"What's with the light!"
Lan Yuzai shouted angrily, "You want to fight? Do you really believe I won't take you three on?"
Wang Jixuan was about to tell Lan Yuzai to shut up when the thugs below finally moved the flashlight away.
The three thugs didn’t retaliate against Lan Yuzai. Instead, they kept following a man and a woman, making crude jokes.
"What are they doing?" Wang Jixuan casually asked.
"Just catching some 'piglets,' it's a common thing on the lower floors," Lan Yuzai whispered. "Our thirteenth floor has decent security, so no one dares to catch piglets here. The higher you go, the safer it gets. Below the twenty-eighth floor, though, this kind of thing happens more often. Those who get caught and sold in the lower city are called piglets.
"Did you see that woman? She doesn’t look too old. I bet soon she'll be forced to do things in front of that man."
Wang Jixuan frowned at Lan Yuzai.
Lan Yuzai quickly added, "I’ve just seen a lot, don’t get me wrong! I’ve never done anything like that. I’ve only squeezed a few blood bags."
"Blood bags?"
"Yeah... the kind you saw before... they're called blood bags."
Lan Yuzai's smile turned a bit sheepish and awkward.
Wang Jixuan said, "Taking away the food that ordinary people rely on to survive, isn’t that a crime?"
"Well, if I don’t do it, someone else will," Lan Yuzai shrugged. "When I was eighteen, I was a blood bag for two years, bullied and beaten. Until one day, I got angry and stabbed the guy who was bullying me. I ended up in jail for two years, but when I got out, they were scared of me and called me boss. Soon, some gangs from the lower city found me and offered me a blood bag business. If I didn’t do it, they would have killed me and found someone else.
"When I squeezed blood bags, I looked for people with stable jobs and weak personalities. What can I say? If you’re weak, you deserve to be a blood bag."
Wang Jixuan frowned slightly and pointed his finger, pressing it against a nut.
"Wrong! Wrong! Don’t flick it!"
Lan Yuzai quickly crouched down, covering his face with both hands.
"Hmph!" Wang Jixuan said coldly, "For your crimes, killing you ten times would be too lenient!"
Lan Yuzai muttered quietly, "But I haven’t killed anyone directly."
"What’s the difference between slow cooking and stir-frying?"
"Now that you mention it, I guess I really am a bad person... I don’t bully others, they bully me. I don’t have any skills, so I just get by."
Lan Yuzai chuckled awkwardly. Even though he was begging for mercy, his eyes still showed some indifference. His beliefs weren’t so easily shaken.
Wang Jixuan glanced at the dimming lights below, thought for a moment, and decided not to complicate things.
"Rest up and then we’ll move," Wang Jixuan said calmly. "Of course, you could try asking for help from your friends."
"Look at you! I’m willing to be at your mercy! I only respect those stronger than me!"
Lan Yuzai said sincerely, "When can you teach me that finger flicking skill? I want to call you big brother! I’ll do your work at the factory, and my little brothers will all call you big brother! Every month, I’ll give you a share, as long as you can teach me this skill! That would be amazing!"
Wang Jixuan almost kicked him.
His finger flick wasn’t a magical skill, just an idea inspired by firearms, realizing the need for ranged attacks. The principle was simple, but the challenge was controlling inner energy after reaching the Qi training stage. To pass on this method was essentially passing down a teaching.
First, he wasn’t an elder with the authority to pass down skills. Second, the rules in the cultivation world say that skills shouldn’t be passed lightly. They need to consider character, talent, comprehension, and fortune, especially for a rogue like him.
"Lead the way."
"Okay," Lan Yuzai said obediently, shouldering two large bags and walking ahead with the flashlight.
Wang Jixuan kept the handgun tucked away, glancing at the five figures below.
The woman was sobbing, while the three thugs were whispering to each other.
The fire escape had a turn every sixteen steps, leading to a rectangular passageway.
The five people below stopped at the rectangular passage.
The three thugs shouted, "Let’s do it here! I can’t hold back anymore! Hold them down!"
"Hey, you’re not weak, are you? Don’t make it too messy, or the price will drop."
"Turn her face to look! I already said I’d kill you, and you’re still acting tough?"
At a turn in the passage, the light began to flicker.
The man and woman weren’t just tied up; their mouths were also covered with cloth, and they began to struggle violently. But after being starved for a few meals, they were no match for the three strong thugs and were quickly subdued.
The woman’s whimper echoed in the dark, abandoned fire escape.
Wang Jixuan frowned slightly.
He didn’t want to complicate things, but...
These people were blocking his way.
Wang Jixuan looked at Lan Yuzai and quietly asked, "If you were in this situation, what would you do?"
"What would I do?" Lan Yuzai mumbled. "Join them?"
Wang Jixuan: ...
"Just kidding! This is my first time seeing them catch piglets."
Lan Yuzai shrugged, "This happens more often in the lower city. You can’t manage it all, trust me. Of course, if you want to blast them away, I’ll definitely applaud you."
Wang Jixuan shot a glare at the thug leader and shone the flashlight down. He was just trying to light the path, but... he saw one of the thugs holding the woman down, making her watch as her husband was stripped and pressed against the wall...
Wait a minute!
Wang Jixuan felt his resolve starting to waver!
The woman was sobbing, but her clothes were intact; the man was subdued and had his pants taken off?
Lan Yuzai gave a thumbs up. "Three real men."
"Who are you? What the hell are you shining that light for? I’ll kill you, do you believe it?"
Whoosh!
Whoosh whoosh!
The sharp sound of something slicing through the air echoed.
In the light of the flashlight, the three thugs looked up, and at the same time, three sharpened pencils the size of a pinky finger appeared in their necks, with half of one embedded in their throats.
The three thugs convulsed and slowly knelt down, their eyes bulging and quickly filling with blood, gasping for air as they clutched their necks.
Wang Jixuan grimaced.
So dirty!
He was a cultivator, and even a slow strike felt like it was tainting his spirit!
Though Lan Yuzai kept boasting, he was also scared by the scene, his face pale and his eyes wide.
So gentle!
The boss Mu Liang was too gentle with him and his little brothers!
This boss only flicked his fingers at them before, but his real killing move was throwing pencils!
What would happen if he replaced the pencils with metal darts? That was too terrifying to even think about!
Wang Jixuan poked Lan Yuzai in the side with the handgun. "Shine the flashlight in their eyes."
"Okay, okay..."
Lan Yuzai turned on the flashlight, switching to high beam, causing the terrified couple to instinctively shield their eyes.
Wang Jixuan calmly stepped over the three fallen thugs, not even glancing down, perfectly avoiding any blood splatter.
As Wang Jixuan and Lan Yuzai moved further away, the couple finally reacted.
The man hurriedly pulled up his pants, and they both trembled as they untied each other’s hands.
They looked gratefully toward the light that was getting further away, faintly hearing the voices below.
"You’re amazing! Can you teach me?"
"Shut up."
"I can take any position! That move is incredible! You’re like a human machine gun!"
"Shut up."
"Okay, okay, I won’t say anything! Ah! My finger! Wrong!"
The couple, having escaped a disaster, looked at each other, seeing one another in the light of the miner's helmet, and embraced while crying.
Wang Jixuan and Lan Yuzai went down for about half a minute when suddenly a shadow fell beside them, crashing hard onto the steel platform below. The dull thud echoed around.
Wang Jixuan shone the flashlight down.
It was a thug’s body.
After a few more steps, two more bodies fell one after the other, splattering into mush on the steel platform below.
Lan Yuzai’s face turned a bit pale. "Those two piglets were pretty tough."
"Those who do evil will meet their end," Wang Jixuan said calmly. "If you treat others well, how could you suffer such a disaster?"
"Boss, you’re strong, so you can say whatever you want," Lan Yuzai chuckled awkwardly, "but us ordinary folks can only stand firm with two words."
"Two words?"
"Fierce and ruthless. If you’re not ruthless, you’ll be bullied. That’s just how it is in the fortress."
Lan Yuzai shifted the topic. "If you’re willing to teach me that move, I’ll definitely add a character for ‘benevolence’ on top of those two words. Justice will prevail!"
"Get lost."
Wang Jixuan couldn’t help but laugh at this guy.
Then he frowned slightly.
Using coarse language was unrefined and didn’t suit a cultivator. He was going to the immortal realm, after all, and couldn’t be filled with anger. He needed to be cautious about this.
...
Before Lan Yuzai's legs turned to jelly, they finally reached the lower city level.
Wang Jixuan was surprised to find that this area’s fire escape hadn’t changed at all, and there was only a lonely steel platform connecting the inside.
Wang Jixuan grew increasingly alert.
Though he had Lan Yuzai under control, the next place they were about to enter was unfamiliar territory for him.
Lan Yuzai, however, was a regular in the lower city, almost like an underling to those gangs.
"Boss, you should put away the gun, best to keep it close to you. You can’t just show a gun or knife; that’s the rule.
"Besides, it’s just the two of us. Even if we had four guns, it wouldn’t help."
Lan Yuzai said cheerfully.
Wang Jixuan nodded slightly, tucking the handgun into his jacket pocket. He then took a half step forward, gripping Lan Yuzai’s right arm at the elbow.
Now, he could attack him at any moment.
"Don’t try to leave my sight. You know the consequences."
Lan Yuzai sniffed and walked toward the last steel platform, heading for the two closed doors ahead.
Wang Jixuan closely followed behind him, his right hand moving to his lower back, readying the handles of two folding rescue knives.
"This area is usually unguarded. The forty-sixth floor is basically an entertainment venue, open to the wealthy from the upper floors."
Lan Yuzai boldly opened the fire door ahead, the door creaking as it swung open, the sound echoing into the darkness behind them.
What greeted them was a wall covered in graffiti, with the large number '46' boldly written on it. Several spotlight beams illuminated the wall brightly.
A foul smell, like burnt plastic, hit their noses.
Wang Jixuan frowned tightly.
Is this the lower city?
Just then, beside that illuminated wall, seven or eight figures jumped up at the same time.
(End of Chapter)