19 His Kindness

Ling Yun always considered himself a righteous person above all else.

If he could help someone, he would do so. He wasn't selfless, of course, he still analyzed the situation before jumping into trouble head-first, but as long as the situation wasn't very dangerous for him, he would always help where he could.

But that approach sometimes earned him hate from people in his last life.

Of course, that could be attributed to his monstrous intelligence. In situations where he wasn't emotionally invested, which were most of the time since he didn't have a family or friends and only cared for himself and a dog, he always looked at the situation in the most objective way possible.

If there was a mugging in place and he saw it, most people would turn a blind eye and get as far as they could as quickly as possible. Some of them would call the police, but that was as far as they would go. Some other people might jump into the frying pan and risk their lives to help a person they didn't know. Ling Yun would just analyze it first.

If it was just a mugging, why would he risk his life to help? The victim would only lose material objects. If it was a kidnapping, he would try his best to help, but once again wouldn't risk himself, that was just stupid. And as easily as he could help a person, he could harm them.

If you met someone who abused other people, and would keep doing it, why should that person be left alive? Quite simple, really. So, he did what he thought any sane person would do. Kill them all. This was not a huge life decision or perspective-altering moment for Ling Yun, it was just him acting upon his own principles.

That's the reason he was behaving normally on the back of his jet lizard while Fen Xi was freaking out a little.

At first, while he was just caught up in the moment, he didn't think twice about Ling Yun's actions. But now the gravity of what he did was starting to sink in. He had just killed three people. And one of them had a big background. Not a very important one, but it was an unsurmountable difference on the eyes of a low-class citizen such as him.

That and the fact that he was remaining calm after murdering three people in cold blood made him start to slightly fear Ling Yun a little. He would've continued with his inner thoughts had Ling Yun not snapped him out of it.

"Hey, Fen Xi, right?" He asked as an opener.

"Yes, that's me." He was still a bit nervous, but answered his questions, nonetheless.

Despite his actions, he had just saved him, after all.

"Do you know how far we from the Glory Shelter are?" Of course, he knew that. He had the map, after all, so he didn't need to ask. But he still thought it wise to get an answer from someone with actual experience.

"At this speed, it should take about twelve hours."

"Is that so?" Ling Yun said with a smile and urged his lizard to stop in a clearing. "We'll make camp here for the night. I think it is better we arrive well rested tomorrow." He said and Fen Xi just nodded.

He recalled his mount beast soul and started to make a small fire. After that, he took a pot and some meat out of his pack. Or at least that's how it looked. Of course, he retrieved from the system. His pack was empty. He then pretended to start cooking, while all he did was waste some movements and leave an empty pot boiling. He already had a huge amount of cooked meals in the inventory, why would he manually cooked something else?

Still, he needed to keep an impression of normalcy in front this young man.

"So, why exactly were they bullying you? I got the gist of it just by eavesdropping, but I'd like to hear it from you." Ling Yun said smiling.

"Well, they wanted to use me as bait for a mutant creature, so I refused. After that, I returned them a beast soul they had lent me, but they wanted all of the beast souls I had. I refused and fought with them, and I obviously lost. It was stupid, I know, but…" He just trailed off uncomfortably.

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Ling Yun smiled to him comfortably.

"Well, I get it. I would've fought too, even if I was fighting evolvers. For people to take all of my beast souls from me and leave me defenseless in the wilderness would just not do." He replied trying to break the silence and got up to the fire. He emptied a mutant stew he had in his inventory in the pot before serving two portions.

"Don't get me wrong, I would be scared to fight them, but ultimately I would definitely die in I were to be left weaponless, so I rather take my chances fighting. I would likely die, but there would be a chance. And I can't die, I have people to take care of back in the alliance, you know."

Ling Yun was obviously aware of how his actions could be frowned upon, so he was trying his best to appease Fen Xi.

Fen Xi, for his part, kept silent and accepted the bowl of food with a slight nod of his head. Whether because he was too trusting or just shocked about the day's events, he started eating without even considering it was food prepared by a person who just murdered three people.

He didn't show any outward reaction until he swallowed the first mouthful of food. His eyes grew wide and his hands froze where they were.

"Is this… mutant meat?" He asked disbelievingly. He had just swallowed his first mouthful and got a notification telling him his mutant geno points had gone up.

For someone like Fen Xi, who was poor and had to risk his life for even a primitive kill, this was too hard to believe. Ling Yun, on the other hand, just stood there, baffled.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it is. From an iron-teethed rabbit. There's almost a full meat from one of those in the pot." He answered nonchalantly.

He had killed quite a few of those creatures in the past few days and had already extracted the parts that could make his geno point tally go up, but he wouldn't be able to function properly with just one meal a day. So, he started preparing food for him to eat the rest of the day. Since he could only gain 10 geno points daily for the best efficiency, the rest of his meals were from the useless carcasses.

But, while they were useless for him, they could still help with other people's geno points, which is something he hadn't put much thought into.

Fen Xi didn't even dwell on the fact that the meal was absolutely delicious. No, he quickly gobbled up his entire bowl and, without asking for permission, he scooped himself another serving which he devoured with equal gusto.

"Hey, take it slow, man. The food isn't going anywhere. And if you are too hungry, I can just make more." Ling Yun replied smiling.

Fen Xi looked to him at a loss for words. He saved his life, was escorting him to the shelter, and was even giving him mutant meat, which were three more kind acts than anybody had ever done for him. He didn't know exactly what to think of Ling Yun.

"Why are you doing this?" He desperately asked. Ling Yun just gave a wry smile.

"Well, helping you costs me nothing. Why wouldn't I?" He answered.

"But… this is mutant meat. Mutant! And there's a whole creature in the pot! You could sell it for a million dollars! Why share it with me? You don't even know me…" He trailed off.

Ling Yun kept quiet for a moment before sighing.

"Well… I don't really need the money right now. Not really. But you need everything you can get, you know?" He paused to order his thoughts, but Fen Xi spoke up.

"But why are you helping me? Even if you don't need it you could still sell it. A million is no small sum, and I'm just a stranger to you."

"I mean, I help you because you reminded me of myself a bit." He answered getting an incredulous look in return. "We are both from very poor backgrounds, I can tell that much. You were practically bought for a beast soul, which is something I can empathize. But, from what I saw, you are talented in martial arts. Have a good combat sense and are starting to improve on the compulsory education katas. Your battlesuit is worn, but you look like a newbie, which means you work harder than most. And you have someone waiting for you, too. So I guess that's why."

They stood in silence for a few minutes until Ling Yun once again spoke.

"Well, the beast souls from those three were quite decent. Five mutant ones and a dozen primitive. I will keep a mutant one, but you can have the rest." He smiled and transferred a mutant armor and three mutant weapons, as well as a bunch of primitive ones. "Funnily enough, they didn't have a single ordinary beast soul. Guess that dude was a little wealthier than I thought."

Fen Xi stood there flabbergasted. This was kindness like none other. Several tiers higher that just feeding him mutant meat. He just gave him four mutant beast souls. Four! Those could get him at least ten million dollars. At least!

He felt his mind clearer than anytime before. He looked at Ling Yun and made a vow right then and there.

'No matter what it takes, I will repay your kindness!'