The entire top floor no longer had a single survivor.

  Those security personnel along with the transaction participants—over fifty people in total—had lost their lives in less than five minutes.

  Xia Li was currently drenched in blood.

  To break through some people's stance shields, he had to get close and deliver powerful strikes. After breaking their stance shields, the overflow of force would shatter people like blood bags.

  The top floor was now covered with blood and severed limbs.

  "Sigh..."

  Xia Li let out a sigh. The aftermath of the killing was catching up with him—he still couldn't get used to this kind of behavior.

  [Xia Li, don't waste time. Retreat immediately—there's no value in staying at the scene any longer.]

  Ke Xiao urged Xia Li to leave quickly.

  Xia Li didn't continue being sentimental. Instead, he decisively heeded the advice, took out several spiritual energy recovery pills from his phase ring, swallowed them, activated the divine ability Realm Fusion, then jumped straight out the window.

  He let his body fall freely. That feeling of his chest and lungs tightening, unable to catch his breath, actually gave him a hint of pleasure.

  Thrill, excitement...

  His brain began rapidly replaying the combat details from before. Since Heaven Chip had to control the Ethereal Spirit Dharma Body, this battle had been his own doing.

  In other words...

  This time he couldn't blame Heaven Chip for his actions.

  Looking back at everything he'd experienced since awakening in this new era, his hands had unknowingly been stained with nearly a hundred lives.

  When killing, he was calm and decisive. He could assess the situation clearly. Even if he felt uncomfortable and couldn't adapt afterward, that was still better than hesitating when taking action.

  Civilization was merely an accident; violence was the norm.

  Even in the era he'd lived in, war had never disappeared. Society still had homicides. That country across the ocean that claimed to be civilized and advanced had constant mass shootings.

  What made him think that what he felt, heard, and saw was necessarily how things should be?

  The world had never changed—he just hadn't grown up yet.

  In the instant before landing, Xia Li controlled the wind to turn around, then used soul-force to counteract the falling gravity. After somersaulting once in the air, he landed gently.

  [Sister Ke, tell me the evacuation route.]

  [Gate 3 of the C-District garbage station. It's already been arranged.]

  [Got it.]

  Xia Li had Heaven Chip open the Upper City map. After confirming the target location, he quickly calculated the fastest route.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Walking down the street...

  Xia Li put both hands in his pants pockets. After walking for a while, he suddenly ducked into an alley.

  When someone walked out of the alley again, it was now a young man with dyed golden hair.

  That young man was Xia Li.

  The sewage treatment plant employee identity had become somewhat unsafe after the operation. Better to casually swap for a safer one along the way.

  After all, once the incident occurred, the police would definitely investigate whether any suspicious individuals had come near the building. That sewage treatment plant employee normally wouldn't come to such places.

  Xia Li didn't dare underestimate modern crime-solving speed. With AI assistance, all steps were performed simultaneously—within minutes they could identify anomalies and lock onto suspicious individuals.

  Passing through smaller streets with less foot traffic.

  By the roadside were girls dressed up unusually beautifully beckoning to passersby. Who knew how much technology they'd used on their bodies—whether the parts actually used for business were even natural was questionable.

  "Hey handsome, want to play?"

  One bold one approached Xia Li directly. Her body gave off an indescribable odor. Seeing this, Xia Li actually nodded.

  Then...

  The two entered an alley together.

  Before long, the girl walked back out alone, her expression quite cold.

  Suddenly, the street loudspeakers began a broadcast.

  "Good evening, Lingguang City!"

  "Just now, a murder occurred at White Mirror Tower."

  "Who shattered our peaceful night?"

  "Of course... I'm not saying we need a curfew tonight. I'm just notifying everyone to watch out for suspicious individuals nearby."

  "Nightlife continues! May you not become the next unlucky soul. Buy a Prism Shield now for twenty percent off. Citizens, danger might be right beside you!"

  The broadcast reported the homicide while ending with an advertisement for shields. Hearing this, Xia Li was so annoyed he laughed.

  [Sister Ke, do you modern people not know what seriousness means?]

  Xia Li messaged Ke Xiao about this matter. As someone from the past, he just couldn't understand it.

  [The broadcasts are run by private enterprises. They can say whatever they want. The public likes this style—what can you do about it?]

  [Such an important public announcement is this casual?]

  [If being serious increased ratings, I'm sure the host would switch to some venerable old professor giving lectures, maybe even with a daily quote segment.]

  [This is the collapse of rites and music!]

  Xia Li didn't know what else to say.

  [If people from the feudal era saw news from your time, they'd probably say the same thing—that your era's rites and music had collapsed.]

  [Alright...]

  Xia Li had nothing to say. That was actually true!

  Cutting off communication, he continued on his way.

  As he approached the garbage station, Xia Li activated the divine ability Realm Fusion again, then used Divine Sense Intrusion to interfere with nearby electronic devices.

  [Xia Li, in relatively open areas, just dealing with nearby electronic devices isn't enough. You'll be photographed by electronic eyes ten thousand meters away.]

  [Even if you could handle those, could your divine thought reach satellites?]

  [Use the anti-detection field to distort your image instead.]

  Ke Xiao's suggestion reminded Xia Li. Using intrusion on nearby devices to make himself disappear—this method only worked in areas with dense buildings.

  Once in open areas, he could only use passive defense, preventing monitoring devices from precisely identifying him. This way, while not exactly invisible, it reduced exposure risk.

  Activating the anti-detection field, Xia Li sped up and walked into the garbage station. The so-called Gate 3 was a huge square tube, with surrounding garbage being swept into it by massive mechanical arms.

  After approaching, Xia Li jumped directly into the tube, falling to Lower City along with the garbage.

  Before long.

  Xia Li landed on a garbage mountain. He immediately activated his G-stance shield to prevent being crushed, then quickly evacuated the garbage mountain.

  [I'm back in Lower City.]

  [Take the sewers back.]

  [Okay. Also, I've been wanting to ask—aren't the cities worried about this garbage piling up?]

  [It won't pile up. After preliminary processing by scavengers, the garbage will slowly spirit-residualize, then be fed to spirit-fusion reactors. This garbage is dumped above the reactors.]

  [Through such accumulation over time, even garbage can absorb spiritual energy and produce value.]

  [So, you'd rather use spiritual energy to process garbage than allocate more to Lower City?]

  Lower City's spiritual energy concentration was truly low—barely enough to maintain Spirit Core operation. Stay too long and your cultivation might even regress.

  [After organisms die, they enter the natural cycle. But garbage doesn't.]

  [Then being human is really worse than being garbage. At least garbage can pollute the environment enough to be remembered.]

  Xia Li could understand this phenomenon but didn't really agree with it deep down—in spiritual energy allocation, humans somehow ranked below garbage.