Fog City, Lambeth Route 707.
Xia Xiu, wearing a white trench coat, a brown vest underneath, and a white Panama hat, disembarked from the steam train. He reached up to press his hat, then glanced at the sign on the central street, heading towards his destination.
Ever since he learned that Deer Academy was recruiting new students, and that the first stop was Fog City, Xia Xiu changed his plans. He now intended to become a Lu Student through Deer Academy's recruitment.
Deer Academy, established in terra calendar 355, is located in the southeast of Three Portland and is a co-educational liberal arts college. Deer Academy is renowned not only for its groundbreaking integration of occult studies with liberal arts education curricula but also for its high standards of Arcane practice, creative thinking, and active multiverse citizenship.
Lu Students pursue Bachelor of Arts degrees in over 40 majors within key Domains. The school's curriculum includes a year-long occult studies program, with broad distribution requirements and a capstone project: each student constructs their own study plan by combining a traditional major with an occult focus area, or chooses from several established interdisciplinary majors.
Deer Academy is one of the few organizations willing to accept and educate owners of different Lineages, and it has maintained a relatively neutral political stance. Many famous figures in Terra were students of Deer Academy. Four of the twelve seat holders in Fog City's Clock Tower had studied at Deer Academy.
Deer Academy's admissions do not emphasize Bloodline and extraordinary talent like the Clock Tower. It is even willing to recruit ordinary people, though these ordinary people must possess special talents, such as outstanding literary talent.
Xia Xiu's current goal was to obtain admission qualifications for Deer Academy. There are three channels for Deer Academy's admissions.
The first is to use the Arcane Creation 【Spirit Seeker: Owl】 to deliver a magic envelope engraved with 【Directional Cognitive Command】 to a person with Arcane potential, handing the envelope to them. Those with potential only need to open the envelope and read its contents to naturally know how to travel to Deer Academy.
The second is the recommendation system. There's no need to elaborate on this system; those who understand, understand. This is the favorite of those with connections.
The third is random selection. There are always a few lucky ones chosen due to the whims of the Three Portland Mayor.
Xia Xiu wanted to become a Lu Student. The first and third possibilities were directly ignored. Only the second method suited his needs. He happened to know of an existence in Fog City with recommendation qualifications, and his purpose for this trip was to 'pay respects'.
Lambeth Slums.
Although it was noon, a fine mist still enveloped the streets. East of here was the industrial district. You only needed to look up to see black smoke, and the people around looked at Xia Xiu with strange eyes.
"You bitch! You bitch! How many times have I told you not to crush bugs on the wallpaper? Do you think you bought the whole hotel? Why can't you just throw them out the window like everyone else? Damn it, you slut!"
"Cow!"
Passing a small hotel, extremely vulgar curses erupted. Many idle busybodies, holding nearly empty liquor bottles, laughed. Besides the quarreling, there were also the forlorn cries of street vendors and the playful shouts of children chasing orange peels on the cobblestone streets.
At night, loud singing would resound, and garbage trucks would leave a foul stench in their wake. This was the scene of the entire street.
The street was narrow—lined on both sides by towering, filthy houses, piled haphazardly, as if frozen mid-collapse. All the houses were set up as small hotels, filled with tenants, mostly laborers, special industry workers, and thieves. Below the hotels were small taverns, where one could get thoroughly drunk for one you yuan.
On weekend nights, a third of the men in this district would get drunk and fight over women. The porters living in the cheapest hotels always brawled among themselves, hitting each other with chairs, and sometimes even using guns.
However, despite the dirty and noisy environment, some decent Fog City residents lived here, working as small shopkeepers, bakers, and laundrywomen. They only associated with their own kind, quietly accumulating wealth bit by bit.
This was a typical Fog City Slum.
Under the strange gazes of passersby, Xia Xiu walked towards the darkest part of the Slums, a gathering place for gangs, where addictive drugs were sold, corpses were common, and the air reeked of sin.
The largest gang in Lambeth was the Blank Gang. Legend had it that the leaders of the Blank Gang possessed extraordinary power, and there were even rumors that the Blank Gang members were not human, but monsters in human skin.
Xia Xiu could only say that they were indeed right; most of their members were truly not human.
The Blank Gang's composition was very complex, including wild Arcane Masters, werewolves, and ghosts. It was a group of monsters who banded together for warmth and survival in Fog City.
"Hey, kid over there, what do you want?" A burly man blocked Xia Xiu, standing next to another bare-chested man with a blue scarf on his head.
"Leisi, don't scare the child. Kid, are you here to find your mother? Do you want uncle to take you home? Uncle's home is very big." The man, Kebei, first smiled and 'scolded' Leisi, then asked Xia Xiu with a kind expression.
"Sigh~"
Xia Xiu sighed helplessly. Such vulgar clichés always felt boring. These gangs were still so cliché and uninteresting.
"Come, kid, uncle will take you to play something fun."
Kebei reached out to grab Xia Xiu, but Xia Xiu's eyes flashed with a cold light. He directly raised his right elbow and slammed it hard into Kebei's waist. Kebei felt as if his chest had been struck by a giant log. He floated in the air, then flew sideways.
Kebei clutched his abdomen, curling up like a mantis shrimp on the ground, spitting white foam.
"You damn it!"
Seeing this, Leisi drew the dagger hanging from his lower back and thrust it directly at Xia Xiu's head. Leisi's movements seemed too slow to Xia Xiu. For an Arcane Master, even a newcomer who had just become one, ordinary people's movements appeared as slow as if they were playing at 0.5x speed.
Xia Xiu dodged Leisi's stab by sidestepping, then pressed both hands on Leisi's right hand holding the dagger and twisted hard.
"Ah—" Leisi let out a painful wail.
Xia Xiu gripped Leisi's dropped dagger, then performed an over-the-shoulder throw, slamming the opponent to the ground. He pressed his knee onto the fallen body and forcefully plunged the dagger towards Leisi's head.
Crack—
Blood dripped. Leisi watched in horror as the dagger grazed his cheek. He looked with fear at the golden-haired youth pressing down on him. A brilliant smile bloomed on the exquisite face, and his eyes were narrowed, making it impossible to see the youth's true emotions.
Xia Xiu looked at the terrified gang member, extended his right hand to the bleeding cheek, and then activated Flesh Shaping Technique to directly stitch the wound together.
"Sir, could you please take me to see Mr. Stephen? I have some business I'd like to discuss with him."
Xia Xiu stood up, took off his hat, and held it to his chest, asking Leisi very politely.
Leisi blankly touched his instantly healed wound, as if understanding something. The other party was an existence with extraordinary power, just like the leader. He swallowed, then hurriedly said:
"Gulp—, I, I will lead the way for you, sir."