157: Instead

“Pfft pfft…”

Hatties and the others dismounted.

Half of the Black Flame Death Soldiers stayed outside on guard, while the other half followed Hatties, silently walking into the large residence.

As soon as they stepped into the courtyard, a complex and nauseating smell assailed them.

The air was filled with the stench of urine and feces, the sour smell of sweat, and a strange, sweet, and sickly odor of flesh corroded by strong acid.

Faint moans and wails drifted from the dark corners all around.

“Guests, are you? Welcome, welcome!”

In front of the large cauldron, the burly, bearded man with a face full of flesh broke into a wide smile.

“Please wait a moment.”

“Once I finish this pot of potion, I’ll come to entertain you!”

The Black Flame Death Soldiers, upon seeing the cages wrapped in iron thorns and the not-yet-fully-dissolved human remains in the large cauldron in the center of the courtyard, showed subtle fluctuations in their aura.

Hatties, however, remained silent.

He leaned on his cane and walked directly to the large cauldron, silently watching the bearded man’s operation along with the Death Soldiers behind him.

“Are you a Potion Master?” Hatties suddenly asked, his voice hoarse as if two pieces of sandpaper were rubbing together.

“Ah, the guest is discerning.” The bearded man’s smile widened.

“I am indeed a Potion Master. So, does the guest intend to purchase some potions?”

Hatties did not answer.

The bearded man didn't mind and continued to stir the viscous blue liquid in the pot with a thick wooden stick.

Soon, all the human tissue in the pot completely dissolved, turning into a bubbling, eerie potion.

The bursting bubbles resembled distorted, suffering human faces.

“Alright, now we just wait for it to cool.”

The bearded man smiled contentedly, then turned to look at Hatties and the others.

“This guest, this is not the place to talk. Please follow me!”

The bearded man turned and walked towards the main house.

Hatties followed him, along with four Black Flame Death Soldiers, while the others remained in the courtyard.

They silently passed through the room where naked women hung, and entered a deeper part of the building, a dim study.

Most of the items here had been moved out, leaving only rows of bookshelves filled with bottles and jars of various colors.

“What do you intend to buy, guest?” the bearded man asked, sitting down grandly.

“Extraordinary Bloodline,” Hatties said hoarsely.

“How much do you want?”

“As much as you have, I want.”

“I need a long-term supply channel.”

“Is that so?”

The bearded man slowly extended his hand after hearing this.

“Guest, where is your seal?”

Hatties was silent for a moment.

“What seal?”

Upon hearing this, a flicker of understanding passed through the bearded man's eyes.

“So the guest doesn't have a seal. Then how did you find your way here?”

Hatties said, “Must one have a seal to trade? We can provide various resources, and you can name your price.”

“Hahahaha… that’s also possible,” the bearded man burst into laughter.

“Then…” The bearded man extended five thick fingers.

“How about you leave five people for us to extract Bloodline?”

“It seems,” Hatties’s single eye beneath his mask showed no emotional fluctuation, “we won’t be doing business.”

“Heh heh, business won’t be done,” the bearded man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

“But the goods have delivered themselves to my doorstep.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the Merchant Guild members who had been playing around the room had, at some point, surrounded them, each with an ill-intentioned smile on their faces.

“Don’t you feel soft and weak all over?” the bearded man proudly slapped the table.

“This place was already dosed with my special voodoo potion.”

“After all this time, the potion should have taken effect by now.”

“Is this how you treat guests?” Hatties asked expressionlessly, his voice very calm.

“Heh heh heh, not exactly.”

“But you don’t have the Revolutionary Army’s seal, nor were you introduced by a middleman, you just stumbled in here yourselves.”

“Either you’re lackeys of those Bloodline nobles, or you’re fools who got information from who knows where…”

The bearded man stood up, his gaze greedily sweeping over the Black Flame Death Soldiers.

“Let me see, one, two, three, four…”

“So many Bloodline Knights, they can fetch a good price.”

“But it’s a pity.” The bearded man turned his gaze to Hatties, his eyes lingering on his severed arm and empty pant leg.

“You’re a cripple, your price…”

Boom!!!

The entire room was instantly filled with a terrifyingly powerful Qi.

Wooden doors, wooden windows, tables, and chairs—everything exploded outwards!

It was as if a high-explosive bomb had been detonated in the room!

The Merchant Guild members who had gathered around the room were all blown away by this terrifying explosion, screaming as they fell outwards…

However, these fragments and bodies flying outwards slowed down, becoming slower and slower in the air, as if solidified mid-air.

Then, boom!!!

Everything suddenly rolled back towards the center of the explosion, forming a dark Qi vortex.

The bodies caught in the wind were violently compressed inwards, instantly turning into broken, twisted chunks of flesh, completely pulverized in the fierce wind.

And in the center of the vortex, Hatties floated mid-air, one hand gripping the bearded man’s skull, lifting him clean off the ground.

“You said…” Behind him, a terrifying humanoid figure composed of countless dark spirals shimmered into existence, emitting a deep and oppressive roar.

“Who is… a cripple?”

“How could this be…” The bearded man’s face was filled with horror, his eyes wide with disbelief.

“Impossible… you clearly fell for my voodoo…” He suddenly reacted, roaring, “Don’t kill me! All your companions have been poisoned by me; without my antidote, they will all die!”

However, the rampaging vortex continuously sucked in and shredded the surrounding building fragments, and the entire house had completely collapsed, revealing the scene in the courtyard outside.

In the courtyard, figures wearing black spiral masks stood scattered at various heights.

Spiral-shaped dark flames burned on all of them.

And at their feet lay twisted, unrecognizable corpses.

“This… how is this possible…” The bearded man’s face instantly went blank, unable to utter a single word.

“Blood Extraction…”

“Soul Seizing!” Hatties uttered four low words, gripping the bearded man’s skull.

The next moment, strange dark-red Context spread wildly from the bearded man’s body, converging into Hatties’s hand.

The bearded man convulsed violently, his eyes rolled back, foam frothed at his mouth, and the flesh on his body withered at a visible rate.

Whoosh… The vortex swirling around Hatties gradually subsided, and the terrifying spiral humanoid behind him slowly faded from view.

He landed on the ground, casually dropping the now extremely shriveled corpse from his hand.

Pfft!

The corpse hit the ground, instantly turning into a puddle of black dust.

“Revolutionary Army…”

“Bloodline trade…”

“Two Families in Oak Tree Territory have changed…”

Hatties stood in place, closing his eyes in thought for a moment.

This was his first time using the Soul Searching method from the True Spirit Blood Fusion Secret Method.

This Soul Searching method was different from normal Divine Soul scavenging; it forcibly extracted all memories from the human body by scavenging the Bloodline.

The process was extremely bloody and cruel, and Hatties had never used it before.

But this time, its use yielded him a lot of useful information.

“Are there any other survivors?” he asked, looking at the messy scene around him.

Whoosh… A Black Flame Death Soldier flashed, landing by the piled iron cages.

He checked the Qi of the people in the cages, then turned and replied, “Leader, they have been too heavily corrupted by the poisonous Qi; they are beyond saving.”

“Mm,” Hatties responded softly.

“Clean this place up.”

“We need to go take a look at the two Families of Oak Tree Territory.” He slowly walked to the center of the courtyard, saying hoarsely, “From now on, we are the Blood Thorns Merchant Guild.”