Chapter 31 – Local Criminals Scared as Florida Man Uses Cat as Weapon
Ouyang Ting wore black robes like his subordinates. He covered his face and his hair with bandannas. Although it was still daytime, the group camouflaged themselves under the shades and secretly observed Leo and the disciples.
"Soul Formation Cultivator," uttered the Hound Squad's leader.
Ouyang Ting looked at the captain of the assassin squad, "How is it, Duan Mu? Do you think you can kill him?"
Duan Mu, the captain of the Hound Squad, was a nascent soul cultivator and an array master. He had completed seven assassination missions involving soul formation cultivators, and he wasn't afraid of a rogue cultivator with no background.
"Very easy job. That man's foundation is terrible. I can't even feel his aura or the usual presence of a soul formation cultivator. I think he must have forcefully advanced through the ranks when he was young. Anyway, there won't be any issue."
Hearing the captain's evaluation, Ouyang Ting almost laughed. He was confident that he could steal all the treasures in the store and kill the Florida Man.
"Let's wait until night. There are too many eyes around here. Once the sun goes down, you can start setting up the trap array," ordered the young master.
"I agree."
The group continued to lurk in the shadow.
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Meanwhile, Leo ate another dantian pill and rechecked his lifespan status. He believed he had enough to upgrade the store to level 3.
<Remaining Lifespan: 2,503 Years, 11 Months, 9 Days 23 Hours.>
There were more than enough. Leo upgraded the store to level 3 right away. While standing behind the store, he touched the wooden wall at the back of the store, and the system prompted him.
Leo didn't need to reread the message. He commanded it, "Upgrade to level 3."
DING
<Humble General Store has been upgraded to Level 3.>
<New Construction Options!>
RUMBLE
The store transformed again. The walls looked newer and glossy as if they had been sanded and coated with wax. The rusty hinges and the door frames changed into new metal door frames, and the creaking sound was no more.
Leo rushed inside the store to see the changes. Upon getting inside, he was shocked.
The store, which was supposed to be about 100 square meters, got slightly larger. The showcases and tables remained in the same position, but they stood in the middle of the store while the walls and windows were two meters away.
Confused, Leo exited through the front door and opened the shop domain menu to see the grid map. However, the shop still occupied the 10x10 grids, remaining unchanged. But when Leo entered the store, it was larger than before.
'Wow. The inside gets bigger, but the outside is still the same. What kind of sorcery is this?'
Leo rushed to the bedroom, aka the storeroom of the humble store building. He wondered if it got bigger as well.
Sure enough, it was larger. Instead of being a rat hole that could barely fit one person, it had the same size as a studio room in an apartment.
Looking at the new bedroom, Leo wondered if the store could feature a modern toilet. He left the bedroom and checked the other parts of the store.
Unfortunately, no toilet was in sight. It was still a store, not a house for a living person. Disappointed, Leo deeply sighed.
'Oh, boy. This feature is unreal. The store is obviously bigger, but no one can notice from the outside. Damn!'
After the upgrade, there was more work to do. Leo relocated the showcases, fridges, and furniture in the store.
After rearranging everything, Leo looked at the empty area at the center. He felt like it lacked something.
The store lacked aisle shelves.
Since Leo had a surplus of lifespan at the moment, he opened the shopping menu to get some modern shelves to display more items so that he wouldn't have to place the pill containers on a flat table.
DING
By spending only six years of lifespan, Leo got six supermarket aisle shelves. He placed them in the middle of the store so that it wouldn't look too empty. Then, he started arranging pill containers on them.
Leo started investing. He purchased 100 Tupperware boxes to store his merchandise instead of putting all of them in a bowl. Fortunately, the 100 containers only cost him 10 years, so he didn't lose out much. Then, he started storing newly made pills in the boxes.
Leo grinned as he gazed at the potential best-seller items in the store.
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[Low-Grade Metal Grain Pill]
Satisfy the hunger for 72 hours.
Improve blood circulation and internal organ efficiency by 20% for 72 hours.
Increase lifespan by three years.
Increase Metal Qi by three years' worth of cultivation.
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After upgrading the alchemy workshop's quality, the new batches of metal element pills came out as low-grade instead of the lesser or inferior-graded ones. As for the other elements, they were fixed at a lesser grade.
Leo couldn't help it – The iron pine nuts were a metal-based ingredient, so it gave a better result when the pills came out as metal element items.
That was not all. As the pill's quality increased, the price had to be reasonable. Leo removed the previous price note on the pill containers and put a new label on them.
[Low-Grade Metal Element Grain Pill – 15 Years of Lifespan per Pill]
All lesser-grade pills remained at the same price. However, only the low-graded ones required 15 years instead of 10.
The metal grain pills were not the only main attraction here – Another type of dangerous pills could be sold like hot cakes. However, Leo kept these pills away as they weren't suitable to be shown in public.
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[Lesser Elixir Grain Pill]
Satisfy the hunger for 48 hours.
Increase metabolism and regenerative abilities for 15 days.
Increase lifespan by 20 years.
Increase five elemental Qi by 20 years' worth of cultivation.
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The lifespan perk was no joke. Moreover, the amount of Qi was twice the inferior-graded ones.
Leo looked at the white glossy pills and thought of Wu Buyi. He wondered how he would react to these elixir pills.
'He's gonna have a heart attack. Anyway, I should store these in my bedroom. If the news spread, I'll get myself in trouble.'
Leo carried the pill boxes with the elixir pills to the storeroom, hoping that nobody would notice their existence. After sorting the elixir pills out, Leo gathered the poison element pills to a separate corner of the shelf and put them in the same usual sealed Tupperware boxes.
Looking at them reminded Leo of Jin Yong, aka the guy with pimples that purchased all his poison pills. Leo wondered if he was still alive.
'I should reserve these for that poison freak. This shelf is reserved for poisonous substances and pills. Oh, speaking of categories, I should rearrange the shelves. I shouldn't put all six elements near each other.'
Leo continued to run in and out, juggling between the alchemy workshop and the store, sorting and filling the containers with more grain pills until night.
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At 9 PM, Leo was mentally exhausted. He walked out of the store, planning to take a quick bath, take a leak, and hit the bed. As soon as Leo got out of the store, he stretched, taking a deep breath and enjoying the scent of the night air.
*SNORE*
Cat, who was usually on the roof, snored like an old man. It seemed to be in deep sleep after all the workouts - chasing around the visiting disciples and deacons all day.
Leo walked toward the earthen jar next to the store, where he had collected the fresh water from the stream river. However, it was empty as Cat drank them all. Moreover, there were signs of contamination as the earthen jar smelled like the chomper's bad breath.
'Dammit, Cat. You could have gotten the water from the stream, not my freaking water reserve! Now, I have to walk to the river and get some water.'
While complaining in his mind, Leo put on gloves and grabbed a water bucket. Then, he walked toward the stream.
But along the way, Leo saw a silhouette of a person behind a large mutated pine tree.
'A bear?'
BZZZ
In a forest, bugs and mosquitoes at night could be annoying. Although Leo's skin and bodily fluids were poisonous to all mammals, the insects flocked around him as if there were flies, attracted to the most delicious stool.
'Ah, damn bugs! Be gone!'
Leo lightly snorted. Unlucky mosquitoes that latched on his skin fell one after another. The fruit flies that hovered in front of Leo also died after being blown by Leo's breath.
After standing still and waiting for the bugs to die out for a minute, Leo resumed his journey to the river.
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A member of the Hound Squad frowned when his eyes met Leo's. He was confident in his stealth abilities, and he didn't believe that Leo could see him in the darkest area of the forest.
The assassin slowly pulled out a knife, ready to attack Leo. However, he heard the voice transmission of his captain.
"The array is incomplete. Stand down."
The assassin moved back into the shadow and put away his weapon. When he was out of Leo's sight, he gulped and looked back at his young master, who was still observing the store from the top of a pine tree.
Ouyang Ting looked at the assassin and shook his head. The latter nodded and remained silent.
Meanwhile, their target simply stood there and stared at the assassin for a few seconds. Then, he continued carrying the water bucket toward the stream.
10 minutes later, Leo returned to the store with a bucket full of water. His face and his clothes were slightly wet, and he hung a white towel around his neck. Oddly, the old man still wore strange-looking gloves.
The assassin slightly peeked out of the shadow, observing Leo.
Suddenly, Leo put down the bucket of water and took off his gloves. He muttered, "Ah, seriously. I hate insects."
"!!!"
All assassins were frozen, including Duan Mu and Ouyang Ting. Their hearts skipped a beat as they noticed that Leo's killing intent soared.
'Does he know we're here?!'
Duan Mu started to get nervous. Although he believed that Leo was a weak soul formation cultivator, he didn't let his guard down. He kept placing talismans around the store building while avoiding Leo's line of sight.
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Meanwhile, one of the assassins did his role, placing additional talismans at the north side of the store. He also sealed the back door, preventing Leo from escaping through this route.
After blockading the backdoor with a barrier talisman, the assassin took a break and looked at another building behind him. The alchemy workshop was still working, and the cauldron seemed to be brewing something.
The assassin caught the scent of an element pill. He drooled.
'Boss won't blame me if I steal some pills, right?'
The assassin approached the cauldron. He grabbed the lid and tried to open it. However, it didn't budge.
"Huh?"
He tried to pull the lid with both hands. Again, it didn't move.
Because of frustration, the assassin exerted more force, yet the fragile-looking metal lid stayed glued to the cauldron.
"This thing…!"
The assassin accidentally uttered a couple of words. He clicked his tongue and walked around the cauldron to see how he could open the lid.
He didn't notice that a certain plant woke up. It turned around and stared at him with red eyes that glowed in the dark.
