Chapter 122 – Self-Proclaiming Environment Activist Florida Man Steals Church Pillar and Doors to Recycle Them
Entering the shack, Leo found a round magic circle with floating Chinese characters. It glowed in purple light, illuminating the dark building.
As Leo had no idea what it was, he sniffed the air, following Cat's scent. Strangely, it stopped in the middle of the magic circle.
Since Leo's clue ended there. He stepped on the circle and inspected the floating characters. He reached out to touch one of them.
The character dissipated to particles upon contact. Then, the entire magic circle dimmed and got deactivated.
"What?"
Leo's disappointment was immeasurable, and his day was ruined. He scratched his head in frustration.
"How the hell do you activate this thing?! Goddammit. I should have dragged one of those fools along!"
Because of his frustration, he stomped out of the building. He looked left and right, searching for one of the cultists in the area. Unfortunately, no cultivator was in sight. Only beggars and poor commoners nearby warily gazed at Leo.
Unable to find a local cultivator, Leo thought of a sick plan. He looked up and stared at the tall pagoda at the center of the town.
Leo paused to contemplate. He would surely find a cultivator there, but they might not cooperate with him. After all, not all cultivators were as friendly as people from the Life Sword Sect.
"Maybe later."
Leo snorted and went back into the cabin. He returned to the deactivated magic circle. Crouching, Leo touched the stone floor.
Another weird idea came to his mind. He gently punched the ground.
BOOM
The stone floor cracked and crumbled, revealing a hollow area underground.
Leo fell into the large hole along with the debris, yet he smiled. His plan worked as intended.
"Ahah! I'm a genius!"
Upon landing, a few pieces of stone and rubble hit his head and his shoulders, but Leo ignored them. His green eyes shone as he scanned through the darkness.
The hollow area was not a natural cave or an underground waterway. Stone beams and pillars were visible everywhere. The ceiling was made from glowing purple metal that Leo had never seen before, and it emitted a foul odor of rotten rats. The purple fog around the metal frame was also thick, hindering Leo's visibility.
Seeing the thick fog and the weird metal frames, Leo rubbed his hands in glee. He fiddled with the newly acquired spatial rings of the dead guards earlier.
Useless grain pills, black clothes, cone hoodies, and random objects came out from the rings as Leo threw them away. He then glanced at the black uniform for a moment before he put them on.
After dressing as one of the cultists, Leo pointed his finger at the pile of items. He silently thought to himself, commanding his cancer cells.
'Can you guys create fire? I need to burn those things.'
The cells were very cooperative. Several transparent blood cells released fire element essence and transformed them into a stream of flame. As if Leo's finger turned into a flamethrower gun, it sprayed white flame at the pile of junk.
The non-element grain pills, clothes, and useless tools of the cultivators melted instantly. After everything turned to ash, Leo patted his finger and removed the fire.
After clearing spaces in his spatial rings, Leo walked toward a purple metal pillar. He widely grinned and linked his Qi string from the purple metal and his spatial ring.
WHOOSH
Just like when Leo sucked the blue gemstone into his ring earlier, the entire pillar vanished into his ring's pocket inventory.
RUMBLE
After one of the pillars vanished, the ceiling slightly trembled. Dust and small stones fell from the tall ceiling.
Leo looked up and rubbed his chin. Then, he thought of the commoners in the city, and his expression turned dark.
'Tsk. I can't be greedy. I might enjoy collecting some idiots' lifespan, but I ain't Putin. I'm not into a senseless massacre.'
Avoiding killing bystanding commoners, Leo stopped stealing another metal pillar. He explored the underground cave instead.
It wasn't difficult to locate new points of interest. Aside from the pillars and beams, four 10-meter-tall doors stood tall in four different directions – North, West, East, and South.
The underground cave's walls seemed asymmetrical. However, its general shape was a square, which was easy to navigate.
Leo sniffed each door. Three of the doors smelled like concentrated smelling salt, which caused Leo to turn his head away and covered his nose. Although the scent heightened his senses and adrenaline, it was unpleasant.
As for the other door, aka the east gate, it had a thick scent of blood.
Trusting his instinct, Leo chose to enter the east gate first. Instead of pushing the two doors open, Leo patted them and stored the massive metal doors in his spatial rings.
It was not about greed. It was about moral integrity. Since local cultivators abandoned these precious metals and used them as metal frames and doors, Leo believed that he could do them a favor by collecting their junk and researching them.
After all, there was a saying – One man's trash is another man's treasure!
After the doors vanished, a large underground hallway stood before Leo. Unlike this room, it was well-decorated with wall torches, human bones, and random Chinese words written in blood. However, no one had lightened the torches in the area.
Leo smiled and was about to follow the path. However, he paused for a moment and made a U-turn. Returning to the north gate, Leo quietly stored the doors to his spatial rings. Then, he went to the other two gates and collected them as well.
Nothing was left behind, except the metal frames that supported the ceiling.
After grabbing the precious metal doors, Leo returned to the bloody hallway. He walked in the dark while he adjusted his robes.
.
Walking a kilometer, Leo came across another gate. This time, it was a single glowing gate. Its purple light was brighter than the beams and pillars in the previous room, and the fog was even thicker and smellier.
On the door's surface, there was an emblem that the previous four doors didn't have. It was the image of a cone mask that the cultists always wore.
Looking at the emblem, Leo was disgusted. He was even more disturbed that he was wearing their uniform.
'I pray that you don't discriminate against another race, or I'll freaking turn y'all into yin fluid!'
Leo braced the fog and put his palms on the single gate. Then, he tried to steal it.
As soon as Leo touched it, the emblem shone and unleashed a shockwave blast. A strong gale made Leo's robes flutter, and his cone hoodie was blown away.
However, that did nothing to him. He stood there, picking his nose. He scooped a centimeter-diameter booger ball out from his nostril. He inspected it because of the old habit, after which he tried to flicker it away, but it got stuck on his finger.
After combating the sticky booger for a minute, Leo surrendered. He pressed the booger against the door and swiped it away from his finger.
Even though the booger was a collective bacteria and small particles, the majority of it was made from Leo's bodily fluid. Thus, it contained a thick amount of essence.
As soon as the booger was planted on the door, it began transforming the metal door. From purple, it turned red, and the metal door expanded larger.
CREAK
The loud sound of moving metal echoed underground before the entire door distorted and bent because of its large size. A few seconds later, it was folded in half, and it stopped glowing.
Leo tilted his head in confusion as he had no clue what just happened. He shrugged and collected the folded metal door and proceeded forward.
After entering another room, Leo came across a populated area. As soon as he entered, he found a hundred cultists in the same clothes, looking at him.
"WHO ARE YOU?!"
Leo paused for a moment. He then pointed at his clothes and feigned ignorance.
"Ain't I one of you?"
"…"
As most cultists always wore masks, they couldn't remember every member's face. They stared at Leo in doubt, but half of them only glanced at his robes and looked away.
"Where's your mask? Why are you coming from that gate?"
"Ah, my mask?" Leo touched his face and smacked his forehead. "My bad. That stupid door suddenly spat on my face and blew my mask away. It should be somewhere in the hallway."
"You haven't answered all my questions. Why are you coming from that hallway? That place should have been sealed!"
"Sealed? Oh."
Leo smacked his lips. He pondered if he should continue playing it cool like Agent 47 or if should he start genociding. Since he found the situation fun, he picked the first option first.
"There was an accident. I tried to use the usual teleportation array, but it collapsed on me. When I realized it, I got trapped in an abandoned room. It took me a while to get back here."
That was a random excuse. Leo crossed his fingers and revealed a bad pokerface.
The cultists stared at Leo for a while. Some of them brought a torch closer to see Leo's face. But as soon as they got a clearer look, the cultists instantly noticed Leo's rainbow aura, which reflected the torchlight.
Noticing Leo's superior cultivation base, a hundred cultists knelt in panic.
"FORGIVE US, SENIOR! WE DIDN'T KNOW THAT YOU WOULD VISIT THE OUR CHAMBER!"
"…"
Leo blankly stared at the crowd. He frowned for a moment.
Noticing that Leo stopped talking, everybody took off their masks and hoodies, revealing their faces. Surprisingly, they were all old men.
Noticing their ages, Leo wryly smiled. He figured out why they weren't intimidated by his look and appearance age.
"Which chamber is this?" Leo continued playing it cool.
"T-This is lowly priest residential area, senior. Only golden core and nascent soul priests live here."
"Oh, just you? Is there anybody else?"
"No, senior. Most of the priests have gathered at the sacrificial city. I think the elder priest will perform another sacrifice ritual soon since they have captured a 7th-grade plant monster."
"Hoh?"
Leo narrowed his eyes. He finally heard something interesting, "Tell me more about the ritual. Who the hell is holding an event while I was away?"
"T-This…"
The cultists sweated profusely. They gave Leo a nervous look, mistaking him for one of the high priests that had participated in a mystic realm expedition.
"S-Senior, w-while you were in the middle of the expedition, our priests managed to capture the monster by chance. T-The elder priest plans to use it to boost his cultivation base and attack the quasi-immortal realm today!"
"Oh?"
Leo nodded as he believed that Cat might be there. He crouched in front of the priest and smiled.
"Can you lead me to them?"
"O-Of course, senior!"
"Then, get up and show me the way. I'm old, and I'm kinda forgetful. I always got lost around here."
"…"
