"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?"
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!
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...
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
