Of course, one cannot be expected to work for free without some sweet rewards. Fang Zhiyi was promoted to the position of Governor, overseeing several surrounding small cities. This was also a gesture of goodwill from those people towards him.
This was within Fang Zhiyi's expectations; it was already not easy for Western Shu to hold out until now.
Yan Yiliu of the Double Blade Sect had stayed behind closed doors ever since he learned that the Demonic Cult had been wiped out. He even dreamed about the scene of offending Fang Zhiyi that day, feeling terrified just thinking about it.
However, whatever you fear will come to find you. The very next day, a guest arrived at the Double Blade Sect—a cocky petty official wearing a slightly loose official robe, looking somewhat comical.
"Well then, our Lord asked me to pass a message to you all!"
Yan Yiliu and his several disciples pricked up their ears.
"I [bleep] your [bleep] your mother's [bleep]!"
Yan Yiliu's hand gripping the armrest of his chair suddenly tightened, causing cracks to appear on the wood.
"Do you want to die?" His tone was full of intimidation.
Unexpectedly, although the petty official's face was a bit pale, he did not back down at all: "Come on! Kill me then? Come on!" He even stretched his neck out.
His name was Fei Li. His family was poor, with three younger siblings and an elderly mother. Originally, his father was still alive, but a madman broke into their home and killed him. Fei Li filed complaints everywhere, but the madman's family was wealthy, so he repeatedly hit a wall. Those people all told him not to argue with a madman, as it wasn't the first time the madman had hurt someone. He didn't understand—does a madman not break the law when he kills someone?
It wasn't until he heard that the county magistrate of Yang City had been promoted to Governor, and that this Governor liked to wander around, that he knelt at the entrance of the county office to beg for an audience with Fang Zhiyi, hoping to try his luck.
Someone took his petition and told him to go home. He thought Fang Zhiyi was just a hypocrite fishing for fame, but just as the sky turned dark, a group of fierce runners kicked open the door of the madman's house and arrested him. The madman's family members were also taken away.
The next day, the madman was escorted to the execution ground. It was then that everyone realized that this madman also knew fear and would cry and beg for mercy before dying.
His parents were directly exiled to the frontier for the crime of failing to discipline him.
From that day on, Fei Li thought about how to repay Fang Zhiyi. Although he had no special skills, he was willing to repay this kindness with his life. Fang Zhiyi was so pestered by him that he asked if he would take on a life-threatening errand.
After that day, he transformed from a commoner into an envoy.
Lord Fang had said that if he died, countless people would be buried with him, and his elderly mother and younger siblings would be provided for by Lord Fang. He wouldn't believe it if anyone else said it, but he believed Lord Fang.
Having thrown caution to the wind, Fei Li became incredibly bold. He knew that the people in front of him could easily kill him, so he simply stretched his neck out and spun in circles.
"Come on! You bunch of cowards! Kill me!" Fei Li completely let himself go.
Yan Yiliu stood up abruptly, veins popping on his forehead. The disciples on his left and right immediately spoke up, "Master, you must not!"
"Hmm?"
The eldest disciple moved his mouth without making a sound, forming the shape of the words "Demonic Cult." Yan Yiliu's anger was instantly extinguished.
This person came here today looking like he was seeking death, could it be...
Unknowingly, the cold sweat on Yan Yiliu's back soaked through his undershirt. These damn officials were too sinister!
Meanwhile, seeing that they were hesitating to make a move, Fei Li actually felt a bit anxious.
"You're too damn cowardly, aren't you? I deliver myself to your door and you still won't kill me?"
"Are you... hungry?" Yan Yiliu forcibly swallowed his curses and squeezed out a smile. "Take this... friend to get something to eat."
Fei Li was somewhat bewildered. That was it? Didn't they say these martial arts experts killed people as easily as slaughtering chickens?
But he still kept trying, either kicking stools or flipping tables. Yet even with all this, these martial artists didn't utter a single peep. He left feeling somewhat depressed.
Seeing Fei Li return, Fang Zhiyi smiled. He had guessed as much; with the precedent of the Demonic Cult, most of these people wouldn't dare lay a hand on someone wearing an official uniform.
At this moment, Zuo Qianqiu was staring blankly at the flag hanging on the wall behind him.
The three glittering gold characters "Heaven-Shrouding Guard" made him inexplicably nervous.
After Fang Zhiyi schemed against the Heaven-Shrouding Cult, he turned around and incorporated all the panicked cultists of the branch under the guise of protecting them. In just a few short months, they went from being a Demonic Cult branch to being scum of the Demonic Cult who colluded with the imperial court, and now they had become remnants of the Demonic Cult who had defected to the imperial court.
However, facing Fang Zhiyi's proposal, he had no reason to refuse, let alone any bargaining chips to do so.
Fang Zhiyi had decided early on that no one was more suitable for the position of Heaven-Shrouding Guard than these people from the former Heaven-Shrouding Cult branch. They had few independent thoughts, obeyed orders, and had a certain foundation in martial arts, though not too exceptional. As long as they were mixed with the existing city guards and given a little training, they could achieve good cooperative results.
They might not be enough on a large battlefield, but in small-scale skirmishes, they were absolute killing machines. Dispersing into groups of five for attack and defense, Fang Zhiyi had referenced the tactics of a general from his previous world, which proved to be highly effective.
Their current function was only one: to govern the martial world.
Zuo Qianqiu felt that Fang Zhiyi was playing him, but he didn't dare say it.
Who knew what other tricks this wicked man had yet to use.
He soon found out.
Fei Li couldn't write himself, but the scholar he brought along took a booklet filled with dense small writing from his bag and handed it to him. It detailed the number of people in the Double Blade Sect, its main composition, its land properties, where its shops were located, and what kind of businesses it operated.
"What is this?" Zuo Qianqiu looked at Fei Li, who didn't look like an official even while wearing the official robe.
Fei Li smiled foolishly, "The Lord sent me to give them trouble. There's just one requirement: if they want to establish a sect, they have to register with us. The Lord said this is called..." He thought hard for a moment and only remembered with the scholar's reminder, "A business license."
Zuo Qianqiu took a deep breath.
Well, he had indeed thought too simply.
Fang Zhiyi had his own way of dealing with these martial sects: he would win over those with good reputations, suppress the stubborn ones, and directly dispatch the Heaven-Shrouding Guards against those who refused to submit.
Of course, it wasn't a direct frontal conflict; after all, the martial world needed harmony.
It was just that without a business license, your land would be confiscated. As for your shops, how could they be your shops? They were the government's shops!
Fei Li continued to pay visits everywhere—the Zhongshan Sect, the Five Mountains Sect, the Qingfeng Gate, the Fali Temple. Fei Li had never been to so many places. The process was also very simple: he would walk in, sit down, and at the slightest disagreement, he would point at their noses and start cursing. The Lord had said this was called overwhelming the opponent with an imposing aura.
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...
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!
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.
