The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

“Not only have the rules for joining and leaving the gang changed, but the rules for splitting profits have also changed. From now on, the Green Bamboo Gang will take ninety percent of the porters' freight fees! Each person must also carry a sufficient amount of goods each day, or they will be punished!” Another burly man with inverted triangle eyes added while chewing on beef.

“Good heavens,” Lu Jing couldn't help but exclaim after hearing these new gang rules, “You guys are even more ruthless than internet companies.”

“What net?” The burly man with a mole on his left cheek frowned, but before Lu Jing could answer, he continued, “You've been absent for fifteen days. According to the new gang rules, you'll be fined one hundred copper coins for each day, which adds up to… which is…”

“Which is fifteen hundred copper coins,” Lu Jing finished the calculation for him, then scanned the other two with an idiot look, “You don't actually think I'm going to take out that money, do you?”

However, the other two seemed to have misunderstood his meaning. The first one to speak said, “We know you can't take out that much money all at once, but it doesn't matter if you can't. You can take it on credit first, and then slowly pay it back by carrying goods at the docks. But the amount you owe will double every month!”

Lu Jing was too lazy to pay any more attention to these three. After understanding their intentions, he prepared to raise the wooden stick in his hand, but the next moment, a large hand pressed down on his wrist first.

Then the three rushed towards Lu Jing, constantly waving the short blades in their hands, creating quite a menacing display.

However, Lu Jing could tell that the three were not true martial artists. They hadn't practiced any internal energy techniques, nor had they learned any moves. Their footing was unsteady, and their movements lacked any skill.

They were purely relying on the brawling tactics of common street thugs.

Ironically, in the past, compared to those martial arts masters, the chaotic hacking of these small-time hoodlums was more difficult for Lu Jing to parry.

But now the situation was different. Lu Jing had practiced the first nine stances of the Mad Demon One Hundred and Eight Staff Techniques with A Mu for an entire afternoon, and they could finally come in handy.

He stood still on the spot, waiting for the three to enter his attack range, and then unleashed a 'Sweeping Across the Eight Desolations'.

The wooden stick struck the hands of two of them, knocking the blades out of their hands.

With only one enemy left, Lu Jing immediately felt relieved.

He retracted his wooden stick and received a head-on strike, then heard a scream. A small dent appeared on the top of the man's head where the wooden stick had struck. His body stiffened abruptly, then his eyes rolled back, and he was knocked unconscious.

Immediately after, Lu Jing took a step forward and used another move, 'Laying Down the Butcher Knife', hitting the other man's arm, accompanied by the sound of bones breaking.

As his two companions fell one after another, the third man's drunkenness finally cleared up a bit. The look in his eyes towards Lu Jing changed from arrogance to fear.

The next moment, he actually lost all will to fight, covered his wrist where he had been struck, and tried to run outside.

As expected, they were just a bunch of rogues who relied on alcohol and numbers to fight.

Lu Jing shook his head and watched as the man ran past him. He silently counted his steps. When the man was about two steps away from him, he suddenly used a 'Returning Spear', stabbing the man in the waist.

The latter staggered a few steps, then fell headfirst to the ground, unable to get up again.

After finishing, Lu Jing gave the man whose arm had been hit another blow, knocking him unconscious as well.

Only then did he squat down and start摸摸捡捡 on the ground (摸摸捡捡 is a colloquial term for searching and picking up things).

If the Seven Heroes could be considered elite monsters, then the three in front of Lu Jing couldn't even be considered ordinary monsters. At best, they were chickens outside the village chief's house in the newbie village. Of course, Lu Jing didn't expect them to drop anything good, mainly just to find some silver coins.

After counting, Lu Jing looked at the pitiful ninety-two copper coins in his hand and sighed.

Considering the losses he had suffered in his house, this gain, while not a loss, was clearly not much of a profit either.

It could only be said that it was better than nothing.

Lu Jing put away the money, then looked to the other side and said to Niu Jiu, who had a dumbfounded look on his face, “Are you alright?”

“You! You! You…” Niu Jiu had just seen Lu Jing take down three burly men wielding sharp weapons in a few moves. It was like listening to a storyteller. He stammered for a long time, unable to say anything, just staring at Lu Jing with his copper bell-like eyes.

“Speaking of which, you seem to be with them too.” Lu Jing then remembered something and stroked his chin.

Hearing this, Niu Jiu's heart sank. He opened his mouth to defend himself, but found that he had nothing to say. He could only give a miserable laugh and say, “Do it.”

“Do what? Oh, you misunderstood. I'm not settling accounts with you.” Lu Jing said, “I'm just curious. You're not the same kind of person as them at all. How did you end up together? Did they force you to lead them to me?”

“No, I volunteered to bring them here.” Niu Jiu shook his head and said, “These three are not good people. I didn't know you originally, and that you knew martial arts. I was afraid that you would be reckless and anger them…”

After a pause, he continued, “For a while, there were rumors in the gang that you had fought with Qin Xiaotou and hadn't suffered a loss. We didn't believe it until we saw you take action today. I realized that the rumors were actually true. With your skills, why didn't you become a stick-wielder and instead work hard carrying goods with us?”

“What about you? Why didn't you become a stick-wielder?” Lu Jing didn't answer Niu Jiu's question, but instead asked, “With your physique, Qin Xiaotou should have no reason not to take you in, right?”

“My mother won't let me,” Niu Jiu grinned and said, “Actually, my father was also skilled with a spear back then. He joined a gang and did pretty well in that gang, almost reaching Qin Xiaotou's position. My physique is from eating big fish and big meat since I was a child, but later he got drunk in a brothel and got into an argument with someone over a small matter, said some harsh words, and as a result, he was stabbed to death.

“And after he died, those friends he had made before, and the people in the gang, all came to offer condolences and helped our mother and son for a while, but later the people gradually became fewer and fewer, until they all disappeared. After that, my mother wouldn't let me practice martial arts, fight with people again, or let me work as a thug for those gangs, so now I just rely on my strength to earn a living.”

“Being brave and aggressive rarely ends well.” Lu Jing nodded and said, “But what are you planning to do now? Are you really just going to bow your head and accept those new rules, and be a beast of burden for others at the docks for the rest of your life?”