Gang Crisis

Xie Lan was stunned rigid by the sudden change.

Instinctively, she sensed something was wrong. The amount of poisonous mist used in the previous tests had not been much, so how had so much poisonous mist appeared out of thin air from this armor?

But after struggling through the Apocalypse World for so many years, she quickly calmed down.

Holding her breath as she felt around for the ventilation system's switch, Xie Lan edged closer.

She had not forgotten that Ye Xiu was still wearing the armor at the very center. She already felt discomfort out here on the outskirts, so Ye Xiu, who had the armor on his body, was surely being affected even more severely.

"No need to be so nervous."

Ye Xiu's voice suddenly drifted out from the poisonous mist.

Then, Xie Lan saw the poisonous cloud before her ripple, and Ye Xiu's figure gradually became clear.

No, it was not because he had moved closer to her that he became visible!

Xie Lan clearly noticed that with every step Ye Xiu took, the poisonous clouds around them were rapidly gathering into the armor on his body.

Ye Xiu tilted his head. To Xie Lan, all the poisonous mist in the laboratory was automatically flowing toward the armor.

But within his divine sense, he could clearly see the phantom of a massive scorpion crouched atop the armor, continuously drawing in the poisonous mist.

He had roughly figured out why this armor poisoned its wearer.

Because of spiritual energy, most materials produced in the cultivation world carried lingering souls.

Though these lingering souls had long since lost their consciousness, they still retained the instincts they had possessed as living creatures.

The main material of this armor was the shell of the Soul-Eating Scorpion. Since it had been made with that as its core, and residual souls had not been erased with spiritual power as they would have been in the cultivation world, it naturally caused the armor to slowly absorb the poisonous mist into itself just as it had when it was alive.

As for the solution, it was simple.

Ye Xiu only needed to use spiritual power to suppress and control it. The lingering soul had no intelligence to begin with, so it would naturally absorb and release poisonous mist according to his will.

After testing it, Ye Xiu found that the armor could absorb enough poisonous mist to envelop an area more than fifty meters around him at once. For Qi Refining cultivators, that was already more than enough range.

After all, without reaching Foundation Establishment, their spiritual power limitations did not allow cultivators many long-range attack methods.

Well, perhaps once he popularized firearms, that situation would change. But then, how to lock onto one's target would become another major problem.

Ye Xiu immersed himself in studying the poisonous mist's other changes, while Xie Lan's eyes filled with a measure of awe.

Everyone in the laboratory had spent several weeks without finding the source of the problem, yet Ye Xiu had solved it within mere minutes of taking over.

That mystery undoubtedly added another layer of legend to Ye Xiu.

Coupled with how he had quietly resolved the gang's resource problems before, Xie Lan was now truly convinced and wholehearted in her admiration.

The episode in the laboratory did not take much time.

By the time Ye Xiu had mastered the use of the Scorpion Armor, Xie Lan had already been waiting for a long while in the adjacent room.

"There's no problem with the armor's design. As for the poisoning issue, I'll give you a solution after some time."

Ye Xiu was very satisfied with the research capabilities here. Though he knew nothing about artifact refinement, materials from a first-rank demonic beast should never have amounted to so little.

Obtaining information on alchemy and artifact refinement from that side should be moved up the agenda.

After all, the stronger the research capabilities of the Apocalypse World became, the greater the benefits they could feed back to him.

On the path of cultivation, wealth, methods, companions, and land—wealth came first.

Xie Lan nodded in acknowledgment.

"How is firearms production at the arsenal going?"

This was crucial to him in the cultivation world. Ye Xiu did not want to boast extravagantly over there, only for the goods to fail to keep up in the end.

At Ye Xiu's question, a troubled look crossed Xie Lan's face. "Production itself isn't a problem, but we don't have enough manpower right now, so we can't guarantee output."

"How could you be short on people?"

Ye Xiu frowned.

"There's nothing we can do about it."

Xie Lan sighed and began to explain slowly.

Earlier, Ye Xiu had secured a large batch of support from Starfire, but the matter of incorporation had been shelved due to the disparity in their sizes.

This had not originally been a problem. With the help of the relevant material production lines, recruiting people was only a matter of time for the Wildfire Gang.

But the problem lay precisely in that gap.

The Azure Prefecture Shelter was vast, with a population no less than that of the great cities from Ye Xiu's previous life.

Yet only a mere few tens of thousands could truly live in peace in the upper city.

Everyone else was essentially crammed into the lower city, struggling to survive.

That was also why gangs flourished throughout the lower city.

Without sufficient technological power, and without abilities powerful or exceptional enough, banding together to survive was the only way forward.

"Originally, everyone muddled along like this, slowly gathering strength and clawing their way upward. But once we got this batch of supplies, we became the target of all arrows."

Xie Lan's face was full of difficulty.

There was no such thing as quietly getting rich when it came to gang development. Once you had equipment, you had to recruit enough people to use it and keep it running.

And when other gangs saw that you had good things in your hands, they would definitely start getting ideas.

The better ones would come up and demand a batch of protection fees, then leave it at that. The more ruthless ones would directly set their minds on seizing them by force.

There were even many gangs that were single-mindedly bent on destroying those things.

"Right now, everyone in the gang who can fight has been sent out. The production line equipment is basically staffed by the old, weak, sick, and disabled, but we're still desperately short of people."

Xie Lan poured out all their current troubles in one breath. It was clear that she had been under immense pressure recently as well.

"But we're also recruiting from the lower city. As long as we get through this period, everything will get better."

Seeing Ye Xiu remain silent, Xie Lan took a deep breath and made her assurance.

"This can't go on."

Ye Xiu slowly spoke.

Xie Lan froze, then sighed helplessly. "But we're already struggling just to hold our ground. Where would we find any spare chance to strike back?"

"But if you don't strike back, you can only keep taking blows forever."

A trace of coldness flashed through Ye Xiu's eyes.

"You know better than I do that the people in the lower city have no bottom line."

"If you keep yielding and compromising, you'll only fuel those scum's arrogance and make others start entertaining crooked thoughts as well."

"Choose ten people from the gang who are strong enough. Then make a list of the gangs that have recently demanded supplies from us, the gangs that have attacked us, and the ones you think might make a move."

Ye Xiu would not interfere in gang management.

Professional matters were better left to professionals.

As for him, killing people was his specialty.