Xu Xing was immediately angered upon hearing that she had to pay more taxes. She directly asked, "I haven't even entered yet, why do I have to pay so much tax? Why are your taxes so high?"
Xu Xing was shocked when she heard that she had to pay so much tax just to enter the city. What was this so-called walking tax? She had to pay taxes for walking within the city, and there was also consumption tax. If she didn't consume, how could she pay taxes? Moreover, wasn't consumption tax paid when purchasing goods?
The soldiers guarding the city immediately burst into laughter at Xu Xing's shock and then disdainfully said, "You're just a girl with long hair and shallow knowledge. Either pay the tax or get lost."
At this moment, Xu Xing already regretted it. She should have known why Lin Yue climbed over the wall to enter the city. Now she had encountered the situation of being taxed. If she had climbed over the wall, she definitely wouldn't have encountered this situation. It was not difficult for her to shake the city walls to the ground with her strength, but unfortunately, there was no turning back now.
"Lin Yue must have known about what happened in Jiucheng a long time ago, but he just didn't tell me. It's so hateful. I must teach him a lesson when I see him later," Xu Xing thought to herself.
Then, Xu Xing said to the guards at the city gate, "Give me back my ring, I'm not going in."
However, after a few people heard this, they couldn't help but laugh, "Where did you come from, village girl? I've never heard of anything that fell into our hands being taken back. It's still the same thing, if you want to enter the city, keep paying, if you have no money, get lost."
Xu Xing secretly hated herself. She had just arrived in Jiucheng and encountered such dark dealings. Wasn't this extortion? These guards were definitely like pixiu, only taking and not giving. Once I enter the city, I will find a way to get back at them today.
To avoid further losses, Xu Xing immediately said, "I'm not going in, goodbye."
After saying that, Xu Xing wanted to leave. This could be considered cutting her losses in time. She could only do this for now. If she continued to pester them, she didn't know what other taxes she would have to pay, as the amount of tax to be collected was at the discretion of the other party.
However, after seeing this scene, the soldiers guarding the city began to whisper among themselves, "Captain, this village girl seems to be really out of money. The gold ring might be her last possession. Should we continue to extort money?"
The captain calmly said, "What are you thinking? Don't we still have the bicycle? Besides, don't look at the village girl's ugliness, her figure is still decent."
After hearing this, the soldiers immediately exclaimed that the captain was wise and had a good mind. As expected of the captain, he could think of things that ordinary people couldn't.
Then, a group of soldiers swarmed forward and snatched the bicycle Xu Xing was pushing, muttering, "We pity you now, so we'll let you pass. Be grateful for our great kindness. This bicycle is confiscated, you can go in."
Xu Xing watched her bicycle being snatched away with her own eyes, but she didn't dare to act. She could only shout unwillingly, "My bicycle!"
"What bicycle? Hurry up and go in, stop talking nonsense." Several guards took the bicycle away and incidentally drove Xu Xing into the city.
Xu Xing gritted her teeth secretly, took a deep look at these people, and thought, "Just you wait, I'll let you know the price of extorting me."
At this time, Xu Xing could not expose her identity. Otherwise, at that moment, Xu Xing could have killed these people directly. After this incident, Xu Xing also understood the feeling of Qin Qiong selling his horse. Clearly possessing great skills, yet being targeted by villains and constantly extorted, this feeling was very bad.
"A dragon in shallow water is teased by shrimp, a tiger fallen in Pingyang is bullied by dogs. A tiger with its teeth pulled is not as good as a dog, and a phoenix that has lost its feathers is not as good as a chicken," Xu Xing sighed in her heart.
Afterward, Xu Xing began to observe the situation in the city. The original Jiucheng was also an important city, after all, it was a city connecting Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province. Even though nine-tenths of the population had died before the doomsday cataclysm, even so, there were still two to three hundred thousand people in the city. As long as it could be occupied, one could become a figure in a region. After all, Shen Feng at that time only had one Jiangyang, and he hadn't even controlled the surrounding counties.
But now, in Xu Xing's eyes, Jiucheng had become desolate. The people walking on the streets looked gaunt, thin, and their steps were unsteady, as if they could fall at any moment. Moreover, beggars were everywhere, and there were even people who had already died on the streets.
After seeing this scene, Xu Xing also knew how detestable the lord of Jiucheng was. His subordinates were starving to death, yet he was still trying to collect wealth, completely disregarding the people below. When Lin Yue described him before, he was simply doing evil deeds, but after seeing it with her own eyes, Xu Xing realized that this was not just doing evil deeds. This was completely the reincarnation of demons, and the people living in Jiucheng were truly suffering.
As Xu Xing was observing her surroundings, a voice came from behind, "Where's your bicycle?"
Xu Xing turned around and immediately saw Lin Yue with a mischievous smile. Upon seeing this smile, Xu Xing directly questioned him, "How dare you mention it? You didn't tell me there were so many exorbitant taxes in Jiucheng, which led to my bicycle being snatched away."
In the apocalypse, bicycles were still very precious, especially in areas lacking oil. A bicycle could provide the ability to move quickly. This was completely equivalent to horses in ancient times, and even more important than horses, because horses still needed to be fed with fodder, and they could lose weight if they ran too far.
But now, the precious bicycle was snatched away. For Xu Xing, this was also very valuable. Her salary was not enough, and she had no opportunity to earn merit before, so her position was relatively low, and her salary could not be increased.
Lin Yue withdrew his mischievous smile and then said, "Gathering intelligence is part of the assessment. If you entered Jiucheng so rashly, and if the inspection was slightly stricter, your identity would likely be exposed. Therefore, judging by this, I can only give you thirty points in this regard. You have the awareness to hide information, but not the ability to gather it."
After learning Lin Yue's serious words, Xu Xing immediately gritted her teeth. She felt that Lin Yue was too insidious. He could have told her things but kept silent, and now he was using his examiner's identity to threaten her, which was too much.
"Hmph, I don't care about you anymore. As long as I can complete the mission, isn't that enough?" Xu Xing decided not to bother with Lin Yue anymore and prepared to kill someone.
Xu Xing had not forgotten the tasks she needed to complete. There were two tasks: one was to kill the person organizing the cult, and the other was to kill the wicked lord of Jiucheng. These two tasks needed to be resolved, and killing was the simplest and most effective method.
"Then good luck. I won't interfere. I'll just watch you silently to see if you can complete the mission, and then give you a score," Lin Yue said with a smile.
Xu Xing didn't want to deal with Lin Yue anymore. At this time, Xu Xing first needed to inquire about the location of the lord of Jiucheng. If possible, she also wanted to know the location of the cult leader. The only thing to consider was to ensure that the other person would be safe when taking action against one of them.
Xu Xing only inquired a little, and immediately someone told her the location of the city lord. As for the cult leader, he was also a highly anticipated figure in Jiucheng, and his location was also easily known. However, both of these places were difficult to enter, and it was a problem to even get close, let alone assassinate two important figures.
"Little girl, seeing that you are also from out of town, don't linger here. Leave as soon as possible. This city is already dead," an old beggar by the roadside said to Xu Xing.
Xu Xing nodded and said, "I know, I'll leave here soon."
Then Xu Xing continued forward, unmoved, preparing to complete the unfinished mission. Xu Xing planned to first observe the enemy's movements, preferably finding an opportunity for these two villains to be together, and then find a way to infiltrate and kill these two villains.
As for Lin Yue, seeing Xu Xing's straightforward actions, he unhurriedly took out the notebook he was carrying and began to record: "Insufficient intelligence gathering ability, and reckless actions, unconditionally trusting others' words."
In Lin Yue's eyes, Xu Xing was unqualified at this moment. If she were to carry out missions alone, Xu Xing would lead to mission failure in certain situations, especially in intelligence gathering, where she was completely an amateur. It wasn't that he doubted Xu Xing's combat effectiveness. He had heard that Xu Xing had caused an earthquake in Siberia, directly changing the course of the battle. Her combat effectiveness was even stronger than Lin Yue's. After all, Lin Yue was skilled at gathering intelligence.
However, to carry out missions alone in the outside world, being strong was not enough. In addition to being strong, one also needed the ability to gather and analyze intelligence. If this ability was insufficient, one might be tricked by the enemy during the mission. And Xu Xing simply killing two villains was not enough.
As Xu Xing approached the lord's palace, she saw the tragic state of the city. A once prosperous city now felt desolate.
And when Xu Xing arrived outside the palace, she was directly shocked. In contrast to the streets of Jiucheng, there was a luxurious palace. In the center of the city, there was a huge city wall, and a large area was directly surrounded by the outer wall. The outer wall was taller than the city wall, about ten meters high, while the city wall was only five meters high. It could be said that the defensive capabilities of the palace before Xu Xing's eyes were even higher than the city wall.
Xu Xing immediately recalled the Fengshen Palace in Yuzhou. Although it was called a palace, it was actually only eighty to ninety mu of land. Even some universities occupied a larger area than the palace. And in Yuzhou, there were five million people. Under such circumstances, Shen Feng could only live in this ordinary palace. But now, the palace before Xu Xing's eyes occupied ten times the area of Fengshen Palace.
Red walls and yellow tiles were before her eyes. What appeared before Xu Xing was a luxurious palace, and this palace occupied almost a quarter of Jiucheng. The city walls were towering, separating the inside from the outside, showing infinite majesty. There were also many people patrolling on the city walls.
"How many people would it take to build such a luxurious place, and in such a poor city?" Xu Xing murmured.
The situation that appeared before Xu Xing's eyes was a stark contrast. Outside the palace walls were countless starving people, and even outside the city, many people had resorted to eating tree bark. Yet, even at this time, a luxurious city had appeared before her eyes. The palace walls were towering, bright, and magnificent. Even Xu Xing, an ability user, felt ashamed.
Palaces could not appear out of thin air. It could be imagined that this luxurious palace must have been stained with the blood of countless people.
"What a hellish world, to have committed such evil deeds. Truly detestable," Xu Xing's eyes then showed ferocity.