them.

He held a book in his right hand, his eyes fixed on the pages, and after a moment, he turned a page before answering.

"This is his manor..." Ailong repeated.

"It is my manor, that's correct." The manager's face was as pale as a corpse, but he still forced himself to maintain a normal tone. "But anyone with half a brain can figure out that Lord Tarkos definitely doesn't want to kill me. Lord Ailong is visiting today, and then Lord Tarkos sent you. The reason for this is easy to understand, right?"

"I was sent by your master?" Qin Xia's gaze fell upon the manager.

The manager spread his hands, as if asking: Wasn't I?

"..."

Qin Xia calmly looked down at the manager.

Two seconds later, the manager's head exploded. There was nothing above his neck, and Qin Xia, looking down, could see his black metallic spine exposed to the air.

Ailong was about to exclaim something akin to "Holy shit!" when his own head exploded.

Qin Xia glanced at the corpses on the ground, his expression unchanged, and turned to look at other books.

He had initially intended to spare the manager's life, but only until he left. Since the manager was the owner of the manor, he would undoubtedly be very familiar with the place.

However, Qin Xia chose to kill them instead, making things a little more troublesome but gaining peace and quiet.