Witch Wind

Chapter 60: Taking it with Skillful Hands
On the way to the Palace of Marseilles, Xing Tianli found a piece of jade of mutton-fat grade from the spoils in his secret forest basement.

With a flick of his hand, the toad handle, which was originally carved by a master and was extremely exquisite, was molded into a piece of jade two inches long, one inch wide, and one inch thick by Xing Tianli. Wisps of bronze divine flames were released from the palm of his hand, burning around the jade, and wisps of miscellaneous air flew up. The jade piece shrank a circle, and the material became more crystal clear.

With a touch of his finger, the small piece of jade split into twelve pieces, each of which was glowing faintly, as if there were clouds swirling in it.

As soon as the jade piece was made, Xing Tianli arrived at the Palace of Marseilles.

He rushed out of the ground from a secluded corner and walked around to the main entrance of the main building, where he saw a large number of medical staff with grins on their faces, carrying away on stretchers one unlucky person after another with bruised faces, collapsed cheek bones, sunken skulls, bent hands and feet, and blood all over their bodies.

Judging from their strong and muscular bodies, they should be the elite soldiers from various countries.

They fought each other, and in anger they both tried to kill each other.

When we walked into the main building, we saw many officials of the consulate general sitting against the wall of the lobby like beggars, with medical staff around them helping them treat their wounds.

After all, these guys were diplomats of high rank, and they were all old, and most of them came from a civilian background. Although they also participated in the fight, their attacks were lighter than those military killers outside.

The most seriously injured ones here were the two secretaries of Falusi. Their lips were sunken, and it was clear that half of their teeth were broken. The two unlucky guys were staring fiercely at the big guys from Saint Ross standing in the lobby. Occasionally, when the medical staff stuffed cotton wool into their mouths, they were a little too heavy-handed, and they would grit their teeth and cry out in pain.

The big guys from Saint Rose walked around the lobby in a haughty manner. Although they didn't say a word, every expression on their faces and every body language were silent provocations to the 'scum' around them.

Seeing Xing Tianli walk in, his young face, vigorous energy, and especially his taller and more handsome figure than ordinary people, all made the eyes of these big guys from Saint Ross light up.

They all came towards Xing Tianli. A middle-aged man with gray hair, who was more than half a head taller than Xing Tianli, laughed strangely: "What a handsome young man! Why didn't I see you just now? Could it be that you were afraid that Uncle Olev would beat up your pretty face?"

Olef blocked Xing Tianli's way and raised his head proudly: "Oh, you are a little guy from the East. Do you know that this is not a place for you people from the East to come?"

Xing Tianli stretched out his left hand and pushed it lightly towards Olev's chest.

With a muffled sound, Olev spat out a mouthful of blood, and his huge body flew three inches off the ground and flew backwards more than two meters, rolling on the ground. No matter how he struggled, he could not stand up.

Tom and Jerry, the good partners, came over limping. Seeing this, they applauded together: "Well done, Boss. Ha, Colonel Orev, don't you love dueling the most?"

Xing Tianli rolled his eyes.

Olev was so angry that he kept yelling, he roared twice, and then spurted out another mouthful of blood. He slammed his hands on the ground in frustration, pulled out a revolver from his waist, and threw it fiercely in front of Xing Tianli's feet.

"Yingis's lackey? Little guy, do you dare to play a manly game with Uncle Orev?"

"One bullet, you and I take turns shooting!" Orev looked at Xing Tianli proudly: "If you don't dare, then admit in front of all the diplomats of the consulates in the International Concession that you are a wimp, and admit that all you Eastern men are wimps!"

Xing Tianli looked at the revolver that slid to his toes and said loudly: "Using a gun? What kind of man is this! A real man must have the courage to challenge everything and conquer everything with his hard fists and strong muscles!"

"Colonel Orev? If you are a real man, then let's have a real blood and flesh duel! Axe, machete, javelin, or even stone, or any other weapon. We use the same weapon, face to face, and we are not allowed to dodge and have a hearty duel!"

Xing Tianli stepped down, and the revolver was crushed into a discus. The bullets inside exploded at the same time, and wisps of green smoke sprayed out from the side of Xing Tianli's boots.

Olev shut his mouth.

He gave Xing Tianli a vicious look, spat out another mouthful of blood, then looked up to the sky and fainted.

Under the walls all around, the diplomats who had just been beaten down by Orev and his men applauded and shouted, "Good job!" and "This is how we should deal with these serf owners on the ice field."

Xing Tianli followed Tom and Jerry and took the elevator to the eighth floor of the main building of the Marseille Palace.

The entire top floor of the hotel, the ninth floor, had been booked by Maria and others. Apart from the battleship information that had been handed over to the Dongyun people, all other drawings, including technical drawings of alloy steel, steel mills, new tanks, new explosives, etc., nearly three thousand alloy boxes of information, were all piled up on the ninth floor, almost filling up all the rooms.

All the major powers, except Yingjishi and Saint Norman, sent out their best soldiers to supervise each other, sealed off the ninth floor, and even stationed hundreds of elite soldiers on the roof for defense.

Under normal circumstances, not even a fly could get into the ninth floor.

If one wants to use force to steal these technical data from the Marseille Palace at this moment, it will require the mobilization of tens of thousands of elite soldiers and hundreds of cars to take away all the technical drawings.

Xing Tianli put his left hand in his sleeve, with a faint light flowing from his fingertips, entwining around the twelve pieces of jade.

He followed Tom and Jerry into a temporary conference room on the eighth floor, which was set up in a luxurious suite. The consuls general of the powerful Western Continent countries such as Farus, Idoli, Saint Rose, and the North Sea Seven Nations Alliance, as well as their powerful men, all gathered here, staring at each other fiercely like fighting cocks.

Maria and the others left decisively. They smelled some danger and left quickly, leaving all the information at the Marseille Palace.

Although Maria and others stayed, they will come back to settle payments with other countries when they have time in the future.

But all countries have made up their minds. Since you are gone and the data are left behind, then what about the follow-up payments... Haha, you are a secret organization of scientists, and you still want to collect debts from the major powers?
Even if you have the courage, can you have the life to do it?

All countries have made preparations to default on their debts, but they want all the information left by Maria and her team. They want it all, every piece of information, every blueprint, every technology. They want it all.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was almost suffocating.

Outside the meeting room, in the corridor, and in the next room, attachés from various countries' consulates general looked at their colleagues vigilantly. Many of them reached directly into their lapels, ready to draw their guns and shoot quickly.

Everyone knows it.

No matter which country gets the information above, the national strength of that country will advance by leaps and bounds in the next few years, or even in just one year.

The current situation in the entire world will undergo a drastic change because of the information above.

In the face of such "strategic" information, what does a few casualties matter? Even if a war is launched, even if millions of casualties occur, it is acceptable.

If this information were obtained by traditional enemy countries and our country was unable to obtain the corresponding technology, when the enemy country's strength advances by leaps and bounds, the loss of population and national interests would be more than just millions.

Xing Tianli walked to the door of the conference room and stopped.

This suite is located right in the center of this floor.

The entire main building is nearly half a mile wide in front, which is about seventy feet long. Xing Tianli is in this position, and the range covered by his spiritual power just covers almost the entire ninth floor.

All the alloy boxes filled with information were covered by his spiritual power.

He said nothing, just like Tom and Jerry, leaning against the wall at the entrance of the conference room, quietly waiting for the results of the internal consultation. His soul power quickly swept through the alloy boxes one by one, copying all the drawings and materials.

He held a piece of jade in his left hand, and all the contents that he had seen with his spiritual power were imprinted on the jade piece.

The power of his soul was rapidly consumed, but Xing Tianli didn't care at all.

Although the spiritual power he could release could only cover an area of ​​sixty feet, that was because the great terror hidden in the boundless chaos beside Lingtai Zifu suppressed his ability to mobilize too much spiritual power.

But the source of his spiritual power is the celestial Yang God.

A large number of drawings, countless data, countless formulas, these things, Xing Tianli couldn't understand what they were. For example, the molecular structure of the new explosives, Xing Tianli felt that it was a hundred times more difficult than comprehending the Taoist scriptures in his previous life!
Not being able to understand it didn't stop him from copying all of these things onto a small piece of jade.

Although the twelve jade pieces are small in size, their internal capacity is extremely large. Xing Tianli calculated that he could copy ten times more information into these small jade pieces just in terms of text and images.

After all, these are the witchcraft jade slips used by the ancient great witches to record witchcraft and pass on civilization!

Scanning the soul and constantly branding.

So, a quarter of an hour later, Xing Tianli put away the jade piece and nodded to Tom and Jerry: "You guys wait here for news, I'll go outside to find out what's going on in the Yidoli Overseas Chinese District."

Tom and Jerry nodded slightly.

Xing Tianli left the Marseille Palace directly, turned a few street corners, went underground, and ran back to the Dagger Gang's headquarters without stopping.

In the distance, there were sounds of gunfire and artillery fire. Soldiers from various countries were still fighting with the Minotaur monsters.

However, based on what Xing Tianli had just "seen", senior officials from various countries, including the Consul General Yidoli, had gathered at the Marseille Palace, and no one really cared about the disaster that had befallen the Yidoli overseas Chinese community.

They are just some expatriates.

There's no way to hurt them anyway.

In the face of huge interests that are enough to change the world pattern, what do the deaths and injuries of tens of thousands of overseas Chinese matter?

'boom'!
A very loud explosion was heard, probably from the Yidoli army, they began to use large-caliber field artillery.

He Duo and others were still busy outside.

But one after another, men from the Dagger Gang took some wounded and frightened Yidoli expatriates and took them into this large tavern with high walls and a certain degree of defense.

These Yiduoli people were all lucky ones who escaped from the expatriate community. Moreover, they were all people who had "business dealings" with the Dagger Gang. For example, the shop owners who paid them protection fees, the channel dealers who conducted gray transactions with them, even those who owed them high-interest loans, and the financiers who had paid them to do some illegal activities.

Perhaps the leaders of the Dagger Gang were all survivors of the Five Mountains Hall, and they still retained some deep-rooted Eastern traditions. When they saw these refugees who had had dealings with them, they took the initiative to bring back these people who didn't know where to go.

"This is good. When you're in a gang, loyalty is the most important thing!" Xing Tianli walked around underground and found that the tavern was safe. He then crossed the stream, walked through two streets that had been beaten to pieces, and came to the vicinity of the battlefield where the fierce fighting was taking place.

He jumped onto a ramshackle building and looked towards the battlefield.

The number of minotaurs did not decrease, but increased. Some minotaurs had fragments of uniforms on their bodies. It was obvious that some soldiers from a certain country were knocked down by them, and then fed with their blood by the minotaurs, and then infected and mutated into new minotaurs.

What is worrying is that these elite soldiers transformed into Minotaur are much stronger than those transformed from ordinary people in terms of physique, strength, speed, and other aspects.

Ordinary small-caliber bullets cannot penetrate the defense at all!
Only when large-caliber field artillery roared and bombarded would the Minotaur near the center of the explosion be blown to pieces and fall to the ground howling in pain.

Most of the Yidoli expatriate community has been reduced to ruins.

The Minotaur roamed across the area. If the firepower from any direction was slightly weaker, they would immediately rush over, disperse the defending soldiers on that side, kill them, and then transform into new Minotaur on the spot in full view of everyone.

Among the troops besieging this area, most of the Yidoli soldiers were bloodthirsty. After all, many of their family members, lovers, and old friends lived in this area.

The armies of Yingjishi and Falushi dared not retreat even a single step.

Behind them was their own expatriate community. If they took a step back, these minotaurs would break into their territory, and it would surely be another terrible catastrophe.

Xing Tianli narrowed his eyes and looked at these rampaging minotaurs.

These guys, they don't seem to be in a hurry to charge around and break out of the encirclement. They all intentionally stay in this area, they are attracting more garrisons little by little, even if their companions are blown to pieces by artillery fire, they are constantly attracting more people to come, causing more killings!
Xing Tianli sat cross-legged on the top of the small building, with his hands in seals, silently chanting secret spells.

In his eyes, a bronze divine light rippled, and as he chanted the secret spell, his vision suddenly changed. He saw that these minotaurs all had a faint silver-green light on their bodies, extending from their heads like puppets, rushing straight into the sky, rushing towards the direction of the Dark Whisper Forest!

The Farus Overseas Chinese Community and the Yidoli Overseas Chinese Community are not far away.

At Xing Tianli's height, he could clearly see that all the light was converging towards the Dark Language Forest more than ten miles away.

Under the Dark Forest, there was a thick silver-green light rolling, and waves of strange energy were spreading.

"Really!" Xing Tianli gave a thumbs up.

He placed so many explosives, but he couldn't blow up the Secret Language Forest. This shows that these weird men and women have some real skills. It's a pity that they can't get a small-yield nuclear bomb for the time being, otherwise Xing Tianli really wants to get one of these in their basement!
These minotaurs have nothing to do with the Virgin Mary Church, but are a means of the Secret Language Forest.

Xing Tianli was very curious about the secret method used by the Secret Forest to give birth to so many minotaurs.

He remembered the man named Sig whom he had spied that night and who had infiltrated the Holy Mother Church.

A strange wave suddenly shook, coming from the direction of the Dark Language Forest. Xing Tianli released his soul power, and he clearly felt the continuous wave.

In the center of the ruins ahead, there was originally a green park. All the flowers, plants, and trees were destroyed by the bombardment of large-caliber shells, leaving only huge craters on the ground. A Minotaur suddenly walked into a huge crater, and she screamed to the sky, tearing open her chest with both hands.

The armies of the surrounding countries could not see it, but Xing Tianli saw it clearly. Inside the chest of the bull-headed female monster, there was a heart the size of a human head and full of life. It suddenly emitted a faint green light, and then its volume quickly collapsed.

In just a few breaths, the Minotaur's heart turned into a thumb-sized dark green ball of flesh, with countless fine light patterns attached to its surface. At first glance, it looked like a seed.

A large amount of blood mist rose from the bodies of the minotaurs that were killed all around, as well as those unlucky ones who failed to transform. Along with the surge of energy from the Dark Whisper Forest, it quickly flowed towards the seed.

The body of the Minotaur shrank rapidly, and she collapsed to the ground. The seed in her hand absorbed the blood mist from all directions, fell heavily to the ground, and deeply penetrated into the soil that was softened by the bomb. Within a few breaths, the seed produced countless fine root buds, the rhizomes rapidly extended downwards, and the tender shoots grew rapidly upwards with crisp "puff" sounds, and in a very short time, it grew into a small tree as thick as an arm and about ten feet tall.

The ground around me was moving slightly.

Thousands of minotaurs roared together, and they rushed desperately in all directions, starting to unleash violence without reservation.

The garrisons from various countries that were gradually gathering around were caught off guard. They originally thought that they had the situation under control, but they didn't expect that these minotaurs had been eluding them.

In an instant, people and horses were thrown to the ground. The originally dense gunfire and artillery fire suddenly became messy and sparse. A large number of soldiers were killed. Then, these minotaurs actually abandoned the remaining half of the Yidoli immigrant community and went straight to the Yingji immigrant community which was only separated by two streets and a small river.

A team of Yingji soldiers rushed out of the street, and more than thirty rapid-fire cannons blocked the street.

"Boom, boom, boom", with the extremely rhythmic and crisp sound of artillery, one high-speed armor-piercing shell after another turned into lines of fire. The skin of these minotaurs was strong enough to withstand small-caliber bullets and the flesh and blood that was strong enough to resist ordinary grenades, but was easily penetrated by the high-speed artillery shells.

Shell after shell exploded in the bodies of these minotaurs, blood and flesh flew everywhere, and each shell almost cut their bodies in two.

With the sound of high-pressure air jets, more than three hundred armored soldiers rushed out from behind holding heavy swords. The five-foot heavy swords flashed with cold light, and the dense and sharp saw teeth on the sword blades vibrated violently, making a harsh buzzing sound. The armored soldiers rushed into the Minotaur team.

The long sword was swung, and the serrated sword was like a sharp knife cutting tofu, easily breaking the bodies of the minotaurs.

There were also armored soldiers who were besieged by several minotaurs and received more than a dozen punches in a row, which made their armors make harsh "crunching" sounds. However, they cooperated well, and once a companion was besieged, someone nearby would immediately provide support.

,

Coupled with the continuous bombardment from the rapid-fire cannons in the rear, these armored soldiers kept the Minotaur firmly blocked in the Idoli settlement.

In the distance, from the direction of the river, muffled artillery fire was heard.

A low whistle roared from the air, and large-caliber naval gun shells kept falling. Huge columns of smoke rushed up more than ten feet high. Every time a shell landed on the Minotaur team, it instantly cleared an area of ​​twenty to thirty feet in radius.

Unfortunately, Yingji's naval soldiers obviously did not have the precision strike capability of Maria's group.

A small portion of their artillery shells fell on the Minotaur team, while the remaining majority blew up a large number of houses in the Yidoli immigrant community to ashes.

Many Yidoli expatriates hiding in the basement were not harmed by the Minotaur, but were injured and bleeding from the large-caliber naval guns.

It would have been better if these Yidoli expatriates did not bleed. Once they started bleeding, the blood would be uncontrollable, gushing out like a fountain. Wisps of blood mist flew rapidly over the battlefield where fireworks were rising into the sky, gathering from all directions and constantly merging into the rapidly growing small tree in the middle.

When a round of naval gun bombardment was paused, Yingji's armored soldiers killed the last Minotaur that rushed towards them. When the entire battlefield suddenly became quiet, the original small tree had turned into a strange big tree that was as thick as two people could hug, more than ten feet tall, and looked like a banyan tree, with a plump and luxuriant body.

This big tree is quite magical.

Originally, the battlefield was filled with smoke and dust. Even after the shelling stopped, a large amount of dust was still floating in the air.

A breeze blew by, and the branches of the big tree swayed gently. Streams of extremely fresh air gushed out from the branches of the big tree in all directions. It was visibly seen with the naked eye that the air was rapidly purified, and all the floating dust fell to the ground in an instant.

That feeling was like a piece of white glass that had been soaked in old dirt for decades, and suddenly all the stains were washed away, revealing its original smooth and crystal clear nature.

In the small half of the Yidoli overseas Chinese community, the air has become exceptionally fresh and clean. Even the temperature in this area is several degrees lower than outside.

Xing Tianli took a deep breath, fresh, clean, refreshing, and even with a hint of the fragrance of nature. Moreover, it was extremely cool. The blue sun was shining high in the sky, and outside this area, the temperature was as hot as a steamer. Normal people would sweat profusely if they walked a little.

But here, the heat fades away little by little, and a hint of coolness quietly grows in the breeze.

It’s so cozy and comfortable!
Hundreds of remaining minotaurs stood there in a daze. They all looked at the tree at the same time and roared in unison: "Most Merciful Mother, may your holy light bathe all the lambs! Long live the Kingdom of Saint Norman!"

Then, the heads of these guys exploded and they fell to the ground.

Very good, in the end, we have to put the blame firmly on the Holy Mother Church and the Kingdom of Saint Norman.

The entire Yidoli immigrant community was completely destroyed, and the Yidoli immigrants suffered heavy casualties, but in the end, the Secret Language Forest only planted a tree in such a large immigrant community?

Xing Tianli carefully released his spiritual power and circled around the big tree several times.

Apart from the fact that the tree grew rapidly and swallowed a large amount of blood and essence from living creatures, the tree was completely harmless under Xing Tianli's soul scan. Not only that, the tree even released a large amount of fresh oxygen, purifying the surrounding air. The strange force field it possessed even made the temperature nearby become cool and pleasant.

"eccentric!"

Xing Tianli pondered for a while, and saw those armored soldiers leading a large group of soldiers walking towards this side cautiously. He shook his head, shook his body, and disappeared into the ground.

That big tree is very strange.

But it's just weird.

If this tree grew on the south bank of the Yangtze River, in the residential area of ​​the indigenous people of Dayu Dynasty, Xing Tianli would have struck it with lightning long ago. But since it grew in the Yiduoli Overseas Chinese District, located in the territory of the International Concession, not to mention that Xing Tianli did not find any harm from this tree, even if he did, he would not bother to care!
When they escaped back to the tavern, He Duo and He Xi had already brought their men back.

A large amount of high-quality rice paper and barrels of printing ink were piled up in the warehouse behind the tavern. It was only because of the prosperous trade in the International Concession that He Duo and others were able to purchase nearly half of the warehouse's worth of high-quality rice paper in such a short time.

Xing Tianli asked He Duo and others to watch outside, while he began to recite the secret spell silently in the warehouse.

He also put out the battleship blueprints that the Dongyun people had bought, and swept through them with his spiritual power. All the battleship information was imprinted on the jade piece.

After putting away the original data of the battleships, three jade pieces filled with various data flew up lightly.

It does not require much mana. With the release of spiritual power and the activation of secret techniques, a large number of images and texts continuously fly out from the jade piece. The ink barrel next to it opens automatically, and strands of extremely fine ink rise into the air. Under the control of spiritual power, they are imprinted on large sheets of rice paper exactly as they were.

The secret method continued. Sheets of rice paper covered with patterns and text floated silently into the air. The breeze blew away the ink, and pieces of rice paper emitting a rich aroma of ink fell one by one and were neatly stacked on the large oilcloth spread in the corner of the warehouse.

This kind of secret method is a delicate job.

Xing Tianli ignored the commotion in the outside world and immersed himself in copying the technical information provided by Maria and others.

The atmosphere in the entire International Concession was even more bizarre and unusual.

Senior officials from various countries are still fighting for the sovereignty of technical information.

The surviving Yiduoli expatriates have already mobilized and went to the entrance of their country's consulate general to hold banners in protest and sit-in.

The Kingdom of Yingjishi and the Aimee Federation loudly clamored in the official media, denouncing the brutal acts of the Holy Mother Church and the Saint Norman Kingdom - no matter where those minotaurs came from, they must be related to the Holy Mother Church and the Saint Norman Kingdom!

These minotaurs brutally slaughtered tens of thousands of Yidoli expatriates and destroyed almost the entire Yidoli expatriate community.

To quote the front-page headline of the Emmy Daily Mail, written by the chief reporter named 'Ogg' - this is the most insane crime, a crime 'against humanity'!

While the Kingdom of England was denouncing the Holy Mother Church and the Kingdom of Saint Norman, it was shouting in its own controlled newspapers - the world is in danger, the world is facing some huge challenges, so the Kingdom of England is preparing to expand its military and prepare for war, and the first to bear the brunt is England itself, and it has already formulated a plan to build as many as 24 new battleships!
God knows how the news from England spread to the International Concession so quickly.

But this did not prevent the Kingdom of Saint Norman from jumping out and echoing the official tone of the Kingdom of Ingis - the Minotaur and the Mother Church have absolutely nothing to do with the Kingdom of Saint Norman. They are demons from the abyss of hell. They have appeared before, but were purified and eliminated by the Mother Church using the power of the Mother!
The Kingdom of Saint-Norman agreed with the statement of the Kingdom of Ingish - the world was facing unpredictable dangers, and the Kingdom of Saint-Norman was also actively expanding its military and preparing for war. In their homeland, the army would be expanded by 5 million men, and their navy had also drawn up a plan to build 18 new battleships.

At the Palace of Marseilles, senior officials from various countries who were fighting for the sovereignty of those technical data were all dumbfounded.

The extremely sensitive officials of Yidoli immediately ridiculed it in the media - the Kingdom of Saint Norman simply did not have enough shipyards and not enough large docks to undertake a shipbuilding plan of this scale!

The Kingdom of Saint-Norman immediately published a special edition to respond to the official doubts of Idoli - since ancient times, Idoli's three most prosperous port cities, Alexandria, Prusel, and Cypress, have been the undoubted traditional territories of the Kingdom of Saint-Norman.

It should be noted that the predecessor of the Holy Norman Kingdom, the unified Holy Norman Empire, had a territory that almost covered the entire Western Continent.

The International Concession was immediately shrouded in a strong smell of gunpowder.

Officials from Farus, Idoli, and dozens of countries, large and small, came out to criticize the Kingdom of Saint Norman for its wishful thinking.

On the surface, there was a huge quarrel, but behind the scenes, the top leaders of various countries mobilized their most elite intelligence forces to frantically trace the origins of those minotaurs and to investigate whether the appearance of these minotaurs was related to the emergency retreat of Maria and others.

In particular, where these minotaurs came from has become the focus of investigation in various countries.

Everyone is afraid of this terrible monster, but everyone wants to control it. Their power on the battlefield is seen by everyone. If there is such an army composed of minotaurs, it would be a wonderful thing!

At the same time, Yingjishi's armored soldiers officially entered the sight of senior officials of various countries.

Everyone was laughing. Wearing armor and carrying a sword to fight the Minotaur was an extremely stupid retro behavior and a regression of civilization.

But everyone, except Saint Norman and Amy, from other countries were frantically exploring what these armored warriors were and what the armor on them was.

a few days later.

A fire broke out in the Dongyun Consulate General, and the fire was unstoppable. Some Dongyun Ronin stirred up a commotion and a fierce battle broke out with the Dongyun garrison. A group of foreign devils from the Far West joined forces with the Dongyun Ronin and used powerful weapons, especially a large amount of explosives, causing great damage to Jingyue Street and the Dongyun Consulate General.

In the early morning, the weather was slightly cool with a slight drizzle.

Xing Tianli left the Dagger Gang's tavern and boarded a small steamer at the river wharf in front of the tavern. With a thumping sound, the steamer dragged three small, fully loaded flat-bottomed boats slowly down the river.

The small river flows southeast for seven or eight miles before it merges into the big river.

The small steamer was flying the flag of Idoli, and standing on the bow were He Duo, He Xi, and several typical Idoli expatriates.

On the river, several small gunboats patrolling back and forth ignored the seemingly harmless little steamer and let it rumble all the way across the river and arrive at a civilian dock in the south of the river.

Jiangnan is the real seat of the Dayu Dynasty. The infrastructure here is completely different from the International Concession in Jiangbei.

The river bank of the International Concession has been completely smoothed and cleaned with stone slabs, reinforced concrete, while most of the south side of the river is still the original mud river bank. Only in some key parts of some docks, some stone slabs and wooden piles have been smashed to reinforce the river bank.

The pier where the small steamer docks is quite large.

Dozens of piers that extended into the river were already full of passenger ships and cargo ships. The tired but hopeful passengers were getting off the passenger ships when suddenly a sharp cry came from the crowd: "Catch the thief!"

In the chaos, several skinny men with very fast feet nimbly rushed out of the crowd carrying packages, suitcases and other items, and disappeared without a trace in a few seconds.

Taking advantage of the chaos, a dozen young men with sharp eyes and furtive expressions sauntered into the crowd, squeezing and lingering in the flow of customers. Between their fingers, one could faintly see sharp blades flashing coldly.

As soon as Xing Tianli got off the steamer, two young men came towards him, staggering from side to side.

But when they suddenly saw He Duo and others getting off the boat right behind Xing Tianli, the two teenagers shuddered and turned around and left as if they had seen a ghost. Someone even blew a whistle, and the group of more than a dozen teenagers left the crowd one after another.

A little further away, under a few hastily built tea stalls, a dozen men with pigtails tied around their necks, wearing black martial arts uniforms, with bare chests, revealing palm-sized pubic hair, were holding teacups and glancing over here in dismay.

A group of dark-skinned, sweaty and naked upper bodies, some with tattered towels draped over their shoulders, some with towels wrapped around their necks, veins bulging on their arms, most of them barefoot, came up attentively. An old man who seemed to be the leader bowed and nodded to Xing Tianli, and asked very carefully, timidly, but full of longing: "Uncle, do you have any goods to move? Do you need a car?"

A low horn sounded from the side.

The porters, each of them short in stature and less than five feet tall, panted heavily as they carried heavy wooden boxes one by one, and moved step by step along the gangplank to the dock with difficulty.

Among the porters, there were even boys who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old. Their skinny and short bodies were almost broken by the heavy boxes. Veins bulged on their foreheads, their legs trembled, and they carried the big wooden boxes and moved forward with great difficulty following the team.

Xing Tianli looked at the leader of the laborers in front of him, and at the laborers who were unloading cargo on the freighter next to him. He felt inexplicably depressed, and his heart was extremely... unstable.

He raised his head and looked at the sky. Inexplicably, he recalled the words that his mother in this life had said to him a long, long time ago, after they had chanted sutras and prayed for his father in the Buddhist temple. The words that his father in this life had said to him were also what he remembered.

“The world is wrong.”

"We, the people of the East Country, shouldn't live worse than wild dogs."

"There must be something wrong with this world."

“Fighting and killing won’t solve the problem.”

"The ancestral method can't solve it either."

"So, I want to find a way to truly solve the problem. Guarding the family business left by my ancestors and being a local rich man who lives a muddle-headed life? I don't want to live that kind of pig-like life!"

That gentle, soft, clear voice, like a stream flowing from the mountains in spring, seems to still echo in my ears: "Xiao Yu'er, your father is a real hero and a great man. You must be stronger than him!"

Suddenly, a terrified cry was heard from the crowd of people getting off the passenger ship: "I don't know you, let me go!"

In the crowd, two girls wearing coarse cloth dresses, who were delicate and tender, and quite pleasing, were surrounded by several men wearing long robes and looking fierce. One man grabbed the wrists of the two girls and shouted, "You don't know me? Bullshit! You are slaves whose indentures I have bought out. If you dare to escape, I will break your legs when you go back!"

The two women screamed in fear and struggled frantically, but they could not escape the man's hands.

A man among the guests who had just disembarked murmured, "The two girls came to Pinghai City to look for their relatives. They just arrived in Pinghai by boat. How could they be the slaves you bought?"

The man who was speaking was slapped hard in the face, causing blood to spurt from his nose and he fell to the ground.

The next moment, Xing Tianli took out his pistol and started firing randomly.

Several men who surrounded the two girls were all shot in the head, and they were all killed on the spot without a sound. Xing Tianli walked over, kicked their bodies, and shot at the chest of the leading man, emptying all the bullets in the magazine.

Under the tea stall, a dozen men in tight clothes jumped up in horror and ran towards this side in a rage.

Xing Tianli had already taken out the certificate of the major intelligence officer of the East Country Investigation Office issued to him by the British Consulate General, and shook it casually: "Master Dao, they work for foreigners. They offended Master Dao, damn it!"

More than a dozen tightly-dressed men stopped at the same time, with extremely flattering smiles on their ferocious faces, and bowed to Xing Tianli from a distance, without even coming up to check whether his ID was really issued by the British Consulate General!

Xing Tianli's heart sank again.

Pigtail.

Soft knees.

Broken spine.

This fucking era!
(End of this chapter)