Chapter 113 - 93: Interlude

Chapter 113: Chapter 93: Interlude

Among the group, Xu Mo spotted a familiar face—the young thief who had tried to steal his gun, the one he’d scared off earlier. The boy was now staring at him, his expression a mix of smugness and venom.

"Kid, be smart and don’t reach for your gun." The leader, a burly man with a scarred face, brandished the machete in his hand and sneered. "Just let us break one of your legs, and we’ll call this whole thing even. Dare to fight back, and you’ll eat a bullet!"

Xu Mo’s face showed no sign of panic. Instead, a playful smile touched his lips as he looked at the gray-jacketed broker who had led him here. "So this is the ’good stuff’ you mentioned?"

The man in the gray jacket dropped his pretense, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. "Buddy, you can only blame yourself for not keeping your eyes open. You pissed someone off in the Inner City. You’re a new face and look like a fat sheep with some money to your name, so my brothers and I just had to borrow some Contribution Points from you. Just accept your fate. A broken leg is better than a lost life."

"Pissed someone off?" Xu Mo glanced at the young boy. "All because his attempt to steal from me failed?"

"Damn it, who stole from you?! You’re spewing bullshit!" the boy shouted, hopping in agitation. "You’re the one who bumped into me!"

The scar-faced man cut in impatiently. "Enough bullshit. Kid, I’ll ask you one last time: are you getting on the ground, or are we going to help you down?"

Xu Mo sighed and shook his head. ’I really didn’t want any trouble.’

Before the sound of his voice had even faded, Xu Mo moved.

He didn’t reach for his gun. Instead, his right hand shot into his jacket pocket like a bolt of lightning. He grabbed the larger of the two cyan jade stones he had just purchased, channeled all his strength into his arm, and hurled it at the man holding the shotgun.

WHOOSH—CRACK!

The jade stone whistled through the air and smashed with pinpoint accuracy against the gunman’s wrist. The man cried out in pain, and his shotgun fell to the ground with a CLANG.

Almost at the same instant the jade left his hand, Xu Mo had already drawn the Mountain-Cutting Saber from his waist with his left. He didn’t use the cutting edge. Instead, he flipped the weapon over and, using its thick spine, charged into the group like a tiger pouncing on sheep.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

A series of dull thuds rang out, accompanied by the cringe-inducing sound of bone striking metal and a chorus of shrill screams.

Xu Mo’s movements were simple and efficient. Each swing of the saber landed precisely on an opponent’s wrist, elbow, or shin. His speed was far beyond what these street thugs could react to. He instantly incapacitated them without inflicting any fatal wounds.

In less than ten seconds, all seven or eight of the once-menacing thugs were on the ground. All except for the dumbstruck boy and the ashen-faced broker in the gray jacket. The rest were clutching their injuries and groaning in agony, their weapons scattered across the floor.

Xu Mo stood with his saber in hand, his breathing perfectly steady, as if he had just swatted a few flies. His calm gaze fell upon the gray-jacketed broker and the young boy.

"S-Sir... sp-spare us!" The broker in the gray jacket dropped to his knees with a thud, his voice cracking. "We were blind to have offended you! We deserve to die!"

The boy was also trembling in fear, his face deathly pale, all his earlier arrogance gone.

Xu Mo gestured with the tip of his saber toward the men wailing on the ground, then toward the broker and the boy. "Now, can we discuss the matter of ’compensation’?"

"We’ll compensate you! We will!" the scar-faced man shouted, enduring the searing pain. "We’ll give you all the Contribution Points on us, just please, spare us."

Under Xu Mo’s "gaze," the men shakily took out their Identity Cards. After everyone, including the broker and the boy, pooled their funds, they had managed to scrape together a grand total of seventy Contribution Points. Most of them only had single-digit balances on their Identity Cards; they were clearly dirt poor.

Looking at the pathetic group on the ground and their pitiful "compensation," Xu Mo was a little speechless. He had hoped to extort a decent sum, not run into a bunch of paupers.

"Forget it." Xu Mo waved his hand, deciding against taking their Contribution Points. "Keep the Contribution Points. Instead, go find all the strange and bizarre things you’ve collected over time—stuff that you found odd or couldn’t identify. And remember, don’t try to pull a fast one on me."

Hearing this, the men looked as if they had been granted amnesty. Though confused, they struggled to their feet, or sent the uninjured boy and the broker to hurry inside and rummage through their things.

A short while later, the two returned carrying a small pile of items. There were several oddly colored stones, a rusty metal compass etched with strange patterns, half of a tattered, thread-bound ancient book with blurry script, and a small, bizarrely shaped statuette carved from some unknown black wood.

"S-Sir, this is everything. It’s all stuff we... uh... came across. We kept it because we thought it was strange..." the broker said cautiously, not daring to admit it was all stolen.

’So it’s just a pile of stolen goods,’ Xu Mo thought, even more speechless.

He gathered the items and, ignoring the wailing men, left the den of trouble.

Back in his room at the Traveler’s Inn, Xu Mo laid out his "haul" for the night on the table: the two cyan jade stones, a pile of strange rocks, the half-tattered ancient book, the compass, and the bizarre wooden statuette.

’The reason he hadn’t taken their Contribution Points was simple. He was afraid that if he left them completely broke, they’d just go out and prey on someone else. More people might get hurt, and besides, he couldn’t be bothered with such a paltry amount of Contribution Points anyway.’

Looking at the pile of junk before him, Xu Mo picked up one of the cyan jade stones. He held it in his palm and began to circulate the breathing method of the Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training, guiding his qi and blood to try and sense, or even absorb, any potential energy within it.

However, half an hour passed, and the jade stone remained just a jade stone—cool and smooth to the touch, with no energy feedback whatsoever. His qi and blood showed no signs of unusual activity.

’Looks like you can’t believe everything you read in novels,’ Xu Mo thought, shaking his head as he set the jade stone down. ’Perhaps the jade in this world doesn’t contain any so-called Spiritual Qi.’

He then picked up the half-book and flipped through it. The paper was brittle and yellowed, and the script was an ancient, traditional form. The content was obscure, and after a few moments of realizing he couldn’t understand it, he set it aside as well. The wooden statuette was cool to the touch. It depicted a ferocious, three-headed, six-armed monster. The carving was crude, and he couldn’t sense anything unusual from it either.

Finally, Xu Mo’s gaze fell upon the other miscellaneous rocks. He tried to draw energy from them as well, but this too, unfortunately, ended in failure.

’Oh well. I’ll just consider it the price of a lesson... and a bit of exercise,’ Xu Mo thought. He gathered the useless items and stopped dwelling on the matter.