1984 Infiltration and Control
The mental devil had piloted Neltharion to tour around Double Dragons City and gathered a lot of information. “All in all, the Red Fire Gang and the Black Water Gang both covet each other’s businesses. Not a single moment goes by without them hoping to swallow their enemy and monopolize Double Dragons City. As a result, all the other gangs are divided into two sides who are at loggerheads. Right now, they are still maintaining an ostensible peace, fearing each other’s strength. But this place is like a dry powder keg, and any spark will be enough to detonate it.”
“Is the Village of Peace the spark?” Li Yao asked. “Are they capturing the young warriors from the Village of Peace because they are going to wage a war on each other? That doesn’t make sense. If it is a civil war within Double Dragons City, it seems unnecessary to capture slaves from the Village of Peace on a large scale. Wouldn’t the enemy learn about their entire plan? The thing about gang fighting is that you have to be quick and stealthy!”
“It is indeed quite unusual,” the mental devil said. “When I investigated the city just now, I discovered that the atmosphere was grave but not too intense. Neither the Red Fire Gang nor the Black Water Gang seemed prepared to attack each other.”
After thinking for a moment, Li Yao asked, “Have you figured out the critical locations in the city?”
“Of course!” the mental devil said. “The nests of the Black Water Gang and the Red Fire Gang, as well as the warehouses where they keep their assets and ammunition, have all been located. Also, I have found the most important thing.”
Li Yao grew anxious. “What is it?”
“The ventilation tubes!”
“Ventilation tube my ass! I’m now a legendary expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, and I am just dealing with a bunch of ignorant bandits in the Land of Sins. You think I need to crawl into ventilate tubes? Are you serious?”
“I thought that you had a special quirk and would not feel comfortable until you crawled through some ventilation tubes.”
“Let’s focus,” Li Yao said. “All in all, I vaguely feel that the Red Fire Gang and the Black Water Gang were not hostile to each other but more like a team when they dealt with the Village of Peace. Otherwise, the attacks from the front and the back would have been too coincidental.
“Here comes the question. What kind of reason can make the two gangs let go of their grudge and join hands to attack the Village of Peace? Logically, both gangs have important channels of wealth, and it is unnecessary for them to plunder a barren village in the Desolate Worlds!
“It seems that we will have to capture a few gang leaders for interrogation.”
“Then, how do we know who are the leaders of the gang?” the mental devil asked.
“Idiot!” Li Yao said. “Look at the shuttles down there and the heavily-guarded fortresses. The fanciest ones that are surrounded by dozens of bodyguards are certainly housing the leaders of the gangs.”
Ripples spread out of the void but disappeared in 0.1 seconds. Neltharion cut into the lower altitude of Double Dragons City and patrolled among the streets and alleys.
Li Yao’s telepathic thoughts spread out in all directions like vague smoke while he searched for the luxury shuttles with the most bodyguards. Soon, he locked onto his targets.
However, the ‘targets’ made him hesitant.
It was not because the targets were few but because there were too many. Almost thirty luxury shuttles that had been installed with composite armor and mobile turrets had been parked in front of an iron fortress at the center of Double Dragons City that looked like a pyramid.
According to the messages that the mental devil had intercepted, the iron fortress was the most extravagant hotel in Double Dragons City, which was specially used to entertain honorable guests from the major forces of the Bloody Plateau area. Naturally, it had the most thorough safety measures.
As for the shuttles parked in front of the hotel, some were painted with the emblem of the Black Water Gang, some with the mark of the Red Fire Gang. The emblems and marks of another ten or so major gangs of Double Dragons City could be found there, too.
“What’s the meaning of this? Are those scumbags having a meeting inside?” Li Yao grew more and more curious. After piloting Neltharion to circle around the hotel three times, he found no gap to infiltrate through at all. His soul could not help but cough lightly. “Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough.”
“Does a soul need to cough?” the mental devil asked with great curiosity. “Why have I never realized that?”
“Well,” Li Yao said, “about that. Did you search for the ventilation tubes of this extravagant hotel?”
“…”
“The sewer will do, too.”
“No, I didn’t. However, I seem to have found another luxury shuttle.”
Li Yao and the mental devil locked onto a luxury shuttle in the south district of Double Dragons City at almost the same time. Neltharion appeared above the stranger’s head immediately.
The south district was where the black market was located.
Right next to the traditional black market that was under the control of the Red Fire Gang was the ‘human market’ controlled by the Black Water Gang.
In the Land of Sins that was seriously short of resources, people, especially vigorous warriors and beautiful women, were a very important asset.
A large batch of slaves that had been captured or purchased by the Black Water Gang was imprisoned in a giant iron cage that had been embedded with sharp thorns facing inward. The stains of blood on the thorns were telling their destiny in silence.
The Black Water Gang was adept at the usage of drugs. Most of the slaves had already been injected with tranquilizers. Crouching in the yellow weeds, their eyes were lackluster and drowsy.
The few slaves that were to be displayed soon, however, had been injected with a minimal amount of exhilarant. They were bellowing passionately and pacing inside the cages like leopards and tigers.
Some other slaves, who mutated into bizarre shapes, were locked in tiny cages alone, with heavy shackles on their hands and feet. Dense runes had been carved on the shackles and were releasing electric arcs and sparks now and then, indicating that they were all dangerous species.
A lot of merchants in brown or gray wind coats and respirators were pointing at the slaves and negotiating.
From the luxury shuttle that Li Yao and the mental devil spotted at the same time, a giant fatty that was about two meters tall but weighed at least two hundred kilograms walked out.
The man was wearing a well-shaped silk rope, with gold lace stitched to the sleeves. There was also a silver mask on his face, making it impossible to tell what he looked like. His fingers, which were as thick as carrots, wore a few glittering gems, indicating that he was a man of great fortune.
Li Yao smiled. “A man who wears such a delicate robe and so many rings must appreciate his life very much and absolutely not want to die for no reason.”
“Also, since he is a merchant from afar, he must be very informed and probably knows things that even the tough bandits here don’t,” the mental devil observed.
“Right now, all the tough bandits of Double Dragons City are having a meeting together, and nobody cares about the fatty. I hope that he is idiotic enough to leave one, no, half an hour’s time alone with us.”
The poor fatty in fancy clothes had no idea at all that two grim reapers had got their eyes on him.
He seemed to be there specifically to purchase female slaves as a regular customer of Double Dragons City. The moment he got out of the shuttle, a few members of the Black Water Gang greeted him and escorted him to a secret room.
With Li Yao’s Cultivation, such a secret room naturally did not have any secrets.
He could sense the fatty’s breathing and heartbeat clearly and hear him talking about the deals of the female slaves with the gangsters in all kinds of profanities.
Twenty minutes later, the fatty returned to his luxury shuttle, but there was an additional ‘good’ in the vehicle—a woman that had been tied up and fed with secret drugs.
The fatty chuckled eagerly below the respirator and commanded the luxury shuttle to return to the hotel that he lived in. Perhaps because the major gangs of Double Dragons City were negotiating inside the pyramid-shaped luxury hotel, he lived in another hotel not far from the slave market.
On the ground was a thick, woolen carpet. Crystal lamps dangled from the ceiling. The wall was also decorated with the most lascivious paintings. An enticing fragrance was floating in the air. If one did not see it with their own eyes, it would have been impossible for them to imagine that there was such an extravagant place in the hellish Land of Sins.
The fatty said something to the bodyguards before he slammed the door and threw the woman who was breathing heavily and wriggling like an octopus on his shoulder onto the bed.
The woman’s plump breasts were shivering like jelly.
The fatty took off his mask, revealing a giant pale face. Fiery brilliance beamed out of his small eyes as he mumbled, “The new medicine this time is truly powerful. Even I almost can’t bear it anymore. F*ck!”
He lunged at the woman who had lost her will and only had primitive instincts. However, instead of feeling the warmth and softness that he expected, he felt as if he had just jumped on an iron bed that was embedded with nails, and his body seemed to be minced apart.
The fatty bulged his eyes, only to discover that the woman was still lying on the bed, but she was breathing evenly and fast asleep.
However, he was being held in the air by some uncanny force, his arms and legs spread apart. He was unable to move at all!
He wanted to scream, but a bucket of magma seemed to have been poured into his throat. It was burnt through from the inside, making him unable to utter any sound at all.
No, he could actually utter a sound, which was the sound of the spurting blood when his carotid artery was cut!
The fatty watched his own blood spurting out like water arrows and condensed into a round red ball in midair before it was burnt up by a red fire without leaving even any stink.
Such a creepy and terrifying scene devastated him.
Dying! I’m dying!
Why? Who’s killing me? Who dares to kill me in such a place?
Sensing that his life was fading away crazily together with his blood, and seeing the world before his eyes losing color, the fatty could not have felt more frightened, confused, and regretful. His mental defenses were completely shattered.