Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

This grand mansion is located in South City.

It bears the signboard of "Tingyu Pavilion".

The courtyard is deep and serene, with carved beams and painted rafters.

Two white jade stone lions sit at the entrance, the epitome of luxury.

At the moment, three Taishi Chairs in the room are each occupied by a gaunt old man.

A regal beauty in palace attire with embroidered shoes, casually resting a red paper umbrella on her knees.

A bald, bare-chested brute, with silver claws forged from an unknown metal on his hands. His muscles were knotted, and two elongated blood-colored fangs protruded from the corners of his mouth.

The room's brazier cast the shadows of the three figures upon the wall, where they twisted and jumped restlessly.

"Daoist Zhao, stop howling. Your Yin Mountain Mansion is teeming with masters; you've never gotten along with Hei Sanlang, and now that he's dead, he's dead. Why are you so enraged?" spoke the gaunt old man in the leading seat, sounding breathless, like he might die of old age at any moment.

However, neither the red-umbrella lady nor the terrifying corpse king dared to underestimate this decrepit old man.

The fact that he sat above the other two was telling.

He was the Supreme Yin Elder of the Huangquan Sect.

As soon as he spoke, the terrifying corpse king, Daoist Zhao, who had a fierce aura, immediately stopped his roaring and listened attentively.

At this moment, the unruffled palace-clad beauty sitting to the side couldn't help but sneer, "Supreme Yin Daoist is unaware of something. Mingyan Corpse Hei Sanlang indeed didn't get along with Zhao Corpse King, but the latter had a tight relationship with Hei Sanlang's wife, Hu Ermom."

"Her old lover was beaten to death alive; no wonder he's so furiously hopping mad."

Upon hearing the palace-clad beauty's words, Zhao Corpse King glared at the red-umbrella lady with brutal eyes, his large, bell-like eyes scanning up and down her voluptuous figure before finally resting on her fair and beautiful neck.

Seeing Zhao Corpse King's murderous gaze, the palace-clad beauty remained unafraid.

She puffed out her chest and crossed her slender jade legs. Her toes pointed straight, and a small section of thin, cicada-wing-like embroidered white silk stockings showed above the face of her embroidered shoes.

Licking her blood-red lips, she shook with laughter, "What does it matter if a Hu Ermom dies? Corpse King might as well visit my chamber tonight for a chat. I assure you, you'll enjoy a romp as if you were soaring among the clouds~"

"If the Corpse King can't forget his old flame and feels inclined, even if you want me to wear Hu Ermom's clothes to spice things up, I can do that."

Zhao Corpse King's heart stirred, but recalling the rumors about the red-umbrella woman, he regained his composure. Internally cursing, he grumbled, "Now that my Yin Mountain Mansion has lost two great generals, while your Huangquan Sect and the Red Chamber have only lost some insignificant fish and shrimp, of course you can stand there and talk idly."

"The new Taoist invited by the Zhen'an Office clearly practices some powerful ocular secret technique, and his physical cultivation is astonishing,

and like a madman, he even caught some of our hidden agents in the city and threw them into the dungeon. If things continue like this, our blood sacrifice plan will be greatly hindered,

So now we must decide whether to fight or make peace, whether to join forces to eliminate him or bypass South City, which he guards; we need to come up with a plan tonight."

Find adventures at empire

The Supreme Yin Elder glanced sideways to stop the red-umbrella woman who still wanted to tease Zhao Corpse King and asked, "Umbrella girl, what's your opinion?"

Seeing the Supreme Yin Elder speaking, the umbrella girl reined in her lascivious expression and spoke seriously, "Blindly forcing the issue of the blood sacrifice is unwise; after all, Zhen'an Office has home ground advantage in Longjiang Prefecture."

"Currently, we can only succeed through cunning."

"How to be cunning? Umbrella girl, please speak freely. If we succeed this time, you will certainly have a generous share when the three major powers reward contributions."

Upon hearing the Supreme Yin Elder's words, the umbrella girl revealed a satisfied smile. She smiled and pulled out a small wooden box from her chest, opening it.

Inside was a large caterpillar incessantly wriggling and spitting out chickpea-sized pink flesh balls.

The strange thing was that the caterpillar's head boasted human-like features, complete with eyes, nose, mouth, and all orifices.

It turned to face the crowd with an anthropomorphic smile, and incredibly, it spoke human language through its mouthparts: "The demon caterpillar has seen the three Daoists. Please forgive me for not being able to greet you properly, as I am currently sealed by a secret technique."

Upon seeing this pink caterpillar, which wasn't much larger than a silkworm baby, even the usually unflappable Supreme Yin Elder couldn't help but change color. He abruptly stood up and exclaimed, "The Ghost-Faced Bug?"

"Could it be that the Lady Butterfly of the Red Chamber has also come?"

What shocked him wasn't the Ghost-Faced Bug; though troublesome, it wasn't something he couldn't kill with some effort, given his cultivation.

What shocked him was the master behind the Ghost-Faced Bug.

A person's reputation precedes them; Lady Butterfly was a figure on par with the Refining Spirit and Void Realm, a True Person Realm master.

It seemed the Red Chamber had indeed put in great effort for Xiulong Daoist's legacy this time.

For a moment, Supreme Yin Elder's thoughts spun wildly, and his expression grew opaque, leaving others to wonder what he was contemplating.

The Ghost-Faced Bug spoke, "Indeed, my master has already arrived outside the city, but she cannot enter due to certain reasons."

"Since the Red Chamber's Daoist has already made arrangements, we shall wait for the good news," said the Supreme Yin Elder and Zhao Corpse King in unison, both with somber looks.

...

...

The next day was sunny and bright, with sunlight splashing across the land, draping Longjiang Prefecture in a golden veil.

The streets once again buzzed with cries of vendors hawking their wares.

No matter how violently the evil spirits raged, as long as they didn't cause mass casualties, the common folk wouldn't be overly panicked and would not hide away.

Food must always be eaten; with little to no savings, most people live hand-to-mouth.

Continuing to labor up until death is the normal state of life for ordinary people.

Those wretches who died in various accidents became the subjects of conversation among those who survived.

Is this a kind of... finding joy amidst adversity? Or perhaps it's desensitization.

Ordinary people without power can only passively face the judgment of fate.

The people of Longjiang Prefecture now feel even more so.

Every day, upon awakening, they find themselves secretly delighted.

Damn it, alive for another day, fantastic!

Especially today, in the South City area of Longjiang Prefecture, the streets are packed with people.

All of this is thanks to Yi Chen's efforts yesterday in "plowing the court and sweeping the lairs".

Under the policy where everyone must be inspected and report on each other, yesterday afternoon he found three more minor evildoers, earning himself another thirty Deep Red Points.

This is the tireless worker rewarded by heaven.

By bullying the weak, he amassed a total of eighty Deep Red Points yesterday.

This made him even more enthusiastic, and he set out early today with a group of men to cleanse the streets.

"Taoist, have a bun, freshly baked buns for you to try."

"Taoist, try some dates, I just picked them, very fresh."

"Taoist, you've worked hard, take a roasted chicken to eat, my Pan's Roasted Chicken Shop has been a hundred-year-old establishment in Longjiang Prefecture, one of the top two roasted chickens in Longjiang Prefecture!"

Yi Chen and his followers had not been out long before they received a warm welcome from the townspeople on the street.

So warm that it flustered Yi Chen.

Even without his men intervening, people willingly kept order and queued up for inspection.

Wherever he went, the local people rushed to offer him gifts. They might not have been very valuable, just ordinary food and eggs, but everyone's intention was heartfelt, their gazes as pure as a college student's.

This silence the normally morally flexible Yi Taoist.

Perhaps this is the nature of the common folk. Just be a little good to them, and they will remember your kindness.

If you treat them even better, they might even elevate you to the status of a deity.

When Yi Chen first took on the job of overseeing the South City area, his motives were not pure. An opportunist, his first consideration was not morality, but risk and reward. Therefore, he roamed around the South City area yesterday, plowing through it again and again.

And his methods were extremely brutal.

Those in the crowd who liked to stir up trouble and spread rumors were captured by him in large numbers and thrown into prison.

Certainly among them were innocents who just liked to gossip.

But he didn't have the patience to determine who was a spy; he simply arrested everyone and locked them up together.

Now the South City's prison is overcrowded.

So crowded that one could sleep standing up...

In the prison.

If you don't make trouble and obey orders, then you still get three meals a day of a fist-sized potato.

Make trouble? Then you're screwed, and you're guaranteed at least three fist-sized beatings a day...

It could be said that Yi Chen's methods, aside from not breaking the surface of the Geneva Conventions, violated just about every other article of the Geneva Conventions from the past life...

And as for some hooligans and scoundrels who were sneaky, uncooperative, disrespectful toward Yi Taoist, and had a poor reputation in the neighborhood, he casually swept them up too.

Such idiots were clearly peripheral forces of the Yin Mountain Sect, fit to be sent outside the city to mine or to be gathered to farm potatoes.

His work was so rough that he resembled a failed Austrian art student, yet it still didn't stop the people of the South City from revering him like a god.

Because he really did mess with the forces of the Yin Mountain Sect, the Red Chambers, and other demonic and heretical factions.

The entire South City, under the organization of Yi Chen, was like a meat grinder. Any slight abnormal behavior would throw them into the vast ocean of the people's masses, and if they acted out of line, they would be reported, then a tall Daoist with his men would plow through.

This tall Daoist was like a dog; he didn't even know where he would go next, and his speed was extremely fast. The demonic and heretical elements present in the South City were under immense psychological stress and didn't dare to meet their KPIs in the area.

And with the encouragement of the Deep Red Points, Yi Chen's initiative was playing out at full force.

"Taoist, have some eggs," a little girl with her hair in two ponytails and bare feet ran over with half an uneaten egg in her hand.

With a sigh of resignation, Yi Chen picked up the little girl and handed her over to her mother, and casually gave the girl two sticks of sugar-coated hawthornes that someone had given him.

For some reason, facing the intense gaze of the townspeople, the normally fierce Daoist who dared to fight and punch the cruelest demonic elements today felt a prickling sensation in his eyes.

He felt undeserving of their admiration.

But he quickly adjusted his mentality.

He straightened his chest.

I deserve it!

By deeds, not intentions~

At worst, I just need to be a bit more serious.

Do my best and leave the rest to fate.

He raised his head to look at the clear blue sky, but his brows furrowed slightly.

He felt the illusion of a storm brewing.

At this moment, Yi Chen's heart was not as optimistic as the sky above. He felt that beyond the blue sky and white clouds, dark clouds were about to float over.

Black clouds pressing down on the city, threatening to crush it!