Floor 46

"What are you looking at?!"

Lan Yuzai snarled viciously:

"Want to fight?! I'll fuck all three of you up, believe it?!"

Just as Wang Jixuan was about to tell Lan Yuzai to shut up, the thugs below moved their flashlight away.

The three of them did not retaliate against Lan Yuzai. They continued following the man and woman, making crude jokes.

"What are they doing?" Wang Jixuan asked casually.

"Catching piglets. It happens a lot on the lower floors."

Lan Yuzai lowered his voice and muttered:

"Our thirteenth floor has pretty good security. Nobody dares to snatch piglets there. The higher you go, the safer it gets. Below the twenty-eighth floor, this sort of thing becomes common.

"The people they catch and drag to the Lower City to sell are called piglets.

"Boss, see that woman? She probably isn't that old. I'd bet that soon, she'll be fucked one after another right in front of that man."

Wang Jixuan frowned at Lan Yuzai.

Lan Yuzai hurriedly said, "I've just seen it a lot, seen it a lot. Don't misunderstand, Boss. I've never done that kind of thing. At most, I squeeze blood bags."

"Blood bags?"

"That is... people like you were before... they're called blood bags."

Lan Yuzai's smile carried a trace more guilt and embarrassment.

Wang Jixuan said, "Taking away the food ordinary people rely on to survive—is that not robbing them of wealth and life?"

"Even if I didn't do it, someone else would."

Lan Yuzai shrugged:

"When I was eighteen, I was a blood bag for two years too. People bullied me and beat me.

"Then one day, I snapped and stabbed the bastard who bullied me with a knife. Later, I was locked up for two years. When I got out, they were scared of me and recognized me as their boss.

"Before long, a gang from the Lower City came to me and gave me the blood-bag squeezing business. If I didn't do it, they'd take me out and replace me with someone else.

"When I squeezed blood bags, I just picked people with steady jobs and weak personalities. Who told them to be weak... If you're weak, you deserve to be a blood bag."

Wang Jixuan frowned slightly and Flicked Finger at him, a Nut Cap pressed against his fingertip.

"Wrong, wrong! Don't flick it! I was wrong!"

Lan Yuzai hurriedly crouched down, shielding his face with both hands.

"Hmph!" Wang Jixuan said coldly. "For your crimes alone, killing you ten times would not be excessive!"

Lan Yuzai argued softly, "But I didn't directly kill anyone."

"What is the difference between slowly stewing someone over a low fire and stir-frying them over a raging blaze?"

"Now that you put it that way, I really do sound like a piece of shit... If I don't bully people, people bully me. I don't have any skills either, so I just get by like this."

Lan Yuzai gave an awkward laugh. Though he flattered Wang Jixuan and begged for mercy, there was still some indifference in his eyes.

His beliefs were not so easily shaken.

Wang Jixuan lowered his head and glanced at the few light sources slowly descending below. After a moment's thought, he decided not to invite unnecessary trouble.

"Once you've rested, keep moving," Wang Jixuan said calmly. "Of course, you can also try asking your companions for help."

"Listen to you, Boss—I willingly submit to you! I only respect people stronger than me!"

Lan Yuzai looked at him with utter sincerity.

"When can you teach me that finger-flicking skill... I want to recognize you as my boss! From now on, I'll do all your work at the factory, and my underlings will call you Boss too! Every month, I'll pay you tribute, as long as you teach me that skill! It's too damn awesome!"

Daoist Wang nearly kicked him.

His Flick Finger was not a spell. He had merely been inspired by firearms and realized the necessity of long-range attacks.

The principle was simply an application of Qi. The difficulty lay in controlling one's internal breath after entering the Qi Refining Realm. Teaching this method would basically mean passing on Dao Succession.

First, he was not an elder responsible for transmitting techniques within a sect and had no authority to teach one.

Second, the rules of the Cultivation World dictated that methods were not lightly passed on. One had to place great importance on character, aptitude, comprehension, and fortune—especially when dealing with a street thug.

"Lead the way."

"Okay." Lan Yuzai obediently hoisted the two large bags onto his shoulders, turned on the flashlight, and walked ahead.

Wang Jixuan tucked the pistol away, his peripheral vision still watching the five figures below.

The woman was sobbing while the three thugs whispered among themselves.

The fire escape turned every sixteen steps, with a rectangular passageway at each landing, proportioned two to one.

After walking for a while, the five people below stopped in one of the rectangular passageways.

The three thugs shouted:

"Here's good enough. I can't hold it in anymore! Pin them down!"

"What a disgrace. Your body isn't weak yet? Don't make it too dirty, or we won't get a good price."

"Turn her face around and make her watch! I told you I'd fuck you both to death. Still acting tough now?"

On a landing below, the light began swaying continuously.

The man and woman were not only tied up, their mouths had also been sealed with strips of cloth. They began struggling violently, but after going hungry for several meals, how could the two of them stand against three strong, able-bodied thugs? They were quickly subdued.

The woman's muffled sobs echoed through the pitch-black abandoned fire escape.

Wang Jixuan frowned slightly.

He did not want to invite unnecessary trouble, but...

These people were blocking his way.

Wang Jixuan looked at Lan Yuzai and asked softly, "What would you normally do if you encountered something like this?"

"What would I do?" Lan Yuzai muttered quietly. "Join them?"

Wang Jixuan: ...

"J-just joking. This is actually my first time seeing them transport piglets."

Lan Yuzai shrugged:

"There's even more of this sort of thing in the Lower City. Boss, you can't possibly manage it all. Trust me.

"Of course, if you want to flick them all away, I'll definitely applaud and cheer for you."

Wang Jixuan glared at the gang leader and shone his flashlight downward.

He had only meant to light the way, but... Wang Jixuan saw one of the three thugs pinning the woman on her knees, forcing her to watch her husband have his pants pulled down and be pressed against the wall...

Wait;

Hold on!

Wang Jixuan felt as though his Dao Heart could not take this anymore!

The woman was sobbing, but her clothes were intact; that man had been subdued, then had his pants pulled down?

Lan Yuzai raised a thumbs-up. "Three real men."

"Who the fuck is that?! What are you shining that light for?! Believe me, I'll chop you to death!"

Whoosh!

Whoosh, whoosh!

Piercing sounds sliced through the air.

In the beam of the flashlight, three thugs who had raised their heads to glare upward suddenly had sharpened pencils as thick as little fingers lodged in their necks, half the pencils buried above their Adam's apples.

The three thugs convulsed and slowly fell to their knees. Their wide eyes rapidly filled with blood as they clutched their necks and made hoarse gurgling sounds.

Wang Jixuan curled his lip.

Too filthy!

As a dignified cultivator, he felt that being even a moment slower to act would contaminate his Dao Heart!

Though Lan Yuzai had been boasting nonstop, the sight still frightened him pale. Yet his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Too gentle!

Boss Mu Liang had truly been far too gentle with him and his underlings before!

The boss had only flicked Nut Caps at them before. His real killing move was actually throwing pencils!

What effect would it have if he replaced the pencils with metal darts? He did not even dare imagine it!

Wang Jixuan poked Lan Yuzai in the side with the pistol. "Shine the flashlight in their eyes."

"Ah, okay, okay..."

Lan Yuzai turned on the flashlight's high-beam mode, making the terrified man and woman instinctively shield their eyes.

Wang Jixuan calmly stepped past the three thugs. Without even looking down, he perfectly avoided every trace of blood.

By the time Wang Jixuan and Lan Yuzai had gradually walked away, the man and woman finally came to their senses.

The man forcefully pulled up his pants. Trembling all over, the two untied each other's bound hands.

They looked gratefully toward the light source receding farther and farther below, faintly hearing a conversation drift up from beneath them.

"Boss, you're fucking amazing! Can you teach me?"

"Shut up."

"I can do any position! That move is incredible! You're a human machine gun!"

"Too noisy."

"Wrong, wrong, I won't say anything! Ah! My finger! I was wrong!"

The man and woman who had escaped disaster looked at each other. By the light of their miner's lamps, they saw one another clearly and embraced as they cried.

Wang Jixuan and Lan Yuzai descended for about half a minute when a dark shadow suddenly crashed down beside them, smashing heavily onto the steel platform below. The dull impact echoed everywhere.

Wang Jixuan shone his flashlight on it.

It was a thug's corpse.

After taking a few more steps, the other two corpses fell one after another, smashing into two piles of mangled flesh on the steel platform below.

Lan Yuzai's face went a little pale. "Those two piglets were pretty ruthless."

"Those who commit many injustices bring about their own destruction."

Wang Jixuan said calmly:

"If they had treated others kindly, how would they have met such disaster?"

"Boss, when you're strong, whatever you say is right," Lan Yuzai said with an awkward laugh. "But ordinary people like us can only stand firm with two words."

"Two words?"

"Fierce and ruthless. If you're not ruthless enough, people bully you. That's just how the rules in the fortress work."

Lan Yuzai abruptly changed the subject:

"If you'd teach me this move, I'd definitely add the word 'benevolence' to those two words. Justice will prevail!"

"Fuck off."

Wang Jixuan was so irritated by him that he laughed.

Then he frowned slightly.

Crude language was inelegant and unbefitting of a cultivator. He was going to the Immortal Realm, after all. He could not be filled with viciousness; he should try to pay more attention to such things.

Before Lan Yuzai's Two Legs could shake themselves into jelly, they finally reached the Lower City district.

What surprised Wang Jixuan somewhat was that the fire escape in this area had not changed at all. Below, there was only a lone steel platform connecting to the interior.

Wang Jixuan became even more vigilant.

Although he had Lan Yuzai hostage, the place they were about to enter was, after all, not an environment he knew.

Lan Yuzai, meanwhile, was a regular visitor to the Lower City. He could even be considered one of those gangs' underlings.

"Boss, you should put the gun away, preferably keep it close to your body.

"You can't openly show a gun or a knife. Those are the rules.

"Besides, there are only two of us. Even if we had four guns, they'd be useless here."

Lan Yuzai spoke warmly.

Wang Jixuan nodded slightly, hid the pistol in the inner pocket of his jacket, then proactively stepped half a pace forward and gripped Lan Yuzai's right elbow with his left hand.

Now, he could strike the latter's funny bone at any time.

"Do not try to leave my sight. You know the consequences."

Lan Yuzai sniffed, lowered his head, and walked toward the final steel platform, heading for the two tightly shut doors ahead.

Wang Jixuan followed close behind, his right hand reaching toward his lower back and lifting the handles of the two folding rescue knives slightly.

"There usually aren't guards here. The forty-sixth floor is basically an entertainment venue, open to the dignitaries and wealthy people from the upper floors."

Lan Yuzai casually pulled open the fire door ahead. Its reluctant creak drifted into the darkness behind them.

Before them stood a wall covered in graffiti, bearing a massive "46." Several spotlights illuminated the wall brightly.

A foul smell, like burning plastic, assaulted their noses.

Wang Jixuan frowned deeply.

This was the Lower City?

Just then, seven or eight figures beside the illuminated wall leaped up at the same time.