Chapter 280: Relic Sub-body
"That's not ideal. This is a dangerous city. Staying in one place for too long really increases the chance of encountering high-level enemies..."
Before Xia La could finish speaking, she saw Lin Ye swap the fishing rod in his hand for the Cross Scepter.
While controlling the spiritual energy blade to cut out the spiritual energy cores from the corpses, Lin Ye gripped the Cross Scepter with both hands.
He had previously accepted a mission in the relic space to kill ten intermediate-level Mutation Creatures, which required obtaining ten spiritual energy cores, but he wasn't sure if human spiritual energy cores would count toward completing the task.
But it didn't matter, because there were other Mutation Creatures here.
A swarm of winged yellow-green insects approached the abandoned building. Each insect was about half the size of an adult human, with most being between first to third tier, and only a few reaching fourth tier.
Lin Ye injected compressed spiritual energy into the Cross Scepter while blending in some of his blood, then traced a Shaping rune at the base of the scepter.
After completing the preparations, Lin Ye raised the Cross Scepter and activated the compressed spiritual energy within it toward the insect swarm.
Spiritual energy shot from the base of the Cross Scepter toward the insect swarm. Under the influence of the Shaping rune and Blood Manipulation, the spiritual energy didn't disperse around but instead formed a spiritual energy blood blade over ten meters long, similar to the High-Energy Piercing Blade. This blood blade could only maintain its form for an extremely brief time, but for Lin Ye, this was sufficient.
Lin Ye swung the spiritual energy blood blade, sweeping through the entire insect swarm. Halfway through the swing, the blood blade collapsed, but the released compressed spiritual energy affected the entire swarm.
All the insects were wiped out by Lin Ye's single swing, including those few fourth-tier insects.
"Wow, as expected of the system's top choice, so powerful."
Miss Employer let out an exclamation of admiration. She recalled those seemingly professional bodyguards from before who were instantly wiped out by enemies in one wave. She had to admit, having money was really good - cheap goods just wouldn't do.
"I need to collect the loot. Do you want to follow beside me on your own, or should I carry you over?"
Lin Ye hadn't forgotten what the mission objective was - he didn't want anyone stealing his home base.
"Although I'm a burden, I can still walk just fine."
Xia La didn't like close contact with males.
"Then keep up."
If possible, Lin Ye actually didn't want to touch a woman's body either, even if she was very beautiful.
Lin Ye went downstairs while matching Xia La's pace. Outside the abandoned building was a desolate activity center, with the remains scattered throughout it.
There weren't many insect corpse remains. After absorbing the residual blood inside the remains, Lin Ye found three more intact spiritual energy cores.
"You're only second tier, so how can you move so fast?"
In terms of physical attributes, Xia La felt Lin Ye was actually slightly stronger than her, which was quite abnormal.
"You're just too weak. You should spend more time examining your own shortcomings. Do you regularly absorb spiritual energy properly? Do you reach your limits every time you advance tiers?"
After undergoing prolonged transformation by the God's Blood, Lin Ye's physical attributes had already approached fourth-tier level. Apart from lacking a spiritual energy core, he wasn't much different from intermediate-level spiritual energy users.
Combined with the gaps in technique, mental energy, and equipment, ordinary intermediate-level spiritual energy users couldn't last even one move against Lin Ye.
"Uh, this isn't something you can achieve just by absorbing spiritual energy, is it?"
Xia La did consider herself useless, but she was a very wealthy useless person. Through resource consumption, she ranked in the upper-middle level among fourth-tier spiritual energy users.
"You're right, I was just saying that casually. By the way, can you assign me tasks? For example, are you thirsty right now? I could go buy you a drink."
After dealing with the corpses, Lin Ye looked toward the urban area not far away and suddenly remembered his identity skill.
"No, that function is quite expensive. I'll assign tasks when they're needed."
This was the first time Xia La had encountered a bodyguard who needed bounty tasks assigned.
"Are you that poor? If you don't have money, you shouldn't hire bodyguards through the system. You're preventing me from serving a real employer."
Lin Ye said disappointedly.
"Damn it! I am your employer! And I'm not poor at all!"
This was the first time Xia La had ever been treated as poor.
"Then do you have life-saving cards and relics?"
Lin Ye suddenly remembered an old acquaintance - that one was a truly wealthy person.
"...No."
Xia La answered resentfully.
"See? Now tell me about our situation. If I need to kill all the spiritual energy users in the city, I'll need to make some preparations in advance."
Lin Ye had just encountered a mission last time that required opposing most of the spiritual energy users in a city.
"That won't be necessary. These people are searching for a relic that has made its way into the city. I have a relic offspring with me, and I can occasionally sense the relic's location through the offspring. However, there are ten such offspring in total, so as long as we show enough strength, those people won't continue attacking us."
Xia La took out a white card about the size of a business card from her spatial item. It looked quite ordinary with complex patterns engraved on it.
"Then should we attack other offspring holders? If we seize all the offspring, can we obtain the relic?"
Lin Ye tried to sense the card but detected nothing, as if it were just an ordinary white card.
"Better not. Even if we collect all the offspring, we won't directly obtain the relic. At that point, everyone would be targeting us."
Xia La didn't want to be that conspicuous, especially since Lin Ye was just a system bodyguard who wouldn't stay by her side permanently.
"Let's set that aside for now. Are only intermediate-level spiritual energy users coming to seize the relic? I find that somewhat strange."
Only the strong deserve to possess treasures, and this is a relic we're talking about. Lin Ye didn't think this was an event that intermediate-level spiritual energy users should be participating in.
"It might be because this relic's effects are relatively ordinary. Anyway, not many high-level spiritual energy users have come."
Xia La actually didn't know much about relics - she was just wealthy, not exceptionally wealthy.
"Alright then, let's first go to the city center to find a high-level spiritual energy user to talk with."
Lin Ye felt there were significant issues here.
"Isn't that a bit dangerous? What if they try to seize the offspring?"
Xia La asked somewhat anxiously.
"I'll handle it when the time comes. If absolutely necessary, we can surrender the offspring in exchange for some benefits. Then you'll have money to assign bounty tasks. At that point, you'll gain safety and drinks, I'll gain bounties - a win-win situation!"
If Lin Ye were the owner of the white card, he would have sold it long ago. Afterwards, he could seize others' white cards and repeatedly sell them - wouldn't that be much more reliable than seizing the relic?
Unfortunately, he was just a bodyguard. As a bodyguard, he was only responsible for protecting the employer's safety and wouldn't excessively interfere with the employer's actions.
"I have money to assign tasks! It's just that there's no need to assign tasks right now!"
Xia La couldn't help but emphasize this point.