Chapter 17 - The First Customer

…

Mike stood outside the teahouse and looked at the new and improved teahouse with total shock.

“D*mn, w-what the f*ck? It’s as if I just took a sh*t and came back to a fully downloaded 1TB game that I downloaded just before I went to the toilet!”

Mike expressed his shock with a humorous analogy of his own, while he cautiously entered the teahouse and took a look around, he quickly put the out-of-the-blue newly renovated teahouse at the back of his mind as he noticed Li Qu casually sitting around the middle of the dining area sipping a tea that illuminated his teacup.

He scurried to Li Qu’s side and asked Li Qu for the reason why he was here.

“Y-your Exc- No, Young Master Li, may I know why did you ask me to come here?”

Li Qu just glanced at him with a nonchalant face while ignoring Mike, as if it was just empty air.

Mike shuddered and realized why Li Qu was ignoring him, he gritted his teeth and asked Li Qu imploringly,

“Y-Young Master Li, can I please not kneel down? I’m from the Shadow Bureau… M-my Uncle Tom is the Captain of my Protector’s Unit! Please give me some face.”

“You think exposing your background can scare me? A frog in the well you are, truly.”

Li Qu talked while his head faced the opposite direction of Mike, not giving Mike the least bit of face that he wanted.

“F*ck…”

Mike muttered with a low voice that sounded like a squeak from a mouse, but who was Li Qu?

Li Qu could even hear the flowing blood in Mike’s veins if he wanted to, let alone that small squeak of dissatisfaction.

Boooom!

Mike was forced to kneel yet again by Li Qu’s pressure, albeit slightly weaker, but still enough to force a kneel from Mike.

“This will be the last chance I’m giving you. If I hear one more disrespect from your mouth about me, your ‘Uncle Tom’ will be collecting your corpse the next day. Now, stay kneeling.”

The only reason Li Qu was so tolerant of him was because Li Qu wanted Mike to be his first customer.

As for the reason? Obviously because he wanted Mike to bring everyone in Shadow Bureau here as customers!

“I-I understand. I won’t do it anymore. I apologize, Young Master Li.”

Mike felt a chill in his spine when Li Qu uttered those cruel words about himself so casually, like he did it so often that he wasn’t phased by the act of killing.

Even though Mike had a lot of experience from the Protector’s Unit, fighting and killing criminal Evolvers and Bio-Beasts, he had not seen anyone as nonchalant and calm as Li Qu when talking about killing.

“Now, I permit you to stand up and take a look at my menu and order a pot of tea from me.”

Li Qu righteously stated to Mike as he released the pressure and decided to pardon him from kneeling as Mike slowly stood up and crept to the table to peek at the menu that consisted of only a single item.

“W-what the f- No no no no! I-I mean, why is the price so expensive, Young Master Li?”

Mike’s eyeball nearly popped out when he saw the price of the Gold Spirit Tea, he nearly cursed and quickly covered his foul mouth as he realized he nearly died yet again.

“It is this price for a reason, try it and you will understand. I will not cheat you of your Bio-Cores, you think that I will lack something as easy to get as this?”

Mike thought it was true as Li Qu was extremely powerful, if Li Qu wanted to, he could just go to the nearby New Yolk Wild Forest to hunt a few Bio-Beasts for their Bio-Cores, regardless of what stage they were at.

Mike himself was at the Genelock 3rd Phase, the same as Clan Head Hu, except that Mike needed to lock in 3 more Genes to a total of 10 Locks per Phase and a grand total of three Genelock Phases before a Genelock Evolver could break through to become a Revolver.

In order for Genelock Phase Evolvers to power up, they would first need to focus and meditate, like any other stages. Secondly, they would then proceed to observe their body structures using their 'Micro-Sense', or what cultivators would call, Spiritual Sense.

It works comparably to the Spiritual Sense, except that an Evolver's Micro Sense could only observe their internals like an MRI scan that the hospitals use to scan a person's body but on a deeper level, and not spread it out to scan the vicinity like how cultivators use Spiritual Sense.

The Spiritual Sense of cultivators after they scan their vicinity worked like a radar scanner from a ship, capable of detecting any out of the ordinary.

Evolvers would obtain their Micro Sense from the start of their evolution journey, when they just evolved, although the Micro Sense would not have that many uses yet.

The more powerful Evolvers are, the deeper they could sense things in their bodies.

For example, Genes as mentioned earlier, Gene Pools that Revolvers have and the Gene Ocean that the Ascended or what they call, a ‘higher life-form’ would have.

Similarly, Micro Sense can also detect cancer cells, hidden malignant tumors or what not that they had originally and cleanse themselves of any obscure diseases.

That was why even regular Phase 1 to 5 Evolvers could have a maximum lifespan of up to 120 years of age.

An average mortal’s lifespan was about 70-80, with some extremely lucky or unlucky living up to 90, but would be full of illnesses.

The Genelock Phase Evolvers were above the Phase 5 Evolvers and below the Revolving Phase Revolvers, sandwiched in the middle.

Mike’s power was comparable to the cultivator’s initial stage Nascent Soul Realm and the 5th Stage Bio-Beasts.

Mike himself could have hunted a single 5th Stage Bio-Beast and had a chance of it dropping 5 Bio-Cores at once! Let alone Li Qu.

Li Qu looked at Mike as though he was as a pauper that could not even afford it and asked,

“You… Do not even have 5 Bio-Cores?”

Mike hurriedly replied him as he patted his belt,

“I-I do! No decent Evolver would carry a backpack as we all have a Storage Belt!”

‘System, what is a ‘Storage Belt’? Is it like a Storage Ring that we use?’

Li Qu asked the System with interest as he found the storage belt vaguely familiar after he did a small scan of it with his Spiritual Sense.

[...Researching… Host, I did a quick research on the internet. Apparently, the spatial storage from the ‘Storage Belt’, is made from a singular Space Stone that the Space Rabbits defecate out after they digest an asteroid. Where astronauts first discovered the Space Stones on an existing asteroid orbiting Earth.]

“The bunnies…! They are even here, so far away from Star Heaven Realm. It seems like their species has not stopped expanding throughout the Realms and Universe. That really brings me back… I used to keep one as a pet, its name was Ou Tu, named by my previous Dao Companion probably hundreds of thousands of years ago.”

Li Qu did not expect that the experimental Space Rabbits that the Star Cultivators from Star Heaven Realm bred a million years ago would even reach the vicinity of Earth. It was truly surprising as he had yet again thought of some old memories.

The Space Rabbits were covered in blue fur, with eyes that looked like there were stars in them.

Li Qu scrutinized Mike closely as he waited for Mike to take out his Bio-Cores.

…

*A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan is a common procedure around the world. MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues within the body.