Chapter 124: Suspicions and Harassment

Outside the outpost camp.

In a pool of blood lay a corpse, stripped of its clothes, face-up; in its dim eyes, the edges held a trace of lingering hope, while the center was filled with stunned, bleak despair.

One only had to look at that twisted, rope-like neck to know who had been the one to kill him.

Xiang Tao!

The camp master had just come over to look, decided the man was beyond saving and thus not worth saving, so he simply killed him and skillfully stripped him of all his belongings before leaving.

The new and veteran patrol guards watched from afar; the veterans were accustomed to it, laughing and joking, while the new recruits clenched their hands, feeling a bone-chilling cold despite the sweltering heat, unable to stop shivering and gritting their teeth.

Returning to his room without attracting attention, he took out the spirit meal he had placed in the pot to eat, and then began to cultivate, racing against time.

Du En silently considered these matters.

However, he went with the flow, continuing to feign ignorance as he replied, "Logistics Officer Zhao, what exactly are you talking about? I really don't understand. I don't think I've ever offended you, have I?"

Although there was indeed no problem with exchanging three medium-grade spirit stones for three hundred low-grade ones, where was this place? An outpost camp far from the border city, a place that could be called a land of exile!

In this relatively isolated and enclosed place, the patrol guards were all at the Foundation Establishment stage; even if they used spirit stones for cultivation, they would not use low-grade spirit stones that yielded half the result for twice the effort, let alone for daily transactions.

Zhao Jinlin sneered inwardly, waiting for Du En to speak up about buying things so he could righteously rebuke him and vent his frustration once more.

Time slipped away rapidly, and then, the day arrived for another corpse to appear around the camp, requiring him to bury it.

"... That's right, there really hasn't been. Our only contact was that one time you bought a spell."

However, if it really came to it, he would have no choice but to use them; after all, his current cultivation was the most important thing.

Standing in the camp and looking around, he could no longer see anything different from usual, only the atmosphere in a few scattered corners appeared slightly oppressive.

At this, Du En raised an eyebrow slightly, took the spirit stones, said nothing more, and turned to leave in silence.

"Is he trying to save spirit stones? That guy, could it be that he's about to break through..."

"The situation is not quite right. Evil corpses or strange corpses that are hard to handle, or corpses that might carry lingering effects from spells or actions—it's normal for me to be asked to bury those. But this ordinary corpse, which he killed himself, and he still asks me to bury it? That's a bit strange."

Du En felt that something was fishy.

The ground, which had previously been as hard as cast iron, could now be easily shoveled, so the corpse was buried very quickly.

He then nimbly walked over, dragged the corpse away, and his figure quickly disappeared into the mountain forest.

Zhao Jinlin sprang up, his aura aggressive and overbearing, but in reality, he used his divine sense to transmit a harsh message: "You had better not blab about this; keep it buried in your stomach. Otherwise, you will die a very, very miserable death!"

After all, seeing him so calm and not frightened at the time, appearing to be a maverick, inevitably made Xiang Tao feel a bit suspicious.

The tall and thin Zhao Jinlin sneered at this moment, looking even more sharp-mouthed and monkey-cheeked, clearly being acerbic and mean.

Seeing Du En dare to come over so brazenly, he felt a surge of anger.

Thus, the inventory of low-grade spirit stones here became severely overstocked; even if they tried to dump them all into the formation, they couldn't be consumed.

"Low-grade spirit stones?"

The last time, when he had just reported for duty, it could still be called killing the chicken to warn the monkey; leaving the corpse unhandled for a while allowed the newcomers to quickly understand their situation, making them easier to manage.

Now, Zhao Jinlin changing Du En's monthly pay into low-grade spirit stones was a blatant act of bullying and harassment; it was impossible for him to exchange them back. If he really brought this up, the response would simply be that the inventory of medium-grade spirit stones was low, using that to reject him directly.

The new and veteran patrol guards looked away.

"Huh? Yu Jian didn't make him buy anything?"

This was what Du En thought to himself.

If possible, the medium-grade spirit stones needed to be saved for a rainy day, to be used as seasoning when cooking third-tier spirit meals later on.

"Last time it was to fool and confuse you that I let you use low-grade spirit stones, but now, heh!"

"Still trying to play dumb with me, are you!"

With a better bone shovel, digging the ground to bury the corpse was naturally faster.

"Hah!"

"There must be some problem... but for now, my liver-cultivation has just gotten on the right track, so it's not suitable to investigate."

Du En made this decision.

After all, among monster materials, bones, teeth, and claws were the most common.

They didn't accept low-grade spirit stones!

Zhao Jinlin sat back down and took out a bag of spirit stones, placing them on the wooden table in front of him.

This time he didn't need to go very far, because as he reached out his hand, a pale bone shovel slid out and grew in size; it was the new second-tier low-grade monster bone shovel that had been replaced and upgraded.

Zhao Jinlin, in his astonishment, quickly became thoughtful, forming a misunderstanding that wasn't a misunderstanding, but was a misunderstanding nonetheless.

Although Xiang Tao had already left, what he needed to do now was quite obvious.

"Take it, your monthly pay."

In this way, no one else in the camp could exchange with him, and in the end, he could only hold onto a pile of low-grade spirit stones, living a miserable life, unable to buy or sell magical artifacts or anything else.

When Du En went to bury a corpse at the edge of the camp next time, he—Logistics Officer Zhao, who usually couldn't go out on field missions and had to stay at the logistics office—would be able to seize the opportunity and get things done!

This was the scene Du En saw when he arrived.

It wasn't that Du En would definitely buy something, but that guy Yu Jian would definitely make him spend his monthly pay to buy something on the side.

As for him now, he needed to boil fifty low-grade spirit stones every day; with the new second-tier pot artifact having been refined and put into use recently, the grade of the spirit meals would rise again, and this daily consumption would only increase.

"You're lucky, kid. If I didn't have to stay here today to distribute monthly pay, you... heh!"

He now understood clearly that Du En had obviously perceived his intentions.

Because they also only accepted medium-grade spirit stones.

"That's right, hehe, I saw that you seemed quite short of these, and you were so stingy last time, so this time I specially exchanged them into low-grade ones for you. Three hundred pieces, not a single one missing. Aren't you going to say thank you?"

Even if he let Du En take it to bury, it could be called testing his obedience.

"Logistics Officer Zhao, what are you talking about? Why don't I understand?"

"I'm currently worrying about how to replenish low-grade spirit stones; three hundred a month is just a drop in the bucket."

But the supply arrangements from Supervisor Tang Yiping in the border city never changed; the amount of low-grade spirit stones to be replenished would certainly be the same next time, and they would absolutely not be exchanged for medium-grade spirit stones.

Du En was clearly aware of the malice directed toward him.

But for it to be like this again—not burning it with a spell, but insisting that he come to bury the corpse—was clearly very wrong.

This brat had actually dared to intentionally hide from him before, making it so he could never find an opportunity to seize the treasure; it was truly hateful to the extreme!

Zhao Jinlin spoke as if it were a matter of course, his eyes filled with mockery and sarcasm.

On the way back, he even conveniently used the Fire Ignition Spell to burn away the bloodstains.

He would wait until he had another breakthrough and the timing was ripe before going to investigate and get to the bottom of it.

Du En set off again and traveled forward; he did not return to his living quarters, but instead came to the Logistics Department.

However, he figured this brat also understood that spreading the word himself was not a good thing.

Since that was the case, by stirring up trouble for him now, he could buy himself some time.

And on this day, Zhao Jinlin would not be trapped in the Logistics Department, or perhaps it should be said that this guy had created the opportunity himself.

It was just that, before this day, Du En had already achieved another breakthrough.

(End of this chapter)