My career aspirations have come true.

Chapter 66 You're being far too optimistic.

The basement of Nightingale Bar.

The damp, musty air clung to the exposed skin like solidified glue.

Water seeping from the corner dripped down the mottled cracks in the brickwork, making a monotonous pattering sound in the deathly silence.

This is a converted underground storage room, now used as a temporary detention cell.

"Brother Chen... Brother Chen..."

A familiar voice called out in my ear.

Chen Qi opened his eyes with difficulty; his vision was blurry at first, then slowly focused.

What comes into view are four friends chained to a cold wall.

Their clothes were already tattered, and their exposed skin was covered with whip marks, burns, and bruises. Some wounds were still slowly bleeding, leaving dark red trails in the dim light.

It was Tao Le, the youngest of them, who woke him up.

He was only in his early twenties, his face still bearing the naivety of a young man, but at this moment, his usually smiling eyes were filled with pain and worry.

His legs were twisted at an odd angle, and his legs below the knees were swollen and shiny, clearly indicating that his joints had been repeatedly struck with a heavy object.

Chen Qi was about to speak when he suddenly gasped.

Having recently been severely beaten, he was in no better condition than the others, his body covered in wounds.

In other words, the Blood Eagles wanted to pry the alchemy formula out of him, so they were holding back.

Otherwise, as the instigator of the bar attack, he would probably have been tortured to death by now.

"Taole...how are you?"

After catching his breath, Chen Qi spoke with difficulty.

"I'm fine..." Tao Le tried to force a smile, but it aggravated the wound on her lip, causing her to gasp in pain. "Brother Chen, I'm sorry... If it weren't for saving us, you wouldn't have..."

"Don't say such things." Chen Qi interrupted him, shifting his body with difficulty, the chains clanging. "We're brothers, how could I stand by and watch someone die?"

Despite saying that, Chen Qi was actually sighing inwardly.

His original plan was quite good.

Taking advantage of Bloodhawk's recent predicament due to the dual pressures of the Legion and the timing of events, which prevents him from focusing on Nightingale Bar, attacking the bar and rescuing Tao Le and the other three should not be a big problem.

But who would have thought that there would be seven or eight professionals on duty here today!

The scarred man leading the group is a level 3 berserker!

After a fierce battle, he was finally subdued by Blood Eagle's men.

Not only did he fail to rescue his companion, he also got himself killed.

"It's all my fault..." Tao Le's voice trembled with tears, "If only I hadn't been so impulsive..."

"That's enough." Old Zhou suddenly spoke up, his voice weak but firm. "Any one of us would have intervened if we saw those beasts trying to harm a teenage girl."

"Old Zhou is right," another tall, thin young man said, enduring the excruciating pain. "None of us brothers are cowards who would stand by and watch someone die."

"Look on the bright side, all five of us brothers are here together. Although we can't live together, it's not bad to die together."

"Shut your mouth," the other man laughed and cursed. "I still want to live. What if someone comes to rescue us?"

"I'd like to, but we're all here, who else will come to save us?"

"Don't be so pessimistic. Maybe the timing is just right for this bar, and it might save us all in the process."

"Haha, you're being way too optimistic..."

The group was chatting and making the best of a bad situation when they suddenly heard a commotion outside.

This was followed by a chorus of shouts and screams.

The five people in the cell immediately stopped talking and looked at each other in bewilderment.

What happened?

Before they could figure it out, they heard the commotion spreading rapidly in their direction.

The next second, with a loud bang, the iron door of the cell was smashed open from the outside, and the entire door, along with the frame, flew in and crashed heavily to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

A figure flew in, tracing an arc in the air before crashing heavily onto the concrete floor in the center of the cell.

Chen Qi and his group of five stared wide-eyed, only to be astonished to find that the man lying on the ground was the scarred man.

The guy who had tortured them so brutally not long ago was now a cold corpse.

His body was covered with countless cuts, but strangely, no blood flowed from them.

His skin was deathly pale, as if all the blood had been drained from his body.

blah blah.

Footsteps sounded.

A tall, handsome man walked in.

He was wearing a long black overcoat, which was free of any bloodstains, yet he exuded a faint, lingering scent of blood.

Most striking are the dozen or so crescent-shaped blades that hover around him, moving slowly with his steps and always following closely beside him.

Under the lights, those crescent-shaped blades gleamed with an eerie, bloody light, clearly formed from condensed blood.

"Blood...blood manipulation!"

Chen Qi's pupils suddenly contracted.

He had heard of this ability.

The winter solstice of this day is said to be a mysterious and powerful being who can manipulate blood and whose fighting style is unpredictable!

Tao Le and the others were clearly aware of the newcomer's identity, and they were all so shocked that they couldn't speak.

Dongzhi's gaze slowly swept over the five people.

For some reason, Chen Qi and the other four felt as if they had been seen through by the other party in an instant.

"Can you still move?" Dongzhi asked calmly.

Chen Qi was taken aback for a moment, then quickly nodded: "Yes, yes!"

The moment the words left his mouth, a crimson curved blade flashed by, severing the chains binding Chen Qi with a hiss.

At the same time, the chains binding the other four people were also cut.

"This is yours."

As soon as Chen Qigang steadied himself, Dongzhi tossed him a backpack.

He hurriedly caught it, opened it, and found inside were the alchemy tools that had been confiscated from him.

This included five or six bottles of treatment potions he had made himself.

"Th-thank you!"

Chen Qi quickly took out the treatment medicine, first gave it to Tao Le, who was the most seriously injured, and then distributed it to the others.

Winter Solstice stood quietly to the side, waiting for them to regain some of their mobility before speaking: "Blood Eagle's reinforcements will arrive soon, you'd better leave immediately."

"We'll be going now." Chen Qi nodded hurriedly, then thanked Dongzhi excitedly, "Thank you for saving us, Mr. Dongzhi."

The others also thanked the Winter Solstice in turn, their expressions full of genuine gratitude.

They were in despair, thinking they were doomed, but unexpectedly, a miracle happened, and a timely person actually appeared and saved them.

Dongzhi glanced at them and said indifferently, "Just something I did on the spur of the moment."

"Speak," he said, turning and walking towards the stairs.

Chen Qi opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but Dong Zhi's figure had already disappeared around the corner of the stairs.

It wasn't until Dongzhi's figure disappeared at the top of the stairs that the five of them came to their senses and hurriedly helped each other up the stairs, staggering as they went.

The bar lobby was even more chaotic than during the day.

Many corpses lay scattered on the ground, their deaths as bizarre as the scarred man's.

Chen Qi glanced at it once and then looked away, not daring to look any longer.

They slipped out of the bar's back door, walked through two alleys, and only stopped to rest in a quiet alley after getting far away from Bihu Street.

Tao Le slumped to the ground, panting heavily, but her face was filled with the joy of surviving a disaster.

"We...we really escaped!"

Old Zhou leaned against the wall; the medication had begun to take effect, and the pain in his chest had significantly lessened.

"Thanks to Mr. Dongzhi, the people of Tianshi are truly as amazing as the rumors say."

"I've said it before, Tian Shi is different from other guilds. We never bully the weak or do evil. Now you believe me, right?"

"I should have asked Mr. Dongzhi to take me into the celestial realm."

"Stop daydreaming. With our current strength, they probably wouldn't even look at us."

"I'd be happy to do even a menial job."

After laughing and joking around to vent their excitement at being rescued, the group finally got down to business.

"What should we do now?"

All eyes turned to Chen Qi.

As the strongest and most opinionated of the five, Chen Qi has always been the core of this small group.

Chen Qi pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "We can't stay in the North District. Blood Eagle suffered such a huge loss, they will definitely hunt us down like crazy."

"Where shall we go?" Tao Le asked.

"The West District." Chen Qi's eyes were firm. "The guilds there are relatively weak, there are more freelancers, and I've heard that there are quite a few groups in the West District formed by people like us who disapprove of the guilds' behavior. If we go there, we might be able to find a place to stay."

Old Zhou was the first to agree: "That's good. No matter how powerful Blood Eagle is, it can't control the West District."

The other three exchanged glances and also expressed their agreement.

"Then it's settled." Chen Qi stood up, dusted himself off, and said, "Let's not delay, let's go now!"

Under the cover of night, the group quietly left the North District.