Chapter Thirty-Two: Counting the Spoils of War

After putting away the blood-colored badge, he glanced at the corpse lying on the ground. Memories of the headless female corpse he’d seen in the shadow world of Tianhai University resurfaced, prompting Mu Rongxun to collect the young man's body as well.

Conveniently, his Primordial God gloves had assimilated the ghoul’s ability, allowing him to strengthen himself by consuming corpses. After storing the body and letting the gloves absorb it, he finally had a moment to examine his spoils.

[Killed a white-name player. Current mode: Peace. You may inherit 30% of the target’s remaining Paradise Coins. You have gained 9 Paradise Coins.]

[Blood-colored Badge: Loot obtained from killing a player. Peace mode. Allows three draws. You can extract items from the opponent’s storage space, including equipment, miscellaneous items, skills, and everything else.]

Seeing the prompt about the nine Paradise Coins, Mu Rongxun raised an eyebrow. So, the opponent had thirty Paradise Coins? That’s not insignificant—considering his own protection mission didn’t really count as completed, the penalty would have been elimination, but the reward was only ten Paradise Coins. Protecting someone gave him just ten coins, while the opponent carried thirty. Clearly, that was quite a sum.

It was only now that he recalled not paying attention to how many Paradise Coins he’d received when he killed Li Jing. But this wasn’t the moment for such concerns. He didn’t know if the young man had notified anyone else, and remembering the last time he was locked onto by someone unseen, he hurriedly left the area.

He returned to the brightly lit avenue, where waves of heat washed over him. Car horns sounded intermittently, and conversations began to fill the sidewalks. The alley and the street felt like two completely unrelated parallel worlds; no one would ever know that a deadly struggle had just occurred, and a life had been lost.

Once he blended into the crowd, Mu Rongxun was indistinguishable from any other young man. He hadn’t changed his original goal and was still on his way to seek out the anomaly. With only a few targets left, it was best to finish the task quickly and leave. Now that he had antagonized other players without the strength to confront them directly, he needed to prepare ahead of time.

As he walked, he didn’t forget that he had three draws left. After choosing to draw, an invisible treasure chest appeared before his eyes. The outcome depended entirely on luck.

Compared to buying lottery tickets, this was a guaranteed win, making it exceptionally generous. He reached in, fumbled around, and finally pulled something out. Since there was no way to determine by touch what he’d grabbed, it all came down to luck.

The first item appeared. Seeing a familiar stack of talisman papers, Mu Rongxun sighed. He’d already seen these once in Li Jing’s loot; it seemed to be a standard issue for them.

Li Jing’s stack had been partially used, but the young man’s talismans were untouched. Being no combatant, he hadn’t needed to face anomalies and thus hadn’t used the talismans. He glanced over them—there were many types, each with its own function.

According to Paradise’s recycling price, this stack of talisman papers was worth ten Paradise Coins. Not knowing the exact market value, Mu Rongxun couldn’t be sure if this was a good deal, but he put them away for now, especially since he could use them himself.

Calming himself, he reached back in for his second draw. This time, he obtained a vial of potion—something he was quite familiar with: enhancement liquid. Paradise’s identification confirmed it was identical to the one he’d used, likely sourced from the Bureau of Anomalies.

[Enhancement Liquid: A product refined from materials left by anomalies using crude techniques. Increases overall physical attributes of ordinary people by 10%. Limit one bottle per person; more at your own risk.]

[Recycle price: 30 Paradise Coins per bottle]

Seeing the recycle price, Mu Rongxun’s lips twitched. He hadn’t expected enhancement liquid to be so expensive. It made his struggle to obtain a bottle by killing five anomalies seem worthwhile. This was a pleasant surprise; though he couldn’t use it himself, it could be sold or traded.

With the enhancement liquid being a decent item, he became even more eager for his final draw. Li Jing had given him a weapon—he hoped not to be disappointed this time.

He rummaged in the treasure chest for a while, flipping through several items before finally choosing one. Looking down at his empty hands, Mu Rongxun was momentarily stunned. He was certain he’d grabbed something, so why was there nothing now?

He quickly checked his draw records.

[Congratulations, you have obtained a stack of basic universal talisman papers.]
[Congratulations, you have obtained a vial of inferior enhancement liquid.]
[Congratulations, you have obtained a pair of “Piercing Blood Eyes.”]

“Piercing Blood Eyes?”

Seeing the last entry, Mu Rongxun was puzzled. Not understanding what it meant, he opened the expanded information for Piercing Blood Eyes.

[Piercing Blood Eyes: Bloodline type. The left eye sees the intangible; the right eye pierces through illusions. Upon mastery, they can unleash the Blood Light of Piercing the Void, connecting the depths below and the heavens above.]

So powerful?

Reading this description, Mu Rongxun felt he’d struck it rich. But if they were so powerful, why was the young man so feeble?

Searching through his personal space, he finally found the Piercing Blood Eyes, wrapped in a ball of crimson light.

[Damaged Piercing Blood Eyes: Tier one, bloodline type.]
[Current status: Beginner]
[Development: 5%]
[Upgrade requirements: 1,000 Paradise Coins, three drops of pure blood to advance to minor mastery.]
[Recycle price: 500 Paradise Coins]

At this point, Mu Rongxun’s hopes plummeted. No wonder the young man had been so weak—it all made sense. However formidable the Piercing Blood Eyes might be in their complete form, they were now damaged and low-level, so their power was limited.

Still, seeing the high recycle price, Mu Rongxun knew it was a valuable item.

Meanwhile, his gloves finished digesting, returning energy to him. He felt a sudden clarity in his mind, his spirit invigorated. Checking his status, he discovered that his “Spirit” had increased by 0.1.

Though he didn’t know exactly what “Spirit” did, he understood that, without the guaranteed hit effect of the Golden Bow, he could now confidently shoot others at close range. With higher spiritual power, his control had improved.

Moreover, heightened spirit meant he could maintain clarity when facing anomalies, resisting deception and confusion. For him, this was an extremely important attribute.

If only the timing were right, he would have loved to try fusing with the Piercing Blood Eyes to see what effect they might have.