Chapter 134 Being Bullied

Ruan Ning returned to her rented apartment in the outer city and met up with Zhou Min and Lin Yan. The three of them took a large fire and went to the tenth district to find them, following the address Sun Hong had given them.

The tenth district is located on the outer edge of the city, where the houses are even more dilapidated and crowded, and sewage flows freely on the streets. Two relatively independent tin-roofed houses stand side by side, with a group of people gathered at their doorways.

Before we even got close, we could hear men shouting and fighting.

"Damn it! You're asking for it! It's an honor for you to have my eye on you!"

"What a load of bull! I don't even want you. If you want to force me, you'd better see if my sisters and I agree! Why should I go with a bunch of trash like you?"

"Why should I? Because I have the strongest fists! A few newly awakened women dare to talk back to me? They're asking for death!"

Ruan Ning walked over quickly. There, in the open space in front of the prefab house, five men were fighting with five women from Sun Hong's group.

The five men were all superhumans, their energy fluctuations around the second level. One was a strength enhancer, his hands glowing with an earthy yellow light, and his punches created craters in the ground. Another was a speed-type, moving very quickly, circling around the woman. There was also a fire-type superhuman. The other two seemed to be a metallization body and an earth-type superhuman.

The five women on Sun Hong's side were the fire, wind, wood, water, and lightning elemental beings who had previously awakened. However, they had only recently awakened and were all at the first level, with weak energy and unskilled control.

The flames of the fire-type woman were only the size of a fist and were easily dispersed by the metal-transformed man; the wind blades whipped up by the wind-type woman could only tear the clothes of the other party; the vines that the wood-type woman cultivated were weak and were torn off by the strong man; the water-type woman's water arrows were powerless, and the electric sparks of the lightning-type woman were not powerful enough.

They were completely outmatched, barely holding on with sheer grit and teamwork, but everyone was already injured. Sun Hong and the other women without superpowers were blocked at the entrance of the prefab house, extremely anxious. Several tried to rush up to help, but were easily overturned by the other side.

"You bitches! Kneel down and beg for mercy, and have some fun with us, and we'll spare your lives!" The speedy man swore as he moved quickly.

"Dream on!" The fire-elemental woman, her face covered in blood, spat and tried to conjure a small fireball to throw at him, but he easily dodged it.

"You won't listen to reason, so you'll have to suffer the consequences!" The powerful man grinned maliciously, striding forward and smashing his earthen-yellow fist toward the water-elemental woman's head. The woman's face turned deathly pale, and she barely managed to raise a thin water shield.

Just as the fist was about to strike the water shield—

Several transparent yet resilient water whips, like living venomous snakes, appeared out of thin air and precisely wrapped around the wrists, ankles, and necks of the five men!

The water whip tightened suddenly, then lashed out in different directions!

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The five men were utterly powerless, slammed heavily onto the muddy ground, creating shallow, human-shaped craters. The strength-type man saw stars from the impact; the speed-type man lay on the ground retching; the flames on the fire-wielding man's hands instantly went out; the metal-type man's body flashed wildly; and the earth-type man simply passed out.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Everyone was stunned.

Ruan Ning walked to the center of the field expressionlessly, glanced at the groaning man on the ground, and then looked at Sun Hong and the others: "What's going on?"

Sun Hong immediately ran over, pointed at the people on the ground, and said angrily, "They! They said they were the 'in charge' of this area, and they wanted us sisters to go with them and hand over all our supplies and crystal cores as 'protection money'! When we refused, they attacked us!"

The muscular man on the ground struggled to sit up, coughing up a mouthful of muddy water. He glared fiercely at Ruan Ning: "Who the hell are you? How dare you meddle in my business! Do you know who we are? The 'Black Rat Gang'! If you know what's good for you, let us go, kneel down and apologize, or else..."

Before he could finish speaking, the water whip wrapped around his neck suddenly tightened, constricting him until his face turned purple. He frantically clawed at the invisible whip with his hands, unable to utter another word.

Ruan Ning didn't even look at him, and said to Sun Hong, "'Black Rat Gang'? What's their background?"

A slightly more quick-witted man nearby hurriedly answered, his voice trembling, "They're...they're a small gang from the eighth district of the outer city. Our leader is a third-tier earth-elemental ability user, and they have dozens of men under him...Big sister, it's a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding! We didn't know they were your people! We'll leave right now! We'll leave right now!"

Ruan Ning then loosened her grip on the water whip, allowing the powerful man to catch his breath.

"Get out." That was all she said.

The water whip loosened, retracted to her side, and disappeared.

The five men scrambled to their feet and, along with their companions, ran away without looking back, not daring to utter a single harsh word.

The area in front of the prefab house quieted down. Sun Hong and the other women breathed a sigh of relief, their eyes filled with gratitude and lingering fear as they looked at Ruan Ning.

"Captain Ruan, thank goodness you arrived in time..." Sun Hong's voice was still trembling slightly.

Ruan Ning checked the injured female superhumans; they all had superficial wounds, but had exhausted their energy and needed rest. She asked Zhou Min and Lin Yan to get some basic medical supplies for them.

"If you encounter something like this in the future, fight if you can win, and endure if you can't. Remember what the other person looks like and where they came from, and come directly to me," Ruan Ning said to Sun Hong. "When you first arrive at the base, try not to make any fatal enemies, but you can't let anyone bully you either. Strength is key, so make the most of your time to train."

Sun Hong nodded emphatically: "Understood!"

The fire reached the door of the prefab house, sniffed it, then lay down, its golden eyes scanning the surroundings with a warning.

The prefab house was cramped and crowded, with more than twenty people barely able to turn around, but it was at least a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

Ruan Ning looked at Sun Hong and the other women whose faces still showed fear and anger, and asked directly, "This kind of thing might happen again in the future. The Black Rat Gang won't let this go easily; they might come back, or other gangs or people with greater power might target you. What do you plan to do?"

The women fell silent. The battle they had just witnessed had made them acutely aware of the disparity in strength. The five of them were all Tier 1, while the five of their opponents were all Tier 2. If Ruan Ning hadn't arrived in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

A young woman whispered, "They...they're watching us..."

“Look at us, we’re relatively clean.” Sun Hong chimed in, her tone a mix of self-deprecation and anger. “When we were locked up in that godforsaken place, we were no different from livestock. Later, when we followed Captain Ruan, we were able to get some food, drink clean water, change our clothes, and even wash our faces on the road. Compared to most of the sallow-faced, emaciated, and filthy women in this outer city, we certainly stood out.”

Another woman said indignantly, "Is being clean a mistake? We've finally managed to look like 'human beings'!"

“In the eyes of some people, especially those scum who think they have some power, a woman’s cleanliness and beauty are original sins, and she is a ‘resource’ that can be seized,” Zhou Min said coldly, leaning against the door.

She and Lin Yan had seen too many things like this along the way.