Inside the house, Li Chang'an took out that Turtle Spirit Fruit. He stared at the Mysterious Water Turtle and earnestly instructed, "This Turtle Spirit Fruit, even among first-tier superior-grade spiritual medicines, is extremely special with immense medicinal power. You should first consume a portion and concentrate on refining it."
The small Mysterious Water Turtle nodded repeatedly. His large eyes stared at the Turtle Spirit Fruit, conveying eager emotions.
Over the next few days, with Li Chang'an's help, the small Mysterious Water Turtle carefully consumed the entire Turtle Spirit Fruit. He wasn't able to refine all the medicinal power, with most of it settling in various parts of his body to be slowly released as he grew.
During this period, Chu Daniu came by once. He spoke of various rumors circulating within the market.
"Big brother, you need to prepare early. If things look bad, run," he said.
"I've already heard those rumors. There shouldn't be any problems for now," Li Chang'an replied calmly, reassuring him.
After their conversation ended, Chu Daniu left with a worried expression.
Subsequently, Li Chang'an went to the market's trading area. He didn't play favorites and bought some treasures suitable for earth element spiritual beast growth, feeding them all to Big Yellow.
"You've worked hard these past days," Li Chang'an patted Big Yellow's dog head.
As the household's primary fighting force, Big Yellow was truly hardworking and meritorious, having barely rested at all.
"Continue watching Zheng Jinbao. Tell me if he leaves the market," Li Chang'an instructed him.
These past few days, Zheng Jinbao had become increasingly agitated.
"Why hasn't Wei Sen returned yet?" His brow was tightly furrowed, his expression very ugly.
Wei Sen seemed to have vanished from the world without any news whatsoever.
"Could he really have failed?" Zheng Jinbao grew more anxious the more he thought about it.
Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore. He privately contacted another robber cultivator from Black Wind Mountain to inquire about Wei Sen's whereabouts.
But the news he received made him deeply uneasy.
"What? You're saying Wei Sen never returned to Black Wind Mountain and hasn't contacted any of you? Even your leader doesn't know where he went?" Zheng Jinbao's expression changed.
A disturbing suspicion gradually arose in his heart. Could Wei Sen be dead?
But how could Li Chang'an have the ability to deal with Wei Sen?
"Could that kid have been hiding his true strength all along?" Zheng Jinbao took several deep breaths, feeling a chill creep up his spine.
At this moment, he suddenly felt somewhat afraid.
"Damn it, why did I provoke him in the first place?" Zheng Jinbao glanced toward Li Chang'an's residence, fear continuously spreading in his heart.
Finally, he really couldn't sit still anymore. He hurriedly left his house and ran to the market center, stopping in front of a residence.
"Second Young Master, Zheng Jinbao requests an audience!" he called out nervously and anxiously.
Before long, the courtyard gate opened.
"Come in," came a young man's voice from deep within the courtyard.
Hearing this, Zheng Jinbao breathed a sigh of relief. He entered the courtyard and saw the speaker.
This person wore green robes, was handsome and distinguished, and possessed considerable strength. He was the rarely seen second young master of the Zheng family, Zheng Lingfeng!
"Zheng Jinbao, what do you want?" He glanced at Zheng Jinbao indifferently.
Zheng Jinbao hastily bowed and presented a storage bag, saying humbly, "I beg Second Young Master to save me!"
"What? Did you make Zheng Qingqing unhappy?" he asked.
"No... it's, it's because..." Zheng Jinbao didn't hide anything and told the whole story of his dispute with Li Chang'an.
After listening, Zheng Lingfeng chuckled lightly. He wasn't angry about Zheng Jinbao colluding with Black Wind Mountain, but instead asked, "You're a member of my Zheng family, yet you're afraid of a lowly rogue cultivator?"
"But that Li Chang'an is quite strange. I suspect those missing robber cultivators have all been killed by him."
"So you're afraid?" Zheng Lingfeng shook his head slightly, seeming quite disappointed.
Zheng Jinbao opened his mouth but didn't know how to respond.
At this time, Zheng Lingfeng gently patted the storage bag at his waist, and a black puppet immediately appeared beside him.
"Forget it. For the sake of these spirit stones, take this Shadow Chasing Puppet temporarily. Kill that Li Chang'an and then return it to me."
Hearing this, Zheng Jinbao was overjoyed.
"Thank you, Second Young Master! Thank you, Second Young Master!" He thanked him repeatedly, extremely delighted.
This Shadow Chasing Puppet was quite remarkable, comparable to an expert at the peak of Qi Refining. Moreover, it required no control, only needing to remember the enemy's aura to attack on its own until the enemy was completely eliminated!
"By the way, I suspect that Li Chang'an's residence has formation protection. Try to wait until he leaves before making your move."
"Yes," Zheng Jinbao nodded repeatedly.
Time passed quickly.
Before he knew it, ten months had gone by.
During this period, Zheng Jinbao never found a suitable opportunity to strike. Li Chang'an rarely showed himself, only going out a few times to purchase treasures for cultivating the Mysterious Water Turtle.
Under his costly cultivation, the Mysterious Water Turtle grew rapidly, its aura becoming stronger almost daily. The advantages of earth-grade bloodline were fully displayed during his growth process.
"This growth speed is truly astonishing," Li Chang'an couldn't help but sigh.
Compared to the Mysterious Water Turtle, Big Yellow's growth speed could be called turtle-like. Li Chang'an's own cultivation speed was even slower than turtle-like.
In just these ten short months, the Mysterious Water Turtle's aura had already approached the peak of first-tier early stage.
"Don't rush to break through. Settle for more days to ensure the breakthrough has no hidden dangers," Li Chang'an patiently instructed the Mysterious Water Turtle.
He had high hopes for this spiritual beast and had to ensure every step was solid enough.
Four months later, the Mysterious Water Turtle's strength had grown to the extreme of first-tier early stage and could no longer be suppressed.
Under the protection of Li Chang'an and Big Yellow, he successfully broke through and became a first-tier mid-stage spiritual beast.
"In total, just one year and two months to break through to first-tier mid-stage, equivalent to a human cultivator going from mortal to the fourth layer of Qi Refining. Truly incredible."
This Mysterious Water Turtle's growth speed made even Li Chang'an, his master, envious.
Though this was partly due to Li Chang'an sparing no expense in consuming large quantities of treasures, the turtle's own qualifications couldn't be ignored.
"Little guy, after eating so many of my spirit stones, now it's time for you to give back," Li Chang'an thought of the spirit stones consumed during this period and felt somewhat pained.
His wealth had shrunk considerably. But as long as the power-lending talent's effect met his expectations, everything would be worthwhile!
Before long, the Mysterious Water Turtle's aura stabilized, consolidating his realm. He looked at Li Chang'an with affectionate eyes and immediately cast his power-lending talent.
Gentle water element magical power slowly merged into Li Chang'an's meridians, continuously strengthening his aura.
"Not bad," Li Chang'an sensed the changes in himself and nodded slightly.
In just a few breaths, his strength rose from the fourth layer of Qi Refining to the fifth layer, and continued rising, barely reaching the sixth layer of Qi Refining before slowly stopping.
"My current strength makes me outstanding among mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators. Though temporary, it's quite remarkable, especially since this spell causes no harm to the body."
Li Chang'an smiled, very satisfied with this power-lending technique.
One must know that in the cultivation world, methods to temporarily enhance strength mostly caused harm to cultivators' bodies, such as the Zheng family's Spirit Explosion Pill.
But the Mysterious Water Turtle's power-lending technique was very gentle, usable at will without worrying about any side effects.
"In this state, can I draw first-tier superior-grade talismans?" Li Chang'an pondered for a moment.
Subsequently, he sat at his desk, took out talisman paper, spiritual ink, and talisman brush, and began attempting.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:50:50 +0000 UTC
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Liu Yue and the others instinctively thought Chu Daniu was joking. This area had abundant spiritual energy and expensive rent that low-grade talisman masters simply couldn't afford.
"Fellow Daoist Liu, my big brother indeed lives here. He's been living here for quite a while now. Haven't any of you encountered him?" Chu Daniu felt surprised.
Li Chang'an had moved here over half a month ago. He was neighbors with Luo Kun, and Liu Yue and the others often came to visit Luo Kun. Yet the two sides had never met even once?
"Fellow Daoist Chu, you're really not joking?" Liu Yue asked seriously again, her expression earnest.
Her beautiful eyes flickered as she looked at the spacious residence behind Chu Daniu. Could Li Chang'an really live there?
One must know, this kind of place was her goal for a very long time to come.
"Fellow Daoist Liu, when have I ever lied to you?" Chu Daniu's tone was equally serious.
"Today, my big brother perhaps had business and wasn't at home."
"Is that so?" Liu Yue exchanged glances with the others, shock filling their eyes as their hearts found it difficult to remain calm.
All along, they seemed to have severely underestimated Li Chang'an.
Subsequently, both sides chatted briefly. Chu Daniu took his leave and didn't accompany them to see Luo Kun.
After he left, Liu Yue and the others visited Luo Kun and mentioned this matter.
"Senior Luo, does Li Chang'an really live next door?" Upon hearing this, Luo Kun's brow furrowed slightly.
He also didn't know about this matter. He was half-believing and half-doubting Chu Daniu's previous words.
After all, he had finally broken through in talisman crafting skills and gained the Zheng family's recognition before he could live in such a place. What qualified Li Chang'an?
He neither had mid-grade talisman crafting skills nor a deep background. Could it be that he had caught the eye of some high-ranking woman from the Zheng family?
Luo Kun thought it over and felt this was the most likely scenario.
He then said calmly, "Calm your minds! On the path of cultivation, one should be down-to-earth and advance step by step. As long as each day you go further than the previous day, that's enough. Why concern yourselves with how others fare?"
"Senior Luo is right. We should compare ourselves to our past selves and shouldn't think too much," Liu Yue took a deep breath, trying her best to suppress the unrest in her heart.
But no matter what she did, Chu Daniu's previous words still lingered in her mind, impossible to dispel.
At this moment, beneath the waters of Bright Moon Lake, a figure flickering with green light was fleeing at high speed. It was precisely that Green Scale Fish.
Its fish eyes were filled with rage yet carried traces of terror as it fled toward the deep waters of the lake.
"Hmph, still trying to run?" Li Chang'an's expression was cold and stern as he pursued relentlessly.
Earlier, when he had snatched the Turtle Spirit Fruit, this Green Scale Fish that was resting had been awakened. Furious beyond measure, with a savage expression, it had cast spells at him.
But it was merely first-tier early stage. How could it possibly be Li Chang'an's opponent?
Li Chang'an had casually waved his hand and shattered its spell. The Green Scale Fish, sensing something was wrong, had no choice but to abandon trying to reclaim the Turtle Spirit Fruit and cast an escape technique to flee.
It thought that in this lake water, relying on its powerful water escape talent, it would definitely be able to shake off Li Chang'an.
However, in just a few breaths, Li Chang'an had already caught up!
"Strike!"
His eyes were ice-cold as he pointed with his fingers and swept them across. A deep green light suddenly tore through the lake water.
It was precisely his superior-grade magical artifact, the Green Light Sword!
The blade was sharp, its edge fully revealed, ringing clearly! The fierce sword qi was like thunder, instantly slashing across the fish demon's body.
"Hiss—"
The fish demon's entire body shuddered and was instantly cut in two. Rich demonic blood dispersed in the lake water.
At this time, Li Chang'an's thoughts stirred as he released the small Mysterious Water Turtle from his spirit beast bag.
Seeing the fish demon's corpse, the little turtle's large eyes immediately brightened. He swiftly swam over to absorb the demonic blood, not wasting a single drop.
If he had hatched in the wild, at this moment he would still be weak, and not being eaten by other demon beasts would already be fortunate. Where would he have the opportunity to devour this kind of fish demon that was about to advance?
Subsequently, Li Chang'an threw both the Green Scale Fish's corpse and the little turtle into his spirit beast bag.
"Eat up, eat slowly."
After completing all this, Li Chang'an returned to shore and pondered briefly.
"My escape technique is indeed remarkable. Having just entered the basics, it's already this astonishing."
He estimated that even if that fish demon had successfully advanced to become a first-tier mid-stage demon beast, its escape technique would still be inferior to his.
"Wei Sen cultivated this escape technique for many years and has likely long since mastered it. No wonder he has such a great reputation."
Li Chang'an sighed with emotion. That night, if Wei Sen hadn't been trapped in the formation, he wouldn't have died at all.
This also made Li Chang'an secretly warn himself that unless absolutely necessary, he must never easily enter formations.
"Time to return!" After packing up his things, Li Chang'an returned to the market.
Just upon returning to the market, Li Chang'an heard rumors spreading everywhere.
"The Zheng family's mid-stage Foundation Establishment ancestor cast a forbidden technique that burned his lifespan?"
This news was similar to what those robber cultivators from Black Wind Mountain had said earlier.
Could it be that the Zheng family ancestor truly had little time left?
"If the news is true, it depends on whether the Zheng family has means to obtain life-extending treasures," Li Chang'an pondered.
If they couldn't obtain any, then the Zheng family would be in danger. Unless the Zheng family could produce a new Foundation Establishment cultivator.
"The Zheng family is, after all, an alchemy family. The clan should have Foundation Establishment Pills. The fact that no new Foundation Establishment has been born for so long, is it because there are no suitable clan members? Or have they all failed in their breakthroughs?"
Li Chang'an contemplated. Foundation Establishment was difficult. Even with Foundation Establishment Pill assistance, the success rate wasn't ideal.
There were many Foundation Establishment families that gradually declined because they couldn't cultivate new Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Those with good luck could become vassals to other families or sects after weakening. Those with bad luck would be directly exterminated.
Don't look at how the three great families were currently glorious and prosperous, but in several years, they might all turn to dust.
As for what the news mentioned about the Foundation Establishment ancestors of the Cao and Wu families joining forces to attack the market, Li Chang'an felt this was unlikely.
"This Zheng family ancestor is, after all, mid-stage Foundation Establishment. If he made a dying counterattack, he could very likely take a Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivator with him. Those two probably wouldn't dare take the risk."
Quietly waiting for his lifespan to be exhausted was the best choice. At that time, the Zheng family would only have one Foundation Establishment early-stage left, making it difficult to support the situation.
"However, I still need to be careful and constantly monitor the divination," Li Chang'an thought as he walked.
Before long, he arrived outside his own residence.
At this time, Liu Yue and the others were just coming out of Luo Kun's residence. Seeing Li Chang'an, they all froze for a moment.
"Fellow Daoist Li."
"Hmm?" Li Chang'an turned to look. Seeing these people, he wasn't surprised.
"Fellow Daoist Liu, Fellow Daoist He, Fellow Daoist Sun..." His expression was calm as he greeted the several people.
"Fellow Daoist Li, you live here?" Liu Yue's cherry lips parted slightly as she stared at him in a daze, the emotions she had finally managed to suppress surging up again, creating waves of turmoil.
"Yes, I had some fortune," Li Chang'an didn't elaborate.
He cupped his hands, then opened the courtyard gate, turned around, and walked in.
This scene left Liu Yue and the others unable to calm down for a long time.
No wonder Li Chang'an had never come to gather with them, it turned out the two sides were no longer cultivators of the same level.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:50:16 +0000 UTC
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Just past the hour of midnight that night, golden light appeared.
[Divination has been refreshed]
[Today's Divination: Auspicious]
[You go to Bright Moon Lake and use your escape technique advantage to successfully obtain the precious first-tier superior-grade spiritual medicine "Turtle Spirit Fruit," with no accidents occurring during the process]
The divination was auspicious! Li Chang'an immediately felt at ease. After all, Bright Moon Lake was outside the market, so he had to be somewhat cautious.
"I heard that this Turtle Spirit Fruit can not only accelerate the growth speed of turtle-type spiritual beasts but also enhance their foundation, providing some help for their future advancement," Li Chang'an silently pondered, very much anticipating that Turtle Spirit Fruit.
Before long, Big Yellow returned from outside, bringing news about Zheng Jinbao.
"Zheng Jinbao is still waiting?" Li Chang'an was thoughtful. He naturally knew what Zheng Jinbao was waiting for. However, that fellow would never get what he was waiting for.
Late at night, Zheng Jinbao was anxious and sleepless. His brow was tightly furrowed as he paced back and forth in his courtyard, occasionally glancing toward Li Chang'an's residence.
"It's been two whole days, why is there still no news?" These two days had been quite torturous for Zheng Jinbao. He had paid a hefty price but still hadn't received any reply.
To prevent Wei Sen from taking money without doing the job, he had signed the strictest spiritual contract with Wei Sen. Once Wei Sen broke the contract, he would suffer severe backlash!
"He can't possibly break the contract. Could he have failed?" This thought suddenly flashed through Zheng Jinbao's mind. But he quickly shook his head, feeling this thought was somewhat absurd.
"Impossible. He's a professional at this. He's even killed quite a few experts at the late stage of Qi Refining. How could he possibly fail to kill a Li Chang'an?" Zheng Jinbao thought this way. He didn't believe Li Chang'an had the ability to counter-kill Wei Sen.
The difference in strength between the two sides was simply too great. On the surface, one was at the eighth layer of Qi Refining while the other was only at the third layer of Qi Refining, a world of difference!
"Perhaps he's just worried about being detected by the ancestor and is waiting for a suitable opportunity." Out of trust in Wei Sen, Zheng Jinbao decided to wait a few more days.
The next day, Li Chang'an hurriedly left his residence. He changed his aura, disguised himself as someone else, left the market, and headed straight for Bright Moon Lake.
"This Bright Moon Lake is also a treasure land. The last time I came here, I obtained a first-tier mid-grade talisman inheritance," Li Chang'an arrived at the lakeside, gazing at the shimmering lake surface.
Subsequently, he cast the Minor Five Elements Escape Technique, silently entering the lake to search for that Turtle Spirit Fruit.
About half an hour later, Li Chang'an's figure paused, his eyes fixed on one direction.
"Eh? There's actually an unexpected harvest." What appeared in his line of sight was a deep blue stone block. It lay quietly in a pile of messy water grass, its aura unremarkable with nothing particularly special about it. If one wasn't careful, it would be easy to overlook.
"Sky Blue Stone, a first-tier mid-grade water element treasure, suitable for refining water element magical artifacts, and can also allow water element spiritual beasts to absorb the spiritual power within," Li Chang'an thought.
This type of gemstone could be used to assist in the growth of water element spiritual beasts. Perfect for the Mysterious Water Turtle!
Li Chang'an's eyes lit up with joy as he grabbed the gemstone and stored it in his storage bag.
"Bright Moon Lake truly is a treasure land!" He confirmed this thought once again.
Although Bright Moon Lake wasn't located on the market's spiritual vein, it was very close to the spiritual vein. This area contained more concentrated heaven and earth spiritual energy than ordinary regions, making it easier for various treasures and demon beasts to be born.
He had heard that cultivators had fished valuable spiritual fish from here.
"There should still be many water element treasures and water element spiritual beasts in this lake that haven't been discovered," Li Chang'an pondered.
Over the years, quite a few cultivators had come to the lake to search for treasures. But most could only explore the outermost ring. The deeper in, the deeper the lake water became. The central area was pitch dark, and just looking at it would instill fear in many people.
Who knew what monsters were hidden inside?
"Can't take risks," Li Chang'an shook his head slightly, dismissing the thought of exploring the deep waters of the lake. Treasures were good, but one had to be alive to enjoy them. He didn't want to encounter water demons that were too powerful.
Subsequently, Li Chang'an continued searching for that Turtle Spirit Fruit. After another half hour, he had gathered two more types of water element treasures but still hadn't found the Turtle Spirit Fruit.
"The divination shouldn't be wrong. Keep looking!" Li Chang'an wasn't discouraged and continued searching.
Time flew by rapidly.
A quarter hour later, finally, his eyes brightened as he looked in one direction.
"Found it!" In that direction, there was a spiritual fish with an entirely green body, about half a zhang long with scales that gleamed all over. It was resting in the water grass at the lake bottom.
Beside it was a spiritual energy bubble that flickered with dim light. Inside the bubble was precisely that Turtle Spirit Fruit.
"Sure enough, it has ripened," Li Chang'an didn't act immediately but slowly adjusted his aura. He swallowed several pills to recover the magical power consumed from casting escape techniques, adjusting his condition to peak state to ensure no accidents would occur.
"This Green Scale Fish should be waiting for a suitable opportunity to consume the Turtle Spirit Fruit to help itself break through the bottleneck and advance from first-tier early stage to first-tier mid-stage," Li Chang'an could tell.
This fish had already reached the threshold for advancement. Although Turtle Spirit Fruit worked best on turtle-type spiritual beasts, it was still a water element spiritual medicine and was effective for most water element spiritual beasts.
"However, this item has no fate with him," Li Chang'an's figure flashed, swift as lightning, heading straight for that Turtle Spirit Fruit!
Swoosh! He pushed his escape technique to the extreme, arriving in front of that spiritual energy bubble almost instantaneously.
"Boom!" Li Chang'an shattered the bubble, grabbed the Turtle Spirit Fruit, and stored it in his storage bag.
At this moment, within the market, Chu Daniu was walking hurriedly with a trace of anxiety on his face, rushing toward Li Chang'an's residence.
Early this morning, a small rumor had somehow spread. The rumor said that the reason the Zheng family's mid-stage Foundation Establishment ancestor was able to escape from the secret realm was because he had cast a forbidden technique that overdrafted his lifespan. His remaining lifespan was not much.
"I don't know if this news is true or false, but I must let Brother Li know as soon as possible!" Now, the entire market was in a state of unrest. There were even rumors saying that the Foundation Establishment ancestors of the Cao and Wu families were about to attack the market!
Moments later, Chu Daniu arrived outside Li Chang'an's courtyard.
"Brother Li, are you home?" he called anxiously.
But after waiting for quite a while, no one came out to open the door. Chu Daniu became even more anxious and was about to knock forcefully on the door when a surprised voice rang out.
"Fellow Daoist Chu, what are you doing here?" Hearing this, Chu Daniu turned around and discovered it was Liu Yue and others.
"Fellow Daoist Liu, Fellow Daoist Wang, Fellow Daoist He..." He cupped his hands toward these several low-grade talisman masters.
Liu Yue's pretty face showed confusion as she asked him, "Fellow Daoist Chu, are you here to find Senior Luo? Don't tell me you still want Senior Luo to take your big brother as a disciple?"
She was very clear that Chu Daniu had put considerable effort into getting Li Chang'an to become a disciple.
"Fellow Daoist Chu, your big brother's personality is really too rigid. Senior Luo doesn't like that type," she said, a trace of helplessness flashing across her face.
Last time, she had discovered that Li Chang'an could draw high-quality talismans, with talisman drawing skills far superior to the other low-grade talisman masters. She had originally wanted to get closer to Li Chang'an. But Li Chang'an was completely oblivious to romantic hints, as rigid as a puppet.
Now, she had long stopped thinking about Li Chang'an and focused all her attention on Luo Kun.
"Fellow Daoist Liu has misunderstood," Chu Daniu shook his head, pointing at the spacious residence behind him.
"I'm here to find my big brother."
Hearing this, everyone was stunned. In Liu Yue's bright eyes, a trace of disbelief flashed.
"Fellow Daoist Chu, do you mean your big brother Li Chang'an lives here?"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:49:43 +0000 UTC
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"Beep——"
A sharp buzzing sound rang out, and Zheng Jie looked around at his surroundings in a daze.
The feeling of participating in a Gallery game for the first time amazed him. One second he was still in the hall, and the next second he had arrived in a completely unfamiliar space.
This looked like an ordinary rest room, very spacious, and from the furnishing and arrangement, it gave an overall comfortable and cozy feeling.
The room had a rest area with sofas and a coffee table, a huge screen on the wall, and a separate open space that was cordoned off.
This open space was somewhat like a miniature stage, with steps below and additional lighting above, though it wasn't currently lit.
Next to the stage was a conspicuous button, though its specific purpose was unknown.
In the corner of the room were two machines. One looked somewhat like the vending machine in the community, and the other was slightly smaller but also had an operable screen.
There were only two doors in the entire room, one of which was a bathroom.
The other looked like it led to the outside world, but when Zheng Jie tried to turn the handle, it was locked.
Next to this door was also a small display screen, currently showing no information.
"Where are the others?" Zheng Jie panicked.
He had originally thought that the same-community players participating in this game would be together, so he wouldn't actually need to do anything and could just follow group decisions.
Naturally, veteran player Lawyer Lin would carry them.
But now being suddenly thrown alone into a strange environment left him somewhat at a loss.
Just then, text information suddenly appeared on the big screen, and an emotionless electronic voice simultaneously rang out, beginning the rule introduction.
[Hello, Zheng Jie. Welcome to the "Blind Date Game."]
[This game lasts a total of 8 hours, with all violent behavior strictly prohibited throughout. Currently in the first phase, lasting 4 hours total.]
[Given the lengthy game duration, the vending machine nearby offers food, beverages, and visa time exchange coupons for purchase. Please help yourself.]
[This game has a total of 40 players from 6 communities.]
[Please note: In this game, male and female players have different benefit rules.]
[Male players will receive 30,000 minutes of visa time indiscriminately after the game ends.]
[Female players will have visa time continuously and randomly deducted during the game process, and will receive no visa time reward after the game ends.]
[After the game officially begins, every 10 minutes you must enter the meeting room ahead for a 10-minute meeting with other players.]
[Every hour, you will receive 1 "like" and 1 "dislike."]
[During the 8-hour game duration, you will participate in a total of 24 meetings and accumulate 8 "likes" and 8 "dislikes."]
[The system will randomly match players from other communities to meet with you.]
[Alternatively, you can use the small screen next to the door to invite players you've already been matched with for another meeting.]
[After completing a meeting, both players can give each other "likes" or "dislikes" to express their attitudes.]
[The "Data Query Machine" next to the vending machine can query specific data within the game. For specific rules, see the machine's instruction page.]
[Special attention: The final meeting of the game will conduct a "final selection vote." If the meeting pair are of opposite sexes and mutually give each other likes, both will receive an additional 30,000 minutes of visa time.]
[More rules will be unlocked continuously as the game progresses.]
[The first meeting will begin in 10 minutes. Good luck!]
The rules remained displayed on the big screen for players to memorize.
Additionally, in a prominent position in the room was a special timer showing the current game time and the 10-minute countdown for each waiting period.
Zheng Jie looked at the rule explanation a few more times in confusion and scratched his head.
"Eight hours?? That's so long.
"There haven't been games lasting this long before, right?
"But from the rules, it seems very simple?
"Just need to meet with other players and give each other likes?
"No matter what, there are 30,000 visa minutes to take at the end of the game. This is way too easy.
"I could even find a willing opposite-sex player to mutually like each other and get an additional 30,000.
"Is this a newbie benefit?"
Zheng Jie was somewhat puzzled. He hadn't participated in Gallery games before, but from previous cases, 30,000 minutes of visa time was already considered medium-level earnings from games.
If it could be obtained risk-free, that would be very cost-effective.
After all, even in safe games like "Blood Poker," blood still had to be drawn.
Of course, Zheng Jie wasn't so quick to let his guard down and was trying hard to think about where the traps in this game might be.
Thinking it over, perhaps some dangerous rules hadn't been announced yet? After all, this game did say that more rules would be unlocked as the game progressed.
But worrying about those things now was meaningless. It was impossible to guess what specific rules might be updated, so he could only focus on immediate tasks.
During Zheng Jie's contemplation, the waiting time quickly passed.
[Please enter the meeting room immediately. Exceeding the time limit by 1 minute will result in instant death punishment.]
Zheng Jie hurriedly pushed open the door to the meeting room. Before him was a corridor of moderate length.
Reaching the end of the corridor and pushing through the door, this was a reception room slightly narrower than the previous single room, divided by a central long table into two different spaces, one for each player.
After sitting down, both players had a slanted operational surface in front of them.
At the top of the operational area were three large and conspicuous buttons labeled [I'll Pay], [Split], and [You Pay], each in different colors, clearly visible to the player sitting across.
At the bottom of the operational area were four very small and inconspicuous buttons.
Two were in unlocked status, labeled [Like] and [Dislike] respectively.
Not only did they have text, but also different icons: a red thumbs up and a black thumbs down, immediately comprehensible.
Next to these two buttons were two more in inactive status, covered with caps that couldn't be opened.
These buttons were small, arranged compactly, roughly coverable by one hand, and positioned right in the blind spot of the opposite player's view.
Besides this, the table clearly displayed the meeting room's related rules. Not too many, just several items, but Zheng Jie hadn't had time to read them carefully when the door opposite was pushed open.
A young, beautiful, sweet girl with ear-length short hair walked in.
"Hello there!"
The girl greeted Zheng Jie first, briefly looked around, then sat down in the seat across from him.
Although she wasn't wearing much makeup, her naturally fair complexion under the meeting room's soft lighting inevitably made Zheng Jie feel somewhat dizzy and flustered.
"H-hello!" Zheng Jie realized he was somewhat stammering after speaking.
The girl smiled, "You look a bit silly. Don't be nervous. From the rules, this game shouldn't have too much danger.
"At least for now."
Before Zheng Jie could respond, a system notification sounded in the meeting room.
[Please pay the room usage fee before this meeting ends: 200 minutes of visa time.]
[Press the operation buttons on the table to select payment method.]
[When both parties make the same choice, payment will be made according to the button option.]
[If both parties make different choices, or if any player hasn't pressed a button when this meeting ends, both will be forcibly deducted 200 minutes of visa time.]
With a "click," the buttons labeled [I'll Pay], [You Pay], and [Split] popped up, with flashing light effects prompting players to press them quickly.
A timer popped up in the center of the table with a 10-minute countdown.
On the back of both players' operational panels was also a screen, like name tags, displaying both people's names and affiliated communities.
The girl saw the words [Community 17 - Zheng Jie] and showed a slightly surprised expression on her face.
Then she smiled and said, "Hello, I'm Lu Xinyi from Community 3. Nice to meet you."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:43:48 +0000 UTC
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Zheng Jie looked at the big screen in shock, visibly panicking, "Ah? This is a game invitation? Is the Gallery about to start judgment?"
The reactions of the others weren't as intense.
After all, having experienced two games already, everyone had gradually adapted.
Many people had even roughly guessed that a new game would likely start at this time in the morning after so many days, and had mentally prepared themselves in advance.
Though they were still somewhat panicked, they wouldn't overreact like Zheng Jie anymore.
Fu Chen was somewhat surprised, "Hmm? The preparation time is one hour again this time?
"I understand. It seems that different types of games not only have different participation rules for players, but also different preparation times.
"This should be encouraging us to negotiate in advance, right?
"Quick, let's hurry and discuss countermeasures."
From the current situation, both "Blood Poker" and this "Blind Date Game" reserved 1 hour of preparation time, while "King's Judgment" only allowed 5 minutes.
This meant judgment games wouldn't give players too much preparation time, nor opportunities to discuss tactics in advance.
Just like "King's Judgment," if an hour had been reserved for discussion, and Wang Yongxin, Ding Wenqiang, and Cai Zhiyuan had a confession session, confessing their crimes and speculating about the game content, the results within the game would really be hard to predict.
But for non-judgment games like this, players were allowed to prepare in advance and could even discuss specific participants.
Li Renshu asked, "First, let's confirm who are the bottom three in our community regarding visa time? They'll be forced to participate."
Everyone looked at each other.
Yang Yuting and Xu Tong each raised their hands, "It should be us two."
Zheng Jie was also panicked, "It should include me too, right? I haven't participated in any games at all, only having the basic visa time!"
Fu Chen nodded, "Hmm, then it looks like you three will be forced to participate."
In "Blood Poker," Yang Yuting and Xu Tong were in the same group, with the other two being Wang Yongxin and Ding Wenqiang.
Wang Yongxin had earned large amounts of visa time for himself, and Ding Wenqiang was dead, so Yang Yuting and Xu Tong naturally became the people with the least visa time in the community.
Fu Chen raised his voice slightly and continued, "Everyone quiet down.
"We've already discussed that in these multiplayer games, the more people from a community participate, the more advantageous it often is.
"We can form natural alliances through illegal teaming, and can better pool wisdom and discuss strategies.
"Since this game allows 4 to 8 people to participate, I think it's best to fill all 8 spots. The game rules require a 1:1 male-to-female ratio, which means we still need 2 more female players and 3 male players.
"I'll state my position first: I'm willing to participate in all future multiplayer games like this.
"Are there others willing to volunteer?"
No one responded immediately.
Jiang He said weakly, "I just noticed that Aunt Su doesn't seem to be here. Should I go call her?"
Li Renshu shook her head, "No need. Aunt Su still has plenty of visa time, and this game is called 'Blind Date Game.'
"From the name, we might assume this is a game simulating blind dating activities. People who are popular in real blind dates might also have advantages in this game.
"Aunt Su definitely isn't suitable for participation."
Jiang He didn't insist further, "Ah, okay."
Yang Yuting added, "Aunt Su should be able to see the new game invitation in her own room too. If she really wanted to participate, she would come down."
Everyone tacitly ended this topic.
Cao Haichuan's expression was somewhat serious, "I don't quite agree with Fu Chen's idea that we must fill 8 people for this game.
"We can't wishfully think that this game is similar to 'Blood Poker' and 'King's Judgment.'
"The Gallery's rules state very clearly:
"The objective of 'Blood Poker' was 'complete visa time allocation,' 'King's Judgment' was to 'judge sinners,' and 'Blind Date Game' is to 'screen players.'
"With different objectives, the optimal strategies for games are naturally different too.
"Since it's 'screening,' and communities are allowed to choose participation numbers between 4 and 8, I think the God's Imitator who designed the game wouldn't be stupid enough to allow same-community players to exploit loopholes through illegal teaming.
"Just like 'King's Judgment,' on the surface it seemed like having more same-community players enter the game would increase winning chances, since more audience members could better influence game results.
"But actually, the Gallery would randomly select players to participate and wouldn't allow situations like 'all 9 people from Community 17 except the sinner becoming audience members.'
"'Screening' type games are appearing for the first time. Who can guarantee they have no death rate? Without knowing the specific situation, having one strong player lead a team of 4 is actually a more prudent choice."
Cai Zhiyuan thought for a moment and nodded, "Officer Cao means that leading three is easy, but leading seven is very difficult. I also agree with this view.
"If this game had no participation limits, I would lean toward more people signing up, so even if the Gallery randomly selects people, it could increase the probability of being chosen.
"But since it's clearly stated as 4 to 8 people, I actually think having more people doesn't necessarily mean having advantages."
Fu Chen had a bit of a headache, increasingly feeling that as the organizer of the discussion, it was somewhat difficult to keep up with the discussion's pace.
Lin Sizhi looked at Cao Haichuan. He noticed that after experiencing "King's Judgment," Officer Cao had obviously become much more active in game discussions.
Li Renshu's gaze swept over everyone.
"By general blind dating standards, appearance, temperament, occupation, conversational skills... these could all potentially affect blind dating success rates.
"Qin Yao, Yang Yuting, Xu Tong, Lawyer Lin, and Brother Wang should all be considered hot commodities in the blind dating market.
"Fu Chen would be okay too, but... still falls a bit short.
"Yang Yuting, Xu Tong, and Zheng Jie are already automatically selected due to low visa time. If we only gather 4 people to participate, we can only bring one more male player.
"Officer Cao is right. This person must be strong enough and smart enough to ensure everyone's safety."
Her gaze had just swept past Cao Haichuan when he helplessly waved his hand.
"It seems inappropriate for me to go. I'm almost forty, with all these wrinkles on my face going on blind dates. I'd probably lose half the battle upon entering the game."
Li Renshu's gaze passed over Wang Yongxin, "Brother Wang's injuries haven't healed, and he doesn't lack visa time either. He should stay in the community to recover.
"Lawyer Lin, are you willing to go?"
Lin Sizhi nodded, "I can."
Zheng Jie was almost moved to tears, "That's great, Brother Lin! With you willing to go, I feel like I'm saved!"
Actually, Lin Sizhi was very clear in his heart that he would inevitably participate in this game.
Even if he didn't sign up, the Gallery would definitely pull him into the game under the reason of "randomly screening players when total participants are under 40."
Since that was the case, it was better to actively sign up, which would seem more natural.
Fu Chen asked, "Or should we consider 6 people participating? Bringing one additional male and female.
"I can also participate. Lawyer Lin, what do you think?"
Lin Sizhi considered for a moment, "I also lean toward 4 people participating. This is, after all, our first time participating in a 'screening' type game, and we're uncertain about the risks.
"The more people there are, the more chaotic it might become.
"If we return safely this time and confirm that 'screening' type games are relatively safe games, then we can consider increasing the number of participants next time."
Fu Chen nodded, "Alright, then I respect your opinion."
Zheng Jie looked at the other three who would participate in the game and began worrying again.
"Blind dating... I've never participated in one before.
"Medical students are too busy. These past years, apart from attending classes, I've been on duty shifts. I haven't had time for romance at all..."
Fu Chen comforted him, "It's okay. You're a doctor. Logically, doctors should be very sought after in the blind dating market."
Wang Yongxin spoke in a hoarse voice, "There's another point I think needs attention.
"The Gallery gave a special reminder that killing God's Imitators can divide their visa time, while killing the God's Imitator of the current game can make the game end directly.
"I think starting from this game, Lawyer Lin, you all can try to look for people who might be God's Imitators in the game.
"If there are players who blatantly exploit hard-to-detect backdoors in the game, they might be God's Imitators. Killing them would be like hitting the jackpot."
Lin Sizhi nodded, "It's still unclear whether this game actually contains killing rules. But don't worry, if there's a suitable opportunity, I'll try."
Yang Yuting and Xu Tong looked at each other. Obviously, they couldn't give the decisive promise of "will kill" like Lin Sizhi.
Even if they really found a God's Imitator, they might still go through some internal struggle before deciding to kill him.
But regardless, the Gallery's revelation of this rule meant all players had to quickly prepare themselves mentally for killing.
Afterward, everyone briefly speculated about possible mechanisms the game might have.
But obviously, just from the four words "Blind Date Game," trying to guess the game's specific rules was too difficult. At most, they could only briefly cover basic blind dating etiquette and other insignificant details.
Everyone knew these would probably be useless, but really couldn't think of what else to do with the remaining time.
As the countdown reached zero, new information appeared on the big screen.
[Participating players from this community: Yang Yuting, Xu Tong, Zheng Jie, Lin Sizhi.]
The next second, the four people disappeared from the hall.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:43:08 +0000 UTC
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In a certain community, in a certain room.
The God's Imitator who designed the "Blind Date Game" had just opened their personal computer when they received a new message.
[Although your "Blind Date Game" has preliminarily passed review, it still has flaws and faces the possibility of being rejected.]
[Below are suggestions given by two excellent God's Imitators after reviewing some rules of the "Blind Date Game." You may consider selecting one and incorporating these suggestions into the game rules.]
[Please note:]
[You may refuse both suggestions simultaneously, but after refusal, the Gallery will continue to screen new suggestions for you until you accept one.]
[If you accept one suggestion and voluntarily enter your own game, then the "Blind Date Game" will immediately be selected, and the Gallery will significantly raise the game's rating as well as their regard for you.]
"Oh? My game passed review!"
Upon seeing this message, the God's Imitator's first feeling was joy.
Because apart from the game when they first entered the New World barely achieving a C rating, they had failed to grasp the two opportunities since then.
One allocation game, one judgment game, both planning documents were ruthlessly rejected by the Gallery.
Having the identity of a God's Imitator but being unable to use this identity to earn large amounts of visa time was indeed very frustrating.
Fortunately, the "Blind Date Game" conceived through racking their brains had finally gained the Gallery's recognition.
"I'm aware there are still flaws, but what's this about excellent God's Imitators' suggestions?
"Would the Gallery really be so kind as to send other God's Imitators to guide me?"
With doubts, the God's Imitator examined these two different suggestions.
One was "Suggestion A," one was "Suggestion B." Although both used printed fonts, from the rule-writing habits, they clearly came from two different people.
"Suggestion A" had 5 suggestions, but upon seeing the first one, the God's Imitator couldn't help but frown.
"Actually wanting to add a rule allowing 'consumption of likes to avoid death' in the game?
"What kind of joke is this? If death can be avoided so easily, wouldn't the game's death rate drop significantly? How would I harvest visa time then?"
The God's Imitator directly tossed "Suggestion A" aside, no longer considering it.
They began examining "Suggestion B," which had only four suggestions this time.
"First rule: visa time exchange coupons, once purchased, cannot be converted back to visa time and can only be given to other players in meeting rooms?
"Hmm... this doesn't matter.
"To purchase a 10,000-minute exchange coupon, players need to spend 12,000 minutes of visa time, and the coupon's purpose is to let male players benefit female players.
"The original design allowed coupons to be self-recycled, just at a 20% loss. Now not allowing self-recycling and only allowing giving to others is actually harsher for players.
"Second rule: meeting rooms require payment of room fees...
"Hmm? This seems like a very good suggestion!
"In the original design, entering meeting rooms required no room fees, so there would be no friction between male and female players over this.
"Requiring room fee payment, and deducting money from both when they disagree, is very beneficial for intensifying conflicts between male and female players, making them enter killing mode faster.
"Moreover, the room fee setting makes this game more like actual blind dating. This rule should undoubtedly be adopted.
"Third rule: any killing method requires system notification to the target 10 seconds before taking effect...
"So instead of immediate killing, it's notification first, then killing after 10 seconds?
"This also seems inconsequential. This game has no death-avoidance rules, and the 10-second wait doesn't change the result of being killed. Instead, it would make players more panicked and do more irrational things within those 10 seconds.
"Fourth rule: after accumulating 5 broadcasts, one can forcibly cut in line for talent shows and personally select a player for talent show PK...
"This is also a rule completely beneficial to me, right?
"According to my design, players who send many broadcasts must be dangerous elements with high hatred levels. Giving such dangerous elements a free talent show queue-cutting opportunity and allowing them to select their enemies for PK...
"Then they can use this chance to incite audiences to use 20 'boring' votes to directly kill their enemies, further increasing the game's death rate."
After careful consideration, the God's Imitator felt the four items in "Suggestion B" were very reasonable.
Some seemed inconsequential, but some indeed further enhanced the game's danger and player death rate.
"It seems there are differences even among excellent God's Imitators.
"The God's Imitator of 'Suggestion B' completely considered problems from my standpoint and indeed had obvious improvement effects on the game.
"I accept these suggestions."
After serious consideration, the God's Imitator signed the form for "Suggestion B."
The "Blind Date Game" planning document's preliminary approval meant it was finalized, and the God's Imitator could no longer actively modify it.
But "adopting suggestions" was possible.
According to the Gallery, they could refuse this suggestion, but after refusal, there would be new suggestions, which might not be as suitable.
Like "Suggestion A," requiring death-avoidance rules to be added to the game was absolutely unacceptable to the God's Imitator.
Moreover, accepting suggestions and entering the game personally had very clear benefits for the God's Imitator.
The Gallery would significantly raise the game's rating and place greater importance on this God's Imitator.
This meant review standards would become more lenient, future designed games would have higher chances of passing review, and they could obtain benefits available only to excellent God's Imitators.
As for the danger of personally participating in the game...
The God's Imitator was completely confident, believing they would be absolutely safe in this game and that absolutely no one could pose any threat to them.
Absolutely not.
...
Three days later, morning.
Lin Sizhi came to the hall for breakfast as usual.
"Brother Lin! Can I sit here to eat?" Zheng Jie held a sandwich and milk, asking cautiously.
Lin Sizhi reached out to pull out a chair for him, "Of course, sit."
Zheng Jie sat down beside him. After three days of familiarization, he had completely understood the community's related rules and seemed to have generally adapted to life in the New World.
As for the others, they were all gradually recovering from the shadow of Ding Wenqiang's death.
Only Su Xiucen had become reclusive, appearing in the hall less and less frequently.
"Brother Fu Chen told me about your performance in 'Blood Poker.' I really admire you!
"Ah, I'm very worried about whether I can survive these games.
"Brother Lin, can you teach me? For these life-and-death games that test intelligence, or gambling techniques, are there any tricks?"
However, before Lin Sizhi could answer, new information appeared on the big screen.
[Good morning, players!]
[The "Gallery" will open in 1 hour.]
[This game is called "Blind Date Game," with the objective of "screening players."]
[Players for this game come from 6 communities, totaling 40 players.]
[Number of participants per community: 4-8 people.]
[The three players with the least remaining visa time in each community will be forced to participate, with other players volunteering.]
[Each community must have at least 1 player volunteer to make up 4 people, with the male-to-female ratio being 1:1. If conditions aren't met, the Gallery will randomly select from remaining community players.]
[If total enrollment from all communities is less than 40 people after completion, the Gallery will randomly draw players from all players to fill the quota.]
[Please prepare, players.]
[Additionally, given that the death rate of "God's Imitators" in the New World is lower than the Gallery's expectations, we remind all players of two hidden rules that have long existed but have not been discovered by most players:]
[1. If a player kills any God's Imitator in a game, all surviving players in the game will equally divide that God's Imitator's entire visa time after the game ends.]
[2. If a player kills the God's Imitator who designed that game during the game, the game will immediately end and proceed to settlement.]
Then, a one-hour countdown appeared on the big screen.
59:59...
59:58...
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:42:39 +0000 UTC
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Seeing this data, Lin Sizhi fell into brief contemplation.
"In other words, the God's Imitator who designed this game believes that even in situations where there are more intelligent people in the game, there would still be a baseline death rate of 40%.
"And in cases where the participating players aren't very intelligent, the death rate would be as high as 70%.
"Was it designed according to these values from the very beginning?"
Depending on the type of game, the Gallery would provide planning document formats with subtle differences.
For instance, allocation-type games like "Blood Poker," or general judgment-type games, would not require God's Imitators to fill in the [Estimated Death Rate].
But this game was a new type: "Screening Type." Based on the Gallery's previous descriptions, in simpler terms, this meant elimination.
Moreover, the elimination targets included both God's Imitators and players simultaneously.
In screening-type game planning documents, there was a rather prominent feature: the [Estimated Death Rate] field appeared on the first page, with an additional note stating that designers needed to write what they believed could be the upper and lower limits of possible death rates.
However, there was no requirement stating "the death rate must reach a certain percentage" or similar demands.
In other words, even with the purpose of "eliminating players," how many to eliminate specifically was still decided by the God's Imitator designing the game.
Forty players, if 70% were eliminated, that would mean 28 people would die.
Lin Sizhi couldn't help but frown slightly.
"This death rate is far too high. Is this really 'selection,' or is it 'mowing grass'?"
He continued reading.
The planning document was densely filled with numerous rules according to the established format, and all the required props were clearly written out.
Lin Sizhi carefully reviewed the incomplete planning document from beginning to end and roughly determined the game's content.
The "Blind Date Game" would select 40 players from 6 communities to participate, 20 males and 20 females.
The three players with the least visa time from each community would be forced to participate.
Additionally, participation was possible through voluntary registration, with each community limited to a total of 4-8 people, and the male-to-female ratio must be maintained at 1:1.
The game would continue for 8 hours.
Male and female players had different benefit rules:
Male players would receive 30,000 minutes of visa time as a reward indiscriminately when leaving the game.
Female players would have small amounts of visa time randomly deducted every hour during the game (within 5 minutes), and would not receive the 30,000-minute visa time reward when the game ended.
After the game officially began, it would alternate between "10-minute rest - 10-minute meeting" modes, meaning each player would conduct 24 meetings within the 8 hours.
Throughout the entire 8-hour game, players could only move within their own rest rooms when not in meeting rooms with other players, and could not communicate with other players through any means.
During meetings, players from different communities would be randomly matched, with a 75% probability of being matched with opposite-sex players.
Players would receive 1 "like" and 1 "dislike" per hour, which could be given to the other party during meetings to express their attitude.
The final meeting of the game would conduct a "final selection vote." If the meeting pair were of opposite sexes and mutually gave each other likes, both would receive an additional 30,000 minutes of visa time when leaving the game.
Starting from the second hour, the game would also update "talent show" rules, randomly selecting two players for talent show PK battles.
Other players could vote "interesting" or "boring" for them, where 10 "interesting" votes could be exchanged for 1 "like," and receiving 20 "boring" votes would forcibly cut off the performance.
In the rest rooms, there were vending machines and data query machines.
The vending machines sold expensive food, beverages, and visa time exchange coupons.
The data query machines could check the number of "likes" and "dislikes" one had received, could also query data related to "proportions" within the game, and broadcast to all players.
However, they could not query any data related to individual "like" and "dislike" changes.
After 4 hours, the game would enter the second phase and add completely new rules.
But what exactly these rules were was not specified in the remaining pages of the planning document.
There were only three fragments of incomplete information:
[After entering the second phase, players who receive 20 "boring" votes in talent show performances will suffer instant death punishment.]
[After killing other players through any rule within the game, one will receive 1/10 of that player's remaining visa time as a personal reward.]
[When multiple people are involved in a player's death, the above reward will be equally divided.]
Besides the planning document, there was also a blank document with space reserved for five new rules, which was for Lin Sizhi to fill out.
...
"Can such a game really cause a 40%-70% death rate?
"Obviously, in the latter four hours of the game, the second phase, there must be even more cruel killing rules, and there's likely more than one."
Lin Sizhi quickly realized this.
From the rules he had seen so far, there was only one killing rule: "receiving 20 'boring' votes in talent shows would result in death." But relying on this single killing rule to create such a high death rate would be nearly impossible.
Moreover, the rule stating "killing other players through any rule within the game can earn 1/10 of the deceased's visa time" emphasized "any rule."
This meant there must be more than one way to kill within the game.
But these killing methods were completely absent from the first phase of the game.
In other words, this God's Imitator deliberately cut the "Blind Date Game" in half: the first 4 hours contained no killing rules and appeared to be a low-difficulty game where everyone could harmoniously work together to gain benefits.
But in the latter 4 hours, several killing rules would suddenly be updated, and through some means, players would be incited to slaughter each other to gain maximum benefits.
The God's Imitator used 1/10 of the deceased's visa time as bait, while actually keeping the remaining 9/10 for themselves.
From the invitation content the Gallery gave Lin Sizhi, it seemed the Gallery wasn't entirely satisfied with this game's design either.
But the Gallery didn't directly reject the game.
Within the ambiguous range, the Gallery chose to let a God's Imitator judge another God's Imitator.
If Lin Sizhi did nothing, this game might still proceed normally and harvest many players' lives.
What particularly concerned Lin Sizhi was the Gallery's final statement.
[Just as players can slowly change communities, God's Imitators will also slowly change the Gallery.]
"This might be hinting that the Gallery's review standards and rules are not strictly unchanging, but are influenced by the majority of God's Imitators.
"Just like players to communities: if players are all harmonious and loving, then the community will also be harmonious and loving. If players are all selfish, then the community will likely fall apart.
"If all God's Imitators take pleasure in harvesting players' visa time and continuously push the boundaries of Gallery rules in game after game, then the New World might become a pure player slaughterhouse."
Lin Sizhi picked up the planning document again, tapped it on the desk to align it.
"I don't like slaughterhouses."
Then, he took out the blank page for adding rules and began writing.
Once he accepted the Gallery's matched game, it meant both he and the God's Imitator who designed this game would enter the game.
Therefore, the rules Lin Sizhi added had only two purposes:
First, to ensure his own safety as much as possible, creating or expanding usable backdoors for himself.
Second, to compress the opponent's survival space as much as possible, ideally quickly locating the opponent's identity and killing them.
But the problem was that these rules could only be added to the game after the opponent agreed to them.
In other words, the rules Lin Sizhi added had to deceive the opponent on the surface, even making them mistakenly believe these rules were beneficial for "harvesting players."
He absolutely could not expose his intention to kill the opponent.
After consideration, Lin Sizhi wrote down four rules.
[1. Once visa time exchange coupons are purchased, the purchaser can no longer convert them back to visa time and can only give them to other players through meeting rooms.]
[2. Each entry to a meeting room requires payment of room usage fees: 200 minutes of visa time. Players each have three buttons: "I'll pay," "Split," and "You pay." When both parties reach agreement, deduction follows the agreed method. When parties disagree or exceed the time limit without pressing buttons, each will be deducted 200 minutes of visa time.]
[3. Any killing method requires system notification to the target 10 seconds before taking effect.]
[4. After accumulating 5 broadcasts, one can forcibly cut in line for talent shows and personally select a player for talent show PK.]
After writing the rules, Lin Sizhi checked them for errors, signed, and submitted.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:42:10 +0000 UTC
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Hearing this, quite a few people nodded with satisfaction.
Though only a resident in training, he was at least in surgery.
Actually, Zheng Jie's age was still somewhat younger than what everyone had previously expected, but the relevant rules had already mentioned that selecting people couldn't be completely customized, it was just screening for the relatively most suitable candidate from a large batch of available players.
A bit younger was fine, it was sufficient to meet the medical conditions currently needed by the community.
"There happen to be two injured people in the community, please take a look at them," Fu Chen said.
Zheng Jie quickly nodded, "Okay, okay."
He examined the shoulder wounds of Wang Yongxin and Cai Zhiyuan, then said, "Nothing serious. The bandaging technique is completely fine, just... a tiny bit rough.
"Leave it to me when it's time to change the bandages next time."
Yang Yuting praised, "Not bad, Dr. Zheng, quite reliable."
Zheng Jie was somewhat embarrassed, his face reddening, "No, no, I'm a doctor, this is just my job."
Jiang He suggested, "Perfect timing, didn't we still have something unresolved yesterday?
"We still need to vote for a 'Medical Supplies Manager' to help us manage the entire community's medical supplies. I think there couldn't be a better candidate than Dr. Little Zheng.
"Should we go vote right now?"
Everyone headed to the Community Management Office to vote, while Li Renshu, with a somewhat serious expression, gave Zheng Jie a detailed introduction to the relevant rules of 'Medical Supplies Management' and the necessary duties of the supplies manager.
Including immediately purchasing appropriate medical supplies when casualties appeared, submitting detailed reports to the community after spending every 10,000 minutes of visa time, giving briefings, and so on.
Aunt Su wasn't present, so Xu Tong specifically went to knock on her room door to notify her to complete the voting on her personal computer.
[Community 'Medical Supplies Manager' voting completed.]
[Now announcing anonymous voting results:]
[Zheng Jie: 12 votes.]
[Zheng Jie will become the community's 'Medical Supplies Manager,' undertaking corresponding responsibilities within the rules.]
Cheers and applause erupted in the hall.
Zheng Jie stood up somewhat embarrassedly and bowed to everyone, "Thank you all for your trust! I will definitely seriously fulfill my duties and do my job well!"
Obviously, as a new player joining on his first day, his impression of Community 17 was quite good. Everyone was very kind and friendly.
If it weren't for those terrifying life-and-death games everyone mentioned, this so-called New World would really be a very warm place.
Xu Tong suggested, "Today is a day worth celebrating. To welcome Dr. Little Zheng's arrival, how about we have a dinner party tonight?
"There are still many dishes in the vending machine that we didn't get to try last time."
Although it sounded like a natural proposal, it didn't immediately get much response.
Although some people clearly had similar thoughts, they still showed some hesitation.
Li Renshu shook her head slightly, "Dr. Zheng just arrived at the community, he's still unfamiliar with many things. I think we should give him some time to integrate a bit.
"Dinner parties can happen anytime, there's no rush."
Xu Tong nodded somewhat puzzled, "Oh, that's fine too. Then, welcome Dr. Little Zheng's arrival!"
Fu Chen stood up and said, "I'll take you to your room on the second floor so you can settle in and rest.
"This afternoon I'll take you around the community to familiarize yourself with the environment. Of course, if you want to walk around by yourself, that's fine too."
Zheng Jie quickly nodded, "Thank you, Brother Fu Chen."
After the two left the hall, Li Renshu tugged at Xu Tong's clothes and lowered her voice, "Your suggestion was good, but also pay attention to the community's atmosphere right now.
"It's good that Aunt Su wasn't here. If she had heard, she would definitely feel bad inside.
"At least wait a few more days until everyone has let go somewhat, then we'll discuss dinner parties."
Xu Tong was startled and lowered her voice, "Ah, sorry, I was thoughtless.
"Alright, then we'll talk about it another day."
Li Renshu patted her arm, "I know, in this kind of environment everyone's nerves are tense, and they want to relieve stress through dinner parties or other means. That's very normal.
"After this period passes, we'll consider having another dinner party."
...
That evening, Lin Sizhi returned to his room and opened his computer to check as usual.
This time, new messages appeared on the computer.
[Hello, Lin Sizhi.]
['Life and Death Straight Line' was not selected, but being rejected by the Gallery is a necessary path for every God's Imitator approaching divinity.]
['Life and Death Straight Line' will still be included in the Gallery's alternative plans. If there's a suitable opportunity, it still has a very small probability of being selected again as a non-judgment game.]
[Or, you can also modify it and resubmit it in a future invitation.]
[In three days, the Gallery will open several different 'Screening Games.']
[The screening targets include not only players but also God's Imitators.]
[So far, there are still a large number of failed God's Imitators who haven't met the Gallery's requirements: they have never been able to submit any game design proposals rated above B-level.]
[Two days ago, the Gallery already sent these God's Imitators design invitations for this 'Screening Game,' and they have completed their game designs.]
[As an excellent God's Imitator, you can assist the Gallery in judging whether these God's Imitators have the qualifications to continue surviving in the New World.]
[The Gallery will show you the 'partial rules' of a certain 'Screening Game.']
[If you approve of this God's Imitator's design, then you don't need to do anything and don't need to participate in this game.]
[If you don't approve of this God's Imitator's design and believe he should be 'sanctioned' or 'eliminated,' then the Gallery will allow you to add or modify 3 to 5 rules in the game.]
[Please note: These rules will be submitted to the God's Imitator who designed the game for review. Only with his approval will these rules be written into the game's design proposal.]
[When this game begins, whether voluntarily or by force, you and this God's Imitator must both enter the game.]
[You can freely make your decision, but please remember:]
[Just as players can slowly change communities, God's Imitators will also slowly change the Gallery.]
After carefully reading all this information on the computer screen, Lin Sizhi opened his desk drawer and skillfully took out a planning document.
This was a completed game planning document, but severely missing pages.
The Gallery hadn't shown all the rules of this game.
As for why, Lin Sizhi wasn't clear either, but just like the previous files that were also incomplete, it seemed the Gallery enjoyed increasing difficulty for God's Imitators by hiding partial rules.
This made sense too: because in the Gallery's judgment, Lin Sizhi was an 'excellent God's Imitator,' while the opponent was a 'failed God's Imitator.'
If Lin Sizhi saw all the game rules, then this confrontation between God's Imitators might become one-sided without any suspense.
The Gallery wanted to eliminate these failed God's Imitators, but wouldn't completely deny them any chance of survival.
Four words were neatly written at the top of the planning document: 'Blind Date Game.'
On the first page was also a line of key data: [Estimated player death rate for this game: 40%~70%].
This was a required field in screening game planning documents, filled in by the designer himself.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:41:37 +0000 UTC
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Qin Yao seemed to understand somewhat, nodding slightly, "Mm, it really does seem to be like that...
"If we changed to an older doctor, there could be corresponding arguments too.
"For example, older doctors have richer experience and more professional knowledge, providing greater help for our puzzle-solving.
"If Li Renshu had said these words at that time, she could similarly have gotten many people's agreement.
"This vote was 9 votes, compared to the minimum threshold of 7 votes needed to pass a proposal, there's still some buffer space.
"That is to say, even if Li Renshu's proposal was somewhat more unreasonable than 'young male doctor,' with two more opposing votes, the proposal could still be implemented."
Lin Sizhi continued, "Yes.
"When she rejected nurses, her reason was 'doctors have more systematic medical knowledge,' but when choosing between older or younger doctors, she no longer considered this criterion.
"This shows that when selecting people, she actually has obvious multiple standards, and behind all multiple standards, there's actually a hidden standard.
"Not only that, by discussing the second proposal first, she had already determined there would inevitably be such a person managing medical supplies. After everyone agreed to this proposal, they would naturally also agree to recruiting a doctor.
"After Li Renshu finished speaking, Cai Zhiyuan was first to express support, then he specifically called on me and Officer Cao.
"After we two supported this proposal, on the surface, a situation of four to five supporting votes had formed. Considering the weight of mine and Officer Cao's opinions, this would further influence the attitude of swing votes.
"So, this discussion hosted by Li Renshu produced completely different results from the morning discussion hosted by Fu Chen.
"Everyone's viewpoints didn't actually change much, but as long as the meeting moderator slightly adjusted meeting details in unnoticeable places, they could naturally achieve their objectives.
"If this ability to make decisive judgments in ambiguous spaces isn't power, then what is it?"
Qin Yao's expression still looked somewhat incredulous, "According to what you're saying, Lawyer Lin, the option of young male doctor was something Li Renshu deliberately guided everyone to choose.
"Besides the reasons visible on the surface, she actually has other reasons too.
"But I can't think of what other reasons there could be?"
Lin Sizhi smiled, "Consider this homework. Think about it slowly yourself."
He stood up preparing to leave.
Qin Yao also stood up, "Wait, I have one last question.
"Lawyer Lin, if it's really like you said... then what should we do? Are you worried about Fu Chen or Li Renshu becoming a dictator?"
Lin Sizhi shook his head, "Not worried for now.
"I'm telling you all this just to explain why Yang Yuting would try to approach you privately, wanting to establish a small group.
"You don't need to think so badly of her, and you don't need to think so well of Li Renshu.
"Yang Yuting's behavior is a natural self-preservation reaction from being excluded from the power center. This only shows her political awareness is relatively sensitive, and has nothing to do with whether her character is good or bad.
"Similarly, Li Renshu's behavior is attempting to expand her own influence and power. But after expansion, will she use this power to bind the community people together, giving us stronger force to face external challenges? Or will she use this power to pursue more private interests?
"Hard to say. I'm not a mind reader, much less a god who can predict the future.
"But generally speaking, any community will inevitably form new power structures after friction. This trend is irreversible. The only question is what the final form of this structure will be."
Qin Yao nodded thoughtfully, "Then... Lawyer Lin, what's your choice?"
Lin Sizhi looked at her, "My choice? I stand with the winning side."
Qin Yao was somewhat confused, "Huh? Shouldn't you more righteously emerge as a new power center and then lead our community to become stronger and stronger?"
Lin Sizhi shook his head, "I can't do that.
"Everyone has a special ecological niche in political life. For example, Wang Yongxin's niche is naturally that of a leader, so small groups that already have leaders won't accept him, and he can only start his own.
"And I'm naturally unsuited to be a leader.
"Besides, many times, being a leader isn't necessarily the position with the greatest benefits in a group.
"I'm going back to rest. You don't need to overthink it either. Maybe our community will be wiped out in the next game?"
Qin Yao looked shocked, "That's not comforting at all!"
...
The next morning.
Although no one specifically organized it, most players still spontaneously gathered in the hall.
After breakfast, everyone went about their own business. Some randomly picked books from the library area to read in the rest area, while others appeared more expectant, occasionally looking toward the community entrance through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Finally, notification information appeared on the big screen.
[New player visa review completed, will automatically be added as the new Player 10.]
[Please guide the new player to settle in and familiarize them with relevant community rules to avoid violations.]
[Community is at full capacity and automatically sealed, no longer accepting new players.]
Hearing the notification sound, everyone perked up.
"They're here!"
At the community entrance, a somewhat reserved-looking young man was looking toward the hall with hesitation.
He wore black-framed glasses, had a slightly round face shape, light stubble on his chin, and a thin build.
Fu Chen had already opened the hall door to welcome him, "Come in, welcome to Community 17."
Seeing so many people standing up to welcome him, the young man was somewhat flattered, "Hello everyone, I'm Zheng Jie. You can just call me Little Zheng."
Fu Chen smiled and asked, "You're a doctor, right? Then we should probably call you Dr. Zheng instead."
Zheng Jie was somewhat surprised, "Eh, how do you know I'm a doctor? Although my name is often joked about by others as being very suitable for being a doctor, you seem very certain, not like you're randomly guessing.
"Also, what exactly is this place?"
Fu Chen invited him further in, "Sit down and rest first. This is a long story, we'll chat slowly.
"Tea or coffee?"
Zheng Jie thought for a moment, "Do you have green tea? I prefer green tea."
"We do." Fu Chen used the security fund to buy a steaming cup of green tea from the vending machine and brought it to Zheng Jie.
The others also sat around the long table.
"Let me first explain the current situation."
Fu Chen, according to his understanding, gave Zheng Jie a detailed introduction to the relevant rules of the New World, communities, and the Gallery, then introduced him to the other members of Community 17.
Everyone's biggest question about Zheng Jie was: as a new player, was this really his first time coming to the New World?
Because it was also possible that after some communities lost too many people, the New World would disband these understaffed communities and reassign the players to other communities.
However, during the conversation, Zheng Jie clearly knew nothing about the New World's relevant rules.
Whether it was surprise at community benefits or fear of Gallery judgment, it was obviously not an act.
Zheng Jie also gave a simple introduction of his own identity.
He was 25 years old, currently a graduate student while simultaneously doing standardized residency training in the hospital's surgery department. His official title should be "professional master's degree combined training resident," though in the hospital he was generally called "Dr. Little Zheng."
Before entering the New World, his last memory was staying up all night on duty.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:41:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Lin Sizhi paused slightly and continued, "Let me ask you, suppose an all-controlling dictator claims he has no personal property, just like an emperor declaring his frugality, 'wearing only eight sets of clothes throughout the four seasons,' would you find it touching or ridiculous?"
Qin Yao thought for a moment, "I'd find it ridiculous.
"Because for a dictator, he doesn't need any personal property, the entire country is his personal property.
"Power is more precious than wealth. After already grasping absolute power, whether to obtain wealth only depends on whether he wants to or not."
Lin Sizhi nodded approvingly, "Mm? Not bad, you're a bit smarter than I imagined."
Qin Yao was somewhat angry, "I wasn't that stupid to begin with!
"But this is a completely different situation from our community, right?
"Fu Chen and Li Renshu, from any angle, are very far from being dictators or emperors, right? You can't use such extreme cases to argue, that's a slippery slope fallacy."
Lin Sizhi explained, "Yes, these two differ in degree and cannot be compared.
"What I want to say is that influence in the community, or going further, power, is also one of their hidden incomes. And this kind of income is actually much more precious than visa time."
Qin Yao frowned deeply, "I understand they have influence, but where is the power?
"They can propose motions, but ultimately they still need voting to implement them.
"If it infringes on the interests of the majority, then the majority would definitely vote against it, and the proposal wouldn't be implemented.
"Not only that, once they propose motions that infringe on the majority's interests, everyone would see their true colors and they'd be universally condemned like rats crossing the street.
"At that time, all the influence they've accumulated would vanish into thin air. Wouldn't that be working for nothing?"
Lin Sizhi nodded, "That's right, there is that possibility you mentioned. But actually, this problem is more complex than you imagine.
"How would a smart politician make such a basic mistake?
"They would use natural, unnoticeable methods to effortlessly influence most people's thoughts and naturally promote what they want to do.
"You must understand, obtaining power isn't going directly from 0 to 1, but has intermediate states.
"Similarly, a person going from a nobody with no influence to a dictator who can determine everyone's fate doesn't jump directly from 0 to 1 either, but accumulates bit by bit.
"Saying it this way, you might find it hard to understand. Let me give a more specific example.
"This morning, if we had directly voted to choose a new member, how many people do you think would have unhesitatingly voted in favor of a 'young male doctor'?"
Qin Yao recalled seriously, "Probably... at most three or four votes. At that time, some people clearly opposed this proposal, and there were many other options, like chef, nurse, female doctor, etc. Even when I mentioned special forces, two or three people nodded.
"Most people couldn't say they opposed the 'young male doctor' option, but they couldn't say they particularly agreed either.
"So if we voted directly, these people might subconsciously vote against first to reject this proposal, then discuss slowly."
Lin Sizhi paused and continued, "But by evening, the vote count became 9.
"Could it be that from morning to evening, everyone independently thought and suddenly coincidentally unified their thoughts, all believing young male doctors were better?"
This question somewhat stumped Qin Yao.
Because from intuitive feeling, that's exactly what seemed to happen.
Clearly in the morning, everyone was speaking freely and expressing different views, but in the evening, without much argument, it smoothly passed with nine votes.
"Lawyer Lin, you mean that from morning to evening, many small groups I didn't know about discussed privately and had already unified their thoughts? The evening meeting was just going through the motions?"
Lin Sizhi shook his head repeatedly, "No, no, no, you're completely wrong.
"The kind of private coordination by small groups you mentioned is possible, but not right now.
"Because such coordination would only coordinate two or three different options, triggering bigger controversies, and unlikely to form unified opinions.
"The evening proposals proceeded so smoothly precisely because our community currently only has one highly organized small group, which is Li Renshu's.
Qin Yao was even more puzzled, "But this small group is at most three to five people, right? Where did the other four votes come from?"
Lin Sizhi smiled, "Very good, we're finally getting to the key issue.
"These four votes can originally be seen as 'swing votes,' meaning they weren't sure which option to vote for. They might think older male doctors were good, or female nurses or even chefs were acceptable.
"But when voting, they no longer swing.
"To make them change like this doesn't require private persuasion at all, that would be too deliberate and might trigger wariness.
"You just need slight guidance during the meeting to make them change their minds.
"They might even feel that choosing a young male doctor is their own inner thought.
"And this kind of influence can also be understood as power, which is the hidden income that our community's organizers obtain through discussing proposals repeatedly."
Qin Yao felt her brain was getting dizzy, "Sorry, Lawyer Lin, I still don't understand. I didn't feel there was anything wrong with the process when Li Renshu was moderating the discussion?"
Lin Sizhi explained, "The proposal of motions, the choice of proposals, the order of discussion, these seemingly unimportant aspects can actually influence the results of discussion.
"A simple question: why put three proposals together for discussion?
"Li Renshu's explanation was to save time, but actually we have plenty of time.
"Only the recruitment topic needs to be decided before tomorrow morning, while the Community Protection Fund supplementary rules and medical supplies rules could be implemented five or ten days later without any impact.
"But bundling these three proposals together for discussion creates additional effects:
"The first two proposals are very comprehensive and serve the interests of the vast majority in the community. You could say there's absolutely no room for opposition, and they would very likely pass unanimously.
"While discussing these two proposals, because no one opposes them, Li Renshu can establish a kind of 'temporary authority,' making people feel she has considered all aspects of various situations, and that her words and choices are optimal solutions.
"In this atmosphere, we began discussing the third proposal.
"Li Renshu added a third reason on top of Cai Zhiyuan's original two reasons, saying we must also consider this new member's moral level, and that young doctors naturally have higher moral standards.
"Combined with her previous authority, it appeared particularly convincing.
"But think about it now, is it really a statistically supported fact that older doctors are more likely to have medical ethics and moral character problems? Even if it were fact, is this probability deviation large enough that we must take it into consideration?
"Of course, I'm not saying older doctors would definitely be better choices. All discussions are just about hypothetical possibilities. I'm just emphasizing the personnel selection criteria issue.
"Is this a single standard or a multiple standard?
"If it's multiple standards, who decides the weight between different standards?
"Li Renshu's words certainly had elements of 'going with the flow,' generally conforming to most people's demands, but these demands actually have large ambiguous spaces.
"In other words, if Li Renshu now wanted an older doctor, could she possibly achieve 7 votes of agreement and implementation by changing certain rhetoric?"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:40:35 +0000 UTC
View Post
Soon, the detailed content of the three proposals appeared on the large screen.
[A player has submitted proposals, which the community has reviewed and approved.]
[Within the next hour, please have all members enter the 'Community Management Office' or vote anonymously on personal computers.]
[If the proposal receives 7 or more votes of support, it will be implemented as a basic rule.]
[Proposal 1: Add supplementary rules for 'Community Protection Fund.']
[Proposal 2: Add 'Medical Supplies Management' rules.]
[Proposal 3: New recruitment candidate - young male surgeon.]
Each proposal also detailed various specific clauses, but since Li Renshu had already explained them thoroughly, everyone just quickly skimmed through and soon had no more questions.
People began entering the Community Management Office one by one to vote.
[Voting has been completed.]
[Now announcing the anonymous voting results:]
[Proposal 1: Add supplementary rules for 'Community Protection Fund.']
[In favor: 12 votes.]
[Against: 0 votes.]
['Community Protection Fund' supplementary rules established.]
[Unconverted earnings will be converted according to the new rules.]
[Proposal 2: Add 'Medical Supplies Management' rules.]
[In favor: 12 votes.]
[Against: 0 votes.]
['Medical Supplies Management' rules established.]
[Please submit proposals as soon as possible to vote for a 'Medical Supplies Manager.']
[Proposal 3: New recruitment candidate - young male surgeon]
[In favor: 9 votes.]
[Against: 3 votes.]
[New recruitment candidate - young male surgeon vote passed. The community will screen within a certain range according to this requirement and recruit relatively suitable new players.]
Seeing the voting results, small cheers erupted in the hall.
"Wow! Unanimous!"
"Really, so unified this time?"
"That's reasonable, because Renshu's plan was perfect, there's no reason not to agree."
Most people looked very happy.
Li Renshu also had a smile on her face, but she remained modest, "Not at all, this is actually the result of everyone's collective effort. I just spent a bit more time consolidating everyone's opinions.
"I think it's also good that there were opposing opinions on the recruitment candidate, after all, everyone has different expectations for new members.
"However, since this proposal has been finalized, I hope everyone can welcome this new member with an open and inclusive attitude, okay?"
Everyone nodded, "No problem!"
With the three proposals passed, everyone felt relieved, as if their bodies had become much lighter.
As for why they didn't vote for a 'Medical Supplies Manager,' the reason was simple: everyone knew this position definitely belonged to the new member, so they would wait until he arrived to vote.
"Everyone worked hard, rest early!"
"Thanks for the hard work!"
"Good night everyone."
Everyone stood up, said good night to each other, and walked up different staircases to return to the second floor to rest in twos and threes.
...
Lin Sizhi had just reached the stair landing when he suddenly heard someone calling him from behind.
"Lawyer Lin, wait a moment!"
Lin Sizhi turned around and saw it was Qin Yao.
"Mm? What's the matter?"
Qin Yao's expression was somewhat hesitant, "There is something, but I'm not sure if I should ask you."
Lin Sizhi thought for a moment, "Then let's find a place to chat casually."
The two went to the third floor and found an empty small room.
It had to be said that the entire community was quite large. Whether it was this main building or the various supporting buildings around the community, they far exceeded the daily needs of 12 people.
It could be said that in normal times, ninety percent of the entire community was unoccupied.
The third floor was the same. These intricate small rooms had excellent privacy and strong soundproofing, as if they were specifically encouraging players to come here for private conversations.
Qin Yao hesitated for a moment and said, "It's like this, earlier Yang Yuting said she wanted to... sigh, what she said was somewhat complex, I didn't quite understand, but roughly she wanted to unite somehow, to cast opposing votes together when necessary or something like that."
Lin Sizhi nodded, "Mm, so your question is?"
Qin Yao was somewhat surprised, "Huh? Isn't this already a problem? Someone in the community is forming a small clique!
"Lawyer Lin, why don't you look surprised at all?"
Lin Sizhi smiled somewhat meaningfully, "We 12 people have different genders, ages, educational backgrounds, professions, and naturally our ideologies and values are vastly different.
"It would be even more frightening if small groups didn't appear, right?
"If everyone truly had exactly the same heart, I'd have to suspect there's a cultist with mind control magic among these 12 people."
Qin Yao deflated somewhat. Obviously, before finding Lin Sizhi, she should have gone through a lot of mental struggle, on one hand worrying whether her behavior was informing, and on the other hand worrying whether this small group would have unpredictable destructive effects if she didn't speak up.
But judging from Lin Sizhi's reaction, it turned out she was making a big fuss over nothing.
Qin Yao was somewhat dejected, "Alright, I just feel that... Fu Chen and Li Renshu have always been thinking of everyone in the community, racking their brains to think of proposals, trying their best to comfort everyone and mediate conflicts, and in this process they have no additional benefits at all.
"Yet Yang Yuting still wants to form a small group to oppose them, which is somewhat inappropriate.
"Of course, I think Yang Yuting's nature probably isn't bad either, maybe she just has some kind of persecution complex? I don't know, I'm talking nonsense."
Lin Sizhi shifted his position to sit more comfortably on the sofa, "Your statement has too many problems, I don't even know where to start.
"How about this, I'll give you two choices now:
"The first choice is you go back to sleep right now, then forget all of this completely. When voting, vote however you want to vote, and you don't need to struggle with which side to stand on, just be a carefree onlooker enjoying the drama.
"I can guarantee that even if you do this, nothing will change at all.
"The second choice is I'll give you some basic education. But once you've heard these words, the way this community looks in your eyes might undergo tremendous changes.
"This is called the 'curse of knowledge,' meaning once you know certain knowledge, you can never return to your original carefree state."
Qin Yao nervously fidgeted with her fingers, "Lawyer Lin, you really look like an investigator from some Cthulhu novels right now...
"But I still want to know. I want to become as smart as you. I don't want to drag everyone down in future games."
Lin Sizhi nodded, "Good, I respect your choice.
"Let me think, where should I start?
"Mm, let's start with what you just mentioned. You said Fu Chen and Li Renshu have always been thinking of everyone in the community, racking their brains to think of proposals, comforting everyone and mediating conflicts, with absolutely no additional benefits.
"Are you sure there are no additional benefits?
"Benefits aren't just visa time, there are other invisible things too."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:40:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Obviously, for someone like Wang Yongxin who contributed more money, he would definitely prefer to get more back.
But the problem was that the visa time in the Community Protection Fund pool was accumulated from many contributions, making it very difficult to distinguish exactly how much each person had contributed.
In this situation, a proportional return plan would be very troublesome, so it was better to just divide equally.
Moreover, for most people, they naturally favored the equal distribution plan, since wealthy people in the community would always be the minority.
Wang Yongxin didn't need to be the bad guy over these trivial amounts of visa time, so it was better to go with the flow and divide equally.
Li Renshu nodded, "Good, then this clause is passed?"
No one objected.
Li Renshu continued, "The second proposal, simply put, is to elect a medical supplies manager who will use the Community Protection Fund to purchase necessary medical supplies and provide necessary medical services to all community players.
"I know this will increase the community's organizational operating costs, so I must explain to everyone why we need such a person:
"First, using the Community Protection Fund to purchase medical supplies can reduce individual burden and avoid waste, which should be uncontroversial.
"Setting up a dedicated manager is mainly to improve efficiency.
"Perhaps the Gallery's games will become increasingly dangerous, and we'll get injured more frequently.
"If we purchase medical supplies individually, it would not only cause waste, but there might also be situations where unconscious players cannot make purchases.
"If we want to use the Community Protection Fund, since it involves public funds, to prevent misuse, in principle we would need to submit proposals and go through voting procedures for safety.
"But this could very likely delay treatment for the injured.
"If we stockpile medical supplies in advance, it could easily cause unnecessary waste. It's better to buy as needed.
"All these problems can be solved by establishing a medical supplies manager.
"Everyone might worry that this person would line their own pockets or deliberately empty the Community Protection Fund.
"I've made two restrictions for this: first, their authority is limited to purchasing medical supplies from vending machines, and when cumulative spending reaches 10,000 minutes of visa time, they must submit details for full review before another 10,000-minute quota can be opened; second, as long as voting reaches seven votes, they can be dismissed and replaced at any time."
Everyone looked at each other silently, but still no one objected.
Jiang He smiled somewhat helplessly, "Renshu, you've thought this through so comprehensively, anticipating everything we did and didn't think of and writing it all into the proposal.
"What else is there to say? I think there's absolutely no problem."
The others also nodded one after another.
Li Renshu still maintained a very calm expression, not appearing too happy about the proposal passing, but simply continued, "Good, then the second proposal is also finished with discussion.
"The third proposal is about the candidate for recruitment. After careful consideration, I still lean toward Cai Zhiyuan's viewpoint: a young male surgeon.
"As for why we must specify 'young,' besides what Cai Zhiyuan mentioned before about better physical fitness and greater survival ability in games, I think there's another very important factor, which is... character.
"Although most doctors are noble and dedicate themselves to healing and saving lives, we must admit that among doctors there are also many morally corrupt people. Whether it's colluding with pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies for personal gain, or being focused on promotion while giving perfunctory diagnoses to patients, such bad doctors do exist.
"There are criminals in the New World, and currently it seems this proportion is not low. If we really selected such a bad doctor, it would only backfire, and our community would never have peace.
"Of course, I'm not saying that older people necessarily have bad character.
"It's just that relatively speaking, among doctors who have climbed to high positions and have the ability to engage in these underhanded activities, older ones are obviously the majority; while young doctors for the most part haven't been exposed to these dark sides yet and still have relatively noble ideals.
"So I believe a young surgeon would be a better choice.
"As for whether it should be male or female, I think we don't need too much discussion. Gender topics ultimately just become people talking past each other. We might as well follow the established principle: maintain a strict 6:6 male-female ratio in the community, which is fairest.
"Next time if there's a female reduction in personnel, we would also only recruit females.
"Additionally, I think recruitment choices should be strictly limited to three keywords. The broadcast actually already gave us hints: age, gender, profession. If we wishfully adopt other keywords, they probably won't be included in the screening criteria.
"We could certainly propose requirements like 'a 35-year-old male military surgeon with excellent culinary skills, rich medical knowledge, and extremely high intelligence,' but the rules also clearly state that this recruitment is screening, not wish-making.
"Too many keywords not only probably won't have their intended effect, but might also cause confusion in screening criteria. We can't take this risk, because once a new person comes to the community, no matter how dissatisfied we are, we can't drive them away and replace them."
Li Renshu's speech had a decisive effect to some degree.
Originally many people still had other ideas, especially hesitating on whether the doctor should be young or older.
But at this moment, many people were clearly convinced by Li Renshu and nodded frequently.
Cai Zhiyuan nodded in agreement, "Mm, I indeed hadn't considered the character aspect before. Saying it this way, my original thinking becomes even more firm."
He looked at Cao Haichuan and Lin Sizhi again, "Officer Cao, Lawyer Lin, what are your opinions?"
Both Cao Haichuan and Lin Sizhi nodded, "We agree."
Yang Yuting hesitated for a moment and said somewhat uncertainly, "Then... the nurse I mentioned before, Renshu, did you consider that?"
Li Renshu smiled and said, "Of course I considered that too.
"Nurses might be more excellent in basic nursing techniques, but young surgeons wouldn't necessarily be much worse. And we must consider another issue, which is that more systematic medical knowledge would help us with puzzle-solving in future games.
"Games in the Gallery encompass everything, anything could appear.
"For example, in the previous game 'King's Judgment,' between the Iron Maiden in cell 4 and the nail gun in cell 5, which was more dangerous? How many times could one endure these injuries before likely becoming critically wounded and untreatable?
"If we had to choose one type of injury, then given our community's medical level, which would be easier to recover from?
"This is just a very basic example. The situations we encounter in the future might be even more complex.
"In such circumstances, if we could have a doctor providing more systematic, scientific, and comprehensive medical knowledge, it would be much more helpful.
"This is also an important reason why doctors are superior to nurses."
Yang Yuting nodded slightly, "Mm... alright, you've convinced me."
Only then did Li Renshu smile, "Good, then the content of the proposals has been discussed clearly. It's getting late, everyone needs to rest early. I'll go submit the proposals now.
"Everyone can vote on all three proposals simultaneously.
"Oh, there's one more thing I feel necessary to emphasize.
"Everyone can freely cast opposing votes, that's fine. Because casting opposing votes is a right the community gives us, it's perfectly justified.
"Moreover, opposing votes can also help us better recognize the shortcomings of proposals, giving us room for improvement afterward.
"For example, the opposing votes last time actually made a lot of sense. The proposals then were indeed somewhat crude and imperfect.
"This vote is the same. As long as everyone feels something is inappropriate, you can cast opposing votes without feeling embarrassed or needing to provide explanations. After all, it's anonymous voting, and it's completely normal for people not to want to express themselves publicly."
Jiang He was somewhat moved, "Renshu, you're really so considerate... Alright, then go quickly. I'll be the first to cast a yes vote!"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:39:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Cai Zhiyuan paused slightly and continued, "Our community follows the same principle.
"The worst-case scenario would be the entire community splitting 6:6, forming two highly organized small groups.
"In that case, we'd just be waiting to die, and the community would never have peace.
"Think about it: today Group A would win over one person from Group B, gathering seven votes to pass a proposal; tomorrow someone from Group A would get unhappy and defect to Group B, again gathering seven votes to overturn the previous proposal.
"That kind of internal strife would be endless."
Fu Chen thought for a moment, "In that case, wouldn't it work to just establish a solid seven-person group?"
Cai Zhiyuan shook his head, "No, because that would be an inverted pyramid structure that would collapse!
"Seven people oppressing five people, this kind of tyranny of the majority might be maintainable in the short term, but you have to understand that these seven people couldn't possibly be a monolithic bloc either, they would have internal disagreements too.
"For example, imagine a company with a thousand people total, where 700 are management and 300 do the actual work. Don't you think that's ridiculous?
"Even if such a company existed, it would definitely be bloated, inefficient, and completely uncompetitive.
"The actually stable structure should be a proper pyramid:
"A company can only have one person responsible for making final decisions. He directly manages several executives, these executives each correspond to dozens of middle managers, and then control the bottom-level employees through these middle managers.
"Of course, I'm just giving an example, the proportions aren't accurate, but that's the principle.
"So, for our community to be stable, we first need a small group that controls the core of power. This small group can be three people, four people, five people, but absolutely cannot exceed five people, because going over that would create problems with the distribution of speaking rights.
"If a so-called small group accounts for half of the total, what kind of small group would that be?
"And through this small group, we would selectively bind 2 to 4 people from the remaining 7 who share similar ideologies with us, are relatively easy to control, and unlikely to defect. Only this way can we ensure that the proposals we want to pass will definitely pass.
"In short, according to community rules, we must have seven votes, but these seven votes are absolutely not seven votes with equal power, because once they're equal, it could never be stable."
Fu Chen quickly understood Cai Zhiyuan's explanation. He was silent for a moment, "So, this small group you're talking about is actually you, me, Li Renshu, Officer Cao, and Lawyer Lin."
Cai Zhiyuan nodded, "Yes.
"Actually, before bringing in Lawyer Lin, I hesitated. Because I could only choose between him and Wang Yongxin.
"But ultimately I could only choose Lawyer Lin.
"Because any capable, influential person, if not incorporated into this small group, could potentially form a new power center after being left out.
"I could only kick Wang Yongxin out because his ideological differences with us are the greatest.
"Moreover, judging from Wang Yongxin's personality, his ecological niche is that of a leader. Our small group doesn't need another leader, so we have both ideological and structural conflicts with him.
"He's indeed very smart and very capable. I also considered bringing him in, but after thinking it through, it wouldn't work.
"I can't quite figure out Lawyer Lin, but as long as he has no intention of becoming a leader, he can be absorbed into the group. Additionally, I instinctively feel that if we leave him outside, the destructive potential he might have would far exceed that of Wang Yongxin.
"As for the others, Li Renshu is a very mature and rational manager, and Officer Cao's identity as a criminal investigator can give everyone a sense of security. He doesn't need to do anything to have sufficient influence.
"So now you understand? If we brought in an elderly doctor, he would naturally have extremely strong speaking rights, just like Officer Cao, this would be determined by age and profession.
"At that time, who among the five would you plan to kick out?
"Should we two kick ourselves out? If you really think that way, I wouldn't mind.
"I could also choose to assist Wang Yongxin in becoming a second core. For me, although this wouldn't be the optimal choice, it wouldn't make much difference.
"In any case, whether this doctor isn't brought in, or any one of us gets kicked out, it could form a new power center with Wang Yongxin and others. The worst case scenario is that our community would split into two 6:6 groups, with endless internal strife.
"But if we look for a young doctor, a doctor whose ideology is close to ours and who's easy to control, our community structure would be more solid.
"So, we actually only have one choice, which is a young male doctor, preferably one with relatively simple thinking.
"As for his actual medical skills, for now it's enough as long as they're adequate. Of course, surgical skills would be best."
Fu Chen thought for a moment, "What if it were a female nurse? Wouldn't that be easier to control?"
Cai Zhiyuan looked at him somewhat helplessly, "Are you sure?
"Yang Yuting and Jiang He are both emphasizing that we don't need to limit gender. Do you think they truly don't care about the new player's gender, or do they hope more to make the community's male-female ratio 5:7?"
Fu Chen was stumped and momentarily speechless.
Cai Zhiyuan stood up, "Alright, that's enough for now.
"I'm going to discuss this with Li Renshu. Think it over carefully yourself."
...
After dinner.
Everyone gathered around the long table in the hall again to discuss the unfinished proposals from the day.
Only this time Li Renshu was the first to speak.
"A day has passed, everyone should have thought things through clearly, right?
"Time is pressing. Tonight we have three proposals to discuss. Everyone stay alert, let's try to resolve these as quickly as possible.
"The first proposal is the 'supplementary proposal' for the 'Community Protection Fund.' The specific rules are as follows:
"1. When earning less than 20,000 minutes of visa time in a single game, no Community Protection Fund contribution is required.
"2. Players whose personal visa time is below 24 hours can borrow 20,000 minutes of visa time interest-free from the Community Protection Fund. Further borrowing is only allowed after full repayment.
"3. The Community Protection Fund pool will reserve a maximum of 100,000 minutes of visa time to ensure basic community security and interest-free loan operations. When it reaches 220,000, the excess 120,000 will be returned equally to all players."
Li Renshu paused slightly and continued, "The second proposal is the 'Medical Supplies Management Rules.'
"We will vote to select a 'Medical Supplies Manager' who has the authority to freely use the Community Protection Fund to purchase any medical supplies. These purchased supplies can be freely circulated and used among all community players.
"When the cumulative expenditure reaches 10,000 minutes of visa time, the details must be submitted for review by all members. Only after the review is completed can another 10,000-minute quota be opened.
"If seven people vote against, the manager can be dismissed and re-elected.
"The third proposal is community recruitment. I favor a young male surgeon.
"Alright, that's everything."
Jiang He was a bit confused, "Slow down, slow down, I didn't catch all of that."
Li Renshu smiled, "I know. The reason I went through it quickly was to give everyone a general idea first. Now let's go through them one by one.
"First, the supplementary rules for the Community Protection Fund.
"Simply put, there are three points: first, set a 20,000-minute exemption threshold; second, establish 20,000-minute interest-free loans; third, after exceeding 100,000, every additional 120,000 gets returned equally."
Xu Tong couldn't quite understand for a moment, "Why return it?"
Li Renshu explained, "Because when we collect contributions, 5% is actually a rather conservative figure. Based on the current rate of earning visa time, this pool will keep growing.
"The consumption rate of this pool is fixed, 80 minutes per day for each person. So the excess portion can't be utilized, which is also a waste.
"If there's too much excess, of course it should be returned to everyone.
"I also know that equal distribution isn't fair to players who contribute more visa time, so if anyone has a better method of distribution, please speak up."
Everyone looked at each other, but no one spoke.
Wang Yongxin somewhat helplessly shrugged, "It's fine, let's do it this way. Consider it like everyone getting a year-end bonus every so often."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-17 10:39:06 +0000 UTC
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For Pledged Members:
Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems — Chapters 111 to 120
American Hunting: Starting From Alone In The Wilderness — Chapters 111 to 120
We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? — Chapters 71 to 80
I Run A Prison In America — Chapters 21 to 30
For Free Members:
Necromancer, What the Hell Is A Type 055 Summon? — Chapters 69 & 70
Wasteland Border Inspector — Chapters 69 & 70
My Father Is Superman, But I'm Just An NPC? — Chapters 59 & 60
Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems — Chapters 59 & 60
American Hunting: Starting From Alone In The Wilderness — Chapters 59 & 60
We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? — Chapters 35 & 36
God's Imitator — Chapters 35 & 36
Daily Divination: From Market Rogue Cultivator To Immortal Venerable — Chapters 21 & 22
I Run A Prison In America — Chapters 11 to 14
2025-08-16 10:15:00 +0000 UTC
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In the second week after the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration withdrew from Border Prison, an attack occurred.
A construction company truck was stopped at gunpoint halfway while heading to the prison.
The driver was then beaten and the truck was stolen.
After learning this news, the construction company immediately stopped all projects at the construction site and demanded compensation from Lind.
Lind reached an agreement with the construction company by phone, compensated for the driver and truck, and promised them he would resolve this matter as soon as possible.
Two days later, guard Parker Zorn was attacked while driving to work. His vehicle was directly hit and overturned, but fortunately he wasn't seriously injured, only suffering a fractured hand.
But other guards no longer dared to go home alone after work and even had to carry guns to deal with possible crises.
At the same time, another guard from old Edward's era applied to resign from Lind.
Three more days passed, and the vehicle transporting food to the prison was intercepted on the road.
Fortunately, this time Lind had sent James and Carter to accompany them. The two men used guns to drive away those bandits and safely brought the food truck back.
Just when the prison atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense due to these sudden incidents, and even Lind had begun prohibiting prisoners from having yard time, another accident occurred inside the prison.
"Doctor! I need a doctor!"
In the afternoon, while Cohen and Carter were patrolling the prison block, they suddenly heard a prisoner shouting loudly and hurried over.
Looking at the prisoner foaming at the mouth and having seizures all over his body, Cohen stepped forward to ask, "What's wrong with you? Are you okay?"
But the prisoner didn't answer, just lay on the ground convulsing back and forth.
"Officer, quickly take him to see a doctor!" the prisoner's cellmate reminded the guard.
Carter hurriedly took out his keys but was stopped by Cohen.
"Hey, what are you doing, Cohen?" Carter was somewhat anxious.
"Let's observe more." Cohen was worried the prisoner was faking illness.
This kind of thing often happened in prisons. Prisoners would have stomachaches today and buttocks pain tomorrow. To get out of their cells for a stroll, they would wish they could develop eight hundred hemorrhoids in a day.
Carter knew his good friend's meaning and didn't argue, just frowned tightly.
"Officer, he'll die if this continues!" The cellmate was even more anxious than the guards, shouting loudly and attracting the attention of prisoners in other cells.
"Alright, we'll take him away." Cohen couldn't continue waiting when he saw this situation and could only signal Carter to open the door, while he reached for the sedative spray.
Fortunately, the prisoner didn't show any abnormal behavior. Except for no longer foaming at the mouth, his body continued to convulse intermittently.
So the relieved Cohen and Carter together pulled the prisoner and helped him rush toward the medical room.
After arriving at the medical room, the two placed the prisoner on the bed under Dr. Joe Locke's instructions.
Then they walked to the small corridor near the door, waiting for the doctor to heal the prisoner.
Generally speaking, when a doctor was treating a prisoner, guards had to stand by ready at all times.
But Joe didn't like this. He didn't like having people watching while he treated patients, so he always required guards to stand in the corridor.
However, even if something happened, the guards only needed to run two steps and turn a corner to arrive.
So Carter and Cohen didn't feel there was anything improper about this.
However, just when the two were discussing whether "ER Season 6" or "Friends Season 6" was better, they suddenly heard loud crashing sounds from inside!
"Damn!" The two quickly drew their batons and rushed into the medical room.
Sure enough, Dr. Joe had been subdued by the prisoner. Sharp scissors were held against his neck, and he was looking up, gasping and facing the guards.
"Listen everyone, don't move!" The prisoner hid his body behind the doctor and fiercely warned everyone, "Don't try to take out that spray!"
"As long as you move around, I'll kill him!"
As he spoke, he pressed the scissors' point closer to Dr. Joe's neck, drawing a bloody line.
"Okay, we won't move!" Carter raised both hands, "Calm down, buddy. I remember you, Phoenix. You only have 3 months left on your sentence. Don't do something you'll regret!"
"Fuck! Who's to blame for this!" Phoenix was emotionally unstable, his eyes full of bloodshot.
"If you hadn't refused to cooperate, how would I do such a thing! It's all your fault, you harmed me!"
"So those drug dealers threatened you? Who was it? Who told you!"
"Fuck off! Don't try to trick me into talking!" Phoenix gripped the scissors tightly again, "Get your boss over here! Let that vampire appear before my eyes immediately! Otherwise I'll kill him!"
"Okay, don't be anxious!" Carter immediately used the radio to notify Angelina.
Three minutes later, James and tactical squad members quickly arrived and fully controlled the area around the medical room. At the same time, they aimed guns from outside the window, ready to kill Phoenix at any moment.
Then Lind strode into the medical room and walked in front of Phoenix.
"Phoenix, born in Texas, Black, male, 32 years old this year. Has a mother, two brothers, and two sisters at home. Imprisoned for robbery at 23, imprisoned for theft at 26, imprisoned for vehicle theft at 29. Currently has 3 months and 2 days left on his sentence."
Lind quickly recited the prisoner's incarceration history to his face.
Then mocked, "Cotton industry automation wasn't meant to give you leisure time to commit crimes by taking hostages here, so tell me, what do you want? If you want a father, then I'm sorry, I don't plan to have an additional Black son."
Phoenix cursed, "You white pig, it's all your fault. You harmed me and harmed my family."
"So those drug dealers found your family?" Lind asked.
"Don't force me!" Phoenix gripped the scissors tightly again.
"Alright, alright." Lind spread his hands, "Since you wanted me to come over, what exactly do you want to do?"
"I want to let you know, let everyone know, that I did it!" Phoenix's words were somewhat hard to understand.
But Lind understood. This guy Phoenix must have been threatened by outside drug dealers using his family. They demanded Phoenix must cause trouble in prison before they would spare this guy.
That's why today's incident happened.
Seeing Phoenix's chest constantly heaving and the veins on his palms bulging, as if he planned to harm Joe fatally, Lind decisively said, "Then how about letting me exchange places with Joe."
"What?" Phoenix was stunned.
Lind smiled, "If they want you to choose someone in prison to harm, wouldn't harming me be a better choice?"
As he spoke, he slowly walked toward Phoenix.
"They want you to warn me, right?"
"If I don't cooperate, they'll have all the prisoners cause trouble one by one and ruin my prison."
"So if you take me hostage, this matter will definitely become bigger. I'll be more afraid, they'll be happier, and then they'll release your family, right?"
Phoenix hadn't expected Lind to make such a suggestion and his brain temporarily froze.
But he felt Lind made sense. His fingers unconsciously loosened the scissors, then shouted, "Then you come over alone! And give me a gun too!"
"No way!" Cohen shouted.
If Phoenix got a gun, this situation would become uncontrollable.
"No problem." But Lind agreed to him, took out his pistol, and threw it on the bed near Phoenix.
Then he shouted to the others, "All guards step back two steps!"
"Warden!" The guards were very anxious, but seeing Lind's determined expression, they could only agree to step back.
Phoenix tensed his nerves and hid completely behind Joe, vigilantly scanning the surroundings.
Only after the guards were farther away from him did he let go and first grab the gun.
At this time, Lind had slowly walked close to the two of them.
Phoenix immediately pointed the gun at Lind upon seeing this, then forcefully pushed Dr. Joe out.
"Now, you're my hostage, you racist pig!" Phoenix arrogantly touched Lind's forehead with the gun.
After hearing this, Lind raised his eyebrows, "Forgot to tell you, there are no bullets in this gun."
"What!" Phoenix was slightly stunned.
However, at the next moment, Lind's right hand curved and swung, quickly knocking away the gun in Phoenix's hand, then his left hand shot out from under his right elbow like a snake's tongue!
Wing Chun, finger strike!
Before Phoenix could react, Lind's finger had already struck hard against his eyeball.
"Ah!"
With a scream, blood spurted from Phoenix's right eye.
He covered his eye and the pistol fell to the ground.
Seeing this scene, the guards immediately rushed over and controlled Phoenix with sedative spray.
Lind picked up the Colt M1911 pistol by himself, opened the magazine, and showed the golden bullets to Phoenix.
"Unfortunately, I lied to you."
After saying this, he ignored the subsequent detention, walked out of the medical room, came to James's side and said, "Pry open Phoenix's mouth. I want to know who passed information to him."
"Yes!"
"Also, get ready. The first operation is about to begin."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:11:48 +0000 UTC
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Jimmy's suggestion wasn't actually unusual. In some American prisons, there were even cases of letting prisoners act as guards.
The main approach was zero-cost prison management.
But Lind and they weren't taking the same route. They were expanding bases widely with small profits but large volumes.
Due to the system, Lind planned to create a complete system within the prison where everyone could work peacefully.
So after hearing Jimmy's suggestion, a new idea suddenly sprouted in his mind.
That was to divide prisoners into different areas in the future, letting prisoners from different areas serve each other.
For example, letting ordinary prisoners from Block 1 serve VIP prisoners from Block 2, then letting ordinary prisoners from Block 2 serve VIP prisoners from Block 3.
The advantage of doing this was that VIP prisoners from different blocks couldn't use their influence within the prison to threaten ordinary prisoners.
Even if they used money to buy people off, they couldn't profit themselves.
They could even have ordinary prisoners secretly monitor VIP prisoners.
Presumably those guys who were jealous of the rich wouldn't refuse such a proposal.
Of course, Lind currently had no way to implement such sectioned services.
After all, the premise for everything was having sufficient prisoners.
After chatting with Jimmy, the two went to the cafeteria for dinner together.
He originally wanted Jimmy to stay in Val Verde County, but Jimmy said his old man had hired many private detectives.
If discovered, he definitely wouldn't have a good time.
So he planned to hide in the prison until his lover finished filming.
Lind agreed to this idea.
When leaving Jimmy's room, he wondered whether to renovate the prison building's rooms while constructing the guard towers.
Perhaps opening a wealthy hiding service in the future wouldn't be bad?
Let those wealthy people who had offended others hide in the prison, enjoying services while remotely controlling their business empires.
Just like how Donald loved the Mar-a-lago estate, which was itself a high-end private club specifically providing services to politicians and wealthy people.
If Border Prison could be properly operated, it would surely make quite a bit of money.
But how to attract wealthy people was another new problem.
Time quickly passed for a week.
During this week, everything was calm. Because the state Department of Corrections and the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration had appeared at Border Prison one after another, those Mexican drug dealers didn't dare show themselves.
Under Avery's protection, Lind also took the opportunity to find a construction company he had worked with before.
After having Angelina investigate and confirm that the company was not a front for money laundering for gangs, Lind assigned them both the guard tower construction and prison building renovation projects.
Construction began quickly. Since the blueprints were ready and Lind had paid a deposit, the guard tower construction period was shortened to one month.
As for the prison building renovation, it would take three months.
At the same time, people from Federal Prison Industries came to the prison for investigation. After verifying the headphone production line and ACA certification, they gave Border Prison a military headphone order.
After peacefully spending a week, Avery received a mission from the state Department of Corrections and bid farewell to Lind.
The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration also left collectively after freeloading at the prison for a few days.
As government agency personnel, they couldn't stay here indefinitely to protect Border Prison.
The only thing they could do was notify the Border Patrol to pay more attention to Border Prison's safety during normal times and come help when bandits appeared.
Fortunately, Lind hadn't put his hopes on Avery and his team.
After they left, Lind immediately called James and told them to return to the prison.
During this time, James had already contacted his former teammates.
When they heard that James's boss Lind behind the scenes planned to establish a private armed force to go to war with local gangs, they immediately became interested.
Facts proved that these veterans who returned from the battlefield generally missed that simple collective environment.
Especially when life wasn't going well, they all had the urge to draw guns and start shooting.
And this portion of people wasn't small in number.
James selected the best among them, finally choosing 5 Marine veterans and establishing a private security company in Houston.
The company's nominal boss was James, but behind the scenes it was secretly controlled by an offshore company Lind had established in the Cayman Islands.
After handling company affairs, James also purchased a batch of AR-15s and Remington 700 bolt-action rifles as standard equipment.
It wasn't that Lind didn't want to buy better guns, but other weapons were under government control and couldn't be bought without special approval.
Even prisons weren't allowed to purchase submachine guns and fully automatic weapons.
Only those with an FFL (Federal Firearms License) could purchase shotguns, submachine guns, and fully automatic rifles.
To obtain this certificate, Lind needed time.
However, the current weapons and equipment were sufficient for now.
When James brought the tactical squad members to the training ground near the prison, he began introducing them to Lind one by one.
"Pat Kingston, my good friend from the Marines, an excellent breacher."
"Garon Edward, rifleman, responsible for fire support."
"Riley Young, responsible for surveillance and sniper operations."
"Karen Harvey, skilled in battlefield first aid and cover."
"Norman Webb, provides suppressive fire, skilled in demolition."
After introducing everyone, Lind looked at James and asked, "What about you? What are you responsible for?"
"I'm responsible for tactical command." James smiled slightly, actually showing a cheerful feeling of seeing light through the clouds.
"Very good, everyone has their own responsibilities." Lind nodded.
After getting to know everyone, Lind stood before them and said, "Since everyone is willing to join the tactical squad, let me introduce our enemies."
"One of Mexico's largest drug trafficking organizations, the Gulf Cartel..."
The Marine veterans remained motionless, seemingly not caring about this reputation at all.
But Lind could tell from their fluctuating loyalty values that their hearts weren't calm.
So he finished the rest of his words.
"One of the leaders, Osiel's subordinates."
After saying this, he clearly felt everyone's stance become more stable.
This was very realistic.
Lind continued, "These desperados disregard life and have blood of innocents on their hands."
"They're extremely vicious in Mexico, and no one dares provoke them."
"And now, they've set their sights on my prison, wanting to turn this prison into a channel for drug trafficking organizations!"
"They dared to drive to the prison gates today and shoot guards. Tomorrow they'll dare to rush into the prison and cut off all our heads!"
"But this is America, this is Texas!"
"I will never let my descendants be born in marijuana fields!"
"So I won't let my prison become a tool for others' drug trafficking! Even if it costs me everything!"
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood!"
"I want you to use your gun barrels, use firepower, to wake up these desperados!"
"Tell them who the true masters of this land are!"
"Can you do it!"
The tactical squad members responded in unison:
"Yes, sir!"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:11:18 +0000 UTC
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James left the office with excitement.
Perhaps seeing the hope of reorganizing a squad and living an exciting gunfight life again, his steps seemed much lighter.
After he left, Lind pondered what Angelina's wish task might be.
Unfortunately, the system didn't give a clear answer.
But it wasn't without solutions. Among the pending tasks for upgrading to an E-level prison, the reward for achieving maximum loyalty from 10 employees was unlocking the employee wish column.
He hadn't been clear what this thing was before, but now he could see that this reward was important enough to rank second after the fully automatic bullet production line.
He was already looking forward to the effect when James's loyalty reached maximum value.
...
That evening, James requested leave from Lind.
He had already called his teammates, but to explain things clearly, he still needed to meet face-to-face, so he had to make a trip to Houston to meet with his teammates.
Lind immediately granted him leave and told him to go and return quickly.
Shortly after James left the prison, several guards came to Lind's office requesting to resign.
"Why?" Lind asked, looking at these three guards whose loyalty had suddenly dropped to 20.
"Warden, because I still need to earn money to support my family, I don't want to become disabled," the lead guard answered his confusion.
"Alright, then I wish you find better jobs."
Lind didn't say much more and directly called HR Mary over to process their paperwork.
These people were all guards recruited by George under Old Edward, and they didn't have much value worth retaining anyway.
Now that they were leaving, it wasn't too bad.
It was better than being threatened by gangs and directly betraying the prison.
However, with their departure, the prison's guard personnel became somewhat tight.
Lind had to call Andy over and tell him to have all guards work in two shifts while keeping a close eye on the other guards and prisoners.
Until James returned with his teammates.
The next day.
Lind stood by the window, watching two armed guards at the gate welcome a brand-new BMW X5 from late 1999 into the prison.
Ten minutes later.
"Hey! Lind!" Jimmy Foster, wearing a flashy red coat with slicked-back hair, rushed over to hug Lind when he saw him.
"Good buddy, long time no see!"
"Long time no see." Lind patted his shoulder and laughed, "Why are you so late?"
"Don't mention it, I was betrayed by someone and almost got caught by my dad!" Jimmy still felt angry talking about this.
"So your dad still hasn't forgiven you?"
"Of course not. It doesn't matter, it'll be fine when the old man dies. Then everything of his will be mine."
What filial piety.
Lind grimaced, feeling that this guy's moral boundaries were truly unfathomable.
"What about you, buddy? I heard your dad died too and only left you this prison. Can you make money from it?"
Jimmy didn't care at all whether Lind might be sad about this remark, he was just curious about how much money he could make.
Clearly, their usual exchanges must have included plenty of complaints about their fathers.
Lind raised his eyebrows, "Of course I can make money, otherwise why would I stay in this godforsaken place."
"What about later? You won't stay here forever, will you? This place doesn't even have a pretty girl!"
As they talked, the two walked into the office, just in time to see Angelina crouched by the coffee table decanting red wine.
She was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, revealing her fair arms and elegant swan neck.
The bounty on her chest appeared even more ample due to her crouching posture, almost bursting the buttons.
Her crossed legs under the pencil skirt were wrapped in sheer black stockings, making her long legs look even more outstanding.
Jimmy couldn't help but whistle, looking at Lind with an expression that all men understood, "No wonder you don't want to come to Houston to find me."
"Don't misunderstand, she's just my secretary," Lind sat on the sofa and explained.
"Come on." Jimmy pouted, watching Angelina's figure as she turned to leave, "When I was little, I also thought my dad's secretary was a proper secretary, until later she seduced me into bed."
"So now you're no longer satisfied with your dad's secretary?" Lind teased.
Jimmy shrugged, "You know, I like mature women. I simply can't refuse them at all."
This was indeed true.
The Jimmy in Lind's memory was a real lady-killer. Since knowing him, he didn't know how many wealthy men he had cuckolded.
If it weren't for his father protecting him, his personality would have gotten him killed long ago.
"So now you're also facing the punishment of impulse. How long are you planning to stay here?"
"About a month. After I get bored here, I plan to travel abroad for a while."
Jimmy grinned, "I've already made an appointment with a little starlet. She'll only have time after finishing filming this month."
"A little starlet over 40?"
"You know what I mean. By the way, show me around first. I've never been inside a prison."
"Let's go."
Lind took Jimmy on a tour around the prison.
When seeing the prison blocks, Jimmy was full of curiosity and asked many questions about how prisoners should live.
When seeing the factory, Jimmy looked surprised because he heard Lind say that a pair of headphones cost no more than 5 dollars to make but sold for as much as 15 dollars.
He quickly did the math in his head and concluded that Border Prison could earn millions of dollars annually just from headphones.
But this was only the first step in Lind's plan. After all, the factory was large and still had much space waiting to be utilized.
After seeing the entire prison, Jimmy couldn't help but think more highly of his drinking buddy Lind.
He hadn't expected this dissolute guy to be a business genius!
Thinking of this, he also eagerly offered Lind advice.
"Lind, I think your prison urgently needs a plan right now."
"A plan?"
"Yes! Look, all the prisoners live in the same place. How can you tell their status apart!"
Jimmy suggested enthusiastically, "Why not establish a VIP cell area specifically for wealthy criminals?"
Lind blinked, "Go on."
"Concentrate the wealthy criminals together, provide them with entertainment facilities, high-end gyms, bars, even women. Let them spend money in prison. Wouldn't that make money!"
Lind nodded. Having knowledge of America's absurd prison operations, he was naturally well-versed in differential treatment.
However, the prison currently didn't have many prisoners, and no financial criminals or truly wealthy guys had been brought in, so even if he created VIP cells, no one could afford to pay for them.
But he was already laying the groundwork for this step.
The current fee system was a kind of pilot program.
However...
"But I can't possibly hire so many service staff, and guards should absolutely never provide services to prisoners just for money."
This was Lind's biggest concern.
If guards could directly take money to provide services, the prison would sooner or later become a playground for wealthy prisoners.
However, after hearing this, Jimmy blinked and said something.
"Then why don't you have ordinary prisoners serve the VIP prisoners?"
Holy shit, genius!
Lind's eyes immediately lit up.
As expected from the son of an old American capitalist, his thinking was truly authentic!
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:10:49 +0000 UTC
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Lind did not have the habit of putting all his eggs in one basket.
He also did not want to completely entrust his fate to the CIA and DEA.
Because neither of these two departments had anything to do with the word "reliable."
Or rather, all major institutions in America had nothing to do with the word "reliable."
Just like when Texas later encountered a cold snap that froze many ordinary people to death, the government not only refused to rescue them but also took advantage of the crisis to raise electricity prices by 270 times.
As Colorado City Mayor Tim Boyd said at the time:
"Disaster relief is a product of socialism. The government owes you nothing. Stop thinking about what the country can do for you. Don't become part of the problem, but become the person who solves the problem."
This statement was very clear and pointed to the core of American capitalism.
Never become a person with problems.
The underlying meaning was that you must have the ability to solve problems.
And the ability to solve problems was naturally the US dollar.
So in America, everyone cooperated for profit. As long as there was enough profit, they could sell everything that could be sold.
Knowledge, dignity, organizations, country, all for one thing.
Freedom.
The freedom to buy everything with money, to be above everything else.
America was such a country, and its laws and government were all built on the word "freedom."
So Lind now also wanted to pursue some freedom for his personal safety.
Therefore, he called James to his office.
Looking at this silent man who had never revealed too much of his thoughts since joining the job, as if even his rectum were made of steel, this resolute man, Lind said, "James, if I wanted you to form a special squad, would you be willing?"
After saying this, he saw James's eyes light up immediately.
"What kind of special squad?"
Lind stared at him and said, "A squad that belongs only to me, one that can go to war with any criminal organization at critical moments. Are you willing?"
"Of course I'm willing!" James appeared somewhat impatient for the first time.
Lind blinked, "I haven't mentioned the salary yet."
"That's not important!" James's hands trembled slightly, "Warden, I mean, I've always hoped to return to the military and relive those times."
Just as he said these words, a new prompt appeared before Lind's eyes.
[James's Wish: As a Marine who participated in the Gulf War and the Somali Civil War, James constantly thinks about returning to past glory, picking up his beloved M16A4 again, and fighting alongside his brothers.]
[Task: Help James fulfill his wish by reorganizing a tactical squad composed of Marine veterans and executing one combat mission.]
[Reward: 1. James's loyalty increases to maximum value. 2. Unlock special facility Electric Shock Interrogation Room]
Lind felt both surprised and enlightened.
Because his decision to call James over this time was not random.
On the contrary, he had asked Angelina to investigate James through her connections.
After all, Angelina had the CIA intelligence network behind her, so of course he should take advantage of this free resource.
The investigation results were pretty much what he had expected.
James came from the Marine Corps and officially retired in 1997. After returning to family life, he frequently purchased expensive psychological counseling and participated in post-traumatic stress disorder support groups.
But his condition did not improve, instead it gradually worsened.
Because what he longed for was to return to the battlefield.
So his wife parted ways with him. Although they didn't divorce, their marriage existed in name only.
To relieve himself, James went to work as a supervisor in a prison.
However, during his tenure, he always enjoyed torturing prisoners. Many prisoners reported him to the court and the Department of Corrections because of this.
He had to leave the prison and return to his parents.
This was also why James immediately came for an interview after seeing the prison recruitment, and why he didn't want to wait even a moment and insisted on starting work the same day.
Because he could no longer endure a mundane life.
In fact, during their time together, Lind had also sensed James's problems. To prevent others from seeing him inflict torture on prisoners, he specially allocated Interrogation Room No. 1 for James's use.
That's right, every time a prisoner was locked in Interrogation Room No. 1, it was Lind and James together who inflicted punishment on them.
However, Lind was mostly there to learn, while James was the main executor.
This was also why James's loyalty had been steadily increasing during this period.
Now, after seeing James's information, Lind finally confirmed the correctness of his speculation and decisively called James over to assign him the task of forming the squad.
But he didn't expect the system to add another big flower to this matter.
It turned out that to quickly increase the loyalty of extracted characters, you didn't need to cater to their preferences, you just needed to complete wish tasks.
Lind couldn't help but complain that the system hid things really deep. Such an important rule was only revealed to him now.
But it wasn't too late.
He looked at the excited James, whose hands were gripping his knees, suppressing the urge to bounce his leg, and said, "Do you have suitable teammates?"
"Of course!" James replied, "I previously participated in a group where everyone was like me, people who were unwilling to accept a peaceful life."
"Are they reliable? I need real elites!" Lind tapped the table, "It would be even better if they were Marines who retired from service."
"No problem, Warden." James nodded, "I have many comrades-in-arms."
"But not everyone is willing to return to a life of constant danger and living on the edge." Lind changed his tone, "However, as long as they agree to join the squad, I won't shortchange you."
"First, you will receive a basic salary of 2,500 dollars per month."
"Second, you will receive 10% of the spoils seized from each mission."
In Lind's plan, the second amount was the big money.
Because he planned to use the pretext of fighting criminal gangs to make a fortune.
He had already thought it through. Most of the prisoners in the prison had considerable illegal income, and even if they personally didn't have any, the criminal gangs behind them definitely did.
If he could learn the storage locations of those illegal incomes from them, he could carry out targeted robberies.
Doing this would not only increase the prison's income and strike at criminal gangs, but also protect his own safety.
Killing three birds with one stone, it was simply perfect.
The only problem to pay attention to was: how could the prisoners be made to talk?
And even if they did talk, could Lind really trust them?
However, such problems were unimportant in the face of the system.
Because just yesterday, one prisoner's fear value finally reached 100 due to his dread of punishment.
And the reward unlocked after the fear value reached maximum was:
[Prisoner Art Morris's fear value has reached maximum. From now on, he will be unable to lie to you, unable to betray you, and unable to refuse requests that don't involve his bottom line]
It was precisely because of this new feature that Lind dared to add an additional tactical squad.
And through testing, he obtained important information from Art Morris.
The boss of the Iron Riders Gang, the local gang behind him that specialized in human trafficking, lived in Val Verde County, and all the gang's assets were stored in his villa.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:10:05 +0000 UTC
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"Warden, the information you requested has been investigated."
Angelina placed the documents properly, then thoughtfully poured a glass of water and placed it on the table.
However, Lind didn't look at the documents or drink the water. Instead, he suddenly slammed the table, "These son-of-a-bitch criminals!"
Seeing Angelina's gaze following him closely, he said, "I'm talking about those animals who shot at us today. They're a Mexican drug trafficking organization."
"Drug trafficking organization?" Angelina frowned tightly, her fingers unconsciously rubbing against her black stockings.
"Yes, it's the Gulf Cartel, Casas's organization. Oh, you don't know who Casas is."
No, I do know.
Angelina showed a listening expression on the surface, but in her heart she recalled the series of investigations before entering Border Prison.
According to CIA intelligence, Casas was the second-in-command of the Gulf Cartel's drug trafficking activities at the US-Mexico border. Last year he was caught after a failed drug deal and imprisoned at Huntsville Prison.
But after Border Prison was established, someone bribed the warden with dollars to transfer Casas to Border Prison, apparently planning to have him escape from there.
After all, Border Prison was very close to the Mexican border, and as a new prison, the difficulty of escaping wouldn't be high.
Unfortunately, Casas might have had bad luck and was shot dead with three bullets after successfully inciting a riot.
That's right, with just a little investigation, the CIA roughly learned the truth about what happened at Border Prison that night.
However, the CIA and Federal Bureau of Prisons were two different systems and generally wouldn't interfere with each other's work.
Angelina naturally wasn't here because of such reasons either. What she needed to investigate was more complex and couldn't be publicized.
So when she heard Lind mention Casas's identity, her heart remained calm.
Of course, she still showed surprise on her face.
Lind continued, "Casas talked to me, wanting to help the Gulf Cartel boss behind him acquire part of the prison's shares for drug trafficking. For this, they promised me a portion of the profits, but I refused."
Refused?
This time Angelina was genuinely surprised, because from her observations during this period, while she didn't know this warden's upper limit, his lower limit was truly low.
As long as he could make money, he wouldn't hesitate even if it meant exploiting legal loopholes.
In fact, even if someday in the future he sold all the prisoners' organs in batches for profit, she wouldn't be surprised.
After all, the harsh exploitation rules Lind had established for prisoners absolutely deserved to be hung on street lamps.
But she hadn't expected Lind to choose to refuse the massive profits from drug trafficking.
This was different from what she had imagined. After all, Lind Edward was himself a drug addict. How could he suddenly become a hero fighting against drugs?
She continued listening to Lind, "So these guys are now threatening me! F*ck, they want to turn Border Prison into a drug manufacturing plant!"
"Now it's just shooting warnings. Later they might kidnap me and put a gun to my mouth to make me comply!"
Lind clenched his fist forcefully, "But the thing I hate most in my life is drug dealers. I will not submit!"
Saying this, he looked at Angelina, "If you're scared, you can resign now."
"No..." Angelina instinctively replied, then realized she had been too decisive and immediately changed her tone, "I mean, why not call the police?"
"Call the police?" Lind smiled bitterly, "Do you think Mexican criminal organizations would fear the police? Of course, in America they can't be completely unrestrained, but after killing me, finding a few scapegoats wouldn't be too simple, would it?"
Angelina was speechless. This was indeed something that couldn't be helped.
"Fortunately, I also have leverage on them!" Lind suddenly stood up as he said this.
Angelina immediately followed, "Leverage? What do you mean?"
Lind said, "I know the company these guys use for money laundering. Casas told me, it's the CEO of Rio Grande Construction Company, Travis McCallo."
"Rio Grande, isn't that the river at the US-Mexico border?"
"Exactly, these Mexican drug dealers are quite good at naming things." Lind sneered and continued, "If I give this information to the police, then they'll pay the price. I want these guys to know I'm not to be messed with!"
Seeing Lind wanting to walk toward the door, Angelina hurriedly tried to stop him, "Warden!"
"What's wrong?" Lind turned back.
"I think you should think it over again. If you report them now, won't they retaliate doubly?"
Lind stopped, "You make a good point, but even if I do nothing, these guys won't let me go, won't let this prison go."
"Right, so we can only investigate secretly. It would be best if we could catch all these people in one net." Angelina tried to use a suggestive tone, "Boss, don't you have connections with the state Department of Corrections? You could have them help notify the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). I believe the DEA would definitely be interested in this drug trafficking group."
"DEA?" Lind smacked his lips and suddenly smiled, "Right, absolutely right. The DEA definitely wouldn't mind another achievement. Thank you for the suggestion, I'll call right now."
"No need to thank me. I'll go out and handle other affairs first." Angelina quickly walked out the door.
"Click." After the door closed, she pressed herself against the door edge until she heard Lind's conversation with Avery from inside, then let out a long breath.
Damn it.
This warden was a bit too reckless, directly going head-to-head with drug dealers. Wasn't that seeking death?
If she didn't have a mission, she wouldn't want to enter this prison as a private secretary selling her looks.
With this time, wouldn't it be more fun to fish for handsome guys with eight-pack abs on the beaches of the Maldives?
Angelina swore this was absolutely the worst mission she had ever undertaken.
Even though this warden himself was quite good-looking and was her type.
But that didn't mean he could casually pat her butt!
However, considering his face, she could forgive this guy's rudeness.
Thinking this, she returned to the adjacent office.
Although she told Lind she was handling affairs, actually there were very few prison affairs, nothing much to handle.
Her main role here was to be a decorative vase.
But being a decorative vase had its advantages, namely getting to slack off happily every day.
Like now.
Angelina sat in her chair, kicked off her high heels, revealing her feet wrapped in black stockings.
She stepped on the soft carpet and took out the Dior lipstick from her bag, opening the cap.
The lipstick was earth-toned with a slightly velvet texture, feeling just right when applied to her lips.
The only problem was that she had already bought this lipstick.
Taking out a small mirror to touch up her lipstick and feeling her small belly, Angelina couldn't help but show a troubled expression.
It was all the fault of the cafeteria chef. The Texas meat patties were so delicious that she hadn't controlled her weight during this period.
"Looks like I need to control my appetite."
"Oh right, I also need to make a phone call and have headquarters help handle this. The mission isn't complete yet, so I can't let this guy Lind die under drug dealers' guns."
Angelina wanted to complete the mission as quickly as possible, and the key to the mission lay with old Edward.
But he was dead, so Angelina could only hope to investigate some clues from Lind.
And while Angelina was worrying about Lind's safety, Lind himself saw a system notification.
[Sudden Challenge: Your conflict with the drug trafficking organization under the Gulf Cartel is about to erupt. This is both an opportunity and a crisis.]
[Use any method to resolve their threat until they become corpses. Reward: Unlock prison facility functions]
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:09:22 +0000 UTC
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The task list had been updated with a total of 6 tasks.
As long as these 6 tasks were completed, Border Prison could upgrade from Level F to Level E.
These tasks set requirements for the prison's scale, profit value, loyalty, and fear value respectively.
[Task 1: Expand the prison and accommodate 500 prisoners. Reward: Fully automatic bullet production line]
[Task 2: Profit value exceeding $10 million. Reward: Land purchase opportunity]
[Task 3: 10 employees reach maximum loyalty. Reward: Unlock employee wish column]
[Task 4: 20 prisoners reach maximum fear value. Reward: Intermediate weakness assessment]
[Task 5: Build 3 special facilities. Reward: Quick learning room blueprint]
[Task 6: Build 3 different production lines. Reward: Random advanced production line blueprint]
Setting aside the other task rewards for now, the reward for the first expansion task was quite generous.
"Fully automatic bullet production?" Lind was shocked when he saw this reward.
As far as he knew, no prison had ever been able to produce bullets for the military.
Because bullets involved many high-precision machinery and manufacturing technologies, neither the prison environment nor the prisoners' abilities could meet the requirements.
So Lind had never harbored such extravagant hopes for this kind of reward.
He hadn't expected the system to give him such a surprise.
Moreover, this task wasn't very difficult. Receiving prisoners was something the prison had always been doing, and expanding the prison was something Lind would have to put on his agenda in the future anyway.
After all, with the current scale, it was too far from becoming a prison that earned hundreds of millions annually.
For prisons, population meant power.
So since the task had already pointed the way, Lind planned to immediately find a construction company to design an expansion plan.
However, just as he was full of enthusiasm, gunshots suddenly rang out at the prison entrance.
"What the hell?" Lind looked out the window and saw a pickup truck driving away from the gate.
The guard originally responsible for watching the prison gate was now lying on the ground with a pool of bright red beneath him.
"Damn it!"
Lind immediately grabbed his gun and rushed out of the office, running right into Angelina who was hurrying over.
"Hide in the office."
He shouted and quickly went downstairs to the prison gate.
"Warden!" James had already brought two guards over. They were wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns, staying alert throughout.
Upon seeing Lind, James immediately stopped him, "It's not confirmed safe yet. Don't go over there."
Lind looked at the bloodstains outside the door and Dr. Joe who had come running over, gritting his teeth, "What happened? Is Wicks okay?"
"Wicks was shot in the leg. Dr. Joe is already treating him."
After explaining the guard's condition, James continued, "Just now a pickup truck tried to break through the gate. When Wicks's warnings were ineffective, he drew his gun. But the other side was obviously prepared and faster than Wicks. They injured Wicks and then drove away."
"F*ck." Lind frowned.
Just then.
"Warden, Supervisor! There's a letter here." Carter, who was examining the scene nearby, shouted and then picked up a letter from the ground and ran over.
"Let me see." Lind snatched the letter and opened it.
He found only one line of warning written inside.
"If you want to live, cooperate with us."
"Son of a bitch." Lind crumpled the paper into a ball, his expression turning vicious.
James knew the warden was in a bad mood and waved his hand to arrange for two guards to jointly stand watch at the entrance.
Then he followed Lind toward the building.
Lind asked, "The prisoners inside weren't affected, were they?"
"No." James replied, "I've already arranged for other guards to be on high alert."
"Good. Later you hold a meeting with the guards, tell everyone to be careful recently and watch out for suspicious people appearing around the prison."
Lind thought for a moment and added, "Also, if anyone privately contacts them asking about prison details, have them report it immediately. Tell them these people are accomplices of some heavy-sentence prisoner planning a coordinated escape."
"Prison break?" James raised his eyebrows in surprise.
In fact, on this enlightened land of America, prison break incidents occurred endlessly, but if we're talking about the most famous one, it would definitely be the 1962 Alcatraz prison break.
At that time, 33-year-old New Yorker Allen West befriended three like-minded individuals in prison. They used spoons, coins, nail files and other tools to dig a ventilation opening in the back wall of their cell.
They used cardboard for wall camouflage, modified a vacuum cleaner motor into a small electric drill, and made a life raft from raincoats.
Eventually three people successfully escaped, with only the unlucky Allen West failing because his opening got blocked.
Since then, the American government had been tirelessly searching for these escapees but had found nothing.
This escape incident not only caused a sensation across America but was even adapted into a movie.
It was also one year after this that the government closed Alcatraz prison, turning Devil's Island into a tourist attraction.
James naturally knew about this incident and had even seen that movie.
Moreover, as a guard, he had encountered prison breaks more than once or twice. No matter what prison it was, there were always arrogant troublemakers.
But honestly, he had never seen anyone this brazen.
If these people were really planning a prison break, then unfortunately, they had already alerted their target.
After returning to the prison, James followed Lind's instructions, gathered the guards, and told them all to be more vigilant.
Meanwhile, Lind was calling Avery.
"Avery, I want to ask you, is Border Prison really a legal prison recognized by America?"
"Of course, Lind. Why would you ask such a thing?" Avery on the other end was confused.
Immediately after, Lind's roaring voice came through, "Then you f*cking tell me why someone would shoot and try to kill my guard at my prison entrance!"
"They're not just provoking the prison, they're provoking American justice!"
"What's going on! Lind, tell me the details!" Avery was startled by his words and hurriedly inquired.
Only then did Lind calm his tone and calmly tell him what had just happened.
Learning that someone had actually tried to shoot and kill a guard at the prison entrance, Avery was also shocked.
Were American gangs really this brave nowadays?
You should know that America had been severely cracking down on gang organizations since the 1990s.
Multiple gang bosses had become prisoners under the FBI's heavy fist.
The leader of the Colombo family, one of New York's five major gangs, had just been imprisoned last year.
Many gangs chose to keep a low profile to avoid FBI attention.
Guys who directly killed their way to prison entrances like this were truly rare.
So Avery didn't dare delay and immediately reported to the state Department of Corrections, planning to personally lead a special team to Border Prison.
On the other side, after getting Avery's promise, Lind also returned to his normal expression.
Of course he wasn't that angry, he was just performing rather dramatically.
He knew who did it.
Obviously, the Gulf Cartel was once again playing Mexico's old game of threats and intimidation.
If Lind didn't do as they said, his family members would probably face beheading by the Gulf Cartel.
But speaking of which, Lind really didn't have any family.
Old Edward only had him as a son, and his mother had died of illness when young, so Lind wasn't afraid of the Gulf Cartel's threats at all.
But just because he wasn't afraid didn't mean the guards weren't.
If the guards' families were threatened, Lind wouldn't place his hopes in the guards' conscience.
So Lind had to make this matter big, making those guys think twice before acting.
Notifying Avery was just the first step. He had already prepared a plan...
Lind looked at Angelina who knocked and entered, furrowing his brows and showing a thoughtful expression.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:08:48 +0000 UTC
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The atmosphere in the prison at year's end was much more relaxed than usual.
Because the warden had specifically instructed that on New Year's Eve, the cafeteria TV volume should be turned up, while the prison's speakers continuously played music from the afternoon onwards.
The prisoners only worked half a day today. After lunch, they could freely walk in the exercise yard, work out in the gym, and participate in the evening's New Year activities.
And when evening dinner came, everyone could additionally enjoy Texas-style meat patties.
In fact, even though Lind wasn't used to celebrating New Year's Day and preferred Spring Festival, it didn't prevent him from adapting to local customs.
Especially since this was the millennium New Year.
After all, it was extraordinarily meaningful.
Although the prison couldn't be like New York's Times Square where everyone gathered to wait for the crystal ball drop, they had their own way of celebrating.
Such as drinking, dancing, and having a good meal.
Meanwhile, Angelina and some guards were even given the afternoon off, allowed to go home and celebrate with their families.
However, Angelina declined this offer because she had no family in Val Verde County.
In the evening, she and Lind stood on the unopened third floor of the prison block, overlooking the scene on the second floor.
The second floor was now bustling with activity. The usually vicious criminals were all participating in the prison's New Year activities.
Simply put, several different mini-game areas had been set up. Prisoners could get 1 point just by participating in each, and 5 points if they won.
After game time ended, they could use points for a lottery.
Every 5 points got one draw. Prizes included major rewards like free bed space and free headphones, with durations ranging from one day to one month.
The prisoners played happily. Except for a few antisocial types, everyone basically tried all the games.
Evan was naturally among them. With his excellent strength control, he won the game of throwing ping pong balls into beer bottles.
Combined with points from participating in other games, he could draw prizes twice.
However, after drawing two prizes, he wasn't very satisfied.
Because he got 1 day free bed space and 3 days of roasted chicken leg meals.
Although roasted chicken legs weren't bad, they paled in comparison to the major prizes.
Especially when the major prize winner was his new friend from the factory, Woody, who came in for theft.
Evan had to admit he was a little jealous.
Of course, he wasn't the only one.
When they heard Woody had drawn a one-month free bed space voucher, all prisoners showed envious looks.
You should know that in Border Prison, bed space was the most expensive thing at $10 per day. Many prisoners couldn't afford to sleep in one daily despite working desperately hard.
So to sleep in a bed with a mattress, prisoners either spent their savings or signed loan contracts with the prison.
They would pay back the money when they had the ability in the future.
So being able to sleep in a bed for free for one month was equivalent to saving $300.
This money might not buy much outside, but in prison, it was enough for a prisoner to eat and drink well for quite a while.
Watching the lucky winners who drew major prizes cheer excitedly, Lind standing upstairs was also very satisfied.
He didn't expect prisoners to have any sense of belonging or cohesion. He did this just to make prisoners more motivated.
If the prison atmosphere always remained serious and deadly, then prisoners would only think about escaping.
So on designated holidays, giving these workhorses some relaxation time not only made them work harder in the following period but also let them see some hope for the future.
People, as long as they had a little hope, could convince themselves to keep living.
You should know that suicide rates in prisons were very high. Many prisons spent considerable medical and public relations fees dealing with prisoner suicide issues every year.
Lind didn't want Border Prison to fall into such a vicious cycle, so maintaining good prison atmosphere was very important.
Additionally, although such activities couldn't increase prisoners' fear values, they could increase guards' loyalty.
After all, everyone liked working for a boss with human touch.
Lind took a rough look. Currently, the guard with the highest loyalty in the prison was Andy, followed by James, Carter, Cohen and others.
As for Angelina?
He glanced at the busty woman beside him. Her loyalty was still stuck at 30, very stable.
Feeling Lind's gaze, Angelina also turned her head, "What's wrong, Warden?"
"A New Year gift for you." Lind took out a small pink package from his pocket and handed it to her.
"What's this?" Angelina excitedly opened it directly and found it was Dior lipstick.
"Thank you, Warden!" She showed a big smile.
"No need to thank me." Lind looked at the loyalty value on the panel.
Even though her weakness clearly stated she liked cosmetics, it only increased by 1 point. He didn't know if she truly liked it or was just being perfunctory.
Anyway, extracted employees wouldn't decrease loyalty for any reason.
He'd send a little something every day from now on. Sooner or later he'd feed this little bitch with cosmetics until her loyalty was maxed!
After the New Year mini-activities ended and prisoners returned to their cells to sleep, Lind also returned to his office to check the technician's work.
Although the New Year was worth celebrating, the Y2K problem also needed vigilance.
Lind had specifically hired a technician to safeguard the prison's systems.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly. All data transitioned smoothly after the New Year.
Except for the prisoners' wages.
According to regulations, prisoners in the prison earned $1.25 per hour.
The government would pay a wage fee monthly based on the prison's prisoner count.
Like Lind's Border Prison, which currently had 64 prisoners, if all prisoners worked 8 hours daily, the monthly wage payment would be $20,000.
After Lind secretly altered the prison wages, each prisoner's hourly wage became $12.5.
As soon as the government transferred December's wage settlement in January, he could make a bloody profit of $100,000.
As for the government later realizing and pursuing repayment?
No problem. Lind could always find reasons to drag it out slowly. After dragging it out for several years and slowly repaying, this money wouldn't amount to much.
After the New Year, the prison returned to its bustling work state.
January 7th.
Lind received the December prisoner payment from the government. Thanks to Avery's help, Border Prison's payment calculation was based on half light-sentence prisoners and half heavy-sentence prisoners.
That was $580,000.
Plus $100,000 in wage payments, $100,000 in Y2K technical subsidies, and other small subsidy income, Lind now had over $800,000 in hand.
After repaying $500,000 to the bank, the system's task panel finally updated.
[Task 1: Earn $500,000 within 30 days to repay the first loan installment. Reward: Random production line blueprint]
[Task completed]
[Reward: Electronic ankle monitor production line blueprint]
After seeing the reward blueprint, Lind couldn't help but click his tongue. Making prisoners produce things to shackle themselves seemed a bit too ironic.
However, he really liked this reward.
Because although electronic ankle monitors had high costs, their prices were even higher.
According to the blueprint's production line, manufacturing a basic electronic ankle monitor cost $50, but the selling price was as high as $200.
If manufacturing the high-end version that cost $150, the price could reach over $700.
Moreover, electronic ankle monitors could also provide rental services at $5-20 per day, with costs recoverable in as little as 5 days.
So Lind immediately decided to implement this blueprint.
Later he could open an electronic ankle monitor rental company outside the prison, which would probably make quite a bit of money.
Putting away the blueprint, Lind continued looking at the prison panel.
[Border Prison (BP)]
[Level: F]
[Staff: 18 people (12 guards, 2 cooks, 1 doctor, 1 HR, 1 maintenance worker, 1 secretary)]
[Prisoners: 64 people (50 light-sentence prisoners, 14 heavy-sentence prisoners)]
[Profit value: $4.89 million/year]
[Deterrence value: 34]
The prison's profit value was finally no longer in a deficit state, even reaching over $4 million.
This was all thanks to the headphone production line and government prisoner subsidies.
From this, you could see just how profitable private prisons were. This was still a prison holding only 300 people. If it were a prison holding 1,500 people, Lind would immediately become one of America's invisible tycoons.
After being happy for a while, Lind opened the task list.
He found that all tasks had been completely updated.
As for the rewards...
Lind suddenly widened his eyes, "God, what is this!"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:08:18 +0000 UTC
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"Ahhhh!"
That night, agonizing screams echoed from Interrogation Room No. 1.
The sounds continued for half an hour until they became hoarse, and only then was the interrogation room door opened.
Lind walked out wearing a white shirt, his hair soaked with sweat.
Angelina was waiting outside the door in a black business suit. When she saw the warden emerge, she immediately walked over, her short skirt revealing a flash of white skin between the hem and her black stockings as she moved.
"Is there any urgent business in the prison?"
"No." Angelina picked up a towel and waited for Lind to wash his hands.
After Lind finished washing his hands, he looked at the basin reddened with blood and took the towel to wipe them dry.
Angelina naturally glanced at the interrogation room door that wasn't completely closed and saw a bald, muscular man inside with his hands bound tightly, hanging from the ceiling. His toes weren't completely off the ground, but he couldn't stand flat on the floor either.
There were no visible wounds on his body's surface, but blood stains could be seen at the corners of his mouth.
Angelina looked somewhat surprised. She had thought Lind was just an ordinary rich second generation, but judging from this level of torture expertise, he had clearly studied it.
Could he have some special fetish?
Meanwhile, Lind, who was the subject of her speculation, was looking at the bald prisoner's information.
[Arthur Morris]
[Crimes: Intentionally harming 3 people, arson killing a family of seven, drug smuggling]
[Evil rating: 27 (Level D)]
[Fear value: 70]
[Weakness: Fears torture]
Arthur Morris was a light-sentence criminal, sentenced to only 3 years.
Because his case file didn't include the arson charge.
Obviously, America's police had once again performed consistently. Perhaps they hadn't found evidence of Arthur Morris's crimes, or perhaps Arthur Morris had done it cleanly without leaving any traces.
But having fallen into Lind's hands, he naturally wouldn't let this guy off easily.
It also helped boost the fear value along the way.
Two birds with one stone.
After reading the prisoner's profile, he looked at the skill he had gained from completing the new challenge.
[Sudden Challenge: New prisoners have arrived. You need to make unruly prisoners experience nightmarish torture to establish your reputation as a prison tyrant.]
[Please inflict torture on three prisoners. Upon success, reward: Torture Interrogation]
[Torture Interrogation: When inflicting torture on prisoners, amplify the fear in prisoners' hearts, increasing the probability of revealing truth by 30%]
Besides this skill, when he had previously purchased and installed the headphone production line for the prison, he had also triggered a challenge and gained a buff.
[Production Increase: Within 24 hours, production efficiency increased by 50% (disappears after use)]
This was Lind's first time seeing this kind of buff effect. He planned to save it for later use.
After wiping his hands, he handed the towel to Angelina and asked, "When will the ACA inspectors arrive?"
Angelina replied, "Tomorrow afternoon at 1 o'clock."
"Mm." Lind nodded.
He had been busy with production line matters during this period. The factory currently had taken initial shape, with the headphone assembly line able to accommodate over 80 prisoners working simultaneously.
Generally speaking, fully automated assembly lines only needed 5-10 workers, while semi-automated assembly lines only needed 20-40 workers.
But to pursue cheaper prices, Lind naturally chose the most basic fully manual assembly line.
After all, prisoners had no labor costs, so there was no need to economize.
However, even after Border Prison received the second batch of prisoners, there were only just over 60 people, not even enough to fill one assembly line.
This made Lind somewhat grumble that Avery's speed was really slow. He still needed to call and urge him not to worry about Border Prison's prisoner management.
In the evening, Lind and Angelina toured the factory together.
Before going, Lind specifically reminded Angelina to change her clothes.
After all, her current outfit appearing in the prison was really too captivating.
Angelina complied and changed into a blue guard uniform, even putting on the guard cap.
Unfortunately, her figure was still too good. Her full chest made it impossible to button the first two buttons, plus her slender waist and mature, perky peach-like buttocks made her look mouth-wateringly attractive.
During the factory inspection, when distracted prisoners accidentally caught sight of such a beautiful girl, they immediately lost their souls, wishing they could strip off their pants on the spot for a thoroughly satisfying release.
Unfortunately, the guards didn't indulge these guys at all, directly using batons. Three strikes made their gazes clear up.
But even so, many prisoners were still absent-minded.
Seeing this scene, Lind decided not to let Angelina easily appear in front of prisoners.
Otherwise, these guys would sooner or later fight over nighttime fantasy rights.
Tsk, had they never seen a woman?
Lind felt contemptuous. When returning to the office, he smoothly patted Angelina's buttocks and gave it a squeeze.
As a private prison warden, he wasn't a saint. Taking advantage of his personal secretary was perfectly reasonable character-wise.
However, seeing her face flushed red with a hint of awkwardness, Lind sneered inwardly.
Act! Keep acting!
A CIA agent who had been through countless battles couldn't possibly show such a little girl's demeanor.
She was definitely performing for him.
He didn't know what this female agent's purpose really was.
Lind would see when she finally took action.
The next afternoon, the ACA inspectors arrived as scheduled and toured the prison under Lind's guidance.
From the prison blocks to cells, from bathrooms to the cafeteria, from the factory to the exercise yard.
When they saw the prisoners honestly welding on the assembly line, they all praised Lind's prison for being very orderly.
They also personally tested the military headphones produced by the factory.
Clear sound quality, no noise.
Met military-grade standards.
Afterward, the inspectors also checked the prison's surveillance system, medical room, and solitary confinement.
After seeing all locations, Lind invited the inspectors to eat in the cafeteria's private dining room, giving each person a small "gift."
No one could refuse Franklin.
For his sake, the inspectors unanimously agreed to let Border Prison obtain ACA certification.
Two days later, Lind received a call from the ACA with notification that certification had been approved.
However, the paper certificate would take half a month to be mailed over.
After securing ACA certification, Lind again called Federal Prison Industries and informed them of this news.
So Federal Prison Industries, after verification, also told Lind they would send employees as soon as possible to verify Lind's factory production capacity.
Once this was completed, Lind could take military contracts and fleece the government.
But thinking about the wool that other predecessor companies had fleeced from the American government in later generations, Lind couldn't help but feel envious.
Especially those contracts related to military and aerospace.
In fact, military contracts like headphones that could only earn 50% profit couldn't really be called very profitable.
You should know that NASA once spent astronomical prices to purchase a batch of vacuum press bottles, the kind of glass soap dispensers that sold for 9.9 yuan with free shipping online.
When the news broke, the people were shocked.
Congressional lords immediately began questioning, asking purchasers why they spent big money buying these instead of choosing cheaper civilian products.
The purchaser said these were specially custom-made by military contractors, involved military applications, were sturdy and durable, better than civilian products.
It was just a bit expensive, $150,000, a price increase of 7,943% compared to civilian products.
Yes, this figure was published in American newspapers, absolutely true.
So Lind's headphone prices were incredibly conscientious in comparison. Compared to Agent Smith in the government, he felt he was truly a philanthropist.
Precisely because of this, Lind felt no guilt about fleecing wool, only feeling that the prison still had too few people to fleece bigger wool.
And just as the prison was gradually getting on track, the end of 1999 quietly arrived.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:07:40 +0000 UTC
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The so-called welding classroom was actually a factory.
All the newly arrived prisoners, along with some veteran prisoners who hadn't completed their welding courses, stood together under the supervision of six guards, listening to the welding instructor's lecture and participating in hands-on practice.
Red propaganda banners with brainwashing slogans hung throughout the factory:
"Labor creates value, value determines sentence length!"
"One person's mistake, everyone suffers!"
"8 hours work, 8 hours rest, 8 hours overtime."
"Labor earns rewards, rewards improve prison life!"
"Prisoners' rights are labor rights!"
"Don't want to leave prison poor and destitute, then work hard and diligently in prison!"
Honestly, at first glance Evan thought he had entered a Soviet prison. Fortunately, the teacher's authentic Texas accent pulled him back to America.
This was his first time taking such a proper and serious class in prison. In his previous prisons, he had only done meaningless assembly work. Technical jobs like welding, which paid more money, had long been monopolized by prisoners with connections.
But in Border Prison, everyone had to learn welding.
And judging by the setup, this was just the beginning, because the guards said prisoners would be categorized into the following skill levels based on proficiency: Beginner worker, intermediate worker, advanced worker.
If beginner workers had to learn welding, Evan couldn't even imagine what intermediate and advanced workers would have to learn.
During break time, he found some veteran prisoners to inquire about this arrangement. It seemed to be because the warden planned to establish multiple factories within the prison in the future to supply goods to the military and market.
Damn, had he entered a prison or a factory? Would they be making cars and airplanes next?
Evan was caught off guard. He had thought life at Border Prison would be more relaxed, but it turned out to be even more intense than the Ohio prison. He should have chosen a different place to commit his crimes.
But since things had come to this, he could only adapt to local customs. Thanks to his previous escape experiences, he had a quick mind and strong manual skills, so learning welding didn't take him long.
After getting into it, Evan discovered that welding would be very helpful for his future escape career. This made him increasingly interested in welding, and he learned with great enthusiasm. So much so that after one class ended, the teacher praised him for learning well and quickly, telling other new prisoners to learn from him.
Evan was flattered.
The last time he had been praised was in elementary school, when he helped the teacher fix a watch by taking apart a radio. The teacher not only praised him but also gave him a piece of candy and a kiss.
Since then, he had been obsessed with dismantling and repairing things. Although this neglected his studies, he never lacked money when he grew up. Because he used this skill to dismantle many door locks and safes. Until he broke into his teacher's house and was caught red-handed while trying to crack her safe, which led to his imprisonment.
He never expected to receive a second compliment now.
God, was this Your will?
Now Evan felt that learning welding wasn't so annoying after all.
After everyone finished class, the guards assembled them in the prison block and announced a series of requirements and rules. Besides basic living rules, what caught Evan's attention most were the prison's fee structure: Shower fees, bed fees, headphone fees, phone call fees.
Evan listened in stunned amazement.
These fee items were varied and comprehensive, covering every aspect. Even if Jesus came here, he'd be forced to screw bolts on an assembly line, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to sleep on the floor.
However, correspondingly, work compensation in the prison was tiered. As long as you worked fast, well, and a lot, you earned more.
In the words of guard supervisor James, "We don't support parasites or lazy people! No matter what your status was before entering prison! Everyone must accept labor reform!"
Of course, since new prisoners needed to learn initially and couldn't earn money, the prison stipulated that during the welding course learning period, as long as you completed the coursework, you could sleep in a bed for free. If your performance was outstanding, you could get an extra meal.
A roasted chicken leg.
So when Evan had dinner, he immediately became the most envied guy among the prisoners. The chicken leg in his bowl had crispy, oily skin, and one bite made Evan fall in love with this cook. If this were a street restaurant, he swore he would patronize it at least 4 times a week.
After dinner, the new prisoners got extra rest time in the cafeteria. Meanwhile, the veteran prisoners worked enthusiastically in the factory. Word was that two days ago, the prison had installed its first headphone production line, and after a debugging phase, it had officially started producing military headphones.
But there were also those unwilling to work in the factory. Such prisoners either paid to maintain their prison life or took on other, easier jobs, like helping in the kitchen or assisting with laundry. They just earned less money, barely enough to maintain floor-sleeping life.
In fact, Evan found it strange why these prisoners were so compliant. In other prisons he had been in, those guys would shout and make a fuss at the slightest dissatisfaction, gathering together to challenge the guards' authority.
But in Border Prison, this kind of challenging didn't seem popular, and all prisoners were very well-behaved. Was it because there were more guards?
Evan thought that definitely wasn't it. How could guys who ended up in prison be polite and well-mannered every day? Moreover, prisoners and guards were naturally antagonistic, and provoking guards to establish one's status had always been a useful technique in prison. Even if it meant spending a few days in solitary confinement, it was worth it.
So when the new prisoners saw the veteran prisoners' submissive appearance, they all felt very contemptuous, and some were already planning to find an opportunity to show off to the guards and win over other prisoners.
In fact, such an opportunity came quickly. On Evan's fourth day in prison, their batch of prisoners had completed basic welding training. After lunch, a young-looking guard led them to the factory to work.
Just as they stepped out of the prison block and headed toward the factory, a 6'3" bald giant suddenly confronted the guard, "Hey! You stepped on my foot! F*ck you, apologize to me!"
His voice was loud, his muscles ridiculously robust. Standing in front of the young guard, he looked like the difference between a father and son.
Everyone immediately stopped when they heard the commotion and stood watching the show. Evan did the same. Generally speaking, if it were an experienced guard, they would immediately stop the bald man's behavior, issue a stern warning, and call for backup.
But if it were a young guard, it was hard to say. Especially with such a disparity in size, the guard might retreat out of fear, letting the bald man gain the upper hand.
However, the young guard's expression was calm, even carrying a slight smile. He said to the bald man, "Are you challenging me?"
The bald man replied, "Cut the crap, apologize, got it? Don't think I'm afraid of you just because you're a guard. Be careful or I'll punch you into a concussion!"
The young guard took out his walkie-talkie. "What, coward? Calling for backup already? Going to put me in solitary? Have the guts to fight like a man!" The bald man became increasingly arrogant, almost spitting in the guard's face.
Seeing this scene, the other prisoners also became restless and started whistling.
"Like a man?" The young guard put one hand behind his back and beckoned to the bald man with the other, "Then come on, big guy."
The bald giant was thrilled. He stepped forward two paces and stretched out both hands, planning to pin the guard against the corridor wall. But the next second, the young guard quickly pulled out an orange spray bottle from behind and sprayed it directly in his face.
The bald giant was momentarily stunned. Before he could react, he felt his body go weak, then collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Then the young guard spoke into his walkie-talkie, "Listen, there's a big idiot in corridor A4 who tried to challenge me. I've already taken him down. Send two people over to take him to Interrogation Room No. 1."
Putting down the walkie-talkie, the young guard smiled at the rest of the stunned prisoners, "See that? That's what happens when you challenge a guard. Don't copy him, or you'll regret it for life."
"Why?" Evan asked instinctively.
The young guard shrugged and replied, "Because that's the warden's private interrogation room, the place every criminal fears most."
"All I can say is, good luck to him."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:07:06 +0000 UTC
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What is most valuable in this world?
Information, of course.
If you control information about a few people, you can make money that others can't, and ride wildly on the campus beauty that others envy.
If you control information about half the people, you can control a huge business empire, and ride wildly on the stars that others worship as goddesses.
And if you control information about most people, then congratulations.
Either you hold an important government position with high authority, or your career stands at the pinnacle of the world, second to none.
But what if you control information about everyone?
Then obviously, you must be responsible for your every word and action, and restrain yourself from speaking carelessly, saying things you shouldn't say.
Just like Lind at this moment.
The blonde Angelina Castro was sitting in front of Lind. She wore a black suit jacket with a white lace short sleeve underneath, her chest bulging. With the slightest movement, large patches of snow-white skin and valleys were about to be exposed.
Between the black stockings on her legs and her skirt, a small section of fair skin was exposed, full of sensuality. When she crossed her legs, there was a vague flash of white that caught the eye.
Honestly, Lind had thought female agents would be quite attractive, but he hadn't expected she could be this beautiful.
With this appearance, even if placed in Hollywood, she could at least be an outstanding eye-candy.
He had to admit, if the girls in the county had half her level, Lind might not have been able to control himself when wandering the streets some time ago.
However, Lind was still mostly cautious in his heart, though he didn't show it on his face at all.
"I've looked at your resume, and honestly, coming to work at my prison is a bit of 'overqualification' for you."
He put down the resume in his hand and looked at Angelina across from him.
Angelina smiled slightly, two dimples appearing on her face, looking particularly sweet, "Is that so? But I think I'm very suitable for this job. I like working in quiet places. There are no bitches here... I mean those women who point and whisper about me behind my back."
"But there are many men here who will point and whisper about you."
Lind couldn't imagine what scene it would be if those prisoners who hadn't tasted meat for years saw such a blonde beauty appear in the prison.
The tissue paper in the cells would probably be used up that night.
"I don't care. I've seen plenty. Besides making themselves wet, they can't do anything else."
Saying this, Angelina stared at Lind, her fair cheeks showing two patches of crimson, "Besides, the warden will definitely protect me, won't he?"
Lind clicked his tongue. If it were an ordinary warden, he would probably have surrendered by now and couldn't wait to have Angelina start work immediately.
Having the secretary handle business when there's business, and handling the secretary when there's no business, who wouldn't envy such a life?
Lind naturally felt the same way. He didn't plan to refuse Angelina, just wanted to give her a bit of a hard time and see how this CIA agent would respond.
As for the sugar-coated bullets during Angelina's future investigation... at worst, he'd eat the sugar coating and shoot the bullets back.
After having an in-depth conversation with Angelina and seeing her off, Lind returned to his office and stood by the window looking out at the exercise yard.
At this moment, bars had been installed outside the warden's office window, and they were electrified.
Lind didn't want to be backstabbed while working.
So he had also re-sealed the rooftop and replaced the original door.
The doors from the cell block to the main building had also been replaced.
Additionally, over the past week, Border Prison had completed upgrades for the Y2K bug, and Lind had also adjusted prisoner wages in the payroll system. Come January 1st, he could fleece some government wool.
Currently, of the 4 tasks, 3 had been completed.
The advanced maintenance skill rewarded for suppressing the riot had also been installed on the new maintenance worker.
[Luke Nash]
[Identity: Maintenance Worker]
[Rating: 44 (Level B)]
[Loyalty: 50]
[Skills: Advanced Electrician, Advanced Fitter, Advanced Maintenance, Intermediate Carpentry]
The intermediate combat and Intermediate Marksmanship were given to Carter and Cohen respectively.
[Carter Lane]
[Identity: Guard]
[Rating: 27 (Level D)]
[Loyalty: 75]
[Skills: Intermediate Combat, Intermediate Marksmanship, Basic Interrogation, Basic Bartending]
[Cohen Snow]
[Identity: Guard]
[Rating: 28 (Level D)]
[Loyalty: 78]
[Skills: Intermediate Grappling, Intermediate Marksmanship, Intermediate Basketball, Basic Interrogation]
With these two skills, the two young guards successfully leveled up. As for the other guards, Lind didn't plan to give them skills for now.
Except for Andy, who inexplicably acquired a new skill.
[Andy Cock]
[Identity: Guard]
[Rating: 22 (Level D)]
[Loyalty: 91]
[Skills: Intermediate Driving, Intermediate Investigation, Basic Combat, Basic Marksmanship]
Probably from monitoring George, he gained experience and learned investigation skills without a teacher.
Now it was Lind's turn to look at him with new respect. It seemed that to be a company spy, you also needed some real skills.
Through his recent practice and observation, he discovered that people with lower levels increased loyalty faster.
This might also be why the drawn characters didn't have full loyalty values.
After all, the more capable people were, the harder it was for them to be completely loyal to one person.
So learning to control high-level employees was also a required course for Lind.
Fortunately, he had the weakness assessment ability and could prescribe the right medicine.
After looking at the guards' information, Lind turned his gaze and noticed a bus approaching outside the prison gate.
"New prisoners have arrived."
A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, as if he could already see the prisoners desperately screwing bolts to earn money.
...
Evan Adam stumbled as he was pushed off the bus by guards. He wore a brown jumpsuit with both hands and feet chained.
A thick iron chain was also fastened around his waist, connecting him to other prisoners.
This was a precaution to prevent them from escaping.
Evan Adam wasn't entering prison for the first time, but each transport still felt unpleasant, like being herded pigs.
After getting off the bus, he looked at the prison gate.
"Border Prison?"
He had never been here and didn't recognize this prison.
But he knew it was close to Mexico.
If he could escape from here, he might be able to cross the border and escape America in one night.
Evan Adam observed his surroundings. Everywhere was covered in white snow. This weather wasn't suitable for escaping because footprints would be easily discovered.
Perhaps he could wait until spring?
Evan followed the crowd into the prison, turning his back to the guards and standing straight for inspection.
Soon, the routine body search ended, and handcuffs and leg irons were removed.
Then came the naked body inspection.
"Lift your tongue, turn your ass around, bend over!"
The inspection was harsh.
Evan had experienced inspections at many prisons, mostly conducted by elderly guards.
But Border Prison was different. They were all young people with bulging muscles and fierce expressions, showing no leniency in any procedure.
Fortunately, he wasn't carrying any contraband, so he wasn't too panicked.
Soon, after a series of harsh inspections, numbers were stamped on Evan's and other prisoners' hands, representing their codes in the prison.
It also meant that from now on, they had become Border Prison's "property."
After establishing his file, Evan carried his daily necessities and walked alone into the cell block to his cell.
Since Border Prison's cells were double occupancy, as soon as Evan entered his cell, he saw someone sitting by his bed reading a book.
"Hello, I'm Evan."
He extended his hand with a smile.
However, the guy across from him just glanced at him and lowered his head again, looking completely unwilling to acknowledge him.
Evan was helpless and could only touch his nose, "Well, I guess I'm being presumptuous."
With that, he began to organize his bedding.
But before he could finish organizing, the cell door opened.
A burly guard stood outside the door, saying in a cold tone, "Evan Adam, Jell Flake, welding class is about to begin."
"Hey, officer, I just got to my cell, my butt hasn't even warmed the seat yet!" Evan couldn't help but protest.
It felt like being told on your first day at work that you needed to write a post-mortem document for a client.
How could there be no buffer time at all!
But the guard didn't consider his feelings at all and waved his baton, "Don't dawdle. If you don't study, then you'll have to sleep standing up tonight."
"Fine." Evan had no choice but to get up and follow Flake to the classroom.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 10:06:26 +0000 UTC
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Bai Ruxue and the thunder dragon collided, thunder and wind waves swept outward, streaks of lightning tore open the seawater, and the deafening sound was like gods beating drums!
A full ten breaths of time passed.
The wind and waves gradually calmed, the might of thunder slowly dissipated, the dark clouds in the sky moved away, and a ray of sunlight penetrated the cloud layers, shining on the white flood dragon's body.
The originally charred flesh peeled off and fell to the ground, new flesh grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, and new scales covered it.
Her dragon claws became even sharper, the dragon horns on her head were longer than before, like silver crystal coral.
Ethereal immortal music drifted melodiously, and in the sky above, a deep blue opening actually tore open.
One drop.
Two drops.
Three drops.
Blue liquid dripped down from the air.
The liquid carried faint thunder might and dragon race fortune.
"Dragon Thunder Liquid!"
Bai Ruxue's vertical pupils suddenly contracted.
Although Bai Ruxue had never seen Dragon Thunder Liquid, after crossing the tribulation, the dragon bloodline within her told her that this was what she had been longing for!
She quickly breathed out a stream of breath, wrapping all the falling Dragon Thunder Liquid to prevent it from dropping into the sea.
Then, Bai Ruxue flew toward the direction of the Dragon Thunder Liquid.
"Attack!"
With a sect master's command, all the small formations beneath everyone's feet bloomed with light.
Under the enhancement of the formations, each cultivator sacrificed their life-bound magical treasures, attacking and killing toward Bai Ruxue!
These sect cultivators had been waiting for this moment.
After a flood dragon crossed tribulation, although their realm was completely consolidated and injuries from the tribulation gradually healed, before their flesh completely recovered, it was still a time of weakness.
They couldn't possibly miss such an opportunity.
However, some cultivators felt that attacking this flood dragon themselves was too risky.
Even if they killed this flood dragon, they wouldn't get much share.
After all, there were hundreds of cultivators here, and so many sect masters too.
When the time came to divide the spoils, not only might they get nothing, they might even lose their lives.
So they set their sights on the Dragon Thunder Liquid wrapped in dragon breath!
"Get lost!"
Before these cultivators could touch the Dragon Thunder Liquid, they were reduced to scattered souls by Bai Ruxue's breath.
For Bai Ruxue, this Dragon Thunder Liquid was more important than her own life but while Bai Ruxue was focused on the Dragon Thunder Liquid, she had already been entangled by numerous cultivators.
Bai Ruxue slapped with her dragon claw, and a cultivator died on the spot.
When more cultivators approached, Bai Ruxue swept with her dragon tail, sending several Flower Moon Sect cultivators flying!
Seizing this momentary opening, Bai Ruxue's form shot forward swiftly, rushing straight for the Dragon Thunder Liquid.
Under her control, the Dragon Thunder Liquid also transformed into streaming light, flying toward her.
The Blazing Sun Sect Master saw that Bai Ruxue valued this Dragon Thunder Liquid extremely highly.
A cold light flashed in his eyes, and he simply changed targets. He formed hand seals, and a flame-condensed fire qilin roared out, pouncing fiercely toward the Dragon Thunder Liquid in mid-air!
Bai Ruxue's heart jumped in alarm. She no longer had time to control the Dragon Thunder Liquid to dodge this fire qilin, so she simply blocked directly in front of the Dragon Thunder Liquid.
"Boom!"
The fire qilin exploded on her back!
The newly grown flesh and scales instantly tore, deep enough to see bone.
Intense pain struck, Bai Ruxue's throat sweetened, and fresh blood spurted from her mouth.
Those blood droplets had not yet touched the sea surface when several sea fish leaped from the waves, competing to swallow them, then hastily fled into the deep sea and disappeared without a trace.
"It's fine... it's good that it's fine..."
Bai Ruxue looked at the Dragon Thunder Liquid she was protecting in front of her and let out a heavy sigh of relief, but didn't realize she had already suffered considerable injuries.
"You fell into the trap, evil beast! Let's see where you can escape now!"
The Dharma Mountain Sect Master's lips curved upward, his hand seals flying like the wind.
A formation that had been quietly set up activated.
The formation extended several illusory chains.
Neck, limbs, body, tail, all were bound by the formation!
Bai Ruxue's spirit shook in alarm, knowing something was wrong but the first thing Bai Ruxue did was wrap the Dragon Thunder Liquid with spiritual power and swallow it into her abdomen, avoiding even the slightest damage.
After protecting the Dragon Thunder Liquid, only then did Bai Ruxue try to break free from these binding chains.
"Roar!"
The white flood dragon let out an angry roar.
The illusory chains rang "clang clang" under Bai Ruxue's struggles!
But the technique was obviously prepared specifically for flood dragon species, and Bai Ruxue couldn't break free in a short time.
"Go!"
The red-haired sword cultivator pointed with his fingertip, and a giant sword one zhang and three chi long slashed toward Bai Ruxue's dragon head.
Bai Ruxue raised her head and let out a long howl, a blazing white lightning breaking through the air.
Although the giant sword fiercely tore through the lightning pillar, its momentum visibly stagnated and finally stopped due to exhaustion.
The next moment, both sword and person were violently smashed against the jagged cliff walls at the river mouth by the violent lightning.
However, just as Bai Ruxue's dragon breath ceased, a muscular cultivator raised a giant axe, carrying the force to split wind, and chopped down toward Bai Ruxue's head!
"Evil beast! Give up your life!"
The giant axe bloomed with black flames, even faintly carrying the momentum of Pangu splitting heaven and earth.
Bai Ruxue was bound hand and foot, wanting to use the dragon race's innate arts, but was sealed by the runes on these chains. Only dragon breath like snake venom could be used but she had just used it and couldn't release it again.
At this moment, the woman could only watch helplessly as that giant axe got closer and closer to her.
"What should I do? Xiao Mo is still trapped in the encirclement, and I haven't given the Dragon Thunder Liquid to Xiao Mo yet."
She knew she couldn't withstand this axe.
She wasn't afraid of death, but she worried that Xiao Mo would die here with her.
Just as Bai Ruxue kept struggling, trying to break free from the chains, that blood-stained blue robe blocked in front of Bai Ruxue.
She saw him wrapped in mountain-river dragon fortune, holding up a long sword from who knows where.
"Boom!"
The giant axe collided with the long sword.
Behind Xiao Mo, the sea area of fifty li raised a giant wave ten zhang high!
Xiao Mo struck out with another fist.
This punch seemed light and casual, but carried the weight of mountains and rivers.
"Thud!"
The giant axe cultivator smashed into the seabed like a meteorite.
Without the slightest hesitation, Xiao Mo turned and cut the chains with several sword strikes, "Let's go."
"Roar!"
Bai Ruxue no longer lingered in battle. She carried Xiao Mo and flew southward.
Bai Ruxue had read in a book that if one kept going south, they would reach a kingdom.
In that kingdom, everyone was from the demon race.
She and Xiao Mo would be safe if they escaped there but how could the others let Bai Ruxue get her wish.
Having reached this point, everyone was clear that this white flood dragon must die!
Otherwise, they would be releasing a dragon back to the sea, and would surely face revenge in the future.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Sitting on Bai Ruxue's back, Xiao Mo coughed a few times.
"Xiao Mo, are you alright?" Hearing Xiao Mo's coughing, Bai Ruxue asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, it's nothing," Xiao Mo smiled and shook his head, his palm concealing the black blood he had just coughed up.
Taking a deep breath, Xiao Mo raised his head, looking at the white clouds in the sky, feeling the bright spring sun shining on his body.
The azure blue ocean was sparkling with rippling light beneath him.
Xiao Mo slightly relaxed the wind-blocking technique, and the salty sea breeze gently played with Xiao Mo's hair ends, carrying the mild warmth characteristic of spring days.
Closing his eyes, Xiao Mo looked inward at his own body.
Very little mountain-river fortune remained.
His body's vital blood had also been completely burned up.
Looking down, Xiao Mo slightly opened his blue robe, revealing a huge bloody mark running through his torso.
Black flames scattered from the wound.
Actually, under that axe blow just now, Xiao Mo's body had already suffered severe damage, and both spirit and flesh should have perished together.
It was only that Xiao Mo used his last mountain-river fortune to sustain himself, hanging on to this final breath.
But...
Xiao Mo looked at his body gradually dissipating along with the mountain-river fortune.
He knew he didn't have much time left.
"Ruxue, how are you feeling? Are you alright?" Xiao Mo asked about her injuries.
"Mm-hmm, I found that after crossing the tribulation, my body's recovery power is stronger. Although my back still hurts a bit, it's fine. I already feel much better," Bai Ruxue responded.
Xiao Mo turned around and looked at the wound on Bai Ruxue's back.
Indeed, the originally charred flesh and scales had already grown back.
As expected, Ruxue's talent was truly exceptional, and the true dragon essence blood was also playing a major role.
Previously when Ruxue was still a snake python, the true dragon essence blood only manifested in Ruxue's cultivation but now, after Ruxue transformed into a flood dragon, that bit of true dragon essence blood had completely merged into Ruxue's bloodline.
Although Ruxue was still a flood dragon now, her bloodline purity exceeded ordinary flood dragons by several times.
One manifestation of bloodline purification and ancestral reversion was Ruxue's recovery ability.
"Ruxue, how far have we flown?" Xiao Mo asked again.
Bai Ruxue shook her head, "I don't know, maybe seven hundred li?"
"Only seven hundred li," Xiao Mo gathered his sleeves. "I got to accompany you for another seven hundred li, that's quite good."
"Not just these seven hundred li!" Bai Ruxue retorted. "In the future we'll walk many more roads together, watch sunrises and sunsets together, watch clouds gather and disperse together, see all the great rivers and lands of this world together."
Xiao Mo: "..."
"What's wrong, Xiao Mo? Are you unwilling? Why aren't you speaking?"
Perhaps having escaped those people's pursuit and obtained the Dragon Thunder Liquid, the woman's mood had become much, much better.
"No, I'm willing." Xiao Mo smiled.
His legs below the knees had already turned into light points and dissipated.
Like a sheet of white paper gradually burning up, turning into scattered fragments.
"Hmph, even if you're unwilling, you have to be willing. I've already gotten the Dragon Thunder Liquid. After I fly to the Ten Thousand Demons Kingdom, I'll be completely safe. Then you can take the Dragon Thunder Liquid and extend your lifespan."
Bai Ruxue said cheerfully, but as she spoke, the woman's cheeks showed a faint blush.
"By then... we'll... we'll get married... I'll... I'll bear you several children. Boys will look like you, girls will look like me, they'll definitely be very beautiful."
"Heh heh heh," Xiao Mo laughed, "Like you would be good, why like me? I'm not good-looking."
"Who said you're not good-looking?" Bai Ruxue retorted again. "You're very good-looking."
Xiao Mo shook his head, "You've lived in Stone Bridge Village since childhood, you've only seen a few men. When you see more, you won't think I'm good-looking anymore."
"That won't happen!" Bai Ruxue said confidently. "No matter how many men I see, I'll only think you're the most handsome!"
"Alright then, I'll accept my wife's praise."
"What wife..." Bai Ruxue said coquettishly, "We... we haven't had the ceremony yet."
Xiao Mo said nothing, only looked at Bai Ruxue tenderly.
His thighs had already dissipated.
"Xiao Mo, why do I feel like you're getting lighter and lighter?" Bai Ruxue asked puzzledly.
"I'm circulating energy to heal my injuries. The mountain-river fortune is slowly lifting me up, so you feel I'm lighter," Xiao Mo fabricated an excuse.
"Oh," Bai Ruxue believed him.
It had been this way before, and it was the same now.
Whatever Xiao Mo said, she would believe.
"Hey? Xiao Mo, speaking of which, can Dragon Thunder Liquid treat your injuries?"
"No," Xiao Mo shook his head. "Dragon Thunder Liquid can only extend lifespan, how could it heal injuries? This isn't a divine medicine. But it's fine, my injuries aren't serious, no need to worry."
"That won't do. Bear with it a bit longer. I'll find a small island to stop at later, help you look at your wounds first, then quickly find a town and get a doctor to treat your injuries."
Bai Ruxue was still very worried.
She was thinking in her heart whether her blood had healing properties and if Xiao Mo could withstand it.
"Alright, I'll listen to you." Xiao Mo responded.
At this time his waist had already dissipated.
"Ruxue..." Xiao Mo softly called her name.
"What is it?" Bai Ruxue asked puzzledly.
"Nothing, just keep talking with me."
"Talk about what?"
"Anything is fine. I'm a bit tired and want to hear your voice."
"Alright."
Bai Ruxue thought for a moment.
"When we get to the Ten Thousand Demons Kingdom, I'll claim a mountain as king, then we'll bring Little Green over, and finally the three of us can live together forever."
"If you're not used to living there, then when I become more powerful, we'll come back. By then we won't be afraid of those cultivators anymore."
"Also, also, if we have children, you can't say I'm stupid in front of them. You can only say it secretly behind my back."
"As a mother, I need face too."
"Xiao Mo, Xiao Mo, are you asleep?"
"Not yet, I'm listening," Xiao Mo smiled. "Actually, you're not stupid at all."
"I've always been very smart," Bai Ruxue said proudly.
"Ruxue," Xiao Mo's body had dissipated to his neck.
"Mm?"
"In the future, cultivate well."
"Why are you suddenly saying these things?"
"Nothing, just wanted to say it."
"Oh, then go ahead."
"In the future, don't be rash in your actions, think thrice."
"In the future, don't trust others too much. Your kind heart is good, but always keep three parts vigilance in everything."
"In the future, listen to Little Green more. Although Little Green is younger than you, her temperament is more mature."
Bai Ruxue complained, "Xiao Mo, I don't want to hear these things, they make me feel uncomfortable..."
Xiao Mo smiled, "Just one more sentence."
The woman muttered, "Fine then."
Xiao Mo's gentle eyes were like this spring sea breeze, reflecting her appearance:
"In the future, when I'm not here anymore, you must take good care of yourself. You must walk the path ahead well... Silly girl, did you hear me?"
With Xiao Mo's final words falling, Bai Ruxue's golden vertical pupils suddenly contracted.
The girl's ears fell into complete silence...
In the sky above, the white dragon flew forward with all her might.
But her world had already disappeared.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 09:52:54 +0000 UTC
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"Just a mere mortal! Xiao Mo! What audacious words!"
The Blazing Sun Sect Master roared in fury, and the other cultivators looked at Xiao Mo as if they were looking at a dead man.
They had always looked down on mortals.
Even mortals with mountain-river fortune were nothing more than ants that could bite but now, this ant was being so arrogant!
"Kill him!"
The female sect master of Flower Moon Sect waved her hand, and several other elders of Flower Moon Sect charged forward.
The other cultivators also rushed toward Xiao Mo together, wanting to make this old thing's soul scatter into nothingness!
Admittedly, at the beginning, this old thing's strength was indeed intimidating but now, he had consumed too much mountain-river fortune.
His current strength was only at the Jade Simplicity realm, and if the fighting continued, his strength would decline even further.
In the end, they could crush him with a single finger!
Facing these cultivators, Xiao Mo's expression remained calm from beginning to end.
The black dragon emerged once again from behind Xiao Mo, roaring at these hundred-plus cultivators without the slightest fear.
"Faster!"
"Even faster!"
"Xiao Mo can't hold on much longer, Bai Ruxue! Go faster!"
At this moment, Bai Ruxue was almost exhausted, her body moving forward purely on instinct. She knew she couldn't stop.
If she stopped, Xiao Mo would surely die here!
The tribulation!
She must face the tribulation as quickly as possible!
Xiao Mo had said before that as long as she successfully passed the tribulation, after the thunder tempered her body, she would be reborn and her realm would advance to another level.
Then she could take Xiao Mo away from this place of troubles.
By then, she, Xiao Mo, and Little Green could all live together forever!
"Evil beast! Where are you going!"
A Nascent Soul realm elder from Star Haze Sect blocked Bai Ruxue's path.
He threw out a dragon-catching net, forming hand seals, and the net rapidly expanded.
Although this dragon-catching net was an imitation magical treasure, in his view, it was sufficient to catch a flood dragon that had not yet faced tribulation.
"Get lost!" Bai Ruxue roared angrily at the man before her and spat out white lightning!
Just as the dragon-catching net was about to cover Bai Ruxue, the white lightning directly tore a large hole in the net.
Bai Ruxue drilled through the large hole in the net and charged straight at the man.
"This is bad!" The man's spirit shook in terror, wanting to flee but the dragon's might emanating from Bai Ruxue locked his body firmly in place.
His body trembled continuously, completely disobeying his commands.
"How can this be? It's just an untribulated white flood dragon, how could..."
"Roar!"
Bai Ruxue charged straight through.
In the final moment, the man saw her golden vertical pupils.
Although his reflection was in her vertical pupils, it seemed as if she didn't regard him as worth her attention at all.
The instant Bai Ruxue's dragon horn touched him, the man instantly exploded into bloody mist.
At the mouth of the Yunya River, ten zhang high at the entrance to the sea, Bai Ruxue pressed down forcefully with her four claws, leaped up, and plummeted toward the North Sea.
"Disaster!"
The other cultivators who were entangled with Xiao Mo saw Bai Ruxue soaring through the air and felt great foreboding.
"Splash!"
The thirty-zhang-long white flood dragon entered the sea, splashing up ten zhang of water.
"Rumble!"
In the sky above, the thunder tribulation that had been suppressed for so long finally arrived.
"Dong!"
With a bell sound spreading throughout heaven and earth, it seemed to ring the opening for this thunder tribulation.
The first thunder tribulation struck down toward Bai Ruxue.
Bai Ruxue met it head-on.
Lightning penetrated Bai Ruxue's body.
Bai Ruxue felt her entire body go numb, but her eyes became even more determined.
"Roar!"
Bai Ruxue roared angrily at the sky.
The dragon's roar spread throughout the North Sea.
All the cultivators' hearts jumped in shock.
They had never seen such an arrogant flood dragon.
When ordinary flood dragons faced tribulation, they kept their posture very low to show respect for the Heavenly Dao but this white flood dragon was different.
She not only showed no reverence for heaven and earth, but actually provoked the Heavenly Dao!
"Fellow Daoists, while this white flood dragon is facing tribulation, let us each set up formations. When her tribulation ends, we'll all strike together to hunt and kill her. As for the dragon pill, dragon tendons, dragon bones, and such, we can divide them afterward. How about it?"
The Dew Vault Sect Master shouted to cultivators from other sects.
"I think that's feasible!"
"This old man agrees."
"Let's do it!"
The others all responded in agreement.
This white flood dragon was extraordinary, and the purity of the bloodline within her body was the highest they had ever seen.
If they let this white flood dragon escape, they would regret it for who knows how many years.
Moreover, the dragon race was most vengeful. In the future, when she achieved the Dao, they probably wouldn't sleep peacefully.
"Rumble!"
The second lightning bolt fell, striking Bai Ruxue again.
Compared to the first lightning bolt, this second one was three times more powerful.
Several of Bai Ruxue's scales peeled off under the lightning strike.
The third bolt.
The fourth bolt.
The fifth bolt.
The tribulation's power increased progressively.
Bai Ruxue's body was battered and broken, her thirty-zhang-long form dancing beneath the thunder clouds, appearing precarious.
Meanwhile, the other cultivators had positioned themselves ten li away from Bai Ruxue.
They stood in various directions, each setting up a small formation.
They were just waiting for the moment Bai Ruxue's tribulation ended to strike simultaneously but how could Xiao Mo let them have their way?
Xiao Mo broke free from the entanglement with the cultivators before him. Xiao Mo controlled the black dragon to charge rampantly, trying to eliminate the cultivators who were setting up formations.
"Lying awake at night listening to wind and rain, iron horses and frozen rivers enter my dreams."
Words became reality.
Xiao Mo used Confucian arts again.
The wind and rain in the sky condensed into cavalry that rode through the air, charging toward these cultivators!
Just as Xiao Mo was locked in battle with them, the sixth thunder tribulation arrived.
The lightning transformed into countless blue birds that tore and bit at Bai Ruxue's body.
Bai Ruxue endured the intense pain and roared as she scattered these lightning blue birds.
The seventh thunder tribulation descended, and Bai Ruxue's consciousness was already somewhat blurred.
"The seventh one, just two more to go."
Bai Ruxue looked toward Xiao Mo in the distance, his blue robe stained with blood, and she became completely anxious.
She shook her head forcefully, looking at the lightning that was building but not striking, and Bai Ruxue charged straight toward the clouds.
The Heavenly Dao seemed to sense Bai Ruxue's provocation, and the seventh and eighth thunder tribulations struck down simultaneously!
Bai Ruxue was struck down into the vast sea but in less than one breath, Bai Ruxue burst out from the sea again, charging toward the sky once more.
A massive dragon head emerged from the dark clouds.
The dragon head was crystal clear blue, formed from lightning.
Even though this thunder tribulation had nothing to do with the crowd, feeling the pressure of this tribulation, everyone's backs were covered in cold sweat.
"Nine Dragons Profound Thunder Tribulation?"
"This white flood dragon actually triggered the Nine Dragons Profound Thunder Tribulation?"
"Her bloodline is so extraordinary?"
"What kind of fortuitous encounter did she have?"
Many cultivators only now realized that the thunder tribulation Bai Ruxue was facing was the nearly fatal Nine Dragons Profound Thunder Tribulation!
This tribulation hadn't appeared in thousands of years.
"Roar!"
The thunder dragon's roar shook heaven and earth, making the ground tremble.
After the thunder dragon shuttled through the cloud layers for a while, it swooped straight toward Bai Ruxue.
Bai Ruxue remained fearless, charging straight up!
"The final thunder tribulation, Xiao Mo, wait for me!"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 09:52:07 +0000 UTC
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Yunya River.
This great river ran through the entire North Sea Prefecture.
After Bai Ruxue entered the Yunya River, although it caused torrential rain, the various waterways that Xiao Mo had dredged in North Sea Prefecture over the years were not just for show, and the great dams he had built in North Sea Prefecture were not mere decorations either.
Moreover, Xiao Mo had already notified the North Sea Prefecture's governor to prepare in advance.
So the people on both banks would at most be frightened, but wouldn't suffer any serious harm.
Xiao Mo sat on Bai Ruxue's back.
Ruxue's body was changing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Her slender form stretched sinuously, now reaching thirty zhang in length.
The silver-white scale armor covering her entire body flowed under the dim light, like a frozen river condensed from moonlight and starshine.
On her forehead was a pair of newly grown, exquisitely delicate silver-white dragon horns, quietly breaking through the scales, like jade shoots carved from ice and snow. Though still tender, they already revealed a pure, flawless luster and extraordinary outline.
Ordinary flood dragons had no horns, but Ruxue did, showing the purity of her bloodline.
On Ruxue's neck and spine, newly grown snow-white fur cascaded down like tassels, gleaming with a silk-like sheen.
Ruxue's newly grown limbs had four claws, while most flood dragons only had three.
Her eyes were also gradually turning into golden vertical pupils.
Although Ruxue had not yet entered the sea, her form was already no different from an ordinary flood dragon.
"Xiao Mo, this latter half has been so smooth," Bai Ruxue said to Xiao Mo.
Bai Ruxue had thought she would encounter some obstruction, but there was nothing at all.
"Mm," Xiao Mo nodded, "It has been quite smooth."
Just as Xiao Mo's words fell, his spirit concentrated, as if he had sensed something.
"Ruxue, some friends have come. I need to go meet them. Just keep swimming forward, don't be afraid, I'll always be with you."
Xiao Mo said with a smile.
Before Bai Ruxue could speak, Xiao Mo had already stood up and flew into the clouds.
Bai Ruxue nervously glanced at the sky, but quickly steadied her mind and swam forward with all her might.
Above the dark clouds, Xiao Mo held one hand in a loose fist before him, the other hand behind his back.
The fierce wind made Xiao Mo's blue robe flutter loudly.
He was waiting for the last group of people, also the most troublesome group.
After a moment, Moon God Sect Master Ye Zhenren flew over with five elders.
Seeing the old man blocking their path, Ye Zhenren frowned, "Old sir, were you waiting here for us?"
"Not just for you," Xiao Mo looked at the Moon God Sect members. "Everyone, please stop here and go no further."
Ye Zhenren looked Xiao Mo up and down twice, voicing a question similar to those previous scattered cultivators, "Prime Minister Xiao, as an official of Qi Kingdom, you actually protect a white python's path? When did your Qi Kingdom start colluding with the demon race?"
"Not so," Xiao Mo shook his head. "Protecting Ruxue's path is my personal matter, unrelated to Qi Kingdom."
Xiao Mo repeated once more, "Everyone, please return."
"What if we don't return?" Ye Zhenren stared at Xiao Mo.
Xiao Mo sighed, "Then I'm afraid you all will find it difficult to return."
"Arrogant!"
Ye Zhenren stretched out his large hand.
A huge golden palm appeared above Xiao Mo.
"Suppress!"
As Ye Zhenren pressed his large hand downward, the golden dharma palm suppressed toward Xiao Mo.
"Miss Sisi, lend me your sword."
Xiao Mo reached out his hand, grasping toward a certain place.
Twenty li away on a mountaintop, Li Sisi felt her waist sword emit a trembling sound.
The next instant, her sword transformed into a stream of light flying toward Xiao Mo's direction.
When Xiao Mo grasped the long sword, the golden dharma palm was only three zhang from the top of his head.
"You cultivators always underestimate mortals too much."
Xiao Mo struck out with his sword, and that golden dharma palm instantly shattered.
Ye Zhenren and the others' hearts jumped in shock, knowing things had gone terribly wrong.
It wasn't that he didn't know that with mountain-river fortune, Xiao Mo's strength was comparable to the Ascension realm but after Xiao Mo had experienced several previous great battles, logically his mountain-river fortune should have been greatly consumed, and his strength should have fallen considerably.
Yet how was he still comparable to an Immortal realm cultivator?
Ye Zhenren wanted to negotiate peace but it was already too late.
Xiao Mo stepped forward, his black figure passing by their sides.
Each time Xiao Mo struck with his sword, an elder would explode into bloody mist while Ye Zhenren turned and fled.
"Returning the sword to the young lady." Xiao Mo threw out the long sword in his hand.
The flying sword passed through Ye Zhenren's direction.
When that sword flew back to Li Sisi's scabbard, Ye Zhenren clutched his neck, his head separated from his body.
Ye Zhenren's soul tried to escape.
Xiao Mo waved his sleeve, extinguishing his spirit as well.
However, Moon God Sect was just one of many sects coveting Ruxue.
In this cloud-covered, pitch-black sky, countless sects with over a hundred cultivators in total came one after another.
Now Ruxue had reached the latter half of the Luo River and was almost ready to enter the sea.
And this was when Bai Ruxue was most exhausted, the best time to strike.
Otherwise, when Ruxue faced her tribulation, they would find it difficult to interfere.
If Bai Ruxue successfully passed her tribulation and mastered her innate divine abilities, her realm would advance to another level.
When the flood dragon entered the sea, it would be extremely difficult for them to pursue and kill her.
Xiao Mo manifested twenty avatars, killing toward those cultivators.
Xiao Mo again condensed a black dragon, protecting Bai Ruxue's surroundings.
"Roar!"
Bai Ruxue let out a dragon's roar, her tail slapping a cultivator into bloody mist.
"Xiao Mo, leave quickly, you don't need to help me, I can handle these people myself!" Bai Ruxue looked at Xiao Mo protecting her path in the air, her heart burning with anxiety, worried that Xiao Mo might have an accident at any moment but Xiao Mo didn't respond to Bai Ruxue, only continued blocking these cultivators.
Bai Ruxue clenched her dragon claws tightly, knowing Xiao Mo wouldn't listen, turned around again, and plunged fiercely into the Yunya River, swimming toward the river mouth!
"Stupid Xiao Mo! Stupid Xiao Mo! You said I was stubborn, but you're obviously the stubborn one!" Bai Ruxue cursed Xiao Mo as she swam, "Xiao Mo... you must not have an accident, I'm about to enter the sea soon."
Meanwhile, in the sky above, cultivators exploded into bloody mist one by one.
The mountain-river fortune within Xiao Mo's body was also rapidly being consumed, his strength continuously declining.
Fortunately, Xiao Mo blocked all hundred-plus cultivators behind him, and Ruxue had pulled quite a distance from them. At most half an incense stick's time, and Ruxue could enter the sea.
Xiao Mo looked at the hundred-plus cultivators before him.
These cultivators also stared intently at Xiao Mo.
Both sides remained motionless, as if caught in a stalemate.
The Blazing Sun Sect Master shouted angrily at Xiao Mo, "Xiao Mo, do you truly think you can block all of us?"
With tattered clothes and blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, Xiao Mo wiped the blood from his lips, standing straight as a pine tree and said, "Let's try."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 09:51:32 +0000 UTC
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When Wang Wei and the others saw their teacher standing on the pear tree, they were all stunned.
They even doubted whether they were seeing things correctly.
Hadn't their teacher retired to his hometown?
How could he come to the Luo River?
And even intervene to save this white python.
Bai Ruxue glanced at Xiao Mo, wanting to help him but reason told Bai Ruxue that she must traverse the river and reach the sea as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, no matter how she tried to persuade him, Xiao Mo would never leave.
And if she continued to stay here, she would only burden Xiao Mo.
Looking at his three most accomplished disciples, Xiao Mo smiled, "I didn't expect His Majesty would send you three."
"Teacher, what are you doing?" Zhuge Qing stepped forward and asked.
"Protecting her passage to the sea," Xiao Mo said calmly.
Xu Shangao looked troubled, "Teacher, she is a demon..."
Xiao Mo nodded, "This old man knows."
"..." All three were speechless.
"His Majesty must have sent you to stop her from traversing the river," Xiao Mo stroked his graying beard. "Since that's the case, do your duty and don't think about other matters."
The three exchanged glances and quickly made their decision, bowing deeply to Xiao Mo, "Teacher, we must offend you!"
As their words fell, the three men's official robes billowed, and their mountain-river fortune also transformed into three black dragons spiraling upward.
Zhuge Qing struck first, a hundred golden remonstrative words flying from his sleeve, each character sharp as a blade, "As ministers, we must correct demons and evil!"
"Very good."
Xiao Mo nodded, his eyes showing gratification.
Xiao Mo's withered finger traced through the air, and the pear trees suddenly exploded. Countless petals condensed into shields, blocking all the remonstrative words.
Amidst the fluttering golden paper scraps and petals, Xu Shangao and Wang Wei bypassed their teacher, treading on waves as they pursued the white python directly.
They didn't want to harm their teacher, only wanted to slay this white python.
Once this white python died, they would have no reason to oppose their teacher, and could then beg their teacher's forgiveness.
"To have our teacher protect your path, how fortunate you are."
Flying above the white python, Wang Wei sighed and pointed his brush directly at the python's head.
At the same time, Xu Shangao soared in the air, and in his hand appeared the phantom of the Xuanyuan Great Bow.
The bow was drawn, mountain-river fortune condensed into a black arrow, aimed directly at the python's vital spot, where the snake's gallbladder and heart were located.
"Twang!"
With the sound of the bowstring vibrating, the arrow transformed into a streak of light, shooting toward the white python.
At this moment of life and death, Xiao Mo broke free from Zhuge Qing's entanglement and blocked Wang Wei's path.
He pointed his fingers like a sword, touching the right side of Wang Wei's brush.
Wang Wei's spirit shook, his face turned pale, and he retreated dozens of meters. His official boots carved long water marks on the river surface, and his right hand holding the brush became so numb and sore that he could no longer lift it.
Then, Xiao Mo reached out and caught the arrow shooting toward Bai Ruxue with his bare hand.
"Boom!"
The Luo River around Xiao Mo erupted in waves dozens of meters high, overturning the willow trees on both banks.
When the great waves subsided, that arrow slowly dissipated in Xiao Mo's hand. Only an old man stood calmly on the lake surface, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth down his chin, dripping into the Luo River and gradually dissolving.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Xiao Mo coughed a few times, looking in Ruxue's direction. Fortunately, she had already entered the latter section of the Luo River and was about to enter the Yunya River.
"I can't let her see me like this."
Xiao Mo wiped the blood from his mouth, then used mountain-river fortune to conceal his weakened life flame before flying toward the Yunya River.
"Aren't the three of you pursuing anymore?"
Meng Qianqian asked these three prefects.
"We have very little mountain-river fortune left. Pursuing further would be useless," Zhuge Qing shook his head.
Wang Wei bowed to Meng Qianqian, "We have done our utmost. We hope the Water God can bear witness."
"You three may rest assured," Meng Qianqian nodded. "I will report to His Majesty and speak of your diligence."
Xu Shangao expressed his gratitude, "Thank you, Water God."
At the beginning, the Luo River Water God and the three men Wang Wei indeed held the purpose of eliminating demons but when the Luo River Water God learned that Wang Wei and the others were Xiao Mo's disciples, she understood His Majesty's intention.
Similarly, in Wang Wei and the others' view, His Majesty definitely knew that this white python was crossing the river with their teacher protecting her path.
Yet His Majesty still sent the three of them, knowing that as their teacher's disciples, they definitely wouldn't fight their teacher to the death.
His Majesty was turning a blind eye.
It was mainly to put on a show for the human race and other dynasties.
Besides this, there was probably another purpose, which was to have the three of them accompany their teacher on his final journey.
Admittedly, the three of them could go easy but would cultivators from other sects go easy on their teacher?
This white python showed signs of ancestral reversion, its entire body was treasure, and it had probably already caught the attention of many sects.
With their teacher's aged body protecting this white python's path, continuously consuming mountain-river fortune along the way, and finally having to face those sects, could their teacher really survive?
"Who is this white snake? Why does our teacher care about her so much?" Wang Wei asked.
Zhuge Qing frowned, "I heard that our teacher never married because his childhood sweetheart went to an immortal sect to cultivate. Recently I also heard that immortal maiden returned. And when snakes transform into pythons, they need to slumber for years. Could it be that..."
Hearing Zhuge Qing's speculation, everyone remained silent.
Only Meng Qianqian looked toward the direction where the old man had departed, "What a devoted lover..."
After passing the Luo River, Bai Ruxue entered the Yunya River.
This was the final stretch of the journey.
After Bai Ruxue entered the North Sea, she would face the thunder tribulation.
If she successfully passed through the thunder tribulation, the python would completely transform into a flood dragon, and her physique and realm would also stabilize.
This journey of traversing rivers to transform into a dragon would then be complete.
Bai Ruxue swam forward with all her might while worrying about Xiao Mo in her heart but she knew she couldn't stop.
Once the river traversal began, it couldn't be abandoned halfway.
She could only enter the sea to face the tribulation as quickly as possible, then take Xiao Mo far away and use Dragon Thunder Liquid to extend his life.
"Ruxue."
Just as Bai Ruxue's heart grew increasingly anxious, an elderly scholar's refined voice came.
Bai Ruxue was overjoyed, lifting her head to look at her beloved flying through the air, "Xiao Mo, are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
Xiao Mo sat on Bai Ruxue's back.
"The North Sea Prefecture's governor is my good friend. I've already made arrangements, so there shouldn't be any problems."
"Mm-hmm, don't worry, I will definitely obtain the Dragon Thunder Liquid. I have a feeling that when I enter the sea, it will be the Nine Dragons Profound Thunder Tribulation!" Bai Ruxue said earnestly. "Then I can extend your life!"
Xiao Mo smiled faintly, "Good."
"Then Xiao Mo, go rest for a while. It's the final stretch now, I can handle it myself," Bai Ruxue said, looking at Xiao Mo's somewhat pale complexion with worry filling her heart.
"No need." Xiao Mo shook his head.
"This final stretch of the journey, I'll walk with you to the end."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 09:50:56 +0000 UTC
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After Bai Ruxue swam past the Chunsong River and entered the Luo River, Gai Sanqiu and Wei Yuan indeed stopped pursuing her.
As mountain and water river gods, they could not leave their own territories.
Since that white snake had left their domain, they had no way to continue their enforcement.
"Both of you, please forgive my offense."
Xiao Mo swept his sleeve, dispelling the black dragon, and bowed to Gai Sanqiu and Wei Yuan.
Gai Sanqiu and Wei Yuan stood up, looking at this mortal sage with complex expressions.
"Xiao Mo, you have accumulated a lifetime's worth of incense and mountain-river fortune, yet in the end you've used it all on this white snake. Do you truly think it's worth it?" Gai Sanqiu asked.
Although Gai Sanqiu hadn't had much contact with Xiao Mo, only catching a distant glimpse of him when he came to the Chunsong River, he respected this man who had devoted his life's efforts to the people.
Xiao Mo smiled, "As long as it's for something one cares about in their heart, then it's worth it."
"You... with a mortal's body interfering in a demon's dragon transformation. You can stop us now, but what about later? The more mountain-river fortune you consume, the lower your realm becomes. This white python has extremely exaggerated talent, and who knows how many sects have already set their sights on her. When your mountain-river fortune is exhausted to the end, will your strength be comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator? Can you really help her? Don't end up with your soul scattered into nothingness," Wei Yuan advised as a final warning.
Xiao Mo nodded, "I know, but helping even a little is better than nothing. Besides, this old man is going to die soon anyway."
"Sigh," Wei Yuan let out a heavy sigh, angrily waved his sleeve, turned around and left.
Gai Sanqiu said, "Xiao Mo, don't let your soul scatter into nothingness. At least leave yourself a chance for the next life."
Xiao Mo smiled and bowed, "Mo will try his best."
Gai Sanqiu also bowed to Xiao Mo, then finally merged into the river.
After the two mountain and water river gods left, Xiao Mo turned around and looked toward the direction of the Luo River.
Xiao Mo took a step forward, moving toward the sky above the Luo River.
Only this final stretch of the journey remained.
The mountain-river fortune should be sufficient.
"Rumble!"
Above the Luo River, thunder sounded again.
As Bai Ruxue swam to the middle section of the river, the thunder in the sky became increasingly violent, as if wanting to tear the entire sky apart with force.
"Another python snake traversing the river."
A section of the Luo River water poured upward into the air.
This section of Luo River water seemed carved by knives and axes, with excess parts removed, finally forming the appearance of a woman.
The woman was named Meng Qianqian.
Legend had it that Meng Qianqian was the sister of the founding ancestor of the Qi Kingdom.
When the Qi Kingdom was founded, facing both internal troubles and external threats, Meng Qianqian married into Bei Mang as a political marriage to secure temporary development.
In Bei Mang, with her outstanding appearance, scholarly accomplishments, and eloquent speech, Meng Qianqian completely won the trust of the Bei Mang ruler.
The two countries ceased hostilities for a long time, and Meng Qianqian had indelible contributions to this but eventually the two countries went to war again. When Bei Mang forces invaded the Luo River, they encountered an ambush from Qi Kingdom.
The one who provided the intelligence was naturally Meng Qianqian.
The Bei Mang ruler died at the Luo River, and Bei Mang suffered a great defeat.
The Qi Kingdom ruler wanted to bring his sister back but Meng Qianqian said she had fulfilled her loyalty to Qi Kingdom, and now she should fulfill her duty to her husband.
Meng Qianqian threw herself into the Luo River, moving all the people, who built temples to worship her.
The Qi Kingdom ruler bestowed upon her the title of Luo River Water God.
"Your bloodline is quite good. I originally didn't want to block you, but duty requires it. Let's see if you can pass through," the Luo River Water God said.
The Luo River Water God swept her sleeve, and over a thousand swords condensed from Luo River water shot toward Bai Ruxue!
Bai Ruxue coiled her long tail into a whirlpool, her scales bursting with dazzling white light, forcefully withstanding the first wave of attacks.
Sword blades sliced across the snake's body, bringing up strings of blood droplets.
"How stubborn."
Meng Qianqian lightly pointed with her fingertip, and the Luo River water flowed upward, forming a cage to trap Bai Ruxue.
The next moment, soldiers condensed from Luo River water, wielding long knives, sharp swords, and long halberds, charged toward Bai Ruxue.
Bai Ruxue's pupils suddenly contracted, and four bulges beneath her belly suddenly split open.
With a "ripping" sound, four dragon claws broke through the scales!
"Hiss!"
The white snake's roar shattered the water prison, and those thousand soldiers formed from Luo River water were all shaken into water droplets.
"Growing claws before transforming into a flood dragon?"
Meng Qianqian was quite astonished.
She could sense that this white snake's bloodline talent was extraordinary, but she hadn't expected it to reach such a degree. Truly rare indeed.
Bai Ruxue's body gradually turned white, like the sign before a snake sheds its skin. Beneath that translucent snake skin were brand new dragon scales!
The newly born dragon scales bloomed with brilliant luster, as if carved from gemstones.
"Roar!"
Bai Ruxue no longer hissed like a snake, but roared like a dragon.
She kept swimming forward, the countercurrent Luo River water crashing against Bai Ruxue's body.
Layer after layer of shed snake skin gradually peeled away from Bai Ruxue's body.
"Splash!"
Bai Ruxue crashed through Meng Qianqian's body formed from Luo River water and rushed toward the rear section of the Luo River.
Meng Qianqian turned around, the Luo River water gradually condensing to repair the half of her body that had been shattered.
Meng Qianqian hooked her index finger, and chains of Luo River water bound toward Bai Ruxue, trying to lock her limbs, snake head, and vital spots but Bai Ruxue lifted her head and spat out white lightning, shattering them all.
"Meng Water God, we have arrived!"
Just as Bai Ruxue was about to break free from Meng Qianqian's obstruction, three elderly men appeared in the sky above.
Seeing their official robes and the rich mountain-river fortune surrounding them, Meng Qianqian bowed respectfully, "Thank you for your trouble, three prefects."
"Don't mention it."
Wang Wei smiled, then looked at the white python that had already swum 150 li through the Luo River and shouted loudly, "Evil beast! Why don't you surrender!"
Wang Wei's scolding voice became tangible under the enhancement of mountain-river fortune.
Like the "Hm" and "Ha" of the Door God generals, a golden character "Capture" shocked toward the white python that had already grown four limbs.
"Roar!" Bai Ruxue turned her head and let out a dragon roar, shattering that golden "Capture" character.
"Before even reaching the river mouth, this white python is already so domineering," Zhuge Qing said in surprise. "Everyone, let's resolve this quickly."
"Right!"
Wang Wei and Xu Shangao responded in unison.
The three simultaneously threw out their prefect official seals.
Three jade-green official seals manifested as enormous dharma forms, with "Wholehearted service to the people, standing between heaven and earth" carved at the bottom.
"Fall!"
The official seals locked onto the white python's aura and pressed down toward her like three great mountains.
Seeing these three official seals, Bai Ruxue knew she couldn't block them and could only use all her strength to swim forward.
"Suddenly, like a night spring breeze, thousands of trees and ten thousand pear blossoms bloom."
Just as these three official seals were about to suppress Bai Ruxue, an elderly voice drifted over leisurely.
In an instant, over a hundred pear trees bloomed out of thin air, supporting these three official seals so they couldn't fall another inch.
An old man stood with his hands behind his back on the highest pear tree, coughing lightly a few times.
When they saw the old man's face clearly, all three men's hearts jumped in shock, "Teacher?"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 09:50:20 +0000 UTC
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Xiao Mo's voice echoed over the Chunsong River.
Standing on the embankment, the Chunsong County magistrate watched everything happening before him and wondered if he was seeing things wrong.
The county magistrate could understand snake clans walking the river to transform into dragons causing heavy rain.
He could also understand the Chunsong River god and Mount Changqing mountain god going to stop this snake clan's tribulation but he never expected that the world-renowned Prime Minister Xiao would actually help a snake clan undergo tribulation!
He was even fighting with the Chunsong River god and Mount Changqing mountain god!
Bai Ruxue raised her snake head to look at Xiao Mo, her eyes filled with bewilderment.
She never would have thought that Xiao Mo would follow her.
"Xiao Mo, don't worry about me. I can handle it myself." Bai Ruxue called out to Xiao Mo in the air, her eyes full of concern.
Xiao Mo looked back at Bai Ruxue and smiled, "It's just a small matter. You just swim forward, no need to look back. Leave this to me."
"Want to leave? It's not that easy!"
Gai Sanqiu snorted coldly, his Dragon-Slaying Sword transforming into a golden rainbow, slashing directly at the white python's head!
The brilliant sword light illuminated the river surface, and the surging waves were actually split open by this unmatched edge, creating a deep chasm.
"The waterfall plunges straight down three thousand feet, like the Milky Way falling from the nine heavens."
At this critical moment, Xiao Mo recited poetry.
Words followed by law.
Water droplets throughout the sky gathered at his call, instantly condensing into a suspended waterfall that crashed down, blocking that deadly sword light.
"Xiao Mo, you're about to die. What is your relationship with this snake demon? Don't you even care about your posthumous reputation?" Wei Yuan stood to the side, looking coldly at Xiao Mo.
Actually, Wei Yuan greatly admired Xiao Mo in his heart.
As a minister, he had reached the position of prime minister, below one person and above ten thousand.
As an official, he had done many things for the people of the world. One book, "Northern and Southern Agricultural Manual," and another, "Qi Kingdom Water Conservancy Techniques," could be said to benefit countless generations.
Xiao Mo was already called a sage in the mortal world.
Such a mortal sage would actually help the demon clan walk the river and transform into dragons.
Did he not know that the human race and demon race had long-standing grudges and were already at the point of irreconcilable conflict?
His entire life had been without a single blemish. On the verge of death, why would he stain his own feathers?
"Posthumous reputation?" Xiao Mo folded his sleeves, like an ordinary old scholar. "Mountain God Wei, compared to posthumous reputation, this old man cares more about the person before my eyes."
"Fine! Prime Minister Xiao! Then don't blame me for being impolite!"
Wei Yuan knew he couldn't persuade him, so he said no more.
Gai Sanqiu stepped forward, suddenly swinging the Dragon-Binding Locks in his hand.
Those chains, like awakened weapon spirits, shot swiftly along the river, breaking through layer upon layer of angry waves, directly targeting the white python's waist.
However, Xiao Mo's figure was already there. His toe seemed to casually step down, but precisely stepped on the chains.
That fierce chain, like a mad python whose vital point had been grasped, futilely twisted and struggled frantically on the river surface, unable to advance another inch!
At the same time, Bai Ruxue swam toward Xiao Mo, trying to help him but Xiao Mo didn't turn back, only waved his large sleeve.
Instantly, the river water behind him surged up with a roar, transforming into a crystal-clear water barrier, blocking her path.
"Ruxue, while there's time, go quickly."
Xiao Mo transmitted his voice to Bai Ruxue but she didn't want to leave at all.
"Ruxue, have you forgotten what I told you?" Xiao Mo's tone was gentle.
Bai Ruxue was stunned for a moment, recalling the lessons Xiao Mo had given her.
After some hesitation, Bai Ruxue turned and dove into the river surface, swimming toward the distance.
Despite the countercurrent river water crashing against her snake body, Bai Ruxue only wanted to go faster, and faster still!
As long as she passed this Chunsong River, these two mountain and river gods would have no way to deal with her.
Then Xiao Mo wouldn't have to fight them.
Then Xiao Mo wouldn't get hurt.
Watching Bai Ruxue swimming "against the current downstream," Xiao Mo's lips curved up.
With a thought, the ink-colored dragon formed from mountain and river fortune, people's incense offerings, and literary dao fortune bit firmly onto the Dragon-Binding Locks under Xiao Mo's feet, then pulled forcefully, splashing waves several meters high.
Gai Sanqiu still wanted to hold his sword and stop the white snake, to slay it on the spot but the ink-colored dragon broke through the waves and crashed into him, its ink-colored claws firmly pressing down on his wrist.
Gai Sanqiu used his mind to control the river.
The river water condensed into water dragons that pounced toward Bai Ruxue.
Bai Ruxue didn't care at all.
She swept her long tail to shatter one water dragon, then charged head-on to smash another, continuing to swim forward.
Although Gai Sanqiu was the river god and could control the Chunsong River to a certain degree, there were indeed certain limits.
Otherwise, the human mortal dynasties would have long since had no floods or disasters.
After Gai Sanqiu consumed considerable mountain and river fortune, he still couldn't stop that white python, so he could only give up and let her swim forward.
"Sigh, Xiao Mo..."
Wei Yuan sighed, not knowing whether he was lamenting the white python's escape or sighing about Xiao Mo's collusion with the demon race, staining decades of reputation.
"Forget it, forget it. Let His Majesty decide."
Wei Yuan shook his head, waved his large hand, and a memorial transformed into a golden light, flying toward the imperial capital.
Two incense sticks later.
In the imperial palace, Chang Kui, the director of the Heavenly Surveillance Bureau, sensed something and looked north, where a golden light was flying toward the palace.
Chang Kui pointed with his hand, intercepting that golden light, and a memorial fell into his hands.
Chang Kui didn't dare delay and hurried to the imperial study.
"Your Majesty, there is a memorial from Mountain God Wei Yuan of Mount Changqing." Chang Kui bowed and presented the memorial with both hands.
The Qi ruler gestured to the eunuch beside him.
Eunuch Zhao quickly took the memorial and handed it to His Majesty.
The Qi ruler unfolded the memorial and read it, his brow involuntarily furrowing.
Those complex eyes seemed surprised, yet also disbelieving.
"You two take a look." The Qi ruler tossed the memorial into Eunuch Zhao's arms.
Eunuch Zhao quickly caught it and read the memorial together with Chang Kui.
After reading it, both men's expressions became complex.
"What are your opinions, you two?" the Qi ruler asked.
"This old slave dares not rashly discuss court politics." Eunuch Zhao quickly knelt down.
"Chang Kui, what do you think?" the Qi ruler looked at the Director of the Heavenly Surveillance Bureau.
Chang Kui thought for a moment, "The human race and demon race are naturally irreconcilable. The old prime minister's actions are indeed somewhat inappropriate."
"Indeed inappropriate. If I do nothing, I'm afraid the realm and the other nine great dynasties will have opinions." The Qi ruler nodded.
"Transmit my decree: have Qingzhou Prefect Wang Wei, Behai Province Prefect Xu Shangao, and Jizhou Prefect Zhuge Qing go to kill the white snake!"
When the Qi ruler's words fell, Eunuch Zhao and Chang Kui couldn't help but exchange glances.
Wang Wei, Xu Shangao, and Zhuge Qing were all proud disciples of old Prime Minister Xiao.
His Majesty having these three go...
The Qi ruler sighed and looked toward the direction of the Chunsong River.
"Foster father has been strict with himself his entire life, devoting his heart and blood to the Qi Kingdom. Now foster father will return to dust."
"Let foster father be willful this once, and let his three most proud disciples go to see him off on his final journey..."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
2025-08-16 09:49:06 +0000 UTC
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