Yue Shi took a turn around Forging City.
He strolled leisurely with the snow leopard in his arms, walking past collapsed buildings along the paths tread by countless people fleeing for their lives thirty years ago.
The rain had stopped, but the air remained heavy with moisture.
He stopped at the edge of a massive crater. The water at the bottom looked even more turbid after the rain, resembling a giant, grayish-white eye staring hollowly at the sky.
Yue Shi stood there for a moment before lightly waving his right hand. An invisible ripple spread from his palm, silently sweeping across the entire expanse of ruins.
Wherever the ripple passed, those low-level scions who had been on the verge of death seemed to receive a sudden jolt of energy. They crawled out from the shadows where they had been hiding, tilted back their deformed heads, and let out a series of garbled cheers.
The extreme evil contamination was intensifying, its concentration rising. This land was becoming even less suitable for life.
With that done, space folded beneath Yue Shi's feet. A second later, he was standing on a street in Liming City.
Sunlight leaked through the gaps between high-rises, reflecting off the wet ground in a piercing glare.
The water on the streets had not yet fully receded. Pedestrians carefully navigated around puddles, their steps hurried, their faces wearing expressions of exhaustion and vigilance.
Yue Shi walked among the crowd, and no one noticed that he had appeared out of thin air. Or rather, even if they did notice, they didn't care to bother.
In this era, strange things happened so frequently that people had learned to turn a blind eye.
“Hold on there, young man!” a voice called out from the side.
Yue Shi turned to see a young man approaching him. He held a bulging briefcase, his face plastered with a warm yet patently false smile.
“Hello, hello! Sorry to bother you, but I have a few of the latest health supplements here. They're all imported and highly effective. Would you like to hear more?”
Yue Shi gave him the look of a confused old man squinting at a smartphone. The snow leopard lifted its head from his arms, glanced at the youth, and then buried its face back in.
Seeing that he didn't speak, the youth thought he had a chance. He immediately opened the briefcase and pulled out several colorful bottles.
“Look at this—deep-sea fish oil. It enhances memory and improves sleep. This one, Brain Gold, boosts immunity and fights fatigue. And this one is even more incredible—an active substance extracted from a rare deep-sea algae that can delay aging and regulate your endocrine system...”
Yue Shi's lip twitched. It turned out he was a supplement salesman.
Did he really look like the type of person who would be suckered by health supplements?
The youth seemed to misinterpret Yue Shi's expression. Thinking this long-haired customer looked down on ordinary goods, he immediately changed his tune, lowering his voice by several degrees.
“If you don't like these traditional supplements, I have some new products.” When he said 'new,' his eyes flickered, and he pursed his lips as if weighing his words.
“The effects are more direct and intense. Of course, the price is a bit higher, but they are absolutely worth it...”
Yue Shi understood. He had thought this man was just a simple supplement peddler, but it seemed these so-called 'supplements' weren't the kind used to scam the elderly.
They were likely drugs, painkillers, or stimulants—things that could provide an intense burst of pleasure in a short time.
Such things had been strictly prohibited in the Jinlong Continent thirty years ago. But now, in Liming City—a massive metropolis of ten million people—gray-market narcotics appeared openly on the streets.
Yue Shi lightly tapped the youth's shoulder, letting a tiny wisp of pitch-black aura seep from his fingertip into the man's body.
A slight contamination wouldn't drive the man mad immediately, but it would plant a seed of malice in his heart. One day in the future, that seed would sprout and grow, driving him to commit atrocities he wouldn't be able to control.
“Get lost,” Yue Shi said.
The youth froze, wanting to say more, but when he looked up and met Yue Shi's pitch-black eyes, his throat felt as if it were being squeezed. Not a single word could escape. He hurriedly stuffed the bottles back into his briefcase and stumbled away.
The Ghost whispered in Yue Shi's ear, “The Jinlong Continent has truly changed. Liming City is a city that only developed in recent years. It's too large, making government management difficult. I don't really need to say more; you've likely seen it for yourself while walking just now.”
Yue Shi had indeed seen it. Since returning from Forging City, he had walked along the street for less than twenty minutes and had already encountered three people peddling various items.
The first was selling mechanical limb parts, claiming they were 'plug-and-play, no adjustment period needed.'
The second was selling a head-mounted device that supposedly 'enhanced resistance to mental contamination.' It had a plastic shell and a few cheap LED lights; it looked like a child's toy.
The third was this man selling illicit drugs.
After the drug peddler was chased off by Yue Shi, as the man passed an intersection, a middle-aged man in a white lab coat holding a sign for a 'cybernetic modification experience shop' nearly dragged him into a side alley. He claimed to offer 'free body data testing and customized modification plans,' looking for all the world like he was ready to pin the man to an operating table and dismantle him right then and there.
Yue Shi found it amusing.
Thirty years ago, there were people handing out flyers and soliciting customers on the streets of the Jinlong Continent, but at the very least, they wouldn't peddle prohibited drugs and illegal plastic surgery in broad daylight.
Back then, lawbreakers knew to stay in the shadows. Now, they stood under streetlights, in front of billboards, and at busy intersections, selling those things as if they were vegetables.
It was a truly delightful change.
After walking another block, Yue Shi saw a group of people not far ahead. They wore various types of outdoor gear and carried bulging hiking packs, organizing their equipment next to a modified off-road vehicle.
Some were tuning walkie-talkies, some were checking metal detectors, and others were marking something with a red pen on a map.
Their expressions were focused, completely oblivious to the surrounding clamor.
As Yue Shi walked past them, he heard one of them say, “This time, we have to turn that industrial park warehouse upside down. Last time we went, we didn't have enough time and only managed to haul away half a truckload.”
Most residents in the city wouldn't leave on a whim, because the roads, railways, and highways that once connected towns had now become vast dangerous zones.
Contamination, monsters, mutant creatures... these things grew wildly like weeds, carving the land of the Jinlong Continent into countless fragments.
For the sake of their own safety, ordinary citizens would not easily leave the city.
But some saw business opportunities in the abandoned cities.
Yue Shi stood by the roadside, watching the group stuff the last piece of gear into the vehicle. They started the engine and drove off, leaving a cloud of dust behind.
Rate on N.U.
