Workplace Rules: Subordinates Can't Be Stronger Than the Boss
[Zhao Tiezhu put away the banknotes, then searched every other place he could.]
[Finally, he returned to the center of the room, dusted off his hands, and muttered to himself.]
["Third Sister, oh, Third Sister, you haven't had it easy. Everything you saved up over all these years, cleaned out in a single night."]
[He tilted his head and looked at the couch. More precisely, he looked at the unconscious Third-in-Command lying on it.]
["Big Brother didn't want to touch you. If you'd just behaved yourself as Third-in-Command, kept the books, and played with your young lover, we could've stayed out of each other's way."]
["But you just had to keep a pretty boy at the middle stage of the Body Tempering Realm. Big Brother counted: you've got over forty thugs under you, plus this pretty boy."]
["Heh, Qian Cuihua, if you really turned against me, Big Brother might not be able to keep you under control."]
[You understood. The gang leader wanted to make a move against the Third-in-Command because he feared the tail had grown too big to wag, that he was raising a tiger that would bring him trouble.]
[The gang leader and the Third-in-Command were both at the Late Body Tempering Realm.]
[The Third-in-Command, together with you at the middle stage of the Body Tempering Realm, already posed a threat to the gang leader's power.]
Lu Ping curled his lip. This gang leader reacted just like every other boss.
You can't be stronger than me. Once your wings are strong enough, I have to clip them.
As for Zhao Tiezhu, he was merely the pair of scissors.
[Zhao Tiezhu finished gathering the things and straightened up.]
[He drew his ring-pommel saber, its blade gleaming cold and white in the moonlight.]
[He walked toward you, the tip of his saber pointing at the back of your neck.]
[Three steps.]
[Two steps.]
[One step.]
[Zhao Tiezhu looked at you, "unconscious," then turned to Qian Cuihua and gave an inscrutable chuckle.]
["Third Sister, aren't you fortunate?"]
[Options appeared.]
[A: Pretend to be "startled awake" and shout the Third-in-Command's name indistinctly, tricking the Second-in-Command into exposing an opening.]
[B: While the Second-in-Command is off guard, draw Qian Cuihua's blade and fight him at close quarters.]
[C: Before the Second-in-Command strikes, recite loudly: "According to article seven of the Black Tiger Gang employee handbook, disciplinary action may not be taken against gang members outside working hours without union approval."]
Zhao Tiezhu was at the middle stage of the Body Tempering Realm, and so was Lu Ping.
And Zhao Tiezhu didn't know he was awake.
Such a good chance to trick him! To launch a sneak attack!
The advantage is mine!
Lu Ping chose B.
[You chose B.]
[The instant Zhao Tiezhu was distracted, you moved.]
[Your right hand reached for the short blade at the Third-in-Command's waist.]
[Qian Cuihua's three-hundred-jin body blocked Zhao Tiezhu's view. He couldn't see what your hand was doing. The only thing he saw was an "unconscious" young man suddenly rolling over.]
[Zhao Tiezhu instinctively brought his saber down, aiming for the back of your neck.]
[Unfortunately for him, he was too late.]
[The short blade made little sound as it left its sheath. Qian Cuihua had maintained her blade well; the inside of the sheath was oiled, and it came out with almost no resistance.]
[Using the momentum of your roll, you tumbled out through the gap between the Third-in-Command and Zhao Tiezhu.]
[Gripping the short blade in reverse, its tip pointing upward, you drove it into Zhao Tiezhu's jaw from below.]
[The blade entered beneath his chin, passed through his mouth, and plunged into his skull.]
[Zhao Tiezhu's ring-pommel saber slipped from his hand and struck the wooden frame of the couch, chopping off a splinter of wood.]
[His body went rigid for an instant, then his knees buckled, and he slowly, slowly pitched forward.]
[Second-in-Command Zhao Tiezhu, dead.]
Lu Ping's eyes darkened slightly.
The Second-in-Command of the Black Tiger Gang, at the middle stage of the Body Tempering Realm—a figure he hadn't even gotten to meet in the last simulation—had been killed by him in an instant, just like that.
It wasn't as though there had been a vast gap in their strength.
Zhao Tiezhu simply hadn't known that the Drunken Immortal Powder had failed, hadn't known that Lu Ping was awake, and had known even less that every step he thought secure was part of someone else's calculations.
Entries weren't just a cheat; they also gave him an information advantage.
[The Third-in-Command was still unconscious, snores sounding steadily from the couch.]
[Her three-hundred-jin body rose and fell, making the entire couch creak.]
[You stood beside the corpse, clutching the bloody short blade. Blood ran from the hilt down your wrist, forming a small puddle on the floor tiles.]
[Qian Cuihua knew nothing.]
[Her "young lover" had just killed someone who wanted her life for her, while she was snoring away, who knew what delicacy she was eating in her dreams.]
[You killed the Second-in-Command. An estimated stick of incense's worth of time remained before the gang leader's hidden sentries noticed something was wrong.]
[Your window was closing.]
[Your gaze left the corpse, passed through the open lattice window, and settled in the direction of the rear courtyard warehouse.]
[A secret compartment was hidden in a false layer there.]
[You wiped the blood from the blade and tucked it back into the Third-in-Command's belt.]
[Qian Cuihua rolled over, grunted, and continued snoring.]
[You took the banknotes the Second-in-Command had gathered and turned toward the rear courtyard warehouse.]
[You crossed the rear courtyard. In the moonlight, the lanterns in the Third-in-Command's courtyard were still lit.]
[In the distance, the footsteps of patrolling gang members changing shifts were drawing closer.]
[You kept close to the base of the wall. Your senses at the middle stage of the Body Tempering Realm precisely picked out the breathing rhythm of every hidden sentry.]
[You slipped past two patrols, avoided a dozing sentry, and reached the warehouse.]
[In the secret compartment were five hundred taels of silver. You packed them up to take with you.]
[You forced the chest open.]
[There were two things inside.]
[One Low-Grade Spirit Stone.]
[How could a worldly gang like the Black Tiger Gang have a Spirit Stone?]
[After all, those in the Body Tempering Realm were ultimately only martial artists, not yet true cultivators.]
[Spirit Stones, on the other hand, were hard currency among cultivators!]
[Delighted, you put the Spirit Stone away.]
[Then you looked at the other item. It was a token.]
[Its front was smooth and unmarked. The material was neither like metal nor wood, and felt somewhere between stone and bone.]
[An extremely intricate pattern was carved into the back of the token.]
[It was indescribably eerie.]
[You stared at the pattern. Something churned in the depths of your mind.]
[A blurry image: on the day Sunset Glow Village was wiped out, a nearly identical pattern had flashed across the cuff of a dark figure.]
[Sunset Glow Village.]
[The first day after you transmigrated.]
[Corpses covered the ground, and blood filled the village.]
[You had crawled out from beneath a cold corpse, and before you could figure out who you were or where you were, the people of the Black Tiger Gang had hauled you away.]
[The pattern on that dark figure's cuff matched the one on the back of the token in your hand.]
[It seemed the people of the Black Tiger Gang hadn't just picked you up as a miner slave; they had also taken away a trace left behind by the people who massacred the village.]
[Even this Spirit Stone had likely been left behind by those people.]
[Options appeared.]
[A: Take only the silver and the Spirit Stone, and put the token back where it was. Don't touch what you don't understand.]
[B: Take the token. It is connected to the massacre at Sunset Glow Village and cannot be left behind.]
[C: Hold the token over your head and shout "Open sesame" to see if there's an Easter egg.]