Chapter 00120: Knife in Hand, Kill the Ji Dog
# Knife in Hand, Kill the Ji Dog
Chapter 120
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 120: Knife in Hand, Kill the Ji Dog
As soon as Ji Jue received the call, he immediately stopped his dissociation practice for the day.
After washing his face, he asked Ye Chun for leave and headed out.
Seeing his senior personally see him off at the door, watching him leave with tears in her eyes, it was clear that their sibling bond had grown deeper, and she couldn’t bear to see him go.
Looking at Ye Chun’s waving figure in the rearview mirror, Ji Jue silently vowed to return as soon as possible after finishing his business.
Without much hesitation or deliberation, he set off.
This was how relationships worked—you help me, I help you.
From Sister Wen to Old Zhang and Xiao An, they had all taken care of him in their own ways.
Even Tong Hua… occasionally helped him dispose of some shady goods, and she was always sweet-talking him.
When someone called for his help, Ji Jue naturally felt it was his duty to step up bravely.
Besides, after contributing his DKP, how could he not be there when the loot was distributed?
There’s no husband or wife in "Husband and Wife Lung Slices," no wife in "Wife Cakes," and even characters in 2D games can have their own lives… So, the phenomenon of getting poorer the more you practice alchemy seemed to have an explanation too.
After less than two days of introductory extraction practice, Ji Jue’s bank account had already lost 800,000!
He bought materials gram by gram, tested and practiced gram by gram.
Just stepping into the workshop and pushing open the door, his balance started plummeting faster than he could practice.
At this rate, he wouldn’t even need half a year.
No matter how frugal he was, Ji Jue would be bankrupt in four or five months!
Now, Ji Jue slammed the brakes and parked his little electric scooter in an alley in the shantytown.
He jumped off before Tong Hua could even speak, his face beaming with pride.
He raised his left hand, swept his hair back, and emphasized the ring on his index finger: “Hey? How did you know I succeeded in my first blessing creation?”
Who the hell asked you?!
Before Tong Hua could react, she was hit with a faceful of bragging.
She finally understood what Xiao Chun had been complaining about in their little group chat these past few days.
A dog!
There’s a dog here!
She decided to change the group name to ‘Sisters’ Dog-Slaying Squad’ as soon as she got back.
But the moment she processed what he said, she couldn’t help but gasp—a blessing creation? You? Seriously?
It’s only been a few months, hasn’t it? Not even four months? And you’re already forging independently?
Bro, you’re really good at grinding!
“And the rating was A-grade,” Ji Jue added, enjoying her expression and delivering the final blow, sinking the Tong Hua ship completely.
“Congratulations, Brother Ji Jue!”
Though he didn’t understand what was going on, Xiao An still clenched his fist and raised it in celebration.
Even if he didn’t get it, Brother Ji Jue was clearly amazing.
Old Zhang, on the other hand, patted his shoulder and praised, “Kid, you’ve got it! I always knew you had it in you!”
Grinding and dogging, your future is limitless!
“Thank you, thank you!”
Ji Jue clasped his hands together, finally feeling satisfied.
He shook his head and twisted his neck, asking, “So, what’s the situation?”
Tong Hua looked numb, not wanting to speak.
“Simply put, a group of outsiders was hired to come to Cliff City and got involved in the internal strife of the Wild Market, dragging innocent people into it. The scene isn’t pretty.”
Old Zhang, like a magician, pulled out a thick stack of files from his oversized shorts, making Ji Jue wonder where he had pulled it from.
But after opening it and seeing the photos and background information, Ji Jue fell silent.
His fingers gripping the paper turned white.
“Sorry, give me a moment.”
He put down the documents, walked to the side, and made a call: “Brother Feng, it’s me. Yeah, Cliff City’s been a bit chaotic these past couple of days… Sister Lai La already told you? Good, then. Keep an eye out these next few days. Should I move back? Okay, if something happens and you can’t reach me, call Sister Wen or the teacher. Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
After hanging up, he saw Old Zhang’s approving look: “Your family’s bond is really strong.”
“That’s what family is.”
Ji Jue grinned, not wasting any more words.
He reached out toward the security camera: [Bro, got a question.]
[Sure thing, bro!]
The camera instantly perked up: [I’ve been filming some exciting stuff lately, wanna see? It’s wild!]
After a brief exchange, Ji Jue withdrew his hand and shook his head.
“No good, nothing was captured. It’s all just white noise. These guys probably have some professional jamming equipment on them.”
“See? I told you! I told you!” Seeing Ji Jue shake his head, Tong Hua puffed out her chest, recovering from her earlier defeat. “We…”
“But we can still find them.”
Ji Jue added, cutting off her attempt to save face.
The professional interference was, in fact, the most obvious clue.
By asking each camera if it had been interfered with, he could trace the sequence of events and find their movement path.
After an hour of circling the shantytown, Ji Jue traced their path to the very edge of North Mountain District, a dilapidated seaside neighborhood.
The group was clearly a professional hit squad—ruthless, efficient, and equipped with jamming devices.
They had set up decoys along their retreat to ensure no one could track them.
But even the best-laid plans have flaws.
When the camera footage was combined with the ether records, the interference became a glaring flaw.
With the clues Ji Jue provided, Tong Hua quickly found a lead in the tangled ether records.
She locked onto a van with a swapped license plate.
It was the same damn van he had chased the first time, a knockoff from the Coast Auto Factory.
Criminals really knew how to get the best bang for their buck when it came to tools of the trade.
After leaving the scene, they drove around with their jamming devices, making a big loop before switching to a white van in South Ridge District.
Then, they circled back to North Mountain District.
Finally, they settled in that neighborhood.
“The developer went bankrupt, and property prices crashed. The seaside buildings in North Mountain District are worthless, and hardly anyone lives there,” Ji Jue confirmed after glancing at the neighborhood’s weathered state. “This should be the place. Hold on.”
With that, he hopped on his scooter and circled the neighborhood, stopping at a few convenience stores and restaurants before pulling up at a print shop.
He pointed at the printer, and it started whirring on its own.
Soon, a stack of slightly blurry color photos piled up.
They were all faces Ji Jue had seen in the convenience store and restaurant surveillance footage.
Finally, after sitting in the security booth at the neighborhood entrance, he returned to the North Mountain Group’s car and handed over the documents: “They rented unit 401, but they’re actually staying in 101. There should be five of them, but only one guy goes out to buy stuff. They’re probably all there now, haven’t left yet.”
Outsiders, five of them, temporary renters.
One of them, the guy who went out to buy stuff, had a tree-shaped tattoo on his wrist that Tong Hua had seen in the chaotic records from the scene.
It was a symbol of the Sacred Tree Sect, popular in the southern empire.
These were imperial people.
“That’s right, it all adds up.”
Old Zhang nodded slowly, holding the documents. “This symbol and their skin tone—they’re probably from the Empire’s Mountain Dragon Army. After their mutiny in the Central Plains a few years back, their ranks were disbanded. Most of the imperial mercenaries these days are from that disbandment.”
Only now did the slow-witted Xiao An finally catch on.
Full of admiration, he said:
“Brother Ji Jue, you’re amazing!”
“Hey, I did a lot of the work too, you know?”
Tong Hua was furious, pinching his cheek. “I’ve been so good to you all this time, and you don’t even remember your big sister’s greatness? All you remember is how soft my face is!”
“Okay, okay, Hua Hua is amazing too, amazing too!”
Old Zhang chuckled, ruffling her hair to stop their antics.
It felt like he was dealing with kids.
With the specific details and the appearance of the guy who went out to buy stuff, the security bureau’s database quickly pulled up all their activity records.
Three main groups, one vortex, one mirror.
A standard configuration for a chosen team—no shortage of offense or support, flexible tactics, and high efficiency.
Before coming to Cliff City, they had been active in both the northern and southern continents, as well as the Thousand Islands.
They were quite notorious.
This time, they had come to Cliff City, likely drawn by the chaos and the abundance of easy money.
They hadn’t chosen an employer, clearly planning to side with whoever offered the most.
Everyone’s out to make money.
Going with the flow is normal.
Who’d go looking for trouble for no reason?
No middleman, just a direct contract from the Wild Market’s anonymous listings.
The employer and the hired didn’t meet, and the full payment was made when the job was posted.
Once the job was done, the Wild Market paid out.
That’s right, even now… the Wild Market’s bounty system was still running.
Even though the internal strife had turned into a bloodbath.
You could say the person who built the Wild Market was a genius.
From the start, they had fully utilized the scattered nature of the White Deer, splitting core operations into many parts.
Aside from communication through the headquarters, there was little interaction between them.
And most of the people working there were just office workers, clocking in from nine to five, facing ever-increasing KPIs, performance pressures, and even bank loans.
The Wild Market headquarters even paid their social security and housing funds locally.
In a way, they were the true hands of the underworld, gripping the ever-flowing channels of the world’s dark side through another means.
Even now, they maintained their original stance—no stance at all.
They accepted anyone, posted any job, and whether someone took it or completed it was none of their concern.
Coiling around the dark side of the world, the Wild Market was a bizarre behemoth born from the cracks outside order.
As long as humanity needed that lawless wilderness, this force would never die out.
Even now, Chen Xingzhou’s bounty was still posted.
As were the bounties on Lei Wuye’s godchildren and all the other competitors… Until one of them became the leader, this bloody struggle wouldn’t end.
And before that, some people would die.
Paying the price for their actions.
“You first or me first?”
Standing in front of the slightly rundown apartment building, the old man holding a teapot and a palm-leaf fan turned to Xiao An beside him:
“If you need the hunt, I can back you up. How about it?”
“Nah, doesn’t seem challenging enough.”
Xiao An casually looked away from the sky. “Let’s just do it like usual. No need to go easy on me.”
“Heh, suit yourself.”
Old Zhang grinned, pulling a large plastic bag from his oversized shorts.
He stuffed the teapot, fan, keychain, walnuts, and other odds and ends into it, leaving it by the door.
Then, he strode boldly into the darkness of the building.
Not long after.
The sound of earth-shaking thunder erupted!
The ground trembled.
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(End of chapter)