Faced with Yue Shi's manipulation, Lin Mou was very tempted, but many doubts also arose in his heart.
The gifts of an evil god surely came with an unknown price!
“What do I need to pay?” Lin Mou asked cautiously.
“Nothing at all. You are the most devout of believers; you deserve all of this,” Yue Shi said gently.
Lin Mou shuddered, his expression complex. There was an indescribable light in his eyes—longing, doubt, caution, and a trace of greed he hadn't even noticed himself.
He was weighing his options, calculating how much benefit he could reap from this.
Even if the evil god's gifts might come with a price, it was only a 'might.' If a fish could eat a fisherman's bait without getting hooked, he could swallow the evil god's lure without suffering any loss!
Yue Shi did not press him. He simply stood there, holding the snow leopard and watching the rain.
The rain let up slightly, turning from a downpour into a drizzle. The sound of it hitting the ruins changed from a frantic drumbeat to sparse tapping.
“Thank you for your blessing.” Lin Mou didn't hesitate for long before making his decision.
Yue Shi glanced at him and raised his right hand, pressing his index finger against Lin Mou's forehead.
Lin Mou instinctively closed his eyes. A flood of knowledge surged into his brain. It felt as if someone had opened a door in his mind, revealing a vast, new world filled with symbols, formulas, incantations, and formations.
The entire process of refining the medicine—from material preparation and drawing formations to chanting incantations, and finally, the refinement, consumption, and casting—was laid bare. Every step was crystal clear, as if etched into his brain.
Lin Mou opened his eyes. His gaze had changed; the cautious, probing vigilance was gone, replaced by a surge of fanatical, blazing emotion. He truly looked somewhat like a fanatical believer now.
“Go. Do whatever you wish. You needn't treat others as human; you deserve the best.” Yue Shi continued to spread his contamination.
Lin Mou wanted to offer some polite words of gratitude, but Yue Shi didn't care to listen. Maintaining his air of an otherworldly sage, he turned and walked into the rain with the snow leopard in his arms.
Raindrops slid away from him, forming a transparent barrier that isolated him from the world. His figure grew blurred and faint in the curtain of rain until he vanished completely.
Lin Mou stood there for a long, long time. The rain soaked him, and the knowledge poured into his head made his forehead burn.
His lips moved, silently repeating the incantations. His fingers trembled with ecstasy.
He had finally found it—the way to break his bottleneck, the way to hide his malice, and the way to become stronger.
No matter how rigid the Bureau was, it couldn't stop his rapid growth!
My fate is mine to command, not the heavens'!
He took a deep breath and turned toward where the cars were parked.
After a few steps, he felt a massive force surge from behind. It grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up.
Before he could react, he was flying through the air, instantly traversing the rain and ruins.
In that moment, Lin Mou was scared to death.
He had just found the path to power; was he really going to die here to some irresistible force?
If that were the case, he would never rest in peace!
His vision blurred, and his body began to fall. He hit the ground, rolling several times before slamming into a rock and coming to a halt.
He lay on the ground, panting heavily, covered in mud and water.
Slowly crawling up, he surveyed his surroundings: the roof of the communication station, the yellow cordon tape, and several specialized vehicles bearing the Bureau's emblem.
Thank goodness. He hadn't encountered a powerful enemy; it must have been the evil god's doing. He had been tossed back from Forging City to the communication station.
The team members still on guard outside saw him and came running over.
“Section Chief Lin, what happened?”
“Are you alright?”
“Where did you go just now, Section Chief?”
Everyone crowded around, talking at once as they brushed the mud off him, checked for injuries, and handed him a towel and hot water.
This was the treatment a leader deserved. Lin Mou took the towel with a stoic face and wiped his hair. He looked calm, as if nothing had happened.
“I'm fine. I spotted an abnormal entity over by Forging City and chased it for a while, but it gave me the slip,” he explained briefly, though no one really believed him.
“Did the drones catch it?” Lin Mou asked.
Zhao Wu stood beside him. After a moment's hesitation, he nodded. “They did. But the footage is a bit blurry; you can only see a silhouette.”
“Encrypt that footage and save it. No one is to touch it; I'll handle it personally later,” Lin Mou ordered.
Zhao Wu nodded again. Looking at Lin Mou's rain-soaked face, he felt something was off.
Section Chief Lin seemed to have become even more sinister. Zhao Wu instinctively wanted to get away from him; his body recoiled from the man.
Lin Mou ignored Zhao Wu's strange behavior and continued drying his hair, a faint curl appearing at the corners of his mouth.
The towel hid his face, so no one saw his treacherous expression.
“Back to work, everyone. The mission isn't over yet,” his voice came from under the towel, muffled.
The team members dispersed. Some went back to operating drones, some organized equipment, and others returned to their guard posts.
Lin Mou stood under the awning, the towel draped around his neck, staring toward Forging City.
The knowledge and incantations for refining the Philosopher's Stone echoed in his mind, as if engraved there.
His fingers slowly tightened in his pockets. This knowledge had to be real; an evil god wouldn't bother lying about something like this.
The real problem likely lay with the 'medicine' itself. Lin Mou knew that something refined from living humans would surely have side effects.
But that could wait until he was stronger. He'd find a way to deal with it then.
There was no such thing as a free lunch. Since he wanted to become powerful, he naturally had the courage to face the consequences. Even if he lost the gamble in the end, he wouldn't regret it!
He would rather die of exhaustion or fall to his death while climbing to the peak than drift aimlessly and numbly at the bottom!
He turned and walked up to the second floor of the communication station. The monitors were still on, and the footage from the drones continued to flicker.
Several information personnel operating the drones saw him enter and turned in unison to greet him.
Lin Mou smiled and waved them off. “It's fine, carry on with your work.”
In his head, however, he was quietly counting heads. Including himself and the combat members downstairs, there were sixteen people on this observation mission. All of them had seen the footage captured by the drones.
They had seen the evil god's human form reappear in Forging City.
Perhaps they had even seen his conversation with the evil god. Although they didn't know who that person was, he... couldn't let them go back alive!
Lin Mou sat down and took a sip of the hot coffee a subordinate handed him.
The coffee was bitter, yet he seemed unable to taste it. His mind was entirely occupied with one thought: how to plausibly silence every witness.
Rate on N.U.
