novelraw Chapter 724 26: Bottom Line
Chapter 724 26: Bottom Line
"There was not a single survivor in the entire tribe; I became the only person in this world who knew of the existence of 'ancestral land' and 'holy items'. After silently recording the precise location here, I dragged all the corpses of the herdsmen into the cave and then rode my horse back to the mining area," Lin Lun continued, "Six months later, fully prepared, I returned to the 'ancestral land'... However, what frightened me was that during these six months, the sapling which hadn't absorbed any negative emotions had severely withered, almost reaching the brink of death."
"I had to admit, my heart was very panicked at that time. I was worried the sapling would die during my transplanting... If it died, I fear I could never find another object with similar abilities in this lifetime," Lin Lun said.
"What did you do then?" Sun Hang was somewhat curious. "You can perfectly control your own emotions, so should you not be able to create some negative emotions for the sapling to absorb?"
As Sun Hang spoke, he looked at the towering "tree" planted in the pool... Given that he could see this "tree" here, it meant that Lin Lun succeeded in rescuing the small sapling back then.
"I drove back to the mining area and sought out four young women from the local tribe," Lin Lun said. "The mining area has many men from inland cities who are either bachelors or have left their families inland... Life at the mining area is very dull and lonely, but this monotony not only fails to smooth out the desires of these men, it actually turns them into repressed beasts... When there is demand, there is a market, and many young women with some charm from the tribe start to trade with these men - sometimes for money, sometimes for intriguing items only available in large inland cities."
Lin Lun continued, "I was in a hurry, so I didn't haggle over the price. I spent three thousand yuan plus a smart watch to buy a week's 'time' from them. On the surface, the transaction was finding four local girls to act as 'guides', but the actual content was well understood by themselves and the intermediary."
"Did you take them to the ancestral land?"
"Yes... I told them that I was bored of the mining area and wanted to find some excitement deep in the grasslands," Lin Lun said. "I added five hundred yuan for each of them, and they got in my car without hesitation."
"I brought them to the ancestral land and tied them up with ropes... They had entertained plenty of guests, including some who liked to play such tricks. Initially, they thought it was just part of the transaction until I took them into that cave."
"I tore off their blindfolds. The scattered white bones and the eerie, fleshy sapling in the cave made them scream in terror... Unfortunately, this place was more than a hundred kilometers away from the nearest mining area, and their cries for help would be heard by no one but me."
"I told them that this dying sapling was a man-eating monster, and that I needed to use their flesh and blood as nutrients to feed this monster. Fear and despair crazily grew within them. I clearly saw those black mists pouring out from them, continuously absorbed by the sapling."
"The sapling was gradually recovering, and their negative emotions were gradually fading... They started to become quiet, and the 'yield' of negative emotions began to sharply decline both in quantity and quality."
"I had no choice but to use intimidation and cruelty to keep them in constant fear and pain..." As Lin Lun recounted this experience, his expression was incredibly calm, "I used extremely ruthless methods to torture them in that cave for five whole days, until three of them were tortured to death and one remaining became mentally deranged, descending into madness... Finally, the sapling's condition recovered to a barely transplantable state."
"Aren't you afraid that because of the disappearance of these four women, the mining area's sheriff might investigate you?"
"Only that intermediary knew I 'hired' these four 'female guides,' and my dealings with him were all conducted in private... During our last meeting, I gifted him a jug of fine wine laced with a slow-acting poison. He was a drunkard, and such fine wine, hard to come by in the mining area, he had no reason not to drink... It would take just three to four days for him to leave this world due to myocardial infarction - a drunkard dying suddenly due to over-drinking; it's reasonable enough in the eyes of others, isn't it?"
"You indeed resort to any means to achieve your goals..." Sun Hang said in a low voice, "Have you ever counted how many people you killed to obtain this thing?"
"Taking into account only before the transplant was completed, it should be one hundred and seventy-five," Lin Lun said. "I will remember their sacrifices; their deaths were not meaningless but rather a contribution to my great cause."
"Nice words indeed, but you wouldn't even give their families a penny in compensation," Sun Hang coldly mocked.
Kill and be done with it, yet still finding a righteous excuse for murder; isn't that akin to acting dignified while doing dishonorable deeds?
While a true villain is detestable, a hypocrite makes Sun Hang feel even more nauseated.
But then again, the person before him seemed not to be a hypocrite—from his various behaviors, he genuinely seemed to believe those he killed contributed to his research… This isn't a hypocrite; this is a madman, utterly and completely a madman.