Chapter 284 : Chapter 284
Chapter 284. The Yellow-Robed People
While Fulan was still trying to understand what was happening, nearly all the stallholders immediately changed expression.
Then, as one, they began hurriedly packing up their goods and running in the opposite direction, cursing as they fled.
“Damn it, where is Heart Lake Market’s security team? How did these Yellow-Robed People make it all the way here?”
Fulan did not run with them at once. Instead, she turned around directly and looked toward the source of the disturbance.
She saw a group of Yellow-Robed People appear at the entrance to the market street. Beside them, some people grabbed their belongings and fled at once, while others remained where they were without reacting at all.
Those Yellow-Robed People were not moving quickly. They were simply advancing slowly along the street.
Quite a few customers who had come to buy things also heard the commotion and turned their heads, but they did not run either.
And because the people who had come to buy things were not running, Fulan was in no hurry.
She fixed her gaze on those Yellow-Robed People and felt as though she had heard of them somewhere before.
Back when Fulan had still possessed the body granted to her by the Lord of Radiance in the Spirit Realm, what she had worn had also been a yellow robe.
The difference was that the yellow robe Fulan had worn at the time looked like an old robe that had been stored away for too long.
Black spots had appeared on it, and the cloth had yellowed, making it look like an antique.
But the yellow robes worn by these people still looked very new, as if they had just been made.
By now, Fulan finally remembered where she had heard about these Yellow-Robed People before.
At the time, she had heard from Welinte that there was a group of people dressed in yellow robes like hers who were using Spirit Realm Guide Items with the Plundering Attribute to seize things from others in the Spirit Realm.
Fulan knew about those guide items with the Plundering Attribute as well. She herself still had one on her right now, but after learning exactly what it was, she had immediately locked it away and stopped using it.
As the name implied, once one used such a Spirit Realm Guide Item and entered the Spirit Realm, one would gain the ability to take one item from another Spirit Realm traveler.
Sounds great, does it not? But acts of plundering like that also came with drawbacks.
The first was that the original owner of the stolen item could later lock onto your location through special means.
As long as they got hold of your appearance information, then the next time you entered the Spirit Realm, you could expect to be blocked and hunted down by some well-meaning Spirit Realm travelers.
Of course, not everyone had the resolve or resources to use special means to identify the person who had plundered them. Doing so required paying a price known only to themselves.
That was why, even though there were Spirit Realm Guide Items with the Plundering Attribute, not many people were willing to use them.
If even one victim became determined enough to seek revenge, then you could forget about surviving in the Spirit Realm.
And it was only after arriving at the Northern Society and consulting the records there that Fulan discovered the true use of this thing.
It could actually be implanted into the body through modification surgery, allowing it to plunder the stamina or Mental Power of apprentice-level enemies in battle.
The guide item with the Plundering Attribute that Fulan had obtained was only apprentice-level.
Beyond that, there were higher-grade versions, and at each level, one could plunder things of the corresponding level.
Fulan’s luck could not be described as either good or bad. The fortunate part was that after she plundered those two people, neither of them had paid a special price to track her down.
And the unfortunate part was also here. She had ended up being featured in the newspapers for over a month, making her actions widely known, even though no one knew that person was actually her.
Fulan looked at those aggressive Yellow-Robed People. They were inspecting the goods on the stalls of those who had remained behind, trying to see whether there was anything valuable there.
But they were disappointed. Those stallholders knew perfectly well that what they were selling was trash, so of course they did not run.
At that moment, some of the Yellow-Robed People were already starting to grow impatient and wanted to rush ahead after those who were packing up and fleeing, since those people obviously had better goods on them. But they were all stopped by the others, as though they were wary of something.
Fulan looked over the formation of the Yellow-Robed People, and it reminded her of the experience from roughly nine or ten months ago, when she had first come to the Spirit Realm and then suddenly become famous after being reported in the newspapers.
These Yellow-Robed People had only truly become widespread around the time before and after she took part in the Spirit Realm advancement trial. By then, their scale had already grown quite large.
These Yellow-Robed People were different from those earlier plunderers who could only make a small profit by barely scraping by through stealing others’ property.
They were more organized, and they were far less afraid of retaliation from the people they robbed.
Fulan knew that the birth of these Yellow-Robed People had actually had nothing to do with her.
Their founder had merely borrowed the popularity of her identity as the real Yellow-Robed Person and used it as a way to recruit people.
After leaving the Spirit Realm trial, Fulan had looked into this Yellow-Robed organization and discovered that it was a collective organization.
As long as someone went through the proper channels, they could join it, become one of the Yellow-Robed People, and receive a Spirit Realm Guide Item with the Plundering Attribute as part of the deal.
The difference between them and the earlier lone operators was that these Yellow-Robed People did not fear revenge from those whose belongings they had stolen.
They spent all day together with other Yellow-Robed People and were already accustomed to being hunted by other Spirit Realm travelers.
Not only were they unafraid of those who might come after them, but they would even use the other side’s attacks as an opportunity to trade one-for-one and seize the other person’s belongings.
Because they stood behind the entire Yellow-Robed organization, they received its protection, allowing them to plunder the belongings of other Spirit Realm travelers without restraint.
The Yellow-Robed organization had only grown more rampant. Up to now, the other Spirit Realm travelers still had not organized themselves effectively.
After seeing someone else robbed by the Yellow-Robed People, some people even showed relief on their faces.
And this, in turn, caused the Yellow-Robed People to grow ever larger in scale, while the actions they carried out became bolder and bolder.
As for the Yellow-Robed People Fulan was encountering now, they had clearly set their sights on this market.
She just did not know why they were not chasing down the fleeing stallholders, whose possessions obviously included the better goods, but were instead strolling around here so slowly, as though they were simply drawing attention.
Just as Fulan stood to one side watching and preparing to enjoy the spectacle, she suddenly noticed that one of the Yellow-Robed People had something very special hanging at his waist.
Fulan thought for a moment, then walked directly toward them.
---
Malcolm had once been someone who had been robbed in the Spirit Realm by another person using an item with the Plundering Attribute.
After paying with part of the Mental Power of his physical body in the Material Realm, he obtained the appearance information of the one who had robbed him.
He published that person’s information in the newspapers. Although he later learned that the other person’s Material Realm address had been discovered and that the man had been chopped into pulp on the spot, Malcolm did not feel happy in the slightest.
Because as the price for having that person exposed in the newspapers, he had lost part of his Mental Power.
Although he was a professional focused on the physical body, and that small loss of Mental Power did not affect his combat strength—
As the price of losing that Mental Power, however, he would occasionally find himself unable to focus during battle. And in the Material Realm, he had to sleep at least ten hours every day. Otherwise, he would become dizzy and lightheaded, to the point of barely being able to function.
This made him regret and hate his decision beyond measure. He hated himself for paying such a price just to vent his anger.
That sense of imbalance found its outlet after the Yellow-Robed organization was established.
He joined the Yellow-Robed organization and became one of its core members, obtaining many valuable things through plunder.
Among them was one item he liked very much. It was a Curio that forcibly made him sleep six hours every day while doubling the efficiency of that sleep.
The Curio itself functioned by trading six hours of mandatory high-efficiency sleep each day in exchange for long-term mental vigor.
Although, because of his Mental Power deficiency, those six hours still could not make him feel truly energetic, it not only shortened his sleep time, but also normalized his schedule to that of an ordinary person. That made him love it dearly.
Now he was deeply devoted to the cause of being one of the Yellow-Robed People, though he also knew that perhaps the downfall of the Yellow-Robed People was not far away.
“Our recent actions have been far too high-profile. Especially this time—we actually dared to rob a Spirit Realm market.”
That was a bad sign. Although this operation would allow him to earn another huge profit, they had gone too far this time.
The owner of a Spirit Realm market carried tremendous weight within the Spirit Realm. If the other party flew into a rage over this, they might truly organize a force dedicated to exterminating the Yellow-Robed People.
“After this job, I should first see how things develop. If it really becomes necessary, then I will stop for a while.”
Having made up his mind, Malcolm continued observing his surroundings. Even now, he had still not heard any sign of the market’s security team, and that made him feel a little puzzled.
“Why has the security team still not arrived? Strange. Very strange.”
The purpose of the team he was leading here was not to rob the items on these little stalls. As an organization, they had set their sights on far more valuable targets.
The purpose of his squad was simply to draw the attention of the security team and reduce the interference faced by the main force.
That was why only a handful of people in his squad were using apprentice-level Spirit Realm Guide Items with the Plundering Attribute. It was merely for show.
Those guide items with the Plundering Attribute also suffered wear after being used. All the First-Tier guide items were currently being used by their main force, which was why they were not acting like mad dogs and scrambling to seize the goods of those stallholders.
It was at that moment that a voice sounded from beside him.
“Hey, friend, can we make a trade? I want the guide item at your waist.”
Malcolm turned and looked, only to see a small figure in a white robe standing by the side of the street, saying those words to him.
Those words stunned not only Malcolm, but even the Yellow-Robed People beside him. How was there still someone who dared speak to them?
Even the onlookers nearby froze in place. Once they recovered, they hastily moved away from Fulan.
And Malcolm, too, stopped walking and fixed Fulan with a hawk-like stare.