"One tael of silver to deliver to Luoyang? Is this for real?"
"I've been wanting to send something to my family, but escort agencies are too expensive. Can this 'Shunfeng Express' really do it?"
Jiang Rou repeated what Fang Zhiyi had taught her: "No deception, folks—none at all! Grand opening special—first batch of customers get a 70% discount!"
The crowd buzzed with discussion, most still hesitant. Mei Ruoxue then spoke up: "Also, Shunfeng Express now offers an insurance policy! It’s a safety guarantee for your deliveries."
"Delivery insurance? What’s that?" The murmurs grew louder.
Jiang Rou raised her hands to quiet them. "It’s simple. Take you, auntie," she said, pointing to a woman in front. "Say you’re sending a set of clothes to your son in the capital. The delivery fee is fifty coins, and the clothes are worth a string of cash. If you’re worried about bandits stealing them or the goods getting damaged, you can buy insurance at Jushan Bank. If anything happens, the bank will compensate you! Got it? Applause!"
Silence.
Jiang Rou and Mei Ruoxue exchanged awkward glances, their eyes darting to the back where Fang Zhiyi was chatting with a portly man.
A few seconds later.
"I get it! This sounds great!" someone suddenly shouted. "I’ve got things to send! Right here!"
The two girls lit up and immediately started taking orders, the scene quickly heating up.
"Can you only deliver to Luoyang right now?" someone asked. Zhao Yang, handling registrations, smiled in response: "We’ve just opened, so many routes aren’t available yet. But we’ll expand soon!"
A few looked disappointed, but many still signed up for deliveries to Luoyang, including merchants testing the waters.
Laughing Maitreya watched the registrations and grinned at Fang Zhiyi. "Left Envoy."
Fang Zhiyi waved him off. "I’m not the Left Envoy anymore."
Laughing Maitreya chuckled. "Then how about 'Brother Fang'?"
"Brother Fang, I’ve already notified our contacts in Luoyang. What else do you need me to do?" He’d spent days pondering Fang Zhiyi’s venture and saw endless profit rolling in.
"Plenty. For the first run, pick some skilled men to follow discreetly."
Laughing Maitreya agreed without hesitation. Watching the two girls, he asked, "Planning to have them manage the escort business?"
Fang Zhiyi glanced at him. "Train them. I’m lazy. Unless you’d rather stand there yourself?"
Laughing Maitreya burst into laughter, waving his hands dismissively.
Thanks to the low prices, they soon filled a cart with goods—some merchants even sent small batches of tea, though Fang Zhiyi knew they were just testing the service.
The cart trundled along the road.
"Do you know the risks of this business?" Fang Zhiyi asked. He had to oversee the first delivery personally.
The studious Jiang Rou answered first: "Long distances, wild beasts, and bandits."
At the mention of bandits, the young warriors scoffed. Bandits were just stronger commoners—even their best fighters were amateurs.
Fang Zhiyi smiled. "And competitors."
Just then, torches flared ahead.
"During our opening, I told you to observe carefully. What did you see?" He had high hopes for these handpicked recruits—he was sorely short on manpower.
Jiang Rou thought for a moment. "Hesitant townsfolk, curious officials, merchants calculating profits, and a few martial artists lurking in the crowd with dark expressions."
Fang Zhiyi nodded approvingly.
"Only competitors harbor pure hatred." Escort agencies had rules—registering with officials was easy (just pay), but the real challenge was gaining approval from rivals. Fang Zhiyi had skipped that step.
Little Hei, scouting ahead, reported that disguised competitors were blocking the road.
Fang Zhiyi saw an opportunity.
They knew a new escort agency had opened in Yangcheng, but they didn’t grasp its core innovation.
"This road is ours, these trees we planted! To pass through here, leave your riches!" The classic bandit spiel.
Fang Zhiyi signaled the cart to stop and continued lecturing: "Traditional agencies charge high fees and offer poor security, so why are they still in business?"
Though nervous, the students stayed calm with Fang Zhiyi nearby.
"Because ordinary folks can’t fight bandits?" one ventured.
Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "Most of this route to Luoyang follows official roads. Bandits exist, but they stick to dense forests. The truth? If merchants or wealthy families try to save money by transporting goods themselves, agencies send men disguised as bandits to rob them—forcing them to hire escorts."
The group froze.
Mei Ruoxue clenched her fists. "That’s despicable!"
Fang Zhiyi studied his adopted daughter, relieved. "Good, she hasn’t been exposed to transmigrators. Still a normal kid." Under his and He Wugui’s guidance, she’d grown steadily. That’s why he’d brought her—he didn’t want her hiding in the mountains forever.
As masked men closed in, Fang Zhiyi grinned. "Learn well. The martial world isn’t just about challenging masters or shouting about justice. It’s not just fighting—it’s everywhere. Among commoners, merchants, escorts… wherever there are people, there’s the martial world."
"You—get down here!" The leader swung his weapon, a sickle on a chain, impatient with Fang Zhiyi’s rambling.
Fang Zhiyi sidestepped effortlessly, catching the chain mid-air.
"Of course, might makes right—but it’s exhausting." Still lecturing, he tugged lightly, sending a tremor through the man’s arm. The sickle clattered to the ground.
"Blocking my way? You got a death wish?" Fang Zhiyi’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.
The man gaped, then snarled. "Attack! Leave none alive!"
"What are you waiting for? Perfect training opportunity." Fang Zhiyi’s tone was casual. The youths snapped to action.
"Your hands! Did Lu Zhaoran teach you nothing? Dodging isn’t blocking—you think you’ve mastered Iron Shirt?"
"Why withdraw your sword? Is that a fire poker? He’s trying to kill you!"
"Behind you! Is this all He Wugui taught?"
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
