In Kanming’s South City Street, atop an ordinary three-story building.
Four people of different statures and demeanors sat around a large table.
The only one who sat upright was a well-built middle-aged man dressed in a Scholar’s Robe.
He held a letter in his hands, reading it intently.
"Wine Flame Demon" Xia Xi. He was quite influential among the numerous Water Bandits in Luanzhou’s Changhu in the past, firstly because of his strength, secondly because he was clever, and thirdly because he always managed to obtain crucial supplies and intelligence from unknown sources, helping everyone avoid encirclement by Da Chen.
As for why... of course, it was because he was a member of the Heaven’s Will Cult!
After the Water Bandits of Changhu were pacified, Xia Xi gradually faded from the public eye. Old Bro’s from those days said he must have hidden away in some rural area to live like a rich man, but only Xia Xi himself knew that his heart for Martial Arts was firm, and he could never live as a rich landlord in this lifetime.
Not only that, but his ambitions were grand; he wanted to rise through the ranks, become wealthy, and reach the pinnacle of life without compromising his mastery over Martial Arts and power!
In ordinary times, this would certainly be a fantasy, but in the unpredictable Northern Border, it was not impossible.
Kanming City’s defense, Grandmaster Xia Xi, Altar Master Shu Zheng died by the hand of the Heavenly Demon, causing not only Da Chen to fret over who should assume the position, but also giving the Heaven’s Will Cult a major headache.
Shu Zheng was a Martial Meridian Grandmaster with great potential to break through the Divine Repository in recent years. At a young age, he refined the "Penetrating Sun Divine Might Fist" to pure perfection, and his Fate Pattern "Just like the Mid-day Sun" was a rare Yang Attribute Strange Mandate.
Becoming the commander of a city, holding absolute power, allowed his skills to advance rapidly.
On Da Chen’s side, the Provincial Governor of Wild State, Chen Haoshan, was very fond of him and wanted to groom him as his successor; the Demon Sect, too, hoped Shu Zheng could infiltrate Da Chen’s ranks, subtly transforming the peripheral territories of Wild State into their own domain.
His death, on the surface, was just the loss of a Grandmaster, but in reality, it was chaos for both Da Chen and the Divine Sect’s future plans for the entire Wild State.
For Xia Xi, directly under the Western Patrol Envoy and privy to inside information, Shu Zheng was just someone who valued his duty over his life, not understanding the power of his own existence. For getting involved in minor matters personally, he deserved to die along with the Heavenly Demon.
In his case, he would definitely allow the Heavenly Demon to devastate a few more villages, wait until the surrounding villages and towns were in panic, and then strike with the power of the Earth Vein Divine Weapon to eliminate it!
In doing so grandly, he would not only conform to his Fate Pattern, but he could also win the appreciation of his superiors, the respect of the local people, and perhaps even opportunistically extract some spoils—acquiring the Mysterious Primordial Qi of the Heavenly Demon.
If during this process, the Kanming Bell advanced smoothly, then Shu Zheng would definitely be favored by the Imperial Court, possibly becoming a rare holder of a dual Divine Repository Fate Pattern, henceforth having a smooth official career, rising rapidly, and reaching the pinnacle of life!
But Shu Zheng actually just gave away his life like that, which was truly laughable.
However, it also just let them pick up the slack, benefiting from the leftovers.
"Listen carefully, our task is to clear this area of all traces of the True Demon Sect and re-establish connections with Kanming City’s informants and collaborators!"
Putting down the letter, Xia Xi looked around at the three people before him and said solemnly, "The sect can’t spare any Grandmasters to fill the position for now. If we do well, we might even become the temporary Altar Masters. Later on, we might be awarded Treasure Medicine, advance in our Martial Meridian, and become a bona fide Da Chen Commandant, a Martial Meridian Grandmaster!"
In the past, Kanming City was indeed firmly under the control of the Heaven’s Will Cult, but not all members under the Divine Sect’s command were aware that they were serving the Heaven’s Will Cult; they were indirectly controlled by the Divine Sect.
The task of Xia Xi and others was to reconnect these previously cultivated informants and collaborators with the local network.
This task was indeed troublesome, especially considering how to logically bring these people under control. Xia Xi felt a headache coming on just thinking about it and shook his head, instructing, "Remember, do not recklessly kill anyone! This is not the mountains, and we are not by the Changhu River bank."
"This is Kanming City, and after we were recruited, we finally have a legitimate identity. You must take this seriously and not waste the opportunity!"
To the right of Xia Xi, a giant man about eight feet tall and nearly five feet wide, built like a tower, chuckled. His entire body was pitch black, except for his large, bell-like eyes which were red-rimmed and bloodshot, resembling those of a bull.
However, after responding, the giant man also expressed his concerns, "But Bro, the few of us brothers don’t know how to be tactful. What if those little maidservants are uncooperative? Can’t we just tear them apart?"
"No." On his left, an elderly martial artist with a pale complexion coldly responded, "If we really need to kill one to warn the others, just behead them like the boss does. If you like eating hearts, just pull theirs out directly. Don’t always rip arms and legs; it leaves a mess everywhere."
After scolding the giant man, the old martial artist turned his head and scolded the gaunt man who was puffing away at his pipe, filling the entire room with smoke, "And you, stop smoking that damn pipe. We are going to be officials now; we can’t ruin our image."
The scolded gaunt smoking man wasn’t annoyed; he simply chuckled foolishly, put away his pipe, and leisurely pulled out a betel nut to chew on.
Seeing this, Xia Xi felt his headache intensify, "These old bandits are really damn difficult to manage..."
The Water Bandits of Changhu had been recruited by Da Chen and had largely scattered. Only the most unsociable and hardest to assimilate group of misfits still followed him.
The first giant man, originally named Wei Gu, might sound and look honest and simple, but he had been a bad seed since childhood, kicking the disabled, kicking in the doors of widows, robbing the poor, and bullying quiet and vulnerable village children.
At twelve, he turned to banditry after accidentally killing an orphan during one of his bullying sprees. Driven by evil courage, he resolved to leave no witnesses and killed the child’s grandparents, both of whom were bedridden, plundering their wealth and fleeing to the mountains.
The second old man was known to no one by his real name; everyone just called him ’Cook Old Man.’ According to him, he used to be a grain merchant and was forced to become a bandit after rioters broke into his granary during the year of the Hanhai Demon Calamity.
However, Xia Xi knew very well that the old man was greedy and deceitful, his family business most certainly involved hoarding grain to sell at exorbitant prices—the kind of heartless trade that, from past drunken slips of the tongue, probably included usury as well.
As for the third person, also nameless, he was less particular, merely addicted to opium and gambling. His addiction led to fits of madness, gambling away his wife, children, and parents—a Gambling Ghost, completely out of his senses, unaware of his own name.
These three men, each with their own peculiarities and extraordinary natures, even possessing individual Fate Patterns, were indeed the worst of villains and paragons among scoundrels. Otherwise, they would not have ended up with no other choice but to seek refuge with the Demon Sect.
If it weren’t for the many years of coordinated pillaging, Xia Xi would have never reluctantly undertaken missions requiring them to enter the city.
Xia Xi was born in a bandit camp, a second-generation bandit without particularly bad habits—his only pleasure being the collection of heads from those he killed. He disliked torturing his captives, preferring straightforward beheadings, making him relatively good compared to the rest of the scoundrels.
"Alright, remember, aside from re-establishing our control over the informants and subordinate groups in Kanming City, there is also the mission personally entrusted to us by the Western Patrol Envoy!"
Composing himself, Xia Xi said in a stern voice, "Find the Little Leader ’An Jing’ who fled from Hanging Fate Manor and capture him alive!"