Taoist Yan Song, Taoist Yi Hong, Taoist Ming Yu, Taoist Jing Feng, Taoist Qingyuan, Taoist Shen Hao, Taoist Jing Hong, and Taoist Jing Fa.
The eight elderly Daoists crossed Jiangbei and headed to the Central Plains to uphold justice and search for traces of evil.
The other elderly Daoists with profound Dao Practice remained in Jiangnan, coordinating with Snow God Mountain to gradually push deeper into the Southern Border.
Before long, Taoist Ling Ya of the Purple Sun Sect, along with Taoist Zhi Qing and Taoist Zhi Xiu of the Celestial Master’s Mansion, broke through to five hundred years of Dao Practice. Daluo Palace had gained three new masters!
...
Gu Zhao brought Taoist Xu Ning back to Blue Star, taking over for Taoist Yan Qi, who had just completed his assignment.
The two of them casually picked up the news briefings from the table in the main hall and started to read.
"Oh, not bad!" Gu Zhao said, raising an eyebrow. "They’ve recovered a good amount of the stolen funds."
Taoist Yan Qi smiled. "The countries and banks involved were all very cooperative. The assets of the masterminds were all confiscated and auctioned off, and the proceeds have been returned."
Gu Zhao, Taoist Yan Qi, and Taoist Xu Ning looked at each other and smiled.
There was no denying that the feeling of operating outside the rules was truly exhilarating.
During the New Year, Yunyang, Taoist Yuan He, and Jing Chun Taoist had captured hundreds of thousands of people and brought them back to the country. The system had mobilized its finest personnel at top speed to handle the trials and sentencing.
The guilty were sentenced, the innocent freed, fines levied, and deportations ordered.
A group of the most heinous criminals received the death penalty directly. Even their appeals were finalized by the appellate court within a single day. The trials were swift, and the executions were swifter.
By the time Gu Zhao returned from his trip, the first batch of death row inmates had already been executed.
Others who had been lured into the schemes and committed only minor offenses were mostly reprimanded and then released without charges.
As for the foreigners who provided logistical support for the fraud compounds, while they avoided prison sentences, they were forced to disgorge their earnings through hefty fines before being deported.
As for the funds and assets of the masterminds, Celestial Xia would have recovered very little if they had followed standard procedures.
But this case involved Extraordinary Beings.
They had moved hundreds of thousands of people overnight and captured all the masterminds within days!
Completely ignoring conventional procedures and international law!
Then, Celestial Xia sent out official letters demanding cooperation in recovering the stolen funds.
What were those countries supposed to do?
If they dared to obstruct the process, would Celestial Xia’s Extraordinary Beings use "colluding with the telecom fraud industry" as a pretext to drag them off to Celestial Xia too?
Even if Celestial Xia eventually released them, they would have completely lost face. Their public approval would plummet, and their political futures would be in jeopardy.
So, they could only cooperate, and do so with the utmost speed and the best possible attitude, hoping to resolve the whole affair as quickly as possible.
And so, Gu Zhao read in the report how various countries were actively cooperating, auctioning off—or even having the state seize—the assets of those involved, then converting everything to cash and wiring it back to Celestial Xia.
It was all quite surreal.
Taoist Yan Qi chuckled. "Didn’t you mention something about making a skull pyramid out of the worst criminals? Yunyang’s team actually brought it up, but then the main office called, saying it was a bit too radical. They said sentencing more of them to death would be enough of a deterrent for any other scum."
Gu Zhao burst out laughing and waved his hand dismissively. "I was just spitballing. The system still has to play by the rules. As for making skull pyramids... we’ll just have to do that ourselves next time."
Taoist Yan Qi and Taoist Xu Ning, "..."
Gu Zhao looked back at the report, shaking his head with a smile. "So we gave Huaqi Country another headache?"
Taoist Yan Qi smiled. "It was just a side effect. After all, Huaqi Country also suffers greatly from telecom fraud originating from Ah San."
As the world’s two largest economies, Celestial Xia is plagued by telecom fraud from Celestial Xia-speaking regions in Southeast Asia, while Huaqi Country is plagued by fraud from the Huaqi-speaking population of Ah San.
The annual losses, amounting to tens of billions of Huaqi Coins, were a massive financial sting for them as well.
Consequently, the decisive action taken by Celestial Xia’s Extraordinary Beings sparked a public outcry in Huaqi Country. Citizens flooded the internet with messages, demanding that their Grand Commander dispatch the Superpower Special Service Bureau to recover the money they’d lost to scammers from Ah San.
While some of the populace, kept in the dark by their government’s policies, were unaware of the gap in Extraordinary power between nations, the world’s leaders knew the truth all too well.
Facing this pressure, the Grand Commander of Huaqi Country decisively posted a social media update.
"To capture hundreds of thousands of people from Ah San and bring them to Huaqi for trial, how much of the Federation’s financial and human resources would that consume?"
"That’s all taxpayer money! We’ve already had tens of billions stolen from us by Ah San; we cannot waste any more money on them!"
"Besides, we are a civilized nation. I am a man who aims to win a peace prize. We will not go to another country’s soil and randomly arrest people."
"Therefore, I have decided to impose an additional 100% tariff on Ah San. Furthermore, all people from Ah San who come to Huaqi Country to work must pay a security deposit of one hundred thousand Huaqi Coins."
"I will use this revenue to compensate for the money they stole from us, and I will continue to do so until they prosecute those criminals themselves and return every cent they stole!"
At the end of the post, he even added three fist emojis and three fire emojis.
"So? Did they fall for it?" Taoist Xu Ning asked curiously.
Taoist Yan Qi shook his head and pointed to the documents in Taoist Xu Ning’s hands. "I don’t know. It’s not in the report, and I wasn’t paying attention."
He was a Daoist. When he came back for an assignment, he stayed at the Taoist Research Institute, either cultivating in solitude or watching domestic news, always prepared to respond to potential disasters within the country and help with rescue efforts.
As for public opinion in Huaqi Country?
That was not something he concerned himself with.
...
Taoist Xu Ning stayed behind, and Taoist Yan Qi returned.
Gu Zhao went to pick up Xiao Ya and Jiang Shishi from work, and ran into Erin, who was leaving with them. Song Qiuqiu was also there to meet up with the group, along with their chivalrous escort, Zhang Hang.
"Perfect timing! We’re about to go get hot pot, you’re coming with us!" Jiang Shishi exclaimed, grabbing Gu Zhao’s arm.
And so, Gu Zhao went to get hot pot with them.
Everyone already knew Gu Zhao was an Extraordinary Being, so they spoke freely during dinner.
Zhang Hang rubbed his hands together, gloating, "I saw Ding Zehai’s dad on the criminal list. Colluding with the fraud compounds abroad to scam our own people, plus his previous financial crimes back home... they confiscated all his property and gave him a life sentence."
Gu Zhao nodded. "Fitting. He can spend the rest of his life in prison."
Xiao Ya chimed in, "The news said a lot of death sentences were handed out this time."
Jiang Shishi said excitedly, "I saw some posts from foreign sites saying that people abroad are terrified. The second they find out you’re one of the Celestial Xia People, they get super polite."
Erin shrugged. "Even the muggers in Europe and North Africa are robbing and stealing from Celestial Xia People a lot less."
Song Qiuqiu laughed. "Who knew that taking down the scam operations would have a ripple effect that even benefits our tourists in Europe?"
Gu Zhao sneered. "Just a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong. When the risk is greater than the reward, they naturally back off."
After the elderly Daoists revealed their power a few times, people started to figure out their rules of engagement: under no circumstances should you threaten the life of a person from Celestial Xia!
During a robbery or theft, if you happened to run into a reckless person from Celestial Xia and someone ended up getting killed, the consequences would be dire.
There are plenty of other people in the world. Huaqi Country, for example, has many wealthy tourists visiting Europe to trace their roots and admire the art.
A mark is a mark, right?