Escort

Outer City, West District, slaughterhouse.

Li Yun had barely stepped inside when a stench rushed to meet him.

The smell of blood, rot, and the sour reek of livestock excrement all mingled together.

The place was a cacophony of noise.

The dull thuds of bone-cleaving, the shouts of workers, and the grating sound of iron hooks dragging meat chunks were all churned into a chaotic mess.

People bustled back and forth, all of them burly, thick-limbed butchers.

Dark red droplets of blood hung from the butcher knives at their waists, and their coarse cloth garments were stained with blackened blood and grease.

When they raised their hands to wipe away sweat, the gaps between their fingers were caked with black-red grime.

Li Yun stopped a worker carrying half a pig carcass and raised his hands in a salute:

"Excuse me, is Steward Lu Yongfeng in?"

The worker stopped and swept his eyes up and down over him.

The man before him wore a set of short-sleeved work clothes washed to a pale white; the material was common, but his posture was upright and his gaze clear.

He was clearly no ordinary person.

The worker gestured with his chin toward the inner room:

"They're about to ship out goods right now, Steward Lu should be inside checking the ledgers."

Li Yun followed the worker's direction and walked toward the back.

At the end of the corridor was a room with the door left open.

Inside sat a square table, and behind it, a man of forty or fifty was hunched over, clicking away at an abacus on an account book.

Li Yun reached the doorway and tapped his knuckles twice against the doorframe.

The man looked up, saw Li Yun, and looked puzzled:

"Who are you?"

"I am Li Yun, here to register for a work placement."

Li Yun remained standing straight, his tone steady.

Upon hearing the words "work placement," the confusion in Lu Yongfeng's eyes dissipated slightly, and he nodded:

"You must be Lu Kuan's junior brother, Li Yun?"

"That is correct."

As he spoke, Li Yun pulled the letter of recommendation from his robes and handed it over.

Lu Yongfeng took it, scanned the letter for a moment, then tossed it onto the corner of the table and got straight to the point:

"Arrive at the slaughterhouse at the hour of the tiger every day, and deliver the meat to the designated locations before the hour of the dragon.

The monthly pay is five taels, plus ten catties of meat.

Any problems?"

"No problems."

"Zhuo Yong."

Lu Yongfeng nodded and shouted toward the outside.

He turned back to Li Yun and said:

"Follow Zhuo Yong's team for a while, get familiar with the process first, and you can handle the deliveries independently starting tomorrow."

"I didn't expect you to take this placement too, Junior Brother Li."

"No choice. If I don't get out here and earn some money, I won't be able to pay the tuition for the next stage."

A lack of money can stifle a hero, and a single penny can stump a true man of valor.

Speaking of money, Zhuo Yong also sighed:

"Let's go, we can talk as we walk. I've been working this placement for over a year, so I'll explain the general process to you."

Li Yun followed behind Zhuo Yong as they exited the slaughterhouse, where two workers were already hunched over, working together to pull a flatbed cart.

The chunks of meat on the wooden planks were bound tightly with thick hemp rope, and dark red blood seeped through the gaps, pooling into a small puddle beside the cart wheels.

Once they passed the slaughterhouse fence, Zhuo Yong didn't head toward the bustling main road, but instead turned into a narrow alleyway to the side:

"For this job, we have to cut through the alleys of the Outer City, West District, pass through the Inner City gate, and finally deliver to the meat stalls at the west end of the Inner City.

If we take the main road, it takes much longer.

The customers buying the meat won't wait that long."

Zhuo Yong paused, his tone carrying an indescribable nuance:

"The reason you were hired is precisely because we have to take the alleyway. You'll understand why once you see it for yourself."

The four men walked into the alley entrance, the narrow path growing increasingly constricted as they proceeded.

Their feet trod upon the pitted, muddy ground, and the cart wheels ground against loose gravel, emitting a rhythmic "creak-creak" friction.

Along the base of the walls on both sides of the alley, beggars were curled up in scattered groups.

They were dressed in rags, patch layered upon patch.

Their bodies were gaunt as skeletons, their eyes dull and vacant.

As the sound of the cart wheels drew closer, these listless beggars suddenly seemed to be jolted awake.

Their numb eyes gradually brightened, all of them fixing their gaze simultaneously on the chunks of meat atop the cart.

Intense longing surged within their pupils; some could not help but shift their bodies, low whimpers escaping their throats.

Sensing the atmosphere shift, Zhuo Yong tensed his shoulders and back, his clenched fists bulging with veins, his fierce, rugged aura radiating without restraint.

His ruthless gaze swept over the beggars at the wall, carrying an undisguised deterrent force.

The beggars were forced to freeze their movements by this display of power.

Yet, the desire in their eyes did not diminish in the slightest.

In stark contrast to Zhuo Yong's battle-ready stance, the two laborers were quite relaxed.

They understood that with these hired martial artists, nothing would go wrong.

Besides, this trip not only had Zhuo Yong but also the addition of Li Yun.

With two martial artists present, even the maddest beggar could not stir up any trouble.

Li Yun frowned slightly.

He wasn't afraid; with his strength in the Body Tempering Realm, several ordinary, unarmed strong men wouldn't even be able to get close to him.

Let alone this group of beggars, starved until they were nothing but skin and bone.

If he truly had to fight, it would be no more difficult than dealing with a group of children.

Unless he ran out of stamina, he feared nothing, no matter how many came.

What he was considering was how much force he should use if a fight actually broke out.

When people are starved to the extreme and only see food in their eyes, that drive can often override the fear of death.

In such a situation, if someone truly took the lead, it was possible they would swarm them.

A quarter of an hour earlier.

"Brother Xu, do... do we really have to rob them? Those escorting martial artists look fierce; they could really beat us to death!"

In the shadows at the base of the alley wall, two beggars huddled together, their heads pressed close, their voices hushed to a mosquito's hum.

The one asking was a young man so thin he was nothing but skin and bone.

His cheekbones were prominent, his lips cracked and peeling, his voice trembling as he spoke.

Xu Zhiyong, addressed as Brother Xu, was sturdier than him, his face smeared with mud, yet his eyes revealed a shrewd, ruthless edge.

He raised a hand to wipe his face, rubbed his fingertips against the corner of his mouth, and nodded slowly.

His voice dropped even lower, carrying a hint of coaxing:

"Fang Ming, do you want to eat meat?"

"I do!"

Fang Ming blurted it out, then immediately shrank his neck, the longing in his eyes overshadowed by fear:

"But, but I don't want to be beaten to death."

"Rest assured, you won't die."

Xu Zhiyong nudged his waist with an elbow, a calculating smile curling his lips:

"I didn't tell you to charge straight at them; what would that be if not suicide? We need to come up with a plan."

Fang Ming's eyes brightened, the fear on his face fading slightly, though his voice remained weak:

"As long as I don't get beaten to death, it's worth dying for a bite of meat."

"It's not that serious."

Xu Zhiyong interrupted him, his eyes darting quickly around the curled-up beggars nearby, his gaze flickering as he lowered his voice:

"Do you see them?

We'll blend into the crowd in a moment and stir things up while it's chaotic.

Just say, 'The meat is right there; grab a piece and you'll live.'

As long as someone takes the lead, the rest will swarm them like a hive."

"No matter how strong a martial artist is, he's only one man. He can't watch every direction at once; he's bound to fall into disarray.

We'll take advantage of that chaos to sneak off with a piece of meat.

Don't be greedy—just one piece.

Once we have it, we bolt into the side alleys. No one will be able to catch us, guaranteed."

Fang Ming's eyes grew brighter as he listened, his previous cowardice gradually suppressed by the craving for meat.

He nodded fiercely, swallowing a mouthful of dry saliva:

"Understood! Brother Xu, I'm with you. Whatever you say, that's what I'll do!"

Xu Zhiyong nodded in satisfaction and retreated further into the shadows.

"As usual, they'll be here soon.

When that time comes..."