Fangzhou Xier, starting with failing the art exam

With the blessing of "Unity is Strength," his five senses were also enhanced, and he judged that Serafina was not lying.

They arrived so quickly! Were they henchmen hired by those two thugs? Or were they from the Purification Committee?

Without a second thought, Lacey made a decision instantly.

"Go through the window!" He grabbed the oil lamp on the table, blew it out, and pulled Serafina's hand, rushing towards the only window in the attic.

Just as they climbed out of the window, a loud bang rang out, the fragile wooden door was kicked open, and three dark figures rushed in.

"What about people?"

"The window! They ran out the window! Chase them!"

Lacey and Serafina landed in another alley behind the attic, where a dirty pile of garbage served as a good buffer.

"Who are they?" Lacey asked in a low voice as she pulled Serafina along, running through the alley.

“They’re not guards, they seem more like mercenaries or assassins.” Serafina followed closely behind him, her breathing a little rapid, but her mind was still clear. “They are cold-blooded and have a clear objective: to kill you.”

Killer!

Lacey felt a chill run down her spine.

It seems that my activities during this period have attracted the attention of some people.

The local thugs in the slums can't afford to hire professional hitmen like this.

"Run east, there's an abandoned dye house over there, the terrain is complicated, it'll be easy to escape!" Lacey knew the terrain of this area like the back of her hand.

The two moved through the darkness, with pursuers hot on their heels.

The assassins were clearly familiar with the terrain, and they almost blocked their path several times.

"No, we can't escape like this!" Serafina gasped.

"At that intersection ahead, they'll definitely split up and encircle us! The guy on the left is their leader, the strongest, and the most emotionally stable!"

A sudden inspiration struck Lacey. He stopped, pinned Serafina against the wall at the corner, and said quickly:

“Listen to me, I’ll rush out and distract them.”

"Find an opportunity to get behind them and make a noise with stones or anything else, just enough to distract them for a second!"

“That’s too dangerous!” Serafina immediately objected.

“Trust me!” Lacey’s eyes left no room for doubt. “This is our only chance!”

After saying that, he no longer hesitated, took a deep breath, and suddenly rushed out from around the corner, deliberately exposing himself to the sight of the three assassins.

"He's there!"

The three assassins immediately surrounded her in a triangular formation. The leader was the fastest, and his short knife flashed coldly in the moonlight, aiming straight for Lacey's heart.

Just at this critical moment, a loud crash came from behind them, as if something heavy had collapsed.

The three assassins instinctively glanced back.

It's this very second!

Lacey moved.

Instead of retreating, he faced the leader's blade head-on, took a step forward, and sidestepped, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow.

At the same time, his elbow slammed into the other man's jaw.

With a crisp "crack!", the assassin leader collapsed to the ground before he could even scream.

The other two were shocked and were about to react when Lacey pounced on them.

His movements were clean and efficient, without any fancy moves; they were all deadly techniques honed on the battlefield.

Punches, elbows, and knees rained down on the remaining two men like a storm.

Although those two were skilled fighters, they were no match for Lacey, who was fully enhanced by the "United We Stand" buff and had extensive combat experience.

The battle was over in less than ten seconds.

In the alley, only Lacey remained standing, her chest rising and falling slightly.

Serafina emerged from the shadows, her face filled with shock as she looked at the three corpses lying on the ground.

She never expected that Lacey, who didn't look strong, would have such strength.

Lacey walked up to her, looked at her face which was pale with nervousness, and smiled for the first time.

He stretched out his hand.

"Welcome to the team, Serafina."

Serafina paused for a moment, then smiled and took his hand.

"My pleasure."

[You have gained your first true ally—Serafina Ivanovna Petrova (Arc).]

Her abilities greatly compensate for your shortcomings in intelligence gathering.

Your career has taken a solid first step.

……

……

Holy Leitanian Empire: Chapter Seven: The Founding of the Leitanian Workers' Party

The stench of blood, washed away by the rain, mingled with the foul smell of mud and garbage, filling the nostrils.

Lacey frowned as she looked at the three still-warm corpses on the ground.

These assassins acted decisively, cooperated seamlessly, and were quite capable; they were not the kind of people that ordinary thugs could hire.

"Are they those two?" Serafina asked softly, wiping the rain from her forehead with a handkerchief. Her face looked somewhat pale in the moonlight.

Lacey shook his head, then crouched down and began to search the body of the assassin leader he had killed with a single blow.

He found no insignia or tokens on the body to identify it, only some standard weapons and loose change.

Lacey thought of the count's son she had offended before, and it was Bach who had been instructed by that person.

But from the time he revealed his identity to the execution of Bach, it was only a little over half a month. To send out a professional assassin so quickly and accurately locate him... this efficiency is too high, it doesn't seem like the work of the upper-class gentlemen.

"You mean, someone else is watching us?" Serafina immediately understood what Lacey meant.

“We are like a torch in the darkness right now.” Lacey stood up, her gaze sweeping over the dilapidated rooftops of the slums, silent in the darkness.

"It will always attract some uninvited guests, some are moths trying to extinguish the flame, and others are night travelers trying to see the road by the light of the fire."

He looked at Serafina: "So, we need eyes that can distinguish between moths and night walkers."

Serafina understood immediately and nodded with a smile: "It's my pleasure."

……

For the next week, Serafina became the most popular person in the slums.

She still carries a basket every day, distributing medicine and bread, but the difference is that she is always surrounded by a group of people who want to join Lacey's team.

Lacey set up a temporary recruitment point in an abandoned warehouse in the slums, and anyone who wanted to join had to be interviewed by Serafina first.

The interview process seemed rather comical to outsiders.

Serafina simply chatted with everyone in a friendly manner, asking them why they wanted to join, how many people were in their families, and how they usually made a living.

Her smile was warm and friendly, making people unconsciously lower their guard.

A burly man, patting his chest and spitting as he boasted about his bravery on the battlefield, claiming he could take on ten men single-handedly.

Serafina just listened with a smile, then silently circled the form he filled out and wrote two words next to it: "Cowardly".

There was also a seemingly honest young man who said he joined to fight for the poor.

Serafina, however, drew an X on his form.

When Lacey later asked her why, she suppressed a laugh and said, "All he could think about was how to use us to get revenge on the neighbor who stole his wife."

Serafina pursed her lips: "His enthusiasm is limited to the wall next door."

And so, in the face of Serafina, this human lie detector, all pretense was exposed.

Those with ulterior motives, impure intentions, or who simply wanted to make a living were all filtered out by her without her noticing.

Of course, there were also moments that moved her.

The blacksmith that Lacey had mentioned in his previous speech came with his son.

The blacksmith's hands were as rough as sandpaper, and he said awkwardly, "I...I can't speak, but what Mr. Lacey said really resonated with me."

"This is how my life is going to be, but I don't want my son to be like this."

Serafina "saw" that the man's heart was filled with the most simple and sincere expectations.

She solemnly drew a circle after the blacksmith's name.

A week later, after a selection process, Lacey had gathered more than 300 core followers with unwavering determination.

It was at this moment that Serafina discovered a real traitor.

He was a shrewd-looking man who claimed to be a merchant from a neighboring city. He said he had gone bankrupt because his caravan was confiscated by nobles and he hated the existing system to the core.

His story was flawless, but Serafina saw no intense resentment in him; the man's emotions were as calm as a stagnant pool, utterly undisturbed.

This is highly unusual for someone who has just gone bankrupt and is desperate.

Serafina told Lacey about it, and that night, the man was caught red-handed while trying to eavesdrop on Lacey's meeting with the core members.

Faced with witnesses and evidence, he finally broke down and confessed that he was a spy sent by Count Lenia to find out about Lexi's background and plans.

The crowd was outraged and shouted that they wanted the traitor executed.

Lacey waved her hand, signaling everyone to be quiet.

He walked up to the trembling spy, a slight smile even appearing on his face.

“There’s nothing we can’t tell others about what we’ve done. You can go back and tell that count we’ll be setting up an organization in the slums in three days, and everyone is welcome to come and visit.”

After saying that, Lacey let the spy go.

Three days later, on a makeshift platform in the Salem slums, Lacey stood with three hundred solemn-looking core members behind him.

Below the stage, thousands of residents from the slums gathered, their eyes filled with anticipation and longing.

Lacey could clearly feel invisible forces converging on her from the crowd below.

He cleared his throat, without using any amplification equipment, but his voice clearly reached the ears of everyone present.

"My brothers and sisters, my compatriots!"

Before we stand here, I want to ask you a question: Who are we?

"We are farmers who get up before dawn, work in the fields, but can't even feed ourselves!"

"We are miners who go down into the mines to dig for ore every day, but we live in cellars where we never see the sun!"

“We are factory workers who repeat the same actions tens of thousands of times every day, our fingers are worn raw, our backs are bent, but we can’t even get a decent piece of clothing in return!”

"We are the parents who sent our son to the battlefield to defend this country, only to receive a cold tombstone in return!"

“We are the cornerstone of Letania! The very flesh and blood of this nation! But what do those high and mighty nobles take us for?”

"They treated us like ants that they could crush at will, like livestock that they could exploit at will!"

His voice grew more and more impassioned, and the audience was deeply moved by his words. Many people shed tears and clenched their fists.

"Today, we gather here to tell them—we are not ants, we are not livestock! We are human beings!"

"From this day forward, we will have an organization of our own! Its name is 'Leytania Workers' Party'!"

Lacey suddenly waved his hand, and a huge banner unfurled behind him, with dozens of lines of large characters written in the most striking red paint, all of which were the party's platform.

"We will unite all forces that can be united to overthrow the mountain weighing us down! We will take back everything that belongs to us!"

"I promise you!" Lacey pointed to everyone in the audience, "The Workers' Party will lead everyone to ensure that everyone can afford bread and milk!"

"Let every child be able to enter a bright classroom! Let every elderly person be able to enjoy their later years in peace!"

"I also want to make a promise to you!"