Chapter 58: Arson

Wei Chen accompanied Mo Xingyao to the Thousand Treasure Pavilion local branch.

The two used a spirit carriage pulled by two Blood Sweat Horses. The carriage itself was made from Ironwood that could only be found in deep forests. However, the most eye-catching feature was the spirit array engraved on its surface, which allowed the carriage to float slightly above the ground.

All in all, it looked more like a hovercraft, but it worked with the power of spirit arrays instead of technological machinery.

Wei Chen and Mo Xingyao chatted with each other, their topics ranging from everyday life to some lighthearted teasing. Mo Xingyao was very curious and often asked many questions related to Wei Chen’s adventures.

Since Wei Chen was not actually an adventurer who survived countless trials and tribulations, most of the information he used in his broadcasts came from Youqi or the Lord of Death himself.

Because of this, he had no choice but to rely on his Xianxia and Wuxia knowledge to make things up and tell stories he had read in his previous life.

As the carriage moved toward the local branch, the shouting and alarms of pedestrians reached them. People were pointing toward the Thousand Treasure Pavilion branch.

Curious, Mo Xingyao poked her head out of the carriage window to see what was happening. Her face suddenly turned pale as if she had seen something horrifying.

“What!? The branch… the local branch!” Mo Xingyao cried out in panic. She immediately jumped out of the carriage.

Wei Chen quickly followed. The moment he stepped out, he saw a red sky as a sea of flames engulfed the large building they were heading toward.

The carriage driver was stunned. That was the place he was supposed to bring these higher-ups to, and now he had no idea what to do.

Mo Xingyao rushed toward the burning building, which was wrapped in fierce flames. Several cries for help echoed from within, screams of anguish and pain filling the area.

“What the hell!?” Wei Chen was stunned by the scene.

Although he did not expect this world to have an emergency response system like his previous world, the people here had bodies strengthened by spiritual qi. They should be more resilient than normal humans. Besides, there were many cultivators. They should have been able to escape the fire.

Unless… the fire burning right now was not normal fire.

Hearing the screams, Mo Xingyao trembled and turned toward Wei Chen.

“Wei Chen! You are the strongest around here! Can you extinguish the fire? Do you have any water or any technique that can help them?” she asked urgently.

“Let me see.” Wei Chen replied and began sensing his surroundings.

As expected, the fire contained dense spiritual qi and used that spiritual qi as fuel to burn. No wonder it was so fierce. Since the fire contained spiritual qi, by this logic, spiritual qi was the catalyst making the flames stronger.

By separating this kind of fuel from the fire, it should weaken it.

“Guard me!” Wei Chen said to Mo Xingyao, then quickly sat down in front of the burning building.

“What… what are you doing, Wei Chen!? This is not the time to cultivate!” Mo Xingyao panicked.

“Trust me.” With that, Wei Chen began cultivating. He channeled his spiritual qi and circulated the power within his dantian.

The black hole core reacted. A vortex began to form and started sucking in the spiritual qi within the fire.

Wei Chen controlled the suction force carefully so that it only targeted the spiritual qi inside the flames. Several fire tendrils formed and reached toward him as the flames weakened. The fire that engulfed the building began to die down as its spiritual qi was drained.

The spiritual fire slowly transformed into normal fire.

Wei Chen’s dantian quickly broke down the fire spiritual qi and rejected the fire element, which burned the ground around him. Only the purified spiritual qi remained inside his dantian.

Seeing that the fire had weakened significantly, Mo Xingyao commanded the branch staff outside to rescue the people inside and call for doctors to help the injured.

Wei Chen slowly stood up once he felt that the fire’s spiritual qi had been drained dry. He looked at the burnt building and the several local branch employees lying on stretchers.

This scene made him view Mo Xingyao more favorably. The injured lying on the stretchers were all mortals. He had thought Mo Xingyao might neglect mortal lives and treat them as ants, just like many heirs of great sects.

Fortunately, his assumption was wrong. It was rare for Wei Chen to feel good about being wrong.

Now the fire that still burned in some places was normal fire that could be easily put out with the help of a few Qi Refining Realm employees. The flames were completely extinguished, but the problem remained.

The fire had been fueled by spiritual qi. This meant it was not an accident, it was arson. Moreover, the spiritual qi he detected was dense and powerful. It should have come from an expert proficient in fire combat techniques.

“Miss Mo… I think you should investigate this further. The spiritual qi that fueled the fire earlier was dense and powerful, like it was used by an expert who is skilled in fire combat techniques,” Wei Chen warned.

Mo Xingyao, who had been commanding the people, turned toward Wei Chen. She nodded with a thoughtful expression.

This trip of hers happened because of her own willfulness, she wanted to follow Wei Chen and act as a third wheel. There was no prior notice to the local branch that she would be coming. Normally, the local branch manager would be the one to return to the headquarters to report the quarterly earnings.

But she stopped that manager from coming back and assigned him some random tasks at the headquarters. She decided to come here instead as a surprise inspection.

It was clear that the man had been alarmed and tried to refuse, but she ignored his protests assign him some random jobs and came anyway. Now it seemed there was indeed something suspicious happening in this branch.

The problem is… what is it?

What kind of issue would make someone spend resources to hire a fire element technique expert to burn down this branch? What are they trying to hide?

Mo Xingyao took out the U-Phone and called her secretary back at the headquarters.

“Arrest the manager of the Azure River Capital City branch and interrogate him. There is something fishy going on here, and I want to know what it is. I will contact you later,” Mo Xingyao ordered before cutting the connection.

She then looked at Wei Chen with a smile. “It seems you have to be stuck with me for a few more days.”

“Sigh… ok… I will stay with you until your people can find a new guard for you,” Wei Chen said with a tired sigh.

“Really?”

“It’s a promise,” Wei Chen nodded.

After that, Wei Chen spent his time staying beside this money-grubbing girl, always guarding her. During this period, Wei Chen also detected a few presences monitoring them from afar. Some of them carried malicious intent, but none of them dared to act.

It could be said that, aside from sleeping and bathroom time, Wei Chen guarded Mo Xingyao like a shadow, always following her.

— A Few Days Later – Night —

On the fourth day, while Wei Chen was checking the shop before going to sleep, he discovered that the last broadcast had brought him a large amount of Underworld Gold Coins. He had accumulated about fifteen million UGC, another unexpected windfall.

This was the time he felt the most relaxed. It was like browsing an online shopping site in his previous life, thinking about what he might want to buy. And the underworld did not disappoint him. All kinds of artifacts and cultivation resources were available, even rare or extinct ones that no longer existed in this realm.

However, those rare resources were extremely expensive and not suitable for him anyway, since his black hole core required an absurd amount of spiritual qi to grow.

“Huh? What’s this?” Wei Chen muttered as he noticed two items on the list priced under one thousand UGC.

Name: Killing License (x10 available)

Price: 1,000 (90 percent discount)

Description: A license for underworld agents to kill targets other than their assigned target.

Name: French 3-Star Michelin Chef Knowledge and Experience Package (x1 available)

Price: 850

Description: The crystallization of the experience, knowledge, and muscle memory of a deceased three-star Michelin chef. Since the dead must restart anew, they no longer need these things, so the underworld recycles them.

“Huh? French? I wonder who it was,” Wei Chen said in curiosity before purchasing both packages.

The package appeared within the broadcasting orb, but Wei Chen did not immediately use it since he needed to guard Mo Xingyao. He did not know whether using it would cause him to lose consciousness or something similar. These days, he often entered a light cultivation state because he needed to stay alert at all times.

“Uh… does that bodyguard woman always do this, or does she sleep in the same room?” Wei Chen complained a little.

But at this moment, Wei Chen suddenly felt a qi fluctuation coming from Mo Xingyao’s room.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep