Chapter 147: It’s raining
The silk strands dragged the cultist's head around, its spider legs rapidly twitching as it scurried wildly across the hotel's top floor. Apparently, losing its head wasn't without consequences.
Lin Ye dodged the frenzied attacks of the mutated William and the randomly sprayed silk strands from the cultist, retreating awkwardly toward the elevator area where the doors hadn't completely closed yet.
The fat man frantically pressed the close button while praying the monsters hadn't noticed him.
But a hand stopped the closing elevator doors.
"Wait for me in the elevator. I have questions for you later."
After successfully crippling two troublesome enemies through ambush tactics, Lin Ye suddenly realized he genuinely needed a local guide.
"Yes, sir!" The fat man hurriedly replied.
Lin Ye released his hand and turned to survey the spacious twelfth-floor lobby, where the mutated William was currently chasing and attacking the cultist.
The cultist maneuvered its head around while hopping wildly, simultaneously spraying copious amounts of silk strands to entangle the mutated William.
Lin Ye began setting up rune traps around the area—he had no intention of letting the cultist escape the hotel. The Spider God Cult was clearly connected to this special event involving the Inheritance Proof. If he let the cultist escape now, he'd undoubtedly encounter them again later.
Thinking this, Lin Ye felt somewhat fortunate. If he hadn't come here to investigate and had allowed the cultist to complete the ritual, he would have faced both the cultist and the mutated William together.
The cultist barely managed to restrain the mutated William, but before it could catch its breath, Lin Ye—hiding in the corner of the lobby—used his spiritual energy blade to sever the silk strands controlling the mutated William.
Seeing this, the recently decapitated cultist, having just regained some cognitive function, charged toward Lin Ye with the mutated William in tow.
Compound rune traps triggered one after another—Cutting, Weakening, Collapse, Mutation, Synthesis...
The cultist was suspended mid-air, trapped by various runic effects.
The mutated William limped toward the cultist and began stabbing its twisted spider legs into the cultist's body.
Lin Ye continued observing from the corner while setting up more compound rune traps around the two entangled monsters.
The two creatures attacked each other furiously, triggering rune traps repeatedly as they rolled across the floor. Before long, they lay motionless on the ground.
Lin Ye cautiously controlled his spiritual energy blade to dissect their bodies. The mutated William was cleanly dismembered, but when the blade reached the cultist, it suddenly leaped up and sprayed massive amounts of silk strands at Lin Ye.
The silk triggered the rune traps, and the cultist forced its way through the silk, lunging at Lin Ye.
Lin Ye quickly retreated. He didn't believe this was a death throes struggle—the enemy definitely had some underhanded tactic to turn the tables.
The cultist crashed against the mutated spiritual energy shield. Watching Lin Ye gradually moving further away, it could only reluctantly resort to its final measure.
A stream of dark green liquid erupted from the cultist's body, easily dissolving multiple layers of spiritual energy protection. But Lin Ye had already retreated to the elevator area by the time the liquid sprayed out—he was simply too fast.
The cultist glared furiously at Lin Ye. Even now, it couldn't figure out which faction this madman who suddenly appeared to decapitate it belonged to, or how he managed to disrupt the transformation ritual at the perfect moment. Before being sliced apart by the spiritual energy blade, it could only utter its final words with resignation.
"The ritual has already begun. I'll be waiting for you on the other side."
"You might be waiting for quite a long time then."
Lin Ye dismembered the cultist's body, only beginning to collect the loot after confirming its complete demise.
The twelfth floor served as William's residence, where Lin Ye found numerous items from William's collection.
William had collected many exquisitely crafted low-tier spiritual energy items: a spiritual energy lighter with silver metal casing, translucent crystal drinking glasses, strangely shaped knives and forks, and similar curios.
Additionally, Lin Ye found two mid-tier spiritual energy items—a ring and a pair of gauntlets.
Compared to William, the cultist proved considerably poorer. Lin Ye only found two dark red jade-like cubes on its body.
These two cubes closely resembled the cube Lin Ye had taken from the corpse, just proportionally smaller.
Lin Ye retrieved the large cube from his loot space and placed all three cubes together. The large cube generated a suction force that drew the smaller cubes into its interior.
The two small cubes each occupied an inner corner of the large cube. Based on proportions, Lin Ye would need to find six more small cubes to completely fill the large cube.
"Quite troublesome indeed."
Having roughly deduced the special mission's progression, Lin Ye stored everything potentially useful into his loot space.
Including those tier-four body parts.
After processing the loot, Lin Ye opened the elevator to find the fat man still waiting inside.
"What do you need me to do, sir?"
Seeing Lin Ye completely unharmed, the fat man forced an obsequious smile.
"Where is the Spider God Cult's base?"
With six more small cubes to find, Lin Ye had no intention of waiting for the Spider God Cult to come to him.
"Probably in the basements of some abandoned buildings on the outskirts. Those cultists frequently come to the Gray Gang to purchase goods, but I only know the general direction, not the exact location."
The fat man took the map and circled the approximate area of the Spider God Cult's operations.
"They don't need to purchase..."
Lin Ye suddenly looked up toward the ceiling, the changes above making him abandon his half-asked question.
"Does the City of Sin have any churches? Preferably older ones."
"Ah? Churches? I remember there being an abandoned old church at the westernmost part of the city, but nobody's maintained that church for a long time."
The fat man didn't believe any so-called deities would listen to the weak, so he maintained no religious beliefs.
"Good. Thanks for your help—you don't need to follow me anymore."
Lin Ye entered the elevator and casually used spiritual energy to push the fat man outside.
"You mean..."
The fat man stood flustered outside the elevator, inwardly delighted yet unable to believe this was real.
"That's right, you're free. And everything in the room is yours—take as much as you want."
Lin Ye pressed the button, and before the elevator doors closed, he said to the fat man who was already eager to move but afraid to act:
"I'm letting you go, but you still need to take responsibility for your previous actions. When you made deals with those cultists, your fate was already sealed."
Leaving the fat man who was already planning his escape with the money, Lin Ye took the elevator down from the hotel and drove away in the fat man's sports car using the appropriated keys.
Lin Ye parked outside a restaurant and picked up Lily who had been waiting inside.
"...Did you find her?"
Seeing only Lin Ye in the car, Lily bit her lip as she asked.
Not finding her would be one thing—she feared hearing the other possibility.
"Your friend was purchased by the Spider God Cult's followers. Later, I'll go have a talk with the Spider God Cult."
Lin Ye answered calmly.
He thought back to the dismembered limbs and organs near the altar when he first arrived, his mood growing heavy.
"Later?"
Not getting the worst possible answer, Lily relaxed slightly.
"It's about to rain."
Lin Ye pointed toward the sky. Lily looked up and saw countless snow-white silk strands falling like heavy rain, enveloping the entire City of Sin.