The Salt Commission Square was completely silent, and the smell of blood pervading the air grew stronger.

The burly man who was beheaded had completely bled out. Still, no one dared to come forward, and no one dared to moan in pain again. No one even dared to move a finger.

Ye Que sat pristinely in front of them, and he looked indifferent as usual. He was grinning, but to the others, he looked as terrible as an evil demon. This was truly indiscriminate killing on his part; even demonic beasts would not smile when they feasted on humans.

The lower the rank of ruffian, the more he would believe the theory of ‘winner takes all’. The person who was the strongest had the right to lead.

It was real, direct and effective.

One hour passed by very quickly.

When the door opened again, the group of burly men lying on the floor felt as if a huge stone was lifted off their backs; it was very obvious. They were genuinely worried that Chu Dongnan would not return within one hour, as that would very likely anger Ye Que and cause him to kill again.

Chu Dongnan drew the machete he always carried with him the instant he came to the front of the door, as he had noticed a very strong smell of blood. Instinctively, all of the muscles of his body began to tense up.

“Someone is here to challenge us!”

This was Chu Dongnan’s first reaction. He was dealing with the underground business which was not protected by the law. It was up to himself and the strength of his fists to ensure his survival.

Chu Dongnan immediately saw the corpse of the beheaded man upon stepping into the room, as well as all of his other surbodinates, who were lying on the floor. He then noticed Ye Que sitting on the stool in the center.

Chu Dongnan regulated his breathing and stopped himself from acting. It was very obvious, from how things had turned out, that even though Ye Que looked extremely youthful, his martial arts were definitely top notch.

“Are you Chu Dongnan?” Ye Que asked calmly.

Chu Dongnan did not reply immediately. He pointed at Ye Que, the floor and then their surroundings. “Who are you? Why did you kill my brother? What are you here for?” he asked.

Ye Que took a good measure of Chu Dongnan before saying indifferently, “Work for me in future.”

“What?”

Chu Dongnan thought that his ears were spoiled.

“Work for you?”

Chu Dongnan laughed coldly, as if he had heard an extremely funny joke. He then attacked suddenly, charging directly at Ye Que with a machete in hand. In his opinion, when dealing with an opponent stronger than himself, he had to give 100 percent of his effort and kill his foe in one blow; any other fanciful moves were unnecessary.

Ye Que shook his head as he looked at Chu Dongnan’s machete. He blocked the blow with only one finger before following up with a kick to his chest.

The man flew backward to where he came.

He shot out as if he had been struck by a cannon ball, and blood spewed from his mouth as his body flew backward in an arc and crashed onto the door.

The wooden door cracked instantly and crashed onto the ground. Chu Dongnan was still conscious, however. Ye Que was not out to kill him, and as such he would not allow the man to become just another corpse.

“Will you work under me or not?” Ye Que asked as he got up and walked slowly to the front of Chu Dongnan. He stood there and observed him from above.

“I spit on you!”

Chu Dongnan, who was lying on the floor, cracked into a smile as he spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm.

“Dream on!”

“You have some guts,” said Ye Que. He was not angry but pleased at this new finding. “However, you shouldn’t overestimate yourself. Also, you’re the boss of these men here, and as a boss you have to be willing to assume responsibility.”

No one noticed Ye Que move, but a huge man that had been lying on the ground immediately began floating up into the air. His right arm began twisting at an unnatural angle, as if it had been grabbed by an invisible hand.

Cries of pain immediately rang out from the burly man’s mouth.

“Crack!”

His right arm was broken in this manner.

Chu Dongnan’s eyes were wide open, and it looked as if rage could spew out of them at any moment. There was nothing he could do now, however. Ye Que had immobilized him with just one leg. Machete wielding aside, even moving a finger took great effort.

“Will you work under me?” Ye Que asked again. At the same time, the left arm of the burly man behind him also began twisting.

“Boss, save, save me.”

A terribly shocked, pleading voice came from the man suspended in mid-air. Real fear was created not when the victim knew he or she was going to be killed in one blow, but when he or she knew that there was nothing he or she could do in such a situation except wait for the Grim Reaper to arrive.

“I, will definitely, kill you,” said Chu Dongnan, who had crashed into the door. He was gritting his teeth and he spat out each word.

“Kill me?” Ye Que asked as he raised his hands slowly. “You’ll never have such a chance for your entire life.”

He raised his hand, and the head of the huge man behind him fell to the ground.

“No!” exclaimed Chu Dongnan as his eyes opened wide all of a sudden. Ye Que was just twisting someone’s arm not long ago, so why would he kill someone now?

“Bastard!”

“You’ll die a terrible death!”

“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll report this to the authorities?”

Ye Que did not bother about Chu Dongnan’s shouts and kept his gaze fixed on the man below him. “Opportunities will not always be available. Think carefully before you speak to me. Look at your brothers here and make a count of them. I’ll take one life for every sentence you speak. Let me see how long you can keep this up.”

“Demon.”

“You must be a demon.”

Chu Dongnan muttered to himself as he looked at Ye Que. The other survivors standing some distance away were shocked out of their wits and wanted to flee, but their legs had turned to jelly. They wanted to plead for mercy, but they were afraid that it would draw attention to themselves, thus leading to their deaths. Everyone of them could only try hard to stare and hint to their leader.

Ye Que was grinning as he looked at Chu Dongnan. He lifted his hand and asked again, “Will you work for me?”

Chu Dongnan did not speak for 10 seconds before he cocked his head and shut his eyes before replying very softly, “From now on, you’re the boss.”

Even though he spoke very softly, his word was still his word. The burly men close to him sighed with relief.

Ye Que straightened his back and swept his gaze across all of the frightened ruffians. He then straightened his clothes with his hands before walking casually out of the room, leaving only some words and a piece of paper behind.

His instructions were simple to understand. “From now onward, all of you people will belong to the Divine Sect. You can try to escape or leave Luoyang City, and you can try to report today’s incident to the authorities, but be mindful that you’ll have to bear the consequences of doing so. I will not interfere in your daily activities, but you’ll have to put aside everything to complete any task issued to you by the Divine Sect.”

“As a reward, a sum of silver will be sent to you every month, along with a secret manual.”

“Divide the silver amongst yourselves. As for the manual, anyone of you can read it, but whether you can successfully comprehend it and master the skill will be up to you people. We’ll send people to check on your progress every month. Those that complete the tasks in the most efficient fashion and progress the fastest in their training will have a chance of joining the inner circle of the sect.”

“You’ll be able to gain more silver, a better house and more powerful manuals if you work hard.”

Ye Que paused after he took a few steps forward. He turned his head back and looked at the ruffians before adding a few words.

First, he told them, “Remember my name. I’m Ye Que, and I’m your leader.”

The second was, “No one was born to be a ruffian. A person needs to have the ambition to succeed. What is the difference between humans and maggots without ambition?”

A piece of paper floated into the small Salt Commission Square as Ye Que left. A breeze blew it right before Chu Dongnan’s face.

When he left his residence this morning, Ye Que had casually written down dozens of sword and saber techniques.

People from the Cultivation World would probably not care about them, but people from the martial arts community would go in a frenzy to obtain them.

What fell before Chu Dongnan’s eyes was a set of saber technique.

There were a few brief lines of saber technique and dozens of pictures drawn on it and Chu Dongnan trembled as he saw them, not out of pain but from excitement. To a ruffian of the lowest order like him, even the simplest martial art techniques were things that he could only dream of, much less those that were of high-grade.

As he looked at the piece of paper, Chu Dongnan suddenly felt that he did not hate Ye Que anymore. Conversely, he was slightly hoping to see the youth again, as the piece of paper had ignited a flame in him.

The name of that flame was ambition, or also his wishes.

For three whole days and nights, Ye Que did not rest and traveled to the filthiest corners of Luoyang City.

While everyone else was capturing demonic beasts and searching for traces of the Demon Race, Ye Que moved quickly and introduced himself violently to 80 percent of the city’s ruffians.

Some gangs chose to surrender to him after only suffering once, while others would only give in when their leader was killed. There were some that would not give in no matter what, and there were also some who were total idiots and did not understand the disparity between their strength; they ended up choosing the path of no return.

No matter what path they chose, to Ye Que, there were only two options available to them—either surrender or die.

If they worked for the Divine Sect, they would earn a sum of silver and a set of martial arts technique.

Ye Que knew that a large portion of them had agreed to surrender to him but secretly still could not accept him. To him, that was superficial.

“I’ll give you silver that you need to survive, martial arts techniques that allow you to fulfill your ambitions and a chance to start life afresh.”

“Do you want that?”

“If you do, serve me obediently.”

“If you don’t, when your supply of silver has run out, you’ll also not receive any more manuals from me.”

Silver and manuals of martial arts techniques were two things that were as addictive as drugs. Anyone who got their hands on them would not be able to keep clear, and they would immerse themselves so deeply that it would be impossible to get out.

There were times when Ye Que would think, “In fact, the Divine Sect is also an abyss of desire.”

“Once you step into the Divine Sect, you’ll find that it’s so immersive that your soul no longer belongs to you.”

On the early morning of the fourth day, Ye Que returned back to the small yard.

Qian Shuxiao seemed to have never left. He had been sitting cross-legged in the room while maintaining a state of meditation.

He broke off from meditation just as Ye Que walked into the room.

“My brother, can you please be more reliable? How could you leave just like that? You’re the leader of our Divine Sect, how could you behave so irresponsibly? You disappeared just like that, and we couldn’t find any trace of you,” Qian Shuxiao began to nag as he got up.

A small book flew toward his face before he could finish speaking.

“These people are the eyes and ears of our Divine Sect. From now on, you’ll be responsible for liaising with them. Give them tasks regularly and allocate taels of silver according to how well they complete them. I’ll also give you a stack of martial arts manuals every month, and you can distribute them accordingly.”

“You may also come up with a ranking system so that we can better pick some good seedlings.”

Qian Shuxiao looked surprised to hear Ye Que’s words. “Are you for real?” he asked.

Ye Que glared at him before replying, “Of course! Do you think the Demon Race infiltrated this city for fun? They’re just testing us and collecting intelligence on the human race currently. The real battle will come after that. Once that happens, blood will flow freely and bodies will be strewn all over the streets, while bones from decayed corpses will pile up. All these will become common sightings.”

“If you want to live, prepare for war.”