Lars unnatural expression returned to normal as a cold light flashed within his eyes.
A wise guardian once told him, "Live long enough, and you'll see everything this world has to show you".
Currently, Lars couldn't help but agree. Even a fool would be able to discern the little girl's true purpose after hearing her thoughts.
The little Loli, completely unaware that her thoughts had sold her out, continued to stare at him unblinkingly.
'PAKH'
Her vision suddenly went black as a strong wind assaulted her face before coming in contact with something firm.
Followed by a shrill scream, the little girl's legs broke free from the forces of gravity as she was sent flying.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" A painful shriek escaped her mouth, which enveloped the whole street. Everyone in the vicinity froze as their heads turned towards the scene.
BANG! CRACK! CRACK!
The Loli crashed against a wall. Everyone present could clearly hear bones breaking.
"What is going on?" One of the nearby passersby said. "Who's starting a fight?"
Their eyes alternated between the silhouette of a handsome young man who had half his arm stretched out in a swinging motion and a young girl who looked barely twelve years of age.
Looking at the face of the young girl, their faces paled noticeably, and the majority took in a sharp breath.
"Hiss!"
Ruthless! Truly too ruthless. The dust cleared up slightly, revealing the face of the girl in full view. Half of her face was straight up bloody.
The outer layer of skin peeled off and what was left was tissue fibers and blood pouring out of her right cheek. Her eye socket was badly damaged and anyone could tell that she wouldn't be able to see from that eye again.
In simple words, she had been scarred for life. A ruthless move indeed.
"....... What the hell? How can you be so hard handed? And on a little..... wait, where did he…"
A young woman spoke out from the crowd, slightly agitated. Her eyes were filled with righteous indignation as she swept her gaze in Lars direction, only to have her words stuck to the back of her throat.
Her expression changed to one of confusion as question marks appeared above her head. Did he just..... disappear?
Lars was no longer standing in his previous position. He would definitely not stand and wait to argue with those self-righteous, attention-seeking fools in the crowd who didn't have a clear grasp of the situation.
As soon as he slapped the conniving girl, he walked into the inn to book a room for his rest.
As for the thoughts of the passersby, Larson was indifferent to them. The bone structure of the girl was absolutely not one of a twelve-year-old. With an in-depth look, Larson was able to tell that although she looked young, her real age was nothing less than 40 years of age.
She was nothing more than a scammer, but how could the normal people know this? Not even a cultivator could determine the bone age of others with plain eyesight.
He had already shown enough mercy by withholding his strength and only decimating half of her face.
If not, his single slap was more than enough to kill her. He didn't have the time, nor the energy, to prove his innocence to people he didn't give a rats ass about.
Of course, that didn't mean that he was going to let this slide. He was just too lazy to deal with it for now.
The value of a gold coin was worth a lot, even in such an expensive inn. With a single coin, he booked a room of the best quality as well as several services, grabbed his new keys and went up to his room for the night.
An hour later, Larson stood by the inn window watching the people coming and going on the street in the evening. It was already getting late and there weren't much people who roamed around anymore.
Almost all the stalls had closed, and whatever shops were still open had already begun packing up for the day.
The night was chaotic and apart from getting some rest, these businessmen, and women needed to calculate their daily profit.
Nevertheless, there were still some establishments that would remain open for a very long time.
The night house of the city was still very active, while this time of night was the preferred period for gangs and cult activities to come alive.
Theft, robbery, fights..... Larson saw a particular high intensity battle happening a long-distance away from the hotel.
Both fighters were Gene forging warriors, but their levels of tempering weren't high. That was to be expected, as fights at the level of Qi Spirit realm would easily attract the attention of the guards.
Larson looked far off into the distance. The city lord's mansion at the center of the city's inner district could easily be seen by him from here.
His indifferent expression hadn't changed since he walked into this hotel. For someone like him, there was little in this city that could catch his interest.
"Soul Records" he muttered almost inaudibly and the familiar series of info appeared.
[Larson
Race: Human/ ??????
Cultivation: Gene forging 100% (Completion)
(Transcendent Grade Bloodline Essence Qi)
Bloodline Gene Potential: Imperial Tier (71%)
Strength: 21/ Agility: 3/ Stamina 18/ Constitution: 101/ Providence: 89/ Mana Qi: 0
Affiliated workers; Tian Long (Dao Blessed) (Providence: 1.0)
Soul Orbs: 123,741]
"Hmm! There really was a change". Larson said with surprise. He hadn't checked his status since he woke up, and now that he did, he noticed that the innate talents section was gone.
As for why it happened, he didn't have any speculations or the slightest clue. His abilities were still there though, as he could feel them and use them as he wished, just like before.
Therefore, he didn't have any anxious feelings upon discovering the changes.
Larson looked at the new row of info that apparently showed his physical stats. This came as a surprise. What surprised him the most was that his physical constitution was the highest of all of them.
Even his second-highest stat, strength, was four times lower while he naturally didn't include providence as he was familiar with it.
As for the strength and effectiveness each attribute actually represented, he wasn't sure.
Was 101 points considered powerful or just ok? Well, judging from his perspective, it was probably pretty overpowered in the Outlands. As for how strong it was compared to higher regions, he wasn't sure.
The other change was the increase in his Soul Orbs. Looks like Tian Long was working hard.
Larson's eyes brightened considerably. For him, he could never get enough soul orbs and any extra was deeply appreciated.
"Speaking of which, I wonder what my exclusive soul orb generator was up to today?"
Larson's eyes flashed, and the blue pupils within them glowed. Of course, this time he wasn't shooting lasers.
Several images appeared in his mind as he easily formed a mental connection. White most surged and soon, images of a certain group appeared before him.
Who else would it be besides Tian Long and his two female companions? The scenes replayed starting from the moment he saved the trio from the Yang family back in Roca kingdom.
Not only did he see the scene both from Tian Long's perspective and a third person's standpoint, he could also hear the latter's thoughts and feel his emotions.
This was akin to being stripped naked in Larson's eyes.
Not long after he left, the group quickly escaped from that area into the dense forest. With Mei Ling and Rou'er supporting his body, they quickly moved as far away as possible from Wind moon town.
Determining their current location from local landmarks, Mei Ling led them on foot towards the closest place she could remember.
There was a city not too far away from Moon wind town. If one used horses, then they would be able to reach the city before nightfall if they left at noon.
Sadly, that wasn't the case for them. So, they could only aim to reach a village with a population even smaller than where they came from, hoping to rest for the night.
Even for high-level cultivators, they wouldn't dare to think of sleeping in the forest at night if they could avoid it.
However, it seemed like Lady luck was working against them today.
Along with the change of images, only two kilometers away from their destination, they were unlucky enough to run into a pack of beasts in the Dantian Origin Phase.
Their Leader was even stronger at the first level Qi Spirit realm. The leader stood unmoving, allowing its subordinates to attack the trio.
At that time, right when the group had fallen into complete despair.
Tian Long's luck value decreased by 0.1 points.
Larson raised an eyebrow in amusement. He had already noticed that Tian Long's luck value was lower than before.
The whole scene was like a well-made movie to him and truth be told, it was enjoyable.
The images changed yet again as the imminent peril approaching the trio was thwarted. At that moment, a sharp whistle similar to the air getting torn in half sounded as several blades screeched through the air.
[Scene change]
Tian Long gritted his teeth and cursed angrily. Looking at the pack of Direwolves surrounding them and then at his heavily injured self, he couldn't help but feel that lately, things had gone downhill for him.
Due to the incident with the Yang family earlier, he hadn't even recovered from his injuries. With no time to recuperate, he had yet again found himself in a sticky situation.
Direwolves weren't easy to deal with. In fact, it was well known that cultivators were normally no match for beasts of the same level unless the former had combat strength far greater than normal.
At most, a cultivator with ordinary martial skills and common essence blood Qi would barely be able to fight a monster with common essence solo.
That example was already too much of a stretch.
Now that he had encountered beasts that move in a pack, he was done for in his current state. Tian Long once again felt despair in the same day.
His emotions were more turbulent that it was the time he fell off that cliff and obtained the mysterious 'Soul Records' by chance.
He thought his life had finally reached the pivotal point that day and his luck was finally turning around.
The beast's pounced on them. Tian Long didn't have the power to react or even put up a slight resistance. As for the two girls, one was in the Dantian Origin Phase with almost zero battle experience when facing beasts.
She had already frozen in fear as soon as they were surrounded. While the other was equally scared out of her wits.
Even if she wasn't, she was only in the gene forging realm and was useless in this situation.
At that moment, Tian Long seemed to feel something. However, the feeling was very vague and faint. Almost like it never happened, causing him to forget immediately.
A gray dust fell from the sky, like a drizzle, and spread all over the area. Before the trio could realize it, it was too late.
They unknowingly inhaled the dust powder, which went into their lungs and affected their bodies. Their movements slowed down considerably and became sluggish, causing them to fall down as a result of paralysis.
However, the dust didn't only influence them, as the Direwolves inhaled the powder as well. A ghastly smell assaulted their senses and spread through their bodies just as fast.
The wolves all fell to the floor instantly. Even the one in the Qi Spirit realm, the wolf pack leader, wasn't spared and suffered the same fate.
Tian Long who had managed to recover a tiny bit of his Mana Qi in the last few hours hurriedly circulated it to resist the invasion.
His face was as black as the bottom of a frying pan, and his lips twitched slightly. He was just complaining about his bad luck, and here it struck again.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH
A dozen blades suddenly flew out from the forest.
They looked like throwing ninja stars, or shurikens used by assassins. Without any delay, they flew forward and pierced through the heads of the spirit beasts, killing them instantly.
Tian Long was dumbstruck.
What..... What the hell was happening?
The leaves on the treetops rustled, and his ears caught the movement. Several figures jumped down from the top of the trees, thanks to their Qi, they landed softly next to the corpses, making little to no noise.
The group of people landing near the bodies of the spirit beasts varied in ages and genders. There were six males and three females.
Their males looked old as two of them looked to be in their mid-thirties while the last was a comically old man. Each of them carried either a curved katana sword sheathed at their waists.
However, the female at the middle was an exception, as she carried a zither on her slender and graceful back.
Tian Long felt his eyes widen at the sight. This lady truly was a beauty. However, he was instantly put on alert the moment his eyes came into contact with them.
All of them, the leading female in no way an exception, had a terrifying energy around them which caused his paralyzed back to be soaked in sweat.
Each one of these people were definitely warriors above his level. Even the young female, who looked to be about his age.
"What the fuck? Why am I suddenly meeting young monsters with higher cultivation bases today"? Tian Long exclaimed inwardly.
"Uncle Luo, what do we do with these three. Since they've inhaled the powder, should we just kill them".
One of the young men who looked to be in his thirties asked. His eyes held zero emotion whatsoever as he briefly glanced at Tian Long and his companions.
Mei Ling and Rou'er paled slightly. They had just escaped death at the hands of the wolves, and now they might die yet again at these people's hands.
Tian Long clenched his fists tightly. He hated his weakness currently leaving him at the mercy of others.
"Well, killing them would be the easier thing to do. However, killing leaves tracks and disposing of them takes time. Time, which we don't have".
The old man said. Hidden away from Tian Long's gaze was a heavy wound on his shoulder, which had been bandaged not long ago.
He asked in a soft voice. "Xia, what do you think we should do with them?"
The one he was asking was the youngest among them. Her face looked a little pale, and she looked at the trio for a moment before shaking her head.
"Uncle Luo is right. We don't have time to waste on killing them. We have bigger things to worry about, plus they were just unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not to mention, the young man is heavily injured. They are no threat to us".
The female said.
Uncle Luo couldn't help but sigh slightly. This little miss of his..... He didn't think any further and took out a pouch full of dust.
He took out a handful, walked towards Tian Long and spread the dust around them.
"This is the antidote, so inhale it well. If you don't, your innards would slowly be corroded before turning to mush, leaving you to die in pain and agony. In this incident, you can only be considered unfortunate, but the paralysis effect should wear off in a few minutes depending on your cultivation bases".
Tian Long was on the brink of tears. The old man was right, his luck was truly not too good. However, he was already lucky enough to escape this place unharmed.
Now all he had to do was wait for the effects to wear off. That is, assuming a beast doesn't pass by first and eat them.
The group of nine didn't stay any longer. They carried the bodies of the Direwolves and gradually faded into the forest.
Tian Long watched their retreating backs with mixed emotions. He felt anger, resentment, and helplessness within him.
However, a blazing fire within him seemed to burn brighter as it turned those emotions into fuel for his goal. Strength! Acquire more strength!
Only then would you be able to decide your fate for yourself. Nevertheless, he felt a little helpless.
It had to be said that for the past week, all the situations and circumstances he had encountered seemed to be working against him.
This wasn't how things were before. Everything had usually gone smoothly for him before, to the point where he could escape death at the last moment.
He felt like he had suddenly turned unlucky or his luck wasn't working for him anymore.
This caused a bout of confusion to appear in his mind. Lars who was watching the playback of everything, however, knew the reason for all of this.
Of course, he was also partially the reason for it.
Tian Long's luck was exhausted.