"Nonsense. What religion needs so many people to sacrifice." Li Anping looked at the driver's flustered face, shook his head and said, "What is that Shadow Cult? I haven't heard of it."
"I don't know either, really... Really, the Shadow Cult is a sect in the ancient legends of the Emerald City. It is said that they were the masters of the Emerald City before the Great Xia.
Their favorite thing is to kill and sacrifice the living to please their gods. But more than a hundred years ago, after Daxia's army reached the southern border, they ruled the entire Emerald City, and the Shadow Sect was also wiped out as a cult. Apart from the legends left behind, there are no records about the Shadow Cult anymore. Older locals know about this.”
After hearing this, Li Anping became even more puzzled. I didn't expect that this human trafficking would involve ancient cults. It seemed that things were more complicated than he imagined.
At that moment, he asked the driver a few more things, and when he found that the other party didn't know more, he touched the other party's arm lightly. After eating the driver's soul, he casually threw the body on the nearby mountain road. After that, he ran up and headed towards the Emerald City.
He wants to kill the lone wolf and wipe out all the criminal organizations that traffic people here.
※※※
Three hours later, the long-distance station in Emerald City.
Li Anping came out from an alley, and the two punks behind him fell to the ground, groaning continuously. And Li Anping's face was full of gloom.
This was already the third group of thieves he saw after getting off the bus at the long-distance station. He had imagined how many criminals there were in Emerald City and how high the crime rate was. Only when he got to this place did he realize that what he had thought was too simple.
Looking up, gray smog covered the entire sky, not to mention a trace of starlight, the entire sky could not even see the moon. This is caused by large areas of unrestrained factory sewage in the city. All kinds of gray and black gases come out of the chimneys and are discharged into the sky wantonly. In this kind of place, no one manages pollution at all.
Inside the station, there are citizens in ragged clothes and gloomy expressions everywhere. The faces of the only few children could not see innocence and childishness. Because they are not playing on the street, but around the passengers getting off, begging for property. After being scolded, he didn't feel annoyed, but just changed another passenger and continued to beg. The numbness and accident on their faces made Li Anping shudder to see.
There are many pedestrians on the road, but they all walk on their own. They are in a hurry, their expressions are indifferent, and they never ask about the things around them. Li Anping asked for directions several times, but was ignored by the other party.
On the street, the shops on both sides of the street are colorful and endless, but most of the shops around the station are one or two scantily clad women standing at the door. When they saw Li Anping in full dress, they cheered loudly, Watching Li Anping scratch his head and pose.
"Handsome guy! Come in and play!"
"Handsome guy, come in and my sister loves you."
What's more, in front of everyone, he took off his shirt, revealing a pair of plump little white rabbits that jumped out, attracting the citizens on the street to look over.
Li Anping glanced at them and left quickly. It's even messier here than he imagined. He didn't know what to do in the face of such a self-willed and depraved person.
In this atmosphere, Hei seemed to be very happy. He asked, "Hey, why don't you teach them a lesson? Are you moved?"
"They... are just forced by life." Li Anping said after considering, "It's not really a big crime."
"Whatever you want. But this place is really a good place. I feel that the air is full of crime. It is also developing very prosperously, which is not inferior to the Central Capital. It really makes me tremble with excitement!"
Li Anping nodded without denying it. Black was right. Although the environment is very bad, the citizens seem more indifferent, and the crime rate is surprisingly high. But the Emerald City was indeed prosperous. Looking up, you can see towering buildings in the southeast, northwest, and the elevated roads are densely built like spider webs.
Especially now that it's dark, if you look at it from a height, the entire Emerald City is a sea of lights. It's almost like daytime. This situation is even more extreme in the city center. From the underground to the ground, there are all kinds of shops for basic necessities of life, including pornography, gambling, and drugs.
From beautiful virgins, to extinct animals, and even weapons eliminated in the army, you can buy them here. It is simply a paradise for criminals.
Li Anping took a taxi on the side of the street and rushed towards the place where the traffickers gave him the stolen goods. The sight of crime and prosperity dancing together in the Emerald City made him feel unspeakably irritated.
But the surrounding information kept pouring in on him. Fifty meters away, a prostitute with heavy make-up was fighting with three men in an alley, their panting sounds seemed to be right next to Li Anping's ears.
A hundred meters away, a man snatched a woman's bag and fled, but within a few steps, he was shot dead by the woman who pulled out a gun. The woman picked up the bag, kicked the man's body a few times, cursed a few words and left. The people around seemed to be familiar with it, and there was not even a single person who called the police.
On a passing casino, a man in a suit jumped out of the window and fell to his death on the spot. Several big men hurried out from the door and dragged the man's body back. They discussed who to sell the human organs to pay his debts.
In the Emerald City, everything here hides a unique rule on the surface of crime. Everyone acts according to the rules, even in the eyes of outsiders, how absurd and uninhibited these rules are.
Li Anping's eyes looked out of the window, and his ears listened to the sound. For the first time, he had a feeling that he still couldn't contain the crime by his own strength.
Because there are too many, the Emerald City is almost full of crimes, and its eyes are full of crimes. Can he really handle it alone
Li Anping gradually began to think. Think about how to change the situation in Emerald City. For the first time, the idea of what should be done to change the world was actually shown in front of him.
Although he said before that he wanted to uphold justice, his idea was very simple, that is to kill bad people and help good people. But he came to the Emerald City, when crime and death lined up before his eyes. He understands that simply killing bad guys can change the world and uphold justice.
He needs something more complex and more effective.
Half an hour later, the car stopped, interrupting Li Anping's thinking. He got out of the car, and the taxi drove away impatiently, as if it was so dangerous here. Looking around, Li Anping found that the destination was a somewhat remote area. Surrounded by dilapidated buildings and abandoned factories.
The wall is covered with various graffiti of unknown meaning. In the distance, some homeless people gathered together in twos and threes. From time to time, his cold eyes looked at Li Anping who got out of the car.
There are several old residential buildings a few hundred meters away, and there are several grocery stores and convenience supermarkets downstairs, but the business is deserted and there are few people.
Li Anping glanced at it, then walked towards the destination, it was an abandoned building, the gate was covered with rust, and was locked with a big iron lock.
Li Anping frowned, this was different from the information he had received from the driver in advance. His ears did not hear anyone in the building.
Although this place is not as lively as the city center, it shouldn't look so desolate. As one of the strongholds where the lone wolf accepts trafficked women and children, there shouldn't be no one there.
He touched the iron lock on the door, looked around, and then pulled the iron lock with a little force. Pushing open the door, Li Anping paced in.
The five-story abandoned building was originally built as a nursing home. So the first floor is a room of offices, and the second to fourth floors are various dormitory-like rooms.
Li Anping didn't notice the existence of people, he could only scan the room from room to room. Opening the office on the first floor, the coffee on the table is half drunk. I looked through the drawers and filing cabinets and found that there was nothing left inside. Only some erotic magazines and tool books can be found.
At the back of the office, a rectangular object was covered by a black cloth. In the darkness, if you don't pay attention, you will almost miss him.
Li Anping smelled the pungent smell coming from his nose. A bad premonition flashed in his mind. He stretched out his hand and pulled the black cloth away. Looking at the scene in front of him, his eyes narrowed.
It was a simple cell built with iron cages. It is no more than one meter high and about two meters wide, and people can only lie down or lie on their stomachs inside. There was also a small basin on the ground, which seemed to be full of leftovers that gave off a bad smell.
There were still some bright red blood stains around the iron cage. A puff of feces and a stench of urine emanated from the cage.
A haggard corpse of a child was lying in the cage like this, and a large number of ants crawled on his body, revealing the white bones.
It is hard to imagine how much torture and devastation he had suffered before him.
Li Anping covered the black cloth again, his face was ashen, and his fists were clenched white. But he didn't say the last word, just let out a deep breath, and then checked other corners of the office.
But Li Anping's actions yielded nothing. Judging from the messy office, the people here seemed to have evacuated in a hurry, but they took all the materials away, leaving nothing useful behind.
So Li Anping went upstairs, intending to check all the dormitories. The corridor was dark, Li Anping tried the light switch, but found no response.
But with his current vision, even in the dark corridor, everything can be seen at a glance. He opened the bedrooms on the second floor one by one, and the environment inside was as bad as he expected.
Those traffickers didn't take care of the abducted people as human beings at all. Excrement can be seen everywhere, blood that has turned black. There was nothing in the bedroom except a bed. The windows are all boarded up, so you can't see the outside, and the sun can't shine in.
According to the trafficker driver, the people sent here can only eat one meal a day, and those who resist fiercely will be given sleeping pills. Everyone has been in a state of weakness in limbs and can only lie on the bed. There is neither a bath nor a toilet, and the people who guard them usually only clean the dormitory hastily for a few months.
The only time you get a chance to take a shower is when you take them out to meet the seller.
Such a dormitory can leave even fewer clues. Li Anping's only achievement was to discover that several people had carved their names and origins on the wall and the edge of the bed with their fingernails or blood.