The eight of them fled in a panic, running from the head of the street to the end of the alley before finally shaking off the enraged “patriarch.”

They touched their faces, looked at each other, and fell into another bewildered silence.

After a long while, Du Zhong rubbed his chin and found his voice. “The mission can’t be this much of a trap. Everyone, read it again carefully! Especially you, Ji Changqing!”

Ji Changqing lowered her head in admission of guilt.

Because she had, in fact, just found an information list within her captain’s authority menu. On it was her newly updated identity.

“So we had to get our asses kicked to trigger the info dump,” she muttered, feeling like she had taken that beating for nothing.

The other seven struggled to stifle their laughter.

“Let’s go, time to get into more trouble!” Ji Changqing, her original intention unchanged, forced her teammates to continue playing the part of young thugs, kicking down doors door-to-door to collect protection fees.

The residents seemed to have tacitly accepted Ji Changqing’s scoundrel-like nature and didn’t push back, handing people over quite readily. They wouldn’t pay money, only offer up people! In these times, there was no money to be had, but there were plenty of idle people without jobs.

They were all neighbors. They could just complain to her parents later and get their people back, so why give her money? People could be reclaimed, but money couldn’t!

Someone even asked, “Ah Qing, if they work for you, will you feed them?”

There was no fear, no tension, no worry…

Ji Changqing shot them a sidelong glance. Damn it, this was turning into a large-scale job fair. Did she have no dignity?!

“They’re being used to offset the protection fees. Would you pay them and feed them?”

“If you pay me, I’ll feed them,” someone retorted.

Du Zhong stepped forward with a ferocious expression. “What, you looking for a beating?”

His size and muscles were quite intimidating. The neighbors who had boldly teased Ji Changqing sheepishly shut their mouths.

The entire Cishu District was less than two kilometers long. By going door-to-door demanding money or people, triggering character information through provocation, and asking a few pointed questions as each family selected someone to hand over, they pieced things together.

They basically figured out the situation in the district and what their respective roles and identities were.

After making a full round, besides gaining nearly a thousand underlings who were either timid or apathetic, Ji Changqing hadn’t received a single cent.

These people really value money over their lives, she sighed inwardly.

Her gaze swept over the hundred or so people who seemed particularly energetic. This was probably the biggest gain. It wasn’t just their team that had been dropped into this district; there were 12 squads in total, adding up to 111 people.

A starkly single number.

Among 6,209 civilians, there were 111 military academy students. The math was incredibly simple. The participating students made up about 5% of the current population in this urban battlefield, and less than 2% of the total civilian population.

There must be many other places where no students were deployed at all.

The lower the required survival rate in the mission directive, the higher the proportion of deployed students, which meant this district was more dangerous.

The question was, with 12 squads in total, who was in charge?

Well, that depended on who had the biggest fist, of course!

Ji Changqing didn’t want to step into the ring. She was clearly a command student, so why did she always have to be on the front lines?

She frantically signaled to Du Zhong. Bro, you’re up!

Du Zhong blinked, indicating he understood. He cleared his throat and took a step forward. “How about a duel between captains?”

Ji Changqing’s face was completely wooden.

Damn it, what was the use of a teammate with zero chemistry who always sent his boss to her death?!

The eyes of the other eleven captains lit up instantly.

Who didn’t have their own ambitions? It felt a bit like they were taking advantage of her team, since she had been the first to act while everyone else was still trying to figure out what to do.

But to pass up this advantage felt like a waste.

Ji Changqing was getting irritable. She liked working with smart people because if her collaborators weren’t intelligent enough, the process of persuasion would be incredibly long and inefficient. Even if she convinced them this time, they would constantly question her along the way, adding endless obstacles to the path of success.

They only had seven days to complete the mission and earn enough points to advance. Now she had to spend half a day beating everyone into submission, and she would probably have to repeatedly communicate and do ideological work later. The thought alone was exhausting.

Although she wasn’t used to the drastic reduction in her strength, which made her fights a bit clumsy at times, her opponents were in the same boat. It was like being used to 5G internet speeds and suddenly being thrown back to 2G. The lag was unbearable; their attacks, counters, and dodges were full of openings and lacked any fluency.

But clearly, Ji Changqing was more resilient. After taking down two people, she quickly adjusted.

After those two fights, her patience finally ran out. An irritable Ji Changqing didn’t want to waste any more time and had someone find her a long staff.

It looked suspiciously like the one the “patriarch” had used to beat her earlier.

Faced with the practical pressure of advancing, she decisively chose to abandon her cool image and go for a quick victory!

She stepped into the designated circle, staff in hand, and stood still. Her movements were neither fast nor slow, but they were enough to make her opponent feel an immense pressure—a pressure that made him instinctively lunge forward to attack.

At the same moment, Ji Changqing moved. The staff moved like a dragon, swift as the wind, and as domineering as a tiger. Although her opponent knew full well that she was holding nothing more than an ordinary staff, he felt as if, in her hands, it was a cold, sharp weapon that could pierce his throat and heart at any moment.

He instinctively threw a flurry of punches, trying to block the thrust.

The moment they made contact, he cried out in his heart. An unstoppable force traveled from the staff, sending him flying cleanly out of the circle.

Before he could even steady himself, he heard Du Zhong’s voice shout:

“Next!”

He was a little dazed. Had he… lost?

He looked down. The edge of the circle was just two steps in front of him. On the ground, there were only two tracks, leading from the center of the circle to the outside, fading from deep to shallow.

He was utterly crushed, and even began to question his existence.

He would bet that out of the 11 teams here besides Ji Changqing’s, at least six of the captains had recognized her. “Ji Nine-Moves” was just too sensational a title, especially with a 120-match winning streak. You’d have to be a hermit in the Alliance not to pay attention to her.

If she had lost midway, it would have just meant “Ji Nine-Moves” was a joke. But after winning 120 consecutive matches, she had become a legend, and no one could afford to ignore her.

It meant that this show-off, besides having a perfect score in posturing, was also incredibly powerful.

Even against weaker opponents, trying to stick to a nine-move limit could lead to failure, let alone when half of her challengers were strong fighters.

For her to maintain that record under those circumstances meant her insight, strength, and control over a battle far surpassed everyone else’s.

They had already tried to overestimate her combat strength as much as possible, but he had never imagined she could be this strong!

One move, just one move!

No, actually, he couldn’t even take one move. If this had been a life-or-death battle, he would probably be lying on the ground right now.

If he hadn’t experienced it himself, facing Ji Changqing directly, he would have died before believing this would be the result.

He looked around blankly. Sure enough, the fourth captain to go up was already stepping into the circle with relish, striking a pose.

Ji Changqing used the same thrusting move to send him flying.

The fifth, sent flying with one move.

The sixth, sent flying with one swing.

For the seventh, Ji Changqing tilted her head. “Still want to fight?”

Your faces are already swollen from the beatings, do you really want to continue?

The seventh captain was speechless.

Why are you asking me? What did I do wrong?

She nodded wordlessly. “Since we agreed to it, I have to at least experience it.”

Fighting a strong opponent was an excellent learning opportunity in itself. Even if Ji Changqing was freakishly strong, they wouldn’t forfeit.

Ji Changqing let out a light laugh. This time, she was a bit more graceful, sending the young lady flying at a more aesthetically pleasing angle.

They had all studied videos of Ji Changqing’s fights. Back then, she had used hand-to-hand combat, never a weapon. Although her moves were fast, when they slowed down the playback and studied it frame by frame, they still found quite a few openings.

It was just that in the arena, she was too fast for people to react. Or rather, their minds reacted, but their bodies couldn’t keep up, so they couldn’t seize the opportunity to counterattack.

Feeling they had thoroughly analyzed her, they were all a little excited when they recognized Ji Changqing, thinking her weaknesses were completely within their grasp. Who knew, maybe they could defeat her and make a name for themselves?

But then the woman switched weapons.

If her hand-to-hand combat was imperfect enough to have visible flaws, then when she used a long staff or spear, her speed more than doubled, and she was utterly flawless.

What was more terrifying was that to those who hadn’t faced her, it looked like she used just one simple move to send them flying, almost as if it were a staged fight. Only those who were in the thick of it knew that her seemingly simple move contained, in an instant, at least seven or eight feints toward fatal points. She just held back, stopping just short, and after intimidating them, she would sweep them out of the circle.

In less than half an hour, it was decided who had the biggest fist. Ji Changqing couldn’t be bothered to waste time on a long speech. After asking each captain about their team members’ specialties, she started giving out orders directly.

From the 111 people, she picked 10 to form one team. The other 100 were each assigned to lead a squad of 11 people.

“For these 100 teams, I want you to intensify their training over the next two days. Just focus on basic movements, enough to make them look presentable when they stand in formation.”

As long as they could be intimidating, that was enough. If they actually managed to find some promising recruits who could fight, that would be an unexpected bonus.

The entire afternoon was spent on squad-based military drills.

Those not participating in the drills spent the whole afternoon gathering information, whether by inquiring with the neighbors, coaxing out details, or sending people out to scout. By late night, everyone had a basic understanding of the current situation.

This abandoned city had a particularly beautiful and poignant name: Zhuyan City.

The world can never hold what flees: a youthful face from the mirror, a flower from the tree.

Ji Changqing pinched her fingers. She thought she was beginning to understand why Cishu District had suffered such a devastating blow.