Forge a path to success.

Chapter 58 The Crow and the Golden Bird

Sky Island, Anza Workshop.

Noon had passed, and the sky was overcast. The sun was still nowhere to be seen. The salvage workers stood beneath the oppressive, gurgling water, chanting as they moved the belongings. They were all exhausted. The workshop had been operating at full capacity recently, with shifts increasing from eight to twelve hours. Even with the generous overtime pay, the strain was too much for them.

No matter how the war turns out, work has to stop for a few days, Mrs. Ansa thought. She shifted her gaze from the newly made equipment to the disc formed by condensed smoke.

“I tried to authenticate it with a book on the way, but there was no writing,” Chu Hengkong said.

"It's not surprising. This isn't a keepsake with sentimental value; it's just a small fragment of an image 'cut' out of the smoke..." Mrs. Ansa took out a magnifying glass and examined it carefully. "Do you know what amber is?"

"I've seen it."

“This thing is like a tiny insect inside amber. You have to break the resin to get it out.” Mrs. Ansa turned around and started rummaging through the resin. “To untangle it, you can just rinse it with seawater, but it will take a while. You can take your light armor first, and I’ll call you when you’re done.”

"to make."

Chu Hengkong browsed around the shop but didn't find anything interesting, so he went out. Mrs. Ansa submerged the smoke disc into the swirling water and carefully sculpted it with a high-pressure water jet. This was delicate work; the water flow of the Sea of ​​Illusions would carry away most of the thoughts, so it had to be carefully controlled to break through the smoke without damaging the contents.

"I hope I haven't forgotten how to do this; it's been over ten years since I last did this," Mrs. Ansa muttered. "Let me see what's hidden here..."

Time passed second by second, and the smoke faded under the washing of the water, gradually forming an outline that resembled a mirror.

·
Chu Heng put on the repaired light armor and felt a little more at ease.

This light armor was severely damaged in the battle at the club; Du Muyan's slash nearly destroyed it completely. It was only thanks to the workshop's preservation of the blueprints and materials that it was repaired after working overtime. He walked to the edge of the small sky island and looked out, seeing a black watchtower guarding another island in the distance. That island also had a workshop, but the salvage workers were all dressed in black and appeared extremely somber while working.

The floating islands under the jurisdiction of the Black Workshop were all like this, cold and impersonal like an arms factory. Chu Hengkong estimated the distance by sight; there was enough space between the two dust islands to fit at least two residential complexes, and jumping across by leg strength was definitely out of the question. Currently, the team did not have any flying vehicles. If they wanted to launch an attack, they would either have to use a glider to land from the top of the giant tree, or sneak down to the bottom of the floating island by using the branches as a makeshift bridge.

They were all sitting ducks; a single machine gun shot would find them all. He understood why the resurrection forces hadn't attacked the black workshops for so long. Unlike the treacherous swamp, the guys on the sky islands were truly difficult to deal with.

Chu Hengkong refocused his thoughts, intending to discuss the offensive issue in detail at the subsequent meeting. He glanced at several dark figures on the edge of Ansa Sky Island; they were the "Ravens" of the Black Workshop, and these gloomy shadows could be found on every sky island.

In the past, the crows and the Anza workshop kept to themselves, but today the situation seemed different: a tall, thin man in black walked toward him, empty-handed and unarmed, wearing a black bird-beak mask, looking exactly like a human-shaped bird.

When they were three meters apart, the crow stopped on its own initiative: "Detective Chu Hengkong."

Chu Hengkong nodded: "What brings you here?"

"The workshop owner would like to have a chat with you." The crow spoke slowly, as if struggling to carry a note like someone with intellectual disabilities. "It's not a trap. Just a chat."

Seeing his reaction, Chu Hengkong had no intention of making things difficult for him. He simply smiled and said, "Tell your boss that if you want to talk, come to my territory yourself. Don't play these insincere tricks."

“Okay. Okay,” the crow repeated blankly. He raised his hand and took off his mask, revealing the handsome face of a blond man.

“I will always come in person,” Kanin said cheerfully. “Now let’s talk?”

Chu Hengkong stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "Tell Mrs. Ansa, everyone leave work and clear the area! I need to have a good talk with the workshop owner!"

·
The small island was much quieter than usual because the salvage crew had all run away after Chu Hengkong's shout. The negotiation took place at the Black Stone Tower, a hundred meters away. The two men each held a fishing rod that looked like a transparent water pipe, fishing with thin lines into the water curtain while chatting.

“I was just about to praise your courage when I realized you’re a coward,” Chu Hengkong said.

Kanin was ready to attack when he removed his mask, but the face beneath was smooth and white, like porcelain. There was no point in fighting the puppet, so he decided to talk to him instead.

"You can't have a proper conversation without being timid. Can you hold back from making a move?" Kanin retorted.

I will twist your head off.

“Me too, so puppets are still more convenient,” Kanin sighed sadly. “Look how dangerous our business is, to the point that even face-to-face conversations have become a problem!” He cast his fishing rod, reeling a disc-like relic from the current and casually placing it beside him. The “fishing rods” they used were the same ones they used to fool tourists back then, supposedly with a chance of catching relics from the water curtain, but the actual success rate was close to winning the lottery. Chu Heng sat there for a long time without catching a single relic, while Kanin’s spoils piled up like a small mountain. This man’s fishing skills were divine; he could catch a relic in less than two minutes, making one wonder how much effort he had put in.

“This is my cooking skill,” Kanin said enthusiastically. “Our city is a wonderful place where even a person with no power, no connections, and no one to rely on can find a way to make a living. Fabrics, shoes, hats, knives—as long as you learn to reach for the sky, even a pauper can become a millionaire.”

“You made your fortune through salvage,” Chu Hengkong said.

“We all made our fortunes through salvage,” Kanin corrected. “That old man Adari was incredibly unpopular. If he hadn’t jumped on the bandwagon, where would he have gotten his poison skills and walking stick? If we hadn’t retrieved the old man’s portrait from the water curtain, Maivia would have remained a scavenger for life. And Alex, if he hadn’t retrieved that book, how would you be where you are today?”

Chu Hengkong raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected the other party to know his background. But upon reflection, it wasn't surprising. Alex had held the ceremony inside the giant tree, a place within the territory of the Resurrection Force. Only the Black Workshop could send fanatics into the tree.

“You originally planned to have Alex scout ahead,” he pointed out. “You were just waiting for him to summon a powerful enough demon to destroy the water curtain before launching a coordinated attack on the city lord’s mansion.”

Kanin neither admitted nor denied it, only revealing an elegant smile. He caught another relic, a beautiful little silver fish. As he reeled in the line, he raised the rod slightly, and Chu Hengkong saw some copper-rust-like fragments in the waterline.

“Salvage is like fishing; you need some ‘bait’ to get the artifacts on the hook,” he said. “Whether you put out the bait or the prey takes it, that’s the difference between the prey and the hunter.”

"In this fair city, we always start as prey, avoiding the hooks, taking the bait, and growing in the cracks of danger. Until you finally become strong, you have the right to be the hunter. Living in the shadows for a long time makes your feathers as black as a raven, and the wealth you can obtain is enough to clothe you in golden feathers."

"With that layer of golden power, even a crow can transform into a golden-winged bird soaring through the sky."

Kanin turned his head and looked directly into Chu Hengkong's eyes. His eyes gleamed with a blinding light, both childlike innocence and wildly greedy. It was the fire of ambition; an inextinguishable flame burned within him, a thirst for status, wealth, and power, like a bird yearning for the sky. That utterly simple ambition had driven him from a salvage worker to a workshop owner, and now it led him to extend his reach towards the city beneath the water curtain.

"The three major wars in twenty years are because a huge secret is hidden in Huilong City," Kanin said softly. "Don't you want to see it? That secret that even the heretics covet!"

Chu Heng thought to himself that what this person said might be true. A person capable of fighting a major battle with the city lord would look down on the small fry in the city. The only reason such a person would be willing to wait outside the isolated city for ten years in a row could be attributed to the enormous profits that would come from conquering the city. And Kanin wanted to get a share of the spoils in this chaos.

Of course, any ambitious person would do the same. When the city falls, everyone will die. If the city lord wins, the Black Workshop will have no chance of survival. It's better to burn one's bridges and take the risk.

"Have you heard the story of the Golden-Winged Bird?" Chu Hengkong suddenly asked.

Kanin blinked: "...No."

“In the myths of my hometown, the Golden-winged Bird is a divine bird with an astonishing appetite, eating a Naga King and five hundred dragons a day,” he said. “But the Golden-winged Bird was in great pain before its death because it had eaten too much dragon meat. The poison in the dragon meat accumulated, causing it to struggle and fly up and down. In the end, it could only burn itself on the mountain, leaving only a blue heart.”

"That's certainly a legendary ending," Kanin said without changing his expression. Chu Hengkong admired this man even more; like any good boss, he didn't get angry easily.

“You have a good speaking ability and you’re a nice person. If it were your first day in the city, I would consider going with you.” Chu Hengkong put away his fishing rod and stood up. “But to live more comfortably, you should eat less bait.”

Kanin watched him jump off the Black Stone Tower, then shook his head regretfully. He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hey! Won't you reconsider? The pay is very good!"

"I'm not changing jobs."

“Well, well, what a stubborn killer,” Kanin sighed.

He snapped his fingers, and a blinding flash of light rose from the distance, like a comet streaking across the sky, falling towards the giant tree in the city center. As the spark landed, the tree's surface glowed with a dark red light. The massive elevators inside immediately stopped, and a deafening roar, like an earthquake, echoed throughout the city. Lava cascaded down the tree's bark, turning the Anza workshop closest to the tree into a sea of ​​fire!

Almost at the same moment the fingers snapped, the tentacle pierced through Kanin's skull. The mangled skull glowed blue and emitted a mad laugh that was muffled and indistinct due to its damage.

"Then negotiations have failed, assassin. War has begun!"

From among the many distant floating islands, a beam of black light rose straight to the sky. With unstoppable momentum, the light shattered the water curtain and drilled a hole-like opening in the sky above the city.

The swirling water curtain was instantly damaged, with nearly a tenth of it coming to a standstill. The dissipating currents turned into rain, falling along with countless relics. However, within the black pillar of light, there was a stream of blue flames. These flames seized the opportunity to seep into the water curtain, using the water as fuel to grow rapidly.

Countless fiery stars fell from the sky, and torrential rain burned over the city!

(End of this chapter)