Misbehaving and in Need of Discipline

Who could get by in this world without friends?

Everyone who could attend the auction was wealthy, with a net worth of at least tens of billions, so their friends naturally wouldn't be poor either.

Though it cost him something, Du Ke finally managed to raise the full amount within half an hour.

Once Ulysses had received the money, his attitude toward Du Ke immediately returned to normal. He even thoughtfully helped him load the Azure Dragon's and the Nine-Tailed Fox's cages onto the hovercar before leaving.

Du Ke looked at the aberrant mutated from his enemy and the one that had landed him in enormous debt. The resentment lodged in his chest refused to subside.

But both were aberrants mutated from high-level sentinels, and they were powerful. The Nine-Tailed Fox could even bewitch people with its eyes.

He didn't dare open the cages somewhere without protective measures, so he climbed into the car, seething.

But just then, Xin Lan, who should have left long ago, suddenly emerged from an alley.

The moment Du Ke saw her, he jumped straight out of the hovercar in a rage.

"You bitch! It's you? It really is you? Hahaha, heaven never seals off all escape! I was just wondering where to find you, and here you are, delivering yourself to my door."

With a vicious grin, he swung a punch at Xin Lan, the force of it whipping up a gust of wind.

A full-force attack from an SS-rank sentinel was no easy thing to block.

He was certain he could kill Xin Lan in a single blow, because she was slender and looked nothing like a high-level sentinel.

But just as his fist was about to smash into her face, it abruptly stopped.

Immediately afterward, he lost all five senses. He could see and hear nothing, as if he had stepped into empty air and suddenly fallen into a void.

There was nothing here. All he could hear was a soft chuckle that seemed to come from the heavens, leaving him unable to tell which direction it came from or distinguish reality from illusion.

"Good boy, don't be so angry. It's bad for your health."

The corners of Xin Lan's mouth curled slightly beneath her mask, and a rare trace of amusement appeared in her usually expressionless eyes.

"Be good. Erase the iris authentication on your hovercar and give it to me, and I'll reward you with a simple Mental Purification. It's a precious opportunity you couldn't get even if you tried to book one. Go on."

As soon as she finished speaking, the venomous look vanished from Du Ke's face. Like a man in a trance, he obediently walked over to the hovercar and erased his iris authentication, then bent over and gestured for her to enter.

Xin Lan walked over at an unhurried pace and registered her authentication with the hovercar. The smile in her eyes grew wider.

"Good boy. I hope I run into you again at the next auction."

She easily entered Du Ke's Mental Landscape and purified it by five percentage points, then heartlessly left him behind, started the hovercar, and flew away.

The rare auction items he had gone deeply into debt to buy were still in the car.

Five minutes later, Du Ke gradually regained consciousness as he lay in the alley.

He sat up and instinctively wanted to rub his temples, but somehow, the headache that had followed him like a shadow every day had suddenly vanished.

He was utterly bewildered, and it took him a while to remember what had happened.

Right, where was that damned bitch?

Where had she gone? Had she knocked him out and dumped him here?

Du Ke scrambled to his feet and looked for his hovercar.

But where was the hovercar?

There wasn't even a gnat in sight!

"Fuck! Who the hell stole my car?!"

Where had his enormous hovercar gone?

Once a hovercar was registered, no one but its owner could drive it away. Who could possibly have been capable enough to erase his iris authentication?

And stealing the car was bad enough, but it also held two auction items worth over a hundred billion star coins!

Who could be so immoral? They had taken everything! They were utterly inhuman!

Boo-hoo-hoo!

Du Ke stood helplessly at the mouth of the alley. He had never cried when pollutants and aberrants beat him to the brink of death, but now he sobbed as miserably as if both his parents had just died.

Xin Lan had originally only intended to buy any fully mutated aberrant to practice on and see whether her spiritual power could purify it.

She hadn't expected such a rich haul today. Not only had she gotten an Azure Dragon for free, but a bewitching nine-tailed demon fox had come as a bonus.

As satisfying as it was, one of the aberrants had a sensitive identity, while the other was too dangerous. Neither was suitable to take back to the Sanctuary, and Mo Xiao and the others certainly couldn't discover them.

So Xin Lan flew aimlessly through the air for a long while before finally deciding to find a place to hide them.

After all, she still wasn't sure whether she could purify aberrants. Success would naturally be good, and her future path to supremacy would have far fewer dangers and obstacles. But if she couldn't, she could deal with them outside, sparing innocent people from being hurt in an accident.

She didn't want to hurt a single one of her future subjects.

Especially since most of those subjects were so easy on the eyes.

After flying for over half an hour, Xin Lan found a dilapidated, abandoned residential district.

There had probably been pollutants or aberrants here; the rundown houses bore many old bloodstains and traces of fighting.

Hovering in midair, she spread out her spiritual power to investigate. Once she confirmed that there really were no people or pollutants here, she went straight down, found the cleanest-looking house, and got them inside.

She had to admit, those two things were enormous, and incredibly heavy.

She couldn't carry them, so she had to let them out and use her spiritual power to make them walk in themselves.

The Azure Dragon was obedient enough, but the nine-tailed demon fox was extremely prideful. Not only did it refuse to budge, but it also nearly broke free of her control several times, trying to turn on her.

Xin Lan was very displeased. She promptly kicked its flawless white backside, sending it straight inside.

"Whimper, whimper~"

The Nine-Tailed Fox felt deeply aggrieved when it discovered its fur had gotten dirty. As soon as it entered the house, it lay down, wagged its tails, and whimpered.

Its nine large, soft white tails swayed and danced in the dark, silent living room. Its alluring orange-red fox eyes also seemed to release their bewitching power at all times. They looked dewy, making it easy to take pity on it.

But Xin Lan had no heart.

Besides, she wasn't all that taken with fluffy creatures in the first place.

So she watched it expressionlessly for a while. Once she found that its bewitchment really had little effect on her, she went over and kicked it again.

This time, her foot landed squarely on the fox's face.

And she used her full strength without mercy.

"Yip!"

The Nine-Tailed Fox was horrified, its eyes going wide. It seemed unable to comprehend the human's behavior, or perhaps it was too shocked to believe it.

Soon, its cries changed. It stopped whimpering and acting cute, and its voice became melodious, ethereal, and mysterious, making one want to draw near, even live and die for it and devote everything to it.

But when those thoughts traveled from the fox into Xin Lan's mind, all she felt was an urge to laugh.

No one but herself was worth her giving everything for.

And even if someone wanted to give her everything they had, she would still have to consider whether she wanted it, rather than accepting just anything.

This demon fox was misbehaving.

It needed discipline.

The Nine-Tailed Fox didn't know that the human before it hadn't been affected by its bewitchment at all.

It slowly rose and approached her, its nine tails swaying more and more slowly behind it. But each tail was rapidly growing longer, and before long they had extended to nearly twice their original length. All of them reached forward, as though it meant to surround her with them and then slowly savor its meal.

At last, its enchanting fox eyes narrowed to slits. Dropping the act, it opened a mouth full of long, sharp fangs and lunged at Xin Lan.

"Idiot."

Xin Lan looked at it coldly and kicked it in the face again.

At the same time, a gigantic dark-blue vine appeared out of thin air and instantly wound itself tightly around the Nine-Tailed Fox with crushing force, turning it into a white rice dumpling with a dusty footprint across its face.

"Whimper, whimper-"

Defeated in an instant, the Nine-Tailed Fox immediately recognized the situation and changed tactics, going back to whimpering and acting cute.

This time, it genuinely wanted forgiveness.

Given the difference in their strength, its only way to avoid being killed was to submit and beg for mercy.

Seeing it roll around on the floor and fawn so ingratiatingly, Xin Lan was just about to kick it when the Azure Dragon, which had been quiet as could be beside them, suddenly bared its teeth and forcefully snorted two streams of hot air from its nostrils.

Xin Lan: ?

Nine-Tailed Fox: ??