Catastrophe Card King
Chapter 1178 - Chapter 1178 Chapter 362 The Thief The Peddler The Gambler

Chapter 1178: Chapter 362: The Thief, The Peddler, The Gambler, The Smoker Chapter 1178: Chapter 362: The Thief, The Peddler, The Gambler, The Smoker “`

This [Neon] Underworld Train that stopped at the platform was solely for picking up Leonard Churchill and Sophia Jones.

As soon as they boarded, the moment the doors closed, it was as if they had arrived in a secluded world that living people were never meant to enter.

Before, Leonard’s Realm was too low to understand, but now that his Realm was higher, he also realized that this was some sort of high-level Barrier.

For anyone not from the White Family, that Immortal Spirit Qi was almost the same as the Death Air from the Underworld, giving a suffocating and oppressive feeling similar to drowning.

Leonard carefully sensed his surroundings, hostility was looming from all directions, though it was elusive.

He was starting to understand, Sophia’s trip to the City of Thieves didn’t seem stealthy, it was more like “challenging to a fight”, the Whites had already taken their stance, and she was facing the challenge head-on.

Catching a glimpse from the corner of his eye, Sophia Jones, her hair elegantly tied up, wore a cold and resolute expression.

Leonard had noticed before now that Sophia’s emotions were neither sad nor joyous; beneath her calmness was an intense chill.

This trip to the White’s was about those two Immortal Aegis Holy Items, but not entirely.

Back when the Jones Family was destroyed, the White Family’s behind-the-scenes maneuvers were anything but honorable.

Sophia’s feelings toward the White Family couldn’t be described as remotely familial.

The current White Family didn’t want her, an outsider, to come back and wrest power away either.

Sensing Leonard’s gaze, Sophia turned her head to look at him, their eyes met, and she smiled faintly, “Let’s go, we’ll find our compartment.”

Leonard: “Hmm.”

…

As soon as they entered the compartment, the racket was so overwhelming it felt like fireworks going off in the ears, leaving one temporarily disoriented.

“Hahaha, jackpot, triple sixes! Pay up, pay up!”

“Blood ointment for sale… aged bone powder, non-decaying fresh skin, soul fragments…”

“Old man, maybe smoke less, the carriage isn’t ventilated, we’re almost suffocating…”

“Yo~ pretty girl, these peaches fresh, how much are they?”

“Damn it, there’s a thief! My money pouch has been stolen! Conductor, conductor!”

“…”

Leonard looked at the packed compartment and his face froze for a moment.

He had been prepared for a situation as strange as the one on his last trip, but instead he found this scene.

Women dressed in flashy clothes, peddlers with boxes of goods on their backs, gamblers who played cards enthusiastically, smokers hidden behind a veil of smoke, Tricksters performing for children, and sneaky pickpockets…

Leonard’s gaze swept over the hundreds of people crammed in the compartment.

It was just like a typical Commoner compartment, with travelers from various lower-class professions.

Leonard knew the people in this compartment were far from ordinary, but on the surface, not a single loophole was visible.

Neither their “Air” nor their expressions revealed any flaws.

“Tsk, interesting…”

Leonard squinted as he observed this, feeling it was even more intriguing because he couldn’t see any flaws.

There were too many people; the aisles were so crowded that one had to squeeze through.

The air was filled with various odors–an odd mix of foot sweat, cheap talc, and perfume.

Leonard was indifferent. As a circus Joker, he felt as at home in this noisy environment as anywhere else.

Sophia, however, seemed a bit troubled.

Her finely tailored black dress with gold patterns, along with her exquisite makeup, seemed drastically out of place in the “turbid” atmosphere of the carriage.

It was as if someone deliberately wanted to trample a proud and flamboyant Rose in the mud, grinding away its sharpness.

Whether she entered the compartment or hesitated, she would seem inferior.

If Sophia had been alone, she might indeed have faced some difficulty.

Seeing this, Leonard very gentlemanly extended his arm and asked, “Aunt Jones, shall we go in and find a seat?”

“Yes.”

Sophia smiled gracefully and naturally took his arm.

This gesture immediately dissipated the tense atmosphere.

Leonard, as an unexpected third party, broke the deadlock.

As they stepped into the polluted air of the compartment, Leonard immediately felt many eyes on him.

Malice, suspicion, skepticism, ridicule, coldness… numerous emotions.

Leonard, however, was completely unconcerned.

Sophia’s current strength was not something that could be easily manipulated by just anyone.

Leonard estimated that even the combined strangeness of this entire carriage wouldn’t be a match for them.

But the train had a long way to go, and the later she showed her hand, the more advantageous the situation would be for both of them.

It might even surprise those Whites lurking in the background.

What Leonard found peculiar, though, was that he could sense people watching them, yet the sources were not only from the passengers in the compartment. In the obscurity, there seemed to be some invisible presence.

“Immortals?”

Leonard speculated for a moment, and it seemed that this was the only possibility.

Sophia didn’t elaborate, which meant that this train definitely had some “rules” that couldn’t be explicitly stated.

This sense of exploring the unknown made Leonard find the experience even more intriguing.

If he were on this Underworld Train by himself, he would of course be as cautious as he should be.

The best way to catch a big fish in muddy waters is to stick your arm in.

Even if you get bitten, it’s not a worry with an expert like Sophia backing you.

So Leonard led Sophia into the compartment without any reservations.

He slightly turned his body to the front, shielding her from the bulk of malevolence.

They had only gone a few steps when they were blocked by a crowd.

Leonard tried to squeeze through.

But just as he tried, he suddenly found himself bumping up against something as immovable as Big Mountain, unable to proceed.

Glancing to the side, there was an elderly man with white hair, a woman in a floral dress, and a sturdy laborer with bulging muscles and shiny skin.

“`