Last Meal Before Execution

"Are you two the new guards? You look awfully young."

Meng Xuanji and Hu Liena easily passed the selection. The guard unit was not in a good position right now; with wolf beasts running rampant, the interviewers had practically begged them to join.

Old Wu, the captain of the guard unit, smoked his tobacco as he paced back and forth, sizing up the two young people.

His gaunt, wrinkled, weather-beaten face seemed to be filled with stories.

Before long, Old Wu exhaled a ring of smoke.

"You should leave. You're still too young for this job."

"But sir, we really need the money. This job is the only way we can repay our debts in the short term. Without work, the debt collectors will tie us up and sell us off." Meng Xuanji performed the rehearsed script with remarkable conviction.

Meng Xuanji bent deeply at the waist, his voice carrying a trace of helplessness and confusion toward life, like a pitiable man struggling desperately at the bottom of a bottomless well.

Hu Liena, standing beside him, was dumbfounded. Anyone who did not know better would truly believe Meng Xuanji had amassed enormous debts at such a young age.

Hearing this, Old Wu seemed to waver slightly.

"Whew. Then you two had better think it through. This is a deadly line of work. The pay is high, sure, but you need to stay alive to spend it."

"I need to remind you that three groups from the guard unit have already died this month. Among them were quite a few agility-attack soul masters with two rings. Even they could not escape the soul beasts' hunt. You two probably won't fare much better."

"By now, there are basically only a few of us left in the guard unit. You two, me, and two lads already out on patrol. Just the five of us."

"So, are you sure you want to stay and eat this last meal before execution?"

Old Wu's words were sharp yet plain. He was right. In the eyes of Heavenly Spring Town's villagers, this truly was a condemned man's last meal.

"We're sure."

Meng Xuanji immediately declared his resolve.

"We really need this money. We spent all our savings treating our elderly mother's illness and still ended up owing a huge sum. Sir, look at my sister. She's so beautiful—if she gets sold, she'll suffer terribly. I will never let those people take my sister away!"

"Fine, then." Old Wu took a deep drag to steady himself. "You two will inspect the traps and alarms in the southern part of town during the day. You won't need to patrol at night."

"In exchange, I require you to report for duty every morning. Any objections?"

"None! Thank you, sir."

Meng Xuanji was not stupid. Old Wu was clearly assigning them the safest work because he pitied their circumstances.

Based on past experience, soul beasts were extremely unlikely to invade during the day. The real danger usually lurked in the darkness of night. Old Wu was already taking very good care of them.

"Mm. Go get the manual, then. It has your work procedures."

Old Wu did not waste any more words. Holding his old tobacco pipe, he lay down on a straw mat in the guard station and went to sleep. Once he covered his face with a straw hat, soft snores soon came from beneath it.

"Let's go."

Meng Xuanji took a manual from the table, held Hu Liena's little hand, and led her outside.

"So we got the job just like that? It was that easy?"

Hu Liena still had not fully processed it. This operation of concealing their identities gave her not only the guilty thrill of defying order, but also curiosity and excitement long buried in her heart.

This was the first time in her life she had ever done something like this.

"Of course. With me here, things are this simple. Now that we've obtained the ticket we need for the investigation, naturally we should go see the show behind it. Come on, I'll lead the way."

Meng Xuanji unfolded a map tucked inside the manual and led Hu Liena down a small path along the outskirts of town.

"The first device we need to inspect should be nearby. Help me look for it."

The path was surrounded by grass half a meter tall. Hardly anyone came here normally, so the only things likely to trigger the alarm were soul beasts.

"Found it!"

Hu Liena moved quickly. By the time Meng Xuanji turned his head, she had already picked up a clock-like warning soul tool.

Seeing it made Meng Xuanji's head swell.

"My lady, why did you take it apart? We're here to maintain it, not wreck it."

The alarm had not gone off even after Hu Liena picked it up. Did that not mean it was broken?

"Oh, stop wrongly accusing innocent people. This thing was broken to begin with. I only picked it up to show you."

Hu Liena pointed Meng Xuanji toward the damaged core formation. Its patterns had long been eroded beyond recognition by wind and rain.

"Look, the core formation of this soul tool has already been worn down by the weather. It's basically no different from scrap. As far as I know, this is just an ordinary first-grade soul tool. Its service life was never very long, and it has been raining frequently lately, so of course it stopped working."

"Don't rush. Let me see if I can fix it."

With a trace of hope, Meng Xuanji opened the manual. Sure enough, he found the method for maintaining soul tools.

"If it breaks, rinse the formation with water, or check the energy storage. If it still can't be fixed, throw it on the ground and stomp on it twice. If it works, keep using it. If it breaks, throw it away. Compensation will be deducted from your wages."

"What? Does this method actually work? Why do I feel like this is exactly how the soul tool got broken?"

Meng Xuanji slapped his forehead hard.

Sure enough, soul tool research and development in this era was still at a rather primitive level. Many important jobs required soul masters to handle matters personally. This was also the fundamental reason soul masters held such an elevated status on Douluo Continent.

If not for the impact of soul tools, soul masters could probably live off their advantages for the rest of their lives.

"Sigh, it looks hopeless. Let's go check the other devices."

Meng Xuanji headed toward the next marked point with a shred of hope, but reality played a massive joke on him.

"There are only six in total, so why are all of them broken? And they look like they've been in use for ages."

"Isn't that normal? With soul masters patrolling, who would still spend money buying soul tools?"

"Uh, you have a point."

Meng Xuanji lowered his gaze to the map again.

"Then let's see how the traps are doing. Soul beasts invaded the town last night, so these traps have probably been destroyed beyond recognition."

"Mm, okay."

When Meng Xuanji arrived at the trap site with tools and the manual, full of confidence, Ice Soul Ghost Shadow suddenly issued a warning from within his mind.

"Careful. Two wolf beasts with two hundred years of cultivation are lying in ambush at your eleven o'clock. Stay alert."