168: Section 168

So now, Jing Yuan's Mental Force swept out, locating the spirit seeds, and he controlled the Flying Cones to pierce them directly.

Six Flying Cones searched through the pile of corpses, and before long, they had pierced all the remaining Phage Beast spirit seeds.

Jing Yuan stood in place, absorbing the life source essence of over a hundred Phage Beasts.

Bai Yuekui's gaze was fixed on the Phage Beast on the table before her, which was pinned down by Jing Yuan's war blade and unable to move.

"Xu Tong, prepare the Soul Storage Device!"

Xu Tong nodded, picked up a metal canister, turned on the machine, and set the parameters.

Bai Yuekui sliced open the Phage Beast's skin with her blade.

Her cut was light and natural; with a single effortless stroke, she sliced open the Phage Beast's skin, and a geometric spirit seed was revealed.

Bai Yuekui grabbed the spirit seed and placed it on the Soul Storage Device.

Jing Yuan watched the device; once activated, it began to absorb a surge of energy from within the spirit seed.

There seemed to be two types of energy within the spirit seed: one was absorbed into the Soul Storage Device, while the other began to dissipate.

With a thought, Jing Yuan used his Mental Power to capture that energy and then absorbed it from a distance.

"This energy is the Phage Beast's life source essence!"

Once both types of energy were absorbed, the spirit seed immediately petrified.

Jing Yuan looked at the mass of energy in the Soul Storage Device; this was the first time he had seen life source essence fully presented outside of a body.

"Human life source essence is different from the Phage Beast life source essence I absorb!"

Next, they went to Taciturn's side and used the same method.

Of the two energies in the spirit seed, one entered the Soul Storage Device and the other dissipated, but was captured and absorbed by Jing Yuan.

After collecting the life source essence of the two, they immediately retreated back to the shielding zone.

On the way back, Jing Yuan pondered the difference between Phage Beast life source essence and human life source essence.

He could absorb Phage Beast life source essence, but clearly could not absorb human life source essence.

He had killed people before, but he hadn't absorbed their life source essence.

Jing Yuan looked at the Soul Storage Device; after bringing the life source essence back, could people really be resurrected?

Soon, they returned to the village entrance. Just as they were about to enter, a figure suddenly appeared.

Jing Yuan looked closely and saw it was actually Penny!

Jing Yuan got out of the vehicle and leaped over to Penny's side.

At this moment, Penny had a bullet graze on her shoulder and her aura was unstable. What had she just gone through?

"Penny, what happened to you?"

Seeing Jing Yuan appear, Penny suddenly burst into tears!

"Penny, what's going on?"

Penny's behavior gave Jing Yuan a very bad feeling.

"Mo Dong, Neil, Snow Peak, Gavin... they're all dead!"

Hearing this, Jing Yuan's mind went blank, and a surge of fury rushed from his chest to his head.

"Who did it?"

"Senge and Victor went to the Armament Preparation Depot and slaughtered almost all the Wasteland Hunters. Charles, Morgan, and their remnants have retaken control of the Lighthouse!"

Chapter 171: Snakes and Rats

Lighthouse, Upper Citizen District Cafeteria.

4277 brought 4068 to the back of the cafeteria kitchen.

4277 looked into the kitchen and called out with a smile, "Toby!"

A young man in the kitchen saw 4277, put down his work, and walked over.

"4277, what are you doing here? Does Lady Jing Nan have some instructions?"

4277 gave an awkward smile and said, "No. I have something I'd like your help with!"

Toby was very enthusiastic and said, "What is it? Tell me! I'll help if I can!"

4277 pointed to 4068 beside her and said, "This is my friend, 4068. He's currently without a job. Could you arrange for him to do some work here?" After saying that, she added, "Anything is fine, he's not picky."

Toby laughed and said, "No problem. We just happen to be short on Du... short on hands for odd jobs. Leave him here! I'll arrange it!"

"Thank you!" 4277 thanked him with a bright smile.

"Don't mention it. Just let me know if you need anything."

4068 watched this from the side, feeling quite uncomfortable.

After 4277 left, Toby took 4068 into the kitchen.

Toby was indeed a very good person, even smiling at 4068.

He smiled and said, "You and 4277 must be very good friends!"

4068 was taken aback. "Uh, yes."

"You're lucky to have a friend like her!" Toby said to himself, "4277 is not only the first Dust Citizen engineer in the Research Department and a favorite of Lady Jing Nan, but it's also said she has some unknown relationship with Lord Jing Yuan. You must make the most of this connection!"

4068 frowned.

"By the way, what did you do before?"

"I was a porter for the Wasteland Hunters."

"Oh, the contribution points there are quite high, but it's also dangerous."

Toby led 4068 to a corner of the kitchen. "You can start by washing the dishes here!"

"Yes!"

4068 nodded and immediately went to the sink to wash dishes.

Although he was very reluctant, he had no choice at all.

He couldn't go back to work with the Wasteland Hunters now.

The Wasteland Hunters would never take a backstabbing Dust Citizen to The Surface.

And other types of work wouldn't dare hire him once they learned 4068's identity.

Only the cafeteria kitchen was relatively isolated, and they didn't know about 4068 backstabbing Jing Yuan.

Moreover, Toby was a good person, as could be seen from his attitude toward Dust Citizens.

Of course, taking in 4068 was also for 4277's sake.

Someone was spreading rumors that 4277 and Jing Yuan were involved, causing everyone on the Lighthouse who interacted with her not to treat her as a Dust Citizen and to be very respectful.

As 4068 was washing dishes by the sink, he suddenly heard a loud voice in the kitchen say, "Who's responsible for food delivery today? Where are they! Why aren't they here yet?"

There was no response.

"Toby, find someone for me to deliver the food!"

"Santos, I'm very busy here too!"

"I have to manage the cafeteria's output. Your logistics aren't that busy, why don't you go!"

"Fine, fine, I'll find someone for you!" Toby turned and shouted, "4068! Come here a moment."

4068 hurried over and immediately saw the fierce-looking chef, Santos.

Santos pointed to the food containers on the table and said, "Go deliver these!"

Toby added from the side, "These are for the prisoners held in the Law Enforcement Office."

"It's for the former Leader, Charles. Don't deliver it to the wrong place!" Santos added, seeing that Toby hadn't been clear.

Toby handed the food container to 4068 and patted him on the shoulder. "Hurry back!"

Just like that, 4068 inexplicably became a delivery boy.

Driven by curiosity, 4068 opened the food container to take a look.

"Damn, he eats so well!"

4068 recalled his days in prison, where the guards would only throw in a bug cake if they were in a good mood.

He hadn't expected that even as a prisoner, Charles still ate better than a Dust Citizen!

4068 made his way to the Law Enforcement Office.

Entering this place again, his heart was filled with mixed emotions.

Ever since he was caught and brought to the Law Enforcement Office by Charles that time, his fate had been bound to Charles.

If he hadn't been caught by Charles back then, he wouldn't have backstabbed Jing Yuan.

If he had done nothing, he could be like 4079 and 4277 now, or perhaps even doing better than them!