Confirming the Threat

Zhou Zhengde was protecting an "important witness" in the witness protection room at the 13th Floor Security Brigade headquarters when a team member ran over to report the news, leaving him completely dumbfounded.

What did it mean, one person had ganged up on more than a dozen people?

The witness protection room was about the same size as an ordinary single-person residence, so Doctor Wei Na naturally heard the team member shouting.

Her face was still pale, and she clearly had not recovered from the earlier shooting. She asked softly, "Did a bunch of thugs beat up Mu Liang?"

"It's still unclear who beat whom. Both sides were hurt pretty badly, and they ran through several streets. A lot of people are watching now."

The team member frowned at Doctor Wei Na, then continued reporting to Zhou Zhengde:

"Captain! Some of those thugs have acquaintances in the team. Their leader is called Rotten Fish. He was badly injured. When we arrived, his clothes were covered in blood, and he's already been sent to the neighboring hospital!"

"What happened?"

Zhou Zhengde cleared his throat, clasped his hands behind his back, and said:

"Doctor Wei Na, please continue resting. The testimony you provided will be a great help in our investigation into this prohibited weapons case. Thank you for your cooperation.

"Let's go take a look up front!"

Zhou Zhengde turned and hurried away.

Doctor Wei Na called after him, "Could this be related to the Black Fire Gang? They couldn't find me, so they went after Mu Liang?"

"It'd better not be."

Zhou Zhengde answered quietly as the witness room's alloy door slammed shut.

The 13th Floor Security Team headquarters was located beside the central passage.

There was a circular plaza here, with more than a dozen official 13th Floor institutions packed tightly around it.

At the center of the plaza stood an elevator shaft wrapped in thick concrete walls. Three entrances led into the central passage elevator shaft, and the main entrance to the always-open elevator hall stood directly opposite the Security Team headquarters entrance.

The fortress authorities did not forbid civilians from using the vertical passages, but each use of the central passage cost 10 General Quota. The other passages, distributed in four directions and containing more than a dozen elevators, cost only 2 General Quota per use. This made the central passage an exclusive route for official personnel.

--Government employees could use fortress public facilities for free.

--These elevators could not directly reach Lower City, and they had complete surveillance and automatic defense systems.

As a result, the central passage garden was also regarded as a "luxury green belt" reserved for the "management class." Ordinary civilians rarely came here to wander around without a reason.

Today, however, was rather different. The 13th Floor circular plaza was bustling.

The Security Team had mobilized in force earlier and arrested a group of young people for fighting, drawing crowds of onlookers.

It could not be helped. Fortress resources were limited, entertainment was prohibited inside, and there were rarely any fresh spectacles to enjoy.

Wang Jixuan sat on a bench beside the elevator shaft's main entrance, with two armed Security Team members beside him.

More than a dozen thugs squatted in front of him with their heads in their hands. Most had bruised and swollen faces, their hands bound with belts.

The worst off was their leader. Rotten Fish lay on a stretcher, covered in blood, and was being carried into the 13th Floor hospital nearby.

Wang Jixuan believed he had shown restraint. The other man would not bleed to death, so this should not provoke the authorities into targeting him.

He had learned two new terms from Mu Liang's memories—justifiable defense and retaliatory self-defense.

Wang Jixuan was feeling rather frustrated now.

He had actually!

Gotten lost while running...

The Divine Movement Spell had only lasted a dozen breaths or so. The layouts of all the passages were very similar, and he had run too fast to distinguish directions. After circling halfway around, he had plunged straight into the encirclement of these hoodlums.

These hoodlums had been even more vicious than he expected. He had used the military tactic of capturing the leader first and grabbed Rotten Fish, but several of them had ignored the threat and charged him directly with metal pipes.

If he had not used that leading thug as a shield, he would most likely have been seriously injured as well.

Merciful Heavenly Venerable!

He, in all his dignity!

Forget it. A true man did not boast of past glory. After all, he had Failed Tribulation, and this was only the earliest stage of his comeback.

He could recover his Dao Heart later.

At that moment, Captain Zhou, whom Wang Jixuan had only met once, hurried over from the side.

Zhou Zhengde frowned and glared at Wang Jixuan and the thugs on the ground.

"Lock them all up!"

Zhou Zhengde cursed in his powerful baritone:

"Idling around without doing proper work! Contributing no value to the fortress! Disturbing public order! Our 13th Floor Security Office will definitely punish these brawlers severely!"

The onlookers scattered around applauded sparsely.

Zhou Zhengde walked up to Wang Jixuan and examined him with a frown. He found several large bruises on Wang Jixuan's body, and his clothes were torn, yet he still sat ramrod straight.

For some reason, Zhou Zhengde sensed an indescribable sharpness from him.

"Come inside and talk."

A Security Team member immediately stepped forward to put shackles on Wang Jixuan.

"No," Zhou Zhengde snapped, glaring at him. "He's a victim! Why are you cuffing him? Do you want civilians writing complaints that we enforce the law recklessly?"

The team member hurriedly nodded, then instead stepped forward to support Wang Jixuan and escorted him through the main entrance of the Security Office.

Half an hour later.

Zhou Zhengde leaned back in his office chair, rubbing his forehead.

Wang Jixuan sat on a hard metal bench, studying the enormous photograph on the wall.

In the photo, Zhou Zhengde wore a crisp light-blue uniform and accepted a medal from an old man.

That was probably Zhou Zhengde's moment of glory.

"Tsk." Zhou Zhengde ran his fingers through his neatly combed side-parted hair, messing it up, then tossed the statement file in his hand onto the desk. "You're pretty skilled. They had so many people against you, yet you weren't injured too badly."

"I secretly practiced mixed martial arts for a few years," Wang Jixuan said sincerely.

"This thing of yours."

Zhou Zhengde picked up the thin metal tube lying in a sterilization tray. Its sharpened end was stained with blood.

"This could count as a prohibited weapon.

"But I can't blame you. After being bullied for half a year, you were bound to find some way to resist.

"Considering we helped each other out just now, I'll smooth over this trouble for you. Those thugs also have acquaintances who came to plead their case with me. This incident won't be reported. Is that acceptable to you?"

"It is." Wang Jixuan nodded, not asking anything more from these authorities.

He had his own solution.

Zhou Zhengde asked in confusion, "If you had these skills, why didn't you resist before?"

Testing this Daoist?

Wang Jixuan immediately lowered his eyes and assumed a meek expression. He sighed. "Once someone chooses to back down in the face of bullying, they never get another chance to fight back."

"That's true," Zhou Zhengde said with deep feeling. "I've seen too many cases like that. Your previous self-harm was related to this too, wasn't it? Still, this trouble is going to be bigger. According to them, a Black Fire Gang big shot personally contacted their boss, Rotten Fish—the one whose neck you cut with that metal rod. Fortunately, it was only a flesh wound."

Wang Jixuan asked in confusion, "A big shot?"

"A big shot usually refers to one of the top figures in a gang."

Zhou Zhengde tapped the desk with his finger.

"You don't know how powerful the Black Fire Gang is. They are one of Lower City's seven major gangs. Lower City is chaotic, but it also has certain... extremely valuable resources. Every one of those gangs has a complicated background.

"Doctor Wei Na already told you what the Black Fire Gang does... organ trafficking."

"Don't you prohibit that?" Wang Jixuan asked.

"Of course it's prohibited. The law prohibits it completely!"

Zhou Zhengde curled his lip and spread his hands.

"Take a guess. How many people in this fortress can afford to pay for replacement organs? And what positions do some of them hold?

"As far as I know, there are several old fogies in the Fortress Public Security Bureau who have shady ties to the Black Fire Gang.

"The Black Fire Gang is just a Black Gloves outfit."

Wang Jixuan understood.

So this was what people meant by officials and bandits being one family? He had learned something new.

"I really don't want to get involved in this."

Zhou Zhengde sighed.

"My life is great right now. I have a socially conservative girlfriend, a respectable job, and two hundred subordinates I can mobilize directly.

"But Doctor Wei Na... you know, she's a friend I can't stop worrying about. My best friend.

"The Lower City gangs never stop until they achieve their goals. Otherwise, they think they've lost face and their standing has been shaken. I submitted Brother Hua's cause-of-death investigation to my superiors, and it's probably already on the Black Fire Gang boss's desk.

"Doctor Wei Na acted in justifiable defense. Justifiable defense in every sense.

"But both you and Doctor Wei Na will be targets of their future retaliation.

"That Brother Hua was the biological younger brother of the Black Fire Gang's big boss. That's the biggest problem."

Wang Jixuan fell silent in thought.

Boss seemed to mean gang leader.

"I can only help you for a while," Zhou Zhengde sighed. "I'll arrange another safe house for you. When you go out later, wear a hat and mask whenever possible. If that isn't enough, get yourself a helmet. Many people in the Security Team system have shady ties with Lower City. I'm only a captain who was transferred here recently, so I can't guarantee how long you'll stay safe. This is the only thing I can do."

Wang Jixuan nodded. Looking at the weary captain before him, he said, "I owe you a favor."

"Hah! Then I'll be looking forward to you repaying it!"

Zhou Zhengde tried his best not to laugh as he said it.

"I don't exactly have the final say around here.

"I have another suggestion... Although this conflict was self-defense on your part, I can use it to classify you as having participated in a brawl and put you in the Security Office detention room for two months..."

"That won't be necessary."

Wang Jixuan shook his head. He did not like the idea of entering a prison. Smiling, he said:

"I'll hide for now. If I can't hide from it, we'll talk about it then."

"All right, it's up to you."

Zhou Zhengde opened a drawer, took out a button-sized alarm, and tossed it to Wang Jixuan.

"If you run into danger, press it three times. It'll flash red on its own, which means the alarm has been triggered. I'll send people over immediately."

"Thank you."

Wang Jixuan habitually cupped his fist in his palm in response.

Zhou Zhengde tilted his head at the gesture, then decided it was probably some strange fad among young people and did not think much of it.

The Black Fire Gang had territory in Lower City, underlings, and a large number of firearms. No amount of advice would help. Protecting Doctor Wei Na had already left him overwhelmed, and the Black Fire Gang kept pressuring him through every possible connection.

As for this young man, Zhou Zhengde felt he had already done everything he reasonably could.

"Owes me a favor?"

Zhou Zhengde smiled dismissively.

"He's got quite the personality."

The next day.

Inside a Security Team safe house near Central Plaza.

Wang Jixuan removed a baseball cap and mask worth 3 General Quota, then placed two large bags of emergency food on the table.

To be safe, he had not returned to his residence to retrieve any clothes. Several groups of hoodlums were already searching the area for traces of him.

The hoodlums on every floor were extensions of the Lower City gangs.

The confidant of Captain Zhou who had brought Wang Jixuan here told him that he could stay here for at most two months.

The safe house was no different from an ordinary single-person residence. The only thing that made Wang Jixuan uncomfortable was the camera in the corner.

Though it was broken.

Wang Jixuan swiftly took off his shirt and accurately tossed it over the camera. He then went to the washbasin and carefully cleaned his body, doing everything possible to increase the speed at which he absorbed spiritual energy.

In the mirror, the young man was so thin that his ribs showed, though more than half the bruising on his body had already faded.

Wang Jixuan exhaled softly. Wearing only his underwear, he walked to the single bed, rapidly formed hand seals, and assumed the five-hearts-facing-heaven meditation posture.

Cultivation here was slow, but persistence was precious.

Was my previous Failed Tribulation caused by insufficient Worldly Heart Refining?

So be it.

The Black Fire Gang commits evil and harms living beings. This Daoist must act on Heaven's behalf and protect the Daoist body!

But first, I must cultivate. At the very least, I must enter the Qi Refining Realm.