Douluo Continent: I am the true master

Chapter 36 I'm not a hero, but I just can't stand what's going on.

Ignoring the filth on Qianqian's body, Ye Wen gently picked her up and stroked her back as he spoke.

"It's alright, it's alright. Your brother won't send you back to the orphanage."

After comforting Qianqian and settling the bill with the shopkeeper, Ye Wen took Qianqian and left.

Back at the hotel, they cleaned Qianqian's clothes and bought her several new outfits. The once smelly, dirty, and unpleasant little girl suddenly became delicate and adorable.

Her long, slightly wavy blonde hair resembled the Golden Fleece from ancient Greek legend, fluffy and soft. She was about the same height as an average six or seven-year-old girl, roughly reaching Ye Wen's thigh. Although her face was somewhat thin due to years of malnutrition, it still revealed her gentle nature.

Although he didn't major in psychology or child development, Ye Wen was confident that he was quite adept at dealing with little girls, after all, he had once been the top dog in the orphanage.

Under Ye Wen's persuasion, Qianqian lowered her guard and fell asleep peacefully in Ye Wen's arms. Ye Wen also learned about the hidden, unknown side of this city.

The orphanage in David City is run by a relative of the city lord, who appears to be a kind and amiable fat man, but in reality, he seems to be involved in human trafficking, which is strictly prohibited in the empire.

But that fat man secretly sold off the beautiful orphan after she awakened her martial soul. Unfortunately, young Qianqian saw this. Qianqian knew she was cute, and the fat man would occasionally look at her with disgusting eyes.

So when she was five years old, Qianqian escaped from the orphanage that terrified her. She tried to persuade her other companions to escape with her, not wanting to become slaves of nobles. However, most of the children were afraid of hunger and various difficulties and were unwilling to leave the orphanage that could barely be called a decent one.

From Qianqian's description, Ye Wen discovered something very interesting: Qianqian must have come from a good family of Soul Masters, otherwise ordinary commoners wouldn't have such a deep understanding of nobles.

Ye Wen wasn't surprised by this, since it's rare for children from ordinary families to be as intelligent as Qianqian.

Now Ye Wen is troubled about what to do with the orphanage. Although he is not a righteous hero, the fact that the slave trade is taking place right under his nose makes him, a child who grew up under the red flag, feel uncomfortable.

"Slaves? What a disgusting word. Reporting that orphanage director doesn't seem to do any good; collusion between officials and businessmen exists in every era. Not to mention that this fatso's background is that of the city lord of David City."

To become the lord of a medium-sized city, a noble must possess at least the cultivation level of a Soul Emperor, and such a position grants them access to the central government of the Heaven Dou Empire. Trying to eradicate them entirely would likely cause a great deal of trouble.

If it were simply a matter of letting the fat man die of disease, that would be acceptable. But the question is, would simply replacing him with a new orphanage director solve the problem? Obviously not.

Ye Wen understood all too well humanity's inherent weakness when it came to wealth; even he himself was utterly obsessed with Gold Soul Coins, after all, even a hero can be brought down by a mere penny.

Suddenly, Ye Wen seemed to have thought of something, and a wicked smile appeared on his lips.

Over the next few days, Ye Wen continued his leisurely strolls through the city. He also introduced Qianqian to Huo Rui and her brother. At first, they were quite surprised by the sudden appearance of this poor little girl, but the two siblings were instantly captivated by her soft and adorable voice calling her "brother" and "sister," and spent all their time circling around Qianqian.

Ye Wen even gave them two flicks on the forehead to calm them down.

Lolicon is just too perverted —hetui←_←

Time flies, and the two siblings successfully completed their ten-game winning streak, bringing Ye Wen an income of 100,000 gold soul coins.

They successfully advanced to become Bronze Fighting Souls.

As for why he stopped fighting, it wasn't that Ye Wen didn't want to earn more gold coins, but earning such a large amount of gold coins in this kind of city was practically suicidal.

This place is nothing like the capital of Heavenly Dou, where there are countless nobles who casually act like idiots with millions of gold coins. 10 gold soul coins are already enough to make the Soul Arena feel a little pain. If the loss is more, the Soul Arena might resort to underhanded tactics, and even the high-level nobles in the city might make a move against Ye Wen.

Knowing when to stop is the best long-term strategy.

If one's cultivation level reaches the Title Douluo level, then that's a different story.

Meanwhile, Ye Wen seemed to have done nothing these past few days, but he was secretly gathering information about the orphanage director's involvement in the slave trade. However, this fat man had distanced himself from the city lord very well, so it seemed impossible to use him to implicate the city lord of David City. But that was enough.

He secretly handed this information to the main hall of the Spirit Hall in David City. With the relationship between the two great empires and the Spirit Hall becoming increasingly tense, the Spirit Hall would be happy to use this to attack David City and improve their status among the common people.

As for that fat man, Ye Wen had put a colorless and odorless slow-acting poison in the tea he often drank. After a while, he would suddenly suffer a heart attack and die, without any clue whatsoever.

Even if they did discover it, Ye Wen would have already left David City by then.

In such a feudal era, trying to track down the culprit who poisoned someone more than half a month ago was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Ye Wen, who had long since returned to Tianxing Academy, still heard about the uproar surrounding the slave incident at the David City Orphanage when he went to the city to make purchases, even though he was currently in the countryside.

The family of the city lord of David were stripped of their noble status.

It is said that he later died a violent death, and for a time, the nobles of Tiandou became extremely secretive about the matter of slaves.

"I didn't expect the Spirit Hall to have such ulterior motives towards the two empires so early. Although I knew that the Spirit Hall had a bad relationship with the two empires, I didn't expect it to have reached this level. I thought it was during Bibi Dong's time that they planned to take action against the two empires."

However, it saved me a lot of trouble. I was originally thinking that if the city lord of David City wasn't punished, I would assassinate him once my cultivation was sufficient.

Ye Wen quickly put this matter out of his mind. He came to Nottingham City because the metal he had commissioned the merchant guild to purchase had arrived.

Now that we understand how to make a level-one soul tool storage ring, how can we do justice to our research if we don't put it into practice?

Moreover, relying on the Soul Arena to gamble for gold coins, while a quick way to make money, is ultimately not a sustainable solution. Therefore, Ye Wen plans to create and sell level-one storage space rings in the future.

(End of this chapter)