Chapter 15: A rather intriguing encounter.

Not long after Li Chunsheng stormed out of the president’s office with such bravado, he actually started to regret it.

To be honest, his earlier reaction had just been the righteous indignation of a pure-love warrior—in other words, he’d lost his head in anger.

Once that anger was vented, Li Chunsheng began worrying whether the hard-won job he’d found would just blow up like this.

But surprisingly, until he clocked out, Mu Shengling showed no reaction to his offense.

“Could it be… that woman didn’t even get angry after what I did to her?” Li Chunsheng was utterly puzzled, completely unaware that his angry act had actually been useful.

With doubts in mind, Li Chunsheng punched out, left the company, and—following the address Mu Shengling gave him—took over an hour’s bus ride to the outskirts of District 13.

Getting off the bus, he saw a dense shantytown stretching out, connecting to endless fields in the distance—all appearing before him.

Speaking of this, it was time to introduce the oft-mentioned District 13.

The so-called District 13 was fully named 【13th Diocese】.

The Holy Tower Church had 13 dioceses under it. Besides the Central Diocese, the others were numbered from 2nd to 13th, each governed by a saintess of different domains.

These 13 dioceses, as the Holy Tower Church claimed, were the only remaining paradise in the human world. Beyond the high walls of the dioceses lay vast death wastelands where humans had long vanished.

The death wastelands teemed with billions of magical beasts, mostly wild goblins of various kinds. Ordinary humans leaving diocesan protection and venturing into the wilderness had only death awaiting them.

The dioceses weren’t connected; the vast death wastelands separated them.

Thus, every three years, War Temple organized and dispatched large-scale armies to clear monsters near inter-diocesan routes, maintaining contact and supply transport.

This geographical isolation led to distinct cultures between dioceses. For example, the mainstream culture in the 13th Diocese was quite similar to the Huaxia civilization Li Chunsheng knew from his previous life.

Back to District 13—though numbered last, it had the largest land area of all dioceses, spanning over a million square kilometers.

However, besides one large urban area, the rest was vast rural agricultural zones, making up over 90% of the district.

This was because the 13th Diocese’s assigned task was producing various agricultural products and biological goods for the human world—it was directly under Life Temple.

Though District 13 was immensely vast, its personnel quota was restricted to roughly the same as other dioceses. To maintain order in the urban area and border walls, rural agricultural zones’ order was selectively overlooked, forming power vacuums—as long as the countryside delivered required products, the church turned a blind eye.

This led to District 13 having far more gray areas than other dioceses.

And this was the background allowing Li Chunsheng, arriving at these urban-rural outskirts, to access gray industries.

The boundary between city and countryside always bred fertile soil for darkness.

Criminals committing crimes in the city fled to the endless countryside. After laying low, they needed new identities to return to urban life.

Though personnel flowed frequently here, outsiders were heavily excluded.

If Li Chunsheng came without introduction, he’d accomplish nothing.

Li Chunsheng stood at the shantytown’s edge, hesitated only briefly, then stepped in. He passed through shacks amid locals’ wary or curious gazes, navigating narrow paths.

After twists and turns, he unexpectedly exited the shantytown. A vast freshly sown field appeared before him.

“Uh…” Li Chunsheng rubbed his eyes and carefully checked the note again.

Yes, this was the place.

“The address Mu Shengling gave me… is here…?”

“There’s nothing here but…”

The note said to come to this area and find a small house with a red roof.

“Where’s any small house? Except that public toilet…” Li Chunsheng scanned around, his face growing more serious upon seeing the toilet.

Public toilet? Red roof?

An incredulous expression appeared on Li Chunsheng’s face: “Could it be… this public toilet?”

“Mu Shengling, you’re not messing with me, are you?”

“Or are you mocking me—telling me to eat sht…” Veins bulged on Li Chunsheng’s forehead.

Over an hour’s trip to find a public toilet. What kind of abstract joke was this?

Calm down, calm down. He’d already vented on her earlier…

“Maybe this is great concealment in sht…” Li Chunsheng consoled himself inwardly. Since he was here, might as well check inside.

“But if it’s really in a public toilet, how exactly do we transact? Butt stuff?” He thought absurdly.

Li Chunsheng walked in and saw a small window with an old lady sitting inside—it was indeed a pay toilet.

The old lady was engrossed in a romance novel, paying no attention to the man entering.

“…” Li Chunsheng pinched his chin, deep in thought.

After a while, following the note, he tentatively said: “A tree ten spans around?”

The old lady’s body jolted at the words. Her focused gaze finally shifted from the romance novel to Li Chunsheng.

“Began as a sprout.” The old lady’s eyes lit up as she replied.

“Uh… yeah.” Li Chunsheng grunted, inwardly sweating—somehow he couldn’t view the word “began” normally anymore.

The old lady smiled and pointed toward the men’s side: “Then go in and squat well. You’ll get what you want.”

Though the scene felt utterly bizarre, Li Chunsheng obeyed and entered.

“Maybe this is professional cover?”

Li Chunsheng picked a random stall, closed the door, lightly squatted, and waited patiently.

“What will happen? How do I contact the person who can help?”

But reality gave him no more time to think. Soon, hurried footsteps approached.

The steps quickly reached the adjacent stall, paused, then leisurely entered.

“Here?” Li Chunsheng’s nerves tensed.

But what followed instantly disappointed him.

He heard forceful straining from next door, followed by a barrage of loud splatters.

Then an extremely foul smell wafted over.

“Damn… someone really came to take a dump…”

“Then when will the person I’m waiting for arrive?”

Li Chunsheng could only keep waiting, but no one else entered the toilet.

The longer he waited, the more impatient he grew, starting to believe Mu Shengling had pranked him.

“Fine, fine. I was even regretting hurting her a bit… Now I really think that b*tch Mu Shengling deserves it!”

“I spent all this time just to come to the suburbs and use the toilet?”

During this time, the toilet’s stench grew thicker. Li Chunsheng couldn’t endure it anymore and stood abruptly to leave.

Perhaps from squatting too long, his head spun, and he felt like he was hallucinating.

He actually thought the toilet smell… was speaking?

“Brother, brother! If you hear this, respond in your mind!”

Li Chunsheng snapped alert: “No, it really is speaking!”

This was too strange—he’d never encountered anything like it in his life.

“What’s going on? Is this a temple authority?!” Li Chunsheng’s mind raced: “I’ve never heard of a temple category with such a weird authority?”

It seemed to use self-produced stench as a bridge to transmit information.

What principle was this? Pheromones?

“Brother, some things are better not thought about too much?” Another voice sounded, full of warning.

Mind reading? Li Chunsheng’s hairs stood on end. He wasn’t sure if this was a bluff.

“Alright, I don’t want to know extras. Just think in your mind the appearance of the person you want ID for, and the relevant details.”

Hearing this, Li Chunsheng dared think nothing extra. He focused on picturing Liuxia’s appearance and the info to forge.

For anything else, he didn’t dare think—just repeated the info he wanted to convey, like chanting sutras.

“Oh oh… what a beautiful little girl.” The voice exclaimed: “This girl has the bearing of a saintess!”

“Liuxia, rural girl, came to city to rely on kind net friend… Got it. I feel your sincerity too… you’re not here to catch me…”

“Then let’s set a time?”

“50,000 Black Iron coins, one week later—money and goods exchanged simultaneously, no bargaining. If you don’t have the money, I’ll have to sell this info to someone else to recoup losses.”

Saying that, the person seemed to pull up his pants and left casually.

Hearing the number, Li Chunsheng sucked in a cold breath, somewhat regretting offending Mu Shengling so harshly.

His total savings so far barely exceeded 10,000 Black Iron coins.

Maybe Mu Shengling would lend money…?

But going back to borrow from her now—he couldn’t swallow his pride. No choice, Li Chunsheng had to find ways to get money elsewhere.

“Sigh… never thought someone like me would have a day lacking money.”

“Looks like I have to figure out how to make some.” Li Chunsheng’s head ached.