"He can't stay here!"
"Mom, just think of it as renting a room to him, even if it's the basement. He's really pitiful, framed and with nowhere to go."
"How much did they pay you to betray your morals? You actually brought a stranger home!"
"A lot, I must admit, but that's not the point... The point is, his uncle manages logistics close to the Upper City. People in logistics aren’t small players. If my siblings can get close to him, even if they go to the Middle City later, someone will look out for them. It’s a trade, Mom!"
"They don’t need to go to the Middle City! The Middle City is a prison that destroys human nature! You've changed! Hua! You've changed!"
In the study on the first floor of the wooden house, 'Old Goat' Thomas was having a heated argument with the kind landlady.
Outside the wooden door with a few gaps, several children pressed their ears against it, trying to listen to the commotion inside.
Wang Jixuan stood in a corner of the living and dining area, hands behind his back, waiting for his 'fate.'
He seemed a bit lost in thought as he quickly pondered.
Qi;
Qi is the beginning of all things;
Qi doesn’t lie;
The Qi inside Wen Heisen, Wang Jixuan wouldn’t mistake it.
This old woman, Thomas's adoptive mother, had a trace of Wen Heisen's Qi on her, indicating they had been in contact recently. This trace was slowly fading. If he had arrived here tomorrow, he might have missed this key information.
But this was the heart of the Wanlijin Gang's 'Emerald Manor.'
The Wanlijin and Black Fire gangs were still sporadically clashing. Even when he and Thomas drove past the borders of the two gangs, he heard gunfire that sounded like popping beans.
Though the actual distance between the two gangs wasn’t far, there were large areas of continuous dark zones.
But this old woman was already starting to decline; she had no Qi in her body and was just an ordinary person, unlikely to cross those ditches, barbed wire, and hidden traps.
Thomas's words echoed in Wang Jixuan's mind:
"They can keep expanding their territory downwards, digging tunnels."
Digging tunnels?
Wang Jixuan looked down at his feet, closed his eyes to sense, and at a depth of ten meters beneath him, a two-meter-high arched tunnel gradually revealed itself.
There really is a tunnel...
"Hello! I'm Yezi!"
A pale, slender hand, too white from lack of sunlight, entered Wang Jixuan's view.
He looked up to see a small, clean face with a smile belonging to a girl.
Thomas had just introduced her; her name was Yezi, the leader of this group of orphans. At thirteen years old, she had already grown quite tall as she entered puberty.
"Hello, I'm Zhou Tian."
Wang Jixuan smiled and shook his head, "Boys and girls shouldn’t be too close."
"Huh? What does that mean?"
Yezi blinked, looking Wang Jixuan up and down, and quietly asked, "Are you really from the Middle City?"
"Yes," Wang Jixuan replied softly.
"Isn't the Middle City full of lights? Can you see light everywhere?"
"Pretty much," Wang Jixuan nodded, trying to sound a bit more chatty, "But in many places, the lights are dim, so it can feel a bit dark."
"That's still much better than here! So many places have no light... Do they also get dark-resistance medicine and vitamins regularly in the Middle City?"
"Dark-resistance medicine is given regularly, but vitamins have to be bought with a quota," Wang Jixuan explained, "And vitamins are classified as food quotas."
Yezi made a few sounds of vague admiration.
Then, wanting to keep the conversation going, she struggled to find a suitable topic.
After a moment, Yezi asked again, "Do you want to sit down and rest?"
"No, it's fine."
"Why did you come down here? Isn't the Middle City great?"
"I was framed and offended some powerful people," Wang Jixuan remembered the script Thomas had given him.
Yezi muttered softly, "Wow, just like offending the gangs here... I really hope you can stay."
Wang Jixuan was a bit confused, "Why?"
"Then you could help me with chores!"
Yezi said softly, "I have to learn a lot every day, like arithmetic, world geography, and I have to clean the first and second floors, help my mom take care of the little ones, and giving them baths is the hardest part.
"As soon as I open my eyes, I have to be busy and can’t go out to play."
She complained, her ponytail swaying gently.
Wang Jixuan noticed a barcode tattoo on the back of Yezi's neck that had been mostly worn away.
He asked, "Can you tell me about your adoptive mother?"
"Of course! Mom is everyone's mom. She lived here a long time ago, even before the Wanlijin Gang was established, and she has helped over three hundred children! Over three hundred!"
Yezi's eyes sparkled as she spoke, emphasizing the number.
"Though she seems strict, she’s actually very gentle at heart. When we’re sick, she stays up all night by our side.
"I was with the Black Fire Gang until I was five or six, treated like livestock, used as organ reserves for the rich in the Upper City. If those old folks' organs failed, I might have had mine taken.
"Then, during a gang conflict, people from Wanlijin rescued me... Many of us were saved.
"You see this? This barcode is proof I was from the Black Fire Gang. When I was little, Mom had to scrub really hard to get it off me.
"Then, Mom raised me, taught me to read, and shared many life lessons. She often says that even if we are in darkness, we shouldn’t lose hope. As long as we hold hands, even if we are just weak individuals, we can change the world step by step."
Wang Jixuan nodded, raising his eyebrows, "That makes a lot of sense."
He glanced at the study, his expression a bit complicated.
A person’s eyes can’t lie; Yezi's gaze was pure and kind, with no hint of malice.
The elderly woman inside, who had a trace of Wen Heisen's Qi, also showed no malice.
What is malice?
Simply put, it’s the aura that comes after killing, the negative energy and the resentment of the killed beings intertwining, creating malice.
Many dark arts focus on cultivating malice and use it to refine wicked treasures like soul banners.
He was definitely filled with malice too, but... it seemed only he could sense it.
—Wang Daolang’s exclusive explanation rights.
So, what’s really going on? Who is this old woman?
"What did you do in the Middle City?" Yezi asked softly.
Wang Jixuan casually replied, "I was an assembly line worker."
"Then I’ll call you Brother Tian," Yezi murmured, "I really hope Brother Hua can convince Mom. I really need a helper for chores."
"Then you might be disappointed," Wang Jixuan laughed, "I might have to go out to work and earn some gang currency."
"Please don’t! I’m begging you!"
"I need to support myself."
Suddenly, the study door swung open, and a few eavesdropping kids tumbled over.
Thomas winked at Wang Jixuan, "Done! You can stay here! My mom will set you up with a job later. She has a wide network here, but two-thirds of what you earn has to go to buy food for the kids. Is that okay?"
Wang Jixuan immediately nodded, "Sure, this place is nice and... quite interesting."
Nice referred to the surrounding spiritual energy.
Interesting referred to the tunnel beneath his feet.
"Yay!"
Yezi cheered and jumped up.
Though most of the kids didn’t understand what had happened, when their big sister started jumping, they joined in too.
"Mission accomplished! Bang bang bang bang bang!"
Thomas cheered, pointing two fingers at Wang Jixuan, then wiggled his hips as he walked toward the dining table, moving his body to the rhythm of his words.
It was clear he was really relaxed here.
"Yezi, go fry me some donuts! I need to leave after I eat!"
Yezi grabbed Wang Jixuan's arm and pulled him toward the kitchen, "Come help me! The kitchen rule is, those who work can sneak a bite!"
Wang Jixuan couldn’t help but laugh.
She was really lively.
...
This was the first time Wang Jixuan had tasted a dessert made purely from flour since arriving in this world.
Yezi's cooking was quite good.
Thomas hurriedly left after eating two donuts; he had some trouble at his store in the perverted district of Joy City, as someone seemed to be causing a scene.
Thomas also had to fix his glamorous makeup on the way back.
While Wang Daolang enjoyed the fried treats, diligent little Yezi had already helped clean up the corners of the second floor with a few younger siblings around eight or nine years old.
His room was right across from the girls' rooms, so it would inevitably be a bit noisy.
But fortunately, Wang Jixuan wasn’t picky about that; he usually meditated instead of sleeping.
He was now very interested in the landlady here, the sixty-nine-year-old Kong Lianmei.
The underground tunnel;
The kind old lady who had lived here, constantly helping orphans;
The trace of Wen Heisen's Qi from the Black Fire Gang's three leaders.
What hidden connections lay behind all this?
His new room wasn’t very big, just over two meters long and wide, with the ceiling sloping down from left to right, making it impossible to stand straight near the outer wall. A narrow single bed and a bedside desk filled two-thirds of the space.
A few posters with big letters reading 'T.E.R' hung on the wall.
Wang Jixuan didn’t know what those three letters meant.
From Yezi's nonstop chatter, he learned that the original owner of this room was a twenty-four-year-old guy who left this big family three years ago to work for the Silver Party Gang on the forty-sixth floor. He last returned six months ago, bringing some nearly expired cosmetics.
The bed was covered with clean old sheets, and the weak light on the desk flickered.
Wang Jixuan sat down, wanting to meditate and feel the speed of his cultivation.
Before heading to Thomas's tavern, he had already sent his belongings to the forty-ninth floor, hiding them in an abandoned shack near the Black Fire Gang's territory.
Later, he planned to go over and grab some small items that wouldn’t attract attention.
Knock knock!
There was a sound at the drafty door, and a pair of big eyes peeked through the crack.
Wang Jixuan said, "Come in."
Creak—
Yezi jumped in, holding a few loose cotton and linen clothes, placing them on the bed along with two pairs of patched cloth shoes.
"I saw you didn’t have any luggage, so I looked for some clothes and shoes from my brothers. They should be about your size. If they’re small, I can go change them! There are plenty in the basement."
Yezi reminded him, "But you have to take care of them. After you leave, I want to wash them and keep them safe."
Wang Jixuan smiled, "Thank you."
"Hehe, then you rest. I’ll go give the little ones a bath."
Yezi waved her hand, her ponytail swaying slightly as she quickly left.
‘What a cute girl.’
Wang Jixuan thought to himself, simply evaluating that it was rare to see such a spirited girl in this place.
He just didn’t know how long this lively energy of little Yezi would last.
Knock, knock.
There was a sound of knocking on the wall at the door.
He sensed... that trace of Qi that was about to dissipate completely.
(End of Chapter)