The Road to Heaven

"What does your life or death have to do with us?" Liu Dezhu asked calmly. "Protecting and settling someone as reckless as you would probably implicate us ourselves."

Liu Dezhu started to adopt a certain tone.

Don't ask, the answer is that I wouldn't stoop to doing this kind of business during the day.

In the Outer World, Zhang Chengze held a dominant position in the deal because he was not in danger and had more options.

But things are different now; the roles have been reversed.

One thing that must be said is that this was also because Bai Zhou's luck was maxed out. There was no danger for Zhang Chengze to cross over, and he was a big shot. They didn't have that opportunity.

Zhang Chengze said sincerely, "Liu Dezhu, I've realized my mistake. Could you talk to your boss? I'm willing to pay more protection fees, as long as you can guarantee my safety in the Inner World! We're all compatriots; you can't just watch me die! The Inner World is too dangerous!"

Liu Dezhu sneered, "I'm not willing to bother the boss with something like this. The boss is a big shot in the Inner World and doesn't have time to deal with such trivial matters."

At this point, it was Hu Xiaoniu's turn to smooth things over. "Uncle Zhang, how about this, if you really die here, I won't be able to explain it to my father when I get back. I'll try to talk to the boss and see what he says, okay?"

Zhang Chengze was overjoyed. "Okay, Xiao Niu, go and talk to them for me!"

After saying that, Hu Xiaoniu left the bathhouse and pretended to go to the changing room to make a phone call.

Ten minutes later, he returned with a troubled expression. "Uncle Zhang, I'm sorry, the boss is quite angry about this. He said we can only protect you for this one week of your journey, and then we won't be responsible for anything else..."

Zhang Tianzhen sighed, "The three of us had made many preparations, such as taking you to the Fourth District to experience the nightlife after things stabilized, taking you to visit the Upper Third District, and helping you find gene serums. It's a pity, Uncle Zhang, you chose someone else in the Outer World. This made the boss very angry, and he even blamed us for not investigating whether the client was reliable before doing business with him."

Zhang Chengze, his eyes red, grabbed Zhang Tianzhen's arm. "It's my fault for dragging you down."

At this moment, Hu Xiaoniu said, "However, things are not without a chance of turning around."

"What turning point?" Zhang Chengze perked up.

Hu Xiaoniu hesitated for a moment. "This is what the boss told me privately. If it weren't for your relationship with my family, Uncle Zhang, I definitely wouldn't have told you. The boss told me to quietly observe your performance this week. If you perform well, there will be opportunities for cooperation."

"What if the performance is not good?" Liu Dezhu asked.

Zhang Tianzhen thought for a moment, "Given the boss's style, he'll probably just let Uncle Zhang fend for himself."

Zhang Chengze quickly said, "I'll definitely do my best. Xiao Niu, Tianzhen, tell Uncle Zhang how he should perform. How about Uncle Zhang gives me more money?"

Hu Xiaoniu said reservedly, "Uncle Zhang, our boss doesn't love money. After all, you know that the Hu and Zhang families are not short of money. If the boss needs money, the Hu and Zhang families will just give it to him... However, this is also one of the most direct ways of showing it, since other things cannot be measured in numbers."

Zhang Tianzhen said, "Yes, that's right. To show a more comprehensive attitude, let's add some money first."

"Okay," Zhang Chengze said seriously, "It's one million a week now, how much should I add?"

Liu Dezhu pondered for a moment, then silently raised three fingers.

"Thirty million?" Zhang Chengze was stunned for a moment.

Liu Dezhu's fingers trembled almost imperceptibly.

When Zhang Tianzhen said, "Let's add some money first," it seemed like adding money was insignificant, but they knew that this was the boss's real purpose. Otherwise, what would be the point of putting on so many shows tonight?

Zhang Chengze's instinctive remark of 30 million also surprised Liu Dezhu.

They all overlooked one thing: they had never personally experienced the horror that Zhang Chengze went through.

For Zhang Chengze, it's no longer about protection money; it's about buying his life.

How much is a life worth?

Zhang Chengze said, "Thirty million a week is really impossible, 120 million a month, and 1.44 billion a year. My company only has 100 million in working capital. It's not that I don't want to pay, but if I pay that price, my company will collapse within a month. If it were 5 million a week, or 20 million a month, I could pay. For this life-saving money, I'm willing to pay an extra 20 million as a token of my gratitude!"

Zhang Chengze wasn't in the mood to haggle; he was telling the truth.

He was in the real estate business, and his company was quite profitable in the early years. However, since the "housing is for living in, not for speculation" policy was implemented in China, he has been facing the risk of his cash flow being crushed by bank loan collection efforts alone.

The debt ratio of real estate companies is unimaginably high.

It took us a long time to recover in the last two years, and it's impossible for us to come up with that much cash every month.

His boss was far less glamorous than Hu Dacheng's.

Liu Dezhu calmed himself down and said, "I need to ask the boss about this price; ultimately, it's up to the boss to decide."

"Okay, okay, no problem. Please tell your boss that I will pay extra for any future purchases of gene serums or similar items," Zhang Chengze said.

Liu Dezhu instructed, "I'll arrange a place for you to stay this week, and we'll see if there's any danger outside. As for the future, we'll talk about that later."

For Bai Zhou, this amount of money is more than enough to support the daily operations of the entire organization.

In the Outer World, Qing Chen no longer needs to be distracted by money.

If anyone else wanted to receive protection from Bai Zhou, he might not accept the money.

In his home on the 132nd floor of the Luoshen Building, Qing Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that Zhang Chengze was willing to pay more. The most important thing now was to complete the second Life and Death Trial.

Qing Chen asked, "Yi, are you there?"

"I am here."

"Was there any flaw in the series of things I did tonight?" Qing Chen sat on the sofa, head down in thought, reviewing the situation.

"Actually, Zhang Chengze can save himself," Yi said. "If he just says he is Time Walker, he will definitely survive."

"Huh? Why?" Qing Chen, puzzled.

"Su Xingzhi sold Zhang Chengze to Chang Ping, but what Chang Ping fears most in this business is the Time Walker," Yi said, sounding very happy as she mentioned something Qing Chen hadn't expected. "So, what do you think he did with Zhang Chengze?"

"Disassemble organs and sell them to rich people," Qing Chen said, then realized what was happening. "Holy crap..."

Organs from Time Walker are not for sale, my dears!

Because when Time Walker reaches a fixed time, even if he dies, his body will return to the Outer World!

If the wealthy haven't had time to transplant it yet, that's fortunate.

If by the time of return, the rich man has already received the Time Walker's heart transplant, then he will die on the spot!

Sleeping at home, and suddenly your heart fails—no one could withstand that.

That's why Yi said that as long as Zhang Chengze reveals his identity as a Time Walker, he won't die.

"Speaking of which, something like this has happened in the Inner World before, hasn't it?" Qing Chen asked.

"Yes," Yi said, "Two weeks before the appearance of the transmigrators, a wealthy man in City 9 who had received a heart transplant suddenly died in the hospital. At the time, the federal media reported that his enemies had taken his heart, but the public couldn't understand why, if his heart was taken, it was stitched up again without a trace of blood. Later, everyone realized that it wasn't done by his enemies, but by the rules of the world."

"This is really bad luck. How will Chang Ping deal with Zhang Chengze?" Qing Chen asked.

"They will be resold to conglomerates," Yi said. "There are people on the black market who specialize in hunting Time Walker for conglomerates. Once the conglomerates control the Time Walker, they will naturally have bigger schemes."

"Yes," Qing Chen nodded, "After they control the Time Walker, they can influence the Outer World in turn, so they are considered strategic resources."

In any case, once it falls into the hands of this group of people, it can't escape the fate of being a cargo.

Qing Chen stopped thinking about that matter and instead asked about the Life and Death Trial: "Where in the Inner World did the knights complete these Life and Death Trial in the past?"

"The locations of the different Life and Death Trial- death challenges are all different, spanning a vast geographical area. The Ice Consolidation is in the southwestern snow mountains, Awakening of the Earth is in the wilderness outside City No. 5..." Yi asked, "So, have you chosen where you'll challenge your second Life and Death Trial?"

"I've made my choice," Qing Chen said slowly. "When I go to Xiancheng next week, I'll find an opportunity to complete the challenge."

"But the Ultimate Trust technique you chose, while easy, is very dangerous," Yi seemed somewhat worried. "I haven't seen you practice it yet. Are you sure you can handle it?"

What Yi said is right. Every Life and Death Trial represents the pinnacle of a particular extreme sport.

It would take an ordinary person countless hours of practice and mastery of numerous skills to successfully complete the challenge.

During this period, fractures and bone cracks were commonplace, and losing one's life was also quite normal.

Of the eight Life and Death Trial, each ranks high on the list of extreme sports mortality rates, especially the Ultimate Trust.

A 70-meter-high backflip dive—entrusting everything in your life worth cherishing to the moment you trust.

Many people cannot intuitively grasp what 70 meters is. The highest diving platform in the Olympics is 10 meters, while 70 meters is the height of a 20-story building.

If a person falls from a height of 70 meters, the water surface will become as hard as a cement road the moment it hits the body.

If someone loses their balance even slightly and ends up landing horizontally on a horizontal surface, even B-Class expert would be shattered to pieces.

Therefore, to survive this challenge, one must fall straight down, making contact with the water surface with the smallest possible body surface area to complete the entry into the water.

Yi said, "You never do anything unprepared, so why are you in such a rush this time?"

Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, "Because after Li Changqing gave me the injection, I had to become D-Class for it to make sense."

"But I think you can escape," Yi said. "Get away from Li Changqing, and you can avoid this needle, at least you won't lose your life."

However, Qing Chen suddenly said, "Who said I would risk my life?"

At this moment, Yi sensed the confidence deep within Qing Chen's heart, but she still didn't understand where Qing Chen's confidence came from.

For an ordinary person who hasn't been trained, wouldn't such a backward jump be certain death?

"I'm starting my cultivation now," Qing Chen said as he lay down in his bedroom. "I'll be going back to the Banshan Manor tomorrow."

After saying that, he closed his eyes and entered the mysterious world of "Conquer by Virtue".

This is the source of his confidence to take on the second Life and Death Trial challenge recently.

At this moment, Qing Chen's sniper rifle's accurate range had been extended to 1300 meters, still halfway to the effective range of 2600 meters.

However, Qing Chen did not practice sniping after entering the mysterious world this time.

But then, with a thought, the landscape of the entire mysterious world suddenly changed.

The wilderness began to sink in, forming a lake, and above the lake rose a high platform, exactly 70 meters high.

That was somewhere in his memory, the place where he would face the second Life and Death Trial challenge.

During his last return, Qing Chen watched many live streams of tourist attractions and took the opportunity to directly replicate the terrain in the mysterious world.

Others practiced their skills by starting with the 1-meter platform, then the 3-meter platform, and finally the 10-meter platform, progressing step by step.

However, Qing Chen was different; he started at 70 meters from the very beginning.

The boy stood on the high platform and slowly closed his eyes. He spread his arms and tried to maintain his balance in the wind.

The next second, his body leaned slightly backward.

He shot towards the lake like an arrow.

3.78 seconds later, the mysterious world went dark, and Qing Chen felt death.

As he descended, his body gradually shifted due to air resistance.

Finally, Qing Chen entered the lake at an angle.

This mysterious world was so real that he could even feel his bones breaking apart inch by inch as he collided with the water.

That was real death.

Qing Chen waited in the darkness, and a few seconds later the mysterious world lit up again.

The boy stood back on the platform and closed his eyes.

Outside the windows of the Luoshen Building, snow was falling in abundance, while inside, Qing Chen died again and again in a mysterious world, tirelessly.

After an unknown amount of time, strange noises came from outside the bedroom door.

Qing Chen finished his cultivation, took out a pistol from under his pillow, and released the safety.

He quietly walked out the door, only to find a figure in the dimly lit living room with his back to him, busy with something at the dining table.

"Cough cough," the figure coughed, "Don't turn on the light, or you'll be in danger."

"You really don't consider yourself an outsider," Qing Chen said calmly.

The shadow of the Qing family, a visitor who arrived both logically and unexpectedly.

Qing Chen had discovered the other party's activities in the house earlier. He never expected that after he returned to live there, this shadow of the Qing family would still swagger over to make tea.

Just then, the shadow saw that the kettle had just boiled the water, and it was making a gurgling sound, with boiling steam shooting out from the spout.

That kettle was bought by Li Shutong with a loan in Qing Chen's name...

To be fair, overconsumption is rampant throughout the Federation. Various corporations are doing everything they can to burden the Federation's residents with all sorts of debts, making it impossible for anyone to think about long-term matters.

A person burdened with a mortgage has no poetry or distant horizons.

At this moment, Qing Shi's shadow took out a small bag of tea leaves from his pocket and sprinkled them into the kettle.

Then they simply put the lid back on and steamed it with boiling water.

"Everyone says that tea shouldn't be boiled in boiling water, or it will be very bitter," Qing Chen said.

"This is spring tea from Forbidden Zone No. 010. It will be poisonous if it is not boiled for at least 10 minutes," Qing Shi's shadow laughed.

"If it's poisonous, why would you risk drinking it?" Qing Chen asked, puzzled.

"Many people in City 8 know that mushrooms are poisonous, but they still eat them, right? As long as they smell good, that's enough," Qing's Shadow casually replied. "Life is fleeting, so naturally we should find more interesting things to do to make it worthwhile."

A bitter smell suddenly filled the room, but after 10 minutes, the bitterness turned into a wonderful tea aroma.

"Would you like a drink?" Qing Shi's shadow asked.

"I don't drink tea, I only drink water," Qing Chen replied.

"This stuff can improve eyesight; after drinking it for a long time, your eyesight will far surpass that of ordinary people," Qing Shi's shadow said slowly and deliberately.

"Drink," Qing Chen said, "How much tea do you have left? Leave some for me."

"You're quite realistic," Qing's Shadow said, taking a cup and pouring Qing Chen a cup as if he were at home. "Life is like tea, bitter at first but sweet later. I came to see you before, but it's been so long and you haven't made a move on any of the Shadow Candidate, which makes me a little disappointed."

"Whether you're disappointed or not is irrelevant," Qing Chen said earnestly. " In the Shadow Struggle, only the last one standing matters. So, you've come to see me again today just to urge me to make my move?"

"I've never liked forced relationships; I only prefer transactions based on mutual consent," said Qing's Shadow. "Since you're unwilling to risk being the first to expose yourself, how about we change the terms?"

"What are the conditions?" Qing Chen asked.

"The first option is for you to join the Federation Group Army after the events in City No. 18 are over," Qing Shi's shadow said calmly.

"War is ruthless, I refuse," Qing Chen said calmly.

"Well, the second option is to join the Secret Intelligence Department under my Qing family's shadow, which will ensure your identity is not leaked," said Qing family's shadow.

"What's in it for me?" Qing Chen asked.

"I'll give you a path to heaven?"

Countdown.

9:00 AM.

Just like last time, the Li family's levitation vehicle, which was there to pick up Qing Chen, was already waiting on the 67th floor of the Luoshen Building.

This time, Qing Chen did not encounter the silver-haired girl Zheng Yi when he went out. However, to his surprise, the person who picked him up was actually Kunlun's Xiao Ying.

And they were already waiting at the elevator entrance.

"Good morning, Qing Chen. Boss Changqing asked me to pick you up," Xiao Ying asked from the elevator entrance when no one was around. "How are you? Has your injury healed?"

"Not yet," Qing Chen shook his head.

"By the way, did you talk to your boss about my suggestion last time? It was about me joining you guys!" Xiao Ying said.

"No," Qing Chen shook his head, "So many things happened on Xingshu Road last week, who has time to care about this?"

"Alright, then you must tell me when you get back this time... Let's not talk about this now, there are still people waiting in the car," Xiao Ying said in a low voice, leading Qing Chen out of the elevator and towards the parking lot.

Qing Chen paused for a moment as he opened the car door, then looked at Li Changqing in the back seat of the hovercar and asked, "Why did you come in person?"

"Of course I had to come in person to pick you up," Li Changqing said with a smile. "Didn't you want to play with sniper rifles? I'll take you to the sniper range today."

This is a 5000-word chapter. One chapter is to repay the debt to Didi driver "Golden Alliance," but there are still three more chapters to go...

To reiterate, my daily update is indeed 6000 words, and any updates of 10,000 words or more will be counted as one chapter. Please look at the word count, not the chapter count... I'll try to update 10,000 words every day during August to pay off my debt as soon as possible...

Although it's difficult...

Thank you to Hu for becoming a Gold Partner of this book.

Thank you to this user who has not yet logged in to become a Silver Grand Alliance member for this book.

Thanks to Vera and Top Loser for becoming new allies of this book.

The bosses are so generous; the speed at which they tip me is much faster than the speed at which I'm paying off my debts...