Chapter 572 - 354: Chaos Rises Again. No One is Born a Slave.

Chapter 572: Chapter 354: Chaos Rises Again. No One is Born a Slave.

It was a clear case of suffering from a lack of education—specifically, an insufficient mastery of physics, chemistry, and computer science.

"Brother Xiang, come here for a moment. I need to talk to you," Jiang Cai’Er said over the phone to Li Xiang.

Li Xiang had been in the underground farm helping Zhao Xueqing with her work. She was conducting research to cultivate crops more suitable for the current environment of the Underground City. The moment he received the call, he hurried back.

"What’s up? Miss me?" Li Xiang wrapped his arms around his wife and immediately peppered her with kisses.

"Let’s go deeper underground," said Jiang Cai’Er.

Li Xiang was instantly aroused. However, once they were deep underground, it turned out Jiang Cai’Er really did have something serious to discuss. It wasn’t *that*.

With a mere thought, Jiang Cai’Er projected the faces of several people into the air in front of her.

Li Xiang studied the faces carefully and drew a sharp breath. He recognized several of them as famous Saint Tier powerhouses from his past life. So, after all this time, it turned out they weren’t native powerhouses from Earth. He had no idea how they had managed to infiltrate.

"They’re plotting against you," Jiang Cai’Er said. "They plan on capturing and torturing you."

"I’m not afraid of torture," Li Xiang said. "When the time comes, we’ll see who’s torturing whom."

"They’re planning to use a honey trap," Jiang Cai’Er continued. "Look, a few of the women among them are actually quite pretty."

’Tch. As if I’d fall for that,’ Li Xiang thought. ’I have plenty of my own women, and every one of them is a peerless beauty. I’ve seen and experienced it all; I’m not that easily tempted anymore.’ Of course, he couldn’t let these thoughts show on his face.

"They’re from another planet," Jiang Cai’Er said. "I don’t know where, but if we can get the route to their world out of them, maybe... we could find a new home. So, Brother Xiang, why don’t you just sacrifice yourself a little? Play along with their honey trap and dig up their secrets first. Besides, you’re a man. It’s not like you’d be on the losing end of the deal."

Without a moment’s hesitation, Li Xiang refused. "Let’s just capture and torture them!" He knew Jiang Cai’Er was testing him. If he actually agreed, or even showed the slightest hint of hesitation—or interest—there would be hell to pay.

Sure enough, Jiang Cai’Er smiled and shot him a playful glare. "You know what’s good for you."

The two of them schemed for a long time, devising countermeasures for all the "outsiders’" potential plots. They would deal with whatever came their way. And as a reward for Li Xiang’s "good sense," Jiang Cai’Er rewarded him with a new position.

Unlocking this new position seemed to make their Dual Cultivation technique, Star Dome Concerto: Simurgh’s Nine Melodies, even more miraculously effective. Both of them felt their Spiritual Power increase by a large margin, becoming more agile and flowing even more smoothly than before.

It is worth noting that the globally released first volume of Li’s Breathing Method and Body Techniques did not include this Dual Cultivation Technique. Li Xiang felt that if this technique were to get out, it would be inappropriate and could lead to all sorts of trouble.

He had also warned Xu Xuan and Zhang Youyou not to share it with anyone else.

In fact, Xu Xuan and Zhang Youyou intended to keep it as a secret technique for their family line. Why would they ever share it with outsiders? Even if Li Xiang hadn’t warned them, they never would have.

Xu Xuan and Zhang Youyou were now the leaders of Underground City 32 and had three sons and two daughters. The number of their publicly acknowledged children even surpassed Li Xiang’s.

The patriarch of the Xu Family had passed away not long ago, so Xu Xuan naturally took control of Underground City 32. It helped that he and Zhang Youyou were the city’s strongest fighters—both being Tier Eight Extraordinary Beings—and that the Xu and Zhang Families held considerable influence there.

With transportation links severed, contact was largely limited to the internet. The "Dukes" of the various Underground Cities were, in fact, all harboring ambitions of independence. After all, the central authority was too far away to exert any real control.

For now, no Underground City dared to take such a defiant step and risk universal condemnation. But it was hard to say what might happen in the long run—after eight or ten years, or even several decades.

For the time being, Li Xiang had no time to worry about such matters. He seized every available moment for his Cultivation. If he couldn’t gain control over Earth and expel the Exotic Beasts, then all Earth Humans would die once those few Divine King Realm Exotic Beasts achieved their goal.

No matter how Solid the Underground Cities were, they couldn’t withstand an Exotic Beast of the Divine King Realm. What’s more, after a Divine King Realm Exotic Beast merged with the planet’s will, it would advance even further. Li Xiang had no idea what Realm that next stage was.

Jiang Cai’Er speculated it would be something like a "Planet Dominator" or "Master of Earth."

If this was the state of China’s Underground Cities, the situation abroad was even worse. They had long since splintered, each fighting for itself and forming one underground kingdom after another. Some nations now existed in name only.

...

「India, the Bihar Underground City.」

In a tunnel thick with the stench of rot and blood, Amir used a Bone Blade to slit the throat of the last Armor-Eroding Lizard. Foul, stinking blood splattered across his bronze face.

He wiped his face and roared at the thirteen ragged Dalit youths behind him, "Strip the back armor off these beasts! Tonight, our blades will be watered with the blood of Brahmins!"

At midnight, under the dim lights of the Underground City, the group of Lower-Caste Extraordinary Beings crouched behind a high wall. Amir stroked a gauntlet fashioned from the claws of an Armor-Eroding Lizard. In the faint light of a distant streetlamp, a cold glint danced across its seven steel talons.

He suddenly exploded into motion, shattering the iron gate of the Upper-Caste residential district. The shotguns of two Sikh guards behind the gate roared to life.

"Bangalore-made garbage!" Amir sneered, letting the lead pellets spark harmlessly against his chest as his steel claws shot out like vipers, piercing the guards’ throats. He was a Tier Eight Extraordinary Being and wore armor fashioned from Exotic Beast shells. He had no fear of bullets; even an RPG couldn’t harm him.

Alarms blared. Amir roared in a thick Bihar accent, "Shiva has given us fangs!" A dozen shadows charged out from behind him. Their Exotic Beast Bone Blades sliced through power cables, plunging the entire block into darkness.

A brutal street fight erupted, turning the alleyways into a slaughterhouse.

A corpulent Kshatriya merchant had just raised his gold-plated pistol when Pu Ya, a young Dalit girl, pinned him to the wall with the tail spike of an Armor-Eroding Lizard.

"My mother washed your blood-soaked clothes for twenty years!" she shrieked, twisting the spike. The merchant’s intestines, mixed with what looked like gold dust, spilled from his abdomen.

In the distance, Amir’s furious roar echoed—he was tearing the roof off a bulletproof jeep with his bare hands, dragging out the municipal official hiding inside to use as a human shield.

Over an hour later, Amir climbed a water tower, stepping on the severed arm of the Brahmin City Lord. He raised the City Lord’s still-dripping golden seal. Below, more than three hundred blood-soaked Dalits raised weapons fashioned from the limbs of Exotic Beasts and, in twenty different dialects, roared the same phrase: "The chains of Jati are broken!"

Jati refers to the hereditary occupational divisions within India’s Caste system. The Dalits are the so-called untouchables, or the "Fifth Caste," who fall outside the four main Castes. Of the four primary Castes, the first two are considered high and the last two are low. The fourth, the Shudras, are limited to menial occupations such as waiters, servants, and artisans. The Dalits are ranked even lower. When the Lower Castes grasped Extraordinary power, they naturally awakened and sought to crush the Upper Castes underfoot. No one is born a slave.