Almost the moment Lu Yan sent out the order, he felt the air around him grow noticeably colder. A fly landed on Lu Yan's shoulder and excitedly rubbed its hands together. Having lived here for almost a week, Lu Yan had grown accustomed to these intrusive and ugly creatures. He took out insect repellent from his pocket and sprayed it twice. Instead of dying, the fly even found the watermelon-scented insect repellent quite compatible with summer, refreshing, and took a couple more sips with its mouthparts. However, sensing Lu Yan's disdain, they buzzed away.
The system said, "[These flies are the eyes used by the slaughterhouse for surveillance.]"
"All of them?"
"Yes."
Lu Yan, holding an umbrella, walked back. It was a day off, and the streets were crowded. Being a major pork-producing province, and X City being the provincial capital of that region, even in the commercial district, one could see several pork stalls that had been in business for centuries. Butchers with broad shoulders and round waists, wearing aprons and sweatshirts, stood in front of the shops. Half-cut pigs hung from hooks without heads.
These shops usually had pig farms behind them, ensuring a stable supply and attracting some traffic to the city center. The scent of blood wafted around Lu Yan.
Honestly, the smell of pig blood and human blood wasn't significantly different. Blood residue traces were visible at the sewer entrance on the roadside, diluted by rainwater. The citizens of X City seemed accustomed to it, not giving it a second glance.
Lu Yan was about to praise the citizens for their resilience when he inadvertently stepped on a small round ball rolling out of a narrow alley. Looking down, he discovered it was an eyeball.
"Wow, it even splatters," he remarked.
Lu Yan glanced into the alley, where it seemed pitch black despite being daytime, with the faint sound of people talking.
"[During the time between placing an order and completing it, you are a star customer for the slaughterhouse.]"
"Butchers understand the customer-first principle, but the one who took your order seems a bit doubtful. You can go or not."
The slaughterhouse had always been a high-risk pollution area on the Tianqi Forum, with scarce information provided. Over more than a decade, people only knew it was located somewhere in X City, and pollutants could be ordered through the mailbox. However, the specific details were unknown because none of the Harbingers who entered the slaughterhouse returned alive.
Lu Yan pondered for a moment. "If I go in, can I come out alive?"
"Of course, you're a customer, not a pig. But you're too sweet and soft, my cute little one. I'm afraid those butchers might mistake you for a pig and slaughter you."
"If you insist on going, I suggest you reveal Wang Yu. Its aura can conceal your origin."
Lu Yan nodded slightly. Holding a red umbrella, he walked into the alley. Fish scales slowly emerged from under his skin. Since the last time a fish tail grew, the area covered by scales on his body had increased.
Wang Yu stuck out its tongue, helping him hold the umbrella. Lu Yan saw his reflection in a puddle; he still wore a mask, and his fingertips had an oddly curved appearance. Fish fins grew behind his ears, and his eye pupils were silver and inorganic.
The alley was paved with bluestones, covered in moss. Under the faint sunlight, three twisted blood-red characters became clear: "Pork Alley."
"[High school Chinese. 豕: pig. 者: what kind of person.]"
Lu Yan looked at it quietly. Due to the significant gap between 豕 and 者, he was uncertain whether it was "Pork Alley" or "Pig Person Meat Alley."
Passing through this dark alley, the scene in front suddenly opened up. Like a vegetable market, pork stalls were arranged on both sides. Many meat vendors had tragically displayed human heads on their cutting boards. Strange pollutants moved among them—some like blobs of slime, others wrapped in black robes with menacing white bones for hands, and some not even human, with necks and heads separated, a plant's stem and leaves growing from the trachea, and a huge rose blooming where the head should be.
Compared to these, Lu Yan looked relatively normal. However, humanoid pollutants were not uncommon. Fish scales effectively masked his presence. Lu Yan only smelled the strong stench of blood in his nose—long-settled blood.
Apart from the sound of big cleavers chopping bones, there was little noise here. Even the constant buzzing of flies around his ears disappeared.
"Be careful," the system whispered.
Although the system was usually not serious, it always became solemn at critical moments. Lu Yan could understand; after all, he was a doctor.
As they joked and laughed in the operating room, with the lead surgeon delivering witty remarks and the assisting doctors appearing rushed in and out, chances were that this patient wouldn't survive. On the contrary, the lead surgeon looked serious, and once outside, the medical staff behaved cautiously and spoke gently, indicating the patient was likely on the verge of death.
He had Wang Yu hold the umbrella, strolling between various meat shops as if he were a regular customer. Undoubtedly, the "meat pigs" here were humans, some still in the process of transforming into pollutants. The latter were often like a bonus deal, chained through their chests, one by one, alongside the pork stalls, showing no signs of life.
Perhaps due to mental preparation, Lu Yan's expression didn't change much. The appearances of these butchers varied. Among them, those using carrying poles to sell meat were the most numerous.
Around their waists, they wore a circle of cowhide paper, with bare upper bodies and triangular hats perched atop their heads, concealing their faces completely. The white hats had no holes, leaving Lu Yan unsure if there were heads beneath them.
"[These are the lowest-level human butchers, incapable of speech.]" the system introduced.
"[Pollution value: 1000 to 1500.]"
"[Talents exhibit individual differences.]"
"[Mutation direction: Mental disorder, craving for fresh blood.]"
One pollutant with rabbit ears approached, saying, "I want to buy a pig." The human butcher glanced at it, gripped the large sickle at his side, lifted the rabbit's ears, swung his hand, and cut them off.
The little rabbit, in pain, teary-eyed and kicking its legs, exclaimed, "You shameless merchant! Other bosses only take one ear!"
Ignoring the protests, the human butcher tossed out a fat man with a layer of fatty tissue, landing him on the ground. This meat pig had already been gutted and preliminarily processed. His brain had been extracted, soaking in blood, and if you wanted to buy it, you had to pay extra.
As for the intestines, heart, and other pig offal, they had been sent to the advanced processing factory of the slaughterhouse. These things could be turned into a pile of mysterious meat paste. People kept buying it, and it was more profitable than selling raw.
The butcher also grabbed a nearby mutant, lifted his thigh, made a swift cut, and severed the leg, smashing it to the ground. The mutant chained on the iron chain let out a miserable cry.
The little rabbit approached and took a bite of the pork's flank. Its cute, furry rabbit mouth stretched to an exaggerated extent, and the red blood stained its rabbit fur.
Feeling that the quality of today's meat pig was good, the little rabbit wasn't too bothered by the severed ears. It put on a checkered beret and dragged the meat pig away.
Lu Yan continued walking, and the interior of the pork market seemed considerably cleaner.
Various parts of the meat pigs were cut and neatly arranged. Thighs hung on shelves, appearing fresh, with some still dripping blood. Besides adult meat pigs, they also sold piglets.
The butchers here were robust, with metal masks on their faces. Their muscular bodies glistened with a layer of shiny grease, and below the waist, they had thick snake tails that stood nearly 3 meters when raised. Despite their narrow waists, the snake-tailed butchers exuded a powerful aura, akin to what one might only see in movies on a well-built male dog.
"Guest, you carry the scent of the ocean," the snake-tailed butcher couldn't resist luring a customer, extending his slender tongue. "Are you from the sea? It's rare to see guests from the sea in X City. I can give you a discount."
The meat shops here uniformly lacked prices and seemed to have no market regulatory organization overseeing them. It all depended on the individual stall owner.
Lu Yan dared not buy anything from such a shady market.
"[Snake-tailed butcher, pollution value: 3000 to 4000.]"
"[Mutation direction: Python transformation, craving for fresh blood.]"
Lu Yan stared blankly at the meat stall for quite some time. The system asked, "[What are you thinking?]"
Lu Yan replied, "I'm thinking if Zhou Qiming saw these butchers, would he go crazy with joy?" Although their faces weren't visible, they all seemed like handsome hunks.
The system commented, "[...You don't have to attribute everything to Zhou Qiming.]"
Ignoring the words of the snake-tailed butcher, Lu Yan, holding the umbrella, continued walking forward.
Wang Yu used its tongue to hold the umbrella for him. After a while, it got a bit tired and began to act coquettishly, twisting around like a spoiled child.
To be honest, a red piece of meat twisting in mid-air was quite mentally contaminating.
It couldn't speak, but after living symbiotically for so long, Lu Yan knew what it wanted when it stuck out its big tongue.
So, Lu Yan took over the umbrella.
The next second, in a place he couldn't see, a mouth split open on the back of Lu Yan's neck.
The long tongue, like a frog's tongue, coiled around a red fly, pulling it into the mouth.
The mouth started chewing, and when Lu Yan reached back to touch it, he felt a handful of blood on the back of his neck.
"Don't eat randomly; what if you get diarrhea?" Lu Yan said.
Wang Yu licked his palm with its tongue.
The snake-tailed butcher looked somewhat regretful as he withdrew his gaze.
In this pork alley, the most domineering figure was probably the pig-headed butcher with a storefront on the street.
At this moment, only one out of ten shops was open.
The only boss with the door open was sitting in front of the shop sharpening a knife.
He had a pig's head, and the apron he wore had been soaked with blood at different times. Around his waist hung oddly shaped pig-killing knives, including cleavers and saws. On the other side, he had rusty three-anchor hooks.
The number of customers coming here was even fewer.
The pig butcher looked at Lu Yan, his fangs pointing upward, and his eyes emitting green light.
"[Pig-faced butcher, pollution value: 7700.]"
"[Talent: Bloodthirsty gene, immense strength.]"
"[Mutation direction: Anthropomorphism, craving for fresh blood.]"
"[It used to be a Three Rivers White Pig bought for the pig farm, and it suffered castration at a young age for its delicious meat. As an intelligent pig, it always ate the least and hid the deepest. After living on the farm for many years, it developed excellent pig farming and slaughtering skills.]"
"[So, when it stood up, it killed all the caretakers, avenging its companions who died tragically.]"
"[Unfortunately, this pig had the chance to become the boss of the X City slaughterhouse, but it couldn't beat that woman.]"
Behind the pig-headed butcher were cages.
Inside were meat pigs, all living Harbingers, although most were barely alive.
"[The price of Harbingers is high, and few people buy them. So, butchers might keep a meat pig for a long time before selling it.]"
"[However, most of what's sold here are Harbingers with relatively low spiritual power thresholds. Harbingers with high spiritual power thresholds are excellent sources, and the owner of the slaughterhouse and her friends like them very much.]"
The pig-headed butcher's fat jiggled.
Lu Yan said to the system, "Actually, I quite like eating pork, but this is the only pig that makes me lose my appetite."
As he and the system were bantering, the pig-headed butcher, sharpening his knife, stood up. He was tall, with a nose ring, and a strong, overwhelming smell of blood. No one knew how many people he had slaughtered to have such a formidable aura.
"You came quite fast. Is it the order you placed with me?" the butcher asked.
As he spoke, he took out a crumpled medical record from the pocket of his apron.
"What did you write?" the pig-headed butcher asked, his expression dark and terrifying, speaking Mandarin with a heavy rural accent. "Read it to me; I can't understand it."
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