Chapter Thirteen: Conspiracy

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The next day, July 8th.

In the control room, Fan Bei watched the surveillance screens while listening to the rough voice coming from the radio beside him, a playful smile curling on his lips.

“I’m really sorry, brother. My men were too heavy-handed and tried to fob you off with some trash techniques behind my back. I’ve already taught them a lesson. Here, I’m sending you the latest and most complete collection of exorcism tutorials on the market, plus my own original set of Demon-Bane Fist, and a Level 2 Bronze Meditation Method that I heard from some unknown entity… That should be worth the hundred kilos of gold you all paid.”

“The books are too long to recite at once, so I’ll send them over using your remote-controlled car. As for the most precious meditation method, I’ll dictate it for you—just write it down, memorize it, and then burn it.”

As Fan Bei listened to the voice who called himself "Lang Sheng" on the radio, he glanced at his remaining mental energy—just 20.2—counting himself lucky for having made a daring move before things went awry.

He then glanced resentfully at Dabai, still sleeping soundly, glad he hadn’t pinned his hopes on the dog…

How long has this mutt been sleeping?

Clearly, hoping for your own offspring to start earning money right away is unrealistic—you’re lucky if he doesn’t end up costing you instead!

Ten minutes later, that rough voice again repeated the “Level 2 Bronze Meditation Method” for Fan Bei to verify.

After double-checking, the other party apologized several more times, playing perfectly the role of a simple, honest leader deceived by his own subordinates.

What else could Fan Bei do? Of course, he generously forgave him…

In the end, to show his remorse, the other party whispered that he’d bury eighty kilos of gold between three trees, and Fan Bei should retrieve it when he had the chance.

Fan Bei was deeply moved, praising the man as a good person—a rare, conscientious merchant in a wasteland world.

"Alright, let’s leave it at that. If you ever need anything else, just contact us at Copper Fortress via the radio. We believe in fair trade, none of that strong-arm stuff like Silver City nearby, where they even seize people for slaves.”

“Of course, big brother, meeting you is the luck of eight generations of my ancestors—such a great man!” Fan Bei said sincerely.

The other party was clearly satisfied with Fan Bei’s heartfelt praise, and the call ended in an atmosphere of mutual flattery.

“At last, I’ve managed to fool this blockhead…” Fan Bei breathed a sigh of relief, then guided the remote-controlled car, now loaded with books, back toward the shelter.

Perhaps intimidated by the caravan, not a single evil spirit tried to invade the shelter during the exchange.

The gold-threaded mesh installed in the drainage pipe had to be dismantled and reinstalled every time Fan Bei made a deal—a tedious but necessary precaution.

Even though it seemed like a wasted effort now, he didn’t regret it; abandoning such caution would sooner or later leave a fatal loophole.

Two hours later, the transaction was finally complete. On the surveillance screens, the caravan outside began to pack up their gold and copper tents, preparing to depart.

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With the “Good Person” system as his guarantee, Fan Bei was confident the other party wouldn’t pull any tricks or come back for a double-cross. He began inputting all the knowledge from the books into the “System Father.”

Inputting was simple—he just needed to scan through the books, and on the first page of the “System Father,” knowledge and skill entries would appear automatically.

“Currently available knowledge and skills: Nameless Meditation Method (Incomplete)… ‘Speculations on the Origin of Evil Spirits,’ ‘Principles of Meditation Methods,’ ‘Latest Building Designs for Defending Against Evil Entities,’ Advanced Meditation Method (Complete), Advanced Exorcism Fist… Wolf Might Demon-Bane Fist (Original), Level 2 Bronze Meditation Method.”

From Lang Sheng’s ramblings earlier, Fan Bei had learned that the difference between the advanced and bronze-tier meditation methods lay in their origins: the former was developed by humans themselves through scientific study of evil spirits, combined with human physiology and ancient mystical knowledge.

The latter, however, was imported—gained by pioneers who listened to unknown entities in the tide of evil and brought back the technique.

In short, one was domestic, one was foreign.

The upgrade system for the former was: Basic—Intermediate—Advanced—Grandmaster; for the latter: Bronze—Silver—Gold—Diamond; just like domestic and imported products, each had its own standards.

The domestic path was less powerful, slower to train, but reliable; the foreign path was more potent, faster, but carried the risk of succumbing to unknown forces…

There should be a “King” level above that, Fan Bei muttered, then focused his mind on reviewing the new knowledge and skills, trying to practice them.

“Level 2 Bronze Meditation Method,” “Advanced Meditation Method (Complete),” “Advanced Exorcism Fist,” and “Wolf Might Demon-Bane Fist (Original)” were his main focus.

He needed to master an evil-banishing technique within half a day, then go out to hunt monsters, gather loot, support his family, and feed the dog system.

...

In the valley, the caravan moved slowly.

Inside the lead golden-armored vehicle, there was now a driver at the wheel.

Their leader, Lang Sheng, sat in the passenger seat, reading “The Good Person’s Guide.”

The driver stole glances at him, inwardly terrified.

He feared their leader would transform into some unspeakable evil spirit and force him to become a good person as well…

Aren’t all evil spirits supposed to be cunning and malicious?

Not a single one was any good—sometimes they’d impart seemingly valuable techniques, but it always turned out to be a ploy to siphon off people’s faith and spirit, ultimately luring them to their doom.

If you only dabbled, it was fine; but if you got drawn in, there was no escape, and the consequences were always dire—twisted bodies, warped minds, broken personalities were the norm.

Indeed, his former boss had already changed.

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“Sanhu, you must be tired. How about I drive for a while so you can rest?” Lang Sheng asked amiably.

“No, no, it’s my duty to serve you, boss—absolutely,” the driver replied hastily.

The rules had changed last night—he’d ordered them not to call him “Big Brother” anymore, but “Boss.”

They were to be a proper merchant caravan, everything above board, trade to be fair and equal, no more seizing or robbing.

Now the boss even wanted to drive for him—this was like the sun rising in the north!

Well, these days the sun actually could rise in the west.

The news later said it was just a large-scale evil-tide causing astronomical anomalies. But to the naked eye, the sun had indeed risen from the west…

“Alright, since you insist, I won’t force you. Just drive steadily—I need to focus on my reading.” Lang Sheng smiled pleasantly.

“Yes, I’ll be careful,” the driver replied.

Meanwhile, within the caravan, on a hidden channel of the walkie-talkie, a tense conversation was unfolding.

“Boss has definitely been corrupted! Yesterday, I thought he was just playing the wolf in sheep’s clothing. But this morning, he buried all the gold we worked so hard to swindle! And he read out his precious techniques to outsiders—he never even taught them to us!”

“So what do we do?”

“Hmph, since he’s changed, whether he’s truly corrupted or just wants to be a good person, he’s not fit to lead us anymore. These days, only the most ruthless survive!”

“You… you want to kill the boss?”

“What, are you all afraid? There’s nothing so special about him—he’s just bold and ruthless enough to deal with evil spirits, and he got ahead of us only because he heard a bronze-tier meditation method! That’s why he’s starting to change. Before, he was just a man and we couldn’t do anything, but now that he’s corrupted, we can…”

“What if he really wants to be a good person? What if exorcism techniques don’t work on him?” someone asked nervously.

“If he really wants to be a good person, he won’t be as ruthless as before. If we all attack together, we can kill him! He’s not some real martial arts master!”

In a secret channel, the group quietly conspired to overthrow their leader.