The First Order

Chapter 1190: Ignorant

It was completely dark in the wide sewer pipe, with all light seemingly sucked away deep into the tunnel.

It was no wonder Melgor was scared. Even a battle-hardened veteran like Qian Weining had to take a while to get mentally prepared and take a deep breath before going in.

Chen Jingshu was calm only because she knew where the sewers led.

Ren Xiaosu realized the entire bounty hunter organization probably played an important role in the underworld of Ghent City. Their members were well-acquainted with this place.

He looked at the entrance of the sewer and asked curiously, “Wait a sec, this sewer system was built with modern technology. Although it’s become really run-down, such technology shouldn’t exist in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.”

!!

The concrete on the walls at the entrance of the sewer was severely corroded, and even the steel rebar inside had become exposed.

This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen a reinforced concrete structure in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. It was just as novel as when he first came across the ruins of human civilization back in the Jing Mountains.

Therefore, the entirety of Ghent City was actually built on the foundations of a Pre-Cataclysm human civilization. This surprised Ren Xiaosu a little.

But he was even more surprised the sewers could be preserved for so long.

When everyone was living in the underground, they only united to withstand the cruel period of The Cataclysm. At that time, even though there was also injustice, life was at least considered bearable with the presence of Russell and the new magus order he led.

As Russell was extremely charismatic, everyone was willing to see him as their leader and trusted him to handle matters impartially.

Russell had even temporarily established a post-disaster committee and an underground court, so even the sorcerers who broke the law and bullied ordinary folks would get punished back in those times.

And what was even more ruthless was that if a sorcerer broke the law, their Eyes of True Sight would get confiscated.

Without their Eyes of True Sight, the sorcerers were no different from normal people.

At that time, the old aristocrats wanted to rebel against Russell because of this. But they were no match for him before The Cataclysm, let alone after.

The old aristocrats could not even afford to support themselves anymore, so they couldn’t even raise as many sons as before. Without a large number of progeny to sustain their usage of bloodline spells, they were absolutely crushed by Russell.

As such, the reason why everyone wanted to kill Russell so badly after returning to the surface was that they knew that as long as Russell was around, the old aristocratic clans could never make a comeback.

At that time, Russell had already started planning for the establishment of the magus school. If he succeeded in shattering the class differences between sorcerers and normal people, the bloodline succession of those sorcerer aristocrats would naturally collapse.

In order not to hand over their exclusive spells and ensure the continuation of their bloodlines, the aristocrats instigated Russell’s servant, Voss, to poison him.

With Russell’s death, the new magus order disbanded, and most of those who remained died under the encirclement of the old aristocracy.

After the exploitation system was reestablished, some people could no longer stand being bullied, so huge disagreements arose with the old aristocratic clans.

To not get killed, they returned to the underground world and continued living inside that gloomy world.

It was also at that time that the Sanctuary members returned to the underground with them.

Chen Jingshu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “The times spent hiding in the underground were tough. At the beginning, the old aristocratic clans kept coming down to encircle us on many occasions, so everyone had to avoid their pursuit. Fortunately, the underworld was large enough, so it was not easy for them to track us down. Later, everyone realized it was actually not too bad to live underground, and the supplies gradually grew more abundant. The surface and the underground have become two independently run societies.”

“Then why did y’all suddenly come back up now? I think y’all should be planning something big, right?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “What made y’all take the risk to come out here, even if it means losing your lives?”

“The infrastructure underground is falling apart.” Chen Jingshu said, “Based on our estimates, the underground will probably collapse in another 20 years at most. We have no means to build or reinforce the structures, so we can only return to the surface.”

“Oh, so before returning to the surface, the problem of the old aristocratic clans has to be dealt with first? Otherwise, y’all will still die when you return to the surface.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “But it’s too late. The sorcerers living on the surface have become a force to be reckoned with.”

“We have to look for a chance at survival somehow, right?” Chen Jingshu said with a sigh, “We all know it’s difficult, but how will we know where our chance of survival lies if we don’t fight for it?”

“You’ve found it now.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

Chen Jingshu said calmly, “Are you trying to say you’re our chance at survival?”

“You can even answer without my cue now. That’s an improvement.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Without any external help, y’all can’t defeat those sorcerers even if you continue developing for another 200 years. You can’t pull off such a huge task by relying on those glib degenerates of the sorcerer clans. So you can only rely on external help.”

Next to him, Chen An’an said stubbornly, “We’re very strong too, alright?”

“Too bad y’all don’t have any extensive combat experience. It’s unrealistic to always place your hopes on the internal transformation of the sorcerer clans. Why would those sorcerers with vested interests honestly help y’all out?” Ren Xiaosu said, “So you need to galvanize your working-class comrades to rise against… Forget it, I’m not saying anything else, or something bad could happen.”

Chen Jingshu was startled to hear that. “Then what makes you think you’re our only chance? I don’t think you have much combat experience either, right? You’re in an unfamiliar place, so who’re you going to work with? Besides, I know you won’t be staying in the Kingdom of Sorcerers for long. You don’t have the time and energy to do all that.”

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “However Russell did it in the past, I’ll do the same now.”

The Russell approach he was referring to was to beat up the old aristocrats before achieving a high degree of “consensus” with them.

However, Ren Xiaosu would be more ruthless than Russell. Although he was not good at political debate, he excelled in murder.

Russell did not kill the sorcerers of the aristocratic clans because he was also a member of the Magi, but Ren Xiaosu was not. Right from the beginning, he did not have any compassion for the Magi. There was only a blood feud between them.

Qian Weining and the others listened to their conversation from next to them and fell silent.

Just yesterday, Qian Weining had thought Ren Xiaosu purely wanted to kill sorcerers. But now he realized Ren Xiaosu was actually challenging the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers.

Although the two methods might look similar in process, the outcome and difficulty were completely different.

Ren Xiaosu turned around and smiled at Qian Weining and his men. “Don’t be scared. Even if I fail, y’all can still follow me to the Central Plains. That’s the backup plan I’ve left for y’all.”

“Master, you don’t have to worry. As long as you don’t betray us, we’ll surely follow you to our deaths.” Qian Weining hurriedly expressed his loyalty.

Chen Jingshu went to the side and chopped down some tree branches. Then she had An’an bring over some canvas tarps and wrap them around the branches so they could set them alight.

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “What are you doing?”

“Lighting torches, of course.” Chen Jingshu said, “After we enter the sewers, follow me closely. If you take the wrong path while carrying a torch, you could end up walking into a dead zone and get poisoned to death by the toxic fumes or trigger an explosion and blow yourselves up.”

“Dead zone? Explosion?” Ren Xiaosu said dumbfoundedly, “Are there traps in the sewers? Who set them?”

Chen Jingshu said, “It might’ve been laid by the people who built this underground city. The explosions always happen very suddenly, but no one knows why.”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “How’s that a fucking trap? It’s obviously your torches igniting the accumulated methane in the underground that caused the explosions.”

When this huge underground city was initially designed, the problem of ventilation must have definitely been considered. But after such a long time, with the ventilation systems no longer working and the collapse of some parts of the interior, it would certainly cause a methane buildup in some areas. If anyone went near those spots with a naked flame, it would definitely trigger an explosion.

Therefore, those were not traps deliberately set up by anyone.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Anyways, there’s no need to light torches.”

He brought out a dozen powerful flashlights from the palace and handed them out. Then he pulled out a tritium lamp stolen from the Qing Consortium some time ago and used it as an illumination device.

Chen Jingshu, Qian Weining, and everyone else held their flashlights with confused looks on their faces. “What’s this?”

“Press the button.” Ren Xiaosu demonstrated it to them. A beam of light shone into the sewers and suddenly illuminated the area dozens of meters ahead. It became bright as day in the sewers.

Chen Jingshu was shocked. “What the hell is this!”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly got the impression of a high-level civilization crushing a low-level civilization.

He patiently explained, “This is what technology is. It’s a device that uses electricity as a power source to provide illumination. If a flashlight is only turned on to the minimum brightness, it should be able to run for several days.”

Qian Weining looked intently at the flashlight in his hand as though he had found a treasure. “Master, you’re actually letting us use something so precious?”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “What’s so precious about that? It’s standard issue for combat troops in the Central Plains! Y’all really don’t have much knowledge about the Central Plains, do you? And under the rule of the magus order, you have no grasp of technology either.”

“Is the Central Plains really that amazing?” Qian Weining sighed emotionally. He got an urge to go there to have a look.

Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “If a powerful flashlight can surprise you guys like this, I wonder how shocked y’all will be when you see things like cameras, tap water, and TVs. Don’t worry. Even if I need y’all to remain at the Prosperous Northwest’s branch office in the future, you can still visit the Central Plains often.”

The Kingdom of Sorcerers was only about a 1,000 kilometers from Fortress 178. It was not really that far away with modern transportation. If he drove the steam locomotive at full speed, it would only take them ten hours to get there.

Chen Jingshu looked at the tritium lamp in Ren Xiaosu’s hand. “Then what’s that you’re holding?”

“This is called a tritium lamp.” Ren Xiaosu said, “It uses radioactive material as a light source. If it’s not broken, it can last for 20 years or even longer.”

“Wow! 20 years?!” everyone around him exclaimed.

Ren Xiaosu felt like he was facing a group of curious toddlers.

He quietly sized up the group of curious toddlers before taking out a pair of military binoculars and handing it to Qian Weining. “Here, try it. This thing will allow you to see very far.”

“Wow! It’s so clear!” Qian Weining exclaimed, “What’s this magical thing? How can it be so amazing?!”

Chen Jingshu took the binoculars from him and discovered that she could even see details hundreds of meters out with them.

“So this is the technology of the Central Plains?” Chen Jingshu muttered.

Everyone passed around the binoculars and fiddled with them. In the end, they all let out a heartfelt exclamation after giving it a try.

“I like how ignorant y’all look,” Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

This comment made Chen Jingshu and the others feel bad, but they could not come up with any excuses.

Ren Xiaosu glanced at them. Then he took out a pistol with a silencer attached and fired it at a sparrow flying across the sky.

The sparrow’s feathers scattered as it fell straight to the ground.

“Wow, it’s that powerful?” everyone around him exclaimed again.

Ren Xiaosu had Qian Weining bring over the sparrow. “Have a look at the sparrow’s wound.”

Qian Weining checked and was surprised to find the sparrow’s body had been penetrated by the bullet and became badly mutilated.

He said in shock, “Master, is this the weapon of the Central Plains?”

Qian Weining was 31 years old this year, so he had not participated in the war 17 years ago. However, he had still heard of the weapons of the Central Plains.

But at that time, he was still a little skeptical when he heard others describing firearms to him. Only at this moment did he realize how ruthless this weapon was.

“We’re at the edge of Ghent City, so I can’t show you how powerful the other weapons are yet. Pistols are the least powerful type of firearm we have.” Ren Xiaosu explained, “But its feature is that it’s much more accurate and powerful than the bow and arrow. Moreover, it’s so fast it’s almost impossible to dodge.”

Chen Jingshu said, “This thing is much more powerful than a concealed crossbow.”

People like Chen Jingshu and Qian Weining could immediately appreciate the difference between firearms and bows. Meanwhile, Melgor, Li Chengguo, and Liu Ting were stuck at a level of understanding that could only be described with “how powerful!”, “wow!”, and “fuck!” They knew this thing was powerful, but they did not know just how powerful it was.

Ren Xiaosu placed the pistol in Qian Weining’s hand and said, “I’ll take y’all out for shooting practice in the next few days if there’s an opportunity. After you’ve familiarized yourselves, I’ll equip each of you with a gun and a 100 bullets.”

Qian Weining was moved. “Master, you’re giving us this thing too? You’re way too generous!”

“Ahem, since y’all have pledged your allegiance to me, of course I can’t keep things to myself,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Chen Jingshu hesitated for a moment before saying, “Can you sell me one? I’ll pay for it. Is a 100 gold coins enough?”

Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was really tempted to negotiate an arms deal with the Kingdom of Sorcerer at this moment. A normal pistol could actually be traded for a 100 gold coins here? He could fucking make a killing with this!

However, Ren Xiaosu did not accept her offer. Instead, he just gave Chen Jingshu a pistol. He put it in her hands and said, “I can give you it for free, but don’t use it before I teach y’all how to shoot. Accidents can happen easily. Also, you must remember that this weapon can be extremely dangerous. Don’t ever point it at your allies.”

The reason why Ren Xiaosu thought of issuing guns to these people was that he suddenly felt that he might have taken some unnecessary steps before.

He had thought of establishing the first group of sorcerer knights in the kingdom. Having such extremely strong spell bombardiers as combatants was like having bomber planes. Just the thought of that was extremely powerful. Besides, such a force would not cost any money to maintain nor would it waste any ammo.

But later, Ren Xiaosu thought that pistols, automatic rifles, and bullets were not expensive anyway. In that case, why not just turn these people into modern troops first before they become sorcerers?

With automatic rifles and heavy machine guns, wouldn’t it be a piece of cake for them to take on the cavalry of the sorcerer clans? If they could find favorable terrain to fight on, it shouldn’t even be a problem for a 100-odd people to defeat several thousand horsemen, right?

Moreover, Qian Weining revealed a unique skill while traveling north: precise range estimation!

This might sound like some mysterious skill, but it was actually just using one’s thumb as a reference point to gauge the enemy’s distance.

In other words, Qian Weining was born to be an artilleryman. With some training, he could carry a long-range mortar everywhere on the battlefield. Even if those were physical attacks, it shouldn’t be much different from sorcery, right? Besides, such attacks were much more powerful than what junior sorcerers could conjure.

Even Ren Xiaosu could not say he was not threatened by artillery fire based on his present level. At most, he could only avoid the trajectory of the artillery. If a shell really landed on him, he would still die.

If it were something that even Ren Xiaosu was afraid of, sorcerers would be scared all the more.

Therefore, before establishing the sorcerer knights, it would be better to establish the first modern army in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. He already had a supply of firearms anyway.

“C’mon, let’s go in,” Ren Xiaosu said.

Chen Jingshu held up her powerful flashlight and led the way. Their footsteps made splashing sounds as they stepped in the dirty water in the sewer. The splashes sounded particularly loud as they reverberated through the sewer pipes.

Ren Xiaosu looked at the sewer walls and saw some strange scribblings on them. Some were written in Chinese while others were in the Magi’s tongue. The vivid writing resembled some kind of special spiritual slogans.

He could not understand the Magi’s tongue, but he knew Chinese.

The walls were written with words like “freedom” and “resistance” and were accompanied by some flamboyant, weird patterns.

Ren Xiaosu asked, “Who wrote all that?”

“The residents of the underground, of course.” Chen Jingshu said, “It’s just random graffiti to vent their emotions. I heard that people used to like drawing graffiti on walls before The Cataclysm.”

“I heard the House of Norman killed everyone in the underground during their search for Donnelly?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“They nearly did.” Chen Jingshu said calmly, “They killed almost half of the underground inhabitants. But after more than a 100 years away, they were no longer familiar with the situation underground, so they did not discover the new hiding places we found. It was also that incident that made us determined to return to the surface and not wait to be slaughtered here.”

Ren Xiaosu used the tritium lamp to illuminate the walls on both sides. He suddenly felt that the graffiti had a strange, chaotic sense of beauty.

As they walked deeper in, the view in front of them suddenly opened up. An even wider underground world appeared in front of everyone: A canal so large tanks could drive through them, a picturesque patchwork of asymmetrically laid-out steps, deformed steel above them.

The corrosion on the steel was so thick Ren Xiaosu even suspected they would crumble with just a slight touch.

Chen Jingshu followed his gaze and looked up as well. Then she explained, “Those things above our heads were probably pipelines during the Pre-Cataclysm times. No one has touched them in a long time.”

Ren Xiaosu sighed in amazement. This place was like an abandoned underground factory with a strong sense of mystery.

And for the vivid graffiti that could be seen everywhere, most of them had now turned into portraits, such as angels with withered wings, the back of someone, or crows and tigers.

There was no clear artistic style to the drawings here, and it seemed as though people drew whatever came to their minds.

Chen Jingshu said, “Actually, there’s a hidden secret behind these drawings, some of which include route directions. Only a small number of people living in the underground can understand them, and they’re the leaders of the underground.”

“So you can understand it because you’re also one of the leaders?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.

“I’m not, but Chen An’an and Chen Cheng’s father is,” Chen Jingshu replied.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if his weapons would be enough to equip an entire resistance force if the underground inhabitants really staged a rebellion.

Chen Jingshu and the others had never seen modern weapons before. That was why they felt they had to get enough sorcerers to overthrow the Magi. After all, normal people could not fight against the sorcerers.

However, Ren Xiaosu felt that this matter was not that complicated.

Modern firearms and explosives were good enough to kill gods, let alone a group of pseudogods.

Ren Xiaosu touched the paint on the walls and said, “This is no ordinary paint. It’s made from ground up minerals, right? That’s why they can maintain such bright colors in the underground.”

Normal pigments could not be preserved for a long time, especially when exposed to foul air. But mineral pigments were different. They could last much longer than normal pigments.

Upon hearing Ren Xiaosu’s question, Chen Jingshu’s expression changed. She even chose to avoid answering.

Ren Xiaosu continued, “So y’all must’ve discovered these colorful minerals when you continued excavating a larger space in the original underworld, right? These things wouldn’t have appeared in the original sewers. The reason why the Norman family failed to exterminate all y’all was that they didn’t know y’all had dug up other spaces, such as a lower second, third, or fourth level underground.”

Chen Jingshu frowned. “I’ve somewhat underestimated you.”

“Don’t look so surprised.” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “When my companions arrive, they’ll blow your mind even more.”

Soon after, when they advanced another few hundred meters forward, a voice suddenly rang out in front of them, “Who is it? Identify yourselves!”

“Monday, the gods fall,” Chen Jingshu replied with a secret phrase.

Qian Weining, who was standing behind Ren Xiaosu, took a few steps forward and stood warily in front of his new master. He shone his flashlight over and was surprised to see a young man whose face was covered in tattoos.

Chen Jingshu explained to Ren Xiaosu, “Those with tattooed faces can no longer return to living in the cities on the surface. They’re the guardians of the entire underground world.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that the underworld of Ghent City resembled a product of the era of the wastelands more than anything he had ever seen.

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