Chapter 1022: The Big Fish Underground
Meng Chao felt that he ought to lend these ratfolk a helping hand.
At the very least, he needed to raise their vigilance.
He swept aside his cloak and unfastened his broad belt.
Inside were all manner of odds and ends.
Potions for changing skin, hair, and eye color; fine wires for opening doors and picking locks; blades thin as cicada wings that could silently slice open packages; and so on.
There were also dozens of badges from the major Lineages, each representing a different identity.
After pinning one badge to the inside of his cloak, Meng Chao found a brittle dead branch, placed it beneath his heel, and stomped down hard.
The branch immediately broke with a crisp crack.
It sounded especially distinct amid the mist.
"Who's there?"
The ratfolk slave laborers who had been "plotting rebellion" instantly cried out in alarm and fury.
Several ratfolk slave laborers sprang at him.
Meng Chao feigned panic, turned, and ran.
A whooshing wind came from above his head.
The ratfolk slave laborers had pulled coal shovels and iron crowbars from their carts and smashed them fiercely toward his head.
Meng Chao cried out, ducking his neck as though he had barely evaded their attacks.
Without warning, one ratfolk slave laborer hurled a shovel forcefully at his legs.
The shovel had been thrown while he was running at full speed, its trajectory crooked and utterly incapable of striking its target.
Meng Chao's heart stirred, but he deliberately shifted half a meter toward the shovel's sharp edge.
Its edge struck his left calf at once, making him stumble and fall.
The ratfolk slave laborer at the front gave a low roar and pounced, rolling into a tangle with Meng Chao.
Knowing he was engaged in a neck-breaking