"The original master truly had a fine group of subordinates," Fang Zhiyi remarked with a sigh. He cleared his throat. "From today onwards, all your work is suspended. Of course, I'm referring to... those unsavory jobs."
The room fell silent.
Little Hei was also somewhat bewildered. "What are you planning? Aren't we dealing with those little brats anymore?"
Fang Zhiyi smiled. "To deal with them, does it need to be so troublesome?"
"Big Brother!" Liu Yueya walked happily into the inn.
Li Wenyan was writing when he heard her voice and couldn't help but smile. He looked up and asked, "Finished distributing the rice?"
"All done! The common folk are all praising us!" Liu Yueya felt deeply satisfied. She had heard many words of praise and admiration today, which pleased her greatly.
Ye Qingzhou, resting with his eyes closed nearby, spoke up. "I've also finished investigating. That grain shop is also backed by that Wanbao Pavilion."
Li Wenyan frowned slightly. "Wanbao Pavilion again? We've heard this name far too many times. It seems our opponent is quite formidable."
Ye Qingzhou chuckled, a smug expression on his face. "I have even more explosive news. Want to hear it?"
Lin Wanqing shot him a glare. "Stop being so cryptic and just say it, or I'll hit you!"
Ye Qingzhou teased, "Second Sister, don't be so violent. Someone as beautiful as you shouldn't act like Third Brother."
Zhao Jinglei glanced at him and grinned sheepishly.
Xiao Changfeng, polishing his sword, grew impatient. "Ninth Brother, have you forgotten how fast my sword is?"
Ye Qingzhou pouted. "None of you can take a joke. Fine, I'll tell you. This Wanbao Pavilion not only does business openly but also secretly controls the Tingyu Pavilion!"
"Tingyu Pavilion?" Hua Nongying was taken aback. "I feel like I've heard that name somewhere."
"The largest assassin organization in the martial world," Li Wenyan said, still writing. As he finished the last character, he nodded with satisfaction. "It seems the waters of this Wanbao Pavilion run deeper than we thought."
"I smell a conspiracy," Lin Wanqing chimed in.
"Are you all afraid?" Li Wenyan asked, his gaze burning as he looked at his sworn brothers and sisters.
Everyone's eyes were resolute.
"Good. Then our battle for fame..."
Before he could finish, a large troop of government soldiers suddenly arrived outside the inn.
"Surround the place!"
Li Wenyan was stunned. What was going on?
Then he saw the clerks from the Wanbao Pavilion grain shop. They were bandaged up in an exaggerated manner and were pointing fingers at the group.
"Listen up, inside! You have openly injured people and seized grain. Come with us!" The leading officer, also a ninth-rank cultivator, spoke with confidence.
"What? On what grounds?" Lin Wanqing was bewildered.
"They... they reported us to the authorities?" Ye Qingzhou was also dumbfounded. In their understanding, Wanbao Pavilion belonged to the martial world. Matters of the martial world should be settled within the martial world. But they actually reported it to the officials?
"Report to the authorities? Sir, are you running a fever?" Two days prior on You Mountain, Ghost Reaper wore an utterly bewildered expression.
"Why not report it? We run a legitimate business, pay our taxes, and send gifts during festivals. Why shouldn't we report it?" Fang Zhiyi spoke righteously.
His subordinates exchanged glances. Wasn't this wrong? Their master despised the imperial court the most. Reporting to the authorities?
Though confused, they chose to obey the order.
Fang Zhiyi revealed a sinister smile. Intelligence networks, assassin organizations—they all served Prince Xuan. He had no habit of being someone else's pawn.
The scene shifted back outside the inn. Naturally, the youths were unwilling to surrender without a fight in front of the growing crowd. Especially with more and more commoners gathering, they couldn't afford to lose face.
"We were ridding the people of a scourge!"
"You broke the law."
"The grain shop oppressed the people! They, they wouldn't give grain to the poor!"
The officer was almost amused. "So by your logic, being poor makes you special? You should just hold out your hand and demand things?"
"My father..." Lin Wanqing opened her mouth, about to name her powerful backing, but suddenly realized she had left home to make her own way without her family's knowledge. Relying on her family to get out of trouble now would be too shameful. And... she glanced around. If she said it, they would surely look down on her.
Lin Wanqing chose to remain silent.
Little did she know, the others had gone through the same thought process.
Finally, Li Wenyan reached a conclusion. "You've been bribed by Wanbao Pavilion!"
The officer had initially sensed that these youths also had spiritual energy and was afraid of provoking trouble. He had planned to take them back just for show, but they stubbornly refused to come.
Faced with such slander, however, the officer had to defend himself. "Don't talk nonsense! Many people witnessed what you did! And now you want to slander an officer?"
No one knew who struck first—perhaps the hot-tempered Xiao Changfeng. The youths unanimously chose the only option left: fight their way out.
Each was a child of influential families. Though young, their cultivation levels were not low. How could the soldiers led by a mere ninth-rank officer be a match for them? The officers were caught off guard by the sudden violent outburst from the youths.
Seeing the officers utterly powerless to fight back, the youths' sense of superiority soared. Especially with so many commoners watching, they threw down a few threatening words before swaggering off.
Fang Zhiyi remained on You Mountain, currently holding a meeting with his subordinates.
"Sir, are you talking about giving rice and cloth to the commoners? We do that every year," someone asked, puzzled.
Fang Zhiyi felt like hitting him. "How do you do it?"
Hearing his question, the subordinate immediately began a live demonstration. One-eyed Dragon, wearing an eye patch, put on a menacing grin.
"Hehehe, little kid, your parents are gone, right? Uncle is in a good mood today... this bag of rice..."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Fang Zhiyi couldn't bear to watch and even wanted to grab something to throw. "Are you extorting them or doing charity?"
"Uh..." One-eyed Dragon felt a bit guilty.
"Tch, garbage," Poisoned Embroideress mocked with a laugh.
One-eyed Dragon was unconvinced. "You try, you do it!"
"Aiyo, dear customer, your clothes are all torn. Why not follow me to the back courtyard, let me..." Before the words 'find a piece of cloth' could come out, Fang Zhiyi had already covered his face.
Yet, quite a few people nodded in agreement.
"Can't deny, Embroideress has skills."
"Exactly. I'm telling you, Blind Man, your way scares people. You need to learn."
Fang Zhiyi slammed the table. "Don't any of you see a problem with this?"
"A problem?" They looked at each other, then simultaneously turned to Fang Zhiyi and shook their heads. "Sir, this is how we usually do it."
Fang Zhiyi looked at Wine Sword Immortal, who hadn't spoken. This man seemed much more reliable—melancholy, weathered, mature!
"You there, tell me, how do you usually handle it when commoners ask for help?"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
