Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

He opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on Xilun's young face with a complex expression:

"In just six or seven months... you've already far surpassed me, an old guy who's been lingering in the realm of the Baptized for over a decade."

Lothar solemnly commented, "With your current physical strength and fighting skills, I'm afraid that below the first-tier extreme realm, very few people in the entire lower city can stand up to you head-on."

Xilun lowered his head slightly and calmly changed the subject:

"Why are you suddenly paying attention to me, sir? Your priority right now is to take good care of your injuries and make sure there are no hidden wounds."

Lothar smiled nonchalantly, which aggravated his wound, causing him to cough twice.

"Cough cough... It's just a minor injury. I'll be able to get out of bed in a month or two."

He seemed to remember something and reminded him:

"By the way, could you stop by my workstation later and send the documents on the table to those two supervisors, Quinn and Aiping, and tell them to keep a close eye on the dock's accounts these next few days?"

Upon hearing this, Xilun's eyes flickered slightly as he briefly reminisced. He seemed to recall that when he first started as a low-level foreman at the docks, these two were his colleagues.

He nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take care of it on my way."

Lothas nodded slightly, relieved.

He looked at the fruit on the bedside table and said:

"Peel an apple for me, my mouth tastes like medicine, it's so bitter."

Xilun took a bright red apple from the fruit basket and pulled out the knife he always carried.

The sharp blade danced between her fingertips, and thin slices of fruit peel, as thin as cicada wings, fell evenly.

He cut the apple into even pieces, handed them to Losas, and then casually picked up a piece and threw it into his mouth.

Lothar didn't mind this casual behavior. He casually ate two pieces of apple, chewing them as his gaze gradually deepened.

He pondered for a moment, then suddenly lowered his voice and said, "I heard... you've recently had a feud with the Ocelli family?"

Xilun paused slightly while chewing, then swallowed the fruit and calmly replied:

"Before, for some reason, I killed one of the direct descendants of their family."

Later they sent people to arrest me, as if they felt I had tarnished their family's prestigious reputation.

Upon hearing this, Lothar frowned deeply and sighed:

"That's not wise, Siron."

In this lower city, the Ocelli family is an absolutely powerful and influential family.

Their depth of knowledge and experience is something even our Brotherhood struggles to match in some aspects.

He looked at Xilen's calm face and said earnestly:

"Fortunately, your current teacher is Lord Lund, and you have him as a powerful figure to protect you."

Otherwise, offending the Ocelli family means that, aside from anything else, they don't even need to lift a finger; a single word from them can cost you your job at the docks, and countless shady characters will be constantly harassing you in the shadows.

Xilun's eyes were cold as he retorted:

"What can they do to me? Besides sending assassins, what other methods do they have?"

Losas shook his head with a wry smile after hearing this: "It seems you still don't understand the strict aristocratic system of our Victorian Empire, which is why you can ask such a naive question."

Lothar's expression turned extremely serious as he spoke, enunciating each word clearly:

"The gap between classes cannot be easily bridged by force alone."

For example, the patriarch of the Ocelli family, a baron officially conferred by the Empire, would, according to Imperial law, be required to curtsy to Lord Lund, a knight of commoner origin, if he and Lord Lund were both present at a formal occasion.

"If Lord Lund shows even the slightest disrespect, the Ocelli family could take him to the noble court and even strip him of his knighthood for this trivial matter that is insignificant to commoners!"

At this point, Lothar took another bite of apple to moisten his dry throat, and continued:

"Of course, such a trivial matter is of no real significance to Lord Lund, except that the other party is disgusting and has nothing to do with it."

However, if you scale up this class privilege proportionally, the meaning is exactly the same.

"If you, a commoner, offend a nobleman, in many ways, the other party can openly and legitimately make things difficult for you within the bounds of the law."

Moreover, this is merely the lowest-ranking baronial family!

A flicker of fear crossed Lothar's eyes:

"If it is a viscount or even an earl family, they may even have some law enforcement power within their territory, and can execute civilians first and ask for permission later!"

Even if it is later found that they were indiscriminately killing innocent people, they may not necessarily face severe punishment; they might just pay a fine and be done with it.

Xilun listened quietly, his eyes growing colder, his fists clenching slightly on his knees.

Lothas sighed and continued to reveal even more brutal truths:

"This is just a small privilege in the secular world. On the cultivation path of the extraordinary, class monopoly is the most despairing thing."

"Including but not limited to high-level training academies, special training grounds that can transform a person—such as the ice pool in Bath Monastery that can cleanse the marrow and bones; or possession of powerful special firearms, high-level extraordinary relics, magic books that record ancient taboos, the right to purchase profound occult knowledge, and high-level occult stone carvings that contain the insights of predecessors..."

"Knowledge, training grounds, scriptures and texts, materials and potions..."

With each word Lothar uttered, his tone grew heavier:

"These things are all monopolized by nobles, churches, royalty, and super conglomerates!"

If you can't become one of them, at least try your best to join them and become the sharpest knife in their hands.

Otherwise, the higher you climb, the narrower the path becomes, and the more you'll suffer!

He looked at Xilun, a hint of regret in his eyes:

"Your cultivation is progressing quite quickly, but I think you must have heard of the term 'genius'."

A genius who scores full marks in mathematics in primary education might only be considered a decent student in secondary education.

If placed in higher education, it might be considered rather mediocre.

For more advanced, in-depth research fields, it's not even up to the entry-level requirements.

"The same applies to the path to the extraordinary."

There are differences between talents, and once talents are exhausted, resources, privileges, status, positions...

These things will make up a very, very large proportion!

Lothar's voice was hoarse with a hint of despair:

"I've even heard that some high-ranking positions in the Upper City are completely fixed."

"Each radish has its own hole; unless some important figure unexpectedly perishes, no matter how talented you are, without blood ties and connections, you can't possibly advance!"

After saying all this in one breath, Losas seemed to have all his strength drained away, and appeared to have aged two years in an instant.

He leaned back against the pillows, somewhat resigned, and gave a self-deprecating laugh:

"Sigh, I've said too much again. It seems I've finally accepted the fact that I'm getting old."

I'm over forty years old, and I haven't even touched the threshold of the first-tier extraordinary realm. You, a newcomer, have easily caught up with me...

He stared at the ceiling, his eyes becoming cloudy yet calm:

"I think it's time for me to let go of those unrealistic obsessions and stop hoping for something like second or third tier. From now on, I'll just focus on working for the Brotherhood and save up some money for my retirement."

He waved his hand and said calmly, "Go back now. I'm fine. Remember to deliver the documents."

Xiren stood up, looking at Lothar's face, which was filled with exhaustion and compromise, and felt a mix of emotions.

He nodded slightly, put the small knife back into his sleeve, and said in a deep voice, "Please rest well, sir. I'll be leaving now."

Turning around, he pushed open the door to the ward and strode into the corridor.

He took a deep breath of the air filled with the smell of disinfectant, his eyes showing no sign of compromise or resignation, but rather a burning, even more violent and cold ambition.

……

After leaving the medical room, Xilun went straight to the dockside office area.

He walked briskly to Losas's workstation, where various shipping reports and staff schedules were piled up haphazardly on the desk.

Xilun glanced around, precisely pulled out the documents that needed to be distributed to the supervisor, rolled them into a tube and held them in his hand, then turned and walked towards the familiar office at the end of the corridor.

Pushing open the slightly mottled wooden door, a strong smell of cheap tobacco mixed with old ink hit me.

Inside the office, the two were leisurely passing the time.

The slightly overweight man on the left is sitting with his legs crossed, engrossed in reading today's Victoria Morning Post; the tall, thin man on the right is leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk, squinting his eyes, looking somewhat lazy and sleepy.

These two men were Quinn and Epping, two senior foremen at the dock.

Xilun stood at the doorway, making no effort to conceal his aura.

With his extraordinary eyesight, he could see through the true nature of the two men at a glance.

Although these two individuals possessed much stronger vital energy and blood than ordinary people, they were only at a level close to baptism.

Perhaps they lack a year or two of rigorous training, or a specific opportunity to unleash their potential, and thus are unable to cross that threshold and become truly extraordinary.

Xilun nodded slightly, his voice calm and steady: "I have something to say."

Upon hearing the voice, the two frowned in displeasure, but when they saw that it was Xilun, a look of surprise immediately appeared on their faces.

"Hey, Xilun, you're back?"

The slightly chubby Quinn immediately put down his newspaper, a familiar smile spreading across his face. He was about to step forward and pat his former colleague on the shoulder to strike up a conversation.

However, the moment he took his first step, his gaze suddenly became fixed on the left chest of Xiren's black trench coat.

There, a dark gold B-grade medal gleamed with a cold and noble luster in the dim light.

Quinn's pupils suddenly contracted, and he froze in place.

As a seasoned veteran of the docks, he knew all too well what this medal represented—a Class B medal, a symbol of honor that only those who had truly completed baptism and entered the realm of the extraordinary were qualified to wear!

Quinn subconsciously pursed his dry lips, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

He stared intently at Xilen, and suddenly had an extremely strong illusion: the tall, upright man in front of him with eyes as cold as an abyss was no longer the same Xilen, the low-level foreman who had been with them on the docks a few months ago, enduring the cold wind and eating cheap boxed lunches.

He noticed the documents in Xilen's hand, and his previously casual tone instantly became stammering, even carrying a hint of awe: "You... what brings you here?"

Xilun remained expressionless, his tone devoid of any emotional fluctuation, and calmly stated:

"Lord Losas was slightly injured during last night's operation and is now recuperating in the infirmary."

I'm running an errand for him to arrange your work for today.

After saying that, he stepped forward and handed over the documents in his hand.

Quinn took it with trembling hands.

In that brief moment when the two were close together, Quinn keenly sensed an extremely terrifying sense of oppression emanating from Xiren.

The feeling was like facing an ancient behemoth lurking in the deep sea.

He vaguely sensed that the extraordinary level of blood and qi fluctuations emanating from the other person's body was definitely not just a simple matter of having just finished being baptized.

That heavy, unfathomable aura was even more intense than the usual pressure emanating from their superior, Lord Losas!

Quinn finally accepted this cruel and realistic fact.

His lips trembled slightly, clearly knowing that the person in front of him had crossed the class divide and was no longer the colleague he could joke around with and get close to.

He immediately stood up straight, bowed his head slightly, and said in an extremely respectful tone:

"Yes, Lord Sir. We will certainly do as required in the documents."

Ai Ping, who had been crossing his legs, was so frightened that he pulled his legs back and jumped up from the chair.

He followed suit, bowing his head respectfully and replying, "I will obey Lord Losas's orders. Thank you, Lord Siron, for making the trip in person."

The cautiousness and extreme respect in their words were clearly different from their previous relationship as equals.

Seeing the two of them bowing their heads as if they wanted to be buried in the dust, a very faint ripple stirred in Xilun's heart.

This is the most direct change brought about by power; the rigid class system is vividly displayed in this world.

class!

But this ripple quickly dissipated completely in his heart.

Without uttering a single unnecessary word, he handed over the documents and turned to leave the office decisively, leaving Quinn and Aiping standing there, sweating profusely, staring at each other in bewilderment.

Leaving the dockside office area, Siren went straight up to the building leading to the Brotherhood headquarters and arrived at Lord Yuri's private office.

After knocking and entering, Yuri was sitting in a large leather office chair, toying with an expensive cigar in his hand.

When Yuri saw Xiren enter, a hint of undisguised admiration flashed in his eyes.

"How are your injuries?" Yuri put down his cigar and asked with concern.

He is still amazed by Siron's crazy underwater battle with the silver-horned electric python last night.

Xilun smiled slightly, stretched his shoulders, and appeared quite relaxed.

"Thank you for your concern, sir. It's nothing serious, just a superficial injury, and I've almost fully recovered."

Yuri nodded slightly, having anticipated Xilun's abnormal recovery ability.

He placed his hands on the table, his tone becoming serious: "Now is the time when you need a lot of resources to break through to a higher realm. Time is precious, so I won't keep you any longer."

As he spoke, Yuri lowered his head, took out a form with the official seal of the Brotherhood's top brass from the drawer, quickly wrote down a string of code, and then handed it over.

"You did the best last night, this is the reward you deserve."

Yuri looked at Xiren and smiled, "I specially selected a general-purpose cultivation potion for you from the core warehouse of headquarters."

This should be somewhat beneficial for your water-based breathing technique, and it's very suitable for your current stage. You can go check the storeroom.

Yuri paused, and then, seemingly to avoid putting too much psychological pressure on Xiren, added:

"Of course, this is not some extremely precious rare medicine. At most, it can only save you one or two months of arduous cultivation."