"You're out of your mind!"
Wei Jiaping hopped in rage and exasperation. "Who's to say he will honor his end of the deal if we hand over the Eight Steps Rising Dragon? What if he changes his mind and refuses to help?"
"Then consider it a token of appreciation for saving my life," Wei Jiajia said calmly.
"You…"
Wei Jiaping was stunned. He clearly wasn't expecting that answer.
"We are out of options, Jiaping," said Wei Jiajia, turning her eyes to her brother. She sighed. "The leader of the Dagger Gang, Chen Xiaodao, won't let us off easily. Without external help, we will eventually fall into his hands. Even if he doesn't know about the existence of Eight Steps Rising Dragon, he will definitely torture us and interrogate us about our family secrets. By then, how long do you think you can hold out?"
Wei Jiaping was silent.
He considered the question.
Even though he didn't have an exact answer, he knew he—having led an easy and carefree life growing up— couldn't hold out for long.
A few whips would probably suffice to extract any secrets out of him.
Wei Jiaping shuddered at the thought.
Wei Jiajia sighed internally before continuing. "This is the biggest crisis our Wei family has ever encountered. If we fail to overcome it, everything will go to pot. No matter what choice we make here, we won't be able to safekeep the Eight Steps Rising Dragon."
"Eight Steps Rising Dragon is a rare martial art that's hard to come across. Instead of letting Chen Xiaodao rob us of it, I rather my savior have it!"
In truth, there was more to it than Wei Jiajia was letting on.
She had a backup plan in mind; if Su Jingxing went back on his word and refused to help them after receiving the Eight Steps Rising Dragon, she would immediately pass this information to Chen Xiaodao.
Chen Xiaodao—a seventh-grade martial artist—was the president of the Dagger Gang.
Given how valuable the Eight Steps Rising Dragon was, Chen Xiaodao would definitely target Su Jingxing if he were to find out about it.
Essentially, Wei Jiajia was using the Eight Steps Rising Dragon as bait, knowing that Chen Xiaodao and Su Jingxing would fight fiercely over it.
In the end, no matter who won, Wei Jiajia would benefit!
Wei Jiaping wasn't as much of a schemer, and would never have thought that far ahead.
He was only sixteen, and had never encountered such major events before.
At this moment, a wave of dizziness swept over him.
…
At the crematorium.
In the washroom, Su Jingxing was staring absently at a newly obtained card in his hand.
A skill card!
He had extracted another skill card from one of the corpses.
He examined the card, and was briefly stunned by the information he received.
Hacking Expertise!
It wasn't a martial arts manual.
Instead, the skill card contained a professional skill—hacking skills. By absorbing it directly, he could immediately reach a high level of proficiency in hacking.
Snapping out of his daze, Su Jingxing had mixed feelings—but was nonetheless excited.
It made sense when he thought about it. Skill cards should encompass all kinds of skills, and not just secret martial arts manuals.
From the very beginning, his own assumption was what had led him astray.
For ordinary people, computer skills were indeed a skill.
So was cooking, medical practice, painting, sculpting, calligraphy, music, and so on!
In theory, Su Jingxing could pick up any of these skills.
The reason why he never received such cards in the past must have been because the owners of the corpses were all too ordinary, had limited skill sets, or didn't obtain enough proficiency in the skills they possessed.
His cheat ability did not consider them worthy!
The hacking skills he just extracted were a little different from the normal skills.
Su Jingxing could absorb it directly and immediately master the craft.
After all, hacking skills were different from secret martial arts manuals; it was purely mental and didn't have much to do with the body.
Su Jingxing didn't need years to master it.
By the same logic, if Su Jingxing extracted any skill cards from science researchers, he would also be able to unlock and master their corresponding skills immediately.
Hacking Expertise was just one of many.
Even though it wasn't a secret martial arts manual, it was nonetheless a useful technique.
Based on what Su Jingxing knew, Yu Nation didn't have the most advanced network security.
With the Hacking Expertise skill, he could hack into most banking systems, government systems, scientific research systems, and so on.
If he was so inclined, he could even sneak out a handsome sum of money from the bank.
However, spending the dirty money could prove difficult, so he rather not bother with it.
What Su Jingxing wanted was clean money.
Like lottery winnings for example!
All he had to do was hack into the lottery center's computer system and manipulate the winning number; that wouldn't cause any problems, would it?
Haha!
Su Jingxing almost burst out laughing at the thought of this.
"I won't be able to make it in time for this month's draw. In that case, I'll call dibs on the first… no, the second prize for next month!"
Winning the first prize was too eye-catching; he was satisfied with taking home the second prize.
Luckily, the small courtyard Su Jingxing had rented only had a short-term lease of three months.
In the following month, he would be able to buy his own house with the prize money!
Talk about getting lucky!
Suppressing his excitement, Su Jingxing placed the card between his eyebrows and unlocked it. Immediately, he knew all he needed to know about hacking.
Right as he finished absorbing—
"Hey, Little Su, you done in there?"
Kong Dabao's voice came from outside.
"Yeah," answered Su Jingxing. He hesitated for a moment, then flushed the toilet, opened the cubicle's wooden door, and exited the washroom.
"What's the matter, Big Brother Dabao?" he asked Kong Dabao when he was outside.
"Hurry, we gotta make a trip to the city to collect some corpses," explained Kong Dabao as he made for the exit of the building. "Customer service just got a call. Word is, the Black Tiger Gang and the Flying Cloud Sect had a huge clash in the city, just a few minutes ago. The casualty count has exceeded three digits. Team Leader wants to dispatch us there immediately to help bring back the corpses."
"Hundreds of casualties? That many?" asked Su Jingxing, raising his brows.
"Heh, not like it's the first time these two syndicates are going at each other. This time just happened to be grander in scale," said Kong Dabao, curling his lips. "A hundred plus deaths is nothing to them. Soon enough, they would have recruited enough new members to make up for the loss. These syndicates never lack manpower!"
Well then…
Not knowing what else to say, Su Jingxing clammed up.
Black Tiger Gang and Flying Cloud Sect were the largest syndicates in the Western District of Qinghe City.
Smaller syndicates like the Dagger Gang and whatnot all worked under them.
The upper echelons of these two syndicates were comprised of sixth-grade—and even fifth-grade—martial artists.
Even the lower echelons had members who packed a punch.
At the lowest level, there were ninth-grade martial artists and ordinary people who were about to hit the ninth-grade.
Therefore, Su Jingxing was more than happy about the deadly brawl between the Black Tiger Gang and the Flying Cloud Sect.
Cards extracted from the corpses of martial artists tended to give more rewards when unlocked.
He expected an abundance of Internal Force Cards and skill cards!
…
He turned out to be right.
The development of events wasn't far from Su Jingxing's expectations.
The entire Corpse Collection Team 1 was hastily dispatched to the location where the deadly syndicate brawl had taken place.
Without betraying any emotion, Su Jingxing walked past all of the corpses at the scene; he collected a total of 27 cards from 27 corpses.
There had been 27 confirmed deaths and a little above 110 casualties in this syndicate clash.
The death count did not take into account the severely wounded that were being rushed to the hospital.
As for now, the Corpse Collector Team's main task was to retrieve the 27 dead bodies on scene and bring them back to the crematorium; the ones at the hospital would have to wait.
The documentation of particulars was handled by someone else.
Su Jingxing found the time to hide in a corner and inspect the cards he extracted.
Strength Enhancement Card, Internal Force Card, Internal Force Card, Skill Card, Skill Card…
"Oh? Equipment Card? Is this yet another new card?"