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

Zhang Mazi captured Luo Banguan and the county magistrate, and even wanted to return the land that Luo Banguan had taken from everyone.

The news spread like wildfire throughout the town, and the crowd immediately erupted in excitement.

Normally, few people would believe such a thing. But recently, Zhang Mazi's reputation in the Sichuan-Chongqing area has become so great that, upon hearing that he has arrived, everyone, regardless of whether they believe it or not, wants to rush to the Luo residence to see for themselves.

Soon, the gates of the Luo residence were crowded with people. But no one dared to be the first to go in. After all, Zhang Mazi was known for robbing landlords, but no one was sure what his attitude would be towards poor people like them.

However, there were still some brave people. The first one to muster the courage to enter the Luo family mansion was an old man who had lost his ancestral three acres of paddy fields.

The courtyard was a mess. Although the bodies had been removed, the charred walls, broken tiles and bricks, and the smell of gunpowder and burnt metal in the air all indicated that a fierce battle had just taken place here.

Several young men dressed in red with sharp eyes were busy in the yard. Yan Yang, the burly man with red hair who was leading the group, saw the old man come in and walked over.

The group had just gone through a fierce battle, and they inevitably carried some murderous aura. They themselves were unaware of it, but to ordinary people, it was quite terrifying. When Yan Yang saw them, the old man's heart jumped into his throat, his limbs went weak, and he walked so nervously that he moved his hands and feet in unison.

Yan Yang wasn't usually a meticulous person, but he could tell the old man was terrified. He tried his best to suppress his anger and asked in a softer tone:

"Fellow villager, are you here to claim a plot of land?"

"Yes...yes...my surname is Wang..." Old Man Wang nodded hurriedly, respectfully and fearfully handing over the copy of the land deed, his face full of bitterness.

“Heroes…good men…this old man…is called Wang Er. I used to have…three mu of…paddy fields…right there…right there at the river bend at the east end of town…my whole family depended on that, but three years ago it was…it was…bought away by Master Luo…”

When he said the word "buy," he couldn't help but recall the tragedy of those years. His voice changed, and tears streamed down his face as he cried in front of everyone.

Yan Yang offered no words of comfort. He had recently experienced everything in the torture chamber and felt the pain deeply. The best way to console him in this situation was to return the land.

He took the land deed from Old Man Wang, looked at it, and then reported the information to Feng Ping and the others behind him: "Three mu of paddy fields in the river bend, Wang Er, priced at three silver dollars, voluntary sale, find the corresponding land deed!"

Upon hearing this, Feng Ping frowned, a surge of anger rising to his head. Three silver dollars? Even he knew that paddy fields were valuable. Even the kind of rain-fed paddy fields with poor irrigation and harvests entirely dependent on the weather would cost twenty or thirty silver dollars, while the best paddy fields near river bends could fetch seventy or eighty silver dollars per acre.

Old Wang's field was right by the river bend, a truly prime piece of land. Three mu of it should have been worth between two hundred and three hundred silver dollars on the market. But Luo Xinian bought it for him for only three silver dollars. What's the difference between that and robbery? It's even worse than robbery. That one silver dollar was simply an insult.

He could imagine that the old man had probably been through that torture chamber before being forced to sign that "voluntary" agreement.

Fengping carefully searched through the box full of land deeds and found the official land deed with the red seal. He handed it to Yanyang.

Yan Yang checked the records, picked up a pen, and drew a thick black line in the column for Wang Er in the ledger. Then he handed the land deed to Old Man Wang.

“Fellow villager, I’ve checked it all. This land originally belonged to you. Now it’s being returned to its rightful owner. Here’s another thirty silver dollars as compensation for the ‘land rent loss’ over the past few years.”

Old Wang stared blankly at the land deed that Yan Yang handed him, something he had longed for and thought he would never see again in his life.

Old Wang stared blankly at the land deed he had recovered, hardly believing his eyes. He reached out his hand tremblingly, then pulled it back just before touching it. He wiped it vigorously on his tattered clothes before carefully taking it. Holding the land deed, he looked at the field map on it, his lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.

Suddenly, his legs went weak, and he was about to kneel down in front of the blazing sun.

"No, you mustn't!" Yan Yang reacted quickly, helping him up. "Fellow villager, get up! This land was originally yours. We just... we just took it back from the bandits. If you want to thank someone... thank 'Zhang Mazi'!"

Old Wang tried to kneel down a few times, but he didn't. He raised his head and choked out, "Thank... thank you, hero! Thank you, Zhang Mazi! Thank you, sir!"

His voice was trembling with sobs, yet it was filled with an indescribable excitement and joy, a joy that was clearly heard by the crowd watching from outside the gate.

Many of them had similar experiences to Old Man Wang. In an instant, the doubts and anxieties that had been lingering among them vanished.

"It's true! It's really true!!"

"Old Wang got his land back and also received some compensation."

"Zhang Mazi didn't lie!"

"Quickly, quick, hurry home and get the land deeds! Luo Banguan also seized several acres of my land. Let's go find the heroes and return them to us!"

"I still have the land deed for my house!"

"Damn it, Luo Banguan also robbed me of a few acres of good land, but I don't have any proof. I get furious just looking at that lousy proof; I would have torn it to shreds long ago."

……

……

The crowd erupted in chaos, with people crying, shouting, and cheering. Some rushed into the Luo residence, while others desperately tried to get out to retrieve their receipts. The scene was a complete mess.

Seeing that things were about to spiral out of control, Yan Yang took a deep breath, channeled the remaining Qi within his body, and shouted in a loud voice:
"Fellow villagers, don't push, line up one by one. Regardless of whether you have receipts or not, as long as Luo Xinian has them recorded, they will be returned to you today..."

His voice carried an undeniable power, and with Feng Ping and his two other senior brothers standing behind him, the invisible aura temporarily quelled the restless crowd, and people began to line up consciously.

Under the sunlight, the faces filled with anticipation and trepidation made Huo Dezong and the others feel a mix of emotions, and they felt quite uncomfortable.

Yan Yang was even more deeply moved. This hot-tempered man was now like a town clerk, patiently listening to the villagers' sad stories. Although his face was still swollen and painful, his eyes were becoming clearer and clearer.

At this moment, he felt incredibly peaceful. He thought about many things and understood many things.

He did not seek only asceticism, which is why he became increasingly impatient and even apathetic.

From now on, he decided to do something more meaningful.

…… ……

The Huo Dezong members were extremely busy, checking, registering, distributing, and reassuring people. The thick stack of land deeds in Luo Xinian's safe began to dwindle little by little.

During this period, some people, without any proof, claimed that Luo Banguan had robbed them of their money and land and demanded compensation.

Some of these people are genuine, while others are trying to take advantage of the situation and fraudulently claim money.

The members of the Huode Sect were all cultivators with strong perception, and they could roughly judge whether someone was lying.

Moreover, the surrounding community can also play a supervisory role. Since everyone is from the same place and knows each other well, how could they not know if you have been cheated out of your property by Luo Banguan?

They absolutely could not tolerate anyone claiming the property fraudulently. After all, most of Luo Banguan's property was obtained by force and robbery. If someone claimed it fraudulently, wouldn't those of them who were truly robbed end up with nothing?
When the land was distributed, the old beggar who was the first to be robbed also received the land deed to his four acres of poor land, as well as a sum of silver dollars as compensation.

He held the land deed, but unlike the others, he wasn't excited. He just stroked the deed with his fingers, staring blankly for a long time, looking somewhat forlorn.

He was one of the few who resisted the encroachment on his land, and his end was tragic. Both of his sons died, his wife died, and he himself was left disabled.

Those who swallowed their anger, however, not only got their land back years later, but also had family members left.

Although he regained the ancestral land, he was now all alone at home; in fact, one could say he no longer had a home.

He stood there for a long time, then left somewhat dejectedly, holding the land deed, and walked to his four acres of land.

Here, he saw an extremely tall man holding a middle-aged man in a Taoist robe whose head was covered in blood. The man hung the man on a stake in the field where scarecrows were hung, and then put a scarecrow's hat on him.

The scene was somewhat terrifying, but the old beggar felt no fear whatsoever, because he recognized the extremely tall man as "Zhang Mazi," the immortal who had previously helped them retrieve their land deed.

He gripped the land deed and strode over. Just as he was about to kneel and kowtow, he suddenly remembered what the deity had told him: false gods make people kneel, while true gods only make people stand up.

He quickly straightened his back, looked at Zhang Zhiwei, opened his mouth as if to say something, but felt there was nothing to say. In the end, he said nothing, but simply bowed deeply.

Zhang Zhiwei crippled the wild Maoshan monk who had previously escaped from the Luo family, and followed suit, hanging him on the scarecrow's wooden stake. Then he turned to look at the old beggar.

"Why are you in such a low mood even though you've gotten your revenge and taken it back?"

The old beggar sat on the edge of the field, his voice hoarse and filled with sorrow: "We got the land back, but the wife and children we lost will never come back."

Zhang Zhiwei remained silent. Although he sometimes appeared to be fiercely opposed to evil, he lacked empathy. There were some things he couldn't truly understand, nor could he comprehend the pain and fear of the weak. Therefore, he wasn't good at comforting others.

“However… I was lucky,” the old beggar raised his withered hand and pointed to a few mounds of earth not far away, saying, “Those mounds of earth are where the Li family from the east end is buried. They were burned down by Luo Banguan, along with their house. Nothing was left. The whole family was wiped out. It was only because the villagers couldn’t bear to see them like that that they gathered some soil and buried them in peace.”

"Compared to them, at least I'm still alive, at least I still have a life left. Every festival, I can still burn some paper money for my wife and children in the afterlife..."

The old beggar rambled on and on, his words devoid of resentment, only a sense of relief after being crushed by fate.

Zhang Zhiwei listened in silence. He glanced at the wild Maoshan monk hanging on the wooden stake like a real scarecrow, and then at the old man who, having lost everything, could only find solace in the more miserable.

On this heavy land, such stories and comparisons happen every moment. Suffering is never comparative, but the living can only find a crack to breathe in the despairing reality through such almost cruel comparisons.

"What are your plans next?" Zhang Zhiwei asked.

The old beggar looked at the land, clutching the silver dollars he had been paying as compensation: "There's been a disaster in the Northwest lately, so I plan to adopt a child, raise him well, and then pass this ancestral land down to future generations."

Zhang Zhiwei remained silent. The land will always be the obsession of the Chinese people!
……

……

The land distribution was so busy that it wasn't finished until the evening of the next day. Most of the land and property had been returned to their rightful owners or a reasonable distribution plan had been found. The Luo family mansion was almost completely emptied of its clutter, leaving only an empty courtyard and a floor full of account books and scraps of paper.

Yan Yangfeng and the others were so exhausted that they were almost collapsing. They sat on the threshold of the living room, watching the afterglow of the setting sun.

"Brother Yan Yang's conversion talisman is broken. If he returns to the sect, can he be converted again?" Xiao Wu asked.

“It should be possible!” Fengping said.

The eldest brother said, "If this hadn't happened, it should have been possible, but now that this has happened, it will be very difficult. Although today's matter is over, the aftermath is not. When the time comes, I estimate that many people will come to demand an explanation. It would be good enough if Junior Brother Yanyang wasn't punished. As for restoring the conversion talisman, I'm afraid it will definitely not be possible in the short term."

Yan Yang gazed at the sunset on the horizon, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "You all go back, I still have some things to do."

"What's wrong? Are you worried about being punished, senior brother?" Feng Ping said, "We did this together. Whatever happens, we'll share the responsibility."

"No, I just want to be alone for a while. After I've figured some things out, I'll go back to the mountain. As for punishment, I don't care," Yan Yang said.

Fengping opened his mouth, about to speak, when suddenly, a light footstep sounded. The group turned around alertly and saw a tall figure wearing a nine-tube mask standing in the courtyard, silent and still, as if he had never left.

Feng Ping recognized Zhang Zhiwei at a glance. It wasn't that Zhang Zhiwei exuded any unique aura, but rather that he happened to have no aura at all. It wasn't the kind of "nothingness" that was deliberately concealed, but rather a kind of "emptiness" that was like seeing the world when you saw him.

He had only ever felt this kind of "emptiness" in Senior Brother Zhang. Considering that the other party liked to use big-eared thunderbolts and knew him, he was 99% sure that this was Senior Brother Zhang.

"Senior!" Yan Yang quickly stood up and bowed.

"Zhang..." Fengping was about to call him Senior Brother Zhang, but then he realized it was inappropriate and changed his address to "Senior Pockmarked." (End of Chapter)