However, for Yan Qi, they all deserved to die.
Xicheng held its first public trial. After the trial concluded, these spies were all taken outside the city and executed by firing squad.
Yan Qi hadn't expected that just a day later, bandits would come to surrender.
"General, spare my life!" The man who arrived was covered in filth, with traces of blood in some places. Several others followed behind him, equally disheveled.
Yan Qi frowned at him. "Who are you?"
"I am the Second-in-Command of the Qingfeng Stronghold!" The sound of rifles being readied clicked all around them.
The Second-in-Command was terrified. "I've come to surrender!"
Hearing that bandits had turned themselves in, many townsfolk came to watch, spitting at the man from a distance. The Second-in-Command paid no mind; he was truly desperate. They couldn't stay in the mountains either. Bandits from other strongholds seemed to have reached a consensus to wipe out their Qingfeng Stronghold completely. To survive, this was the only path left.
Yan Qi looked at him, but in his heart, a storm was raging. Mr. Fang had only said yesterday that Fu Yunshen's good days were coming to an end. He truly was a remarkable man!
Seeing the iron-willed general before him remain silent, the Second-in-Command hurriedly shouted, "I have important information to report!"
"Oh?" Yan Qi narrowed his eyes.
"Fu Yunshen from the Fu family in Xicheng is our Big Boss, 'Down-the-Mountain Tiger'!"
Fang Zhiyi, sitting in a high building nearby sipping tea, smiled and shook his head. All that talk of loyalty and honor among thieves—bandits were just bandits. No matter how grandly they spoke, wasn't it all for plunder? When truly faced with life and death, the first one they'd betray was the closest to them.
"How is that possible? I know the Fu family. Didn't they say Commander Yan was on good terms with them?"
"Exactly! I heard their family even provided a lot of supplies for the bandit suppression!"
The Second-in-Command was confused by the chatter, but he knew that to live, he had to drag Fu Yunshen down. "He is the Big Boss of the Qingfeng Stronghold! Myself and the men behind me can all testify!"
His eyes darted around. "He must have deceived you, General! Let us confront him face-to-face!"
Yan Qi frowned, glanced over and caught sight of Fang Zhiyi upstairs. They exchanged a look. Yan Qi sighed. "Fine, I'll let you confront him. But you should know, he donated a considerable amount of gold and silver that day. For you to accuse him now... I... ah."
These words were what Fang Zhiyi had instructed him to say in advance.
Although he didn't understand Fang Zhiyi's intention, following his advice had never steered him wrong.
The group arrived at the Fu residence. Yan Qi pushed the several ragged men inside. "Go on and have your confrontation! Call me when there's a result!"
Watching the gate close behind them, the Second-in-Command and his men were surprised. What was going on? But when they saw the two people who came out before them, a flash of resentment crossed the Second-in-Command's eyes.
That officer just now said the Big Boss had donated a lot of gold and silver for them. Thinking with his toes, he knew it must have been from Fu Yunshen's private stash! He had never been that generous with his own brothers!
"What are you doing here?" Fu Yunshen asked, suspicious and alarmed.
"What are we doing here? You have the nerve to ask!" the Second-in-Command gritted his teeth.
"What are you talking about?" Fu Yunshen was also furious, his mind still racing for a way out.
"Fu, you bastard! We recognized you as our Big Boss, and you actually tried to silence us to clean your own slate!"
"????" Fu Yunshen was completely baffled.
"You're really something, hiding gold and silver for yourself, giving it away to curry favor with officials, then turning them around to exterminate your own brothers!"
Hearing this, Fu Yunshen's brow furrowed tightly, his heart filled with confusion and bewilderment. Gold and silver? He suddenly realized something, but before he could think it through, the men before him gave him no time.
One of them suddenly lunged forward, reaching out to grab Fu Yunshen, clearly intending to drag him out to trade for their own lives. Fu Yunshen, of course, wouldn't wait passively. He swiftly sidestepped, dodging the grab.
However, this action angered the others. Seeing this, they all closed in, confronting Fu Yunshen. The atmosphere instantly grew tense. Neither side backed down, and a fierce fight seemed imminent.
Shen Zhixia, standing to the side, was frantic with worry. "Tiger, don't fight! He's Yunshen! Your Big Boss!" she shouted, stepping forward to try and pull the Second-in-Command back.
"Get lost, you bitch! I never liked you from the start, acting all high and mighty!" Tiger snarled viciously, simultaneously raising his hand and slapping Shen Zhixia hard across the face. The blow was so forceful that Shen Zhixia staggered immediately and fell to the ground.
Seeing this, Fu Yunshen flew into a rage. His eyes widened as he roared, "You're looking for death!" With that, he pounced without hesitation on the man who had hit Shen Zhixia, grappling with him.
At this moment, neither side was in good condition. One group was exhausted and hungry, their strength clearly failing; the other was already injured. Though slightly better off, being just one man, he wasn't much stronger. Thus, the fight was awkward. Neither side had the capacity to fight at full strength, merely lashing out driven by rage. Fu Yunshen even resorted to a vicious clawing technique, making one bandit howl in pain.
No one knew how long they had been fighting when the door finally opened.
Yan Qi's voice sounded from outside. "Finished your confrontation? I'm coming in!"
As he spoke, he led soldiers and townsfolk pouring into the courtyard.
At that moment, the Second-in-Command seemed to find some trigger. He sprang up from the ground and slapped Shen Zhixia again.
Fu Yunshen bellowed in fury, "Tiger! Back in Qingfeng Stronghold, I treated you well! How dare you..." He suddenly realized something was wrong.
Turning his head, he saw the shocked and angry eyes of his neighbors, along with Yan Qi's mocking gaze.
"So it's true! A bandit! You almost fooled us! Take him away!" Yan Qi waved his hand.
The soldiers moved forward to drag him away. Fu Yunshen suddenly shouted, "I am a bandit! But she's not! Her family background is clean!"
Yan Qi glanced at Shen Zhixia, who was covering her face in a daze. He truly wasn't the type to arrest people arbitrarily. He nodded. "If that's the case, then we'll hold you accountable."
Unexpectedly, Shen Zhixia stood up as if her spirit had returned. "No, no, he's a good man..."
Fang Zhiyi's voice came from outside. "Miss Shen, Young Master Fu is the 'Down-the-Mountain Tiger' of Qingfeng Stronghold. Back then, he did his share of killing and kidnapping. By shielding him like this, even if your family background is clean, isn't that still aiding bandits?"
These words ignited the townsfolk's anger. Some women even rushed forward, slapping her several times and calling her shameless. Yan Qi opened his mouth but then closed it again, gesturing for the soldiers to drag the prisoners away first.
Shen Zhixia felt her hands and feet turn cold. Why was it like this? Yunshen had reformed! He'd done so many good deeds! He helped repair Aunt Wang's cracked wall next door, escorted Uncle Liu home, and...
Victims of the Qingfeng Stronghold arrived, but they missed Fu Yunshen. They vented their anger on Shen Zhixia.
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
