Chapter 397: Shocked For Quite A Long While
"Don"t worry, Father Vincent of the Sun"s Faith is a kind and righteous man. He"ll help you," said Lin Jie with a kindly smile.
Haa, you must at least have a roof over your head before you become the king of pickles... Lin Jie thought to himself.
Mu"en"s usually calm face revealed a pensive look after hearing what Lin Jie had said. The young girl glanced at the book in Zachary"s hand and couldn"t help thinking about the discussion that she had with Vincent in the dream realm.
As usual, everything Boss Lin did was definitely farsighted.
In that case, he had just been a refugee that had entered the bookstore by chance. Why gave him such an important book, and why sent him to the church?
Yes, that book could shake Mu"en even with her level of foresight. That was enough to prove the importance of this book.
Mu"en fell into deep thought.
Vincent had said before that the goal of the Sun"s Faith at this stage was to weed out impure people and take over the Norzin upper echelons. It was only natural that Boss Lin would know about her meeting with Vincent in the dream realm.
So, could it be that Boss Lin was worried about Vincent"s plan and sent someone to help?
At this moment, Mu"en suddenly felt that everything made sense!
That"s right. Boss Lin was able to control time at will. He was an existence that transcended the current plane. Therefore, in his eyes, everyone"s actions were just mere lines that he could easily read with a single glance.
All possibilities were exposed to him, and so were the threat level of foes. It was reasonable for him to do something in advance to change the future.
Looks like the enemy this time is rather troublesome...
Mu"en"s gaze fell on Boss Lin, and she noticed him giving her an encouraging smile as if to say, "Mu"en, remember to tell Vincent when you go to the Central District."
Indeed! He wants to tell us to be careful.
Mu"en nodded. "Don"t worry, Boss Lin. I"ll let Vincent know."
Lin Jie rubbed Mu"en"s head and his smile widened. "I look forward to your future performance."
With such a sensible and capable a.s.sistant, what more could one ask for?
As Zachary looked at Lin Jie, his heart that was originally filled with fear and pain seemed to be soothed by Lin Jie"s warm smile in an instant. Once the fear subsided, uncontrollable grat.i.tude filled his heart.
"Boss Lin…" Trembling, Zachary clutched the book to his chest. Years of just slogging away at work made him unable to say anything of value. In the end, he could only earnestly mutter, "Thank you. You"re such a good person."
When Lin Jie heard this, he felt refreshed. All his efforts hadn"t been in vain.
Haa... It isn"t too bad to help lost sheep like these once in a while.
"Bring your friends that have fainted from hunger to the church too," said Lin Jie as he pointed at the bunch of refugees lying on the ground. "By the way, after you learn this age-old technique, be sure to let your friends try some. I"m sure they"ll like it very much."
Lin Jie had utmost confidence in pickled vegetables. There was no way anyone wouldn"t adore pickled vegetables.
"F-Friends, try this technique…?" Zachary almost let go of the book he was clutching as his eyes widened in fright. He gulped and slowly turned back to his comrades lying on the ground.
While he was only with them for a short time and didn"t know what they did before being homeless, they were still living people after all. How could they be refined into living corpses?
"T-This isn"t a very good idea… Boss Lin," Zachary said with a trembling voice.
Lin Jie raised an eyebrow. What"s with that lack of confidence! Confidence is the first step to success. There"s no trying without self-belief. Sigh... You"ve really disappointed me, Zachary!
"Have faith in yourself, you understand?" Lin Jie put on a solemn expression and said, "Confidence is the first step, while having heart is the foundation of success. If you don"t let them try it, how can you make them follow you wholeheartedly?"
Wholeheartedly...
All the hairs on Zachary"s body stood on end when he saw the look Lin Jie gave him. Immediately, he was terrified and bowed at once. "I"m sorry. I"m sorry, Boss Lin. I shouldn"t hesitate. I got it, I"ll do it right away!"
Only then did Lin Jie nod in satisfaction. "If you got it, then go on your way quickly."
Zachary nodded, then scrambled to drag his fallen friends.
Joseph, who was standing at the door, eyed Zachary and interjected, "I"ll send you. It"s not easy carrying so many people along."
Lin Jie blinked and asked, "Is that okay, Joseph? Didn"t you want to hide your ident.i.ty?"
Joseph nodded. "It"s fine. It"s just down the street anyway. A Sun"s Faith brunch happens to be there."
"Alright then, don"t take too long." Lin Jie waved his hand and returned back to a comfortable sitting posture to continue reading. Just as he was about to start, he suddenly looked up and saw the shattered wall across him.
His mood was instantly ruined.
Although he had previously deduced that the wall breaking had nothing to do with Joseph, Lin Jie was still crestfallen. Repairing the wall was quite a huge expense!
——
With a refugee heaved over each shoulder, Joseph walked ahead of Zachary. He glanced at the far end of 23rd Avenue while sensing Zachary"s unsteady footsteps behind him.
Having achieved Supreme-rank, he now had a completely different view and understanding of the entire world.
Joseph did a quick glance behind him. This homeless refugee was clutching the precious book. His life would be drastically changed by it, but... he hadn"t completely accepted the book yet.
It was clear from the shifty look in his eyes.
Fully accepting the book meant complete purity and devotion. The sort of purposefulness that ignored everything else in order to save and sublimate oneself.
But he hadn"t yet reached that stage, just like the Joseph from a long time ago.
He was hesitating and struggling, contemplating between the future and the past. He still didn"t know which side to accept, but at the same time, he was already overjoyed at having obtained such power.
Boss Lin might not care about the existence of such uncertainty, but Joseph couldn"t allow it.
He needed to give a warning.
This was the iron-blooded way that he had always upheld... for a long time, even before he even became a Radiant Knight.
Joseph stopped at the front of a side alley intersection and turned around.
Zachary skidded to a halt and almost ran straight into him.
"Wha..."
Baam!
Joseph punched the wall beside him with such force that he actually dented the wall with his pure physical strength and caused the ground around him to fracture.
A trembling Zachary backed away and raised the book in front of him and said, "Y-Y-Y-You, what are you trying to do? I-I was also given a book by Boss Lin. Y-Aren"t you loyal to him?"
Joseph retracted his fist and said indifferently, "You"re right. We are indeed loyal to him. But what about you? Are you clear about where your loyalties lie?"
He unclenched his fist, revealing fine powdered stone that scattered into the wind.
Zachary glanced at the wall beside and saw that there was a fist-sized hole in the center of the dent.
"S-Sir, I will always be loyal to Boss Lin. I will give up my life and everything for him!" Zachary squawked. His legs lost all their strength and he nearly knelt to the ground. "I swear it! I will never betray Boss Lin!"
Joseph"s eyes glowed faintly. "Remember what you said. Boss Lin can take back your power at any time."
Zachary quivered. "U-Understood!"
"Hmph, clown!" Joseph snorted coldly, unsure whether he was angry at his past self or that he felt it wasn"t worth it for Boss Lin to help these ignorant people.
He glowered as Zachary scrambled away with his unfortunate companions in the direction of the branch church. Then Joseph turned and headed back too.
——
A short distance away, Lin Jie, who had planned to chase after Joseph to accompany him in buying some material to repair his wall, witnessed this scene.
He stopped in his tracks and scratched his face in a bafflement.
Then he turned around and took two steps toward the bookstore, then stopped and turned back around.
"No way, Joseph… just smashed that wall?"
Lin Jie had blamed the cracked wall in the bookstore on the aftermath of an earthquake since Joseph hadn"t touched that wall at all. But now he had witnessed Joseph"s actions from start to finish.
He clearly couldn"t lie to himself that Joseph hadn"t just smashed a wall.
Are you otherworlders... all that physically strong?
Lin Jie remained shocked for quite a long while.