39: Chapter 39 The Refined Person

The man clutched his chest, staggering backward.

The young girl's short blade was buried in his heart, with only the hilt remaining visible.

Her hand remained in the position of holding the knife, her entire being frozen in place.

The man's eyes widened, his lips moved as if to say something, but only a mouthful of fresh blood gushed out.

He toppled backward, falling to the ground, twitched twice, and then went still.

The young girl seemed scared witless; she released her grip, took two steps back, and slumped onto the ground.

"I... I didn't mean to..." Her voice trembled, her face smeared with tears.

"I really didn't mean to..."

She suddenly saw Wang Lin and, like someone grasping at a life-saving straw, scrambled to her feet.

"Big brother!" she shouted toward Wang Lin.

"I really didn't mean to! It was him... he ran into it himself..."

Wang Lin looked at her without saying a word.

The young girl took two steps forward, her eyes brimming with tears. "Big brother, I'm so scared..."

"Can I follow you? Can you take me out of here?"

As she spoke, she took another step forward.

Wang Lin's gaze changed, becoming sharp. "Get lost."

The young girl froze, her footsteps halting in place.

Wang Lin looked at her, his eyes devoid of any warmth.

"If you dare take one more step forward, I will kill you."

The young girl's tears welled up again, but this time she didn't step forward.

She simply squatted on the ground, hugging her knees, and began to sob loudly.

"Why... why is everyone bullying me..." She cried until she was out of breath.

"I just want to live... I just want to stay alive..."

Wang Lin glanced at her, turned around, and left.

Behind him, the sound of crying grew more distant.

Soon, his figure disappeared into the mist.

The young girl squatted on the ground and cried for a long time.

Only when Wang Lin's footsteps were completely inaudible did she slowly lift her head.

The tears were still on her face, but the aggrieved expression was gone.

In its place was a pair of cold, sinister eyes.

She stared in the direction Wang Lin had left, her lips slowly curling into a smile.

That smile was completely mismatched with her fifteen or sixteen-year-old face.

"Interesting. To think he could withstand my acting."

"As expected, men are all no good..."

She stood up and walked over to the man's corpse.

She pulled the short blade out of the man's chest.

Blood was still dripping from the blade.

She squatted down and used the tip of the knife to slice open the man's head.

Her movements were skillful and without the slightest hesitation.

"Found it," she whispered.

The tip of the knife picked out a peanut-sized Crystal Core.

She pinched the Crystal Core, held it up to the light to look at it, and then stuffed it into her mouth.

If an Awakened wants to level up, they must kill Calamities and absorb the energy from their Crystal Cores.

But typical Awakened would place the Crystal Core in their palm and slowly absorb the energy within.

Until the energy vanished and the Crystal Core turned to dust.

But the young girl before them liked to put the Crystal Core in her mouth.

She would hold it in her mouth like candy, slowly absorbing the energy while wearing an expression of enjoyment.

Then she picked up the man's wrist and transferred the points from his bracelet.

Only after finishing all this did she stand up and stretch.

"Not a bad harvest today."

Talking to herself, she turned to leave.

But what she didn't know was—

Deep in the mist, fifty meters away.

A pair of eyes were glowing faintly, watching her every move.

A fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl with superb acting skills, decisive in killing, and even digging out Calamity Crystal Cores to eat.

Interesting.

In this Mist Camp, as expected, no one is a pushover.

Wang Lin continued forward, casually pulling a Level 2 Crystal Core from his robes and tossing it into his mouth.

Crunch.

The Crystal Core shattered, and energy flooded into his body.

He thought while chewing: That young girl is probably also aiming for the final spots.

In the selection for the Twelve Zodiacs, fewer than twenty people would remain at the end.

To fight one's way out of three hundred people, how could one succeed without being a bit ruthless?

However, that was none of his business.

As long as that young girl didn't come to provoke him, he couldn't be bothered to care.

Wang Lin returned his attention to what was in front of him.

The mist grew thicker, and the surrounding trees became increasingly twisted.

Some trunks had massive growths on them, and some branches reached toward the sky like withered arms.

He had already gone deep into the Mist Forest.

After walking for about half an hour, he suddenly stopped.

A sound came from ahead.

It wasn't the low growl of a Mist Beast, but human voices—screams of agony, pleas for mercy, and the sound of blades hacking.

Wang Lin narrowed his eyes and looked through the mist.

Thirty meters away, several people were fighting.

Calling it a fight was an overstatement; it was actually a one-sided slaughter.

Three people surrounded one person, their blades rising and falling as blood splattered everywhere.

The person being surrounded was already covered in wounds, kneeling on the ground with his head in his hands.

His mouth cried out things like "Spare me!" and "I'll give you all my points!"

But the three people did not stop.

With the final strike, the man collapsed to the ground and moved no more.

One of the three squatted down, took the man's bracelet, and transferred the points.

The other two began to search the body for items.

Crystal Cores, potions, weapons—they took everything they could.

Wang Lin stood in the mist, watching quietly.

Those three looked like a small team; they coordinated well and their movements were practiced, clearly not their first time doing this.

After transferring the points and searching the body, the three stood up and high-fived each other.

"That's the third fat sheep today," one of them said with a laugh.

"This guy even had two Level 2 Crystal Cores on him. We hit the jackpot."

"Let's go, let's go. Find a place to split the loot."

The three turned and walked toward Wang Lin's direction.

After a few steps, the leader suddenly stopped.

He lifted his head and looked forward.

In the mist, a figure was standing there.

The three of them simultaneously gripped their weapons.

"Who's there?" the leader barked.

Wang Lin walked out of the mist. "If I said... I'm just passing through, would you believe me?"

The man laughed. "Do you think I'd believe that?"

...

Meanwhile, in the old district in the east of the city.

Captain Han and Tieshan brought four Dark Blade members to Wang Lin's home, arriving before a two-story small building.

"Is that the place?" Tieshan asked.

Captain Han nodded, narrowing his eyes as he sized up the building.

It was an ordinary residential house with a few pots of nearly withered flowers at the door and faded curtains drawn across the second-floor windows.

It was no different from the surrounding dilapidated houses; it looked like an ordinary home no matter how one saw it.

A young girl was sitting on the stone steps at the entrance.

She looked about seven or eight years old, her hair tied in two pigtails, clutching a dirty little bunny plushie in her arms, playing happily with her head down.

The plushie's ear was missing a patch of fur and had a bite mark on it, as if she had bitten it herself.

Captain Han waved to those behind him. "Come on, let's go over and ask."

Tieshan rolled up his sleeves. "What's there to ask? Why don't we just charge in and kill them?"

Captain Han glared at him. "There is an etiquette to killing."

"You have to ask clearly before you kill, otherwise people won't even know why they died."

"When they become ghosts later, they won't even know who to settle the score with. Wouldn't that make them a confused ghost?"

Tieshan slapped his head. "Etiquette! One look and I can tell you are a man of etiquette!"