Although the bar was merely a front, Gu Wending, the "bartender," had always done his best at this part-time job.
He was usually very patient, doing his best to satisfy his customers' reasonable requests. Sometimes, he would chat with them about life, the Fortress's future, and the ugly shapes organs took after becoming diseased.
—Though he normally had barely any customers at all.
Of course, drunken fools whose brains had been numbed by alcohol occasionally wandered in by mistake. If they yelled rudely at Gu Wending, he did not mind adding a little material to his main line of work.
Gu Wending's rank within the Black Fire Gang was not particularly high. At every year-end summary meeting, he could only sit in the seats numbered twenty-four and twenty-five.
But Gu Wending had worked diligently for the Black Fire Gang and its predecessor gang for the past thirty-five years. He had long been one of the gang's old-timers, and one of the few Lower City gang members who only needed to endure a few more years before retiring at sixty and heading to Middle City to enjoy a peaceful old age.
That was why Gu Wending was mild-tempered most of the time. After so long, even Gu Wending himself had begun to have an illusion...
As though he really were a bartender.
The last time he had touched a gun was seven or eight years ago. Back then, the forty-ninth floor had descended into chaos. A newly risen gang, backed by certain Upper City officials, had tried to challenge the Black Fire Gang's dominance in the field of Organ Trade, and his place had come under attack as well.
The outcome of that gunfight was obvious. They had won themselves seven or eight years of peaceful living.
But the gang had grown somewhat restless again lately.
Big Mouth Hua had died unexpectedly on the thirteenth floor. Something had gone wrong when he tried to kidnap a female doctor.
An abundant supply of doctors was the Black Fire Gang's greatest source of confidence. There were over a hundred medical workers serving the gang, all fitted with bomb shackles. The moment they left designated areas, one of their legs would be blown off.
—Even after losing an entire leg, a doctor could still continue providing value.
Simply put, kidnapping doctors, training doctors, and controlling doctors meant protecting the Black Fire Gang's core interests.
Gu Wending could understand why their BOSS kept sending people to eliminate that doctor and her helper. If it had been him, he would have done the same. The Black Fire Gang's core interests had to remain untouched.
What Gu Wending could not understand was why the BOSS had suddenly sent Night Hawk to the forty-sixth floor to ambush that Security Captain.
Perhaps it was an order from Upper City.
According to rumors among the gang's management, that captain named Zhou Zhengde was the son of the Fortress Governor's Head of Internal Affairs. Zhou Zhengde had been demoted to Middle City as a Security Captain after fiercely opposing the Human Experimentation conducted by the Biological 13th Institute.
An Upper City young master.
Gu Wending could not help grumbling inwardly:
Once we get dragged into a struggle involving the Fortress's Upper City, perhaps even war zone interests, the Black Fire Gang will be crushed in no time.
Damn it, why can't these bastards let me retire in peace?
The BOSS is far too obedient to the 13th Institute...
Thinking of this, Gu Wending felt slightly irritated when a young man's voice suddenly reached his ears.
"I want a pot of Biluochun Tea."
Gu Wending stopped wiping the wineglass. Out of habit, he put on a gentle smile and looked up at the man before him.
Gu Wending froze for a moment.
He had seen countless people in his time, though most of the eyes he saw were lifeless, numbed by drugs.
But this young man before him... those calm, bright eyes, carrying a hint of detachment, left a deep impression on Gu Wending.
This is a young man with a story.
But...
"What is Biluochun?" Gu Wending asked with a smile.
Wang Jixuan replied calmly, "A kind of tea."
"Tea?"
Gu Wending set down the wineglass and the gauze he was using as a rag, then adjusted his bow tie with his white-gloved hand.
"I do have tea here. In fact, there are probably only four or five places in the entire Fortress that have something like tea, and aside from this place, you would have to search Upper City for it.
"But how did you know about that, young man?"
Their conversation drew the attention of several Black Fire Gang thugs.
Wang Jixuan rested his hands naturally along the edge of the counter, giving neither the thugs nor Gu Wending any sense of danger.
Wang Jixuan went along with it. "I heard someone mention it."
"Oh?" Gu Wending smiled. "Young man, you seem to know exactly what kind of place this is."
"Black Fire Gang territory."
Wang Jixuan spoke calmly:
"There's a massive cold storage facility beneath this tavern. This is also one of the Black Fire Gang's core assets... It's an open secret on the forty-ninth floor. Too many people have seen you transporting people in here."
The sound of bullets being chambered came from nearby.
From the tavern's three corners and behind the second-floor railing, seven men looked over at once. Several stopped puffing on their cigarettes.
Gu Wending asked, "And you? Who are you? Did you come here looking for trouble?"
"I came to negotiate."
Wang Jixuan employed a little strategy as he continued:
"I was sent by a Middle City Security Captain to speak with your Black Fire Gang's BOSS. There are some things I think you already know. The Black Fire Gang does not have much time left."
Gu Wending's expression turned incomparably grave.
Though two-thirds of the forty-ninth floor was controlled by the other two gangs, the Black Fire Gang held absolute dominion over its own territory.
More than six thousand humans and over forty thousand Material Bodies lived here, forming a town with a rigid hierarchy.
No more than thirty people in this place knew what the young man before him had just said.
"I think I should contact my BOSS first."
Gu Wending braced both hands against the edge of the counter, leaning forward slightly as he said with a smile:
"But before I contact my BOSS, you need to answer a few questions. Your name, your exact identity, the name and power of the boss behind you, and his position within that power.
"This is our territory. Even if the Fortress Governor came here, he would have to follow our rules.
"Now answer me. What is your name, young man?"
Gu Wending deliberately narrowed his eyes.
Having spent years looking up at the entire Fortress from dark corners, he now resembled a venomous snake radiating an icy, sinister aura.
—At least, that was how he felt.
"Is he Mu Liang?"
A slightly surprised cry suddenly came from behind the second-floor railing. A man in a top hat held up the terminal panel before him and gave a soft exclamation.
"The database says he's a technician... the Middle City technician the BOSS issued a Hunted order for! Mu Liang! That's him!"
Gu Wending's gaze sharpened. He remembered a message that had once popped up on the text communicator issued only to Black Fire Gang management.
[04: The person who killed Night Hawk is named Mu Liang, suspected to be a Psionicist. The higher-ups are already investigating, and all information related to this guy has been blocked. The database that has not yet been updated can still find some information about him. He seems to be an ordinary technician.]
The image of Night Hawk's headless corpse flashed through Gu Wending's mind.
The word Psionicist was like a curse. His face instantly turned pale, and several beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead...
The atmosphere in the tavern became strange.
The visiting young man sat on a barstool, smiling as he watched the bartender before him.
The old bartender's slightly sagging skin trembled as he stared into the young man's eyes.
In the corners, several burly men in dark green tracksuits simultaneously slipped their right hands into their clothes.
On the second floor, two Black Fire Gang members in suits and top hats silently picked up a shotgun and a tranquilizer gun...
Gu Wending suddenly lowered his head!
He was going for the pistol taped beneath the counter!
The instant Gu Wending moved, his vision blurred. More than a dozen long pink paper talismans unfolded almost at once, while the young man before him lunged forward and seized him by the collar!
Bang! Bang bang!
Several people nearby opened fire without hesitation!
Gu Wending could not believe what he was seeing:
Those paper talismans flashed with dazzling golden light in an instant. The golden light connected and overlapped, forming a thin wall of golden radiance. The incoming pistol bullets were deflected and twisted!
A second before the golden light erupted, the young man gripping his collar had already used that pulling force to pounce forward, knocking him behind the counter.
The back of Gu Wending's head smashed brutally against the stone floor, and dizziness washed over him.
Within his field of vision, the young man named Mu Liang crouched and darted forward, his evasive movements smooth and flowing as both hands flicked in rapid succession, fast as phantoms!
Dark streaks shot out one after another!
The gunfire in the tavern came to an abrupt halt.
Gu Wending had no idea what had happened outside, but he heard the dull sound of someone falling from the second floor.
They had been taken out?
All of his men here had been taken out?
Wang Jixuan rose from his one-knee kneel, using his fingers to push the dozen or so talismans pressed in his palm back into his sleeve.
Compared to the metal darts he threw wrapped in qi, bullets really were faster.
But it did not matter. Wang Jixuan had already figured out a way to block ordinary pistol rounds. By using more than a dozen Adamantine Talismans at once, he could achieve three to four seconds of "full protection."
Wang Jixuan looked down at Gu Wending, the bartender, and asked with a smile:
"Where is your tea?"
"You can't threaten me, kid." Gu Wending's breathing trembled slightly. "You can kill me. I've lived long enough already, that's the truth. Don't expect to hear any valuable intelligence from me! They'll be here within a minute!"
Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow lightly.
In his perception, there was a vast hollow beneath his feet, and below it were some... mottled and faint presences.
Interrogation was the troublesome thing he was worst at.
This tavern sat at the northwest corner of the Black Fire Gang's territory and served as an important rear warehouse for the gang.
Wang Jixuan had to end this quickly. Before the Black Fire Gang members in the cold storage below discovered something was wrong with the tavern, he needed to get the intelligence he wanted most from this old man.
"This poor Daoist truly likes persuading people to do good."
Wang Jixuan reached into the inner pocket of his jacket, took out a blank talisman paper, bit the tip of his index finger, forced out strands of qi, and swiftly drew a complex talisman onto the paper.
"But at the very least, the person this poor Daoist persuades must first be a person."
Wang Jixuan formed a Sword Finger with his right hand, pressed the blood-red talisman downward, and forcefully tapped it onto Gu Wending's forehead.
Soul-Capturing!
Before you continue