Chapter 1 e0 District

"Lord He Chan, this is everything for today."

He Chan frowned as he looked at the motley crew before him. These children, raised in the mud swamps of Sangzhou Cave, were all as thin as firewood and unsightly... Moreover, their awakened talents were mediocre.

"One B-grade, the rest are C-grade..."

He walked past the children expressionlessly and said coldly, "This kind of stuff wouldn't even be looked at if sent to the Divine Envoy..."

Except for the first day, when the discovered transcendents had decent aptitudes.

They were becoming fewer and fewer.

Lord Vermilion Bird Divine Envoy had ordered only the "extremists" who had joined the Southern Continent Church to be killed.

As for the "residents" in this main city area, it was best not to kill them indiscriminately.

Not that they couldn't be killed; lives were precious.

It was just that this mission to the south required the four Divine Envoys to choose a "Lord of the Tinder," and the mission issued by Master Tianshui must be completed first... The Source Tower wasn't really short of people, but he didn't know what Master Tianshui was thinking, insisting on picking out a few "tall ones" from this slum. The mission was passed down layer by layer like this.

Although there were only five city districts, the Vermilion Bird Divine Envoy couldn't possibly investigate them personally.

Even if this kind of door-to-door search work was delegated, He Chan wouldn't personally carry it out... He could only let his four subordinates work a little harder for a few days to deliver a satisfactory answer to the higher-ups.

"I'll talk to the Divine Envoy and extend the deadline for this mission by three days."

He Chan said with lowered eyes, "You can search the area behind e0 District again, and try to search the entire district. If the best is only B-grade, there's nothing we can do. I'll take them all there at once then."

The four transcendents obeyed and left.

"You... come with me."

He Chan glanced at the dirty children. The B-grade talent was decent enough to be taken away separately, leaving only some "defective products." He didn't directly dispose of these children on the spot... but gave them a simple place to live.

Of course.

He wasn't doing all this because he was "kind."

His "selling corpses" at the time when the Flower Banner Envoy came to Rhine for negotiations was enough to prove one thing.

As long as the benefits were sufficient, he had no bottom line.

Although these children were only C-grade, they still had value.

Lord Vermilion Bird might not like them... but that didn't mean others wouldn't.

...

...

A medium-sized living area in Sangzhou Cave generally encompassed several small living areas. In the early years, in order to facilitate the Church's land planning and the collection of believers... the residents didn't need too big of houses.

From a high altitude, the blocks of land looked like cages.

And these natives were beasts kept in cages.

Among the Sangzhou Cave residents who survived in such a cruel and harsh environment... there were actually even more miserable sufferers, namely the "homeless" orphans and wanderers.

Before the awakening experiment, the Church's competition led to the deaths of a large number of people.

Many pitiful children lost their parents. Some starved to death in their swaddling clothes, while others grew up tenaciously, picking up scraps of leftover food in the garbage dumps... Three years ago, they could still wander between the inner ring city districts, filling their stomachs through "diligence," but after the awakening experiment began, the city walls were closed. Wandering outside again would likely turn them into food for transcendent creatures.

Most wanderers chose to stay in the local city districts and hide in dark corners.

They were a lower stratum than ordinary civilians.

In the night, in the garbage dump in the back street of e0 District, several dark little figures were rummaging through the mountains of trash for dinner... The Church scum who had ruled e0 District for three years had just been overthrown. Although the Source Tower guys who had just moved in weren't good people either, at least they didn't suppress civilians like the Church extremists, and were even considered "generous." There were a lot of good things in this garbage dump.

To survive in this place, even "wanderers" needed to compete desperately.

Garbage dumps were where the good stuff was.

If you were late, you wouldn't even get to eat the warm leftovers!

Four thin, dark figures were searching, and it was clear that they had their own "division of labor"... The garbage mountain was divided into four areas, one for each person, keeping to themselves.

Under the moonlight.

A thin girl dug out a large bag of trash with great effort. The soup and water were mixed together. Her years of experience rummaging through garbage mountains told her that this bag was mostly some fermented and rotten swill. She frowned and wanted to throw it away, but she happened to glance at it again.

The girl opened the tied bag and quickly pulled out a bulging, wrinkled paper bag. She could still feel the warmth through the bag. Inside was a piece of hardened bread that had been thrown away after being bitten once.

"Hiss."

She inconspicuously and quickly stuffed the bread and the paper bag into her pants pocket, but this scene was still discovered.

A nearby boy saw what the girl had pulled out and stuffed into her pocket.

He hadn't found anything in the garbage dump today, and he had been hungry all day...

The boy leaned over and first lowered his voice, "Don't hide it, I saw it."

"..."

The girl continued to rummage through the garbage mountain expressionlessly.

"It's bread... right?"

The boy continued to lower his voice, while also glancing warily at the opposite side. The two idiots on the opposite side of the garbage mountain were still rummaging... e0 District had more than a dozen garbage mountains left for them wanderers to rummage through every day. It was just that the older adults were not their opponents. Having such a remote and fixed location was already good enough.

The boy and the girl had met before, although he didn't know her name, but that didn't matter.

You didn't need to know a name to ask for something.

"Share some of the bread with me, and I can pretend I didn't see it."

The boy was starving. He looked at the girl coldly and said in a hoarse voice, "Otherwise, I'll call them over, and you won't be able to keep any of it."

The two on the opposite side of the garbage mountain were noticeably taller than them.

The girl stopped rummaging.

She straightened her back, stood on a small pile of filth, and looked at the boy coldly.

They were both orphans wandering in the ruins.

They were both trash eking out a living in the garbage dump.

They had to be ruthless, ruthless to themselves, and even more ruthless to their enemies, to survive in the Sangzhou Cave garbage dump, regardless of the cost or consequences!

The boy met her gaze, and he suddenly felt a little flustered. He didn't want to call out in the first place, but the girl's eyes frightened him. His mind went blank, and he put on a more fierce and powerful appearance, while shouting in a hoarse voice:

"...Hey!"

The garbage mountain was silent.

The two boys on the opposite side were also attracted.

From the moment he shouted the first word, he was destined not to be able to stop.

The boy who spoke first gritted his teeth and took two steps back, "That little bitch found bread, I saw it."

The two taller boys looked to be nearly ten years old.

They walked over slowly.

"...Little bitch."

Because they didn't know her name, they could only call her that.

"Hand it over."

The final conversation was actually very simple.

Three words, concise and to the point.

The girl still had the same expression as before, unchanged from one person to three. She looked coldly at the three boys who were a head taller than her, one hand tightly pressed against her pocket, where there was a slight rustling sound of paper.

"Slap!"

The tallest boy slapped her.

Since the start of the awakening experiment, every life in Sangzhou Cave had undergone a change in their spiritual sea... Although they were malnourished and stunted, the local children could be considered "ability users" after all. This slap actually stirred up a whistling sound.

However... the slap didn't hit!

The girl quickly bent over. She was already short, and she squatted down the moment she heard the whistling sound. Using her hands and feet, she instantly crawled out from under the tall boy's crotch. For an orphan who needed to pick things up in the garbage mountain to survive, crawling under people's crotches wasn't anything shameful.

However, she didn't want to run away.

After slipping out from under his crotch like a slippery loach, the girl suddenly exerted force with both hands, stood up abruptly, found her position, and slammed her forehead heavily into the chin of the boy who had snitched.

"Clang!"

The latter's eyes went black, and he was directly stunned. He fell heavily on his butt, sliding down the garbage mountain.

Immediately afterward, the girl turned around and kicked another boy's crotch hard. The latter's expression suddenly turned pale, his legs turned inward, and he knelt on the ground. After these things happened, the tallest boy also came back to his senses. He turned his head in astonishment and looked at this scene, never expecting that this seemingly weak little girl would actually dare to fight back against the three of them!

The next moment.

He looked ferocious and punched the girl in the chest.

"Bang!"

The outcome of fights on the garbage mountain often depended on numbers. From the moment this battle began with one against three, the outcome was already decided.

A muffled sound!

The girl's face turned pale, and her breathing stagnated.

She was knocked to the ground by this powerful punch, uncontrollably flung out, and slid down more than ten meters.

The boy who had been knocked down by her headbutt earlier was right nearby. Hearing the sound, he immediately endured the pain and pounced on her viciously, straddling the girl and slapping her face twice...

"Slap! Slap!"

With two slaps, the girl's cheeks instantly swelled up, but she bit her teeth and burst out with tremendous strength, flipping the boy over and, in the same posture, straddling him, preparing to return the previous two slaps intact.

It was a pity that before she could slap him, the tall boy on the garbage mountain had already rushed down and flipped her over. This time, there was no room for reversal. The moment she lost her balance, she curled up her torso and protected her face with her hands.

A flurry of fists and feet rained down.

Falling on her body.

She was beaten like this for more than ten minutes.

"...Little bitch!"

"...Cheap bones!"

The angry curses also lasted for more than ten minutes.

Because they didn't know her name and their vocabulary was limited.

The girl only heard these few words over and over again...

At first, there were only two of them, but later, the boy who had been kicked in the crotch at the beginning recovered and walked down the garbage mountain, joining the beating.

However, this girl was really resistant to beating. She looked thin and small, but her skin and flesh were solid. After being beaten for more than ten minutes, she didn't utter a word. On the contrary, the three who were beating her were a little exhausted.

The tall boy bent down and pulled out the ragged paper bag from her pocket.

The next moment.

His expression suddenly became gloomy... He exerted force with his five fingers, and the ragged paper bag that the girl "cherished like a treasure" was gradually squeezed in his palm. There was nothing inside the bag.

The tall boy stared coldly at the boy who had snitched at the beginning.

"Hiss--"

He slowly tore the paper bag apart.

He had been hungry all day.

And he had fought with this stubborn and desperate girl, resulting in injuries... In the end, there was nothing, and it was all for nothing!

The snitching boy looked blankly at the crushed paper bag, his face full of disbelief.

There was nothing in the bag?

Actually, he hadn't seen clearly at first. It was only because of the girl's attitude and subsequent reaction that he dared to be sure that the girl had picked up something good.

"There's nothing, so why the hell are you risking your life?"

The snitching boy's expression became angry, and he kicked the curled-up girl, only to hear a hoarse, low, and playful laugh...

The girl curled up on the ground was kicked hard, looking filthy and miserable.

But she had a smile on her face.

She looked at the boy with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot.

Soon... what had just happened was repeated, but instead of three against one, it was two against one. The tall boy and another person beat up the snitch.

After the beating, they spat hard and left for another place.

In their opinion.

This boy was even more disgusting than the stubborn girl.

After everything was over, the girl struggled to get up. Her skin was bruised and purple, but it didn't matter. She was already used to being beaten...

"Slap!"

"Slap!"

She sat on the boy who had been beaten and couldn't move, raised her hand high, and returned the two slaps from the beginning intact.

The boy's ability to withstand a beating was obviously not as good as hers.

After being beaten, he didn't even have the strength to lift a finger. He could only watch the girl climb back onto the garbage mountain and reopen the bag of soup and water, taking out the piece of bread that had been stuffed back in.

Bread soaked in swill would be difficult to eat.

But it was still food.

...

...

The night was about to burn out, and the dawn's light shone on the streets and alleys.

For the civilians of Sangzhou Cave, there was no hope here.

Yes...

Even the sky here was fake.

Where was the dawn, and where was the hope?

The girl staggered down the street, the tide pushed by the dawn's light behind her, but she walked towards the dark and black abandoned alleys.

She hugged the piece of bread in her arms. The rotten parts that had been soaked soft had already been eaten by her.

That way, she had the strength to "go home."

The girl left the best piece and put it in her pocket. She circled around in these abandoned alleys. They were intricate, and eventually she came to the corner of a dilapidated alley. She didn't rush in, but squatted on the ground, looked at her appearance in a puddle, scrubbed the mud off the soles of her shoes, and wiped her face. She wanted to wipe away the filth from her body...

But she didn't know that some things couldn't be wiped away.

The injuries on her body, the dust on her clothes, and the sadness of living in this miserable world.

After doing all this, the girl's cold little face was no longer tense.

She took a deep breath at the puddle and squeezed out a smile.

It turned out she wasn't incapable of smiling.

It was just that smiles were... precious.

She had to save it for someone important.

The girl turned into the end of the dilapidated and desolate alley.