Seized by the System

Just as the three malevolent spirits had finished collecting their blood taxes — a few Lake-level ghostly creatures — and were about to leave, Vigilante A suddenly revealed himself from thin air.

With an imposing disposition, he stood in the path of the three malevolent spirits.

“Huh, it’s a living person?” The malevolent spirit in the lead was initially startled, but after gaining a clearer sense of the situation, it became irritated. “No matter who you are, you better get out of my way right now. If not, I’ll throw you into the Malevolent Spirits River as well!”

However, the deputy malevolent spirit and the third-in-command malevolent spirit were staring at the person before them with gleaming eyes.

“This person seems to have a dragon aura on him…” the deputy malevolent spirit mumbled.

“If we ate him, we could probably level up and become malevolent dragon spirits. Then, it’ll be possible for us to become spirit generals!” the third-in-command malevolent spirit said while licking its lips with its blood-red tongue.

Clearly, the two subordinates and the leader had different ideas. The leader remembered they still had to hurry back to turn in their taxes and could sense that this person’s power was quite strong, so it did not wish to create new problems.

As for them, they wanted to make extra earnings and did not want to let this trip go to waste.

“While the house of the rich reeks of flesh and wine, there are frozen bodies lying by the roadside!” Vigilante A condemned them severely and justly. “You malevolent spirits! Exploiting civilians and making a fortune for yourselves. Even in the face of a disaster, you only know how to use your powers to oppress the innocent. You should be damned!”

In the marsh area, the female ghost with heavy makeup that had already sunk down as well as the other ghostly creatures heard the commotion and floated up to the mud surface, gawking at this scene.

“Have I been taking in too little Yin Energy lately that my eyesight is becoming blurry and my hearing is weakening? What is this person who came out of nowhere doing right now?” an old ghost said in a very puzzled tone to a mud monster beside it.

“He seems to be standing up for us?” the mud monster said uncertainly.

“How would standing up for us benefit him in any way? We can’t even give him anything.” The old ghost shook its head.

“Maybe too much water has gotten into his brain and turned him into a fool.” guessed the mud monster.

In the World of Spirits and Souls, the idea of serving justice and doing good had never stayed. According to their understanding, it was only natural for the big to eat the small and the strong to oppress the weak…

For the small to fight the big, they would have to gather in a group to stand a chance at winning.

As for this kind of lone vigilantes, they could only refer back to their memories before death as well as some novels and biographies to find some recollection about them.

For them to meet one in reality would be a first.

The leader of the malevolent spirits was momentarily dazed. If it was because the other party had been aiming for the blood taxes in their possession, or even for them, and so appeared to provoke them, that would be understandable.

However, right now, the person was talking about things like “oppressing the innocent and exploiting civilians.” It was just too ridiculous!

Since when were there any ideas of civilians and the innocent in the World of Spirits and Souls? This was a jungle-like society. All spirits and souls followed the natural law of the weak being prey to the strong!

“You, I’m afraid you’re not just mentally handicapped!” The leader of the malevolent spirits said. “How we do things in the World of Spirits and Souls is none of your business!”

“Humph, everyone has a say in everything!” At this point, Vigilante A stretched out a finger, and a bunch of specters who were old, weak, sickly, and disabled appeared on the ground. All of them had a lifeless gaze and a frail body that seemed as if it would collapse at the slightest breeze…

“Look at them, and look at yourselves!” He went on berating. “It’s because of you stealing away the little Yin Energy left in their bodies that they’re left with nowhere else to go and barely surviving. I will not tolerate such an inhumane act!”

“Uh…” The leader of the malevolent spirits looked blank, taking quite a while to wrap its mind around the logic behind the actions of the person before it. Then it scorned. “So what? They’re weak, so they deserve to die!”

After saying that, it opened its mouth and pounced on the specters, trying to swallow them!

Yet, in the next moment, these bit-part specters vanished…and exited back to the System Hotel to claim their reward.

Fang Ning became speechless watching this. Sir System’s acting skills were still too unrefined, but should be sufficient to get by the Chivalry Rules.

The important thing was these malevolent spirits had no idea where the true limits of Vigilante A lay…

Unlike on Earth, those monsters and demons had already been taught to be civilized. They had all become as docile as a little white rabbit, and feared being caught by Vigilante A for any wrongdoing.

“Such savagery. I really must get rid of you!” Vigilante A kept all the specters away, and raised his voice as he spoke.

Following that, his human form vanished, and a fire dragon came forth out of thin air.

“It’s indeed a dragon!” the deputy malevolent spirit said excitedly.

“Eat it up, boss. This is an extremely rare opportunity,” the third-in-command malevolent spirit said just as eagerly.

When the fire dragon appeared, all the ghostly creatures on the marsh felt its natural intimidation and fled into the mud.

They might desire to possess dragon aura, but also clearly knew it was something they could not touch.

Only those malevolent spirits with their violent nature would have an inherent resistance to Dragon Force. They would not give in to surface authority, and would only submit to real power.

“Very well. Number Two, Number Three, Tri-spirit Fusion. I’ll form the head!” After the malevolent spirit boss saw the fire dragon in front of him and sensed it, the temptation became too great for it to withstand as well, and it gave that command to its two companions.

While still speaking, its body transformed into a giant head.

“I’ll be the torso!” the deputy malevolent spirit quickly said and transformed into a giant torso.

“Damn it. I’m always the weapon…” As the third-in-command malevolent spirit spoke, it transformed into four limbs.

However, at that moment, the fire dragon suddenly charged forward, and just as the three of them were about to fuse together, it swallowed the entire malevolent spirit head first!

This was not a cartoon animation where the main character would need to stupidly watch the enemy launch its ultimate attack.

“Damn it!” On the chest of the torso that the deputy malevolent spirit had become, a face appeared and said in a hurry, “Number Three, come quickly!”

Meanwhile, after the fire dragon swallowed the head that the malevolent spirit boss had turned into, it seemed to be too stuffed for a moment and came to a slight pause.

The four limbs that the third-in-command malevolent spirit transformed into took this opportunity to join themselves onto the torso.

At once, the entire body formed a headless giant spirit, becoming an enormous-looking creature!

“Even though there are only the two of us left, you’re dead!” roared the headless giant spirit.

The power of its presence became immensely huge, and was close to reaching the peak of Sea-level, which was much higher than the fire dragon before it!

It stretched out a hand and waved it once violently. A huge storm appeared all of a sudden, crashing toward the fire dragon.

In the next moment, the fire dragon turned around and flew away to avoid the assault of the storm.

The headless giant spirit shifted from a solid to an ethereal state and followed it closely.

The ghostly creatures on the marsh saw the severe changes happening in front of them and became extremely shocked.

“That malevolent spirit captain died just like that?” the female ghost with heavy makeup asked a voluptuous ghost next to it.

“Most likely.” The voluptuous ghost whispered.

“Hurry up and bring those blood taxes back. It’s a good thing we encountered this fool. We can use them again next time.” The female ghost with heavy makeup seemed rather excited.

“Sister, it’s better for us to change to another place. Even if that fool defeats the remaining two malevolent spirits, he’ll infuriate the malevolent spirit commanders and they’ll just decimate this whole place to deter others,” the voluptuous ghost said. “Look at that fool. He didn’t even dare to fight against the fusion of the two malevolent spirits. How could he handle the malevolent spirit commanders?”

“You’re right. Let’s pack up and leave soon. It’s a pity though, leaving this marsh area. When we go to another place, we’ll have to be meek and subservient again…” the female ghost with heavy makeup said.

“Hey, I have an idea. Just now, those malevolent spirits mentioned some things like dragon aura and dragon spirit. If we informed the malevolent spirit commanders about this, I believe they’ll be very interested,” the voluptuous ghost said cunningly.

“Very good. You’re very smart. Let’s go inform them now.” the female ghost with heavy makeup agreed wholeheartedly.

It was not worried about the other ghostly creatures going to deliver the news before them, because not many spirits and souls could actually manage to have an audience with the malevolent spirit commanders.

Not long after, a bunch of ghostly creatures disappeared from the marsh area, but soon, more ghostly creatures took the chance to enter and fill in the vacant spots.

In this World of Spirits and Souls that was nearing its end, the notion of gratitude was no longer popular. Those spirits and souls that still had traces of kindness in them had already fallen into a similar situation as that of the Heavenly Spirits Clan, where they could only stay at the poorest Yin Energy Land and be threatened with extinction.

For the ghostly creatures who managed to survive in such a good location, how could they possibly be kindhearted?

At the moment, the headless giant spirit that was chasing after the fire dragon in midair suddenly halted.

“This won’t work Number Three, this guy is trying to waste our magical energy. I remember now. This guy should be from the Lower Realm. Since the Lower Realm has ample vitality, he must have all kinds of pills with him. Unlike us, we’ve already used up our pills and can only rely on consuming the river water from the Malevolent Spirits River to get by,” the deputy malevolent spirit said.

“Then what should we do?” The third-in-command malevolent spirit was upset.

“We can only notify the other teams and try to trap him from all sides, even above and below. Let’s see where he can escape to then!” the deputy malevolent spirit said hatefully.

“But in that case, we may not even get a fair share of dragon meat, and if the news gets out, and the malevolent spirit commanders hear of it, then there’ll be nothing left for us at all…” the third-in-command malevolent spirit said begrudgingly.

“Uh, the news would’ve probably gotten out already. We only thought of chasing after this fire dragon, and have completely forgotten to clear out those ghostly creatures in the marsh area first. What a mistake!” The deputy malevolent spirit became very dejected.

When the third-in-command malevolent spirit heard this, it immediately said, “If that’s the case, then let’s quickly call a few intimates over to capture it together. Before the commanders know about this, let’s slaughter this fire dragon!”

“Okay, I’ll notify them right away,” the deputy malevolent spirit agreed. Then its abdomen began to squirm, as if it was soundlessly shouting…

…

Presently in the System Space.

“Oh no, Mr. Rich Boss. Those two idiots behind us are discussing how to surround and catch us. What should we do now? Dealing with one was still manageable, but two is a little overwhelming. If more of them come, we can only retreat to avoid further conflict. After all, they’re all Sea-level malevolent spirits with a lot of battle experience. These aren’t monsters that can be easily farmed,” Sir System said gloomily.

Fang Ning was incredulous. “A God of Combats like you is unbeatable by others with the same level, and can even kill monsters of a higher level. Now you’re frightened by a few Sea-level malevolent spirits? When you swallowed the malevolent spirit boss just now, it was a clean hit.”

“Uh, that’s because it was too stupid. When it was transforming into the head, I sensed its magical energy becoming turbulent. That was during its fusion period with the other parts, and it couldn’t defend itself, so I took advantage of the loophole. But with more malevolent spirits, even if I had three heads and six arms, I may easily make mistakes. In this type of place, we can’t afford any mistakes,” Sir System said sullenly.

“Oh, let me think about it then.” Fang Ning also realized the seriousness of the problem.

After all, this was not a problem that could be solved with bouts of power. Sir System was talking about real tactical problems.

In terms of tactics, being surrounded was a great disadvantage. Once there was a siege situation, the besieged party would absolutely be overwhelmed at some point.

Especially with these Sea-level malevolent spirits that had survived for so many years with various tricks up their sleeves, even Sir System’s thirteen system threads would not be enough to use.

After thinking for quite a while, Fang Ning suddenly said, “That’s it. We may not be able to compare with them in terms of numbers, but we can mangle them by power level.”

“What power level? I’m a mere Sea-level system and I can’t mangle them in terms of power level. In the military encampment, there are Ocean-level malevolent spirits and that malevolent spirit commander may even have Planet-level strength,” Sir System said.

“You’re really stupid. We have two True-God-level auxiliaries back home, and you’re just letting them be useless? It’s such a waste for them be playing Gomoku every day. The correct way to switch them on should be to have them give you all kinds of battle buffs… No matter how strong the malevolent spirit commanders were, no matter how powerful the Spirit Lords were, and no matter how high their levels were, could they compare with these two True Gods?” Fang Ning said, sounding proud of himself.

“Oh, Mr. Rich Boss, you’re brilliant,” Sir System said earnestly.