Under one person: I, Zhang Zhiwei, the arrogant Zhang.

Lightning and black mist, one black and one white, collided violently in mid-air. After each collision, a cloud of black mist would burst forth or a flash of silver lightning would dissipate in mid-air.

"Zhang Mazi" was enveloped in a cloud of black mist, which constantly transformed into various strange beasts—tigers, leopards, dragons, snakes, and lightning—all heading towards "Zhang Zhiwei".

This horrifying scene left the watching landlords trembling with fear. Even Liu Mang and Fan Pengju, who knew some of the inside story, were incredibly astonished. Where did the Little Celestial Master find such a powerful Zhang Mazi to act alongside him?!
Lu Ci, on the other hand, looked completely unsurprised. Of course, he knew that Zhang Mazi was the vice leader of the Tiantong Church, and that Zhang Shixiong's inner demon was indeed a manifestation of inner demons.

Wang Ai, however, did not think so. He looked at the two sides locked in fierce combat with a furrowed brow. He naturally knew that one of them was Senior Brother Zhang and the other was Senior Brother Zhang's inner demon, but... the key was that their moves were not quite right!
He spent a lot of time with the vice leader and often asked the vice leader to possess him, so he knew the vice leader's situation very well. Don't be fooled by the fact that the vice leader is a sinister and treacherous inner demon, but his methods are dignified and upright, using righteous thunder magic, which is completely contrary to his identity.

Based on his understanding, the vice-leader was incapable of using such overwhelming, dark cloud-like tactics; rather, the powerful and unparalleled thunder was more in line with his methods.

But right now on the field, it's Senior Brother Zhang who's using this technique...

Wang Ai looked at "Zhang Mazi," who was shrouded in black mist, and was somewhat bewildered. If the vice leader couldn't use such a method...

Then wouldn't this "Zhang Mazi" be the real Zhang Shixiong, the one who is actually Zhang Mazi?

If Zhang Mazi is Senior Brother Zhang...

Does that mean Senior Brother Zhang is... the Vice Leader...?

Did it change today, yesterday, or even earlier...?

Immediately, Wang Ai recalled Zhang Zhiwei's guidance to Lü Ci yesterday. Although he hadn't thought anything of it at the time, now, in retrospect, he noticed something amiss. It was because Senior Brother Zhang usually didn't offer guidance; it was mostly others who asked him for advice, and only then would Senior Brother Zhang generously share his insights.

He had never seen Hedgehog and Lu Mang without asking, yet Senior Brother Zhang took the initiative to instruct them and even test them.

So, does that mean the Vice Leader started impersonating Senior Brother Zhang at least last night? Or perhaps even earlier...?

This thought surprised Wang Ai greatly. They had been with Senior Brother Zhang for so long, yet they hadn't noticed anything!
He then looked at Lü Ci. This silly deer was still happily watching the match, completely unaware that the person who beat him up yesterday wasn't Senior Brother Zhang at all. But even if he knew, it wouldn't matter. With the Vice Sect Leader's abilities, beating up Hedgehog was actually a form of promotion for Hedgehog.

With this thought in mind, he stopped his random thoughts and looked straight up into the air.

Just now, the battle situation changed. Zhang Zhiwei opened his palm, and the lightning in his hand was extremely bright, intertwining into a thunder sword more than five meters long, exuding a heavy power. The sword's edge was pointed at Zhang Mazi.

"Boom!"

Thunder roared as the greatsword hurtled forward, cleaving away the massive black mist unleashed by "Zhang Mazi."

Seeing that things were not going well, "Zhang Mazi" swayed and, enveloped in the remaining black mist, turned around to flee.

"Where to go!"

"Zhang Zhiwei" let out a cold shout, his body transformed into lightning, instantly catching up behind him, and a palm wrapped with the force of thunder struck "Zhang Mazi" squarely in the back of the heart!

"puff!"

The leader, nicknamed "Zhang Mazi," was struck as if by lightning, spitting out a mouthful of blood. The black mist protecting his body was completely shattered by the palm strike, and even the nine-tube mask on his face cracked open with a "crack," briefly revealing a pale and unfamiliar face. Then, like a kite with a broken string, he plummeted down the steep cliff.

After defeating "Zhang Mazi", "Zhang Zhiwei" stood in mid-air, his clothes fluttering, the lightning around him gradually subsiding. He looked down at the devastated mountain stronghold below, littered with corpses, and turned to face the still-shaken landlords on the opposite mountain.

Although the battle just now was just a performance, the clash between the two sides was genuine. With their vital energy exposed, it was something that ordinary landlords with weak minds simply could not withstand.

Just one glance from him made his heart tremble. He had wanted to say a few words of flattery, but he couldn't utter a single word. His knees buckled and he could only kowtow.

Zhang Zhiwei moved swiftly, landing in front of him. His palm emitted a faint, almost invisible blue light. He flicked his finger, gathering the blue light at his fingertip. With a slight flick, several blue orbs flew out and entered the minds of these landlords.

He's taken so much money from these maps during this time; he'll definitely plunder them back even more ruthlessly later.

Since he was determined to see things through to the end, Zhang Zhiwei was bound to clean up the mess. He couldn't allow the landlords' tenants and farmhands to suffer even more severe exploitation because of him; that was not Zhang Zhiwei's intention.

After planting some crops for several of the biggest landlords in Sichuan, Zhang Zhiwei said calmly:

"The matter of Zhang Mazi is settled. Please make yourselves at home."

His voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached the ears of every landlord.

Having said that, he didn't look at the crowd again. With a slight sway, he transformed into a tiny bolt of lightning and vanished into the sky in an instant.

"Senior Brother Zhang, we're here! We're here!!" Lu Ci shouted, waving his hand from behind.

Immediately afterwards, two golden beams flew over and wrapped around his and Wang Ai's waists respectively, pulling them away in a flash.

"Oh no! I didn't say anything, why were I dragged into this too?!" Wang Ai screamed in surprise.

This scene stunned everyone. When Fan Pengju saw this, he also wanted Zhang Zhiwei to take them away, but before he could speak, Liu Mang covered his mouth.

"Fan Ha'er, shut up! We'd better walk back!" Liu Mang didn't want to be dragged back. As the King of Sichuan and Chongqing, it would be too humiliating for him to be tied up with a rope and dragged back!

Meanwhile, beneath that unseen cliff, the "corpse" of the "Zhang Mazi" leader quietly transformed into a wisp of pure black energy as it fell, silently disappearing into the void like a weary bird returning to its nest.

In fact, when "Zhang Zhiwei" delivered the final blow to "Zhang Mazi," Zhang Zhiwei and the Imperial Advisor had already merged. The Imperial Advisor returned to Zhang Zhiwei's body. As for "Zhang Mazi," who was ultimately sent flying, he was merely a puppet conjured by Zhang Zhiwei's Qi. With that, Zhang Mazi, this "fake hero" he created on a whim to stir up trouble in Sichuan and Chongqing for money, has come to a complete end.

Of course, the impact of this incident is far from over. At this time, information was very limited, and it would take some time for the news to spread.

Of course, none of this had anything to do with Zhang Zhiwei anymore. He returned to Tiantong Steel Plant and stayed there for a while, since Liu Mang's money had not yet arrived.

Liu Mang and Fan Pengju are not easy to deal with. They are only being so agreeable now because of him. If he leaves, Wang Ai will immediately go from being a bishop to an egg bishop, and the money he gets will probably be reduced.

On the other hand, he had to be wary of the Japanese pirates, who might be enraged by their previous defeat and launch a larger-scale retaliatory attack. After all, the Tiantong Steel Plant was becoming increasingly important and could not be lost.

But perhaps because the Koga ninja were almost completely wiped out last time, which hurt the Japanese ninja forces badly, or perhaps because they were secretly plotting a bigger and more crucial conspiracy, the area around the steel mill remained calm and quiet during this period, with no further unusual activity.

Zhang Zhiwei was also happy to have some free time and did not waste it. The Tang Clan members had contributed greatly to the "Zhang Mazi" incident and the defense against the Japanese pirates. He never liked to owe favors, so he took advantage of this free time to give some guidance to several outstanding disciples of the Tang Clan, which greatly benefited them. It was a way of returning the favor.

For example, under Zhang Zhiwei's guidance, Yu Huizhong extracted the toxins of the Golden Bark Tree and refined them into her body, merging them with her own Qi to create a terrifying Qi poison that caused those affected unbearable pain.

Yu Huizhong is a wicked woman. With this new "toy," she seems to have found the joy of life and keeps trying it on people. Among the younger generation of the Tang Clan, apart from Yang Lie, who has a keen sense of smell and sensed something was wrong early on and kept his distance, almost everyone else has been "harmed" by her.

Xu Xin was given special attention and suffered terribly. Even Lü Ci, who was not a disciple of the Tang Clan but had recently become quite familiar with them, was not spared and experienced what it meant to suffer "excruciating pain beyond level ten".

In her words, "Since it's someone I know, the results of testing the poison are more authentic!"

However, he didn't dare to provoke Zhang Zhiwei.

Dong Chang also received guidance from Zhang Zhiwei, and his poisonous miasma became increasingly hard. Previously, although the defensive power of his poisonous miasma was close to that of the Golden Light Mantra of ordinary disciples of Longhu Mountain, once he solidified the poisonous miasma and strengthened its defensive power, he lost the ability of the poisonous miasma to change like miasma.

However, after Zhang Zhiwei's guidance, he surprisingly grasped a similar principle and comprehended a method similar to the Golden Light Mantra's "transformation of Qi into form," allowing him to maintain the defensive power of the poisonous miasma while freely changing its form, transforming it into shields, armor, or even various weapons.
Although it cannot compare to the Golden Light Mantra, which also uses Qi to take form, in terms of defensive power, the poisonous miasma is itself an offensive means.

Having mastered this technique, Dong Chang was as if he were wearing layers of armor; not only could others not penetrate him, but they would also be poisoned.

Xu Xin and Yang Lie also received guidance from Zhang Zhiwei.

Xin and Yang Lie are the two most unique and talented people in the Tang Clan. Unlike others who have different focuses, they are proficient in every technique, developing in a balanced way without any obvious weaknesses. However, this also means they lack an absolute strength that can win with one blow, and they are not as good as those who specialize in only one technique.

Zhang Zhiwei did not dwell too much on their specific methods. Instead, he sat down with them to discuss philosophy, explaining some principles of "life and death" in a simple and easy-to-understand way, and pointing out several key paths to solidify the foundation and seek breakthroughs.

This insightful guidance, though seemingly without immediate results, opened a new door for their future spiritual practice, and its value is immeasurable.

Even Tang Miaoxing and Zhang Wang, those two lads, received some guidance.

Having repaid his debts and with no immediate concerns about the steel mill, Zhang Zhiwei decided to leave and return to Longhu Mountain to begin a period of quiet contemplation.

During his seclusion in Longhu Mountain, one major event after another occurred in China.

First, a piece of heartbreaking news quietly spread: Wang Yuqiao, the leader of the Axe Gang, who was famous in Shanghai and was known as the "King of Assassins," did not have a good end, but died in a fight between his brothers.

Dai Chunyu, the former second-in-command, exploited Wang Yuqiao's weakness for loyalty and kidnapped his trusted subordinate, "driver" Yu Likui. Wang Yuqiao went to rescue him, unaware that Dai Chunyu had already been bribed by high-ranking officials and had turned several of his confidants against him, including his most beloved lover, into a trap.

With a tight net and coordinated attacks from both inside and outside, this king of assassins met his end.

The main reason why Dai Chunyu targeted Wang Yuqiao was that last year, Wang Yuqiao was dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's refusal to resist the Japanese pirates and the internal strife he had been engaged in. He decided to kill Chiang Kai-shek as he had killed the Japanese pirate general in the past, and to promote the cause of resisting the Japanese pirates by extraordinary means.

He meticulously planned an assassination, but things didn't go as planned. At the crucial moment, the Chairman felt that the meeting was chaotic and lacked any vibrant life, which angered him. So, he decided on the spur of the moment that he was not feeling well and would not go.

Since he didn't go, the host of the event naturally became the second-in-command, with whom he had always been at odds. As a result, he became the scapegoat, and although he didn't die, he was crippled.

This incident terrified the Chairman, who issued a kill order for Wang Yuqiao. Dai Chunyu's betrayal and assassination were the result of this order. After Wang Yuqiao's death, to prevent an uprising by the Axe Gang, news of his death was suppressed for a long time before being released.

The fact that a king of assassins died by assassination is undoubtedly a sad thing.

Even Zhang Zhiwei sighed, but that was all; he couldn't possibly seek revenge for Wang Yuqiao.

They don't have that kind of relationship yet, in fact, they don't even have a relationship at all. They just have a little bit of tacit understanding on certain things, so they can be considered like-minded people.

They are all practicing this way, just in different ways. In chaotic times, everyone has their own destiny.

Besides this, another major event was that the young general who was supposed to escort the Chairman back to Nanjing ultimately failed to leave Nanjing. He was arrested, and although his life was not in danger, he was sentenced to ten years in prison.

However, in a dramatic turn of events, Xiao Shuai was pardoned just four days after the verdict was handed down.

However, this amnesty was followed by the phrase "strictly controlled".

Many people don't understand the intricacies of this situation and praise the Chairman for his magnanimity, generosity, and leadership qualities.

But Zhang Zhiwei understood the underlying motives. A ten-year prison sentence would eventually end, but this strict supervision had no time limit; in reality, it was lifelong house arrest. (End of Chapter)