Perhaps because it was early morning, there were only scattered figures on the street.
Of course, although it was called a "street," there wasn't actually a proper street in any real sense of the word.
Looking around, all that could be seen was a vast expanse of ruins and rubble. Not even a single relatively intact house could be found.
However, even this was much better than District 80, which looked like nothing more than a barren wasteland.
This was District 77.
Ling Qing had crossed through District 80, fighting his way from District 80 all the way to District 77.
The District 77 before him only appeared slightly better than District 80 at first glance, but that was the only difference.
The air that drifted here carried a scent that Ling Qing had become all too familiar with—the terrible smell of a place where theft and murder were commonplace and utterly dreadful. Ling Qing had no choice but to be familiar with it, because from the very first day he arrived here, he had been struggling desperately to survive in this harsh environment.
Never mind others—even Ling Qing himself would find it hard to imagine that his former self from just a week ago, when he was still alive, would become accustomed to gripping a blade and killing people in less than a week.
Every few meters, several people leaned against ruins or trees, sleeping. Whether male or female, everyone looked malnourished. Though not quite reduced to skin and bones, they all had sallow, yellowed complexions and gaunt bodies.
Beneath their tattered clothes that could barely cover their vital parts, their sunken abdomens clearly revealed protruding ribcages.
Each sleeping person had a weapon placed beside them. Not all were knives or metal implements—most were wooden sticks or clubs, or even sharpened stone blades tied to sticks to make crude spears.
No one slept deeply. The moment someone approached, they would immediately wake up and instinctively grab their weapon. Their sunken cheeks and hollow, deeply-set eyes would stare eerily at the approaching person, like ghosts wandering in hell.
Only after confirming that the newcomer posed no threat would they drift back to their restless sleep.
Even when they weren't forming groups to attack certain targets, they remained vigilant and wary of everyone except themselves.
Such was the environment here. No one could sleep without a weapon. Everyone thought about stealing others' survival resources. Everyone thought about killing others.
They lived like wild beasts, as if they had completely abandoned human dignity and pride.
Ling Qing had no intention of staying here. Those who were awakened by his passing squinted their eyes, tensed their bodies while gripping their weapons tightly, maintaining a state of readiness to charge at Ling Qing and swing their weapons at any moment.
They didn't immediately rush at Ling Qing because the moment they saw him, they were assessing the combat strength of both sides.
Compared to their emaciated frames, although Ling Qing's clothes weren't much better, his body was far too robust. It wasn't just healthy—you could see the powerful muscles that covered his frame.
This alone meant that Ling Qing was not an opponent who could be defeated in single combat.
Moreover, he had a katana hanging at his waist.
Ling Qing wasn't wearing a black kimono, which meant he wasn't a Soul Reaper. For someone who wasn't a Soul Reaper to dare carry a Soul Reaper's sword, he must have either killed a Soul Reaper or picked it up from around a Soul Reaper's corpse. Either way, it meant that Ling Qing was an audaciously bold individual.
Finally, no food or water was visibly seen on Ling Qing's person. There was no necessity for conflict.
As if it were a ceremony of attention, Ling Qing walked from one side of the street to the other. From the moment he stepped into this place until he left, whether obvious or subtle, whether wary or malicious, countless gazes fell upon Ling Qing at every moment.
Only when Ling Qing completely left the area did the gazes gradually disappear.
Sensing the disappearance of the gazes behind him, Ling Qing let out a quiet sigh.
It was said that the entire Soul Society was divided into four main avenues—east, west, south, and north—each divided from inside to outside into eighty districts. The smaller the district number, the better the public safety; conversely, the larger the district number, the worse the public safety.
In the core area closer to the center than the first districts of the four Rukongai streets, that was where the Soul Reapers lived.
As for what exactly that place was, it remained unknown for now.
He had already died, and he had accepted from the very beginning that this was the afterlife.
However, whenever he thought about this, Ling Qing felt helpless. He had died performing a righteous act, after all. If not directly to District 1, surely they could have placed him in any of the first thirty districts with decent public safety conditions.
But no—the moment he opened his eyes, he found himself in District 80, the worst in terms of public safety, with several dead Soul Reapers beside him. What kind of horror story was this?
It was worth mentioning that the Soul Reapers who had died beside Ling Qing initially, although they all had varying degrees of injuries and their clothes were damaged, could still be pieced together to form a complete set of clothing.
However, Ling Qing felt that since he was new to this place and unfamiliar with the area, these were clearly uniformed dead people. Casually wearing their clothes—setting aside the question of whether it was unlucky—would easily cause unnecessary trouble.
The fact was that, at least for now, Ling Qing's judgment was correct. In the outer ten districts, there was absolutely no reverence for Soul Reapers.
This was a lawless place where neither order nor justice existed.
As Ling Qing moved toward the inner districts, fighting with attackers and gathering intelligence from them, one piece of information he obtained was this:
Even among Soul Reapers, there were differences in strength. Some weaker Soul Reapers, once injured in the outer ten districts and with no other Soul Reapers around, would easily be swarmed by the residents here, who would take advantage of their vulnerability to kill them and steal everything of value from their bodies.
Finally, they would be abandoned naked in the wilderness. If it were a female Soul Reaper, even after being killed, her fate might be even more tragic.
And because of the inherent chaos of this place, even investigations would be difficult to yield results.
What was more likely to happen was that after finally investigating and reaching a conclusion, they would discover that the perpetrators had already been killed by other people.
In comparison, when Ling Qing first arrived and gave all the Soul Reapers a proper burial out of gratitude for a meal, he was truly a model of conscience in District 80.
Soul Reapers in this area were basically walking treasure chests—everyone wondered when they could rush up and strike them down to get some loot.
Casually wearing Soul Reaper clothes while moving around here would actually cause much more trouble.
Someone like Ling Qing, who boldly carried a Soul Reaper's weapon while moving around, actually made people think he was a fearless, audaciously bold guy who wasn't afraid of Soul Reaper retaliation. This actually made people less likely to provoke him easily—
Though it was still only a little bit less...