Chapter 161: Exterminate the Entire Family!

Over the past two days, Andy had been wandering through various trading markets in the royal capital, and gradually he deduced a rule regarding the growth of his spiritual power. That was, the stronger the person who swindled him, the more pronounced his spiritual power's growth became. Unfortunately, most of the stall owners selling counterfeit goods here were individuals of low capability.

It was not that there were no stall owners with decent strength here, but most of them dealt in genuine goods. Because at their level, their target customers were mostly people with extraordinary discernment, and fraudulent items had no market here.

Therefore, Andy's spiritual power growth over the past two days did not reach his expectations. However, compared to taking drugs and meditating, this method was far more efficient.

Andy missed the time he was swindled by Nicole Barov the other day; that brief moment of spiritual power growth had surpassed what he could achieve by chatting people up in the market all day long.

Because Nicole had told him that their application for intangible cultural heritage status would yield results within three days, he went to the Azure Phoenix Society on the third day to wait for her. Nicole showed up just as expected!

Andy didn't rush to talk about business at first. He rambled on about this and that, leading Nicole into swindling him once more, and only then did he contentedly ask how the application for the grant was going.

Then Nicole told him apologetically that the intangible cultural heritage matter hadn't gone through, but she had successfully turned the Azure Phoenix Society into a state-sponsored entity. Andy could now go to the office of the relevant department in the royal capital to collect one thousand magic crystals in sponsorship funds, though the desired honorary certificate was out of the question.

As long as the money could be obtained, Andy didn't care about any certificate. He immediately asked Nicole to take him to collect it.

When they reached the entrance of the office, Nicole suddenly told him that one of the staff members inside was her suitor, whom she had already rejected, but the guy kept pestering her and was extremely annoying. Therefore, she wouldn't go inside.

Andy nodded upon hearing this. Since they were already here anyway, there was no harm in handling it himself. He took the club's documents from Nicole's hand and walked inside.

Andy did not find any sign of Nicole's suitor. The person who received him inside was a middle-aged man with a thin mustache, accompanied by a pretty female assistant. Upon hearing about the business Andy was here for, the man took the documents from Andy's hand and passed them to the assistant for verification.

After reviewing the documents, the assistant handed a receipt to the mustached man. The middle-aged man glanced at it, nodded, and suddenly asked a question that Andy found completely baffling: "Who is the donor?"

"Anonymous!" the assistant quickly replied.

Then the man nodded and handed Andy a money pouch. "Five hundred magic crystals," he said. "See if this is enough. If you want, we can also exchange it for an equivalent amount of magic stones!"

"Weren't there supposed to be a thousand magic crystals in sponsorship funds?" Andy asked doubtfully.

Hearing his words, the middle-aged man immediately dropped his expression, chuckled coldly, and said, "So you have an objection? Anyway, our records state five hundred. Take it if you have no objections. If you have objections, leave these five hundred magic crystals here, and we will notify you to come collect them whenever we finish our investigation. By then, it might actually turn into a thousand, who knows?"

Andy took the money pouch and turned to leave. He had pretty much figured out what was going on.

After stepping outside, he casually mentioned to Nicole about the sponsorship funds being embezzled. To his surprise, Nicole flew into a rage. She told Andy to wait for her here, then directly tore open a scroll. With a whoosh, Nicole vanished right before Andy's eyes.

A directional teleportation scroll!

The corner of Andy's mouth twitched slightly. That scroll must have been worth around fifty magic crystals...

Not long after, soaring flames erupted from the office Andy had just walked out of!

Then Nicole drove back a soot-covered, bruised-and-battered middle-aged man, who was none other than the mustached man from earlier. As soon as he saw Andy, he dropped to his knees with a thud. Slapping himself across the face, he begged for forgiveness. Later, he even tremblingly produced six hundred magic crystals, saying the extra amount was compensation for Andy...

On the way back to the club, Andy asked Nicole if doing that was a bit too excessive, since the man was, after all, a state civil servant.

To his astonishment, Nicole argued with fierce self-justification that beating him was actually a way of caring for and loving him. Although he had suffered a bit of a loss now, at least he had secured Andy's forgiveness. If Andy were to hold a grudge over this loss, retaliate against him later, and wipe out his entire family, wouldn't he end up in an even more miserable state?

Such formidable logic left Andy completely speechless. Although Andy had indeed thought about giving the mustached man a lesson if the opportunity arose in the future, he had never felt it would reach the point of wiping out his entire family.

Why was it that in Nicole's eyes, he was such a bloodthirsty tyrant?

...

Far away in the Silver Wing Fortress, a mountain within the fortress was dotted with manors and villas of various sizes. These were the residences and estates of the wealthy and powerful figures in the fortress.

At this moment, a manor was engulfed in soaring flames.

Bill looked expressionlessly at the towering flames before him, a layer of sticky blood still clinging to his boots.

At this instant, Diga's warning suddenly echoed in Bill's ears: "Someone is coming!"

Bill turned his head and, sure enough, saw a team of people rapidly approaching. This was a team Bill was very familiar with—it was none other than his own Divine Wind Knight Order.

The one leading the group was Barton. As soon as he arrived and saw the scene before him, he roared, "Bill Armstrong! Look at what you've done. Jim merely made some drunken flirtatious remarks to that young girl at the banquet, and you... you actually slaughtered his entire family! Do you have any regard for the kingdom's laws, any regard for military law left in your eyes?"

Bill allowed Barton's spittle to fly onto his face without bothering to wipe it away. He just said in a measured tone, "Anyone who wants to hurt her must die!" Then he stared fixedly at Barton, "...No exceptions!"

Barton felt somewhat uncomfortable under Bill's burning gaze. After a long silence, he sighed and said, "You, oh you, what am I supposed to say to you? You've just performed a great service, yet you commit this kind of offense. Not long ago, I was discussing with the marshal about applying for a peerage for you in the royal capital. Now you can forget about the peerage; you'll be lucky if you escape punishment this time!"

Saying this, he patted Bill on the shoulder and added, "How about this? I'll have you locked in confinement for a week to let the storm blow over! What's done is done, don't dwell on it too much, and focus on your cultivation inside. Go down the mountain first to say goodbye to your little girlfriend, and leave the matters here to me to handle."

Bill's expression also eased. Although Diga had warned him that there was something slightly off about Barton, causing him to keep an extra layer of guard up, Barton had generally treated him well in the past and had taken good care of both him and Gerald in the Silver Wing Fortress. Therefore, he nodded and walked down the mountain escorted by several knights.

After Bill descended the mountain, Barton said, "The guards stay, everyone else disperse."

When the other knights had all departed and only his own trusted men remained, Barton dropped his disguise. He addressed the manor and said, "Foolish wretch, of all people to provoke, you had to provoke that little lunatic. Even I wouldn't dare provoke her! But fortunately, at least your corpses can still be put to some waste-recycled use..."

At this point, two pools of blood-thirsty red light flashed in his eyes!

He turned back to the guards and commanded, "Put out the fire immediately, and then set up the sacrificial grand array!"

"Understood! For the glory of the God Aplesin!" the guards replied in unison, all of them having scarlet eyes!