An old man in a loose nightgown stood at the door, frowning as he looked at Wang Jixuan. Wang Jixuan could feel the hostility coming from him—rather than hostility, it felt more like disdain.
"Is your last name Zhou?" the old man, Kong Lianmei, asked with a furrowed brow.
"Yes, please come in and sit," Wang Jixuan replied, getting up to make space.
"Hmm," Kong Lianmei nodded, closing the door behind him. "Keep your voice down. Don't wake the children. My instincts tell me you're a bit of a troublemaker; I've seen too many young people like you."
Wang Jixuan hesitated, unsure how to respond. The old lady sat down by the bed, her calm and deep eyes studying Wang Jixuan's disguised face.
"Have you heard of Zhou Meiying?" she asked.
"No."
"She's an important official. People with the last name Zhou in the fortress should know her."
Wang Jixuan chuckled inwardly. This old woman was testing him. At sixty-nine, she was still quite young compared to someone over a hundred.
"I don't know about that," he said, showing just the right amount of unease and restraint in his eyes. "If I get a chance to see my uncle again, I can ask him for you."
"Why would you ask that? I can't stand that guy."
Kong Lianmei huffed, her brow furrowing as she seemed to think of a way to get rid of this young man. Suddenly, she asked, "Are you into little girls?"
"Huh?"
"Do you have any weird fantasies about the girls here?"
Kong Lianmei squinted her eyes, staring at Wang Jixuan's face. A handgun appeared in her right hand, the silver barrel shining brightly.
Wang Jixuan rubbed his forehead. The landlady grumbled angrily, "Don’t think I don’t know where that little flower runs her shop! In the perverted district of Joy City! It’s full of weirdos! The darkest, most twisted desires of human civilization are there! You've been there, haven’t you? You’ve been tainted! You little rascal!"
"No, no, no, I actually... don’t like the women here."
The landlady was furious. "Oh my god! I have a few boys here! That’s even scarier! Are you one of those disgusting cult leaders from the golden age?"
"I really don’t have those kinds of preferences! Absolutely not! What I like are... women with an ethereal quality, wearing long skirts, having long hair, speaking politely, and being gentle and graceful. Yes, gracefulness is very important."
Wang Jixuan said seriously, "I can swear on my former teacher's name that I will not look for any partners here!"
The landlady stared closely into Wang Jixuan's eyes, then slowly nodded and put the handgun back in her nightgown pocket, mumbling, "Good, young man, your eyes tell me you’re not lying. You've temporarily passed my character test, but don’t think you can take me down and everything will be fine. I have many children, and they are in various gangs in the lower city! But I must remind you, that graceful quality is rare in the fortress. You can stay here for now; tomorrow I’ll arrange some odd jobs for you to help you support yourself."
Wang Jixuan said, "Can I wait a few days before starting work? I still have some Joy Coins my uncle sent me for rent. I want to rest for a while; the previous hardships have made me very tired."
"That won't do. Everyone must work; you can't..."
Kong Lianmei frowned at the twelve Joy Coins that appeared in front of her. "Well, I suppose it can work."
She grabbed the coins and muttered, "This will only let you stay here for three months! After three months, you must go out and work! And listen, if you’re going to work for those gangs and harm people, you’ll have to move out of here after three months!"
"Okay, thank you. It doesn’t have to be that long. I’m really interested in farming."
Wang Jixuan felt quite happy. Communicating with this old lady was unexpectedly interesting.
However, two minutes later...
"Here you go! Use it sparingly! I’ll only give you one roll a week!"
A roll of soft, yellowed recycled paper was tossed into Wang Jixuan's arms as the old lady mumbled, "You better behave," and slowly walked away.
Wang Jixuan looked at the roll of paper, momentarily confused about what it meant, as he heard Little Leaf's suppressed laughter in the hallway. He felt a few black lines appear on his forehead.
Forget it, let’s focus on cultivation and experience the quality of spiritual energy here.
Wang Jixuan got up and locked the door, using a "T.E.R" poster to cover the gap in the door. He had seen these three letters many times in Mu Liang's memories.
With a calm mind, he gathered his energy, feeling the spiritual energy gathering around him.
"Wow, the spiritual energy here seems only a bit more and a bit purer, but the cultivation speed is nearly forty percent faster than when I was on the thirteenth floor!"
"How did I not notice this place before? I clearly came to the edge of the Wanlijin gang’s territory."
"I’m definitely staying here!"
"If Little Leaf won’t keep dragging me into chores."
Wang Jixuan thought with some concern.
...
Two relatively calm weeks passed quickly.
At the border between the Black Fire Gang and the Wanlijin Gang, in a makeshift abandoned hut made from an iron box, Wang Jixuan sat in the dark, skillfully pressing a small square box in front of him—a text exchange device.
This was the third time he had communicated with Zhou Zhengde since arriving at the Wanlijin Gang’s territory.
[02: I found the entrance to the tunnel behind the bookshelf in the study. The entrance is covered in irregular dust; I didn’t dare to go in directly.]
He waited for about twenty seconds.
[01: Is the surveillance set up?]
[02: Yes, I’ve installed it at both the secret room and the tunnel entrance. A couple of days ago, I explored the direction the tunnel extends to above and confirmed it leads directly into the Black Fire Gang’s territory, connecting to several critical areas of the gang.]
[01: Amazing discovery! This could very well be an escape route for the Black Fire Gang’s higher-ups! Where did that old man take you?]
[02: To his foster mother’s house. His foster mother has ties to the Black Fire Gang, and it’s likely that this old lady has a son in a high position there. That’s an unexpected find.]
[01: That’s great! I’ll send people to ambush over there! We must catch them all, especially that wicked Wen Heisen!]
[02: Don’t come over; it’ll disturb me. I quite like it here.]
Wang Jixuan glanced at the surge of energy within him. He had originally estimated it would take at least three months to reach a full energy state, but now...
He only needed another month!
If he could obtain enough blood from blade beasts and refine the spiritual energy within it, half a month would be enough!
With the improved cultivation efficiency, he could perfectly balance fighting the Black Fire Gang and cultivating.
[01: Have you been reading again lately?]
[02: I finished "Fortress Engineering Applications" and "Fortress Pipeline Installation" these past few days, and I'm currently reading "Modern Physics Applications" and "Weapons That Scare Blade Beasts."]
[01: I didn’t get to ask last time—where did you find these books?]
[02: In my landlord's study, on the bookshelf next to the tunnel entrance. My landlord lets me read freely. She always says reading is the ladder of human progress.]
[01: Your landlord has some serious issues. The collection of books, secret rooms, and passageways all prove that. Do you need anything else? I recently got some equipment for individual use from my uncle, but I still can’t get my hands on single-use rockets. Those things threaten the stability of the fortress’s internal pillars, so we can’t use them to attack D-level spiritual users. What a pity.]
Wang Jixuan hesitated for a moment but still voiced his needs.
[02: Blade beast bones, blood, and anything related to blade beasts that you can get.]
[01: ... Are you looking for these to increase your own power? Please don’t tell me your power also comes from blade beasts.]
[02: Also? Spiritual users?]
[01: Yes, it’s said that spiritual users are nurtured using the power of blade beasts, but this technology is in the hands of the thirteen schools, and the mortality rate is very high. I should be able to get a small amount of blade beast blood. Those magical papers you have are made from blade beast blood, right? Sigh, I’ve still established a connection with the power of blade beasts.]
Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow slightly.
[02: For me, the power of blade beasts is just a shortcut. I want to use them while also removing the impurities within. Even without them, I can become stronger.]
[01: (°°)]
[02: Let’s talk next time. The next batch of supplies will still be delivered to the old spot on the forty-ninth floor. I have some important matters to attend to tonight.]
[01: Important matters? Like what?]
[02: Exorcising evil and protecting righteousness, settling karma and establishing a firm heart. (￣︶￣)]
Wang Jixuan quickly turned off the device to save battery. He placed the text exchange device into the iron box in front of him, swiftly took off his shirt and pants, folded them neatly, and put them inside.
These past two weeks, he had been doing quite well under Little Leaf's care. Although he had to help with some chores every day, it didn’t take away too much time from his cultivation, and he could occasionally enjoy some nutritious vegetables.
With the nutritional supply and the nurturing of spiritual energy, Wang Jixuan’s new body was beginning to show a smooth muscle tone.
Wang Jixuan opened a nearby wardrobe. Inside was a simple black tactical helmet, a set of black protective combat gear, a dozen handguns and submachine guns, and thirty-six grenade-sized high-explosive grenades, all neatly arranged under the dim light.
He smiled slightly and quickly changed his gear. First, he took the talismans that were originally in his shirt pocket and sorted them into the special combat suit's pockets. The six bone nails made from blade beast bones and some metal were tucked into the sleeves of the combat suit.
Now, if he encountered Wen Heisen, Wang Jixuan was about eighty to ninety percent sure he could pierce the man's skull with a nail.
But unfortunately, tonight's hunting target was not Wen Heisen.
He selected a gun, loaded the magazine, and took out twelve high-explosive grenades to place in his waist pouch.
With two "clicks," the bullets were loaded smoothly, and he secured the gun in the holster attached to his belt.
Wang Jixuan took a deep breath of the stale air and turned to leave the iron hut embedded underground, glancing back at the exaggerated black motorcycle that Young Master Zhou had given him last time. He still couldn't ride that kind of vehicle skillfully.
At the same time, in the office of the thirteenth floor's security chief...
Zhou Zhengde frowned deeply, his expression serious as he opened a drawer, put on his glasses, and activated a 3D projection screen. He searched for the retrieval section, typed in "Exorcising evil and protecting righteousness, settling karma and establishing a firm heart," and clicked the translation button.
"Cool! So that's what karma means."
"So, he has started attacking the Black Fire Gang again after holding back for more than half a month?"
Zhou Zhengde shrugged, somewhat unconcerned. Both the cleansing troops and the gang coalition were gathering strength. Taking down the Black Fire Gang only required steady progress according to the timetable; in another month, they could directly take action.
Now that Mu Liang had found an underground passage and that suspicious old lady was guarding it, they might have some unexpected gains when they finally closed in.
That was actually quite good.
Mu Liang insisting on personally taking down a few gang members did seem a bit...
Petty, insignificant, and unnecessarily risky.
"But his way of handling things is indeed very cool; I really like it."
Captain Zhou chuckled in admiration.
Young Master Zhou had no idea how many extra hours he would have to work because of this.
(End of Chapter)