Free Web Novel"You actually committed illegal self-defense!"
With the Nightwatchmen captain's bitter cry, his entire body was swept up in the rising flames and turned into flying ash.
All the miners, including Little Yu who had followed Shion into the mining site, were sprawled on the ground, their fingertips torn and bleeding from clutching the dirt, staring at Shion like stunned statues.
They didn't even feel the pain of broken fingers anymore.
At a glance, countless jet-black flames hovered above the trash, as if separated by a thin vacuum layer, perfectly isolated.
A mechanical dog lay on the ground, its ruined body twitching; as electric arcs danced, the same pitch-black demonic mana leaked out. Above, the surface of the giant worm, melted by high heat, dripped downward like lacquer.
Several Nightwatchmen were twisted on their knees, their bodies still burning with viscous fire; titanium-alloy bones and other augmented tech that formed their bodies were decomposing in the flames.
Only the skeletal remains twitched on the ground.
The crackling flames didn't trigger any larger explosions. A mournful alarm echoed around the junkyard, but was cut off quickly.
"Do... do you have money to compensate? Using mana without a permit, this isn't cheap..."
A miner couldn't help but blurt it out, but when Shion's gaze swept past, he swallowed the words.
The Nightwatchmen captain's remaining skull rolled across the ground and finally came to rest at Shion's feet.
Shion, with her boots newly stained black, naturally stepped down.
Like a brittle biscuit, that skull shattered silently under the sole, metal fragments flattened and scattered as if ground under a roller.
Shion didn't linger. She stamped the ground fiercely, and the entire junkyard trembled. Huge fissures radiated from beneath Shion's foot all the way to the distant mining platforms!
Cracks spread across the platforms like a spiderweb; the processing area below collapsed deeper, with rubble constantly raining down from the platform ceilings.
It looked about to cave in!
Little Yu glanced toward the distant mining platform, uneasy, but quickly looked back at Shion.
Riding the force of that stomp, the girl rocketed like a cannonball straight at the giant worm above!
Ignoring the other miners' screams, Little Yu followed immediately and flew upward.
"Wait!"
Her voice trembled with urgent worry.
When she stepped onto the worm, the dog ring around Shion's neck exploded again.
Shion tilted her head and grabbed the dog ring.
By interfering with the brain and personal reality to break mana control, the device was, in principle, extremely effective.
"You can't take it off!"
Little Yu yelled from below, but Shion just glared at her and yanked the dog ring free.
The moment it came off, a thin patch of flesh on the neck seemed to be sucked out.
A spray of fine white blood beads welled from the gap in her fair neck and flowed down into her chest.
Jiang Si already understood: that dog ring had fused with a portion of flesh, essentially an internal implant. Removing it was like forcibly tearing an ear off.
The entire section connecting the ring to the neck had been torn away.
There was still some technology behind it—Chongxu tech, after all...
But it couldn't stop her.
Beside her, Little Yu's pupils contracted; after a moment of horror, agony and despair filled her face.
It was the expression of a mother seeing her child hit by a car.
"Shion!"
When she saw Shion's neck misalign and the head slowly begin to slide, Little Yu cried out, her voice cracking.
There was hysterical madness in it.
Yet Shion simply caught her own head and gently pushed it back into place.
The head that had already fallen from the neck reattached itself as casually as if nothing had happened.
Little Yu froze, watching the thin trail of blood on the neck quickly vanish. Shion's throat smoothed back to tender skin with no trace of a wound.
Frozen in hysterical despair, Little Yu hurried over—this girl was clearly not ordinary; she could use mana too.
She came close, incredulously touching Shion's head, rubbing at her neck, pinching the flesh. "You're not dead? Not dead... impossible?"
"You wanted me dead?"
"Huh? No... no..."
Little Yu stumbled for words. Shion ignored her and continued inward.
The inside of the giant worm was cavernous, but Shion saw a Chongxu resident lying there.
Wearing headphones and listening to music, he seemed completely oblivious to what was happening outside.
Until Shion entered and knocked on the table.
Startled, the Chongxu man sprang up. Shion grabbed his forehead with a loud slap, smashing the glass table in front of him.
Then she planted a talisman seed on the wound of his forehead.
"Now, return to Chongxu immediately."
"Don't kill me, please don't kill me..." The man sobbed and begged, "My mother is waiting at home, she's all alone, I grew up in a single-parent family, if I die no one will take care of her..."
"If you don't return, I'll split your mother in two and give you a two-parent family."
Little Yu, who had been about to call Shion "mom" as a joke, shivered at that line.
If she actually called her "mom" in front of Shion, would she also be split in two to patch up someone else's family?
Under Shion's intimidation, the Chongxu man hit the return-to-city button.
A beam scanned the man's body again and again.
【Not qualified, cannot activate.】
The start kept returning errors no matter how many times it tried.
Shion wasn't surprised, but the man was already terrified out of his mind. He mashed the button frantically, eyes going wild. "Door of life, hurry open!"
Shion then withdrew her talisman seed.
【Detection passed, permission granted to return to Chongxu.】
In the next instant, the man's form disintegrated and vanished!
Even Shion checked—she had planned that if there were a spatial fluctuation or teleport, she'd chase the transmission direction.
She could tear space herself if needed.
But the man simply disappeared.
As expected from the Upper Realms—cautious and cunning, leaving no trace for a return to Chongxu.
She didn't care. She turned back and asked Little Yu, "Can this airship return to Chongxu?"
Little Yu shook her head immediately. "These warships are single-use. They serve as transfer stations after arrival and won't go back."
How extravagant.
Just as Shion was about to dismantle the worm, the interior of the creature flashed suddenly.
A holographic projection flickered into being in front of them.
It showed a bespectacled mature woman in her thirties in a standard white-collar suit, full of fatigue and anger as she glared at Shion's mess inside the worm.
"Miner No. 40721, do you know how much damage you've caused?"
Little Yu's face showed fear, but Shion became excited.
Here it comes.
If you hit someone small, the big ones arrive.
In accordance with cultivation-world tradition, now Chongxu would probably send more and stronger people to punish her.
Shion had predicted this; in fact, it was part of her plan.
If she couldn't go to Chongxu, she'd bring Chongxu here!
By constantly provoking and defeating those sent to punish her, she could draw out the entire Chongxu populace for revenge.
If one person has six people willing to avenge them, and each of those six has six more, the whole world could be drawn into revenge!
This she called the six-degree revenge principle.
Kill one person, and you can mobilize the entire world!
"Multifunctional cargo vessel, three company Nightwatchmen, labor dispatch fees, maintenance and repairs, compensation amounts, and their outstanding loans total 8.4 billion Chongxu coins. We hope you will promptly compensate the full amount, otherwise your daily interest will reach 13.8%."
Little Yu shuddered and whispered, "They're not here for mercy."
"Don't get it backwards. I'm the one coming for them."
Shion sat down and casually put on a pair of found sunglasses.
The small face was almost swallowed by the big shades, giving her an oddly authoritative air.
She adjusted the sunglasses.
"Seven minutes."
"Seven minutes what?" The woman's anger paused. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
"I'll only play with you for seven minutes."
Shion toyed with the dog ring and addressed the holographic projection. "I've already resolved the disputes around this perimeter for you. In the long run, I've created huge benefits."
Little Yu gaped.
Even the angry white-collar woman froze a beat. "Where are these benefits?"
"If the mining site is damaged and masses of miners die, the junkyard will explode, mining rigs will be damaged, reducing mining speed. Do you know how much revenue your site makes a day? Five hundred thousand a day!"
Shion expounded smoothly. "At the lowest cost, I neutralized them and preserved the junkyard and mine's operation and safety, so your mining revenue won't vanish. You should compensate us with labor fees and mental distress payments."
"No." The mature woman adjusted her glasses, puzzled. "Our Nightwatchmen wouldn't act so far beyond company limits. They've always fought for the company's interests..."
"But I would." Shion tapped her chest. "The junkyard and the mine remain because I restrained myself, not accidentally destroying this place! That's my contribution, the benefit I created. Get it?"
Not only the projected woman, Little Yu was stunned.
Holy crap, she'd never seen such shamelessness!
But shameless as she was, she was somehow adorable—our Shion baby...
The hologram woman drew two steady breaths as if collecting herself. "Miner No. 40721, regarding your compensation request, the company can approve. Given your, uh, excellent mining performance meeting the company's annual twelve-mine-king criteria, we have prepared a low-interest Mine King bonus as compensation, up to a pre-approved twenty hundred million, with an annual rate of only sixty-six point six percent, click to accept..."
Little Yu inhaled sharply.
After staying in the perimeter for so long, this was the first time she'd seen a Chongxu company cave and even offer compensation.
An annual rate of sixty-six point six percent—so generous. It's practically a giveaway.
Don't miss this chance, Shion baby!
"As for the 8.4 billion, it can be compensated through your mining revenue at the factory..."
"Oh, I was just about to suggest that. Since I saved the factory, I plan to split its profits with you nineteen to eighty-one."
The woman in white frowned. "You want ninety percent of the factory's profits? The company will not allow that."
"Ninety percent is yours."
Little Yu watched the woman explode into an angry laugh. "Are you out of your mind? The company will cancel your mining account and kick you out of the network!"
"And for violating perimeter management rules, attacking our Nightwatchmen, and occupying the junkyard—actions that caused huge losses to the company and Chongxu society—we will report your credit, transfer the case to collections for a series of investigations. You will be permanently blacklisted from Chongxu and bear massive debts forever."
"The Chongxu person we returned just now..."
Shion was unbothered; she lifted a cup of water from the table and took a sip. "Guess what that person had on them, and how much damage they could cost you?"
"What? You—"
"Seven minutes are up." Shion set the cup down, took off her sunglasses, and casually flicked the communication device, shattering the projection. "I said I'd play at most seven minutes."
Little Yu glanced around. "Seven minutes? One minute, maybe?"
Uh-oh, baby seems bad at math.
"A minute in heaven is seven minutes on earth."
Shion sat on the sofa, spreading her hands. "From now on, starting here, I am the heavens."
Capitalist cultivation?
Permanent blacklist?
Shion sneered at the direction where the projection had vanished.
From now on, the people of Chongxu would be the ones permanently blacklisted by the perimeter.
She would prove right here that our black-society cultivation was the true orthodox path of the Great Dao!
...
Jiang Si opened his eyes and exhaled.
Although he already had Sonora's pass into Chongxu, two hands are better than one; he wanted backups.
He didn't think Chongxu could keep him out forever.
After all, the junkyard and mining area were important turf to Chongxu.
Even if Chongxu had other access points, they wouldn't get the junkyard and mines.
On the other hand, Jiang Si had long detested capitalist cultivation.
Monopolizing cultivation resources and making people pay to cultivate—outrageous.
Human relations were being perverted, everything measured by money. The old brotherhood of master and disciple helping each other and standing together against enemies was gone.
Imagine if back then the sect disciples shouted for the Martial Ancestor to strengthen our sect, and the Martial Ancestor replied, "Pay later, sixty-year loan, high interest and no negotiation."
Would anyone still feel inspired?
If capitalist cultivation were real, the Flame Emperor shouldn't have lost it over Nalan Yanran, and Yang Qi shouldn't have sought revenge on Yun Hailan. Instead, they'd squeeze every last coin from them for profit.
Even the "don't look down on the poor youth" feeling would be corrupted.
Some might call this realism, but Jiang Si felt disgusted.
He was determined to establish a traditional black-society cultivation within the capitalist cultivation society—brotherhood, mutual protection, sticking together. It could annihilate the profit-obsessed capitalist cultivation...
A familiar passion ignited in Jiang Si, and he schemed about building Chongxu into a new generation chaotic star-sea.
A distant scream snapped him back to attention.
Looking up, he saw Twins and Sonora—two girls who had escaped from Azure Cloud Sect—surrounded by sect disciples.
A brutal beating.
Twins and Sonora had been captured together. After the Mirror Kingdom incident, Sonora had been the first to be captured and had faced the strictest interrogation and supervision.
But Azure Cloud Sect discovered that Sonora truly knew nothing.
Even with Shuangye's control, her mind held little. She had probably been cleared by the Chongxu Witch Association ahead of time.
So holding her captured was pointless.
They had Twins lead her and escape in the hope she could guide them or help clean up leftover Witch Association elements, including reconnecting with Chongxu witches.
After the Mirror Kingdom, Twins couldn't reach Jialan and lost contact with the Witch Association, so Sonora was relied upon.
But after escaping, they were soon surrounded again by Azure Cloud disciples.
Among them were Qinghua and Thousand-Pinweed, two true-transmission disciples.
The outcome was predictable.
Jiang Si squatted nearby, holding the boxed meal Yumo had bought him, eating it in big bites.
Although a group pummeling two people looked like bullying, when it's Azure Cloud Sect disciples, no one dared complain—whether in the outskirts or the city.
This is orthodox cultivation: domineering, Azure Cloud is the master...
Only when Sonora, in her Magical Girl form, was beaten until her heart stopped did Jiang Si put down his meal and stand.
Time to make her fall in love.
People always underestimated Jiang Si. They would again and again.
They thought he didn't understand love, but he had read countless texts; how could he not understand?
He understood everything, but found it boring and meaningless.
So a trick: have someone beat up the girl, appear as the hero at the critical moment—rescue and charm her.
Make her heart flutter and fall for you, then take control.
This was the so-called hanging effect.
"Oi."
Jiang Si climbed to the top of a nearby factory building. They were in an industrial suburb; from that height he waited until Sonora was about to be stomped and then called out, drawing everyone's gaze over.
Then, like a peerless hero, he fell from the sky and slammed onto the concrete with a thunderous crash!
Azure Cloud disciples scattered!
Jiang Si slowly rose from the crater and stepped in front of Sonora. "I never thought Azure Cloud Sect would be so dark. So many people bullying two girls—shameful..."
Before he finished, Sonora lunged up from behind and bit into his neck!
Jiang Si blinked.
Was the hanging effect supposed to make hearts flutter this fast?
