All three turned around simultaneously. In the corner, the black dog that had been so still it seemed dead had somehow transformed into a half-human, half-beast form about the size of a five-year-old child. A tuft of hair between its brows glowed red like a branding iron, while a strip of needle-like black bristles along its spine stood up as sharp as blades.

  It—or rather he—wore no expression on that juvenile face covered in black fur. He crouched beside Bai, both hands clutching Mimi's missing dagger in a death grip.

  Squelch.

  One stab.

  Squelch.

  Two stabs.

  Mechanically plunging the dagger again and again into Bai's lower abdomen—his dantian. Bai twitched like a dying fish, blood bubbles gurgling from his throat, and quickly fell silent.

  At the same moment, Ling felt the playing cards in her pocket grow hot. Pulling them out, she saw the eerie Joker grinning madly, the card's edges glowing faintly gold. The next second, a card squeezed out from the Joker—

  Three of Clubs.

  Ling caught the card. The club pattern on its face was slowly dissolving, twisting, reforming—until it became an image: Bai's death scene.

  The pool of blood, the collapsed body, the frozen expression—identical. There was even a half-human, half-beast silhouette in the background.

  Ling froze for a moment, murmuring: "Could this be… that old man's life card? Is this how Secretary Wang controlled his network…"

  Meanwhile, Mimi silently walked over, took off her own jacket, and wrapped it around the blood-soaked little black dog who had been stunned senseless by his own killing.

  She gently patted his back, but her gaze fell on the base of his tail—layers upon layers of old scabs and festering sores.

  Mimi's eyes instantly turned red.

  She said nothing. She simply picked up the blood-dripping dagger from the ground, expressionlessly lifted the root of evil between Bai's legs.

  One clean stroke.

  Swift and decisive castration.

  Val sighed, walked over, and rubbed Mimi's head with those big hands of his. His voice was gentle, like coaxing a child:

  "It's okay now. Let's take him back to Little Sunshine Home. He'll be alright."

  Mimi looked at the little black dog who had passed out from exhaustion in her arms. Finally, her tears fell. She nodded silently.

  Ling walked over and picked up the dagger from the pool of blood, weighing it in her hand.

  "Mimi's got good taste after all."

  Ling looked at the dark gleam flowing faintly along the blade. Ghost-Eye hadn't detected anything unusual about it earlier.

  "This thing fooled even me. Its spiritual power is completely contained, sealed inside the blade. It actually let a crippled little yao who can't even fully transform stab through a quasi-Golden Core cultivator's body."

  She casually tossed the dagger back to Mimi:

  "It really is a fine murder weapon. Guard it well."

  Ling crouched down, looking at Bai's rapidly cooling corpse, and began sighing dramatically:

  "Sigh, the guy was disgusting, sure, but this cultivation…"

  She pointed at the Core glow in Bai's abdomen that hadn't fully dissipated:

  "This is a fresh-out-of-the-oven Golden Core. Mimi, Val, you don't want it?"

  Mimi was busy wiping the little black dog's face. Hearing this, she looked up, face full of horror:

  "Huh? Sis Ling, are you crazy? You can't steal that! Consuming another's can trigger a violent backlash—at best, it leads to Qi Deviation; at worst, your body will literally explode! That's forbidden arts only demonic cultivators use!"

  "Backlash?"

  Ling scoffed:

  "Then why didn't you mention rejection when you were grabbing spirit stones earlier? Energy is energy. You extract it first—I have my ways."

  Mimi hesitated, but under Ling's encouraging gaze, she formed a hand seal. The Core, now ownerless and slowly dissipating, was drawn out. It hovered in the air, radiating an alluring golden-red glow.

  "Thanks."

  Without another word, Ling opened her mouth and swallowed the Core whole!

  "Sis Ling!!" Val and Mimi were scared out of their wits.

  The pill entered her stomach, and a surge of violent heat instantly exploded. Ling was like Shennong tasting the hundred herbs—there were many things from the Abyss she'd never seen before. Whether they were edible, she didn't know either, but… she had to try.

  Fortunately, this Core cultivated by a mortal was ultimately just highly condensed acquired essence—far less domineering and troublesome than the Court's pure divine power. Though there was some internal turbulence, Ling's expression remained unchanged. She summoned forth her soul from the depths of the Abyss—vast and terrifying as a deep-sea leviathan—and slammed it down on that rampaging energy within her.

  Like a tidal wave crushing a lone boat. The so-called imprint Bai had left in the Core was completely ground to dust and erased. Only the purest, ownerless primordial spiritual essence remained, quietly awaiting its next master.

  A moment later, Ling's throat moved.

  "Ptui."

  She opened her palm. A Golden Core appeared—shrunk considerably, but now crystal clear throughout, without a trace of impurity—radiating pure holy light.

  Ling flicked her finger lightly.

  The energy split like mercury, dividing into two smooth little orbs of light.

  She handed one to each of them, voice full of temptation:

  "Here. Artifacts are all illusions—your own cultivation is what truly matters. Don't worry, absolutely no one here will know. To 'the Heavenly Dao' you two just happened to have an 'epiphany.'"

  Val and Mimi felt that supremely pure energy. They exchanged glances—throats bobbing—but still, no one dared to be the first to eat the oyster.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Ling sighed helplessly. These two had really been turned into idiots by that old fossil Dax.

  She could only switch back into "Big Bad Wolf Grandma" mode, pointing at the little black dog in Mimi's arms, sighing:

  "Sigh, that poor little black dog. Who knows how many little yaos like him are being abused in this world… Too bad you two are so powerless. The way I see it…"

  Mimi's psychological defenses finally cracked. Looking at the puppy in her arms, she said hesitantly: "Then… can I share some with him?"

  "His body's too weak right now. Can't handle strong tonics—he'd explode." Ling patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. There are many more 'Bais' on big sis's gift list. As long as you two are strong enough, you'll soon find a safer way to help him."

  "For the child." Ling twisted the knife.

  "…Fuck it!"

  Mimi stopped hesitating, grabbed the light orb, and swallowed it in one gulp. Seeing this, Val also gritted his teeth and tossed his back.

  Both immediately felt a torrential wave of heat surge through their limbs and meridians. They quickly sat down cross-legged, circulating their respective cultivation methods to regulate their breathing.

  Ling watched with satisfaction as her two new muscle's data panels climbed steadily upward. The feeling was even better than counting cash.

  So this… was the joy of selflessly feeding and nurturing?

  "Hehe, this counts as doing a good deed, right? Maybe my Merit will also…"

  Ling opened the system panel expectantly.

  [Merit Credited: +0.02 ]

  Ling's smile froze on her face.

  "FUCK! What's this supposed to mean! One whole Golden Core gets me 0.02 ?!"

  "You trying to send off a beggar?! Is your Court exchange rate in Zimbabwean dollars?! Goddammit, you're basically forcing me to rob!"

  "Anyone who gives shit away for free from now on is a fucking moron!"

  Half an hour later.

  Val and Mimi opened their eyes one after another. Twin gleams of light flashed past, and the aura around them had settled considerably.

  Bai's lifetime of cultivation essence, combined with their previous accumulation, had caused a qualitative leap in both their abilities. This was equivalent to Ling suddenly having two quasi-Golden Core elite fighters and "moving company" accomplices by her side.

  Ling scanned their data:

  [Subject: Mimi]

  [IOP: ×10.8 (High Burst)]

  [MD: ×3.1 (Glass Cannon)]

  [Subject: Val]

  [IOP: ×5.5 (Stable Output)]

  [MD: ×12 (Tank)]

  "Not bad. Good enough."

  Ling turned to look at Bai's now-shriveled corpse, face pained as she reluctantly pulled out another Earth Escape Talisman and slapped it on his forehead.

  "Go feed the maggots at the nearby landfill. By your own logic, I'm helping you work off your karma. You should thank me."

  The talisman glowed yellow. The corpse sank silently through the floor and vanished.

  "All done? Let's go!"

  Ling waved her hand cheerfully:

  "That's a wrap! Tonight I'm treating you to hot pot! Beer! And we'll stew some bone broth for this little guy!"

  The three of them excitedly gathered their things, chatting and laughing as they escaped underground.

  However, the moment they left—the entire building's atmosphere suddenly changed. The dim hallway lights all went dark simultaneously, then switched to an eerie greenish emergency glow.

  From deep in the basement came a bone-chilling, inhuman howl. At the same moment, the hundreds of households in this building—whether arguing, cooking, or sleeping—all stopped what they were doing at the exact same second.

  They all raised their heads in unison. Unfocused pupils stared through the ceiling, gazing in the same direction. And on the Joker card in Ling's pocket, new information began to appear…

  "Hummm—"

  With a low-frequency drone of spatial compression, the air inside the previously empty warehouse entrance suddenly twisted like dough.

  Then three figures, along with a small mountain of miscellaneous items, tumbled out of thin air.

  "Ow! Val, you're stepping on my foot!"

  "Don't blame me! Was the coordinate set wrong? Why are we jammed in the doorway?"

  "Shut up! Who told you to cram those two boxes of toilet paper in at the last second? The volume definitely overflowed!"

  Ling struggled to poke her head out from between piles of gold, silver, trinkets, and toilet paper rolls. She pushed up her crooked gold-rimmed glasses, looking utterly disheveled.

  This was the price of greed.

  That Talisman's capacity was clearly marked as "500kg," but they'd crammed in two tons of goods. The result was a transmission "rollover"—everyone plus their loot got wedged inside the warehouse's roller door like sardines in a can.

  Three people and a dog were packed so tight that even turning around was impossible. They didn't dare use magic for fear of damaging a single scrap of loot. All they could do was maintain their awkward, human-pyramid pile and wait for rescue.

  Just then, familiar footsteps sounded from outside the roller door, along with Dax's exasperated nagging:

  "Hoardy Rat! Get out here!"

  Dax's voice carried a note of anger:

  "That batch of ginseng I asked you to store—why is it all moldy?! Nearly made Wynn seriously sick! Didn't I tell you to keep it temperature-controlled in the basement? Did you slack off again? Or did you swap in inferior goods and hoard the good stuff for yourself?!"

  Immediately after, a sharp, rapid voice—like someone whose tail had been stepped on—piped up from outside the door:

  "Squeak squeak! Don't go slandering me!"

  "I'm just your lookout! The contract doesn't say anything about warehouse management! The pittance you pay me each month isn't even enough for my nut budget, yet you have all these demands! This dump is so humid—how is the mold my fault?"

  "Are you ever going to give me a raise? The warehouse manager at the Wealth God Temple next door is already eating 'Nine-Turn Salary Pills'!"

  Dax was clearly in the wrong. His voice weakened:

  "Alright, alright… we'll talk about it later, when there's budget at year end… I'll find it myself, I'll find it myself, okay…"

  The sound of a key sliding into a lock.

  Dax muttered "temporary workers these days think they're royalty" while bending down to pull up the rusty iron roller door.

  "Rumble rumble—"

  The instant the roller door rose—

  The "loot flood" that Ling's team had painstakingly hauled all morning, which had been pressed against the inside of the door, finally found an outlet.

  "CRASH—!!!"

  Countless spirit stones, artifacts, and gold, mixed with boxes of daily supplies, poured out like a mudslide breaking through a dam without any warning.

  "What the f—?!"

  Dax didn't even get out a complete exclamation before being instantly buried up to his calves by this glittering torrent.

  And the pudgy figure at his feet who'd been standing with hands on hips demanding a raise—Hoardy—didn't even manage a single scream before a jumbo-sized toilet paper roll knocked him headfirst into the treasure pile. Only a fuzzy tail remained outside, twitching frantically.

  The dust settled.

  Ling sat atop the high "treasure mountain," elegantly patting dust off her dress. Val and Mimi, who was holding the little black dog, huddled behind her like children who'd done something wrong.

  Dax stood amid the pile of artifacts and loot—some he could name, some he couldn't—his face going from white to red, then from red to green.

  The veins on his forehead throbbed like earthworms, and his eye corners twitched at a rate of five times per second.

  He looked at the three of them. Eight eyes met.

  The air was dead silent.

  After a full half-minute, Dax took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed his imminent hypertension, and spoke with terrifying calm:

  "Val. Mimi."

  "Here!" The two snapped to attention in terror.

  "Go back and copy scriptures. Now. Immediately. This instant."

  "Yes!"

  The two fled as if granted amnesty—loyalty meant nothing at a time like this. Val grabbed two bags of frozen steaks, Mimi clutched the dog, and both slipped away along the wall.

  Only Ling and Dax remained in the warehouse, along with that pile of loot sufficient for a life sentence.

  But Ling didn't receive the expected explosion of rage.

  When things got big enough, getting angry no longer solved anything.

  Expressionless, Dax lifted his foot and stepped directly over a priceless jade ruyi scepter, then kicked aside the redwood tabletop blocking his path. He walked to an empty spot in the corner of the warehouse.

  He crouched down, fumbled beneath a pile of broken cardboard boxes for a moment, then pulled hard.

  "Click."

  A floor panel lifted, revealing a dark, cellar-like tunnel entrance. A stale, dry smell of earth wafted up.

  "Come down."

  Dax looked back at Ling, his expression unusually complex:

  "It's time I showed you something."

  Ling raised an eyebrow, glancing at her loot scattered across the floor with some concern: "But my stuff…"

  Dax snorted irritably, reached into the "flood," and precisely fished out a furry tail that was thrashing wildly. He yanked hard.

  "Pop!"

  A fat squirrel the size of a ball, wearing a mini work vest, was pulled out. It was still clutching a night-luminous pearl, panting heavily, face full of terror.

  "Don't worry, Hoardy will handle it." Dax tossed the squirrel onto a shelf.

  Ling eyed the creature that looked part squirrel, part hamster, her gaze narrowing dangerously:

  "It better."

  She bared her pearly white teeth and smiled at Hoardy with nuclear warmth:

  "If a single piece is missing, tonight I'm brewing mouse-head wine with you. I hear Squirrel Mandarin Fish is also a famous dish?"

  Hoardy shuddered violently. It could feel that this woman carried an aura more terrifying than any natural predator.

  "SQUEAK—!!"

  Hoardy immediately straightened up, gave a sloppy salute, then stuck two fingers in its mouth and let out a sharp whistle.

  "Fweee—!"

  The next second, countless pairs of tiny green eyes suddenly appeared from every dark corner of the warehouse.

  A dense swarm of rodents surged out like a well-trained automated logistics army. Some lifted table legs, some pushed spirit stones, some rolled toilet paper, all chanting silent work songs as they efficiently began transporting the loot on the ground to the shelves, sorting and cataloging.

  Ling nodded with satisfaction.

  "Pretty smart."

  She dusted off her hands and followed Dax into the mysterious underground entrance.

  …

  Dear Friends,

  We will see each other again next Monday

  ┃ ? [ CAUSALITY ] ? ┃

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