Although the bar business was just a cover, Gu Wending, the "Bartender," always tried to do well in his part-time job.
He usually had a lot of patience and would do his best to accommodate the normal demands of regular customers, occasionally chatting with them about life, about the future of the Fortress, and the grim state of body organs after disease.
——Even though he hardly had a few patrons on regular days.
Of course, sometimes there were drunken louts, brains numbed by alcohol, who stumbled in. If the drunkards yelled and screamed at Gu Wending without any manners, he would not mind adding a little more raw material to his main business.
Gu Wending's rank within the Black Fire Gang wasn't very high; during the annual summary meetings, he could only sit in the seats numbered twenty-four or twenty-five.
But over the past thirty-five years, Gu Wending had devoted himself to the Black Fire Gang and its predecessor gang. He had long been a veteran figure in the gang, and was one of the few who only had to endure a few more years before turning sixty and retiring to enjoy a peaceful old age in the Middle City.
So, most of the time, Gu Wending was good-tempered, and after a while, even he would get the illusion...
...as if he really was a bartender.
The last time he touched a gun was seven or eight years ago when the 49th Floor fell into chaos. A rising gang, with the support of some officials from the Upper City, had attempted to challenge the Black Fire Gang's dominance in the 'organ trade.' His place had also been attacked.
The outcome of that shootout was obvious; they had won themselves seven or eight years of peaceful life.
The gang had been somewhat restless lately.
Big Mouth Hua met an unexpected death on the Thirteenth Floor when there was a problem trying to kidnap a female doctor.
An ample supply of doctors was the Black Fire Gang's biggest confidence booster. There were over a hundred medical professionals working for the gang, secured with bomb shackles, which would blow off a leg should they leave a specified area.
——Even with an entire leg blown off, the doctor could still be valuable.
To put it simply, kidnapping, training, and controlling doctors was how they maintained the core interests of the Black Fire Gang.
Their BOSS kept sending people to eliminate the doctor and her assistant, which Gu Wending could understand. If it were him, he would do the same to ensure the core interests of the Black Fire Gang were not compromised.
But what Gu Wending couldn't understand was why the BOSS suddenly sent Night Hawk to the 46th Floor to ambush the Security Captain.
This could be an order from the Upper City.
According to the rumors of the gang's management, that Security Captain named Zhou Zhengde was the son of the Fortress's Minister of Internal Affairs. Previously, due to his strong opposition to the human experiments of the Thirteen Institute, he had been demoted to be the Security Captain in the Middle City.
"A young master from the Upper City."
Gu Wending couldn't help but grumble in his heart:
"Once involved in this struggle of the Upper City Fortress, even touching upon warzone interests, the Black Fire Gang would be quickly crushed."
"Ah, these bastards, why can't they let me retire in peace?"
"The BOSS is too obedient to the Thirteenth Institute..."
As he thought this, Gu Wending felt a bit irritable, but then he suddenly heard a young male voice.
"I'd like a pot of Biluochun Tea."
Gu Wending stopped wiping the wineglass and, out of habit, showed a gentle smile, looking up at the man in front of him.
Gu Wending paused.
Having seen countless people, though most of the time what he saw were the lifeless eyes dulled by drugs, the calm, bright eyes with a hint of detachment, left a deep impression on him.
"This is a young man with a story."
"However..."
"What is Biluochun?" asked Gu Wending with a smile.
Wang Jixuan replied calmly, "It's a type of tea."
"Tea?"
Gu Wending put down the wineglass and the cloth he was using to wipe it, and straightened his bow tie with his white-gloved hands.
"I do indeed have tea here and, in fact, the entire Fortress has only four or five places where one can find tea, but apart from my place here, the rest are to be sought in the Upper City.
"But how do you know about this? Young man."
Their conversation drew the attention of a few Black Fire Gang enforcers.
Wang Jixuan placed his hands casually on the edge of the counter, which made those enforcers and Gu Wending unaware of any danger.
taking advantage of the situation, Wang Jixuan went on, "I heard about it from someone."
"Oh?" Gu Wending said with a smile, "Young man, you seem to know exactly what this place is."
"Black Fire Gang's territory," Wang Jixuan said calmly,
"There's a huge cold storage beneath the tavern. This is also one of the core assets of the Black Fire Gang... This is almost an open secret on the 49th Floor; too many people have seen you transport people here."
The sound of bullets being chambered came from nearby.
At three corners of the bar and behind the railings on the second floor, a total of seven men simultaneously turned their attention this way, some ceasing their smoking.
Gu Wending asked, "And you? Who are you? Someone looking for trouble with us?"
"I'm here to negotiate," said Wang Jixuan, employing a bit of strategy and continued,
"I've been sent by a Security Captain from the Middle City to talk to your BOSS of the Black Fire Gang. I think you may already be aware, the time of the Black Fire Gang is running out."
Gu Wending's expression became incredibly solemn.
Even though two-thirds of the 49th Floor were controlled by other gangs, in their own territory, the Black Fire Gang had absolute dominion.
The six thousand or so humans and over forty thousand material bodies living here formed a strictly hierarchical small town.
Only less than thirty people in this place would have known what this young man had said.
"I think I should try to contact my BOSS first."
Gu Wending, with his hands on the edge of the counter, leaned forward slightly, and said with a beaming smile:
"But before I contact my BOSS, you need to answer a few questions for me: your name, your exact identity, the name of your boss and his power, and his position within that power.
"This is our territory, even if the Fortress Governor were to come, he would need to follow the rules here.
"Now, answer me, what is your name? Young man."
Gu Wending deliberately narrowed his eyes.
He, who had spent years looking up at the whole Fortress from its dark corners, now appeared like a cold-blooded snake.
—That's how he felt about himself.
"Is he Mu Liang?"
A slightly surprised shout suddenly came from behind the second-floor railing; a man wearing a top hat looked at the terminal panel in front of him, with a light "Huh":
"The database shows that he is a technician... the Middle City technician that the BOSS put a hit on! Mu Liang! That's him!"
Gu Wending's gaze sharpened, and he remembered that a message like this had popped up on the text communication device only available to the Black Fire Gang's management.
[04: The man who killed Night Hawk is called Mu Liang, likely a Spiritual Ability User. The higher-ups are investigating, and all information related to this guy is blocked. The not-yet-updated database can find some messages about him; he seems to be an ordinary technician.]
Images of Night Hawk's headless corpse flashed before Gu Wending's eyes.
The words Spiritual Ability User seemed like a curse, causing his complexion to instantly turn pale and beads of cold sweat to form on his forehead...
The atmosphere inside the bar became somewhat sinister.
The visiting young man sat on the bar stool, smiling as he watched the bartender in front of him;
The old Bartender's somewhat loose skin was trembling slightly as he stared into the eyes of the young man.
In the corner, several burly men in dark green tracksuits simultaneously reached into their chests;
On the second floor, two Black Fire Gang members in suits and top hats silently took up their shotguns and tranquilizer guns...
Gu Wending suddenly looked down!
He was going for the gun taped under the counter!
Gu Wending had barely made a move when the young man in front of him suddenly blurred, and a dozen or so pink long paper talismans unfolded almost instantly, and he lunged forward, grabbing Gu Wending's collar!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The few men beside them fired decisively!
Gu Wending couldn't believe what he was seeing:
Those paper talismans, flared with dazzling golden light in an instant, the golden light forming a continuous, interlaced thin shield of golden light, deflecting and twisting the incoming pistol bullets!
This young man who had grabbed his collar had, in the second before the golden light burst out, used the force of pulling him to lunge forward, tackling him behind the counter.
Gu Wending's head slammed hard against the stone plate floor, and a wave of dizziness hit him.
In his field of vision, the young man named Mu Liang crouched and surged forward, his dodging movements smooth as flowing water, his hands flickering like phantoms as he flung them repeatedly!
Streams of dark light shot out!
The gunfire in the bar came to an abrupt halt.
Gu Wending didn't know what had happened outside, but he heard the thud of someone falling from the second floor.
Were they taken down?
All of his subordinates here were taken down?
Wang Jixuan, kneeling on one knee, stood up, pressing the several talismans in his palm back into his sleeve with his fingers.
Compared to the metal darts he threw wrapped in Qi, bullets were indeed a bit faster.
But no matter; Wang Jixuan had figured out a way to withstand ordinary pistol bullets with only a dozen Vajra Talismans needed for 'all-round protection' lasting three to four seconds.
Wang Jixuan looked down at the Bartender Gu Wending, and with a smile, asked:
"Where's your tea?"
"You can't threaten me, kid," Gu Wending breathed slightly trembling, "You can kill me now, I've lived long enough, that's the truth, you won't get any valuable information out of me! They'll be here in a minute!"
Wang Jixuan lightly raised an eyebrow.
In his perception, there was a vast cavity beneath his feet, and down there, there was some patchy and faint Qi.
Interrogation was the troublesome matter he was least skilled at.
This bar was located in the northwest corner of the Black Fire Gang territory and was an important warehouse for the Black Fire Gang's rear.
Wang Jixuan had to fight quickly and decisively, to extract the most wanted information from this old man before the Black Fire Gang members in the cold storage below realized there was a problem in the bar.
"Actually, I do like persuading people to do good."
Wang Jixuan's right hand reached into the inner pocket of his jacket, and he pulled out a blank paper talisman, biting the tip of his index finger to force out a thread of Qi, and quickly drew an intricate talisman on the paper.
"But at the very least, the object of my persuasion needs to be human first."
Wang Jixuan pressed his sword fingers together, pressing the blood-red talisman paper downward, forcefully stamping it onto Gu Wending's forehead.
Soul Capture!