Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

As dusk approached, a thin mist from the Thames River crept up the gentle slope and onto the slightly winding street.

There were a few shallow tire tracks in the middle of the street, with some rainwater that hadn't dried from last night, reflecting the dim yellow gas lights that were gradually coming on on both sides of the road.

On both sides of the street are rows of three-story red brick houses that are closely connected.

These buildings lack elaborate Baroque carvings, opting instead for the most practical Victorian style.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

A black two-wheeled Hans carriage trotted through the street.

The chestnut horse pulling the cart snorted and exhaled a thick cloud of white vapor.

The coachman, dressed in a heavy woolen coat and a slightly worn tall felt hat, sat high on the back seat, casually toying with his whip.

As the carriage passed by, mud and water splashed up from the street corner.

On the sidewalk, pedestrians hurried along.

A junior clerk was hurrying home. He was wearing a dark gray tweed suit, a signature bowler hat, and a tightly folded black umbrella tucked under his arm.

Although the cuffs of his coat were worn shiny, he still kept his back straight and occasionally took out his brass pocket watch to glance at it.

The woman who brushed past him was a local housewife.

She didn't wear one of those extravagant crinoline skirts, but instead wore a long, dark blue linen dress that was easy to work in, with a thick, coarse wool shawl over it.

She carried a wicker basket on her arm, containing half a loaf of dark bread and a bundle of earthy root vegetables.

She was fumbling for change with her rough fingers, buying the last bunch of cheap daffodils from a vendor pushing a cart.

Xilun pushed open the carved wooden door and walked out of the newly opened bakery.

He was dressed in a well-tailored black overcoat, leaning on a large alloy gun disguised as a black umbrella, and walked steadily to the black car parked on the side of the street.

The car door opened, and Xilun got into the back seat.

"drive."

The butler responded and skillfully stepped on the gas, the car slowly driving away in the thin mist.

Xilun slowly ate the two scallion breads he had just bought, savoring the simple aroma of wheat and the flavor of scallion oil.

"Grandma Risu's bread is really delicious," Xilun remarked softly.

After he finished the last bite, he took out a clean white handkerchief to wipe his mouth, unscrewed his water bottle and took a sip of warm water. Only then did he raise his eyes and notice that the car had slowly come to a stop.

The neon signs outside the window shimmered with an ambiguous pink glow in the mist.

The car was parked in front of a fairly large brothel on the edge of the North District.

Xilun looked thoughtfully at the closed door and glanced down at his watch.

"Are you sure that serial killer would be around here?"

The butler turned his head, his expression unusually certain: "Sir, we have definite news. The Brotherhood's spies have been watching him for several days."

Xilun nodded slightly, a chilling glint flashing in his eyes.

As the absolute ruler of this area, he showed absolutely no leniency towards these roving criminals who cruelly took the lives of ordinary people and created panic.

Maintaining stability in his jurisdiction is protecting his own bottom line of interests.

"Has the Metropolitan Police Department been notified?"

"The Metropolitan Police Department has surrounded this place," the butler whispered. "Sir, this time we'll just assist covertly. After all, they're the ones the authorities want to arrest."

Xilun didn't answer, but silently pushed open a crack in the car window and observed the surrounding environment.

With his heightened senses at the peak of his abilities, he quickly spotted several plainclothes police officers, who were deliberately disguised as passersby, under the cover of the thick fog, breathing heavily.

Before long, the sky darkened completely, and the fog became even thicker.

The stained-glass door of the brothel was pushed open, and soon a variety of men of different heights and builds emerged, their bodies reeking of cheap perfume and the sour smell of alcohol.

A moment later, two figures, one tall and one short, helped a woman who looked like a mature woman stagger out.

Xilun's gaze instantly locked onto the three people.

He keenly noticed that several vendors who had been setting up stalls nearby had quietly packed up their goods and followed the group at a distance.

"Looks like this is the person," Xilun muttered to himself.

He slowly pushed open the car door, using the heavy black umbrella as a cane, and took two steps forward on the slippery cobblestones.

His face was as calm as a still pond, radiating not a trace of extraordinary aura.

Ahead, two figures, one tall and one short, had already helped the drunken woman into a secluded alleyway without streetlights.

The woman had clearly drunk a great deal; she leaned against the wall, completely unguarded, muttering incoherently, "I...I can still drink..."

The tall man rubbed his hands together, staring at the woman's voluptuous curves with a burning desire.

He turned to the shorter man beside him and said, "I'll go first, you wait behind. This woman is really hot, has a fantastic figure..."

He was swallowing his saliva greedily, and hadn't even had time to undo his belt.

Suddenly, the tall man felt an indescribable tearing pain in his abdomen.

He looked down blankly and saw blood gushing out of his body like a waterfall.

The short man, who had been keeping his head down, finally raised his face.

It was a slightly pale face with a small mustache, and its eyes revealed a chilling madness.

In his hand, a huge pair of blood-stained tailor's scissors appeared out of nowhere.

Short Jack, expressionless, cut the tall man open along his stomach.

"Those who are angry and disrespectful will be disemboweled." Jack's voice was hoarse and eerie, as if he were chanting some kind of sacred judgment.

The tall man collapsed to the ground before he could even scream.

Jack crouched down and, in a morbid manner, cut open the man's belly, arranging his internal organs neatly underneath as if completing a work of art.

After doing all this, Jack slowly raised his head, his dead fish-like eyes scrutinizing the woman leaning against the wall.

The woman was sobered up completely by the bloody and horrific scene before her.

She was trembling all over, her pupils were dilated to the extreme, and even the strength to scream had been drained by fear. She could only look at Jack in despair.

Jack stared intently at the woman, slowly walked forward, grabbed her hair, kicked open a dilapidated door in the alley, and dragged her inside.

The room reeked of a strong, fishy stench.

The woman collapsed to the ground, her legs giving way. Jack looked down at her, his gaze gradually becoming unfocused.

In that terrified, mature woman's face, Jack seemed to see the mother who had once locked him in the basement and whipped him mercilessly with a leather whip soaked in salt water.

That vicious woman who made him tremble with fear on a cold winter night because he had lost money gambling.

He sneered, the muscles in his face twitching slightly from extreme contortion: "You used to be so good at hitting me, why aren't you hitting me anymore?"

The painful memories of being whipped by his mother flashed wildly through his mind, and Jack's face instantly turned extremely angry, with veins bulging.

But then, as if experiencing a split personality, he snapped back to reality and regained that deathly calm.

"A lazy and indulgent person will suffer broken limbs and cramps."

He turned and walked to the corner, where he casually took out an extremely sharp utility knife from a rusty iron box.

The woman had barely mustered a little strength and looked around the dimly lit room in a panic.

By the faint moonlight filtering in from the window, she was horrified to discover that in the corner of the room, there were piles of stark white bones and rotting limbs!

She opened her mouth, but extreme fear choked her, and she was too panicked to utter a sound.

Just as Jack was about to strike, a dull knock sounded on the door.

"Is anyone there? Tax inspection."

Jack frowned, a hint of irritation flashing in his eyes.

He concealed the utility knife in his sleeve, turned around, walked to the door, and slowly opened the wooden door.

Two uniformed policemen were standing outside the door.

One of them handed over a form.

Jack feigned confusion and was about to look down.

Suddenly, a cold revolver was pressed directly against his head.

The lead officer said coldly, "By the way, you're being charged with the serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Come with us."

Jack blinked his cloudy eyes, and a strange smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

"Officer, your magazine has fallen out."

A brass magazine had appeared in Jack's palm without him noticing.

The police officer paused for a moment, instinctively feeling a sense of doubt, and subconsciously reached for his gun to check.

However, Jack's thin body suddenly lunged forward, and one hand gripped the policeman's wrist like an iron clamp, forcibly twisting the muzzle.

Jack looked up at the two tall policemen, his eyes filled with mockery.

next moment.

"Bang! Bang!"

Two deafening gunshots echoed through the narrow alley.

The two policemen stared wide-eyed, each with a bloody hole between their eyebrows, and collapsed to the ground.

Jack disregarded everything else; he knew the gunshots would attract a large crowd.

He quickly scanned the alley, his figure like a nimble night cat. He suddenly leaped up, grabbed the edge of the red brick wall with both hands, and prepared to climb over the wall to leave.

However, just as he climbed to the top, before he could even fully stand still...

His beast-like intuition suddenly detected a suffocating gust of wind rapidly approaching!

In the distance, through the thick fog, a tall figure in black crashed in like a cannonball.

That was a terrifying sonic boom caused by pure physical force tearing through the air.

Jack's eyes widened, and his pupils contracted sharply.

He lost his balance and was in mid-air when he was hit so hard that he didn't even have room to dodge.

"boom--!"

A deafeningly loud bang.

Jack's small, thin body was slammed into the hard red brick wall by this irresistible force.

The entire wall cracked outwards like a spider web, and his body was embedded in the brickwork.

His face was completely sunken, his nasal bone was shattered, and a large amount of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs gushed from his face.

Xilun slowly stopped, coldly brushing off the dust from his black coat, his voice completely calm.

"Still trying to run away."

Jack, embedded in the wall, let out a desperate, beast-like roar.

His twisted will made him want to make one last struggle, his trembling fingers trying to reach for the murderous scissors from his sleeve.

The next moment, Xilun didn't even glance at it, and effortlessly threw a punch straight at the target.

"boom!"

This punch carried immense force, slamming Jack's head two inches deeper into the brick wall.

Red and white plaster flowed down the cracks in the wall.

Jack's body convulsed violently, then he lost all life, his hands falling limply to his sides.

After doing all this, Xilun calmly walked out of the alley, leaning on his black umbrella.

Only then did the remaining Metropolitan Police Department personnel arrive, belatedly.

When the police inspector leading the team saw the gruesome death on the wall, cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

He took a deep breath, strode quickly to Xilun, and bowed respectfully.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Knight of Xilun. If it weren't for your help, he would have escaped again tonight."

Xilun didn't even stop walking; he just casually tossed out a comment.

"It was just something I did."

He got back into the car parked on the street corner, and the butler immediately started the engine.

Leaning back in the soft leather seat, Xiren looked out the window at the police officers' bodies being carried away and shook his head slightly.

"What a pity. If the Metropolitan Police Department hadn't been so careless, two police officers wouldn't have been sacrificed in vain. They couldn't even hold a gun properly, yet they dared to arrest extraordinary individuals."

The butler, while gripping the steering wheel, glanced at Xilun through the rearview mirror and asked softly, "What's wrong, sir?"

Xilun closed his eyes, concealing the hint of disdain in them.

"It's nothing, just a little trick to fool people."

It was already late at night when I returned to my spacious residence in the North District branch.

Xilun took off his slightly damp black coat and casually handed it to the servant who came to greet him.

He walked to the sofa by the fireplace, sat down, picked up the warm water on the table, took a sip, and felt the water flow down his throat, dispelling a trace of chill in the early winter night.

A full month has passed since Ymir died in the desolate wilderness on that stormy night.

The northern district was unusually quiet for the past month.

Despite losing a powerful figure, the Shattered Bone Gang did not launch a major offensive; they seemed to be wary of something.

Xilun was happy to have some peace and quiet, and he settled down here completely.

Besides his daily ascetic practice of extraordinary methods, he would occasionally visit shops in the local market to buy rare and extraordinary materials, or, like tonight, buy a scallion bread from Grandma Masu.

It was late, and the whale oil lamps inside the house emitted a soft glow.

Xilun sat at his desk, flipping through the various official documents that had accumulated during the day.

Suddenly, his gaze paused slightly, landing on a high-ranking official gazette bearing the imperial seal.

The bill, written in extremely strong language, contains the following clause:

Queen Victoria added new clauses to the existing Freedom Treaty, strictly prohibiting any form of slave trade, purchase, or storage within her territory.

The absolute freedom of the imperial subjects must be strictly enforced, and human rights and equality must be promoted.

Xilun read it word by word, then leaned back in his chair thoughtfully.

This bill, ostensibly for human rights, is actually a serious warning to the old-school underground forces that made their fortunes through human trafficking.

The Empire is tightening its control over the lower city.

Below the official gazette, there was also a supplementary opinion from the Brotherhood's Southern District Headquarters:

The authorities demanded that all subordinate areas, including the North District, be completely free and that no further slave trading be allowed, in order to avoid angering the Metropolitan Police Department and church leaders.

Xilun remained silent for a moment.

If the fraternity wants to clean up its act, it must sever these most egregious black market supply chains.

After a moment's hesitation, Xilun lowered his head and picked up his pen.