Chapter 179: Artificial Intelligence Xiaotao
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“Have I been discovered?”
Lin Muyu’s heart jumped violently. Going out now would be no different from walking into a trap. Almost instinctively, she flashed into Xiaotao’s space.
The next second, the bead automatically disguised itself as an inconspicuous pebble, quietly hiding in the shadowy corner of the wall, blending seamlessly with its surroundings.
“Boss, is there really someone here?”
The burly man’s voice broke the silence. He immediately clenched his fists, looking around vigilantly left and right.
But Xiao Huo merely shook his head slowly, his tone still cold as he explained.
“I just vaguely felt something was off and wanted to test it. Looks like I was overthinking it, there really is no one here.”
“Good one, so you were deliberately bluffing. That’s way too cunning.”
Lin Muyu, inside the space, listened to the conversation outside and couldn’t help clicking her tongue.
She felt somewhat fortunate. If it weren’t for Xiaotao’s space, she might have actually been forced out by Xiao Huo’s bluff just now.
But… since the other party hadn’t discovered her, this was perfect, she could record all of their conversation~
Lin Muyu pulled out a recording stone from within the space. Her fingertip injected a trace of spiritual energy into it, and the stone’s surface immediately glowed with a faint halo, beginning to silently record everything from the outside world.
She had prepared quite a few of these recording stones. After witnessing Yunduo use one before, she had purposely stocked up on extras.
With this thing around, she could at least avoid being falsely accused in the future, and at critical moments it could serve as evidence.
Moreover, drawing on her experience from her previous life, Lin Muyu had even gotten Xiaotao to research special uses for recording stones, like editing their contents similar to Photoshop from her past life.
In her previous life, she often heard this saying:
“As everyone knows, videos cannot be photoshopped.”
But once AI came out, that became questionable.
This way, she could even create needed scenes out of thin air.
That’s right, for Lin Muyu, Xiaotao had long been used as an artificial intelligence!
Weapon spirits were even more intelligent than AI, especially high-intelligence weapon spirits like Xiaotao.
Xiaotao: “Are you being polite?”
At the alley entrance, the burly man remembered the actual business and hurriedly asked.
“So boss, did that girl hand over the movement technique earlier?”
“No.”
Xiao Huo’s tone finally carried a hint of dissatisfaction.
“She’s more cautious than I imagined. Looks like this matter can’t be rushed, we still need to take it slow.”
He had already expended considerable effort on that woman. Even the hero-saving-beauty act he and the burly man had performed together hadn’t made her give in, which made him somewhat irritated.
“Then Boss Xiao, this money…”
The burly man hesitantly pulled out some gold and silver from his chest, exactly what he had just robbed from that girl.
“Consider it your reward.”
Xiao Huo waved his hand dismissively, his tone somewhat impatient.
“But remember, from now on, no matter how much money she manages to gather for treatment, you must find a way to rob it from her. Absolutely cannot let her collect enough money.”
As long as he didn’t let this woman gather enough money, she would definitely need his help.
“Got it!”
The burly man’s eyes lit up, his face instantly breaking into a broad smile as he hurriedly stuffed the money into his chest, afraid Xiao Huo might change his mind.
But thinking it over again, he felt somewhat puzzled.
“But boss, I still don’t understand, why don’t we just capture her directly and force her to hand over the movement technique? Why go through all this trouble in circles?”
“You don’t understand.”
Xiao Huo turned around, his gaze darkening as he slowly explained.
“This quality of movement technique values completeness above all. If there’s any omission whatsoever, not only would practicing it be useless, it could even cause qi deviation. Unless we can make her willingly hand it over, there’s no way to confirm whether it’s complete.”
“Making her hand it over willingly is indeed troublesome…”
The burly man scratched his head, frowning in thought for a moment. Suddenly his eyes lit up, as if he’d thought of a brilliant idea. He sidled up to Xiao Huo and said:
“Boss, that girl is dead set on saving her sister, right? How about we find a fake physician and claim they can cure her sister’s illness? If she wants to save her, she’ll definitely have to hand over the movement technique!”
“But you forgot, her sister’s condition isn’t really an illness at all. It fundamentally cannot be cured.”
Xiao Huo’s brow furrowed even tighter, his tone grave as he reminded him.
“Not being able to cure it is even better!”
The burly man lowered his voice, a flash of viciousness appearing in his eyes.
“After she hands over the movement technique, we’ll have that fake physician prescribe some useless medicine, then tell her ‘whether it works depends on fate.’ If her sister doesn’t pull through in the end, that’s just bad luck, it has nothing to do with us!”
“What a sinister scheme.”
Inside the space, Lin Muyu watched the two men’s ugly faces, her eyes instantly filling with disgust.
Originally she had just wanted to hide in the shadows and watch the spectacle, with no intention of meddling. But these two men’s scheme was truly too vicious, she couldn’t stand watching anymore.
If Xiao Huo coveted that girl’s movement technique but used legitimate means to make the girl willingly hand it over, she would at most secretly show that Xuanxuan the recording of his “hero saving the beauty” act, then just watch the fun unfold.
But Xiao Huo insisted on using such despicable tricks. Since she’d witnessed it, she couldn’t stand by any longer. She absolutely had to interfere and ruin their scheme!
“But wouldn’t this be too obvious? What if she sees through it?”
Xiao Huo clearly still had concerns. After all, that girl was mature-minded, if they showed any slip-ups, all their previous efforts would be wasted.
“Boss, you’re overthinking it!”
The burly man hurriedly persuaded him.
“Once a woman encounters someone she cares about, her mind gets muddled, how would she have the presence of mind to distinguish true from false?”
“Besides, even if we try and fail, there’s no real loss. If something really goes wrong, we’ll just say we were also deceived by that fake physician and push the responsibility away clean, won’t that work?”
Xiao Huo fell silent for a moment, but was ultimately persuaded. He gritted his teeth.
“Alright then, do as you say. Go find a reliable person to impersonate a physician right now. Set the time for tomorrow. If this succeeds, I’ll have another generous reward for you.”
With that, he rummaged in his storage pouch and pulled out a low-grade spirit stone, casually tossing it to the burly man.
The burly man’s eyes were quick and his hands nimble, he immediately stepped forward to catch the spirit stone, his face full of delight.
In his eyes, this faintly glowing spirit stone wasn’t an ordinary rock, but a treasure that could be exchanged for a huge sum of silver.
You have to know, spirit stones were far more valuable than gold. A single low-grade spirit stone could let him live comfortably for several years.
“Then after it’s done, if that woman’s sister is still alive…”
The burly man stroked the spirit stone in his hand, suddenly remembering something. An evil smile appeared on his face as he asked suggestively.
Xiao Huo had already turned to walk toward the alley exit. Without looking back, he said:
“That girl is yours to deal with as you please. But I should remind you, her sister’s body is extremely weak. She probably couldn’t withstand even once. You’d better not set your sights on her.”
“Don’t worry, boss, I wouldn’t touch something so inauspicious!”
The burly man quickly said, then changed his tune, a greedy light appearing in his eyes.
“But that girl really is quite pretty. If we find some sucker to sell her to, she’d definitely be worth quite a bit of money!”
As he spoke, he clutched the spirit stone tightly, the smile on his face growing ever brighter, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepening.
He had no other hobbies in this life, just loving money. For money, he was willing to do anything.
Only after the two men’s figures completely disappeared from the alley entrance and the surroundings became completely quiet did Lin Muyu emerge from the space.
She looked down at the recording stone in her hand that was still flickering with faint light, let out a soft sigh, then put away the stone and walked toward that dilapidated little house.
“Lin Muyu, oh Lin Muyu, why do you always love meddling in other people’s business? This is absolutely the last time, next time I definitely won’t interfere.”