337: Chapter 338 Violent Soul Search! Using a Top-Tier Butler as Bait

When Instructor Su Qing stepped out from the barrier, she had already changed into her combat suit.

A full-black skin-tight suit, lightweight and non-restrictive. A dagger was tucked behind her waist, and her left hand held a standard short sword borrowed from the Federation armory.

Two blades, one long and one short.

This was her standard equipment back when she was a Shadow Dancer.

Zhang Wei, wearing exoskeleton armor, followed behind her. He held a portable terminal, its screen displaying a bookkeeping software.

"Sister Su, Seven said how do we count the live ones? By head or by Rank?"

"By value." Instructor Su Qing glanced at the cultists kneeling in a mass. "Those who can provide intelligence are valuable; those who can't are just consumables."

"Then how do I record the consumables?"

"Write down 'organic fertilizer'."

"...Fine."

Lin Qi had already shifted his attention away from the hundred and fifty small fry. There were still three main courses before him.

Eye of the Abyss was already broken. Without a Law medium, he was just a bleeding blind man. He couldn't even stand up.

Bone Crown's knees were broken, and half of his bone armor was shattered. But he could still move. Relying on his residual bone regeneration ability, he was trying to crawl up from the ground.

Ashes was locked in place, his mouth sealed, his expression contorted.

Lin Qi first walked over to Bone Crown.

"You're a melee type." He squatted down, looking levelly at Bone Crown's face, which was mostly covered by bone armor. "You rely purely on physical hardness and strength to make a living, right?"

Bone Crown didn't speak.

He was gathering power.

On his right arm, the remaining bone armor was growing frantically. New bone spikes sprouted from the shattered edges, one after another.

He was gambling.

Gambling that at a close enough distance, he could pierce this man's chest with these bone spikes.

Lin Qi looked at the growing bone spikes on his right arm and shook his head.

"Don't struggle."

"That regeneration ability of yours is driven by Law Circuits at its base. Three of the Law Circuits in your body already snapped when I kicked your knees."

"The bone spikes you can grow now only have twenty percent of their original hardness."

"If they hit me, it's you who will shatter."

Bone Crown's movements paused for a moment.

He was hesitating.

It wasn't because of what Lin Qi said—he didn't believe an outsider could see through the Law Circuits in his body—but because he indeed felt that the newly grown bone spikes were a bit off.

Too light.

The original bone armor had a heavy, metallic texture, but these new ones felt like foam.

"What exactly did you do?" Bone Crown finally spoke.

"I kicked you once." Lin Qi stood up. "That kick contained three wisps of Dao Source, which sealed three nodes on your regeneration circuit."

"You can think of it as—I turned off your router."

Bone Crown didn't know what a router was.

But he understood his predicament.

"Just kill me."

"No rush." Lin Qi turned and walked toward Ashes.

The irritability in Ashes' eyes was gone. In its place was something very complex.

Fear, resentment, and a little bit of confusion.

He wanted to ask many things.

For instance, where this young man came from. Why his power wasn't within the System's scope of knowledge. Why the 'Law System' the Church had researched for so many years seemed like it was made of paper before him.

But his mouth was sealed; he couldn't say anything.

Lin Qi walked up to him and sized him up for two seconds.

"Ashes, right?"

Ashes let out a hum from his nose.

"That ability of yours to rewrite Fire Laws is a decent path."

Lin Qi circled halfway around him.

"It's just that your vision is too narrow. What kind of Law mastery is just raising the temperature? You should rewrite the Second Law of Thermodynamics itself—directly stop the increase of entropy. That's how you play big."

Ashes didn't quite understand. But he knew this person was evaluating him.

In the tone of a teacher evaluating a student.

"What a pity." Lin Qi stopped. "Your Church's training System is too crude. Law Controllers should have more potential, but under their management, you've all become nothing more than lighters that can only start fires."

He didn't have much killing intent toward Ashes.

Frankly speaking, these three deacons felt to him like three students with good Aptitude who had been taught incorrectly.

Unfortunately, the teacher who taught them was a cult leader.

"Soul Search."

Lin Qi extended his index finger and pressed it against Ashes' forehead.

Ashes' body suddenly stiffened.

Soul searching wasn't mind reading. It was far more violent.

Lin Qi's Dao Source directly invaded the depths of Ashes' consciousness, turning out all the information about the Church of Calamity in his memory in one go.

Stronghold locations, organizational structure, list of core members, the underlying logic of their belief System, the timetable for the 'Throat of Devouring Heaven' descent plan...

Ashes' brain endured an immense load during this process. His nose began to bleed, and his body trembled violently.

About thirty seconds later, Lin Qi withdrew his finger.

Ashes' head slumped to the side, and he fainted.

"The intelligence is sufficient." Lin Qi spoke into his communicator. "Chen Shu, receive it."

A massive stream of information was transmitted to Chen Shu through the encrypted channel of the formation.

"Received." Chen Shu's voice was calm. "Analyzing now. Classification and organization are expected to be completed within an hour."

"Highlight three things." Lin Qi said. "First, the timing of the Church's next large-scale operation. Second, the quantity and location of the law seeds they've stored. Third—"

He paused for a moment.

"The specific conditions required for the descent of the 'Throat of Devouring Heaven'."

"Understood."

The call ended.

Lin Qi looked back at the battlefield.

Instructor Su Qing had already started working. Her efficiency was high—the living cultists had their hamstrings severed by her dagger and were lined up one by one. The dead ones were dragged to the side, awaiting further processing.

Zhang Wei squatted behind Instructor Su Qing, hurriedly recording on his terminal.

"Sister Su, is this one alive or dead?"

"Check if there's a pulse."

"I'm afraid to touch him..."

"Then record him as dead."

"Wait—he seems to have moved—"

Without even looking back, Instructor Su Qing raised her blade and brought it down.

He stopped moving.

Zhang Wei obediently typed 'organic fertilizer × 1' on the screen.

Lin Qi watched this scene, then turned his head to say something to Bone Crown.

"See that? The people around me might be more unreliable than the last, but they work very efficiently."

Bone Crown did not respond.

He had already given up struggling.

"One last question for you." Lin Qi walked to his side. "In your Church, how many deacon-level members are there?"

Bone Crown was silent for a few seconds.

"Twelve."

"Including the three of you?"

"Not including us. We are Outer Deacons, mainly responsible for dirty work. The nine in the inner circle are each several times stronger than us."

"Hmm." Lin Qi nodded. "Twelve. Not too many, not too few."

He patted Bone Crown's shoulder.

It wasn't heavy, but another piece of Bone Crown's remaining bone armor shattered.

"Thanks for the cooperation."

Then he turned and walked back into the barrier.

As he passed by Ashes, he glanced back.

Ashes was still unconscious. The seal on his mouth had already automatically dissolved—after the soul search was finished, the sealing Dao Source would dissipate on its own.

"These three, don't feed them to the earth yet." He said to Instructor Su Qing. "Lock them up; they'll be useful later."

"Useful for what?"

"Fishing."

Instructor Su Qing didn't ask further.

She knew that when Lin Qi said 'fishing', what was hanging on the hook usually wasn't bait.

It was a grenade.