I Start with a Mysterious Island-Chapter 87: Two Suspicious Guys

CLICK.

Lin Li got out of the van and walked up to the food stall. He noticed quite a few customers eating the buffet-style mini hot pot. ’The food here must be pretty good,’ he thought, ’or else there wouldn’t be so many people eating.’

The stall was run by a husband and wife. The proprietress had spotted the van from a distance as it parked not far from her stall.

When the driver got out and headed her way, she greeted the young man as he approached.

"Young man, care for some buffet-style mini hot pot? We have over twenty different dishes, and it’s only fifteen yuan. A real bargain!"

’Only fifteen yuan? That’s so cheap! Most of the dishes are just vegetables, but for a price this low, what more could you ask for from a buffet-style mini hot pot?’ Lin Li thought to himself before nodding to the proprietress and speaking.

"Ma’am, I’ll have one order of the buffet-style mini hot pot... Oh, right, can I pay with my phone here?"

The proprietress, a woman in her early fifties with hair graying at the temples, smiled. "You sure can. Here’s the QR code, just give it a scan."

As she spoke, the proprietress took a laminated QR code from a drawer in her cart and held it out to Lin Li.

Lin Li took out his phone, scanned the code, and paid the fifteen yuan.

The proprietress then gave Lin Li a plastic box for his food and instructed her husband to prepare the broth for his mini hot pot.

"Young man, would you like a spicy or non-spicy broth?"

"Non-spicy, please." Lin Li thought for a moment. ’It’s a bit hot out. Better to eat something lighter and avoid getting pimples from the heat.’

Even though he was a Cultivator now, with his cultivation and physique constantly improving, it seemed that even with enhanced strength and constitution, a Cultivator could still feel the effects of heaty food and even catch a cold.

A moment later, Lin Li carried a box full of vegetables and tofu products to his seat and began adding his selections to the mini hot pot in front of him.

It was early July, and the temperature had risen considerably. Night had just fallen, and although it was much cooler than during the day, it still felt a bit hot.

"Ma’am, do you have any ice-cold sodas?" Lin Li asked, turning to the proprietress who had greeted him earlier. He had noticed the other diners were all drinking iced beer.

"We do."

"I’ll have one."

"You got it! Just a moment."

A short while later, the proprietress came over to Lin Li’s table with an ice-cold soda in a glass bottle.

Lin Li hadn’t had soda from a glass bottle since he graduated from middle school. Seeing the familiar packaging again, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of nostalgia.

GLUG GLUG GLUG...

He lifted the glass bottle and, without bothering with a straw, chugged a third of it in one go.

"Ahhh~"

After a big gulp of the ice-cold soda, he let out a long breath. The sweltering heat that had plagued his body seemed to vanish completely.

* * *

"BURP~"

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Lin Li let out a burp. As he stood up to leave, the proprietress called out to him with a cheerful smile, "All full, young man?"

"Yep." Lin Li nodded and complimented her on how delicious the mini hot pot was, then left.

Since the stall was in the suburbs, there were few pedestrians on the street. Compared to the city center, it felt somewhat deserted.

After finishing his hot pot, Lin Li walked back toward where he had parked.

Just then, he suddenly saw two shady-looking people standing in front of his van.

’What are those two doing?’ Lin Li wondered. ’My van is completely ordinary, not some luxury sports car. What’s so interesting about it?’

But the two men’s next actions made Lin Li realize in an instant that they weren’t just looking at his van.

One of them, a man with a buzz cut, reached out, grabbed the handle of Lin Li’s van door, and gave it a yank.

With a few rattling sounds, the van door failed to open.

Lin Li hadn’t forgotten to lock his van when he got out to eat. The man with the buzz cut yanked the handle several more times, but he couldn’t get the door open as he’d hoped.

’These guys are thieves. They must be after the backpack and Spiritual Longsword I left on the passenger seat...’ Seeing their blatant actions, Lin Li immediately understood their intentions.

Just as he was about to rush forward and stop the two thieves, he witnessed something completely unexpected.

A faint golden Spiritual Light appeared on the buzz-cut man’s hand. Then, he yanked the door handle one more time.

With a soft CLICK, the locked door to Lin Li’s van swung open.

’Unbelievable! That guy with the buzz cut is a Cultivator! And the way he opened a locked door so easily... he must have awakened some kind of lock-picking Superpower.’

After using his awakened Superpower to open the van door, the buzz-cut man immediately reached in and pulled out the Spiritual Longsword and the backpack that Lin Li had left on the passenger seat.

Once he had the two items, the thief immediately channeled the Spiritual Energy in his body. As the Spiritual Energy flowed into it, the Spiritual Longsword in his hand began to radiate a faint golden Spiritual Light.

The buzz-cut man’s accomplice stared at the Spiritual Longsword glowing with a faint golden light, his voice filled with ecstatic surprise. "Boss, if we sell this Spiritual Longsword on the black market, we can get at least two or three hundred thousand! We’re rich!"

"Yeah! We’re rich! I can’t believe this weapon is actually a Spiritual Longsword." The buzz-cut man laughed heartily, then said to his lackey, "Let’s go. We need to get out of here."

"Go? Where do you think you’re going? You think you can just walk away after I caught you stealing?"

Just as the two thieves were about to flee with their loot, a cold and emotionless voice sounded from behind them.

The two thieves flinched. ’Shit, we’ve been spotted,’ they both thought, then simultaneously spun around to face the source of the voice.

The thieves saw a young man in his early twenties, dressed in camouflage. He was standing about three meters away, watching them with a deadpan expression.

"Kid, piss off if you know what’s good for you. Otherwise, I don’t mind poking a few holes in you."

Before the leader, the buzz-cut man, could even speak, his skinny lackey emotionally pulled a fruit knife from his pocket and brandished it threateningly at Lin Li.

* * *