2026-08-23 12:28:12FWOOOSH!
The flaming torch thrown by Lieutenant Zhao landed directly on the pool of kerosene. The fire immediately surged into the night sky like a gigantic, ravenous dragon, devouring the entire area in front of the iron gate within seconds. The hysterical screams of dozens of people being burned alive shook the suffocating night air. "Shit! It's fucking hot!" Wu Chen shouted as the heat of the flames began singeing the tips of his hair. "B-Big Brother! The fire... it's getting closer!" Xiao Yu screamed in terror, trying to curl up against Wu Chen's legs. "There’s no other way! Xiao Yu, hold on tight! Jump!" Wu Chen shouted at the top of his lungs. Without thinking twice, Wu Chen swept Xiao Yu's small body into his arms and jumped into the filthy, foul-smelling sewage channel directly beneath the barrier gate. SPLASH! The two of them crashed into the thick, freezing black sewage. Fortunately, the depth of the filthy water was enough to cushion their fall while also shielding them from the massive flames raging above the ceiling of the sewer tunnel. Using the last of his strength, Wu Chen dragged himself and Xiao Yu onto a relatively dry ledge along the channel. The stench of human waste and chemical runoff from the city's factories was overwhelmingly strong here, making his chest feel painfully constricted. "Cough! Cough! Damn... this place fucking reeks," Wu Chen cursed, clutching his chest and injured left shoulder. "My body... my body..." Suddenly, Wu Chen's vision began spinning violently. A bone-chilling cold and the scorching heat of a high fever attacked his head simultaneously. The zombie slash on his left shoulder had now swollen to a bluish-purple color, releasing a powerful stench of infection. The remaining toxins and infection from the monster's claws had rapidly spread throughout his bloodstream. "B-Big Brother... you're so pale! Big Brother... wake up..." Xiao Yu's worried voice sounded increasingly distant in his ears. Wu Chen finally lost consciousness completely. He collapsed onto the cold, moss-covered stone floor of the sewer. Within the darkness of his sleep, Wu Chen's mind was suddenly pulled into a dimension of memories that did not belong to him. The deepest remnants of Li Jian Nan's memories began spinning like an old film reel. Inside a small, stifling room hidden in a corner of the Tingzhou Imperial Palace, a beautiful woman wearing a worn and dirty white silk robe was coughing up black blood. Consort Lan, Li Jian Nan's biological mother. "Jian Nan... my child... listen to Mother..." the woman sobbed as she stroked the head of the trembling young boy beside her. "Mother... don't cry... Jian Nan is scared..." the child's hoarse voice trembled through his sobs. "King Wuji... he's a demon, Jian Nan. He destroyed the meridians of all his consorts to test his own immortality pill formulas... Mother... Mother doesn't have much longer." Consort Lan coughed again, fresh black blood trickling from the corner of her lips. With her thin, trembling hands, Consort Lan hid a small silk scroll containing the formula for an antidote beneath the inner layer of the little robe Li Jian Nan was wearing. "Remember this formula, my child... this is the only way to cleanse the poison from your meridians... Don't let anyone in the palace know... Run, Jian Nan! You must survive..." Those were Consort Lan's final words before the palace guards broke down the door and dragged her body away to be discarded. "MOTHERRR! DON'T LEAVE JIAN NAN!" the young boy screamed hysterically. An overwhelming sensation of grief, the pain of loss, and burning rage suddenly fused into Jian Wu Chen's soul. As a former triad boss who had also grown up on the streets without parents, he could clearly feel the raw suffering of the body's original owner. A surge of fury suddenly exploded inside his chest. "King Wuji... you're one fucking bastard of a monster," Wu Chen hissed in his sleep, his teeth grinding as he struggled to contain his surging rage. "You killed your own mother... You destroyed the life of an innocent child... all for your fucking insane ambition?!" [SYSTEM WARNING: TOXIC INFECTION RATE: 82%.] [MERIDIAN ROOTS DECAY IN PROGRESS.] [WARNING: HOST MUST FIND PURIFICATION INGREDIENTS OR HIGH-GRADE ANTIDOTE WITHIN 3 HOURS.] [IF PROTOCOL FAILS, MERIDIAN WILL ROT PERMANENTLY, CAUSING IMMEDIATE DEATH.] "Three hours?" Wu Chen rasped within his subconscious. "Fuck! Where am I supposed to find Consort Lan's formula or an antidote in a filthy sewer like this?!" "Big Brother! Wake up! Please wake up, Big Brother... I'm scared..." A rough shake against his cheek suddenly forced Wu Chen's eyes open. He gasped for breath, cold sweat covering his mud-streaked face. "Xiao Yu... you're so damn noisy, kid," Wu Chen rasped, trying to move his body, which felt unbearably stiff and scorching from the high fever. "Big Brother! Thank goodness you're awake!" Xiao Yu burst into tears when she saw Wu Chen's eyes open. "You were unconscious for almost an hour... I was so scared..." "I'm... fine," Wu Chen lied, trying to sit up against the damp sewer wall. He glanced ahead and immediately froze. "Shit... what's that up ahead?" The sewer channel ahead of them, shrouded in pitch darkness, was completely blocked by dozens of rotting human corpses piled on top of one another. But what was even more horrifying was that the bodies had begun twitching violently. One by one, they started crawling to their feet, their eyes glowing red as they gleamed through the darkness of the sewer. "Krrgghhh... huuungry..." The growls of dozens of awakened zombies echoed off the stone walls of the sewer. "Big Brother... it's a dead end... we can't get through..." Xiao Yu whispered in terror, clutching Wu Chen's robe tightly. Woof! Woof! Woof! Suddenly, from behind them, down the sewer tunnel they had come through, the vicious barking of military tracking dogs rang out, followed by splashing water as a squad of soldiers stormed toward them. "Shit... military tracking dogs," Wu Chen muttered, his eyes narrowing as he stared into the darkness. "Zombies ahead, Lieutenant Zhao's soldiers and their dogs behind... what a perfect place to die."
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Ch 11. The Candle That Nearly Went Out in Lantern Sector
Screeech! Screeech! A dozen steel spearheads sliced through the cold night air before pressing tightly against Wu Chen's neck. The chill of the metal was so tangible that it nearly cut through the grime and sewer mud coating his skin. "Don't move! Keep your hands away from that filthy robe, or you'll have a hole in your neck!" one of the guards shouted, his voice thick with panic. He wore thick black leather armor. Wu Chen stood there, his entire body trembling violently. The high fever caused by the infected, torn wound on his left shoulder made his head feel as though it were being hammered by an iron maul. His consciousness kept flickering in and out, leaving his field of vision increasingly narrow and blurred under the system's merciless penalty. Beneath his robe, soaked through with sewage, he could feel little Xiao Yu curled up and trembling, clinging tightly to his waist without making a sound. "Damn it... surrounded again," Wu Chen groaned inwardly, suppress
Ch 10. A New Dawn in the Merchant District
"Cough! Cough! Ugh... fuck, I almost drowned," Wu Chen groaned, coughing up the filthy sewer water that had filled his lungs. He had washed up along the edge of a rocky canal that flowed directly into the Merchant District. His entire body was covered in dark blue-black bruises, his broken ribs shifting painfully every time he drew breath, while the remaining poison in his body caused his consciousness to constantly drift in and out. "B-Big Brother! Are you awake? You're not dead..." Xiao Yu's crying voice came from beside him. The little girl was soaked to the bone and trembling violently. With what little strength she had left, she had apparently managed to drag Wu Chen out of the rushing canal using a floating wooden merchant's board, placing him on the dry ground of an empty logistics dock. "Yeah, you're noisy, kid. Stop crying so much. You're making my head hurt even more," Wu Chen rasped, trying to sit up against a stack of wet cargo crates. He stared at his thin, trem
Ch 09. Duel in the Sewer of Death
Woof! Woof! Woof! The barking of military tracking dogs echoed loudly, reverberating off the slippery stone walls of the vast sewage tunnel. The splashing of water beneath the charging footsteps of a small squad of soldiers grew closer by the second. From the darkness of the tunnel, a man in polished silver armor stepped into the main drainage chamber. Lieutenant Zhao. He was personally leading his small unit, holding a burning torch in his left hand and a slender sword wreathed in blue energy in his right. His sharp eyes immediately locked onto Wu Chen, who was weakly leaning against the sewer wall. "So you're really still alive, Little Rat," Lieutenant Zhao said in a calm but deeply intimidating voice. "Fucking Lieutenant... You really went through all this trouble just to find me in a sewer?" Wu Chen rasped sarcastically, trying to mask the excruciating pain coursing through his entire body with the cynical laugh of a mafia boss. "I don't like leaving anomalies unreso
Ch 08. The Consort Lan’s Remaining Memories
FWOOOSH! The flaming torch thrown by Lieutenant Zhao landed directly on the pool of kerosene. The fire immediately surged into the night sky like a gigantic, ravenous dragon, devouring the entire area in front of the iron gate within seconds. The hysterical screams of dozens of people being burned alive shook the suffocating night air. "Shit! It's fucking hot!" Wu Chen shouted as the heat of the flames began singeing the tips of his hair. "B-Big Brother! The fire... it's getting closer!" Xiao Yu screamed in terror, trying to curl up against Wu Chen's legs. "There’s no other way! Xiao Yu, hold on tight! Jump!" Wu Chen shouted at the top of his lungs. Without thinking twice, Wu Chen swept Xiao Yu's small body into his arms and jumped into the filthy, foul-smelling sewage channel directly beneath the barrier gate. SPLASH! The two of them crashed into the thick, freezing black sewage. Fortunately, the depth of the filthy water was enough to cushion their fall while also shie
Ch 07. The Trap Behind the Mist
"Open the gate, you bastards! Open it!" Wu Chen screamed at the top of his lungs, slamming his right hand against the cold iron bars of the gate. Behind the sturdy iron bars, a group of wealthy merchants in luxurious silk robes screamed hysterically from behind a barricade of mounted soldiers. Their faces were twisted with disgusting fear. "Don't open it! Never open it!" shrieked a fat merchant with a thin mustache. "They're all plague carriers! If even one of those filth gets inside, our businesses in the Merchant District will be ruined! Lieutenant! Fire your arrows at all of them! Quickly!" "Yeah! Kill anyone who approaches the gate! Our lives are worth more than those plague-ridden rats!" another merchant shouted beside him, further inciting the soldiers. Wu Chen spat harshly onto the ground. "You fucking cowards! You're only brave enough to scream from behind an iron fence!" "B-Big Brother... they're... they're pointing their bows at us!" Xiao Yu cried, her voice trembling v
Ch 06. The Red Path to the Merchant District
Krrrggghhh... KRAAAAA! The chorus of hungry growls drew closer, echoing from every corner of the narrow alleys in the Common’s District. The muddy ground of Tingzhou seemed to tremble as hundreds of black silhouettes with glowing red eyes began moving rapidly, pouring out of shabby houses and dark passageways toward them. "We don't have time to rest! Run, Xiao Yu!" Wu Chen shouted, immediately yanking the little girl's hand. "B-big brother! But your shoulder... you're bleeding even more!" Xiao Yu cried in panic, staring in horror at Wu Chen's robe, which was now soaked with fresh blood and rainwater. "Shut up! As long as my heart is still beating, I'm not dying in this dump!" Wu Chen barked, ignoring the stabbing pain that seemed to tear through his left shoulder with every step. "Run!" They shot through the maze of filthy alleys, which were rapidly filling with thick smoke. In the distance, flames began rising high into the night sky. The kerosene torches dropped by the panicked
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