The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 223 The Slaughterhouse (1)

"This is...?" Tong Zi's eyes widened slightly.

“It’s called Little Bamboo Shoot.” Su Ninglong gently moved her shoulders and said to the doll on her shoulder, “Come and say hello to Teacher Tong. She was one of the good teachers who provided you with the materials back then.”

Xiao Sun tilted her head, and although she didn't speak, she uttered a soft, childlike voice: "Hello, Teacher Tong~"

"So good!" Tong Zi subconsciously reached out, wanting to gently touch it with her fingertips.

Su Ninglong stopped her in time, "This is a spirit of the artifact. You can't touch it without its permission. It has a part of the power of the sacred artifact. If you're not careful, it might crush your fingers—I don't want to use your blood to sharpen it."

Tong Zi and the team members around him were immediately dumbfounded: "A spirit? Is this really a spirit? I've heard that sacred artifacts have spirits, but I've never seen one."

When the little bamboo shoots first appeared, they thought they were new little robots.

The chubby baby, with a ponytail, wearing a little bib and dark gold shorts, couldn't help but giggle when she saw everyone's exaggerated expressions of surprise.

Upon hearing Tong Zi's words, it suddenly took the initiative to climb up and lightly leap towards Tong Zi.

Tong Zi instinctively reached out to catch it, but it floated down onto her shoulder instead. At the same time, the Guixu Umbrella above Su Ninglong's head also moved, hovering quietly above Tong Zi.

"It's allowed you to touch it now." Su Ninglong smiled, thinking that this little guy was indeed living up to its name, a bit "mischievous," and wouldn't do anything without a reason. Knowing that Tong Zi was a big spender, it only got a little close to him, hoping that Tong Zi would provide it with good materials in the future.

Tong Zi gently touched the chubby baby with her slender fingertips, clearly feeling the smooth and delicate texture like agar, which was very soft and almost no different from a real baby.

The little bamboo shoot nuzzled affectionately against her neck, and Tong Zi felt a sudden pang in her heart, unable to help but whisper, "So cute..."

After basking in the breeze, Xiao Sun seemed to have completed a task and floated back to Su Ninglong's side.

It gave a delicate yawn, and the moment the Guixu Umbrella was retracted into its dantian, it transformed into a ray of light and then nestled deep within its dantian to rest.

"Will my walking stick be able to give birth to such an adorable spirit in the future?" Tong Zi asked with some anticipation.

“Once your strength improves further, I can help you nurture it. However, at that time, you will need to take a medicinal bath like Feng Ying did to enhance your control over the artifact spirit.”

Tong Zi's lips twitched slightly upon hearing this, and several teammates quickly covered their mouths and stifled their laughter. Everyone unanimously imagined Tong Zi being "steamed" in a wooden tub filled with a strange smell, which was quite comical.

Eagle Bone raised his hand to check the time, his face showing obvious impatience. "How much longer is the Star Alliance going to drag this out?" If it were a more hot-tempered opponent, they probably would have already started cursing.

Originally scheduled to enter at 7:00, it wasn't until 7:10 that the Star Alliance finally nodded in agreement to allow entry into the contaminated zone after repeatedly confirming the divination results.

Qi Shen stood between the two groups and said in a calm voice, "We will draw lots to decide which group will enter through the front door and the other through the back door."

Perhaps because both sides had visited Qi Shen yesterday, no one showed much curiosity about his appearance with the eye patch on.

Qian Rujin reached into the lottery box, pulled out a slip of paper, and handed it to Qi Shen.

Qi Shen unfolded the book and read aloud: "Back door!"

All the members of the Star Alliance breathed a sigh of relief. Yuan Tingchao had entered and exited through the back door and escaped unscathed, so they assumed that the back door was safer.

The entire Star Alliance turned and walked towards the back door.

Tong Zi and the others then set off for Qianmen.

The gates of slaughterhouses are not much different from those of ordinary factories; they are all large sliding gates.

The towering walls also feature three suspended platforms specifically for hovercraft to dock.

It was already more than ten minutes late from the original start time, so there was no need to wait any longer to see if the Star Alliance was ready.

The six of them arrived at the front gate together. Qi Rui had been handed over to Qi Shen for safekeeping by Su Ninglong. Although it was on the list, it was an off-site "support" and was undoubtedly a threat to the Star Alliance. There was no doubt that someone might do something in secret.

Entrusting it to Qi Shen is the safest arrangement.

Qi Rui sat quietly at Qi Shen's feet, his eyes looking worriedly toward the slaughterhouse.

“Little cat, don’t worry too much,” Qi Shen said calmly. “Your master is very strong. This level of mystic spirit is not enough to distort her.”

"Meow!" Qirui meowed, as if to say that it knew, but still couldn't hide its concern. Of course, you'll worry about whoever's cat it is; this is called being too concerned to care.

Standing before the slaughterhouse, Eagle Bone looked up at the heavy, rusty gate, taller than a man, stained with chilling black blood. He asked, "Should we climb over it?"

Just as the group was discussing how to get in, Su Ninglong casually pushed open a small door for employees to pass through, turned around, and asked naturally, "Hmm? What are you looking for?"

"It's nothing..." Tong Zi smiled slightly, said no more, and followed Su Ninglong into the small door.

Upon stepping inside, an overwhelming sense of dizziness suddenly struck, and the Guixu Umbrella above Su Ninglong's head rose again and quietly unfolded.

The dizziness that had just hit her head quickly subsided. She looked around and found that all five team members had disappeared, and she was still standing at the entrance to reality.

The surroundings were silent, with only the small green grass sprouting from the cracks in the bricks swaying gently in the cool breeze.

What surprised her even more was that she couldn't sense any ominous atmosphere here, as if it were declaring that the other party rejected cheaters and excluded her from the game!
Su Ninglong: "..."

She had no choice but to put away the Returning to Nothingness Umbrella and return it to her dantian.

The moment the barrier disappeared, a sense of spatial oppression surged forth, which Su Ninglong accepted calmly.

The next moment, the scene before her eyes changed drastically, and dozens of figures suddenly appeared around her.

She first noticed something was wrong with her nose, and instinctively crossed her eyes to look down. There was a huge pig's nose growing right where her nose used to be.

Su Ninglong: "..." This setting is really a bit creepy.

The Filthy Feast Spirit was like someone wielding a magic wand, casting a spell on all those who entered: "Turn into pigs, turn into pigs, all of you turn into pigs!"

Looking around, there are pigs with human heads, pigs with dog bodies, and even the buzzing flies have miniature pig heads. Every living thing is depicted as a pig.

She looked around and saw that there were about thirty people in the room, more than a dozen of whom were touching their heads in shock, checking the changes in their faces.

"Oh my god, what happened to my head?" "What head? What are you talking about? Your head is perfectly normal."

“Normal? You…” The man turned his head, about to curse the pig-headed man who said “normal,” but when he met the other’s black, beady eyes, he suddenly felt a little dazed and found the pig head unusually pleasing to the eye.

The eyes should look like this, and so should the nose; they should have some wrinkles and curl up slightly when the nose moves.
"You're quite good-looking, with big ears, almost as big as my palm."

"Yes, it looks meatier and healthier this way. Whew!"

"This factory has very high physical requirements for the pig workers. I finally managed to get this interview opportunity, and I hope I can get the job. Whew!"

Su Ninglong was still wearing that eye-catching "su" shirt, making it easy to spot Tong Zi and the others among the group of pig-headed people.

However, she was not in a hurry to acknowledge him. According to the original plan, she should have acted alone, which would have given her more freedom and made it easier to act according to circumstances.

Listening to the pig-headed people around them saying things like "lots of meat," "healthy," and "fat head and big ears," the group couldn't help but shiver a few times.

Especially those incredibly realistic "snoring!" sounds—they're just like the real squeals of a pig.

A pig-headed man in a security guard uniform, seeing them blocking the entrance and not moving, shouted menacingly, "Hurry up and fill out the forms! If the HR pig manager comes out and sees you haven't filled them out yet, he'll kick you out! This is your only chance, don't be ungrateful. Snort!"

All the pig-headed people obediently picked up the forms and began filling them out.

After receiving the form, Tong Zi intended to walk further away to fill it out. However, after taking a few more steps forward, she unexpectedly bumped into an invisible wall of air.

Helpless, they could only retreat to their original spot.

Since Tong Zi and the others had already tried, Su Ninglong no longer hesitated and began to fill out the form carefully.

This is a paper form that requires you to fill in standard information such as name, age, education, and work experience.

Skipping over these basic sections, Su Ninglong immediately noticed the "Recommender" section.

She immediately raised her hand and asked, "Security guard, if my friend works here and he recommended me, would that count as a referral? Would that increase my chances of getting the job?"

The pig-headed security guard turned his beady eyes toward Su Ninglong upon hearing the sound, squinting as he looked her up and down.

As I looked him over, his head seemed to droop under the weight, and he quickly steadied it with both hands, replying in a muffled voice, "The recommender must be a relative of yours, or a former roommate. Friends don't count."

"Oh wow, does this mean they're going to wipe out the whole family in one fell swoop?" Su Ninglong thought to herself. Bringing in all the family members and relatives of the healthy pig—that's a really ruthless tactic.

Then, another amazing thing happened. On her job application form, Su Ninglong wrote "Yuan Tingchao" as her recommender and filled in "roommate" in the relationship column without hesitation.

Living together in the Hunter's House apartment building counts as "cohabitation," right? Anyway, it's all in the same building, so there's nothing wrong with it.

However, she did not write her real name, but instead filled in "Sun Yimin" (the name of Assistant Sun), wrote her age as thirty-eight, and directly filled in 100,000 Star Coins as her expected monthly salary.

“If you write 100,000, you definitely won’t get the job. Snort!” The pig-headed security guard paced back and forth, glanced at the number Su Ninglong filled in, and shook his head in disapproval.

"You can negotiate the price; it's not fixed. As long as the other party thinks I'm worth the price, I can take it."

"You should write it lower; that would be safer."

"No way! Since it's already here, it can't just return it without even an interview, can it?" Su Ninglong said with a smile, even adding nine thousand after the ten thousand.

For once, a hint of confusion appeared in the pig-headed security guard's usually malicious, beady eyes. It was the first time he had ever seen someone so confident, almost narcissistic.

Seeing this, others were also tempted and eager to try filling in a higher number.

The security guard with the pig-headed face immediately realized that others might have the same idea, and he sternly stopped them, warning in a gruff voice: "She has a recommender, do you? Anyone who dares to fill in more than five thousand, I'll throw him out right now!"

Xuanxi, Song Hu, and Yinggu had just filled in 80,000. They didn't want to write higher than Su Ninglong, but they also didn't want to write too low.

The security guard's words immediately put them in a dilemma.

Just as the group was hesitating about whether to change the numbers, the pig-headed security guard suddenly pulled out an iron hook from behind his back, and without warning, he sprang up and smashed it hard into the back of a pig-headed man next to him!
"Ow!"

A loud and shrill squeal of a pig shattered the silence.

"If you don't have someone to recommend you, you can't ask for a high monthly salary, understand? You have to start from the bottom of the assembly line."

The pig-headed security guard used a hook to drag the wailing pig-headed man deeper into the factory without any effort.

No matter how much the other person struggled, he walked with ease, as if he were just dragging a bag of odds and ends.

Halfway there, he suddenly turned back, his voice somber:

"Before I return, everyone's onboarding information must be filled out. Anyone who doesn't fill it out will be expelled from the factory."

After saying that, he turned and left, leaving a trail of glaring bloodstains on the ground, a silent yet sharp warning to everyone: here, one must act with caution; recklessness will only lead to a terrible price.

Song Hu lowered his voice and asked, "Just now, did you see clearly how that security guard made his move?"

“His movements were extremely fast, definitely not those of an ordinary person; he was most likely a spiritualist in life,” Eagle Bone speculated in a deep voice.

Tong Zi nodded solemnly, "Among the known spirit practitioners who have fallen into the slaughterhouse, there is one who is known for his immense strength and speed. There are more than seventy spirit practitioners who have fallen here in total, and the one just now might be one of them."

They already had this information. They originally thought that some of the seventy-odd spirits would be "digested" by the Filthy Feast Spirits, but they did not expect to run into the guards who were "spirits" as soon as they entered the door.

This situation was also mentioned during the operation planning, as it was estimated that the density of spiritual beings in this area would be quite high, and they were asked to be extra cautious.

The five-person team had varying levels of skill, so for safety's sake, they carefully modified the numbers they had originally filled in, adding a "four" before the "eight," a "zero" after it, and a decimal point in the middle.

Thus, "80,000" became "4,800", which is just below the warning line of 5,000.

Actually, wages are probably useless; they're purely used to annoy people or find excuses to intimidate them.

Eagle Bone said thoughtfully in a low voice, "Did that security guard also sense that Su Ninglong was not someone to be trifled with, which is why he didn't attack her? And it wasn't just because of the recommender?"

"I'm not sure, let's observe further." Tong Zi felt that things were probably not that simple, and jumping to conclusions now would risk missing crucial information.