Master of Kaidan
Chapter 118: Into the Mountain

Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Into the Mountain

"Hello, welcome to the South District Spaceport. The price for a ticket to Garbage Mountain is 100,000 Tower Coins. Would you like to pay in cash or by transfer?"

Compared to the overall style of the South District, which leans towards a slum-like arrangement, the spaceport heading towards Garbage Mountain looks extremely sci-fi. Spaceships, which seem to only exist in science fiction movies, are docked around the spaceport, waiting for passengers to board.

Feng Xue took out a bill worth 100,000 Tower Coins and handed it to the ticket seller. She took the boarding pass and walked inside the spaceport, choosing a spaceship while observing these flying machines, which were not much bigger than a bus.

After understanding that they were "Pseudo Artifacts," Feng Xue suddenly felt that the 100,000 Tower Coins for the ticket wasn’t such a bad deal.

...

"Welcome aboard the Explorer. The departure is in five minutes. This vessel is bound for the Third Spaceport in the middle section of Garbage Mountain. Please confirm your destination again. Starting the spaceship may cause turbulence. Please remain calm. This machine is a part of ’Hundred Tales’. All irrational behaviors will be held accountable..."

Listening to the mechanically textured voice fill the cabin, the spaceship slowly detached from the spaceport. However, before Feng Xue could enjoy this novel experience, the voice of a flight attendant echoed again through the cabin—

"The vessel is about to enter the third spaceport of the middle section of Garbage Mountain. Please get ready, passengers, to disembark in an orderly manner..."

"That’s it? It hasn’t even been ten minutes?" Feng Xue glanced at the surrounding passengers with the corner of her eye, noticing that most seemed unsurprised. She quickly restrained her astonishment and calmly waited for the cabin doors to open.

However, as he stepped out of the cabin, a strong sense of discord immediately surrounded him.

If the previous spaceport had the technological fortress feel of something out of Star Wars, this spaceport now felt like a lair of green-skinned orcs.

Seemingly whimsically twisted metal and pipelines formed a barely usable platform, but more uncomfortable for Feng Xue than this, were the people at the spaceport—some endlessly crying and others with a vacant look in their eyes.

They were either wearing collars, being led like dogs on leashes, or shackled and caged in metal crates. The emotion of despair was almost suffocating.

Strangely, all of this seemed disturbingly normal in this spaceport, as if no one realized that the beings they held on leashes or locked in cages were also human, just like them.

"Phew..." Feng Xue, feeling the air oppressive, quickly walked out of the spaceport. When he had first killed someone, it was not as messy as the legends suggested because, after arriving in Infinite City, he had already deeply realized that not killing meant not surviving.

When he was initially stripped by Jeston’s men, thrown into a prison wagon, and taken to jail, Feng Xue had not felt like this because he knew that the real world people and Infinite had irreconcilable differences. Whether it was to kill or to be killed, it was all too normal. Although he was determined to kill whenever there was an "Opportunity," he did not think of revenge after escaping.

But at this moment, seeing those being treated like livestock made him feel slightly nauseous.

Not wanting to stay a moment longer in this unsettling place, Feng Xue followed a path trodden on the ground, walking away from the spaceport. However, he hadn’t gone far when he suddenly stopped, his right middle finger slightly bent.

"Hey, newbie, it’s your first time at Garbage Mountain, right? I see you have quite a few nice things on you. Be smart and hand them over, and grandpa here will teach you the ways to make a living in this place!"

The grating voice came from behind. Feng Xue turned around, calmly looking at two men following him. He remembered their faces; they were passengers who had come on the same ship. They probably had their eyes on him since then.

However...

"I don’t know what you call yourselves, but, thank you very much."

Feng Xue walked forward calmly for two steps, appearance like that of someone intending to shake hands, but the intense killing intent that didn’t match his serene expression made the two others instinctively step back.

"Big brother, something’s off with this kid... Heh heh..."

"Thump!"

Two bodies had already hit the ground within the short duration of that sentence, blood gushing rapidly from the wounds torn open at their necks. Feng Xue stood beside them, gently shaking the droplets of blood off the tip of the Suffocation Blade, carefully pondering the feeling from before.

"So this ’First Sword’ feels like this?" Savoring the sensation from the concentration of killing intent to the ebbing of life, Feng Xue gained some insight into the first move of the Life-taking Thirteen Swords.

That was also why he had come to the garbage mountain.

Life-taking Thirteen Swords was a sword technique born from slaughter, and it could only be comprehended through killing. Mere imitation of Sword Manuals and techniques would ultimately be just an empty shell.

At least, in the previous moment, he had understood "Killing Intent."

It wasn’t anything mystical, just purely "the will to kill others," a simple notion. However, such simplicity was challenging to control without sufficient slaughter.

"Thank you all for existing, so I don’t have to feel guilty about ’killing not just for survival.’"

Feng Xue murmured softly under his breath while he methodically stripped the corpses of their Pseudo Artifacts, too lazy to check their attributes and casually wrapping them up with a square of cloth.

He casually refined the two corpses as well and glanced towards the direction of the airport, observing the trackers who had suddenly pulled back; he gently shook his head.

His cloak, dark as ink and resembling demon wings, suddenly unfurled from behind, enveloping Feng Xue’s body. As the darkness dissipated, his figure had vanished from the spot.

Before the Life-taking Thirteen Swords strikes, it first cultivates a surge of malicious energy. Now that he had the energy, it was time to find those worthy of being killed.

An ominous sign would suffice.

...

"What’s the background of this kid?" Watching Feng Xue disappear like a shadow, the followers exchanged glances, one youth adorned with a clock insignia said:

"I don’t know. The higher-ups just told me to take care of him, not to let him get killed... But from what I see, I’m not sure I could be as efficient as him."

"Oh? A newcomer favored by the Hour of Demons?" Hearing this, the others abandoned their previous thoughts of making a quick gain but developed some other calculations.

"Who knows?" the member from the Hour of Demons shrugged, saying no more, and turned to walk down another road. He had only seen the other man on the organization’s "Priority Watch List," and wasn’t his bodyguard. Having followed after seeing him being chased was just to check in, but now that the man was clearly fine, he naturally had no reason to continue following.

However...

"Weren’t they saying he’s a Logistics role? Seems like the intelligence department has been slacking again..."