Several hours later, in the Star Dou Great Forest.
A fierce battle had erupted in the forest. Not far away, the enormous corpse of a soul beast lay on the ground, having dropped a deep-purple soul ring.
"You... you were hiding your strength?"
The Scar-faced Big Man lay on the ground, scrambling backward as he stared in terror at the two strange creatures in front of Lin En.
"Weren't you hiding yours too?"
Lin En smiled faintly, a trace of coldness in his smile. "Sageross, finish him."
"Sa-"
Sageross swung his sharp blades, his body turning into a streak of green lightning. In an instant, he reached the Scar-faced Big Man and slashed down.
Blood splashed through the air like spilled ink. A long bloody line appeared, stretching from between the Scar-faced Big Man's eyebrows to his lower abdomen.
Then his body split into two halves.
Before he died, the Scar-faced Big Man was filled with bitter regret. Why had he provoked such a god of slaughter?
A snake whose greed knew no bounds would try to swallow an elephant. When profit was at stake, even newly formed Plastic Partners could be abandoned at any moment.
"Helpless," Lin En could only send them into the ground to grow ginseng, then loot their bodies with tears in his eyes.
"Oh my, people in a Mercenary Corps really are rich. They even have Storage Soul Tools..."
While happily feasting on the four men's loot, Lin En suddenly became overjoyed and pulled a bloodstained ring off the Scar-faced Big Man's finger.
After casually wiping it on the big man's clothes, Lin En slipped it onto his own finger.
It was a small Storage Soul Tool with five cubic meters of space. Although its storage capacity was tiny, its price was by no means low.
At a Heaven Dou auction, it could fetch several thousand Gold Soul Coins.
"What a haul! A man won't get rich without windfalls, and a horse won't grow fat without night fodder. What a feast!"
Lin En raised his hand, happily admiring his newest spoils.
Admittedly, this time he had been engaging in something of an entrapment operation.
But the process did not matter. Since they had chosen to attack him, he had nothing to feel burdened about.
Human desire was like a boulder rolling down a mountain: once it began, it could not stop. If you kept walking along the river, how could your shoes never get wet?
Once someone grew accustomed to the business of killing, who would willingly stop?
The Scar-faced Big Man's team was clearly just such a group.
Completing missions came second. More importantly, they kept tricking people into joining their Mercenary Corps, then, after entering the Star Dou Great Forest, used missions as a pretext to lure those people in, kill them, and plunder their gold, silver, and jewels.
For the townspeople who licked blood from knife edges in places like the Star Dou Great Forest and crawled out of heaps of corpses, such people were a common sight.
Where people died, flies and curs swarmed thickest. They crouched greedily over piles of corpses, sucking blood and luring one person after another into the abyss.
By taking care of them himself, he had also spared others from their depredations.
"All done. Next!"
After gathering the four men's money and valuables, Lin En put them into his Storage Ring, then happily turned and left.
The four corpses would soon be torn apart by the forest's soul beasts. Dust to dust, earth to earth.
Over the next few days, Lin En kept searching the town for suitable targets.
With Spirit Hall keeping them in check, Mercenary Corps that lured people into the Star Dou Great Forest to kill them were in the minority, but that did not mean there were none.
For three days, Lin En pretended to be an innocent little lamb, joining those evil Mercenary Corps to conduct his entrapment operations.
Faced with such blatant temptation, how could these soul masters, steeped in wickedness, possibly resist? One after another, they bared their butcher's knives.
And then... there was no "then"!
Dust to dust, earth to earth-another tally added to the Star Dou Great Forest's record.
Later, someone leaked the news.
Lin En's title of "Mercenary Killer" spread like wildfire. Now, people from the Mercenary Corps took detours whenever they saw him, not daring to invite trouble by having him join their teams.
Even the Mercenary Corps that had intended to swindle outsiders behaved themselves these days, afraid of being targeted.
Lin En felt utterly helpless about this and seethed inwardly.
Which bastard who deserves a thousand cuts leaked my information? I'll fucking hack you to death! Now I don't even have a chance to get rich!
"Forget it. I've earned enough money. It's time to look for my fourth soul ring."
Lin En shook his head. These past few days, he had feasted on fat fish until his bowls and pots overflowed. Mercenary soul masters lived with their lives tucked into their waistbands, carrying all their valuable treasures on them.
Every so often, they would drop some coins. He had done this entirely to punish the wicked, root out evil, and uphold goodness.
Definitely not for the Gold Soul Coins or valuable equipment.
After all, Tang Buddha was the one who killed and burned. What did that have to do with me, Heavenly Venerable Lin, who saved the suffering and delivered the distressed?
Two months later.
The clear night was free of dust, the moonlight silver.
Within the Star Dou Great Forest, more than a dozen dark figures sped through the woods, pursuing a lone dark figure ahead.
"Oh? Interesting!"
Up in the crown of an ancient, towering tree, Lin En lounged lazily with one leg stretched out and the other dangling, a blade of Blue Silver Grass between his lips as he watched the chase below with interest.
The figure at the very front darted swiftly between the trees, while more than a dozen soul masters in black clothes and black face coverings followed close behind him.
"After her! Don't let her get away!"
"Our lord has given the order. She must not leave this place tonight!"
The leader barked in a low voice, the fluctuations of soul power around him abruptly rising several times in succession. The dark figures behind him also erupted with powerful fluctuations of soul power.
This was unmistakably a pursuit by enemies intent on killing!
"Interesting, interesting. Business has arrived!"
Lin En's face lit up with delight. Then he turned his gaze toward the fleeing soul master at the very front...
No, his client!
She was a girl who looked no more than twelve or thirteen, with long black hair spilling down behind her head. As she fled, her once beautiful black hair had become soaked with sweat and clung tightly to her face.
Although she was somewhat indistinct in the darkness, judging by her figure and skin, one could probably infer that she was a beauty.
There was also a wound the size of a bowl's mouth on her shoulder, constantly seeping blood.
Her movements were exceptionally light as she flitted through the forest like a spirit cat. Her long legs were strong and agile, and she knew how to use the forest's complicated terrain to shake off her pursuers.
"Sageross, let's go!"
The next instant, Lin En released Sageross, whose size now completely surpassed his own.
Crystalline wing blades had grown from his back in a radiating pattern. Clear and translucent, shaped like shards of ice, they gave off a powerful sense of intimidation.
"Sa-"
Sageross crouched down. After taking Lin En onto his back, he spread his wings like a demon god descending from the heavens!
As time passed, the girl's stamina gradually bottomed out, and the pursuers behind her closed in step by step.
In just a few breaths, the distance between the two sides shrank considerably.
"Third Young Miss, stop running. Be good and accept your death. This day next year will be the anniversary of your death!"
As a savage grin spread across his face, his soul rings suddenly blazed, and a sharp blade sliced through the sky, heading straight for the girl.
(AI, just read it. Don't pay too much attention to the details (*^▽^*))
Before you continue