Chapter 514: Wild Wolf
“Cultivation resources?” A’Ji scratched his head and said in a slightly troubled manner, “Everyone in Leprosy Village is poor. The places with loads of cultivation resources do illegal businesses, so defenses there are really tight. It’ll be really dangerous if you try taking anything from them. Anyway, I don’t want to go and provoke them.
“If I had to pick one place, though, the village chief has most food and drinkable water in Leprosy Village, so he must have a lot of cultivation resources as well!”
“Leprosy Village has a village chief?”
The moment Meng Chao asked that, he realized that he had just said something really stupid.
Leprosy Village had all sorts of people and its environment was really bad, but since it could trade with the world outside, it was clear that it was not a society operating by the law of the jungle.
There was basic order in the place, and if that was the case, someone had to maintain the order and manage everything.
The village chief probably did not receive orders from the Survival Committee directly, but he would not betray Dragon City, or at the very least, he would not have done that before the Vortex infiltrated his area.
However, Meng Chao did not intend to go for the village chief.
The reason for it was simple: as a target, the village chief was too eye-catching.
Regardless of whether the Vortex had dragged the village chief into the mess or not, after the super crystal bomb explosion, it would definitely attack the village chief.
It would either tempt and coerce him to join its side or kill him.
That was the only way it could throw the situation into chaos and destroy or take over the order in Leprosy Village.
If Meng Chao went to the village chief recklessly, he would only be marching into the trap.
“Tell me. How many forces of power are there in Leprosy Village? Is the village chief the person with the greatest power in the village? How did he become the village chief?” Meng Chao asked.
His question stumped A’Ji.
He scratched his head for a long time before he said, “The village chief is the village chief. How would anyone know why he became the village chief?
“If I were to make a guess, it might be because the village chief often sells large batches of food and water-purification chips from the world outside to us at a very cheap price. So, in reality, he’s just giving them to us for free.
“Surviving in Leprosy Village isn’t easy. It’s normal for you to go hungry. Whoever has food and drinkable water is in control of everything. I think that’s the gist of it?”
“Then…” Meng Chao said without much hope. “Do you know how the village chief manages to get so much food and water? It’s not easy for him to fill the stomachs of all the villagers.”
He did not think that he would get any answers from A’Ji, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
To his surprise, A’ji actually thought about it and gave him the answer. “I think… it’s because the village chief has some connections with Golden Tooth? The village chief might be old as bones now, his beard is almost to the floor, and he looks like he’s going to be blown away by the wind, but I heard that he was really powerful when he was young and even saved Saber Jin Wanhao!
“The village chief and Saber Jin Wanhao are really close. Jin Wanhao is the leader of the greatest gang in the lair and the underground emperor of Dragon City. Out of respect to the village chief, it’s not that much of a problem for him to give some synthetic food and water-purification chips to Leprosy Village, right?”
“I see.” Meng Chao nodded.
The Underground Emperor Jin Wanhao was supporting the village chief. This also explained how Jin Wanhao could ask Leprosy Village to just maintain its order and not cause trouble.
As the Underground Emperor, Jin Wanhao had a close relationship with the nine great mega corporations. He was even the spokesperson for the interests of the nine great mega corporations in the lair.
It was also why Saber Jin Wanhao had readily released most of the data in the lair and mobilized a large number of powerful fighters to work together with the hunting squad.
The Underground Emperor did not seem like someone who would be corrupted by the Vortex and drawn to its side.
In other words, did that mean that Meng Chao could trust Leprosy Village’s chief?
Meng Chao set aside this problem for the time being and continued questioning the boy. “Aside from the village chief, do you have any other powerful people in Leprosy Village? No, I don’t mean the leader of thieves like Boss Feng. I want someone even more powerful. How should I put it? Let’s use this as an example. If the current village chief died one day, who is the most likely to become the next village chief?”
A’Ji blinked and blurted out, “That would be Wild Wolf!”
“Wild Wolf?”
“Yeah. The leader of Wild Wolves. He’s the best fighter in Leprosy Village. All the kids really admire him!”
When A’ji mentioned his idol, he became excited and started explaining things to Meng Chao while gesturing wildly. “Decades ago, there were no gangs in Leprosy Village, because everyone here is a descendant of infectees. Most of the people here have inborn illnesses and all sorts of deformities.
“And most of our inborn illnesses and deformities make us really weak, so we can’t fight at all.
“At that time, even though Saber Jin Wanhao had reluctantly given us a place to stay out of respect for the village chief and sent us synthetic food and water-purification chips regularly, he didn’t do it for free. We had to do manual labor for the gangs in the lair and work hard for any tiny bit of daily necessities.
“It’s just like what you said, Uncle. Even when it comes to trash, the recoverers outside process it first before they send it to the lair, and when it’s delivered to us, we only have trash that contains a lot of acid, poison, inflammable and explosive gas, and trash that is the most dangerous, the most difficult to process, and the least valuable.
“But even when it comes to leftovers like that, we can’t think about getting them just like that. When the gangs in the lair saw that we’re easy targets, they often came to take advantage of us. They dominated our market and forced us to sell and buy things. The only thing that they didn’t do is shit on our heads.
“I heard that the village chief had gone to discuss this with Saber Jin Wanhao a few times. In the beginning, Jin Wanhao executed justice out of consideration to maintain order in the lair. Golden Tooth also treated us pretty nicely.
“But the lair has a lot of gangs. They were good only for a few days before they went back to their old ways. The village chief couldn’t always bother Saber Jin Wanhao with such trivial matters either. So, he asked us to endure it and taught us that our misfortunes are a blessing in disguise.
“I might be young, but I know that all that talk about our misfortunes being blessings in disguise was just plain bullcrap. But we couldn’t do anything about the situation, so we had to accept it. Leprosy Village was in the depths of the lair, so we were living under their roof. The world outside wouldn’t welcome us, so what else could we do aside from enduring it silently?
“The people in Leprosy Village endured it for decades until Wild Wolf appeared out of the blue.
“Honestly, it’s not just Wild Wolf. The first batch of Leprosy Village people who were weak after going through their genetic mutations gradually died out. The ones who managed to survive had endless potential from their mutated genes. This potential made them no longer look human, but gave them astonishing power.
“The descendants of these infectees got together and produced more children. Most of them died of hunger, illness, or some unknown reason, but those who managed to survive were the real powerful people!
“Just like that, Leprosy Village slowly gained its own fighters, and the most outstanding one among them is naturally Wild Wolf.
“I heard that with just one punch, he can blow apart a wall that is half a meter thick and is made of reinforced concrete.
“He can also easily twist eight rebars bound together.
“I even heard that Wild Wolf can fly! It’s true, he can fly!”
A’Ji’s face was full of excitement, and he appeared to long for this ability.
Meng Chao thought. ‘Looks like this Wild Wolf is a Heaven Realm superhuman.
‘He was born in Leprosy Village and relied on his own ability to keep climbing up. He managed to reach Heaven Realm like that, so he does deserve the title of an elite.’
“Wild Wolf is strong, and he’s full of justice as well. If anyone in Leprosy Village is bullied by a gang outside, regardless of whether that person has any connections with Wild Wolf, he will immediately go out and fight for that person. A few years ago, Wild Wolf and his companions fought a few hard battles against the gangs in the lair.
“It didn’t matter whether they lost or won, at the very least, those gangs no longer dared to look down on us. Later, when they traded with us, their prices also became much more reasonable,” A’Ji waved his fists. “After that matter, everyone was really impressed with Wild Wolf, and more people asked to join Wild Wolves and train with him.
“The village chief has a lot of prestige, yeah, but he’s old. Many people don’t like how he’s such a yes-man to the world outside either. But Wild Wolf, he has the guts to fight. It fits the tastes of people in this new era. If there comes a day when Wild Wolves replace Golden Tooth and become the strongest gang in the lair, we’ll live good lives!”
A’Ji was so excited that he gulped.
Meng Chao frowned. “The village chief relies on the support from Golden Tooth to remain the village chief. So it’s only natural that he has to be humble toward Golden Tooth. Wild Wolves is a group of young turks that hope that Leprosy Village can display a firmer attitude against the world outside. Is there any sort of conflict between them?”
A’Ji was slightly stunned, then shook his head. “Conflict? No, no way!
“Even though their attitudes toward the world outside are different, Wild Wolf was brought up by the old village chief. If it weren’t for the village chief’s great care while training him, Wild Wolf could not have possibly become so strong. They are as close as father and son. I’ve never heard of them having any sort of conflict between them.
“Right now, Wild Wolf and Wild Wolves are getting stronger. We’ve been saying in private that even if they can’t win against Golden Tooth, Poison Scorpion, Black Bone, and the other powerful gangs, at the very least, they would have no problem squashing the second-rate gangs in the lair, but due to a single sentence from the old village chief, Wild Wolf decided to stay in place and limit Wild Wolves’ influence in Leprosy Village. Unless someone decides to bully us, they seldom cause trouble. There’s no conflict between them.”
“Alright. So if the village chief lives, Wild Wolf will remain good.” Meng Chao’s mind raced, and he asked, “But what if the old village chief died? Is there anyone who would fight for the position of village chief with Wild Wolf?”
“No, plenty of people already treat Wild Wolf as the next village chief,” A’Ji answered without even thinking.
But after he said that, he hesitated for a moment.
“You’re hesitating,” Meng Chao said. “What is it? Did you think of someone else or some other force of power? It’s fine, tell me. Leave thinking about the possibility of it happening to me. You just need to tell me everything that you know.”
“If I had to pick someone, there is one person who’s on par with the village chief and Wild Wolf when it comes to being trusted and liked,” A’Ji said. “It’s Ms. Mu Lian.”