The proof of Emperor Wu began with daily rewards for diligence.

Cuihu Street is named after its proximity to the east bank of Cuihu Lake.

There are neither exploitative workshops nor government-run commercial streets here.

But there are a lot of people here. In this small area of ​​ten square kilometers, there are nearly 120,000 permanent residents and countless transient residents.

Since they were scouting the area in advance, Chen Jue and his companion naturally couldn't wander around in their patrol uniforms.

They went to the nearest market and bought a new set of clothes.

Wu Nanyuan wore a simple white V-neck short-sleeved shirt, a pair of lightweight black athletic pants, and white sneakers. Her overall look was clean and refreshing, with a strong campus vibe.

Compared to Wu Nanyuan, Chen Jue's outfit was much more complicated.

He wore a black modern Chinese-style Tang suit with a stand-up collar and Chinese knot buttons, a short-sleeved cardigan with red patterns on the cuffs, and a white short-sleeved undershirt underneath.

She wore wide-leg cropped trousers with landscape ink prints on the sides and fluorescent CD-like trim at the hem.

The overall style is both retro and relaxed, and coupled with Chen Jue's handsome face, he looks exactly like a noble young master who spends all day doing nothing and playing around in the world.

The two walked one after the other from the corner of the intersection into Cuihu Street.

In Chen Jue's childhood memories, Cuihu Street was once a glamorous place.

Back then, the Xue family in the inner city discovered a huge Ling iron mine in the Cuihu Lake to the west.

In order to explore this spirit iron mine, the Xue family spared no expense in building three iron smelting plants in the outer city, and also built three residential areas: Cuihu, Linhu, and Jinhu.

Originally, the Xue family's business of forging spirit iron was thriving, which also boosted the economy of the western outer city.

Unfortunately, legend has it that the Xue family later unearthed a very ferocious and eerie creature at the bottom of Cuihu Lake.

Not only was the entire family wiped out in that catastrophe, but even the spirit iron ore vein at the bottom of the lake disappeared without a trace after the Xue family was destroyed.

As a result, the three ironworks, after ceasing production, quickly became natural shelters for the unemployed and displaced.

Meanwhile, the property deeds for the three residential areas of Cuihu, Linhu, and Jinhu were transferred to the Wu, Tang, and Sun families in the inner city at some unknown time, becoming the certificates used by these inner city families to collect rent.

Chen and Wu walked along the dilapidated Cuihu Street. The houses here were of varying heights and had a redundant layout. Even on a bright day, it was difficult for sunlight to penetrate the densely packed tenement buildings and reach the street.

Because the streets here are rarely exposed to sunlight, there is a strong sense of oppression and decay.

It's like a festering sore growing in the city. You won't feel it unless you look at it or touch it, but once you do, it hurts so much that you become suspicious and afraid that it will affect your dignity, and you wish you could raze it to the ground.

There were many men and women standing on the street.

The woman was dressed provocatively; even in late autumn, she was wearing a tight-fitting tank top, fishnet stockings, and red-soled high heels.

When they see a car driving by, they will try to strike a seductive pose, making sexually suggestive gestures.

Some women try to strike up conversations with well-dressed men on the street and offer themselves as lovers, but most of these attempts are unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the men standing on the street would occasionally scrutinize outsiders like Chen and Wu with appraising glances.

Most of these men were members of local small gangs, lacking both power and connections, but possessing a strong sense of territoriality.

It took Chen Jue and Wu Nanyuan a full three hours to explore the entire Cuihu Street.

Here you'll find cultural walls covered in graffiti, skyscrapers with broken doors and windows, and homeless tents crammed along the entire street.

The road surface was full of potholes and littered with garbage.

The homeless on the street either sat slumped in a daze or wandered around spying on people.

Thieves and bandits are always lurking and following people in the streets and alleys.

Even worse, there were drug addicts who, after using too much, would light fires in the square and dance like shamans while in a daze.

Almost no shops in the entire block were operating normally.

Only shacks resembling wizard shops sold dubious medicines and daily necessities, and stalls displayed many old items of dubious origin.

In addition, the notice boards in each community are densely covered with missing person notices, all of which are for people who have disappeared without a trace in the past two weeks.

"Distinguished guests, if you wish to inspect the Cuihu neighborhood in broad daylight, you could have simply given us prior notice, or you could have come in uniform."

"Wearing such white dragon and fish-patterned clothes, it would be bad if some ignorant thing offended you two and damaged your harmony."

After strolling through the streets, Chen and Wu were heading to the long-abandoned factory by Green Lake.

As a result, a dozen or so bald men wearing sleeveless t-shirts suddenly appeared from the corner of the alley and surrounded the two of them.

The leader was a martial artist who was nearly forty years old.

He exuded a murderous aura, suggesting he had killed many people. A slanted scar ran across his cheek, revealing the shoulder of his vest, which was covered with crisscrossing knife marks of varying depths. His face was fierce and cold.

Chen and Wu were sizing up the newcomers, while the menacing-looking bald men around them were also sizing them up.

Needless to say, Chen Jue carried a heavy longsword at his waist, his body relaxed, exuding the aura of a noble young master, making him someone not to be trifled with at first glance.

The woman beside him was thin and frail, like a malnourished girl.

But those pink fox-like eyes, not covered by the mask, were exceptionally captivating.

Beneath the mask, there must be a face as alluring and captivating as a fox spirit.

These local thugs, who had never seen much of the world, were both wary of the two men's identities and unable to suppress their greed. Their eyes kept lingering on Wu Nanyuan's fox-like eyes with their bright red corners.

"Hey!" Chen Jue gestured to the bald men around him, raised his sharp jawline, and then gave Wu Nanyuan a look.

"?" Wu Nanyuan didn't know what Chen Jue meant, so she turned to look at him.

"They have absolutely no teamwork."

Chen Jue released his left hand from his sword and, in full view of everyone, drew his sword with his right hand.

Clang!

The sound of a blade being drawn is chilling.

The next moment, the sharp blade swept through the alley like a storm, and in the flash of blood, no one could withstand a single blow. In just a few breaths, the muddy alley was littered with corpses.

"..." Wu Nanyuan was stunned when she saw this.

How could this person handle a case like this? Without saying a word, he killed everyone except one person?

Just as Wu Nanyuan was inwardly shocked, Chen Jue had already placed the ten-pound horse-slaying longsword against the neck of the scarred-faced martial artist.

"All your men are dead..."

"So now you can say things you shouldn't say without any problem..."

Do you know what I mean?

A blood-stained blade rested against his shoulder, the bone-chilling cold mingling with the dripping blood as it flowed down his neck. The scarred-faced warrior holding the knife felt his hands and feet go cold, large drops of cold sweat trickling down his forehead.

"My lord! Spare my life! Whatever you want to ask, I will tell you everything I know!"

The young man before them was terrifyingly strong and treated human life as worthless; he was most likely a scion of a powerful family who had come from the inner city for training.

These small gang members are incredibly unlucky to have encountered someone with such a background.