Chapter 22: Am I About to Get Rich?

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But the man soon realized that something was wrong.

If the woman before him were truly a Class B Spirit Adept, he would probably already be dead.

He had personally witnessed how powerful Class B Spirit Adepts were.

With a cold laugh, he said, “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you’ve successfully caught my attention. Savage, seize her!”

As soon as he spoke, the Minotaur Butcher’s free hand suddenly grabbed the hand Star had plunged into its eye socket. With a powerful tug, it pulled Star from behind to the front and slammed her hard onto the ground.

Boom!!!

A dull impact rang out, and Star immediately spat blood.

Yet in the blink of an eye, her injuries began to heal rapidly.

Seeing this, the interest on the man’s face deepened. “Could the spirit seed possessing you have some kind of special healing ability or trait?”

The man naturally did not suspect that Star was connected to the Evil God Tai Sui. Besides, not everyone knew of Tai Sui or understood its traits.

He merely assumed that Star possessed a spirit seed with extraordinary regenerative abilities.

There were countless types of spirit seeds, and quite a few possessed powerful healing abilities.

At the same time, he was extremely curious. Star had not yet reached Class B, so how had she managed to fuse with a spirit seed?

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. A trace of greed flashed through his eyes. If he could obtain those abilities, he would certainly become stronger!

“Savage, seize her! Hurry and seize her!” Excitement and urgency filled his voice.

The Minotaur Butcher obeyed, reaching out its massive hand toward Star’s neck. But Star was faster. Her figure flickered and vanished from where she stood.

This time, she did not entangle herself with the Minotaur Butcher. Instead, she charged straight toward the man.

Before Spirit Adepts awakened a fusion ability, they were always their spirit seeds’ weak point. Although they possessed abilities that allowed them to borrow power, they could only draw upon a limited portion of their spirit seeds’ strength.

When the man saw Star rushing at him, he immediately began retreating at a brisk pace.

But his spirit seed was not speed-oriented, so his own speed was naturally unimpressive. He was nowhere near fast enough to outrun Star.

In an instant, Star had seized him by the throat.

His reactions were fairly quick. The moment Star grabbed him, he seized her wrist.

The Minotaur Butcher was strength-oriented, and he had naturally borrowed some of its immense power.

Star was just about to twist his neck when a crisp snap came from her wrist. Her wrist had been crushed in his grip.

At that moment, the Minotaur Butcher arrived. It raised its enormous axe and brought it down upon Star.

Star flung the man away with all her strength, sending him hurtling through the air, while she herself flickered aside and dodged the attack.

As she evaded the blow, she activated her Flying Blade ability. A series of throwing knives shot forth, all striking the man as he crashed into the wall.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

His chest, arms, thighs, and neck had all been hit. He coughed violently as great mouthfuls of blood gushed from his lips. It was clear that he would not survive.

Seeing this, the Minotaur Butcher let out a roar and activated its Muscle Expansion ability. The muscles throughout its body swelled, dramatically increasing its attack power. It then raised its axe and began hacking furiously at Star.

Star did not meet it head-on. Instead, she dodged left and right, constantly buying time.

She knew that the outcome had already been decided.

Sure enough, the man soon breathed his last. The berserk Minotaur Butcher suddenly stopped moving, then abruptly vomited a mouthful of blood.

It had suffered the backlash of its contract.

Star seized the opportunity. Her figure flashed, and she appeared behind the Minotaur Butcher. She wrapped an arm around its neck and activated her Skinning ability at close range, slicing open its throat.

The Minotaur Butcher’s defenses were even stronger than the Boar Butcher’s. Its thick hide was hard as iron. If it had not been rendered immobile for a moment by the contract backlash, Star would have found it extremely difficult to kill.

With a thud, its severed throat gave way, and the Minotaur Butcher crashed heavily to the ground.

This powerful spirit seed had not even had the chance to activate its Berserk ability before it was dragged down and killed by its master.

It was precisely because Spirit Adepts had such a weakness before reaching Class B that most of the Spirit Adepts in the Alliance formed their own teams, using a balanced arrangement of members with different specialties to reduce risk.

Star slowly rose to her feet, a wave of dizziness washing over her as her spiritual energy dwindled.

There were no enemies left now, were there?

Regardless, she should leave first, lest more trouble arise.

With that thought, she rapidly devoured the Minotaur Butcher and the Boar Butcher.

The storage space in both her Spirit Rune Bracelet and black wristband was only about one cubic meter. Neither could hold the two enormous beast-type spirit seeds.

With no other choice, Star had to digest them on the spot.

The enormous spirit seeds rapidly broke down within the blue liquid, transforming into spiritual energy that flowed into Star’s body.

As her spiritual energy was replenished, Star felt indescribably refreshed.

After devouring two Class C spirit seeds in succession, she felt the spiritual energy inside her swelling, as though she were on the verge of advancing.

Unfortunately, she was still just a little short.

Just then, she sensed something unusual. Immediately afterward, an oval stone fell from the liquid formed by her arm.

Star bent down and picked it up. To her surprise, it was a Rune Stone.

Had her luck really been that good? Could killing a Class C spirit seed actually yield a Rune Stone?

No, that was impossible! The chance of a Class C spirit seed dropping a Rune Stone was far too low. There was no way she could be this lucky.

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Star soon realized that this was an additional effect of Tai Sui’s Plunder ability.

When Star devoured a spirit seed but did not intend to plunder one of its abilities for herself, Plunder had a certain chance of randomly extracting one of the opponent’s abilities and condensing it into a Rune Stone.

The success rate for plundering from a Class F spirit seed was five percent.

For a Class E spirit seed, it was ten percent.

For a Class D spirit seed, it was twenty percent.

For a Class C spirit seed, it was forty percent.

For a Class B spirit seed, it was eighty percent.

For Class A and higher spirit seeds, the success rate was one hundred percent.

The stronger the spirit seed, the more distinct the ability runes within its body, and the easier they were to plunder.

Star only understood that her ability had this additional effect after Plunder activated automatically.

“Am I about to become rich?” Star murmured to herself.

She knew just how valuable Rune Stones were.

Looking at the Rune Stone in her hand, Star knew clearly that it contained Berserk. She had sensed it the instant the ability was extracted.

The ability would suit either Nightshade or Princess perfectly.

After putting away the Rune Stone, two enormous axes dropped to the ground.

They were the weapons of the two butchers. As special items, they would be useful whether she kept them for herself or sold them.

Anything dropped by a spirit seed was valuable.

After storing the two great axes, Star searched the man’s body thoroughly. In the end, she found a black wristband identical to Lin Zaize’s.

Could the two men be working together? Star could not help falling into thought.

Forget it. She should leave first!

With that in mind, she stored the man’s corpse inside the black wristband.

Given the man’s size, fitting him inside was rather difficult, so Star folded him up first. He was dead anyway; it did not matter how she folded him.

After finishing everything, Star withdrew her Pocket Realm and hurried away.

At the same time, in the same abandoned factory, the same group of people were still playing cards.

One of them asked, “What’s taking Old Hong so long today? He still hasn’t come back.”

Another paused in the middle of throwing down a card. “Could something have happened to him, just like Lin Zaize?”

A third person said, “That can’t be. Old Hong is a Class C Spirit Adept. How could Lin Zaize compare with him?”

“Could someone have been watching us? Or has our plan been exposed?” the first speaker asked, his brows tightly furrowed.

“Let’s go out and look for him. We should make sure nothing really happened,” one of them suggested.

After Star returned home, she did not immediately remove her tattered, bloodstained clothes. Instead, she first released Nightshade and Princess.

After feeding each pet a drop of blood, their injuries healed.

She then took out the man’s corpse.

After staring at him for a while, Star extended her right hand. Sharp claws sprang from her fingertips, and she slowly sliced open the man’s skin.

Star was about to remove the man’s skin.

Since she planned to go out hunting at night from now on, it would be better to disguise herself.

She was a Painted Skin spirit and naturally possessed the Painted Skin talent. As long as she removed a human skin and then painted upon it with a brush, she could create a new face that would conceal her identity.

Spiritual energy surged through her fingertips and flowed into the man’s skin. Little by little, his skin was peeled away.

Miraculously, although the skin was being removed, not the slightest trace of blood appeared on the corpse.

This was the Painted Skin’s specialty. Skinning was her profession.

Soon, an entire human skin had been removed. Under the influence of Star’s spiritual energy, the face on the skin had already lost all its features.

“Nightshade, destroy the corpse.” Star pointed at the skinned body.

“Meow~”

Nightshade nodded and slowly approached. Black mist surged around its body, gradually enveloping the corpse. Before long, the body had been broken down without a trace.

After dealing with everything, Star took out two Rune Stones. One recorded Tail Strike, while the other recorded Berserk.

She first placed the Tail Strike Rune Stone in front of Nightshade.

“I should have given this to you sooner. Then you wouldn’t have been in such a sorry state when fighting the Boar Butcher.”

“Meow, meow~”

Nightshade excitedly swallowed the Tail Strike Rune Stone in one bite. A faint glow appeared across its body, then quickly vanished.

“How is it? Have you learned it?” Star asked.

“Meow, meow, meow~”

Nightshade jumped up and down excitedly.

“Show me,” Star said with a smile.

“Meow~”

After answering, Nightshade’s body suddenly grew larger. The two tails behind it abruptly lengthened, wrapped in black spiritual energy and seeming to transform into steel spikes. With a sharp whoosh, they thrust fiercely forward.

Star nodded in satisfaction. “Not bad, not bad.”

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Nightshade shrank back down and assumed its mimic form. It slowly walked over to Star, affectionately rubbing its head against her calf while constantly acting spoiled.

Star rubbed its head, then took out the other Rune Stone and handed it to Princess.

“Princess, you can use this one.”

“Coo, coo, coo~”

Princess did not swallow it immediately. Instead, it asked what ability the stone contained.

Through its chaotic gestures, Star managed to understand and replied, “Berserk. You saw how powerful it was when we fought the Boar Butcher.”

The moment Princess heard that it was Berserk, it immediately remembered the Boar Butcher’s frenzied appearance after being injured.

It shook its head repeatedly and backed away.

No, no, no! I don’t want it!

It was such an elegant and beautiful spirit seed. How could it use such a self-destructive, image-ruining ability?

“You don’t want it?” Star asked in surprise.

“Coo, coo, coo~”

Princess nodded vigorously. No, absolutely not!

Star said, “This is such a wonderful opportunity to become stronger. You really don’t want it?”

“Coo, coo~”

Princess nodded without hesitation.

Star helplessly said, “Fine, then. I hope you don’t regret it, and don’t accuse me of favoring one pet over the other.”

With that, she placed the Rune Stone back in front of Nightshade. “Since it doesn’t want it, you can have it!”

She would give Princess a suitable spirit seed another time.

“Meow, meow~”

Nightshade eagerly stepped forward and swallowed the Berserk Rune Stone in one bite.

A faint glow once again appeared across its body. It had successfully comprehended Berserk.

Tail Strike could be demonstrated, but Berserk could not. After all, it required injury to activate. Star could not exactly beat Nightshade up just to test it.

Now that Nightshade possessed two abilities in succession, it was overjoyed. It circled around Star, meowing incessantly.

It bared its teeth smugly at Princess.

What a prissy thing. It would not even accept such a powerful ability.

Princess glared at it secretly.

Star smiled and called to both pets, “Come on, let’s give you two a bath.”

A bath? The moment Nightshade heard that, it froze in place. Then it began creeping backward, one tiny step at a time.

But after only two steps, Star grabbed it by the scruff of its neck.

“Meow~ Meow~”

It gazed at Star with a pleading expression, its eyes moist and pitiful beyond words.

Master… do I really have to take a bath?

“Trying to run? You have to take a bath.”

With that, Star mercilessly carried it into the bathroom.

Princess was different. It enjoyed bathing and followed Star with a swaggering gait, looking delighted.

It shot Nightshade a disdainful glance.

Hmph. Afraid of taking a bath? What a useless coward.

Before long, Nightshade’s anguished wails rang out from the bathroom.

I don’t want a bath!

When they emerged from the bathroom, all three—master and pets—were clean and fragrant.

After bathing, Star began sorting through the contents of the man’s black wristband.

She removed everything inside. The first things to catch her eye were a pile of men’s clothes and daily necessities.

Without the slightest hesitation, Star had Nightshade destroy them, leaving not a trace behind.

Next, she found a plastic box about the size of her palm. When she opened it, she discovered three Spiritual Energy Gems inside.

Good stuff!

Delight appeared on Star’s face.

No amount of these gems was ever enough. If she had not possessed a Spiritual Energy Gem today, she would have died at the man’s hands.

Finally, Star found four Spiritual Energy Cards.

Two of them were probably the Boar Butcher’s and the Minotaur Butcher’s. Since the two spirit seeds had died, their cards had long since become useless.

The other two were blank and had never been used.

Like the Spiritual Energy Cards belonging to the Boar Butcher and the Minotaur Butcher, the two blank cards were black. Their surfaces were dull and lusterless, looking extremely cheap—nothing like the impressive cards issued by the Spirit Adept Alliance.

Star did not throw away the damaged Spiritual Energy Cards. Although they were broken, their materials remained intact. Perhaps they would prove useful someday.

After putting away the Spiritual Energy Cards, Star saw that Nightshade was already sprawled on the sofa, snoring loudly, while Princess sat before the mirror, painfully grooming its feathers.

It had lost quite a few feathers during the battle, and Princess was deeply upset.

Star withdrew her gaze from Nightshade and Princess, then turned and went to the study. After sitting down, she took out the human skin she had removed only moments earlier.

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