First Foray into the Black Market

The last rays of the setting sun completely sank into the gaps of the city's steel forest. Tianhai City, as if shedding the clamor of daytime, donned a bizarre cloak woven from neon and shadows.

In the abandoned western industrial zone, the giant, rusty skeletons of factory buildings loomed like slumbering beasts in the dim light, exuding an aura of decay and danger.

Lin Xiao was wrapped in a loose, worn hoodie, the brim pulled low, obscuring most of his face.

The fixation device on his right arm, hidden beneath his clothes, still throbbed with a dull ache.

He leaned against a cold, graffiti-covered concrete pillar, warily scanning his surroundings.

The air was thick with the smell of machine oil, rust, and some indescribable scent of decay.

Fatty Wang huddled beside him, his plump face etched with nervousness. His small eyes darted around restlessly, his hand tightly clutching a crumpled piece of paper. He spoke in a hushed voice, a barely perceptible excitement coloring his tone, "Brother Xiao, this is it! Skinny Monkey said the entrance is behind the 'old boiler room,' under that half-collapsed exhaust pipe! We have to use the password!"

"Password?" Lin Xiao's voice emerged from beneath the hood, tinged with a husky amusement.

"Yeah! 'Rusty iron for new firewood'!" Fatty Wang swallowed, then added, "Skinny Monkey said it's a mess in there! All sorts of people, from all walks of life. He told us to be super careful, not to flash our cash, and definitely not to cause trouble! He heard there are actual martial artists inside, and they don't play by the rules!"

Lin Xiao didn't reply, merely giving a slight nod.

Beneath the shadow of the hood, his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's, sweeping over the ruins ahead, shrouded in immense darkness.

Source Energy Points: [-1.3].

That glaring negative value was like a sharp blade hanging over his head. The soul-deep exhaustion from overexertion, coupled with the dull ache of his fractured right arm, served as constant reminders of his lack of strength and the urgency of his situation.

Su Qingxue's halo could only shield him for a while, not forever.

Scarface Qiang and the Blood Wolf Gang's shadow clung to him like a persistent leech.

He needed strength. He needed Source Energy Points!

This legendary black market, a melting pot of all sorts, was his only hope right now.

"Let's go." Lin Xiao's voice was low and resolute.

Like civets melting into the shadows, they moved swiftly through the broken walls and ruins.

They skirted around piles of foul-smelling garbage, avoided shards of glass and rebar glinting dangerously on the ground, and finally arrived at a corner obscured by a massive, abandoned boiler.

A colossal, rusted iron pipe, over a meter in diameter, slanted into the ground. Its opening was mostly buried by collapsed bricks and stones, leaving only a dark, narrow hole barely large enough for a person to stoop through.

In front of the opening stood two burly men in grimy work clothes, their eyes sharp and fierce like guardian deities. Their waists were bulging, clearly concealing weapons.

One of them, a man with a scar like a centipede across his face, scrutinized Lin Xiao and Fatty Wang, who were heavily bundled up.

"What are you here for?" the scarred man's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against wood.

Fatty Wang's palms were slick with sweat. He stammered, "Rus... Rusty iron..."

"For new firewood!"

Lin Xiao interjected, his voice steady, adopting a deliberately rough, street-smart tone. Simultaneously, he subtly slipped two rolled-up hundred-yuan bills into the scarred man's hand.

The scarred man felt the thickness of the bills. He then glanced at Lin Xiao's face, hidden in the hood's shadow, and his noticeably unnatural posture with his right arm. The ferocity in his eyes subsided slightly, but his vigilance remained.

He exchanged a look with his companion, stepped aside, and gestured towards the dark opening with his chin. "Go on in. Keep your eyes and mouth shut. Don't look at what you shouldn't, don't ask what you shouldn't. They aren't as easygoing as us in there."

A wave of humid air, a mixture of mold, sweat, cheap tobacco, and some pungent chemical agent, washed over them.

Lin Xiao took a deep breath, suppressing the tremor in his heart, and was the first to stoop and enter the entrance that resembled a giant beast's gullet.

Fatty Wang followed closely, his teeth chattering with nervousness.

The pipe was longer than expected, sloping downwards, the ground beneath their feet wet and muddy.

Darkness was like thick ink, with only a faint, flickering yellowish light visible ahead. It felt oppressive and claustrophobic, as if they were walking step by step into the mouth of hell.

After walking for about fifty meters, the space suddenly opened up!

A vast "market," carved out of the underground space of an abandoned factory, unexpectedly assaulted their vision!

The space was incredibly vast, with rusty steel frames forming the ceiling. Several underpowered, crackling yellow floodlights hung from it, casting flickering, unsteady pools of light.

The air was even more polluted, a fermenting mixture of various smells creating a nauseating stench.

People! Dense crowds of people!

They surged like an ant colony under the dim light.

Lone figures in tattered leather jackets with fierce eyes; small groups of gang members conversing in low tones, their waists bulging; mysterious individuals shrouded in black robes, their faces hidden; even people dressed relatively decently, but with equally wary eyes, appearing to be merchants... all sorts of people, a chaotic mix!

The stalls were even more varied, crammed haphazardly onto the uneven, pitted concrete floor.

Selling all sorts of cold weapons: from rusty cleavers and axes to alloy daggers and steel knuckle dusters glinting with a cold, eerie light, and even a few ancient-looking swords and knives with dark blood grooves along their blades.

Stalls were piled with stones of various colors and irregular shapes: most were dull gray, fragments of low-grade energy stones with extremely weak energy fluctuations, yet priced outrageously high; occasionally, a few larger, slightly brighter stones immediately attracted greedy gazes.

Various strange bottles and jars: medicine bottles labeled "Bone Tempering Powder," "Great Strength Pill," and "Qi Recovery Water," with bizarre colors and pungent odors, their authenticity impossible to discern.

There were also vendors selling information, recruiters for desperate individuals, and in the corners, faint suppressed groans and the smell of blood suggested places where "special services" were performed.

The sounds of hawking, haggling, low threats and curses, exaggerated laughter of women, the indistinct clanging of metal from the corners... all sorts of jarring noises converged, forming a dizzying wave of sound that assaulted their eardrums.

Chaos! Disorder! Naked survival of the fittest!

Lin Xiao stood in the shadows of the entrance, his pupils beneath the hood contracting sharply!

For the first time, he felt so directly the existence of this bizarre, crisis-ridden underground world of martial artists, existing outside the mainstream social order!

There are no laws here, no morals, only strength and profit!

The air was filled with brutality, greed, and the ever-present threat of bloodshed!

His pride and joy, the modifier ability that could cripple Zhao Hu, seemed incredibly insignificant here!

He could feel at least a dozen pairs of eyes, like cold venomous snakes, scanning him and Fatty Wang, the two "new faces," with undisguised scrutiny and malice.

The auras emanating from the owners of those gazes were far more dangerous than Zhao Hu's!

Several even caused the modifier's interface in his mind to flicker slightly, displaying a prompt: [Target Threat Level: Medium]!

Source Energy Points! The craving for Source Energy Points, at this moment, was like a prairie fire, instantly burning through his limbs and bones!

He saw the energy stone fragments piled on the stalls, even the most inferior ones, and his eyes couldn't help but turn red!

Those fragments were no longer mere stones in his eyes, but "lives" that could fill the emptiness in his soul, allow him to survive, and make him stronger!

"Bro... Brother Xiao, I... I can't breathe..."

Fatty Wang's face was deathly pale, his voice trembling. His plump body clung tightly to Lin Xiao, almost shrinking into a ball.

The atmosphere here made him feel like he'd fallen into a pond of piranhas.

Lin Xiao forced himself to calm down, suppressing the surging desire and apprehension.

He pulled down his cap brim, hiding his face deeper in the shadows, and said in a low voice, "Don't look around. Stick with me. Don't talk."

Like a seasoned veteran of the underbelly, he slightly hunched his back, his steps carrying a deliberate, casual sluggishness, blending into the surging crowd.

His gaze seemed to casually sweep over the stalls on either side, but in reality, it was like the most precise radar, searching for anything that might contain energy, while simultaneously guarding against malice from all directions.

He saw a stall with several larger energy stone fragments, emitting a faint earthy yellow glow, priced at "50,000 per piece."

The stall owner was a burly man with a face full of coarse flesh and a missing front tooth, gesticulating wildly while haggling with a man in black robes.

He saw another corner where a hunched-over stall owner wearing a bird-beak mask displayed only a few inconspicuous, rust-covered metal scraps and a stone the size of a fist. Inside it, black mist seemed to swirl, exuding an extremely uncomfortable, chilling aura.

Lin Xiao's gaze lingered on that black stone for a moment. The modifier's interface in his mind suddenly fluctuated violently, popping up a prompt: [Detected high-concentration alien energy source... Extremely dangerous... Cannot parse...]!

Lin Xiao's heart trembled violently, and he quickly averted his gaze.

He also saw a scantily clad, heavily made-up woman leaning against a stall selling "special potions." She was winking at passing martial artists, but her eyes were like poisoned hooks.

Beside her stood a tall, thin man with eyes as sharp and sinister as a falcon's. He exuded a cold, murderous aura. When his gaze swept over Lin Xiao, the hairs on the back of Lin Xiao's neck instantly stood on end! [Target Threat Level: High!]

"Damn it..." Lin Xiao cursed inwardly, suppressing the urge to immediately get away from that area.

As he cautiously observed, a commotion and suppressed screams suddenly erupted ahead!

A stall was overturned, its goods scattered everywhere.

A young man in tattered martial arts attire, his face bruised and swollen, was being pinned to the ground by two burly men with ferocious tattoos, who were kicking and punching him. Blood foam continuously flowed from the young man's mouth as he groaned in pain.

"Damn it! You dare sell fake goods in my territory? You're tired of living!"

A leader-like figure with a scar on his face and a fierce aura (close to peak One-Star Martial Artist) was smoking a cigarette. He stomped down hard on the young man's chest with his foot, emitting a bone-cracking sound that made one's teeth ache!

The young man screamed once and then fell silent, his condition unknown.

The surrounding people watched indifferently, some even snickering in low voices, as if it were an everyday occurrence.

A few people who looked like patrols, wearing matching black vests, ambled over. They glanced at the "trash" on the ground, then at the scarred leader, nodded, said something, and then walked away without further ado.

Survival of the fittest! Human lives are like weeds!

This scene struck Lin Xiao's heart like a cold iron hammer!

It also struck Fatty Wang's nearly shattered nerves!

Fatty Wang's legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground, but Lin Xiao caught him.

"Let's go!" Lin Xiao's voice was filled with unprecedented gravity and coldness.

He grabbed the trembling Fatty Wang, quickly pushed through the crowd, and hurried towards a relatively deserted corner.

Standing in the shadows of a pile of discarded tires, Lin Xiao's heart was still pounding violently.

Not from fear, but from anger! From powerlessness!

And even more so, from the ignited, fiercer desire!

Power! Without power, here, he would be the next "trash" trampled underfoot!

He wouldn't even qualify as a source of Source Energy Points!

He looked at this chaotic, bloody, yet immensely tempting underground world. The eyes beneath his cap brim were like an erupting volcano, filled with wild greed and cold determination.

"Fatty," he said in a low voice, with a hint of imperceptible hoarseness, "Go back and tell Skinny Monkey to help me find out where the cheapest and most reliable source of energy stones is!"

His gaze, as if it had substance, was fixed on the stalls selling inferior energy stone fragments in the distance.

Source Energy Points! It had to be as soon as possible! No matter the cost!