Vol. 5: Too Impulsive

Meanwhile, in the cave path leading to the Mimir Hot Spring Market, Jiang Xueming, as a hostage, was laughing and joking with the criminals.

Schopenhauer squeezed closer to the priest and whispered, "There seems to be something wrong with the 'Dream Paris' on your poster."

Jiang Xueming: "Hmm."

Schopenhauer: "Do you have the service I'm looking for? I mean, these young ladies are all quite pretty, definitely to my liking."

Jiang Xueming: "Mmm. Mmm."

Schopenhauer: "But why is it only a companion service? What does this 'emotional counseling' mean?"

Jiang Xueming: "Whatever you think it means, that's what it means."

Schopenhauer: "Hehe, there's quite a trick to it, a hidden secret."

On the other side, the menacing-looking A Jie sneered, "Father, you frequent brothels too?"

"I know a little bit," Jiang Xueming casually replied, "I've been to quite a few places."

A Jie was even more disdainful. "Someone like you, a clergyman, who preaches and leads people to goodness, spouting benevolence and morality, also goes to brothels to seek pleasure?"

"The main goal is to guide those who have gone astray, not just those involved in prostitution, but also those who force women to commit crimes," Jiang Xueming truthfully stated. "We must explore the world on our own two feet—this red-light district is full of 'beautiful skeletons,' women are selling their youth, and I cannot stand idly by."

"Hey!" A Jie got excited. "So the priest is talking to our brothers in the War Gang about the love in the scriptures and the principles of mythology?"

"We don't talk about it often," Jiang Xueming continued. "Talking won't get you anywhere."

The Big B, retorted, "The priest probably doesn't know the hardships of life. Once you're in a brothel, can you still call yourself a human being? People are bought and sold, whether innocent or not, ultimately just trying to make a living—you're so high and mighty, thinking you're so great."

"That's not what I meant. I'm just a nobody, and I can only do what I can." Jiang Xueming shrugged indifferently. "Saving that old lady today was a good deed. She was prescribing medicine and treating patients at the clinic. She shouldn't have died in my brothers' car. I didn't have any ulterior motives in exchanging her for me as a hostage."

"Brother?" A Jie sneered, raising his gun. "You dare call yourself a brother?!"

The gun was pointed at Jiang Xueming's temple.

--At that moment, Andro and Big B, these two exceptionally Inspiration psionicists, clearly sensed a chilling killing intent. Both of them felt their hair stand on end and their bodies stiffen like startled birds.

The car stopped, and cold sweat immediately broke out on the faces of the two front-seat passengers.

Big B looked warily out the window. "Where? Andro? Where is he?"

There was no light source in the deep cave; only the car headlights illuminated the narrow driveway.

"It seems... it seems to come from all directions," Andro replied. "I can't sense its source; it just blew past like the wind, brushing against my face and enveloping me."

"Fuck you! What bad luck!" Big B's eyes were bloodshot as he cursed, "Is it a monster? Or pursuers?"

"It must be a monster," Andro, his hands gripping the steering wheel soaked with sweat. "If it were a human, that would be terrifying."

Big B asked, "Is this road still passable?"

"Let's go somewhere else, let's go somewhere else." Andro quickly reversed the car, intending to change to another cave and find another way out at the fork in the road to return to the Hot Spring Market.

Jiang Xueming felt a lingering fear. He hadn't been able to control himself; when faced with the gun, he had almost instinctively defended himself. This overflowing Inspiration Pressure instantly destroyed Andro and Big B's fighting will.

Upon reaching a ventilation shaft, beside an abandoned post station platform, the four brothers decided to get off the vehicle to rest, change clothes, destroy evidence, and say goodbye to their impoverished life.

"Should we kill him?" A Jie coldly looked at Jiang Xueming and asked Big B, "He's seen our faces. Letting him live will cause endless trouble."

Andro immediately retorted, "So many people in the medical ward have seen your face, do you have to kill them all? A Jie! If you keep going like this, you might not even get a chance to live in Hedland!"

Big B was still hesitating, but after changing into another set of clothes, he decided to play a game with the priest.

"Young man, I'll give you three sentences to convince me, otherwise, you're just out of luck."

Andro immediately said, "Isn't that unnecessary? Big B, wouldn't it be better to just leave him here to feed the monsters? No need to waste bullets, the monsters can dispose of the body without leaving any clues."

Schopenhauer was still obsessed with the Parisian dream depicted in the poster, pleading with Big B, "This young man has traveled all over the country and been to so many brothels, he must have left me the contact information for a few madams, right? What if there are still pretty young women who have fallen into prostitution waiting for me to rescue them? Big B! You can't ruin my plans!"

"Three sentences! Quickly!" Big B grabbed A Jie's arm, demanding that A Jie raise his gun.

Xue Ming raised his hands in surrender, still clutching the Bible and the cross.

"--I have a bottle of Universal Elixir in my shirt pocket. Brothers, take a look and see if it can be used as money to buy your lives?"

Big B beckoned Andro to come forward and search him, and sure enough, they found a bottle of Saladin Medical Clinic's Universal Elixir.

"Good stuff!" Big B said with a grin. "What a pity, it's not enough. Say the second one!"

Xue Ming then said, "I'll give it to this older brother."

He pointed to Schopenhauer—

"Introduce him to someone."

"That's wonderful! From now on, he's like a brother to me!" Schopenhauer immediately beamed.

Big B said coldly, "Not enough, one last sentence."

As he said this, A Jie turned the hammer, his smile stretching almost to his ears.

Xue Ming's face was covered in cold sweat, and his fingers trembled uncontrollably, as if he sensed that his death was imminent.

"I'll cook a meal for you all? And use my own meat?"

"Genius!" A Jie exclaimed excitedly, "I love that line you said! It makes you a sensible and well-behaved child!"

Big B was quite satisfied with this. In the eyes of these cannibals, a good lackey was one who willingly cut off his own flesh to feed the eagles.

Such rituals were commonplace a decade ago. To demonstrate their loyalty to the War Gang, many Homo sapiens would cut off their own flesh and blood and offer it as food to their brothers in the War Gang. This was the highest form of etiquette to express submission to the War Gang. However, this ritual gradually became less humane over time.

In relatively civilized Religious order, this becomes a matter of actively soliciting donations and handing over property.

In more civilized companies, people voluntarily work overtime and give up their holidays.

At this moment, the priest is about to cut off his own flesh and bleed, willingly offering his essence. This makes Big B and A Jie, these two Old Money, feel the "camera camaraderie" again—in different times and spaces, in the cold modern civilization, they can feel the joy of the New Year again.

Five hours later, Saladin's militia transported a dilapidated T300 back to town.

There were also four battered and bruised members of the fighting gang, and a priest who was also covered in wounds.

"You mean, on the run, these remnants of the War Gang cooked a meal? After eating, they started talking nonsense and became delirious, eventually crashing into a rock wall, their car rolling down the cave's steps, and they lost consciousness from the fall?"

Jiang Xueming's face was covered in bruises, his eyes were glazed, and there was a Band-Aid on his nose. He was brought to the military station by armed employees and was being questioned by the interrogating officers.

"Yes."

The interrogator was a very easygoing Black woman who could speak Chinese.

"--You, as a hostage, were the first to wake up?"

Jiang Xueming: "Yes."

Interrogator: "These guys are all blood donation units, and you, a Homo sapiens, are the least injured?"

Jiang Xueming: "Yes. Oh, no."

He quickly corrected himself. "No, no, I was sitting in the back, sandwiched in the middle, with my two robber friends on either side acting as human cushions."

The interrogator produced a photograph of the gunsmith.

"--This is different from what they said."

Jiang Xueming: "How is it different?"

Interrogator: "They said they ran into the gunsmith."

Jiang Xueming: "I am not a gunsmith."

Interrogator: "But they say you are."

Jiang Xueming, wearing handcuffs, raised his hands to point to the photo, then pointed to his ID card.

"I told them he wasn't me, but they insisted it was. They must be hallucinating from drinking."

Interrogator: "That's true, some anesthetic was found in the blood test, so we can't rule out that possibility."

Jiang Xueming: "Yes."

Interrogator: "Why do you have Saladin's Universal Elixir on you?"

Jiang Xueming: "I'm poor, I stole it. I originally promised a father and daughter to help them exorcise a demon, which cost me a lot of money, but I failed and almost lost my life."

Interrogator: "Why did you steal the Universal Elixir? Did you know this bottle contained fluoride waste liquid?"

"I don't know." Jiang Xueming shook her head. "I've been having trouble adjusting to this place since I arrived, I've had diarrhea the whole time, and I'm trying to get some medicine to cure myself."

The female interrogator impatiently reminded her, "You have a job! You have medical insurance, go ahead and claim it! You're going to steal something from the operating room for something so trivial? Is that appropriate? You're a priest, after all!"

"I just like stealing," Jiang Xueming confessed frankly. "Sister, please don't ask. Priests in other places have much more serious quirks than me. Some even like little boys. Compared to them, don't I seem too normal?"

"Tsk," the older woman retorted, "Don't be silly with me! Explain yourself, why did these robbers mistake you for a gunsmith?"

"Didn't I already tell you? They stole the Universal Elixir from me and drank it like alcohol. With the anesthetic in my head, how could I possibly have any clear consciousness? Why don't you find them a psychologist to see?" Jiang Xueming paused mid-sentence, then suddenly realized, "Oh! I am a psychologist."

"Think about it carefully first. A wounded patient died, and it's related to this bottle of waste liquid you have; it's from the same operating room." The interrogator couldn't get any useful information and still had to deal with a medical malpractice case at Saladin's clinic— Alfons's death on the operating table. "Go to your cell and think it through. Contact me immediately if you remember anything."

Xue Ming asked nervously, "Is it a single room? I don't want to sleep in the same room as the robbers."

"Heh," the interrogator chuckled, "That depends on how well your memory has recovered."

Two militiamen led Dr. Zhang Congfeng to the cell, where he saw four of his brothers from the Zhan Gang sitting in a row. They had been gossiping amongst themselves just moments before, but now that the priest had arrived, they were all terrified.

Their faces, shoulders, waists, and buttocks were covered in injuries. Andro had a scar on his cheek from the shattered windshield, and his head and neck were dislocated, as if he had been shoved into the driver's seat and thrown off a cliff, resulting in severe injuries.

A Jie- Jie was hunched over with a fawning smile on his face. His right arm was missing, apparently torn off by the deformed metal frame when he tumbled down the mountainside steps.

Schopenhauer was still wearing a cervical correction device, his neck was raised, and his entire spine was broken into three sections. He had not yet recovered and was still paralyzed. Big B was supporting this man in his forties.

Finally, there was Big B, whose nose was broken and who had lost an eye. He was both scared and amused, greeting everyone with an awkward and embarrassed expression.

"Oh dear, A Jie was too impulsive."

"I'm so sorry for making it like this."

"They say at home you rely on your parents, but when you're out in the world you rely on your friends. Me..."

Xue Ming calmly made the bed, took off his shoes, and rudely sat down on the communal bunk. Several of his brothers squeezed into a corner. He and Big B smiled amicably, and he took out a Bible from the pocket of his prison uniform. This was something the militia allowed him to bring into the cell; a cross was a sharp metal object and could not be brought in.

"It's January now. The mountains are blocked by heavy snow, and we can't even get out of the caves. Powerful monsters are coming to find food, so we have to implement traffic control. The traffic pressure won't ease until the end of January next year, and we'll be able to let cars into the Hot Spring Market in batches. We brothers don't deserve to die, but we're being sent to the court for trial. We'll be staying in Saladin for a long time. We're all in the same boat."

"I just don't understand why the interrogator called me 'gunsmith'? I'm a clergyman, and my main job is as a psychiatrist. I don't get this."

Big B leaned closer to Andro and asked in a low voice.

Do you remember what happened back then?

Andro had completely lost most of his memory of the cave path, only having vague recollections of what seemed to be a car accident, as they were enjoying the appetizer soup the priest had brought.

"He used what he had on hand, getting some moss and mushrooms, and made us a sweet soup. Then..."

"I feel like I've been brutally beaten!" A Jie's teeth chattered, his eyes darting around. "I saw the gunsmith! I saw the gunsmith!"

Big B yelled, "What did you see! You beast! You've never even seen the gunsmith, he's dead! Even God couldn't save him! I said it!"

That being said, Big B and Andro were also among the four Warband brothers who had directly confronted Gunsmith and Glory.

After they drank the sweet soup, under the influence of the anesthetic, before losing consciousness, they seemed to have indeed felt a cold and terrifying spiritual pressure. Then, in the blink of an eye, they found themselves in this military post.

Big B was convinced that this priest was no ordinary person, but he lacked direct evidence—all the clues the militia could find pointed to the car accident.

The brothers discussed it privately, and the more they talked, the more fantastical it became. They seemed to believe that the gunsmith's ghost had possessed the honest and simple priest, and that Ming De had brought misfortune upon them, causing them to suffer and fall into the clutches of the law.

"Don't guess anymore, guys, I have an idea," Jiang Xueming said immediately. "The gunsmith definitely won't help you, right?"

Andro: "That makes sense."

Jiang Xueming opened the sutra, cut his finger with the sharp edge, and rested it on the windowsill.

"I have an idea. Let's send one of our brothers out first, and then have him figure out a way to come back and save us. What do you think of this idea?"

"You can get him out?" Big B immediately perked up, dispelling all his doubts—the gunsmith would never help a criminal Prison Break.

A swarm of Spuantong flew in from outside the prison window; they were drawn in by the delicious smell of flesh and blood.

"As far as I know, ladybugs like dark, damp places and they also like delicious, palatable substances." Jiang Xueming caught one of the ladybugs, then licked the blood off his fingers and led it to A Jie.

"Let it burrow into your body, and a surgeon will immediately take you back to the clinic to remove the worm. Big B, you teach this guy how to do things and get us out of here?"

Big B's mind works incredibly fast--

--Although A Jie is trustworthy, the brothers are just a makeshift group put together temporarily. If things are exposed, they'll all scatter when disaster strikes. How could they let someone else have this chance to escape from prison?!

"I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it!" Big B immediately said.

A Jie understood perfectly what his boss meant, and volunteered, "I'll do it! No, no, no! I'll do it! Leave it to me!"

The best chance to escape Saladin was before the mountain was sealed off. The militia inside couldn't get out, and the warbands outside couldn't get in. If he could steal a car and escape to the Mimir Hot Spring Market, he would be back to his old self in just a week.

"It hurts a lot." Jiang Xueming caught the Spuantong's legs, which were covered in barbs.

Big B shoved A Jie back down.

"--I'm the boss! I'll handle this! Do you guys think I'd just stand by and watch someone die? Do you think I'm the kind of person who would betray my brothers in the fighting gang?"

Andro nodded.

Schopenhauer nodded.

A Jie nodded at first, then immediately shook his head.

Under duress from the leader, Big B was ultimately chosen.

Xue Ming carefully put the palm-sized ladybug into Big B's mouth. Sensing the warm and humid environment, it immediately burrowed into the throat of the blood donor, crawled down the throat and neck, and began to dig holes in the chest and abdomen!

Big B writhed and howled in agony, which quickly attracted the militia.

Jiang Xueming unbuttoned the criminal's clothes and saw a round ladybug crawling around in the bandit's belly, gnawing at the leader's flesh and blood, raising a round, bright red tumor.

"A bug has crawled into his mouth! Sir! Sir, get him out of here quickly! He needs a doctor's help!"

Mr. Maquire has taken on a new patient. This miraculous reunion has made him even more convinced that some mysterious force is urging him to kill these elusive devils one by one.

Alfons had barely finished his meal when, within five hours, this group of heinous suspects who had robbed the hospital fell into the hands of the militia.

He secretly pondered, his teeth itching with hatred, fearing he might not have the chance to kill the devil with his own hands.

This time, however, it wasn't convenient to act directly. The medical accident had left Dannie with considerable psychological trauma. The operating room was crowded with assistants, and even the simplest dermatological surgery required three people to supervise at the same time, leaving no opportunity to kill this demon directly.

"It's above your knee, and it seems to have eaten its fill. Your head was just anesthetized with fluoride, wasn't it? I'm afraid we can't perform the anesthesia procedure this time; you'll become an idiot."

Doctor Maguire wanted to take the law into his own hands, and this is what he said to Big B on the operating table:

"--The knee will be amputated along with the leg."

Big B immediately shouted, "No, no, no! No amputation! No amputation!"

For blood donors, the balance of holy blood within their bodies is extremely precious. Because of this, their young and worthless lives often end before they reach their thirties and meet the Madness Butterfly. Blood donors who can have long lifespans usually have a relatively healthy bloodline ratio and a relatively stable physical condition. However, once they lose most of their limbs, the holy blood becomes unbalanced, and the characteristics of the Vita Imprint and Beast Disease emerge, then they are not far from death.

Maquire, scalpel in hand, examines the outline of a ladybug on his thigh with his assistant.

The scalding heat from the knife's tip and the Inspiration Pressure influenced the trajectory of the Spuantong ladybug.

--It rampaged through Big B's legs, trying to crawl towards the hip bone.

"It's gone into your stomach; you'll need an amputation immediately."

Big B remained defiant. "No, no, no, I won't have surgery! I won't have surgery!"

Doctor Maguire wore a morbid smile, seemingly finding the game quite amusing. "Going to wreak havoc on your manhood, shall we cut it off too?"

Big B howled, even the toughest man shed tears.

"I'll operate! I'll operate! Chop off my leg! Quickly! Quickly, quickly!"

Jiang Xueming leaned against the prison door, chatting idly with the militiamen on duty.

"The head of surgery at the town's clinic is named Maquire, right?"

The militiaman replied impatiently, "Why are you asking about these things? He's one of the most philanthropists in our town!"

In hunting communities like Saladin's, surgeons were busy, treating hunters injured by dangerous beasts every day.

"Oh"

Xue Ming returned to his bunk, scratching his head thoughtfully, unaware of the Berloberg elf possessing a human.

All he knew was that the doctor seemed to be trying to kill the injured and was attempting to cross the line. At the time, he didn't have the energy to deal with these things and was immediately drawn into the robbery at the clinic.

"Doctor Maguire, these remnants of the war gang are your second chance to regain your medical ethics and conscience."

"I hope that when we meet again, you won't have become a cannibalistic monster devoid of humanity."