Rogue 08

A trading company suddenly opened in Yangcheng, selling salt, iron, and spices. On the day of its grand opening, Magistrate Fang specifically came in person to officiate the ribbon-cutting, leaving the commoners of Yangcheng completely bewildered.

On the very day the trading company opened, many illegal salt peddlers and smugglers hiding in the shadows suffered a devastating blow.

Masked martial artists kicked down their doors, charging in to beat them and smash their goods without a word. In just half a month, all smuggling and illegal salt trades in Yangcheng and its surrounding areas were completely eradicated.

The goods confiscated from these people became the trading company's first batch of merchandise. Since there was basically no initial cost, Helmsman Zuo watched the business boom, grinning from ear to ear.

As for the distribution of profits, Fang Zhiyi had already planned it out: forty percent went to the Heaven-Shrouding Sect, forty percent to the imperial court, and he himself kept twenty percent.

Helmsman Zuo had no complaints about this arrangement. The old man was currently immersed in the thrill of doing business. One must know that as a demonic sect, especially an overlooked branch, feeding so many people was already difficult. Experiencing the taste of sitting back and making money for the first time, he was filled with hope for the future.

Regarding this operation, Fang Zhiyi merely reported that he had cracked down on smuggling and illegal salt peddling, which were strictly prohibited by the imperial court. Having sent gifts to some key officials and handed over profits to the court, absolutely no one raised any objections to his actions. Instead, they felt that this Fang Zhiyi was extremely capable.

After this job, I am going home to marry a wife. A masked, knife-wielding brute lying prone in the reed marshes watched a ship slowly approaching in the distance. This waterway was the main channel connecting several cities, and they had amassed quite a fortune by plundering passing vessels.

With the money you have saved, it is enough to marry eight wives! the leader laughed heartily, though a hint of ferocity flashed in his eyes.

As the ship drew near, they threw out their specialized climbing grappling hooks as usual. Relying on their lightness skills, they easily flipped onto the deck and delivered their standard opening line: Nobody move! We only seek wealth, not lives! If you resist, we will send you to see the Dragon King!

However, the ship was dead silent. This made the water bandit leader feel somewhat baffled and gave him a rather bad premonition.

It was not until torches lit up all around and a flag was suddenly raised on the ship that the leader froze.

Retreat! It is a ship of the Heaven-Shrouding Sect! Water bandits were a motley crew of martial arts vagabonds and ordinary people. They had no grand ambitions and purely harmed the commoners. When facing proper government soldiers or martial arts sects, they naturally had to flee.

But it was too late. Not only in front of them, but torches also appeared on both banks. Their uniform attire clearly indicated their identities.

The leader tried to use his lightness skills to escape, but the moment he left the ship, several ropes flew out, accurately entangling his limbs. The sect members on the ship and those on the shore pulled the ropes taut simultaneously, causing the leader to widen his eyes in terror.

Are you blind? You dare to rob a ship of our Heaven-Shrouding Sect? a protector disciple walked out with a sinister grin.

Spare my life! We did not know it was a Heaven-Shrouding Sect ship! Please spare this lowly one just this once! the leader began to beg for mercy.

But the other party merely carried a blade and walked beneath him.

The entire martial world knew that the demonic sect acted with ruthless cruelty. In his heart, the leader continuously cursed that subordinate from earlier. Why did he have to say such unlucky words before they made their move! The people who died in storybooks always died because they insisted on looking forward to the future right before an operation!

Watching the cold, gleaming blade approach, the leader closed his eyes.

Then, he heard a sentence that made his brain unable to process the situation.

Tie them up! Send them to the authorities!

Wait, what? Send them to the authorities??

Yangcheng had been particularly lively lately. The nearby mountain and water bandits were escorted into the city batch by batch. Every bandit had a face full of bewilderment, but what greeted them were the curses of the commoners, as stones and rotten cabbage leaves continuously smashed into their faces.

Because Helmsman Zuo had to personally manage the trading company's business, he could only stay in the city. After all, there were truly not many people in the Heaven-Shrouding Sect who could do arithmetic and read. Facing the commoners who came to his door to deliver gifts, Helmsman Zuo was somewhat dumbfounded.

It was not until he learned that these were gifts of gratitude specially given by the commoners to thank them for wiping out the bandits that the old man suddenly felt a bit moved. Fang Zhiyi had not claimed the credit for himself, but had directly pointed out the people who exerted the effort behind the scenes.

So this is what it feels like to be a good person?

He looked at those sincere representatives of the commoners. In the past, like all martial artists, he had never paid attention to these ordinary people. But at this moment, the old man felt a little weight upon his shoulders.

The news of eradicating the bandit menace was reported once again, and the imperial court was filled with praise for Fang Zhiyi. On this matter, both the civil officials and military generals reached a consensus. The military generals felt that suppressing bandits should be clean and decisive, and this scholar Fang Zhiyi truly possessed some of the demeanor of a military general. The civil officials, on the other hand, praised him because many of them had personal relationships with Fang Zhiyi; if he did well, their own futures would not be bad either.

Facing Fang Zhiyi's request to be entrusted with water transport operations, the Emperor agreed without a second thought.

With this, the water transport from Yangcheng to Fancheng was entirely handed over to the Four Seas Trading Company to operate. The Four Seas Trading Company also received the imperial court's appointment, becoming nominal imperial merchants.

Regarding the benefits that suddenly fell into his lap, Helmsman Zuo was so excited he could not even sit still.

They could pocket half of the water transport profits themselves, while the rest would be divided between Fang Zhiyi and the imperial court. Fang Zhiyi had even hinted to him that they could use the advantage of water transport to smuggle some spices and fabrics, and the profits from that would not have to be shared with the court.

And the sect members of the branch felt the joy of being the imperial court's running dogs for the first time, that is, the monthly allowance each person received genuinely multiplied several times over.

The sect members who previously had doubts about this now completely understood the branch helmsman's painstaking efforts. Even if they were out mixing in the martial world, no one would complain about having too much money, right?

The current Old Man Zuo admired Fang Zhiyi to the point of prostrating himself. Although he could not become a martial arts master, he was definitely his lucky star!

Facing the intelligence requests handed over by Fang Zhiyi, Helmsman Zuo never refused. The demonic sect might be bad at many things, but gathering intelligence was as simple as eating and drinking. No matter how far he had fallen, he was still an elder who had once come from the main headquarters; he still had this bit of capability.

However, he was also somewhat puzzled. The intelligence Fang Zhiyi requested had absolutely nothing to do with Yangcheng. But the old man was shrewd; he knew this young man had his own ideas, so he refrained from asking questions whenever possible. He had a premonition that the martial world would look completely different in the future.

Although Yangcheng was bustling with activity, this news did not spread to the wider martial world. Even less would anyone connect the political achievements of an imperial official with the demonic sect. The martial artists continued to fight and kill each other in their struggles.

It was just that a few small nearby sects felt that the Heaven-Shrouding Sect seemed to have settled down a lot, making it impossible for them to find a reason to pick a fight even if they wanted to.

These phenomena were very confusing, and ultimately, they could only attribute it to the demonic sect being afraid of them. This actually caused quite a few disciples of those sects to start throwing their weight around arrogantly.