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Chapter 263: The Troublesome Zou Family
Chapter 263: The Troublesome Zou Family
"Li Yan, confess! What do you plan to do with the meteorite you captured, and what is the purpose of the device you are building!"
The leader was a shadow agent dressed in a shadow suit. From his voice, he seemed to be quite old, but his strength was considerable, nearly reaching the 4th rank.
However, his combat skills were not very impressive, as if he had been hastily trained with various resources.
Alongside him were nearly a dozen shadow agents, all of whom were quite powerful. Some were former members of illegal organizations who had been whitewashed, while others were new recruits from established families.
Qin Muye, on the other hand, was diligently collecting data and had no intention of paying attention to them.
If they had the ability, they could come in. His giant mechanical device isolated the inside from the outside, using the Shadow Realm as its power source. Unless they could dismantle the Shadow Realm, they wouldn't be able to get in.
This made the leader extremely angry, his whole body trembling, seemingly due to the fact that Qin Muye was ignoring him. This made Qin Muye find it quite peculiar—how could such a small matter make him so angry? Where was his composure?
"Attack! Teach him the difference between respect and contempt. A mere commoner dares to defy the law like this." The leader, who looked like he was about to take a quick-acting heart pill, said shakily.
Then, a group of shadow agents rushed forward, as if they were about to tear Qin Muye apart.
But Qin Muye just rolled his eyes. Well, so he was a commoner now. The times had changed so quickly. He had thought it was a normal law-based society, but suddenly it had become feudal.
The talk of respect and contempt and defiance of the law suggested that the entire Sheng Nation was now under the control of noble families. Otherwise, things wouldn't be like this.
He hadn't been following the news or paying much attention to the outside world recently. Instead, he had been focusing on sampling and analyzing the demon-free environment of the Human Realm, believing that solving the Shadow Realm's half of the task lay in the environmental factors of the Human Realm.
So, he had been fully devoted to his experiments and had no time to worry about external affairs.
Not long ago, the ordinary human agent who had been monitoring him was called back, and he hadn't bothered to find out why.
And today, a group of people, looking like they had had their brains scooped out, had come to his door with a menacing attitude.
Looking at the people blocked outside, Qin Muye shook his head and decided not to pay attention.
"Fine, fine, if you're so arrogant, then stay in there forever. If you dare to come out, I—"
"Will turn you into fireworks." Qin Muye looked at the person shouting outside. He didn't understand why, even though the person had come to his door with a haughty attitude and the intention to take his life, he was the one being labeled as arrogant.
So, he decided to be a little arrogant and turned the person into fireworks.
The person's body began to expand wildly, like a balloon.
Bang!
When it reached its limit, it exploded with a loud noise, and the person was blown apart into a mass of blood and flesh.
All the people surrounding the protective barrier heard the commotion and their hearts sank.
Just one sentence, and the strongest one was gone.
Although the leader was a fake, with no combat experience, the strength granted by the shadow suit was real and far beyond what the others could match.
The shadow agent system had its benefits. As long as there were enough resources, a powerful shadow agent could be created, without worrying about issues like weak foundations or unstable power. After all, from the beginning, this path could only be strengthened through money.
Commoners? They could be as miserable as they could be.
For example, Qin Muye's Shadow Book, due to a lack of further cultivation, had stopped growing after reaching full development.
It was like leveling up without gaining experience, only possible through money. Perhaps the profession of a shadow agent could change this, but Qin Muye was unlikely to choose such a profession for this reason.
He now needed at least an epic-level ability, not just a rare one.
"Go back. Don't waste your time. Unless you have the strength of the former Shadow Administration's Chief Tianpeng, or bring the Yin Mountain Lord here, you'll be lucky to leave with your bodies intact." Qin Muye kindly offered this advice to the group.
This was called "first with courtesy, then with force." If they left now, Qin Muye would let them go, and he would let them spread the word about his strength. Otherwise, if he killed them all, no one would know his true power, and any random person could come to challenge him again.
If they didn't leave, Qin Muye would have no choice but to send them on their way, since he wasn't averse to making an example out of them. If they all stubbornly refused to leave, Qin Muye would have to spare some time to eliminate them.
Fortunately, this group had some sense.
"Thank you, Professor Li. This wasn't our choice; the Zou Family forcibly dispatched us. The one you turned into fireworks was the Second Patriarch of the Zou Family. Be cautious; they won't let this go. They want to imprison you to find more relics."
One of the recruited retainers spoke up decisively and then quickly fled.
In an instant, everyone displayed their various skills and scattered like birds and beasts.
Did they really want to stay and die here?
They were all aware of Tianpeng and the Yin Mountain Lord. They wouldn't dare to boast about themselves being on par with such figures.
Only the Second Patriarch of the Zou Family, who had suddenly gained strength in his old age, had lost his sense of judgment. He had been a wastrel from a young age, which explained his irrational behavior upon arrival.
Of course, the Zou Family had reaped substantial benefits and power from this conflict, inflating the already unintelligent wastrel.
Moreover, the Zou Family's patriarch, the First Patriarch, doted on him. Since the Second Patriarch hadn't competed for the family's leadership, the patriarch harbored a favorable view of him, sending him on this mission to gain some experience and handle a minor task.
From the beginning, the Zou Family hadn't taken 'Li Yan' seriously.
This led to the peculiar situation that had unfolded, but it wasn't surprising. They didn't believe Qin Muye had the resources to cultivate shadows.
The passages to the Shadow Realm were already under the control of the major families. Only members of these families could enter; other shadow agents were barred.
Otherwise, why would they have overthrown the Shadow Administration? It was all for the sake of the benefits.
If the Shadow Administration had remained in control, the families wouldn't have had the upper hand; they would have had to share the benefits with the higher-ups of the Sheng Nation.
The families were one thing, and the higher-ups of the Sheng Nation were another. While there might be some overlap, the higher-ups included politicians and ambitious figures who had risen from the lower ranks, and they weren't aligned with the families. This is why such a large-scale power struggle had occurred.
Although the families had won, it didn't mean the power struggle was over. The conflicts between the families had only just begun, all for the sake of dividing the spoils.
If it were Qin Muye, he would have made each of them bleed.
He could tolerate his subordinates lacking ability, but he would never tolerate internal strife and a lack of self-awareness.
Once the extraordinary system fully replaced the modern system, the era of peace would give way to a world of the strong preying on the weak.
It would take a powerful figure to step in and suppress everything.
However, Qin Muye felt this was unlikely, as he was about to deal the final blow.
They still dreamed of living a life of luxury, of moving mountains and filling seas. But when the Shadow Realm was completely separated, the shadow agent system would collapse, and the extraordinary beings who were about to reach their peak would stumble and fall flat on their faces.
They would then have to obediently return to a normal society.
"Thinking about it, I've really committed a great evil. I've destroyed a perfectly good extraordinary system."
"But I don't just want to destroy the shadow agent system; I want to devour the Shadow Realm, the source of the extraordinary."
Once he started, Qin Muye was determined to go all the way, not leaving any room for mercy.
"Ah, I remember. I not only want to devour the Shadow Realm but also drain all the resources of the Human Realm."
Qin Muye realized that, despite being the protagonist, his actions and demeanor were increasingly resembling those of a villain, and there was no stopping him.
He suspected it might be due to a lack of a protagonist's aura, causing his actions to align more with those of a villain, especially when it came to ruthless tactics, which he was becoming increasingly adept at.
"Indeed, the blame should be on 'The Lord of the Ages,' not me. I'm just a weak, bookish scholar."
As long as he didn't have to bear the blame, it didn't matter who did.
(End of Chapter)
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