March 7th: I Have a Special Way of Making Money
After walking along two deserted bluestone paths, Jingxing paused.
Deep within his palm, the lapis lazuli thread drawn from Vaksya suddenly tightened, as if bitten by a large fish in deep water, causing numbness in his wrist bones and a throbbing, needle-like pain to emanate from the meridians of his entire forearm.
He stopped under the eaves facing the street and looked up to the northwest.
The sky in the direction of Cloudford was tinged with an ominous leaden gray. The thousands of navigation lights that usually burned all night at the dock were all out, with only a few scattered, cold white sword lights darting about beneath the clouds. In addition to the salty smell of the sea, the wind carried an extremely pungent, acrid smell—the smell of flesh being instantly charred by the high temperature, mixed with the musty odor characteristic of the Xianzhou, making one's stomach tighten.
"Something's not right at Cloudford." Jingxing turned up the collar of his trench coat to block the gust of wind. "Xuan'er, the Seat of Divine Foresight can't do without you. I'll go check out the situation at the docks."
Fu Xuan followed his gaze, his brow furrowing slightly. His fingers, hidden beneath his sleeve, pinched together slightly. "A neutral stance with a hint of malevolence, concealing hidden malice. Be careful."
"Don't worry, I'm always good at reading the situation. If I can't win, I can always run away." Jingxing waved to her, then turned and stepped into the narrow alley to the side.
His trench coat hem swept across the damp moss, and his figure was swallowed up by the shadows of the deep alley in just a few steps.
Fu Xuan stood there for a while before raising his hand to re-insert his hairpin. He then walked steadily towards the long steps of the Seat of Divine Foresight, leaving only the jade pendants at his waist making a soft, tinkling sound in the cold, deserted night street.
At the outer harbor of Cloudford, most of the pier was submerged in a thick cloud of black smoke mixed with rust.
The Astral Express's tail brake had just jammed against the damaged parking mechanism when March 7th, longbow in hand, jumped off the step, her foot landing on a puddle of semi-solidified dark red slime. She instinctively sniffed, her stomach churning. "Isn't the sanitation in Luofu a bit too bad? Why does it smell like rotten leaves mixed with rusty metal..."
Before the words were even finished, a series of shrill screams erupted from behind the overturned container in front of them.
The entire pier had been torn to pieces, and the once neatly arranged cargo containers were smashed into the water in disarray, with broken pieces of wood and torn protective gear floating on the surface.
Amidst the overturned cargo containers, several humanoid monsters clad in tattered Cloud Knights armor were lunging and biting, drawn by the scent. The steel plates of their armor were torn to pieces by the bulging, bluish-black muscles inside. Their necks, shoulders, and even their entire faces were covered with hard, woody nodules resembling withered tree bark. Their eyes rolled back, and a low growl, like that of a wild beast dying, was suppressed in their throats.
An old Commandant from the Xianzhou, dressed in a worn-out captain's robe, bent his knees slightly and gripped a broken Formation Blade tightly with both hands. Instead of pointing the blade outward, he slashed at the servants he had cornered like a madman.
"What are these things?!" March 7th nocked an arrow, the bowstring instantly taut to its fullest extent, and an icy blue Six-Phased Ice Crystal spun wildly at the arrowhead. "Let's help!"
"Don't get distracted, it's the Mara-Struck!" Dan Heng, who hadn't disembarked, warned over the phone, "Their minds have collapsed, they've turned into monsters!"
Xing charged ahead, swinging the baseball bat in one hand. The bat created a dull whistling sound as she smashed a monster that was lunging at the lone porter into a pile of rubble. Her movements were completely haphazard, relying entirely on her inexhaustible brute strength. With a backhand thrust of the bat downwards, she shattered a withered claw that had emerged from beneath her feet.
Welt's Pseudo Black Hole created a visible vortex of gravity at the pier entrance, causing the surrounding collapsed rubble and blood to surge back and forcefully hold back the shadows surging from behind.
However, as long as the remains on the ground were not completely crushed, the broken bones would bite back together under the influence of the black mist, making a teeth-grinding crunching sound, and in the blink of an eye, they would twist and stand up again.
"It's unkillable!" Cold sweat beaded on March 7th's forehead as he retaliated with another Ice Arrow, freezing a monster's knee firmly to the ground. "How disgusting!"
Xing braced the baseball bat against the back of his neck, wiped the blood splattered on his chin, and his eyes flashed with a ruthless, reckless glint. He flexed his wrist, which was still numb from the impact. "Then smash it into a pulp."
Just as the standoff was reaching its conclusion, a person slowly strolled out from the shadow of the mountain of heavy shipping containers to the side.
Jingxing stepped across the fire line using a broken section of load-bearing cable, casually pulled his right hand out of his trench coat pocket, and pressed it down in mid-air.
There was no earth-shattering roar.
Several faint Azure-Gold Ink Marks, barely perceptible to the naked eye, descended from the clouds above, silently piercing the backs of the struggling monsters, instantly draining away the turbid, deathly energy churning within. The bodies that had fallen into demonic possession stiffened abruptly, their ferocious expressions slowly returning to calm, before collapsing limply to the ground like hollowed-out rotten wood, turning into handfuls of dry ashes.
The cacophony of swords clashing on the dock suddenly subsided, leaving only the crackling of flames flickering from the broken walls and ruins.
March 7th slowly released the taut bowstring, his eyes wide open, unaware that the chilling aura emanating from his fingertips had dissipated. "Mr. Jing... Mr. Jingxing?! What are you doing here!"
Jingxing brushed the ash from his sleeves, his expression as relaxed as if he'd bumped into an acquaintance at a street corner tea stall. "I'm just living here, and when I heard the commotion outside, I thought I'd drop by and take a look."
Xing held the blood-stained baseball bat at her side, looked him up and down with a strange expression, and said, "Aren't you from the company? How come you've settled down in Xianzhou?"
"More or less." Jingxing stepped forward, kicking aside the broken pieces of armor at his feet and stomping out the remaining embers on the ground. "This place can barely be considered half my home."
After saying that, his gaze shifted to Xing's tense face, and he changed the subject. "By the way, I overheard some gossip on my way here on the long street. Miss Xing, your uncle has been detained."
Xing's fingers, gripping the baseball bat, froze for a moment, her brows furrowing. "... Where did I get an uncle from?"
"Blade." As Jingxing uttered this word, he glanced meaningfully at the Astral Express in the distance.
Xing stood there, mouth agape, a genuine look of bewilderment flashing in her eyes, before instinctively turning her gaze toward March 7th beside her.
"Isn't that a wanted criminal with a multi-figure net worth?" March 7th looked at Hoshino. "How about we ask your uncle to let us arrest him? That way, we won't have to worry about Himeko giving us our allowance!"
Jingxing had no time to join in the two's playful antics. He patted the dust off his palms and turned to look into the deep alley.
"Alright, get out of here. If you linger any longer, you'll be going to the dungeon to have a midnight snack with that 'uncle' on charges of illegal entry and assaulting a public official."
Xing shouldered the baseball bat, wiped the soot off his face, and quickly followed behind him. "You're as annoying as ever when you talk."
"Thank you for your kind words. I wouldn't bother arguing with just anyone." Jingxing led the way with his hands in his pockets, taking a deep breath of the cool night air blowing from the ferry.
The lapis lazuli threads in his palm were still burning hot, and throbbed more rapidly as the faint blue smoke rose from the direction of the Seat of Divine Foresight.
"Who exactly is behind this?" he wondered to himself.