Midnight, the hour of Zi.
North of Ju Ye City, Spring Street, Lianqing Building.
A cool, crisp breeze swept past, blowing open a small gap in a third-floor window of the Lianqing Building. Several broken silver ingots were blown out by the wind, tumbling into a dark alley next door.
Ma Huai reached out and caught the silver. He weighed it lightly in his palm. "About six taels or so. That should be enough."
After speaking, Ma Huai listened carefully to the movements upstairs. Confirming that Master Wei was still fast asleep, he glanced around and wrapped the pieces of silver in a scrap of paper he had picked up nearby.
He kept his head down and walked away briskly, passing through several alleys until he quickly entered a secluded one. This happened to be the back alley of the Liu Family Restaurant. Arriving at the back door of the courtyard where the Liu Family couple lived, he flicked his wrist, and the paper package shot from his hand.
THUD!
The soft sound seemed unusually abrupt in the dead of night, waking the sleeping Mr. and Mrs. Liu, though it failed to disturb the neighboring courtyards.
Mr. Liu told his wife to go back to sleep while he grabbed a wooden stick. He crept silently to the bedroom door, pulled it open, and soon spotted a paper package lying on the ground.
The paper had torn open, revealing a gleam of silver shimmering in the moonlight.
Mr. Liu reached down to pick it up and immediately saw the silver inside. Weighing it casually in his hand, he muttered, "Six taels and seven maces!"
He peered left and right. The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, accompanied by a gentle night breeze. Other than the chirping of insects and the rustling of night birds, there was not a single trace of human presence. Looking down at the package in his hand, Mr. Liu’s eyes flickered with complicated emotions for a moment. He took the silver back inside and firmly bolted the door.
"Shopkeeper, what happened?" Mrs. Liu asked.
"A hero practicing Righteousness and Heroism must have seen what happened during the day and brought us over six taels of silver. It’s enough for next month’s protection fee."
After delivering the silver, Ma Huai turned and exited the alley.
However, the moment he rounded the corner, he spotted three figures standing under the eaves not far away. It was a man and two women—the very same trio he had seen descending from the sky that morning.
His heart skipped a beat. Feigning ignorance, Ma Huai immediately turned around to head in the opposite direction.
Then, he heard the man in the middle call out, "I am very curious. That Master Wei is no good man. Why didn’t you teach him a lesson?"
Ma Huai paused in his tracks, realizing he could not hide anymore. After a moment of silence, he finally replied, "If he gets injured, what happens if the person who replaces him is even worse?"
Gu Zhao was taken aback. He thought, "No wonder this Demon doesn’t possess a shred of Evil Qi. He is actually quite kind-hearted."
Zhuo Qingyan chimed in, "You could just teach Master Wei’s faction a lesson and demand that they stop collecting protection fees from the commoners."
"If they don’t collect protection fees, they won’t have the manpower to sustain themselves," Ma Huai countered. "They would quickly be defeated by other gangs. What if an even worse gang takes their place?"
Zhuo Qingyan was also slightly stunned, never expecting this Demon to be such a pessimist.
Li Qingshuang asked with a smile, "Then why don’t you form your own faction? That way, you could protect even more people."
Ma Huai shook his head. "I don’t want to draw attention to myself, nor do I know how to manage people. They would only use my power to commit evil acts."
Li Qingshuang raised an eyebrow. This man was an honest fellow and a total lone wolf. Truth be told, this was her first time seeing someone with such profound strength yet such an extraordinarily honest nature.
"So you hide your identity and just help whomever you can, one at a time?" Gu Zhao asked curiously.
"I’m not that magnanimous either," Ma Huai answered truthfully. "I only help those who treat me well."
Gu Zhao pondered for a moment before continuing, "What happened yesterday was just a coincidence that you stumbled upon. If you hadn’t gone to the restaurant to eat noodles yesterday, you wouldn’t have known about it at all. Unable to produce the money, the shopkeeper might have been driven to ruin by that Master Wei."
Ma Huai fell silent. He was just a solitary Demon living in seclusion in the mortal realm. What could he possibly do?
"I’ll show you my solution," Gu Zhao suddenly said.
"How will you solve it?" Ma Huai asked.
Taking the two women by the hand, Gu Zhao turned to leave. "In a couple of days, you will find out."
Watching their departing figures, Ma Huai couldn’t help but ask, "What exactly are you trying to do?"
Gu Zhao waved his hand dismissively. "Once the matter is resolved, I will come looking for you again."
Ma Huai was filled with bewilderment. When the three of them descended from the sky, they had revealed a trace of their aura. That pure and majestic aura had nearly destabilized his own breath. In his eyes, they were Great Demon Ghost Gods with at least several thousand years of Cultivation. Because of this, he had carefully hidden himself, and even his actions tonight had been extremely cautious. He never expected that all his efforts would be in vain; the other party had blocked his path directly, seemingly coming here solely for him.
However, Ma Huai could not understand. He was just a Demon honestly living in seclusion among mortals. Even though he had over a thousand years of Dao Practice, he actually had no reputation whatsoever in Demon circles. The other party’s Cultivation was much higher than his. Other than Soul Refining and Soul Capturing, or Blood-Sucking Bone Refining, he was of absolutely no value to them.
Just a moment ago, Ma Huai had already prepared to flee in a panic, but the other party didn’t seem to have any hostile intentions.
Early the next morning, after eating breakfast, Ma Huai heard some news from his manual labor friends. A guest at the Lianqing Building had lost his money pouch. With no money to pay his bill, he tried to frame the Lianqing Building. However, the Lianqing Building, which possessed quite a formidable background, taught him a harsh lesson. He only managed to escape after relying on his lackeys to scrape enough money together.
The following evening, when Ma Huai went out for dinner, he heard a follow-up to the story from friends working in the city. The guest turned out to be the leader of a small gang in town. Having lost both his money and his dignity, he flew into a rage and went to several of the merchants he "protected," extorting another five taels of silver from them.
On the morning of the third day, Ma Huai heard that there had been some commotion in the backyard of the Prefecture Government Office the previous night. Fights had broken out at the headquarters of several gangs across the city, suggesting that a foreign faction had entered town. This struck Ma Huai as very strange. He was, after all, a Great Demon with over a thousand years of Dao Practice. Yet, he hadn’t sensed the slightest trace of combat aura in the city last night. At the very least, the true powerhouse behind Ju Ye Prefecture, the Tongxin Sect, had shown no signs of unusual activity.
On the afternoon of the third day, when Ma Huai returned from working at the docks outside the city, he learned that all the gangs in the city had been completely reformed. They were transformed into Escort Agencies, construction crews, and patrol squads. Rumor had it that the merchants on the street still had to pay a fee, but not only was the amount much smaller, the patrol squads would actually maintain order and protect them whenever hooligans caused trouble.
On the morning of the fourth day, as Ma Huai sat eating noodles at the noodle stall by the South Gate, he saw pairs of patrolmen inspecting the city. The Martial Arts Experts who had previously run the inner-city gang factions had now become Darts Masters soliciting business. There was even a group of former thugs working hard to repair houses for the city’s commoners.
"How did they do this?" Ma Huai was dumbfounded.
"Through reliable systems and trustworthy manpower, of course." Gu Zhao walked into the noodle stall with Zhuo Qingyan and Li Qingshuang, ordering three bowls of plain noodles.
"An Elder from my palace paid a visit to the Tongxin Sect to have a little chat with those twin Infant Ghosts. Then, a squad of Inner Sect Disciples and Outer Disciples entered the city to have a talk with the Prefectural Magistrate and the local gangs. Just like that, the problem was solved," Gu Zhao said nonchalantly.
"May I boldly ask who you are, sir?"
"Gu Zhao of the Daluo Palace."
Hearing Gu Zhao’s response, Ma Huai’s eyes lit up. "You are the Gu Palace Master of Daluo Palace on Cuiluo Mountain, located in Jiangzhou’s Changping Prefecture? The one who turned Jiangzhou into a utopia on earth?"
"I am," Gu Zhao nodded.
He then watched as Ma Huai reacted as if he were seeing his idol. The Demon shifted his seat to sit closer, but then, fearing that his clothes were dirty, awkwardly scooted back a bit.
"Are you a Mage? Neither a Fairy nor a Ghost God?
"How did you build Jiangzhou into such an earthly paradise?
"I heard that over there, crime is nonexistent and people sleep with their doors unlocked! Everyone is honest, and commerce is booming!
"I heard the governance is pure, the wealthy are benevolent and righteous, the young are nurtured, and the elderly are cared for!"
Faced with Ma Huai’s idol-worshipping gaze, as well as the adoring, stifled giggles of Zhuo Qingyan and Li Qingshuang beside him, Gu Zhao felt slightly embarrassed.
"It’s not actually that perfect yet, but that is the direction we are striving toward." Gu Zhao chuckled, then extended an olive branch to Ma Huai. "The Daluo Palace’s Twenty-Eight Guardian Star Officials are still missing the Cor hydrae. I wonder if Brother Ma would be willing to condescend to accept the position?"
Ma Huai nodded decisively. "I am willing!"