Chapter 120 – Homeless Florida Man Arrested for Taking a Bath
Underground beneath the Frozen Fire City hid an underground city. A total of 2,000 cultists lived there, using it as a hideout and a secret ritual site, avoiding the eyes and ears of Yan Xiang Emperor.
The ruler of this place was none other than Yan Zhu, the third prince. In addition, this place was the true headquarters of the Fatui Cult, where their cultivators practiced black arts and forbidden techniques.
Sacrificial altars, giant cauldrons full of human blood, rundown torture tools, and dry bloodstains were common there. Cultivators usually traveled back and forth between the Frozen Fire City and their underground headquarters, shipping and importing new slaves, monsters, and orthodox cultivators that they had captured.
Among the caravans, a cart carried a large cage, which trapped a monster inside. However, the people accompanying the wagon kept their distance from the monster.
Sitting in a cage, a chomper plant monster chewed a cultivator's corpse in glee. This was the sixth person that got too close to her cage.
A hundred golden core cultivators escorted the caged monster while 20 nascent soul cultivators walked in front of them. Everybody wore black robes and black cone masks, revealing only their eyes and hands.
It was already a miracle that their platoon managed to capture Cat with their meager strength. At the moment, Cat was a 7th-stage monster, which should have been so strong that no nascent soul cultivators could have been her opponent. Yet, she was easily captured and brought there.
Several of the cultivators thought that their teamwork successfully suppressed the monster. However, the reality told a different story.
While sitting in the cage, Cat periodically and randomly snatched escorting cultivators into her cage and ate them alive.
"Nom-Nom Meow?"
Again, Cat's vines lashed at lightning speed, extending from inside her cage and latching on five escorting golden core cultivators behind the wagon. She then pulled them into the cage and peeled their clothes like bananas. A few seconds later, the gory scene and the bone-crunching sound made the escorting cultivators turn away in disgust and fear.
"Damn monster."
One of the cultists grudgingly glared at Cat. He believed that the monster pretended to lose and got herself captured intentionally.
"Not for long, monster. Those sacred wood on your body will become fine weapons for our elders. Your monster core and all your body parts will be refined! We will make sure that you will die as painfully as possible!"
Cat ignored the angry man and chewed the five men earlier. After swallowing their blood, flesh, and bones, she burped and released green gas from her mouth.
The gas was just her breath, but it smelled worse than rotting human corpses mixed with the smelliest wet feces of elders with constipation issues and intestine cancer.
Cultivators in this world improved their inner Qi and five senses through training and cultivation. When the nasty smell came out, they covered their nose and mouth. Their faces turned purple, and a dozen of them vomited.
"Goddammit! Can somebody put that monster to sleep or kill it?!"
"S-Sir, but our weapons did nothing to its skin when we fought it."
"Ah! You're useless! Use flame element techniques! Watch this!"
A nascent soul cultivator stepped forward and summoned his dao avatar. A flame spirit emerged from his body and pointed its palm toward Cat.
"Nom-Nom Meow?"
Cat turned around and thrust two vines toward the cultivator. She grabbed him and pulled him toward her cage. Without peeling his clothes, she opened her mouth, baring her thousand teeth.
"NOOOO!!"
CHOMP!
Cat bit his head off before the dao avatar could even use a dao technique. Its spiritual physique disintegrated into particles while the spirit widened its eyes in confusion.
After the nascent soul cultivator perished, nobody dared to utter another word. They silently gestured to the caravan leader to bring that monster to the underground city as soon as possible.
.
.
At the bottom of the dried river, Leo listened to his mannequin dao avatar while the latter translated the silent language of the workers.
'As for the river issue, the water actually sank into the ground that they dug. It seems they found something that drained the entire river, but they haven't searched for the source yet.'
Leo shrugged, "Where is it, then? Maybe I'll dig it out and put it in my store for sale."
The mannequin spirit turned to the workers. The latter nodded and guided the group to the place where the water disappeared into.
Leo and his dao avatar followed the workers and noticed an area with firm ground. The former lightly tapped on it to test its strength.
"Is this the place?"
'I think so.'
"Good. Let's dig then."
Leo took a makeshift shovel from one of the workers. He shoved it in and pulled a layer of dirt.
At first, his movement was clumsy and awkward. A few seconds later, Leo picked up speed. He left behind afterimages while he repeatedly threw dirt and rocky soil to the side. Some of the dirt went through the dao avatar's body by accident.
Within five minutes, Leo dug 100 meters deeper. Then, his shovel hit something hard and shiny.
Leo stopped applying forces or using the super speed. He lightly removed the dirt around the object. However, the mysterious shining blue object was bigger than Leo had imagined.
Looking at the mysterious blue gemstone, Leo rubbed his chin and pondered. Then, he smacked his forehead and jumped out of the hole.
Leo injected his Qi into one of his spatial rings. He unloaded the pharaoh's statue and edible gold coins. Then, he asked the workers.
"Bring those to the junkyard, but don't recycle them. Those are my food."
The workers nodded and began lifting the statue. They turned around and jumped in unison. A second later, they were out of the 3km-deep trench.
Leo gazed at his workers and nodded in approval. At least, they didn't need his help.
The dao avatar observed Leo and understood his intention. He looked at the spatial ring that Leo had emptied.
'Very creative.'
"Call me the master."
'Meh.'
Leo returned to the hole and touched the mysterious gemstone. He injected his Qi into the ring and the object. The next moment, the massive gemstone vanished into the ring as if it got sucked into a black hole.
When the gemstone was stored in the ring, a massive chunk of ground vanished. Leo fell further into the ground, and the soft soil nearby collapsed on him.
He was buried alive.
A second later, blasted out of the collapsed soil and got back to the bottom of the trench. His t-shirt and jeans were dark brown as the wet dirt dirtied him.
"Oh, boy. That was scary. This takes me back." Leo snickered. It was his second time getting buried alive. Fortunately, he wasn't as weak as when he got buried the first time.
At that time, Leo got struck by green lightning tribulation for the first time, and his heart stopped beating, and he could not move after the first hit. However, his brain and consciousness were intact. Leo got stuck in that state for 100 years, eating and swallowing sand, dirt, and polluted rainwater while he got buried alive by a random landslide.
It was a nightmarish experience. However, he managed to survive, and his body became immune to the green lightning bolts since then.
"Let's go home. We're done here."
'What about your pet?'
Leo looked south. He pursed his lips for a moment, wondering if he should go and rescue Cat. At first, Leo planned to go home and wait for the naughty kid to return. But when Leo recalled the pitiful cry of Cat when she was hurt, his heart wrenched.
"Haiya. Fine. You win. We'll take a short visit to Fatui Cult. By the way, did my workers tell you where she went?"
'Just use your nose and follow her scent.'
"I ain't a dog, you dumb doll. But you're right. I can smell her from here."
'…'
Leo laughed and started sniffing the air. He then looked toward the southwest direction and leaped to the sky.
.
After leaping and jumping 10 kilometers southwest, Leo found a province-sized city. The 15-meter-tall stone city walls stood tall and looked intimidating. In front of the walls, a water moat was 100 meters wide, deterring wandering monsters and thieves from reaching the bottom of the walls.
However, the tall and defensive city array was nothing to Leo. He leaped across the wall and landed on a rooftop of a wooden house. Unfortunately, his momentum was too strong, and his weight broke the wooden beams on the ceiling. He fell into the building.
Leo landed inside a bedroom. On the stone bed, a naked young man and a woman screamed in fright. Hearing their voices, Leo turned around to look at them.
Upon seeing the naked couple, Leo smiled at them.
"My bad. Just think of me as a random hailstone. Anyway, I won't disturb you. Continue."
He walked out of the room and proceeded to exit the building through the front door. While he walked out of the place, many men and women in fancy silk clothes looked at Leo's muddy t-shirt and jeans in disgust.
"Who let a beggar in here?!"
"Chase him out!"
Leo ignored the crowd. He glanced at them, but he didn't feel the presence of a cultivator or their Qi. It seemed that they were all commoners in this city.
As Leo left the building, he looked around to see what he had fallen into earlier.
It was a 10-story wooden building with medieval Chinese architecture. The sign clearly stated "Flower House", which implied a certain meaning.
This building was a brothel.
"Haiya. Even in this world, they still spread STDs and AIDS. I pity for those thirsty men."
The dao avatar came out from Leo's body and mocked him, 'You're still a virgin, though.'
"Virgin with Godzilla physique, mind you."
Leo snickered and looked around. Again, he started sniffing, tracking the scent of Cat. He walked while he looked up, causing the bystanders to give Leo a weird look.
A young boy who walked on the street with his mother pointed at Leo.
"Mom. Look! A crazy beggar!"
The mother panicked, "Don't look. Come here. Let's go."
Leo overheard it and flinched. He then looked at his dirty clothes and his arms.
They were covered in dirt and mud. Even his hair was messy because of the landslide earlier.
He needed a bath.
"Meh."
Leo put his right palm on his head. Then, a stream of water came out from his hand, pouring down on him. Using the water pressure and the freshwater, Leo washed away the dirt from his body and his face.
However, this action caused the stone road in the city to become wet. As the ancient road had no sophisticated drainage system, water gathered in several areas and created small puddles. Some of the water accidentally wet bystanders' shoes and clothes.
As Leo caused a lot of commotion, nearby commoners ran away from him and rushed to the authority outpost nearby.
"Help! A cultivator is ruining my store!"
As soon as the commoner reported it to the local guards in the outpost, they rushed to the site to find the culprit.
Meanwhile, Leo stopped pouring water on himself. He purchased a clean towel and a new set of clothes. He cleaned himself and changed into a new one while he was on the public street.
The guards spotted Leo, who was butt-naked on the road. They shouted.
"Arrest him!"
