Victim

(I have a normal sleep cycle. I just couldn't post in the morning as I had an urgent shift at the morgue. Here is the chapter. The next chapter will be in the morning.)

(Since I am working on something else at the moment and I need to finish those first.)

....

"If I order his immediate extermination, what are the chances that he can survive?" [Leng Yaozhu]

'Close to none. Even if I add the new skills that he may have gained from the Ice Jade Scorpion, he is dead if I want him to. He is claiming to be a mass slaughters despite that... Why?' [Leng Yaozhu]

She pondered on the most basic scenario that she could take. Act her position as a just Spirit Master and do her all to banish the evil that she knew as Fan Lin.

Fan Lin must have known this as well. Then him revealing himself without any hint on emotional turmoil just didn't sit right with her.

Even if he had somehow injured himself, he can't be that dumb if he was able to negotiate with her like that.

'What about our chances to stop the ongoing deaths that are happening due to the Mysterious Death?' [Leng Yaozhu]

'None.' [Leng Yaozhu]

'We don't even have an inkling on how the deaths are even happening or what are the perquisite for the people dying. We have no chance of stopping the ongoing deaths.' [Leng Yaozhu]

Nearly three years ago, a weird situation occurred in the Douluo continent. Some people that were perfectly fine suddenly started experiencing extreme pains and then died.

The doctors couldn't identify the cause of the death and the Spirit Masters were given the case. They failed to find anything as well.

Soon, it began to happen in a large scale. Killing thousands in mere days. The doctors proved useless. So did the Spirit Masters.

A month passed. Nothing changed.

The deaths were random. So was the time frame. The fear among the masses was real though. Genuine fear and dread. Something that was empowering the Evil Soul Masters that were now roaming the streets to collect the evil aura and increasing their strength.

Finally the Federation announced that it was the doing of an Evil Soul Master and they had already started to deal with it. They named the phenomenon the Mysterious Death.

Three years later, they still had no concrete idea on what the deaths even were or what were they signifying.

The only thing they could do was to theorise and make various assumptions. One of those assumptions was that an Evil Soul Master who was at the bottleneck was killing people to transcend that said bottleneck. The same assumptions was later used by the federation as well.

The way of the killing and the number of deaths seem to be a clear indication of that. At least that's what they presumed.

Now Leng Yaozhu had a kid claiming to be the one who was behind it all and he wasn't even an Evil Soul Master or strong or at a bottleneck.

Would you believe him if you were her?

'There seems to be no connection to him and the deaths caused by the mysterious death as well. He says that he is the one, that's the only proof. He could be bluffing and I won't even know of it.' [Leng Yaozhu]

'He has a good information network, probably an insider at Spirit Pagoda at that, he could have taken their help to get the incident details and since no one knows the cause of deaths, he could make anything up and I would have no way to verify it. Heck he didn't even mention the cause in his file, just the incident details!'

'He definitely must have gotten the information and could be using it to his advantage, I wouldn't put it past him since he does have the habit of using others to his advantage, as Gu Yue had already stated.' [Leng Yaozhu]

Leng Yaozhu felt like she had finally reached a conclusion on how he got the information that he had written on the Resurgence of Life file. The lines seem to perfectly match up as the 'complete scenario' began to surface in her mind.

Little did she know that she couldn't be any further from the truth. Fan Lin, although dumb reasoning, was the one who had written everything based on his own encounters and life experience. It was basically his auto biography except it didn't talk about his life but the life of others that he had taken along with replantation of trees, Douluo continents geographic situation, money and some recipes.

It was harder to believe him after reading all of that in a mix hodge-podge of information, and you can't just believe what any 13 year old is saying. More so when what he was saying was beyond the scope of absurd and rationality!

'But if he is the one and this is all truth, then those choices are hard to let go, ignoring the first and last one though.' [Leng Yaozhu]

She recalled the choices that he had given as a beginners trust building pack.

'What is with this words? Just this string of words downplays the threat that was previously stated. Isn't this a big label enough that it was written by a child without much thinking? Stupid child.'

'Where do you even began to trust this?'

'What should be the best way to achieve a peace treaty with a terrorist? I don't know but he had given me one.' [Leng Yaozhu]

'Let's agree to a cooperation for the moment and get all the information. He will have to stop the ongoing killings if he wants to fulfill the agreement.' [Leng Yaozhu]

Leng Yaozhu began to think on the what if approaches. If Fan Lin was truly the mastermind. He should be able to stop the deaths as he has written.

If he stopped the deaths, that would be plenty proof of him being the one behind it all as well.

'Or he could be a tool person of the actual mastermind who is currently using him to gain something from me. I will know of this soon so let's put is aside for now.'

She had a simple and straightforward plan to proceed if Fan Lin truly can prove it. He stops the deaths. She will take the credit for it.

She could then make Fan Lin support her disciple. That would turn his supporters into her disciple's comrade, thus her new comrades.

Lastly, she will have the information that he was providing. If the information was useful, she could use it. If it wasn't, she wouldn't mind confining Fan Lin until he the end of his life.

To the law, he was mass slaughters who admitted to his sins. He should be hanged but she would plead and just leave it at destroyed cultivation state and life imprisonment.

If Fan Lin knew about her thoughts, he would have taunted her that even then he would outlive her since he genuinely didn't feel any threat from her.

It it was imprisonment, he would most likely escape. Plus he was the hope of an entire race, do you think they will let me die or imprisoned that easily? Not when I haven't completed their work at the least.

Even if I were to suddenly start killing people in the broad daylight in the Shrek City, I would still be able to leave unharmed. Divine protection!

Life was weird, is it?

'Even if I just get the information on the destruction of Shrek, I will immediately take him out. We can find the solution to the mysterious death sooner or later anyways." [Leng Yaozhu]

'The Planar Lord would even intervene to help if we all failed. That's the last scenario though.'

'Onto what I can do. The Elders had demanded a meeting regarding Qiangu Dongfeng's methods on acquiring Fan Lin. That meeting would be a good moment to finally put all his failures on the table and get him dismissed as the President.'

'I could also kill Fan Lin at that time while revealing his identity to the world. That could be used as my first achievement as the President.'

She planned to make a commotion of his death. If Fan Lin died while his identity was revealed, even the last bit of his fervent supporters in the Spirit Pagoda would be scrambling to deny any involvement with him. She would have the Pagoda in her hands.

Then she will slowly gain control over the parliament and the Federation as the new behind the scenes boss.

She would take the big decisions and help Gu Yue become a better successor than her as the threat of the abyssal realm still remained.

She will make Gu Yue the best and would be remembered as her teacher in the future and die peacefully.

But for that she hoped that Gu Yue would end the problem that they were all facing from the invasion of the abyssal plane before her death.

This was a far off thinking though as Gu Yue was just a child now. She needed time and resources to grow and Leng Yaozhu was ready to provide her with those.

With Gu Yue's leadership, she could easily surpass Leng Yaozhu and Qiangu Dongfeng in terms of results. Even Fan Lin's potential future gains wouldn't be able to match hers.

She didn't have much to live, just around 30-40 years more and she wanted to prepare Gu Yue for the Abyssal realm before facing them for one last time. Then she would died by their hands or she would survive and die or old age.

'I should still try to understand Fan Lin though, if he could be used further than just being my first stepping stone as the President, that would be another achievement for him.'

"Everything seems like a good outcome." [Leng Yaozhu]

'But then what is this instinctive fear that I should avoid him? Everything seems like it is in my favour. What could even go wrong?'

Leng Yaozhu thought and began to think of other possibilities and scenarios that she might be overlooking. Scenarios that could be dangerous to her or her position.

....

A few minutes later.

'Let's ask him about what he wants first. Making baseless assumptions without information is a waste of time.'

"Why were you sure that I would do nothing to you after reading this?" [Leng Yaozhu]

She dialed his number and asked the first question that she was baffled with. Why was he so carefree when revealing about himself to her?

{I am a charismatic person with years of experience in this field.}

A reply that couldn't have been any more ambiguous, stated in his usual deadpan voice.

'He is not going to answer it.'

"Is it the truth?" [Leng Yaozhu]

She proceed with the next question as if the previous question never happened.

{ It is. }

He replied as minimally as he could. It was pretty easy to ascertain that he wasn't being dumb when he revealed his identity to her.

The situation was such that he had told her the truth, expressing his sincerity but he also revealed nothing, leaving no gaps for her to pry anything.

"What do you want?" [Leng Yaozhu]

She continued her question, his calmness raising her dread.

'Maybe, my intuition is right?'

{Guess where I am going?}

'He previously said he was going to the Pagoda.'

Using her authority, she easily accessed the general and hidden CCTV feeds of the Spirit Pagoda, then focused all of them to lock on the location of Fan Lin's Spirit Pagoda badge.

"To the office of Elder Yang. I can see you in the feeds." [Leng Yaozhu]

She saw him in the feed, going to Elder Yang's office. A really dangerous idea came to her mind.

{Just help me acquire the second spirit soul that I left. Surely the words of the almighty Vice President would work wonders.}

Fortunately though, Fan Lin's next words dismissed her idea. Now she knew what he wanted. Thinking it twice, it was equally weird as well.

Fan Lin already had the hundred thousand year old Spirit Soul Ice Jade Scorpion and he could use it till the Title Douluo level. He should not need another spirit soul for the rest of his life.

It was not the ancient times where he had to get a spirit ring for each bottleneck.

The purpose of the spirit souls was to avoid this situation of adding multiple spirit rings of multiple spirit beasts to just one person.

'Seriously why is he doing that?'

"Unfortunately yes, I can easily grant you the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear spirit soul with my authority and your current contribution level. You really planned this well." [Leng Yaozhu]

She said as she watched him knock on the door of Elder Yang.

'Just use the doorbell beside the door.'

{I didn't. I am just doing what I want.}

He said and entered Elder Yang's office and she cut the call.

She received two files from his soul communicator and began to download them.

'The files are large. It would take a while. More files though?'

'Did he sent these to me before I started reading the file?'

It was the Elder's office and she had no way to see or hear about what was happening in there.

She waited for a few breaths and began to call Elder Yang on his private soul communicator. His receptionist picked it up and handed it to him.

"Did Fan Lin came?"

{Umm. Just a second.} [Elder Yang]

-"Can you wait outside for sometime. You know, confidentiality."- [muffled sounds by Elder Yang]

{Yes he did. He was asking for the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear spirit soul, the one from the final nine floors.} [Elder Yang]

"I know. He asked me that as well and looking at his contribution level and his next plan, he is qualified to recieve it." [Leng Yaozhu]

{I should have discussed this with you all but I have given him the Ice Jade Scorpion on the same aspects that you just said. He did have the contribution level and the eligibility of gaining the Ice Jade Scorpion but only when he defeated it...} [Elder Yang]

{I saw his potential and decided to bypass that and gave him the Ice Jade Scorpion spirit soul on my name. Not even a day has passed since that and we are giving the Duskgold Dreadclaw Bear spirit soul to him, wouldn't that be unnecessary?} [Elder Yang]

{We could just deliver it to him when he needs it later on-} [Elder Yang]

"Elder Yang, he asked for it." [Leng Yaozhu]

"President Qiangu should have gotten the knowledge of Fan Lin's actual strength by now and he would most likely try again. If Fan Lin was somehow wooed to his side, excluding my disciple, I don't think we can produce another spirit master that could contend against him." [Leng Yaozhu]

"So instead of letting him be taken by Qiangu Dongfeng, we should proactively make him take our side or at least stay away from the President's group. For that, he needs to be content with us and you think he hasn't realised that?" [Leng Yaozhu]

"He knows this and that's why he asked for the second spirit soul from us. He wants to see if we can be helpful towards him or not. If we fail to show that, we would become the same as Shrek, he will abandon us to go to the one who provides more." [Leng Yaozhu]

"He is in the need for resources and just know that some part of him wants to retain his former glorious days as the one that was unmatched in his level." [Leng Yaozhu]

"For now, let's give him what he wants. He wants the Duskgold Dreadclaw Bear spirit soul and we will provide him with just that. Take this as my orders. You won't have any trouble regarding this. Just this though." [Leng Yaozhu]

{But what if he continued to ask for more or he joins the President even after that. The President would most like give him better offer than us.}

"He won't. He won't ask for more. Neither would he join the President. I have discussed about this with him and you would know the details of this at the upcoming meeting." [Leng Yaozhu]

{Then I will prepare the Darkgold Terrorclaw Bear spirit soul for him.} [Elder Yang]

"En." [Leng Yaozhu]

She cut the call and looked at the download progress of the two files.

It was still downloading and would likely take a few more minutes.

To be continued...