What the hell is the "kill line" when you're in America?

Li Ang's gaze shifted back and forth between the "clergy" and the system panel.

He had seen demons in human skin, monsters who possessed the bodies of eminent monks, and hypocrites who spouted benevolence and morality but secretly committed acts of annihilation.

But these men in front of me don't seem to have anything to do with the word "demonic cultivator" at all.

Does this system have some misunderstanding about demonic cultivators?

Just as he was pondering this, a small commotion broke out at the front of the group.

Jerome, the bulbous white man who had charged him twenty dollars at the door, was pushing his way to the front of the line.

With a fawning smile, he carefully slipped a few crumpled dollar bills into the blond priest's hand.

The blond priest's smile remained unchanged.

He picked up another one as he went.

"May the Lord bless your daughter, Jerome," the blond priest said gently. "Give my regards to little Anna."

Jerome bent even lower, a hint of gratitude in his bloodshot eyes.

"Thank you, Father, thank you."

He took the two meals, clutched them tightly to his chest as if they were precious treasures, and quickly left the group.

Seeing this, Li Ang understood.

It turned out to be the case.

He now understood Jerome's true purpose in collecting "protection money" at the entrance of the shelter.

It wasn't for himself, but so he could get an extra serving of food.

Li Ang had already received today's "relief meal" from several pastors.

His gaze fell on the steaming soup on the plate.

The aroma of food filled my nostrils, and the hunger in my stomach grew stronger.

The system's warnings are still ringing in our ears.

These people are no benevolent individuals; they are treacherous demonic cultivators with sinister intentions. They act covertly, their aim is to bring about downfall. We must uncover their wickedness and thwart their cunning schemes.

His intuition, honed over a hundred years in the world of cultivation, combined with the system's prompts.

This made him feel that there was something wrong with these pastors.

This feeling wasn't murderous intent, nor was it demonic energy; rather, it was a strange sense of unease.

Li Ang left the group expressionlessly.

They didn't look for a seat, nor did they find a place to sit down.

"Cough...cough cough..."

"Aren't you going to eat?" the white-haired old man asked.

It was the old man who shared the upper bunk with him.

Li Ang shook his head.

He gave his own relief meal to the old man.

"Thank you... cough... cough cough cough..."

Whether it was because he was too happy or something else, the white-haired old man accepted the relief meal handed to him by Li Ang with a big smile.

Li Ang glanced at it and then ignored it.

Looking around, I saw a group of ragged people sitting at a dining table, some of whom had simply sat anywhere because there were no seats available.

They ate heartily the relief meals distributed by the pastors, their faces beaming with happiness.

The surrounding environment and the people around him made Li Ang feel even more uneasy.

Out of caution, he preferred to go hungry rather than miss out on finding out exactly where he was.

The system didn't seem to be lying to him...

The cold wind outside invigorated him.

The sun had just risen, and the streets were already packed with people, not only inside the shelters where relief meals were being distributed.

There are also many pastors outside who are organizing the distribution.

Li Ang wrapped his thin clothes tighter and walked forward along the sidewalk.

He wanted to see what this place, which the police officer had described as "a bit chaotic," was really like.

I can't walk more than a hundred meters.

The streets were filled with all sorts of people, with many gathering in certain corners or even on the streets themselves.

Li Ang had no idea what they were doing, and he didn't go closer to take a look.

The information above their heads was even more exaggerated than that inside the shelter.

[The critical point of death: critical (overconsumption of body-tempering elixir, nearing its end)]

【...】

Li Ang looked at the diverse crowd, with all sorts of signs above their heads labeled "endangered" and "low risk".

Is America like this?

Isn't the air in America sweet?

Li Ang tried hard to recall his knowledge of America before he transmigrated to the world of cultivation.

But he himself went further and further away.

It wasn't until he saw the figure next to the ATM that Li Ang was brought back to reality.

A woman was huddled next to the ATM, tightly clutching a child wrapped in a tattered rag in her arms.

[The critical stage: critically ill (emaciated, with consciousness on the verge of collapse)]

And the child was even weaker.

[The threshold for elimination: critical (lifeline is like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment)]

Li Ang stopped and watched this scene from afar.

It reminded me of those displaced mortals in the cultivation world.

He had already given Jerome his twenty dollars.

There's nothing he can do.

Li Ang withdrew his gaze and continued forward.

The further you go, the more similar scenes you'll see.

They huddled under the eaves of shops, lay on park benches, and even slept directly on the cold ground.

Li Ang's mood became somewhat heavy.

He thought he had returned to a peaceful and tranquil world.

But the scene before them was even more miserable than that of ordinary towns in the cultivation world.

At least there, people still had a glimmer of hope for life in their eyes.

Here, there is only numbness...

A delicious aroma of food wafted from the street corner.

Following the aroma, Li Ang saw several people dressed as priests distributing food to homeless people who were queuing up.

It's the same: hot soup and bread.

"Next!"

The pastor, who was distributing the food, muttered something as he handed out bread and hot soup to each person.

The people in line lowered their heads and silently accepted the gifts.

Li Ang noticed that the kill lines above these people's heads were also red.

Those priests, along with the priests in the asylum, all had a high kill threshold.

[Kill threshold: Medium]

He did not step forward.

His intuition told him that the two groups distributing food might have some kind of connection.

He turned and walked into a deeper alley, intending to circle around the detention center from another direction.

The alley was piled with garbage and reeked of a nauseating stench.

As soon as Li Ang stepped inside, he heard a faint groan.

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a thin man lying next to a trash can.

There were still white bread crumbs left at the corners of his mouth.

[The critical point of death: endangered (abuse of elixirs, poisoning of the heart)]

erysipelas?

He knows it all too well.

When cultivators take elixirs, they know that every medicine has some toxicity, and some impurities that cannot be refined will always settle in their bodies.

Small amounts accumulate and eventually lead to erysipelas.

At best, one's cultivation will stagnate; at worst, one's meridians will be severed, leading to death by explosion.

The man lying on the ground had bread crumbs at the corner of his mouth, indicating that he had just eaten.

His cause of death, however, was erysipelas attacking his heart.

Li Ang squatted down, extended two fingers, and placed them on the man's wrist.

The meridians are extremely weak, and the life force is almost exhausted.

"Relief meals..."

The food distributed by those "priests" was problematic.

He recalled the "happy and content" expressions on the faces of the homeless people in the shelter after they ate their food.

Perhaps it's not happiness.

A chill ran through him, and his expression turned sinister.

I had some vague guesses in my mind.

These so-called "priests" are exploiting these homeless people in a slow and insidious way.

They accelerated the process of these people falling below the "kill line".

But what is their purpose?

For money? These homeless people are penniless.

Is it just for amusement?