Chapter 2027 Xin Xiaoqi and the Leader of Liberty City“s Secrets
Li Yao observed carefully for a while, only to discover that the live streamers had crystal cameras installed on their entire bodies. There were also a lot of floating crystal cameras that were filming around them all the time.
Their dancing, singing, screaming, or posing, and their moans similar to the estrous beasts and their mad enchantments, were all performances meant for the people who were on the other side of the crystal cameras.
This is indeed evil walking in daylight!
Li Yao found it more and more impossible to understand the Imperium of True Human Beings.
Everything he saw was like the most absurd dream and the lousiest joke.
What kind of country could possibly have given birth to such… unique beings? Was it only a means of entertainment, or did it have any deeper meaning?
It was not the time to bother the Immortal Cultivator players. Li Yao calmed himself down and avoided the zones of fierce battles with the reconnaissance of Neltharion on the ground, while he zigzagged below the ground and tracked Xin Xiaoqi’s route of escape.
Xin Xiaoqi naturally did not know that Li Yao had set his eyes on her since a long time ago and even implanted a tracer as thin as paper into her propulsion magical equipment, which was her life-saver.
She stopped somewhere in the depths of Liberty City.
It was an old district of Liberty City.
Liberty City did not rise from nothing but slowly proliferated and expanded on the basis of city ruins.
Right below the abnormally glamorous appearance, the remnants of a city that was as complicated as a maze were hidden below the earth, like a blossoming flower on a corpse.
After the ravaging of ‘Judgment Day’ and the corrosion of hundreds of years, all the buildings there were ragged and lifeless, like metal organs that were full of rust. The broken tubes would occasionally spurt out air currents, illuminating the panicked and desperate faces.
Even the Elysian Worlds had lots of ant-like paupers. This was the bottom level of Liberty City—a garbage dump, a water-processing plant, and a public graveyard. Next to the place was a slave market of a fairly large scale. However, what was traded inside were the humblest slaves who were skinny and dying. A spiritual puppet was enough to buy a couple of them.
The bandits’ raiding had yet to spread to this place, but it was already mired in chaos. A lot of the ‘ants’ had grown sharp claws and teeth, struggling and biting each other, trying to find a chance of survival among the torrents and turbulence.
The translucent 3D light beam and the rusty, lifeless metal world overlapped, allowing Li Yao to locate Xin Xiaoqi quickly. She was in an inconspicuous tool compartment surrounded by stench and sewers in the middle of a garbage dump.
Li Yao smiled and circled the tool compartment a few times while keeping Neltharion in the stealth state.
Since it was designed to be unattractive, the tool compartment was naturally not flawless and impenetrable. It was no trouble for Li Yao to find a gap and crawl in through it. He lurked in the corner and scanned the entire tool compartment.
There were only two people standing in the room but a whole ground of people who were dead. The floor in a corner had been dug up, revealing an enormous metal chamber that had been opened. Inside the chamber was a plethora of crystals, magical equipment, and nutrition drugs.
Of the two standing people, one was naturally Xin Xiaoqi, but the other was a white-haired, wrinkled, and hunched old man.
The old man’s appearance reminded Li Yao of a dog that was struggling after it fell into water.
He was holding a dented chainsword as a stick, panting and coughing quickly. There were wounds all over his body. Blade injuries deep to the bones could be found on his arms and legs. The broken pieces of his armor were deeply embedded into his flesh. After every cough, a new vein would be cut apart, and plasma that was almost solid would spurt out.
His chest also collapsed deeply, as if all his ribs had been blown apart. The wound seemed to be the mark of a fist.
It seemed that everybody on the ground had been killed by him, and he had paid a grave price for that.
Li Yao sent the old man’s image to the Fist King’s crystal processor and received a positive reply. “Yes. He is Xiahou Wuxin, but why is he so much older after only such a short time?”
While Xiahou Wuxin grabbed his chainsword hard without letting it go, Xin Xiaoqi was holding two sharp daggers in her hands, too. The cat-like woman glared at Xiahou Wuxin with obvious fury.
The atmosphere between the senior and the junior was so intense that it might explode without even a spark.
“You’ve been manipulating me, jerk?”
Gnas.h.i.+ng her teeth, Xin Xiaoqi was so exasperated that she almost could not refrain herself from jumping at Xiahou Wuxin and biting his nose off.
“Didn’t you say that there was a way to send me to Manjusaka? Why do you say that there is nothing you can do now? You are even asking me to forget about Manjusaka. What the f*ck is that supposed to mean? Do you think that I won’t kill you, old b*stard?”
There was no telling whether it was because of his heavy wounds or because he could not justify himself, but he lost the demeanor of the leader of Liberty City. Truly like a weary old man, he was utterly silent while Xin Xiaoqi cursed and rained her saliva upon his face.
“I’ve been working as your disciple for twenty years. I’ve been your disciple in name but your dog in reality for twenty years!”
Waving her daggers crazily, Xin Xiaoqi screamed, “Twenty years of life-and-death service, twenty years of hiding, I risked my life helping you with the most dangerous, sordid, and clandestine deals, and I did not get a single day of enjoyment in the Elysian World!
“So many times, I wandered among the major forces, among those tough bandits and thugs, to help you figure out the latest intelligence. Those people are all perverts, do you know that? Should my secrets have been leaked, I certainly would’ve been skinned and tortured by them!
“Our original deal was that you would send me to Manjusaka after I worked for you for five years. Then, after the five years, it was another five years. Then, another five. It’s been f*cking twenty years, master!
“Alright. Let’s leave the past aside and focus on this mission alone. Who did you ask me to deal with? The Fist King! The f*cking most dangerous, ferocious, and brutal ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie!
“Of your so many disciples, were any stupid and innocent enough to really sneak into the Fist King’s army for investigation and to steal intelligence, even risking their life to lead the a.s.sa.s.sins from the Valley of Thorns to the Fist King’s side to kill him? Even I do not know why I am lucky enough to be still alive at this moment!
“Master, you wretched son of a b*tch. Tell me. Look me in the eyes and tell me how you swore to me before I snuck into the Fist King’s army that you would absolutely send me to Manjusaka after the battle!
“Hehe. Hehehe. During the twenty years of suffering, struggling, and slaughtering, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Now, your force has collapsed, and you simply want to get away with it, huh? Not so easy!
“I don’t care about it. Whatever the price is, whoever must be killed, I will go to Manjusaka! Find a way to get me up there, or I will really kill you, you sc.u.mbag!”
Xin Xiaoqi had gone completely mad. Her face had been rather clean and appealing in the beginning, but it was now more than twisted with all the protruding veins and her gritted teeth.
Xiahou Wuxin had been listening quietly. It was not until this moment that he vomited another black mouthful of blood. He appeared even more devastated than before, and even the chainsword did not seem enough to support his s.h.i.+vering body anymore.
Groping for the edge of the metal box, he sat down and smiled miserably. “Xiaoqi, I deserve to be killed by you. If you want to do it, just come here. But there is really no Manjusaka. You can just drop the idea.”
Clink!
The leader of Liberty City who had been caught by desperation tossed away the broken chainsword and heaved a long sigh. Then, he narrowed his eyes as if he were recalling things from a long time ago. He seemed frustrated and ready to be executed.
Xin Xiaoqi was rather dazed by his frankness. Narrowing her eyes that were as green as a cat’s, she stared at him warily with her back hunched. “What are you trying to pull? Playing hard to get? Don’t think that you can kill me just because you have killed all your other disciples. You should know that I am different from those worthless trash. You are now heavily wounded and almost running out of blood. Even if I cannot kill you right now, I am at least confident that I can escape and tell everyone that our almighty leader of Liberty City is hiding here!
“Hehehe. You must’ve kept a lot of good things to yourself after decades of ruling Liberty City, mustn’t you? I believe that the bandits who are killing and looting right now, including those who were loyal to you in the past, will be very interested in you and your treasures.
“Just tell me the way to go to Manjusaka, or I will really die together with you!”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Xiahou Wuxin said casually and looked at Xin Xiaoqi without any resentment, anger, or cunningness. “Everything is over. Nothing is going to help. It doesn’t matter. Any place is a dead end. I am exhausted. Just let me die here in your hands.
“As for the secret treasures that I have collected over the past decades, they are yours in the first place. After you kill me, find the items that I hid in secret and figure out a way to escape Liberty City. This is the best I can do for you now.”
Xin Xiaoqi was dumbfounded. She widened her eyes and looked at Xiahou Wuxin for a long time, but she still could not tell whether her old and cunning master was lying or telling the truth before he was going to die.
Biting her lips for a long time, she burst into fury again. “Don’t play tricks with me. I am not escaping from Liberty City. I am going to Manjusaka. The City in the Sky! I am going there, no matter how difficult, dangerous, and challenging it is!”
“Did you hear what I said at the beginning?” Xiahou Wuxin said casually. “It’s not that I am not willing to help you—I really can’t help you. What you imagine to be the City in the City is not there at all. The peaceful, perfect heaven with everything has never existed. Where do you want me to send you?”