Master of Kaidan
Chapter 35 The All-Knowing Old Li

Chapter 35: Chapter 35 The All-Knowing Old Li

Feng Xue, while receiving knowledge, carried the young girl on his shoulders as he dashed across rooftops. Thanks to the dim night of the landfill zone, they remained unnoticed along the way.

Previously, when collecting corpses, he had complained about the environment being too gloomy. However, at that moment, he was immensely grateful for the false canopy above him.

Guided by his work badge, Feng Xue quickly reached a ruin in the southeast of the landfill zone, a place lacking functional facilities and thus sparsely inhabited.

After several leaps, Feng Xue finally found a room with a large hole in the roof, judging by its condition, it seemed long uninhabited.

"Let’s stay here for the time being," Feng Xue sighed slightly, twisted his body, and dove directly into the cavity. The girl he was carrying on his shoulder scraped against something, releasing a subdued groan as she forcefully suppressed her volume.

"So, what on earth is going on?" Despite asking many times along the way, Feng Xue had never responded. Seeing him relaxed now, the girl asked once more.

"I’ll explain in a bit, let me make a phone call first."

"Phone..." Listening to Feng Xue’s words, Chen Xiyao felt somewhat out of place, but soon, she saw him pull out an incredibly thin object from his pocket that looked no different than a piece of metal.

But judging by the quick dialing he completed, this object was obviously much more advanced than any intelligent device she had seen.

Considering the basic etiquette of making a phone call, the girl quietly waited, and after two busy signals from Feng Xue’s work badge, an impatient voice suddenly came through:

"Who is this?"

"It looks like you’re still alive?" Feng Xue remarked casually, causing the person on the other end to pause before responding:

"Feng? I was wondering why I had an unfamiliar number in my contacts. What happened? Did the Iron Dog Gang trouble you again?"

"Iron Dog Gang, what the heck..." Feng Xue inwardly rolled his eyes at the name, whether it was real or a nickname, then he got straight to the point,

"No, I’ve moved to a different landfill zone. There’s something I need to ask you about."

"Oh?!" Old Li exclaimed curiously, then thoughtfully added,

"What is it? Tell me about it."

"There’s a door that has appeared in my home."

"A door? What kind of door... What the fuck? What the fuck! What the fuck!!!"

Old Li’s tone suddenly became eerie after repeating "What the fuck" three times, followed by a brief silence before he finally spoke again,

"Where are you now?"

"You think I would tell?" Feng Xue, listening to the deliberately subdued voice on the other end, spoke with slight dissatisfaction.

Realizing his mistake, Old Li hurriedly explained,

"That’s not what I meant. You know I’m not in the same zone as you, there’s no way I could reach you in time, right? I mean, are you still at home, how far are you from the door, and did you bring the person who came through the door with you?"

"I grabbed the label and split right away. I’m now in a vacant house near the city wall. I’ve canceled my old dorm name, and switched my personal account too. Haven’t been found yet." Feng Xue briefly explained his situation without much concealment.

Just as Old Li had said, he and Feng Xue were indeed not in the same landfill area. Even if he wanted to betray Feng Xue, he had no means to do so, and it was precisely because there were no conflicts of interest that Feng Xue dared to ask such a dangerous question.

"Good, you’ve been cautious. You just got to that landfill zone not long ago, so not many people should know you. You shouldn’t be found in the short term..." Old Li muttered softly, then spoke seriously,

"You know I’m a businessman..."

"I can sign a remote contract with you right away and send you the money." Feng Xue used a technique he had just learned, but Old Li unexpectedly responded negatively,

"It’s not about the money."

Old Li paused for two seconds before speaking as if he had made up his mind,

"I want you to promise me that when you have a room in the Tower of Babylon in the future, you’ll let me stay for a while, don’t worry, it won’t harm you. We can also include a mutual non-harm clause in the contract."

"A room in the Tower of Babylon? Are you referring to the tower at the very center of the continent? Is there something special about its rooms?" Feng Xue thought of the tall central tower shown in the maps, his heart slightly pulsating, but Old Li didn’t elaborate, only cryptically responded,

"It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but if you knew, it would evolve the Gatekeeper’s tag, and then you definitely couldn’t hide it anymore. However, I can tell you only Kaidan is qualified to own a room in the Tower of Babylon."

"Oh, it looks like you have quite some confidence in me?" Feng Xue’s lips curved lightly, Old Li responded nonchalantly,

"It’s just diversifying investments. After all, becoming a Gatekeeper means you’re more likely than others to take that step, and all I need to give is some knowledge at no real cost to me—fair trade."

"So?" Feng Xue remained neutral toward Old Li’s sales pitch, and without any further useless talk, Old Li continued on from where he left off,

"Anyway, accept my condition, and I’ll tell you everything about the difficulties you’re about to face, what you should prepare for in advance, and how to avoid problems. Of course, if you don’t agree, no worries, I can still share some basic information with you. That’ll cost fifty thousand towers though."

"Send me a sample contract first." Feng Xue didn’t rush to agree but moved to the doorway, cautiously scanning the outside. Old Li seemed truly accustomed to such investments and soon sent a contract copy.

The content was roughly as he had said, providing Feng Xue with the information a Gatekeeper needed to know. In exchange, after moving into the Tower of Babylon, Feng Xue would allow Old Li to stay at least a year (can be dispersed), and during the stay, Old Li couldn’t perform any hostile action against Feng Xue or harm his interests without permission (detailed circumstances required).

Having read through the contract twice, Feng Xue faintly grasped some key points but considered that delving deeper might lead to an evolution of the Gatekeeper label, so he momentarily stopped pondering and tapped ’Agree’ on the contract.

As the psychic connection was established, Old Li received the feedback and immediately remarked,

"Since you’ve timely changed your name, you don’t need to worry about being found for the time being; after all, there’s no discernible difference between a dead man and the rest until he’s dead. Rather than how to send him back, you should now be thinking about how to keep him fed..."

"Huh?"