Man at the top of the food chain

‘Nonsense. What religion would need so many people to offer sacrifices?’ Li Anping looked at the driver’s panicked face, shook his head and said, “What kind of religion is that Shadow Cult? I’ve never heard of it.”

“I don’t know either, really…really, the Shadow Cult is a sect in the ancient legend of Emerald City. Legend has it that before Daxia, they were the masters of Emerald City.

What they like most is to kill living people and offer them as sacrifices to please their gods. But more than a hundred years ago, after Daxia’s army reached southern Xinjiang, it ruled the entire Emerald City, and the Shadow Cult was also wiped out as a cult. Except for the legends left behind, there is no record of the Shadow Cult. The older locals all know about this matter.”

After listening to this, Li Anping became more confused. He didn’t expect that this human trafficking would involve an ancient cult. It seems that things are more complicated than he imagined.

At that moment, he asked the driver a few more questions, and when he found that the other party didn’t know more, he gently touched the other party’s arm, ate the driver’s soul, and then threw the body casually on a nearby mountain road. Then he ran towards Emerald City.

He wanted to kill the lone wolf and wipe out all the criminal organizations that trafficked in human beings.

…

…

Three hours later, the long-distance bus station in Emerald City.

Li Anping walked out of an alley, and two gangsters behind him fell to the ground, groaning constantly. And Li Anping's face was full of haze.

This was the third group of thieves he had seen since getting off the long-distance bus station. He had imagined how many criminals there were in Emerald City and how high the crime rate was. When he really arrived at this place, he realized that he had thought too simply.

Looking up, the gray haze covered the entire sky. Not to mention a trace of starlight, even the moon could not be seen in the entire sky. This was caused by the large-scale unrestrained factory discharge in the city. Various gray and black gases came out of the chimneys and were discharged into the sky wantonly. In this kind of place, no one manages pollution at all.

The station was full of ragged citizens with gloomy expressions. There was no innocence or childishness on the faces of the few children. Because they were not playing on the street, but were begging for money and property around the passengers who got off the bus. After being scolded, they did not get angry, but just changed another passenger and continued begging. The numbness and accident on their faces made Li Anping feel chilled.

There were many pedestrians on the road, but they all walked on their own. They were in a hurry, with indifferent expressions, and never asked 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 were colorful and there was an endless stream of people, but most of the shops around the station had one or two women standing at the door in revealing clothes. When they saw the well-dressed Li Anping, they cheered loudly and flirted with Li Anping.

"Handsome guy! Come in and play!"

"Handsome guy, come in and your sister loves you."

What's more, in front of everyone, they took off their shirts, revealing a pair of plump little white rabbits that jumped out, attracting the attention of citizens on the street.

Li Anping glanced at them and left quickly. This place was more chaotic than he had imagined. Facing such self-degrading people, he didn't know what to do.

In this atmosphere, Hei seemed to be particularly happy. He asked: "Hey, why don't you teach them a lesson? Are you tempted? '

'They... are just forced by life. ' Li Anping said carefully: "It's not a big crime. '

'Whatever you want. But this is really a good place. I feel that the air is full of the smell of crime. And it is also very prosperous, not inferior to Zhongdu at all. It really makes me tremble with excitement! '

Li Anping nodded and did not deny it. What Hei said was indeed right. Although the environment is very bad, the citizens seem more indifferent, and the crime rate is also shockingly high. But Emerald City is indeed very prosperous. Looking up, you can see towering buildings in the east, south, west and north, and the elevated roads are built as densely as spider webs.

Especially now it is night, if you look from a high place, the whole Emerald City is a sea of ​​lights. It was just like daylight. This situation reached its extreme in the city center. From underground to above ground, there were all kinds of shops for food, clothing, housing and transportation, even including pornography, gambling, and drugs.

From beautiful virgins to extinct animals, and even weapons eliminated from the army, they can all be bought here. It is simply a paradise for criminals.

Li Anping took a taxi on the street and rushed to the place where the traffickers gave him to sell the stolen goods. The scene of the Emerald City where sin and prosperity danced together made him feel indescribably irritated.

But the information around him kept pouring in. Fifty meters away, a heavily made-up prostitute was having sex with three men in the alley, and their panting sounds seemed to be right next to Li Anping's ears.

A hundred meters away, a man robbed a woman's bag and ran away, but he was shot dead by the woman who took out a gun after walking a few steps. 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 used to it, and there was not even one person who called the police.

In a casino that they passed by, a man in a suit jumped out of the window and died on the spot. Several big men rushed out from the door and dragged the man's body back. They discussed who to sell his organs to to pay off his debts.

Emerald City, everything here hides a unique rule under the appearance of sin. Everyone acts according to the rules, even if these rules seem absurd and unruly to outsiders.

Li Anping's eyes looked out the window, and his ears listened to the sound. For the first time, he felt that he could not curb the sin by his own strength.

Because there were too many, Emerald City was full of crime and sin. Could he really manage it alone?

Li Anping gradually began to think. He thought about how to change the situation in Emerald City. For the first time, the idea of ​​how to change the world was presented to him.

Although he said he wanted to uphold justice before, his idea was very simple, that is, to kill bad guys and help good people. But when he came to Emerald City, when crime and death lined up in front of him. He realized that it was not simply killing bad guys to change the world and uphold justice.

He needed some more complex and more effective means.

Half an hour later, the car stopped, interrupting Li Anping's thinking. He got off the car, and the taxi drove away impatiently, as if it was very dangerous here. Looking around, Li Anping found that the destination was a somewhat remote area. There were dilapidated buildings and abandoned factories all around.

The walls were covered with various graffiti with unknown meanings. There were also some homeless people gathered in twos and threes in the distance. Cold eyes looked at Li Anping who got off the car from time to time.

There were several old residential buildings a few hundred meters away, and there were several grocery stores and convenience stores downstairs, but the business was deserted and there were few customers.

Li Anping glanced at it and walked towards the destination, which was an abandoned building with rusty gates locked by a large iron lock.

Li Anping frowned, which was different from the information he had received from the driver in advance. He didn't hear any voices from anyone in the building.

Although this place is not as lively as the city center, it shouldn't be so desolate. As one of the bases for lone wolves to accept trafficked women and children, there shouldn't be no one.

He touched the iron lock on the door, looked around, and then with a little force, he pulled the iron lock open. Pushing the door open, Li Anping walked in.

This abandoned building has five floors in total. It was originally built as a nursing home. So the first floor is a series of offices, and the second to fourth floors are various dormitory-like rooms.

Li Anping did not notice the presence of people, so he could only scan the rooms one by one. He opened the office on the first floor and drank half of the coffee on the table. He flipped through the drawers and filing cabinets and found that there was nothing left. He could only find some erotic magazines and tool books.

At the back of the office, a rectangular object was covered with a black cloth. In the dark, if you don't pay attention, you will almost miss it.

Li Anping smelled a pungent smell coming from his nose, and a bad premonition flashed through his mind. He stretched out his hand to pull the black cloth open, and looked at the scene in front of him, his eyes narrowed into a slit.

It was a simple prison cell built with an iron cage. It was no more than one meter high and about two meters wide. People could only lie down or lie prone inside. There was also a small basin on the ground, which looked like some rotten leftovers.

There were still some bright red bloodstains around the iron cage. The stench of feces and urine emanated from the cage.

A emaciated child's body was lying in the cage, with large groups of ants crawling on his body, revealing his white bones.

It was hard to imagine what kind of torture and destruction he had suffered before his death.

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 exhaled deeply, and then checked other corners of the office.

But Li Anping's actions yielded nothing. From the messy office, it seemed that the people here had evacuated in a hurry, but took away all the information, leaving nothing useful.

So Li Anping went upstairs and planned to check all the dormitories. The corridor was dark. Li Anping tried to turn on the light switch and found no response.

However, with his current eyesight, he could see everything even in the dark corridor. He opened the dormitories on the second floor one by one, and the environment inside was as bad as he expected.

The traffickers did not take care of the people they abducted as human beings. Excrement everywhere had turned into dark blood. There was nothing in the dormitory except a bed. All the windows were nailed shut with wooden boards, so you could not see outside and the sun could not shine in.

According to the traffickers' driver, the people sent here could only eat one meal a day, and those who resisted fiercely would be fed sleeping pills. Everyone was in a state of weakness and could only lie in bed. There was no shower or toilet, and the people guarding them would often clean the dormitory hastily every few months.

They only had the opportunity to take a shower when they were taken out to meet the seller.

Such a dormitory could leave even fewer clues. The only thing Li Anping gained was that he discovered that several people had carved their names and origins on the wall and the edge of the bed with their fingernails or blood.