Eek, Can We Make Peace?

The group left Natasha's clinic, with Seele leading the way to the Mechanical Settlement.

The line outside the clinic hadn't gotten any shorter. If anything, it had grown. The Underworld residents waiting for medicine and treatment watched the clean, neatly dressed outsiders leave with looks of mingled numbness and curiosity.

"Svarog is a high-performance robot left over from the old era, and he manages the Mechanical Settlement," Seele said from the front, telling the others about him.

"He's got a whole bunch of Automaton Soldiers under him. That makes him a pretty powerful force in Belobog these days."

Dan Heng followed behind her, his steps steady. "Does he have information about the Stellaron?"

"Svarog has a lot of data from the old world. He might know more than Wildfire and the Silvermane Guards put together." Seele paused, a trace of resentment toward Svarog in her voice. "The problem is, he never agrees to share that information, and he won't let anyone near any area he considers dangerous."

"Wow, Seele, you really know Svarog," March 7th said, hurrying a few steps to catch up with her. "You even know all that about him."

Seele turned to glance at March 7th and said irritably, "I was going to the Mechanical Settlement every day a while back, trying to convince that old tin head to work with Wildfire! How could I do that without knowing him?"

Stelle watched Seele as she continued her explanation and remarked earnestly, "You really can't judge a book by its cover."

Seele hadn't quite heard her. "What?"

"I said, you really can't judge a book by its cover," Stelle repeated.

"What do you mean, judge a book by its cover?" March 7th asked curiously, moving closer to Stelle.

"Look at how Seele dresses and talks. I thought she was a warrior, but it turns out she knows all this stuff about intelligence and the like."

Seele immediately turned and glared at her. "What? Do I look that reckless?" she asked through gritted teeth.

March 7th couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. Even Dan Heng, who had been silent the whole time, looked away to hide the smile he was struggling to suppress.

Seele took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed her anger, and continued leading the way.

"Speaking of which, if you really want to convince Svarog peacefully, you could find Clara first." Her tone softened a little. "Clara is a wandering girl who lives in the Underworld, and she's the person Svarog trusts most. That hunk of metal talks nothing but logic with everyone else, but he's different with Clara."

Recalling something, she added, "Judging by where she's been lately, she should be in Rivet Town looking for parts to fix the broken robots and heating equipment in the settlement. If we go now, we might run into her. As long as she's willing to help, at least we won't be surrounded by Automaton Soldiers the moment we meet him."

Before Seele had finished speaking, Bai Luoming waved a hand.

"There's no need for that."

Everyone in the group turned to look at him.

Bai Luoming explained, "With a lineup like ours, finding a little girl to convince Svarog would be too inefficient."

March 7th folded her arms and eyed him skeptically. "Then how do you plan to convince a robot that only listens to the results of its calculations?"

Bai Luoming flexed his wrist, his knuckles cracking softly, and continued.

"I think, instead of going to all that trouble to find Clara, we might as well go straight to Svarog. If he won't listen, we can try another way."

Stelle quickly caught Bai Luoming's meaning and explained, "In other words, use force to make him sit down and talk."

Bai Luoming nodded in agreement. "I call that efficient. Besides, if he agrees, fine. If he doesn't, forget it. We're not short of fighting power anyway."

This time, Seele didn't object to what Bai Luoming said. In fact, if she had been strong enough, she would have given that stubborn old tin head a thorough beating long ago.

She gave Bai Luoming a long look and warned him, "Svarog isn't on the same level as the Automaton Soldiers by the road, and the Mechanical Settlement is his home turf."

"Relax, I'm pretty confident in our strength. We should be able to handle one robot."

Dan Heng didn't try to stop them either, merely setting a limit for their actions. "Our goal is cooperation, not occupying the Mechanical Settlement. We can demonstrate our strength, but we'd better know when to stop."

Bai Luoming nodded in agreement.

The group continued along the old roads of the Underworld.

The buildings around them grew increasingly dilapidated, with rusted machine parts and motionless mine carts piled along the roadside. From time to time, the dull scrape of metal from moving Automaton Soldiers carried over from the distance, adding to the oppressive atmosphere of the ruins.

Just as the outline of the Mechanical Settlement's enormous entrance appeared ahead, Seele suddenly stopped and raised a hand to signal the members of the Astral Express Crew.

More than a dozen vagrants emerged from the shadows of abandoned buildings and pipes on either side, splitting into two groups to block their way from the front and rear.

They carried all manner of weapons: rusty iron bars, kitchen knives worn short, and even wrenches used for mechanical repairs.

Their equipment was a mess, but greed gleamed in the eyes of all the vagrants as they stared fixedly at Bai Luoming and the others.

Seele recognized them as the same group that had tried to rob Bai Luoming in the passage earlier. Her expression darkened. "What do you want?"

The vagrants' leader didn't rush to attack. He spread his hands as though he had no choice. "Boss Seele, I can't help it. The boys have to eat, don't they?"

Seele held back her anger and warned, "Leave now, and I'll pretend nothing happened. Otherwise, you'll bear the consequences."

Her words visibly shook several of the vagrants. They instinctively edged backward, only to stop in their tracks when their leader turned and glared at them.

The vagrant leader's face turned vicious, and he refused to back down. "Look, Seele, it's one thing for the boys to steer clear whenever they see you, but now a few fat fish have come along. If we let them go, what are the boys supposed to eat?"

The vagrants around him immediately joined in. "Yeah, what are we supposed to eat?"

At that, the patience in Seele's eyes vanished. She gripped her scythe and prepared to step forward and reason with them properly. But Bai Luoming raised a hand to stop her and took a step forward himself.

When the leader saw that the one stepping out was a cleanly dressed young man with soft, delicate skin, he assumed Bai Luoming was ready to pay his way out of trouble. A mocking smile appeared on his face.

"Smart move, kid. Hand over everything valuable, or don't blame the boys for showing no mercy."

Bai Luoming glanced over the things in their hands that could barely be called weapons and chuckled.

"You've got a good eye. I do have money. But whether you can get it depends on what you're capable of."

The vagrant leader couldn't save face after being defied in public. He immediately waved his hand. "Get him, boys!"

At his command, someone immediately stepped forward and swung an iron bar hard at Bai Luoming's shoulder.

Bai Luoming didn't take out a weapon. He simply shifted slightly to one side, letting the iron bar miss him by a hair. Then he swung his fist back and landed a solid punch in his opponent's stomach.

The vagrant wielding the iron bar lifted off his feet, his body curling like a shrimp as he flew backward into the arms of two companions charging up behind him. The three tumbled into a heap, all closing their eyes and sinking into a sleep as peaceful as a baby's.

A melee broke out.

Seele moved as fast as a shadow, weaving through the crowd and dropping two people in the blink of an eye. The others weren't idle either. Weapons in hand, everyone except March 7th took down a vagrant almost as soon as they moved.

Bai Luoming bore the brunt of the fighting.

His movements were simple and direct, with no unnecessary techniques, just one punch after another.

No one could withstand a second punch from him. He took them down one punch at a time.

He held back his strength throughout, only incapacitating them. Working together, the group soon left the previously menacing vagrants sprawled all over the ground, with only faint groans remaining.

March 7th watched Bai Luoming take down the last person at an unhurried pace and couldn't help asking, "Are they okay? You didn't actually beat them to death, did you?"

Bai Luoming looked down at his fists. "They're fine. I held back. At worst, I knocked them out."

Now the vagrant leader was the only one still standing.

He watched Bai Luoming walk toward him step by step, cold sweat running down his cheeks from his forehead. He forced out a smile uglier than a grimace. "Eek, c-can we make peace?"

A gentle smile appeared on Bai Luoming's face. "At a time like this, surely you must be joking?"

The leader fell to his knees with a thud, tears and snot streaming down his face as he wailed that he had failed to recognize a great man. He even claimed he had "an eight-year-old mother to care for and an eighty-year-old daughter to raise," and begged the honored sirs and ladies to spare him.

Bai Luoming's face darkened when he heard that. He raised a hand, ready to put him to sleep.

"Wait." Seele spoke up just in time to stop him. "Leave one of them conscious and have him move all these people. Otherwise, in this freezing weather, it won't take long for something to happen to them lying here."

Only then did Bai Luoming lower his hand. He gave the leader a warning look and told him to take everyone away and stop targeting passersby.

The leader nodded repeatedly, no longer daring to say anything about "fat fish."

The group stepped past the people lying on the ground and continued toward the Mechanical Settlement.