Today, they too are going to their deaths.

Cui Xun followed the scent of the spellcaster across most of the city.

The air grew increasingly murky, and he gradually felt a tightness in his throat, involuntarily furrowing his brow.

He noticed that the area he was in was littered with all sorts of garbage, debris, and waste, and he could also see dark brown objects faintly visible in the snow; it was practically a dumping ground for filth.

However, even in such a place, people still live, only their houses are smaller and more dilapidated than those of the people on the previous streets. They are simply pieces of discarded planks and boxes haphazardly pieced together, with something filling the gaps between them.

The wind can easily penetrate these "shacks," and the snow can easily crush them, but the people here seem to be exceptionally resilient. Even if they encounter such a situation, they can rebuild the shacks.

Or rather, they "have no choice" but to rebuild the shacks.

"Cough cough." Someone spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm, the dark yellow phlegm stained with blood looked so conspicuous and disgusting.

This is not an isolated case; almost everyone here coughs, and a series of coughs can be heard from time to time.

Some sounds were drawn out, some were rapid, and some had a sticky, moist texture, accompanied by churning phlegm.

Cui Xun felt nauseous.

Given the circumstances, it's easy to conclude that ordinary citizens wouldn't dare come here, and nobles would never even consider it.

But the people here just make do, at most turning over the snow and using it to bury the filth.

After all, they were just going to get through their lives like this.

Cui Xun continued walking forward, taking in everything that was happening here.

Women with sunken eyes, looking like skin wrapped around bones, were weaving baskets and pasting matchboxes, chattering to each other; a man without an arm lay in a makeshift "house" made of two planks, silently gazing at the snow, saying nothing, curled up; a child sobbed softly, afraid to shed tears, afraid to make a sound...

Cui Xun saw a group of people kneeling around a large, indistinguishable mass of grayish-black flesh, carefully touching and embracing it, as if they were performing some kind of cult ritual.

No matter how hard he tried to investigate, Cui Xun couldn't find any trace of the supernatural. He could only vaguely sense that these people were experiencing a heart-wrenching pain that they couldn't cry out.

Cui Xun did not disturb these people and continued forward.

He saw a dozen or so people surrounding a dying man in an open space, listening to the deceased's whispered murmurs.

"The medical school doesn't want a heavily contaminated corpse like me, so let's all divide it up ourselves."

"Martha, my hands and feet should last for a while. You finally found a job as a laundry worker, so you need to build up your strength and not overwork yourself. Remember to scrape off the skin and cut it slowly from the outside. Be sure to soak it and filter it before eating, and be especially careful not to touch the bones. I feel my bones are hurting terribly, there must be something stuck inside."

"Don't my eyes look bright? Dig them out while they're still hot and have the best-looking young man take them to the art pawnshop right away. They'll definitely love this strange thing. Remember to tell them the stories I often tell. They're kind people; that'll surely get them to give you more money."

"My skin... I'm not very good at tanning leather, so Warren can handle it. As for my internal organs, whatever you do, don't touch them, throw them as far away as possible. I felt a lot of pain in my internal organs a few days ago, so they must have some serious problems."

"And my teeth, my skull, I..."

The dying man's voice faded away. He left this world before he could finish speaking his last words.

The crowd surrounded him, remaining motionless for a long time. Finally, someone suggested, "We are men of principle; let's bury Mr. Carter in the snow."

Some protested, "But what are we supposed to do? Are we going to let ourselves die so that someone can die with dignity?"

Someone retorted, "Otherwise what? Are you really going to skin such a good person alive?"

Their argument was likely to continue for quite some time. After confirming that they had nothing to do with the Serpent Worship Cult, Cui Xun left and continued on his way.

Then, Cui Xun saw a boy, shorter than his thigh, suddenly collapse and stop breathing not far from him.

He was small and thin, his body shriveled up, and when he fell into the snow, it seemed as if he was about to melt into it.

Cui Xun's knowledge of medicine was not deep, but he noticed that this place, which even ordinary people deliberately forgot, and which even the job seekers he met on his first night were unwilling to come to, was completely a "final stop".

This place is mostly inhabited by destitute people who can only support each other, as well as the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled who have lost their ability to work. The latter often suffer from terminal illnesses.

These incurable diseases of the industrial age, even in later generations, would mostly require extensive equipment to treat, and might even necessitate organ transplants. In this era, they would be completely incurable and would be unsellable.

Although Cui Xun felt he was quite capable in combat, he had no ability to save people... or perhaps he simply hadn't developed it yet and felt incapable of doing so.

Want to give it a try?

The most important thing now is to find the spellcaster. Cui Xun guessed that she had already realized she was being followed, and that after some time, she might use some means to remove the scent from her body.

Once he loses track of that person, he might not be so lucky to thwart her schemes again.

Destruction is far easier than prevention.

But if he didn't try it this once, Cui Xun felt he would feel very uncomfortable.

Cui Xun approached the boy who had just died, his willpower probing into his body, searching along his lungs and respiratory tract for possible causes of his death.

Recent injuries, skeletal deformities, pneumoconiosis, tuberculosis, heart failure, poisoning by various chemicals... but the most crucial thing is cotton wool.

Cui Xun's fingers trembled.

He could imagine children around four or five years old being sent to textile factories, where their wages were as low as their age, and they were beaten and scolded for the slightest mistake. The strenuous work and unprotected contact with hazardous materials left them covered in injuries.

Ultimately, one day, they met their end, abruptly yet inevitably.

The foreman complained that the little brat hadn't come, and the others in the slums dumped the poisoned corpse somewhere, and a life was forgotten... unless someone wanted to use the inferior bone charcoal to make sugar.

This is a common but irreversible death. Children die like this every moment in this country, and to solve this problem, we need to address it from a higher, more fundamental perspective, rather than wasting time on the dying.

But Cui Xun would still sometimes impulsively try to save the one in front of him.

Cui Xun positioned the boy in a lying position, then formed his palms into a knife and lightly slashed at the boy's chest.

His willpower, sharpened to its limit under his command, was like a blade that sliced ​​through the skin, muscles, and fat along the gaps between the ribs, revealing the boy's chest condition to him.

This is terrible; perhaps only God can save us from this situation.

Now, there are no gods here, but there are those who slay monsters.

Cui Xun slashed his left wrist, letting his blood fall onto the boy.

If his body obeyed his commands, then now he commanded it to adapt to the boy's body, to become a part of him, and to preserve his life.

So the hot blood became gentle, it invaded the boy's body, hijacked his organs, made up for his deficiencies, and temporarily replenished his oxygen needs.

But that's not enough. This blood might restore the boy to health in a few months, but it won't clear the foreign object from his body.

Therefore, Cui Xun took care of everything else.

Cui Xun patiently waited for the blood to gather all the tiny problems together. Then, he decisively used his willpower to transform into tweezers and a scalpel to remove the dirty stuff and throw it away.

"Cough cough." The boy's breathing returned to normal.

But another problem stood in Cui Xun's way: should he try to use his own flesh and blood to sew up the boy's chest, or try other more common materials?

"I'll do it." A bitter voice rang out.

A woman with a festering face, exuding the scent Cui Xun was searching for, approached Cui Xun, muttered a few strange words, and made a few hand gestures.

The edges of the boy's chest wound transformed into a snake's head, constantly swaying. The wound followed the swaying of the snake's head, constantly moving closer, and finally successfully pieced the open chest back together, except for an additional snake-shaped mark on the chest.

The woman gazed tenderly at the dying boy. After a moment, she turned to Cui Xun and exclaimed, "You are truly a patient and generous bishop. Well then, let the child rest here, and we'll go to a secluded corner to resolve this matter."

Cui Xun calmly replied, "Okay."

The two headed towards a more secluded area.

Then, the strange spellcaster closed his eyes, spread his hands, and showed an expression as if he were going to his death, which startled Cui Xun, who wanted to have a serious conversation.

Oh, indeed, normally the other party should be killed at this point, but Cui Xun, who is short of manpower and lacks intelligence, does not actually want to simply put an end to all of this.

If the woman resisted, he might have beaten her half to death before interrogating her for information. In the current situation, however, it was not convenient for Cui Xun to take action.

He couldn't understand what kind of mentality the woman had when she turned back.

Worried that he might intimidate and massacre the locals? Suspecting he's manipulating their minds and wanting to expose his deception? Hoping to meet a truly good person who will kill her as she walks down a path of despair?

Regardless, it was a response of kindness from her heart that made her decide to turn back and face her pursuers.

Cui Xun reminded him, "I'm not prepared to kill you just like that. I want to know your reasons first."

"Reasons?" The woman with the festering sores on her face grinned. Her mouth was in even worse shape than her face, with pus oozing out, but her words were still incredibly clear, even more so than before: "Everything here is a reason."

"We are in hell, and those factories keep pushing more people into hell. Children are trafficked, corpses are commodities, the dead are not pitied, everyone is oppressed, squeezed out of the last bit of value."

"So, I want more people to die."

"I want to see this country burn, to see all those standing on the edge of the cliff fall, to see those well-dressed people dragged down into the abyss by the madmen, I want everyone to suffer as I have!"

"Is this reason enough?"

Cui Xun nodded sincerely: "That's enough. Such a reason can indeed drive someone to do that. I don't mean to criticize you from a superior position; I just wanted to ask you a question."

"Would you be willing to dedicate your life to a greater cause, trying to pull people out of hell, weaving a safety net?"

The woman's hands trembled violently, and a sinister color crept across her face, making her look like she would unleash her full power at the slightest provocation. Even her voice trembled: "You snake-hybrid bastard, are you trying to deceive me again?!"

"You didn't do any of those things! You crawled out of hell just to push more people down to hell!"

"You just want to curry favor, to become nobles, and to enjoy the privileges that come with power!"

Cui Xun calmly said, "My words are not lies. I will prove my goal with my actions."

"Recently, I've been busy pushing forward with minimum wage standards, universal education, and factory safety regulations, so I haven't had a moment to spare."

"I need someone who is familiar with the slums, sympathetic to the poor, and preferably has some special skills to help me work among the poor."

The woman scoffed incredulously, "You actually need to recruit me? Have all your little snakes died out, Your Excellency the Bishop?!"

Cui Xun said sincerely, "I am not a member of the Serpent Worship Cult. I only killed a monster related to the Serpent Worship Cult and then obtained its power. I know nothing about the power of the Serpent Worship Cult."

The woman's pupils suddenly contracted; she couldn't understand what Cui Xun meant: "Are you saying that you used bewitching words to drive everyone on the street mad, causing such a commotion, but you haven't actually practiced the secret arts of snakes at all?"

"What kind of monster did you kill?!"

Cui Xun replied innocently, "I don't know, but it's very powerful."

The woman clutched her head, collapsing in despair, "This is completely illogical! Your recruitment is illogical too! You should execute me, the traitor! Even if you're not a member of the Serpent Cult, you should at least eliminate me, who almost became the catalyst!"

"I don't deserve any sympathy at all!"

Cui Xun affirmed, "Yes, that's why I didn't pity you; I just wanted to use you. If you want me to elaborate..."

"I actually think this place is disgusting, and I never want to come here again in my life."

"I hate the smell here, I hate the lifestyle here, I hate those ugly people, I hate their broken morals. The thought of having to be in contact with these people for a long time makes me feel nauseous."

"And you, you have clearly adapted to the environment here, and genuinely feel that you stand with the locals."

The woman laughed in exasperation and retorted, "Since you're so annoying, why do you expect me to take charge of things here? And to save them?"

Cui Xun answered frankly, "You can take this as a kind of condescending pity."

"My dislike for them doesn't mean I'll abandon them. What I can't do, I'll naturally delegate to others."

"I'm not acting to save anything, but to fulfill my own romantic ideals and incidentally secure a convenient position."

"I am very clear that I am just an imitator. This is not something that only I can do—perhaps one day decades from now, someone will figure out the key on their own, but I can bring that time forward."

"To make as many people as possible happy, we need a huge amount of labor and productivity, enough educated people, help from all walks of life, and to plant seeds in every inch of land."

"Your compassion, your abilities, your courage and determination make me feel that I can change you."

"I believe that if you could see that world, you would give everything you have."

"You don't need to dedicate it to me; just dedicate it to your ideals, and you will be able to help me."

"So, would you like to hear more, to hear me explain that possibility in more detail?"

"Then let's make a deal: exchange the secret methods of the Serpent Worship Cult for my theories."

Without hesitation, the woman replied, "I want to hear it."