The Last King Of Darkness
Chapter 111 - 83: Harvesting

Chapter 111: Chapter 83: Harvesting

Rod instantly tensed up, realizing things could be much more troublesome if the enemy were human.

It was hard for him to gauge how strong a person was. The soul waveform of a person could be hidden and altered. They didn’t maintain the operation of spiritual energy all the time like monsters. Generally, spiritual energy only burst forth when they were attacking or about to use a certain ability.

However, humans’ defensive capabilities were weak. Before they activated their spiritual defense, he could kill a person with just a light strike without even needing his spirit gun’s heavy strike.

But he couldn’t be certain they weren’t allies. What if they were?

If he ended up with the crime of killing an ally, all his efforts up to now would be ruined.

Rod hesitated for a moment, then decided to test the waters first.

He turned and slipped into another side of the drainage tunnel, leaving their line of sight.

The figure in the corridor immediately drew back, running towards him while frantically waving their hands.

Soon after, more figures appeared from the depths of his vision, quickly running towards the corridor above his head, looking anxious, flustered, and with ill-intent.

It was clear they were tracking him.

This couldn’t possibly be comrades; they had to be Doomsday believers.

Unfortunately, his X-ray vision was not unlimited. If the physical material was too thick, it would block his view, preventing him from seeing spiritual bodies and energy.

Otherwise, he would have been able to see these people searching for him through the filthy drainage pipes.

The drainage pipe was a second-level tunnel directly connected to the ground. The filth gathered from first-level smaller pipes flowed to the second-level tunnel, then into the broad sewers to be washed away by the water current, which joined various drainage channels.

In the end, it would flow into the depths of Black Water River underground, and after a lengthy journey, it would reach its final destination, the stinking swamp.

Rod glanced at the wall beside him.

It was part of a huge frost blue stone. According to Professor Bins, any sewers made with such giant blue stones were built by giants.

The pipes within the blue stone, however, were excavated by humans afterwards.

At this moment, a group of Doomsday believers were right above him, in the pipes in his overhead. They were huddled together, holding their breath.

Because such a large mass had never appeared in the pipe before, the filth behind them had clogged up, reducing the flow of sewage.

These were amateurs.

Rod came to a conclusion.

They were probably just low-level flunkies.

This allowed him to feel slightly relieved. As long as he didn’t encounter a powerful figure like a Black Priest, there wasn’t much danger to fear.

Rod grasped a Thunder Stone, invoking his spiritual energy, rapidly infusing it into the stone as he shouted,

"Wow, this thing is really delicious."

"So fragrant."

"Soft and sticky, brown with a hint of black, simply a delicacy of the human world."

He made smacking sounds while never taking his eyes off the shapes in the pipe for half a second.

They didn’t make any notable movements, just covered their mouths one after another.

Rod noticed a bright light flying out from one person’s hand, with a line of words on it:

"We found him! He is actually eating shit! We cannot accept such irrational behavior, sorry but we cannot proceed as agreed."

The light flew along the pipe, clearly some sort of communication method.

Rod didn’t hesitate any longer and tossed the energy-filled Thunder Stone into the pipe.

Along with a chorus of shocked shouts, a loud bang erupted in the pipe, dazzling thunder light burst out, and all the souls were extinguished.

Dozens of blue, black, and green thin threads shot out from the wall, piercing into his chest.

[Duke’s Soul]

[Duncan’s Soul]

[Contaminated Selt’s Soul]

[Wales’ Soul]

...

There were twelve in total, one of which was a contaminated soul.

It seemed that this soul belonged to their leader.

Rod looked around, ensuring there were no threats in the vicinity, quickly forming a lightning symbol.

The souls rose into the air, and after a strong sense of weightlessness, he was in the Dream Realm again.

It was still as serene, silent, and dull as ever, as if time didn’t flow in this place.

Rod turned his head to see the soul altar floating with many Soul Fires of different sizes, the results of his recent collection.

The twelve recently acquired souls were at the farthest end.

Rod stepped onto the altar and examined them closely.

They were remarkably small, with tiny, flickering flames that were unstable, mostly blue, green, and yellow in color, mixed with black.

The contaminated soul had more black in it.

Rod was quite disappointed to find they were just like dust, yielding very few Soul Without Spirit upon disintegration.

However, a person’s soul could be listened to. At the time of death, the strongest and most unwilling thoughts in their mind would linger, creating an eternal echo within the soul.

Rod leaned close to a soul, listening intently.

A faint voice quickly appeared in his ear.

"It’s all mine! Everything is mine! Money, power, position, ..."

Rod frowned and listened to the second soul.

"I want eternal life..."

The third one.

"I don’t want to stay in the sewers anymore! Everyone above me must die..."

The fourth one.

"Kneel, all kneel!"

...

After listening to all twelve, they were just full of chaotic desires and hatred, with no useful information.

Rod felt disappointed and decided to sacrifice all twelve souls.

On average, each soul had only two points of Soul Without Spirit.

However, he received twelve portions of "Living Spirituality"!

"Living Spirituality", which was abundant in the souls of people, could be used to create Resentful Spirits, Puppets, or perform some strange rituals.

They wriggled on his hand like transparent insects, making Rod’s skin crawl.

These materials were not needed at the moment, so Rod quickly put them into storage, confirming they would not affect the other materials before swiftly returning to the physical world.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the broken bodies washed out of the pipes and flung into the sludge, where the accumulated filth of the pipes fell upon them, becoming the final resting place for this group of greed-driven individuals.

After a moment’s thought, Rod still took out a crystal slab and imprinted the scene before him, planning to report it truthfully to the Defense Department once he returned.

After all, being attacked by doomsday believers could somewhat prove that he was a good guy.

With no intention of interrupting his mission, Rod needed to harvest more complete souls as quickly as possible, raise "Frost Blue" to the highest level in one go, and then figure out a way to ignite a new star.

He walked swiftly deeper into the depths, not wishing to tangle with these doomsday believers who had little to offer.

——

But contrary to his wishes, after dealing with a few plague rats, Rod spotted another group of figures rushing towards him.

Their souls all bore a distinct black color, their soul waveforms were flashy and agitated, and they carried the deep undertone of a horn, sharing the same traits as the previous group.

Another group!

Rod was a bit annoyed.

Your souls are as worthless as garbage, simply wasting my time and spiritual energy.

"High-Level Spirit Revival" did have a strong effect, but it still couldn’t compensate for all the consumption, and he had just discovered a large group of plague rats, which meant a substantial upcoming expenditure of spiritual energy that he should save wherever possible.

He didn’t want to use Thunder Stones anymore, as they consumed too much spiritual energy, and the enemies were too scattered to be killed in one go.

Rod quickly set his Spirit Gun to light strike mode, retraced his steps to get behind them, and the moment he jumped out, he fired seven shots in rapid succession.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!

Seven people fell to the ground.

He reloaded as quickly as possible and fired five more shots.

The five who hadn’t come to their senses also fell.

Twelve people were killed on the spot.

Twelve souls collected.

Hmph.

Weaklings.

Rod lightly blew on the Spirit Gun where no smoke existed.

I have "Eye of the Soul," how could you fight against me?

He felt a bit of joy in his heart, as for him now, a light strike was like an instant kill, faster than a regular gun; he didn’t even have to pull the trigger. With a surge of spiritual energy, each shot fired instantly.

Thanks to Mina’s training, Rod’s pistol skills were also superb, and with the help of "Eye of the Soul," it was almost like having auto-aim, quick and precise, headshots with every shot, truly achieving one bullet for one teammate.

He didn’t use the Thunder Stones this time, and therefore 80% of the bodies were intact; Rod then scoured for the spoils of war, and his gains turned out to be unexpectedly good.

A pile of potions with unknown uses, two Spirit Guns, more than a dozen True Silver Bullets, and several dozen talismans whose purposes were unknown.

But what pleased him the most was that they had money.

Rod searched and found more than three hundred silver coins.

Ha ha ha.

Rod almost laughed aloud. Well, isn’t this a stroke of luck? I’ve been worried about the lack of money and bullets.

He quickly sent the supplies back to the Dream World, and those too large to fit in his palm were hung on his belt.

After taking another picture of the scene with the crystal slab, Rod set off on his journey.

He followed one of the downstream tributaries of the sewer and soon found the group of plague rats, using two Thunder Stones to destroy their nest.

[Plague Rat Soul]X9

[Weak Soul]X13

[Small Piece of Soul]X22

——

And ten piles of monster ash.

Not bad, quite a harvest.

Rod continued on his way, following the task description; there were some poison insects active nearby, secreting toxins that would spread up through the pipes, causing poisoning among the residents.

Just then, he saw another group of doomsday believers.

A standard group of twelve, with standard blackened souls, the standard flashy, agitated soul waveforms with the low undertone of a horn.

Unlike the previous group, this squad all had Spirit Guns and were rare sharpshooters.

Seemingly with some detection method, they spotted Rod at the same time he saw them.

Thus, a fierce gunfight ensued between the two parties.

But unfortunately for them, Rod was cheating—with foresight and auto-aim, engaging in a gunfight with him was simply suicidal.

In less than thirty seconds, the entire group of twelve was annihilated.

This time, Rod had a bountiful gain; twelve Spirit Guns aside—he wouldn’t bother with garbage that couldn’t compare to the limited edition "Raven" Lauren had given him.

But True Silver Bullets were in short supply; Rod was troubled daily by the high rate of their usage, and since Royal City didn’t seem to use Spirit Guns as standard combat weapons, he couldn’t even get reimbursed since the logistics department didn’t stock True Silver Bullets as a regular item.

But this time, he harvested over a hundred bullets.

At that moment, Rod finally broke into a smile.

True Silver Bullets were no longer a concern.

Not just that, they were also quite wealthy; he found over two thousand silver coins on the twelve individuals.

After tallying them up, Rod realized he now had 2561 silver coins and was no longer penniless, inching closer to becoming a top-tier tycoon.

Ha ha.

Rod never had a day when he laughed so heartily; he quickly moved the spoils of war back to the Dream World, hanging all the Spirit Guns he couldn’t dismantle on his back.

With a buoyant mood, he set off again and soon reached his destination; the poison insects were hiding under the mud here.

If anyone approached, they would leap up, cling to the face, and spray their venom. If one was unprepared, they would quickly be poisoned to death by these troublesome creatures.

But for Rod, this was too simple. With the observation of the "Eye of the Soul," the poison insects hiding under the mud were as good as stark naked to him, their spiritual energy all concentrated in their heads, with their tails being a huge empty void, completely defenseless.

Rod had a blast shooting them one by one.

The poison insects provided a "Rather Weak Soul," containing about 15-18 Soul Without Spirits, already quite substantial.

And it was a simple, leisurely task to harvest them, with low consumption.

Rod’s smile was so wide it nearly split his face; if he could farm here for five or six days, every star could be maxed out directly.

Just as he was happily shooting insects, another uninvited group arrived.