Attack

Salvation amid suffering could inspire "loyalty." Of course, it could also create an enormous emotional debt.

But it was still a path.

Only Zhong Shan could come to trade with him, so he would not play the good man. He did not even mind giving her a push, sending the girl tumbling into a deeper fire pit and a harsher predicament.

"Four days until it becomes overdue."

He murmured to himself:

"I do have the authority to postpone the deadline, but why should I help you? What do you have that is worth my help?"

"Mm, once this debt becomes overdue, you'll be thrown completely into purgatory. Then your mother probably... can't be saved either, can she?"

Zhang Fusheng calmly stared at her tender, delicate face.

Chen Nuanyu fell silent for a moment. She seemed to understand what he meant, humiliation surfacing on her face, but in the end—

She lowered her head tremblingly, then awkwardly and laboriously stuck out her tongue, lightly licking his palm.

The corner of Zhang Fusheng's mouth twitched, but he made no further move.

That had not been what he meant. But he did indeed need to thoroughly strip away and tear apart this girl's pride and self-respect.

What he needed was someone in despair, like Zhong Shan lying in a near-morgue, quietly waiting for death.

"Is that all?"

The young man looked coldly at the girl kneeling before him.

She trembled slightly, head lowered, seemingly lost in thought.

After a long while.

As she hesitated and struggled, Zhang Fusheng rose to his feet and said lightly:

"I'll consider the extension. That depends on your performance."

He knew that tearing apart a proud person's self-respect was not something that could be accomplished in an instant, unless he resorted to extreme methods.

But that would also reap a deep, indelible hatred.

That was not what he wanted.

"A fake genius. A fake genius piled up with drugs. Do you know how long it took me to go from first encountering a Visualization Method to Great Accomplishment, entering the level of [I Observe as I Should Be]?"

The girl shook her head blankly as sparse treasure-light seeped through the skin beneath the man's body.

"Half a day."

Zhang Fusheng said indifferently:

"Other than an Unquenchable Heart and an exceptional face, you are worthless in every other regard. Your greatest value may be the interest you generate every day after falling into massive debt."

"I need to see your other value, not this shell of flesh. Understand?"

He reached out and stroked the girl's head from above.

".I understand," Chen Nuanyu said in a low voice.

"Good."

Zhang Fusheng turned and left without the slightest hesitation, as though she truly was not worth mentioning, much less lingering over.

The door opened, and bright corridor lights spilled in, falling across the young man.

Under the light, a mountain of iron-like shadows piled up above his head, crashing down and swallowing Chen Nuanyu whole.

After he had gone far away, the shadows dispersed. She remained kneeling on the floor, blankly raising her head toward the light outside the door, unable to speak for a long time.

After borrowing the restroom and pressing out five pumps of hand soap, he carefully washed the licked palm clean.

This should be how it's done, right?

As he left Bar No. 19, Zhang Fusheng began to wonder. Never learned this, never understood it. Was my act alright? It didn't feel quite up to standard, but I really couldn't go any further.

He sighed softly.

Ring-ring-ring!

When he answered, Zhu Xiaoming's boisterous voice came from the other end.

"Old Zhang, we found a treasure of a restaurant and we're eating right now. What's going on with you and Genius Chen?"

"Nothing much. We just finished eating and already parted ways."

"Oh, is that so? Are you coming over to eat with us?"

"I'll pass. I have something to do tonight. Before the Jiang University Banquet in the middle of the month, isn't there still our class's teacher appreciation banquet? We can get together then."

As he spoke, Zhang Fusheng frowned slightly. A strange prickling sensation ran through his body, though it was not intense.

"Alright, then."

Zhu Xiaoming smacked his lips.

"Lu Yao and I actually don't really want to go to the teacher appreciation banquet. There'll definitely be a whole bunch of people fawning over her and me. It always feels weird. I'll hang up first. We can decide whether to go when the time comes?"

"Sure. See you later."

After hanging up, he looked around for a while but could not find the source of that uncomfortable sensation. He did not think much of it. Walking down the tree-lined path, he made another video call.

"Hey, Dad, is East Ridge Snow Mountain fun?"

"Fun? It is. There are even hot springs inside these snow mountains—"

In the video, Doctor Zhang, who was clearly somewhere like a changing room, glanced around before frowning.

"I was just about to call you. I contacted an old friend earlier, and he said the Lower-Level District has started becoming unsettled."

Zhang Fusheng's expression turned solemn.

"What do you mean?"

Zhang Wentao shook his head.

"I don't know the details. Because of his position, he can get hold of bits and pieces of information. He said it's best not to go to the Lower-Level District for the next five days—preferably half a month. Especially District Eight and Ninth District."

After a pause, he continued:

"How about you stop staying at the Martial Arts Academy too? Buy a train ticket and come to East Ridge Snow Mountain. I've already talked to your mother. The two of us will be staying here for another half month. Or you could go to your uncle's place. Didn't you used to miss Sister Xixi a lot?"

His uncle's family lived in another city.

Zhang Fusheng shook his head.

"No need. I stay at the Martial Arts Academy every day. Even when I go out, it's only in District Three. There won't be any problems."

As he spoke, he turned the camera and showed his father the spacious villas around him, each nearly a small estate.

"You're really living it up."

His father clearly thought the Martial Arts Academy was located in this unreachable villa district. He laughed and scolded him before saying:

"Alright, watch your own safety. Better yet, don't even leave the Martial Arts Academy. Oh, right, I'll send you Old Yu's number. He's that friend of mine. If you really run into trouble and have to go back to the Lower-Level District, contact him. He was Dad's comrade-in-arms when I served. He's absolutely reliable."

"Got it, Dad."

"Alright, I won't keep you any longer. Your mother must be getting impatient."

After hanging up once more, Zhang Fusheng furrowed his brows. Cultists... Daoism...

He still could not connect those two terms.

"Whether it really is that Daoism or not, for it to remain unscathed under the Federation's encirclement and pursuit, it must be an unimaginably massive entity."

His gaze flickered slightly. Chen Nuanyu was a good way to get in contact with Daoism.

Precisely because of that—

Zhang Fusheng had no intention of discarding that girl after the trade was finished. Wasn't Daoism recruiting her?

Perhaps she could be developed into a line of contact. Zhong Shan's identity should finally be put to proper use.

That was also why he wanted to trample Chen Nuanyu into a deeper mire.

Zhang Fusheng had once received feedback from the Contract Book: loyalty was not something that could be directly bought. He could turn someone into a puppet who absolutely obeyed orders and was completely under his control.

But what he wanted was not a puppet.

Then, if he wanted loyalty, despair, a ray of light amid suffering, an outstretched hand—those were probably the quickest methods.

"What should it be called?"

"A secret society? The Fusheng Club?"

Recalling some organizations from novels and movies in his previous life, he muttered:

"There's no Tarot in this world. I can't exactly make twenty-two Major Arcana cards from scratch, can I..."

"Playing cards feel too low-class, though."

"How about the Gaotian Association?"

Zhang Fusheng muttered to himself, recalling the High Table from a certain film series.

He suddenly stopped moving.

That strange prickling sensation abruptly intensified—not in his body.

It was in his mind.

A... warning?

A violent pain suddenly flared between his brows, as though it were about to split open again.

He sharply turned his head. In the next instant, a piercing whistle sliced past his ear, and a crater exploded in the tree trunk behind him.

Zhang Fusheng's hairs stood on end. He swiftly darted into the shade of the trees and silently began counting down.

One second. Two seconds.

At the second second, a faint muffled sound rang out in the distance, utterly inaudible to ordinary people. But with Zhang Fusheng's current hearing, he could catch it: a silenced sniper rifle.

He could not hear a fly flapping its wings a hundred meters away, but when he concentrated and his mind was active, he could catch a fly passing twenty meters away.

Two seconds. The shooter was over six hundred meters away, to the west.

There happened to be a villa there.

Hiding behind the tree trunk, Zhang Fusheng's scalp suddenly tingled again. He rolled violently to the side. In the next instant, a small hole burst through the trunk.

Two more seconds later, a tremendous roar arrived!

The shooter had switched guns!

Damn it, what kind of gun could blast through a tree trunk nearly half a meter thick?

After brushing past death twice, he was enveloped by both shock and an inexplicable excitement, his breathing growing slightly labored.

The prickling struck his entire body for the third time.

He rolled.

A bullet crater was left where he had been, followed by the echoing boom of the gunshot.

"Are you done yet??"

Zhang Fusheng abruptly raised his head, stomped his foot, and shook his fist. Wild wind burst forth, stirring dead branches and fallen leaves from the woods into an enormous tiger head!

It happened to block every line of sight in that patch of forest.

Six hundred and fifty meters away, atop the villa.

The shooter raised an eyebrow.

"That wasn't in the intel."

Through his scope, the instant the dead branches and leaves scattered, he immediately locked onto the target and pulled the trigger.

But in the instant before he did, the target had already rolled away again.

"Damn it, how is he doing that??"

The shooter's pupils contracted as he watched the distant young man once again stir up dead branches and leaves, shrouding that stretch of woods.

This time, the branches and leaves drifted for an unusually long time. The youth seemed to be practicing punches in the forest?

His fist-winds howled without end, and so the dust, branches, and leaves swirled endlessly as well.

He tried firing several blind shots.

"Mission failed." He shook his head. If he stayed any longer, the Public Security Bureau would arrive. This was not the Lower-Level District.

Just as he was about to put away the sniper rifle—

Through his scope, the shooter saw the dust shrouding the forest over six hundred meters away rip apart with a crash. A figure charged toward him at an unbelievable speed.

Every time the figure's foot struck the ground, it stamped spiderweb cracks across the earth before vaulting dozens of meters!

"A First Refinement has this kind of speed??"

He pulled the trigger, then pulled it again!

When the third shot rang out, that figure had crossed more than six hundred meters and arrived below the building.