(10) The poor have no fear of thieves

Killing a normal citizen causes an investigation to be carried out, by the local peacekeepers and law maintainers, who were mostly cultivators of lower rank or beginners.

Then, would any investigation be carried out if a person who was not a citizen died?

Very unlikely. 

Mangrel, who wanted to explore any possible option, was surprised to find such a poverty-stricken place in the middle of nowhere, hence he asked around the people walking on the sidewalk. 

A few responded with disgust and disdain, still, he was able to gather the story behind this strange place. 

As it appears, the village near this city was attacked by a horde of beasts. The whole village was ravaged till nothing was left behind, and only a handful of people were able to escape, not amounting to even a hundred. 

The Rueven city accepted them, allowing them to stay in sector five, which was still in the process of maturing; it was not yet at the level of the other four sectors of the city. 

The area where poverty-stricken people stayed was assigned to these vagrants. Causing it to enter a phase of rapid development.

'So, this is the best place for me to find some food. All the survivors who were cultivators must have been moved to some kind of organization by now. There is no way the city lord would let the cultivator stay in a single place for a long time.' 

Experienced people like city lords would know better than anyone not to let a cultivator loose. The human mind was brittle, they could easily be persuaded by others, especially in moments like this, where they had lost almost everything, from their position to their family. 

If a hostile group controlled these cultivators, they could harm the city to a large degree. Not many people can deduce that far, however, the city lord could predict that much with ease, hence he moved ahead of time, making sure no such incident occurs. 

Mangrel could kill anyone here, and escape easily if he wanted. However, he did not see the need to do such a thing for now. 

Doing so would be no different than poking a stick into a hornet's nest. It was more than possible for these people to report this matter to the city lord. 

Then, even if it was just in name, an investigation would be carried out into the matter. 

At first, Mangrel was overjoyed to hear about the existence of a shelter like this. But it was dozed with cold water, the moment he understood the backstory. 

Then, what was Mangrel trying to do here?

There was still a perk that this place provided to Mangrel. 

Some people glanced at Mangrel with scrutinizing expressions, they turned away losing interest after finding him to be nothing but a beggar.

'They are letting their guards down very quickly as I expected. It was to be expected, they don't have anything valuable anyone would be interested in after all.' 

As the saying goes, the poor have no fear of thieves. They had nothing to lose in the end.

Mangrel moved deeper unperturbed by anyone. The shelters for these vagrants were very impoverished. The street had no roadwork done on it, nothing but the rough sand and ground was present around houses. 

There was a high chance of hurting your leg in this kind of place, not to talk about all the problems that would present themselves, like blisters forming below the feet. 

'The vagrants might be dissatisfied with this living environment, however, they can't do anything about it. Just the fact that a city accepted them was an incredible matter.' From this matter, Mangrel was able to unveil a little of the city lord's personality. 

Not long after, the sounds of children playing could be heard from a distance. 

With a short pause, Mangrel moved towards them at a normal pace. 

After passing by a few wooden houses that appeared new, no different than a hut, four children of average 10 years old, could be seen playing a game, with dozens of boxes drawn on the ground. 

They were playing a game identical to hopscotch. 

"Hey-hey! It's your turn now, I collected eight points, so let's see if you can surpass me this time." One of the boys declared to a girl. 

"Uh-huh." The girl nodded. 

Seeing them, a sharp light flashed by within Mangrel's eyes. He was searching for children like this, he began hearing their conversation seriously. It was best to gather some rudimental information, before approaching them, to get the best result of whatever Mangrel was going to do. 

To not gather unwanted attention, Mangrel acted as though he was tired from walking, and leaned on the wooden pole.

After a few minutes, Mangrel was able to gather enough information, to at least discern the relationship between these four children. 

He walked to them naturally, gathering their attention immediately. 

There were only a few people around the area, they were not interested in what these kids did at all. It would have been a different matter if their parents were looking.

These kids wore clothes that at least appeared like one. The rags that Mangrel wore like clothes clearly stood out in contrast. 

Mangrel directly walked before the girl that appeared the smallest among the four, around 7 to 8 years old. 

The girl that was approached by Mangrel tried to move behind one of the boys, but suddenly froze in her position. A pair of cold eyes landed on her, exhibiting bloodlust in it. Not only the small girl but the other three were also affected by the bloodlust, chills rose within them unstoppably. 

For people who have never been exposed to blatant bloodlust, the blanking of the mind was normal. Especially in this world, where the spiritual energy within you responds to emotions, people with weaker spirits might even die. 

'The more one grows, the stronger their spirit becomes, therefore the sturdier the spiritual energy within a person, once they reach the peak of their life.' 

'This girl has a weaker spirit compared to mine, so I am sure it would work just fine against her.' Mangrel placed his palm upon the small girl's head softly, as if petting her. 

Mangrel's concentration at once shifted to his spirit, the spiritual energy around him began to respond immediately, coming under his control. 

Spiritual harmonization!

Mangrel's eyes shone as he conjured a spell called — Enchant!

It was a spell that Mangrel had not used in a long time, nostalgic feeling rose within him, and an old memory was dug from deep within his memories.

Being an outcast no clear organization accepted them, but many dark groups took him in with no hesitation. The gambling house was the place where Mangrel worked for some time. 

The enchantment spell was absolutely necessary at that time. 

Being a rank three cultivator, there were many that Mangrel enchanted at the time, scamming people every day. But as usual, a dark organization can't last for long, it was hunted down by the forces nearby. He could escape by a breadth of a hair, or else that would have been his end too.

Being accepted by only the dark forces, Mangrel's life was really chaotic at that time. He had no choice but to take risks, he needed resources to cultivate. 

The suffering of the past surfaced as a smile on Mangrel's face. He did not consider those bitter experiences to be useless, Mangrel had come to learn many things by experiencing those misfortunes. 

Mangrel did not get lost in his memory for long, he placed it aside. Only a second had passed since Mangrel cast the spell. 

Feeling that the spell had successfully activated, Mangrel retracted his hand when he suddenly felt his head go blank. 

"...!" Mangrel suppressed the groan that rose and arced forward slightly, two drops of blood on the ground entered his sight. Two trails of blood could be seen from his nose. 

'....I overexerted myself there, this body can't even hold up to such small actions. Sigh...' Mangrel noted this fact down, to not make the same mistake again in the future. 

Cleaning the blood using his wrist, Mangrel turned to the girl calmly. 

"It's been a while since we met." Mangrel executed a greeting naturally. 

"Ah, Yes! I didn't think we would meet here. Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding." The girl responded almost immediately. Her eyes appeared somewhat foggy, with pinkish fog in them. 

"I am alright, no need for any worry." Mangrel slightly shifted his body to the other three. 

With the pressure lifted from them, the boys spoke up: "Yo-you know this brother, Seilin?" 

"This weird brother is related to you? Are you sure?" They found Mangrel suspicious, they had a bad first impression.

"Uh-huh, Yes, I know him," Seilin responded energetically. 

Mangrel interjected at that moment: "Excuse us for now, I need Seilin to take me to her house."

"I will be back in a second, don't forget the score! I will come back and defeat you for sure." Seilin supported Mangrel's words instantly. 

With not much resistance, Seilin started leading Mangrel toward her house. 

Seeing Seilin walking before him innocently, Mangrel felt satisfied, 'Now that the spell has taken effect, she will be under the spell's control for a few minutes. That is the limit with my current spiritual energy.'

The perk of this shelter-like place was — that no one would find the use of enchantment spells!

Only a cultivator can sense such a use of a spell like this, even a beginner cultivator can feel it. That was the case at least for the current weak version of the spell, cast by Mangrel.