Chapter 7 Fire and Knife

"Not much left in my account..."

Wu Xiaode stared at the remaining balance on his phone screen and couldn't help but sigh.

This was the money he had saved over an entire semester!

But on the flip side, the mission from the wall was completed.

He had managed to survive safely and even inherited the Iron Wire Stream boxing technique.

Be content.

Now it was time to head home for a rest and think about how to earn some living expenses, while also considering how to become stronger in the coming days.

After all, half a day had already passed.

In another six and a half days, he would be transported to the Death Demon Cave once again.

Wu Xiaode walked along, watching the Black Book that floated uncertainly in front of him.

A question suddenly arose in his mind.

If that Ancestor Spirit was so powerful, why didn't it save Zhao Junyu itself? Why entrust me?

As if aware of his thoughts—

New ice crystal letters emerged on the Book of the Dead:

"Neither the dead nor Heroic Spirits can communicate with the living. Only the extremely rare abilities of professionals like this book can communicate with them."

"Furthermore, no spirit can interfere with the fate of the real world, they can only do many things through the abilities of certain professionals or through artifacts."

So that's how it is.

Wu Xiaode turned the street corner and suddenly felt a sensation, slowly raising his head.

Ahead.

Thick smoke billowed from an old residential building, and flames reached for the sky.

Almost at the same moment, his pocketed phone began to vibrate and ring.

He pulled it out and immediately answered.

"Sister Lan, where are you?" he asked anxiously.

But all that came from the phone were sobs, followed by Xia Huilan's voice:

"Little Wu, run, don't come back!"

Wu Xiaode's face changed, and he quickly asked, "Sister Lan? What's wrong? What happened?"

Beep—

The call ended.

Then, a message appeared on the phone screen:

"A large-scale fire has occurred in the old district at 361 South City."

Isn't that... his home?

Was Xia Huilan trapped upstairs?

Wu Xiaode shot out like lightning, swiftly crossing the street, scaling over the courtyard wall, and arriving below the residential building.

Looking up, he saw flames relentlessly devouring the entire building.

Xia Huilan lived on the fifth floor.

The fire started on the ninth floor; while the flames were spreading rapidly, there was still a distance from Xia Huilan's fifth-floor apartment.

"Thank goodness..."

Wu Xiaode murmured to himself and charged into the building's stairwell.

His body was incredibly light, filled with power, and a simple push from his legs could leap him up an entire flight of stairs.

In less than a minute, he had reached the fifth floor.

Bang—

Wu Xiaode kicked the door open and looked inside.

"Sister Lan!"

He called out.

No response.

All he saw were the numerous awards Xia Huilan had won since her childhood, now blackened by smoke, about to be destroyed.

These were her treasures, yet now she had abandoned them.

Wu Xiaode rushed into the foyer, shouting, "Sister Lan, where are you?"

In the living room.

A woman was tied tightly to a chair, her head drooping as if she had passed out.

Blood flowed ceaselessly down her arms.

—In a little while, once the fire spread, she would have no way out.

"Sister Lan!"

Wu Xiaode rushed forward, eager to save the woman, but suddenly realized something was off.

He crouched down to take a closer look at the woman's face.

—It wasn't Xia Huilan!

Wu Xiaode paused, reaching out to check the woman's pulse.

No pulse.

She was dead.

Why was there a stranger, dead in Xia Huilan's home?

And the fire was about to spread here!

Suddenly, Wu Xiaode remembered many things.

Xia Huilan said she wanted to quit her job.

She was being harassed by a few thugs who, incidentally, carried knives.

That USB drive.

And her final instructions.

Scenes flashed through his mind so fast that Wu Xiaode suddenly realized something.

Perhaps this fire was not as simple as it seemed.

Suddenly, a noise came from the entrance.

Wu Xiaode quickly turned around and saw a man standing at the door, sizing him up with a mocking gaze.

"Should I call you stupid, or just hopelessly infatuated?" the man said.

He wore a floral shirt, and the fruit knife in his hand had turned into a machete half an arm's length, as he tilted his head to examine Wu Xiaode.

That thug leader!

Wu Xiaode stood up, his voice deep, "What's going on? Why are you here?"

"Kid, you embarrassed me during the day," the thug said.

"Embarrassed? I seem to recall you wanted to stab me with that fruit knife," Wu Xiaode replied.

"Kid, it was only because you had that meat cleaver and Fish Cutting Knife that I had no choice but to back off—"

The thug waved the gleaming machete in his hand, boasting, "Look at this, it's not a fruit knife. This time I'm going to take back my pride."

He lunged towards Wu Xiaode, his body sinking low.

Wu Xiaode pulled something from behind his back, raising it level in the direction of the thug.

The thug glanced at it and blurted out, "A gun!"

In this narrow indoor environment, it was almost impossible to escape from under the barrel of a gun.

This is a gun, why does he have a gun?

The thug's face changed expressions several times, swinging the machete as he shouted fiercely, "Come on, if you're so tough, fight me with knives and see who's stronger!"

Bang—

Wu Xiaode pulled the trigger.

A bullet whizzed past the thug's side and hit the wall.

The thug froze.

Wu Xiaode pointed to the ground with the muzzle.

The thug obediently put down the machete, raised his hands, and knelt on the ground.

"Big brother, spare my life," he pleaded.

"How did you get here?" Wu Xiaode asked.

"Little brother, I lost to you earlier in the afternoon and even had to turn and run in front of my brothers. They all lost respect for me—I wanted to have another go with you. Seeing you go upstairs, I followed."

The thug was covered in cold sweat, and his voice trembled as he spoke.

Wu Xiaode thought for a moment, then shook his head, "That's not right, if you really wanted to take revenge, you could have just waited downstairs. Wouldn't it be better if I were burned to death in the fire?"

"The building was on fire, and it's human nature to seek safety. Seeing my Fish Cutting Knife, you'd run, not to mention a fire this big."

"Risking the danger of dying in a fire to come up and fight me only makes sense if you stood to gain something."

"What benefit would that be?"

Wu Xiaode paused.

Billowing smoke began to appear outside the window.

The temperature was starting to rise.

The fire was getting closer.

Wu Xiaode's brow relaxed, and he said, "The advantage of fighting here is the fire."

He turned to look at the unfamiliar female corpse.

"If I die in the fire, my body consumed by the flames, naturally nobody would know how I died."

"In other words—"

"You actually came here to kill me."

The thug shivered, an incredulous look spreading across his face.

Wu Xiaode approached with the gun pressed against his head and said coldly, "Am I right or not?"

"I..."

The thug stammered for a moment, then suddenly turned his head to dodge the muzzle and pulled the fruit knife from his chest, stabbing towards Wu Xiaode's heart.

His movement was decisive and quick, much like that of a professional fighter.

If it had been before, Wu Xiaode might not have been able to react, but now—

Crack!

A crisp snap sounded, and the dagger in the thug's hand was knocked away.

Wu Xiaode counterattacked with a punch, sending the thug flying into the wall, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Back in the alley, we were just fighting, but you pulled a knife on me. I thought that was strange then, and now you show up here—were you waiting for me to return so you could kill me?"

Wu Xiaode's eyes were filled with anger.

He grabbed the thug by the neck, pinned him to the ground, and demanded, "What's going on, why are you so determined to kill me?"

The thug gasped for air, but remained silent.

Wu Xiaode nodded silently, dragged the thug into the room, tore a sheet from the bed, and tied the thug to a chair.

He lifted the thug and the chair with one hand and placed them back in the living room, facing the female corpse.

Thick smoke seeped into the room, and the flames grew more intense.

The undulating red glow, mixed with the clamor, shouting, and yelling from outside, reflected on Wu Xiaode's expressionless face.

"You came to kill me but won't tell me why—that's okay, I can just leave you here."

Once Wu Xiaode finished, he bound the thug's hands, feet, and body to the chair.

After completing this, he walked away without looking back.

The thug stared at the female corpse opposite him, his limbs struggling desperately a few times, only to find he was completely unable to break free from the chair.

The heat was scorching.

Soaked in sweat like he had been drenched in water, the thug found sweat uncontrollably streaming down his body.

"Wait a second, I can tell you!" the thug couldn't help but shout.

"Speak," Wu Xiaode said without turning back.

"We're unaware of Xia Huilan's situation. We took a bounty to kill you," the thug said.

(Thank you to bosses Dawn Y Morning and Big Pineapple Small Apple for the Alliance Hierarch bounty, you both are so generous!)