Yefutidaolu

Chapter 250 A large flag is erected at the gate of the Imperial Academy

Shen Du Yang Jing, Xuanwu District, Wei Su, Tomb Three.

The entire city of Weisu is, to some extent, not very clean...

Every city has some less-than-clean areas where certain individuals profit through violence, threats, intimidation, and other means; these organizations are generally referred to as gangs.

Unlike the bizarre organizations in some works that are dressed entirely in black, operate with strict discipline, prioritize loyalty, and even rob the rich to help the poor, real gangsters are not so righteous.

They are scum, and everything they do is bad.

Scamming, cheating, stealing, forcing women into prostitution, running brothels, exploiting fallen women, and robbing weak men are all basic skills. For those who disobey, beatings and scoldings are common, and killing or even burying them alive is not uncommon.

Others engage in lending, especially at very high interest rates, or dealing in drugs such as narcotics.

Those at a higher level would dominate the labor market. There are many individual cultivators looking for odd jobs in the market. You can often see many cultivators who are practicing alone. Only cultivators at the first or second level gather together to find a job to make a living.

The gathering points would be seized, and these guys would forcibly charge a fee per person. If you didn't pay, they would resort to violence, and beating people to death was commonplace. They would also monopolize the low-level labor market. Those in power who needed to find laborers had to get in touch with them, and those independent cultivators who wanted to do manual labor also had to go through them to find work. Thus, both sides would exploit each other and make money from it.

But there is no way.

Prices in the capital are very high. If you want to cultivate here, or even just survive, you have to work hard. For these low-level cultivators, "hard work" is just the most basic condition for survival. And hard work means that you have value to be extracted.

As for mortals...

Mortals do exist among the gods, but they are either prepared spiritual materials or relatives of low-level cultivators. Without the help of cultivators, they simply cannot survive in the capital.

After all, the various public facilities in the capital city cannot be activated without cultivation, and mortals here have almost no ability to survive alone in the future.

However... everyone has their own expertise, and even within these shady industries, the tasks involved are all different.

Scammers, swindlers, and thieves all have their own methods. To use a more refined term, this is called "industry barriers." In their own words, it's called "every snake has its den, and every rat has its path."

These barriers are their core competency. Even in this industry, they still need to establish clear boundaries, otherwise conflicts could easily arise, leading to infighting.

Or to put it in a more easily understandable way—

For an industry that is unstable and whose foundation is crooked, superficial "loyalty" and "rules" are more important, because once these rules are violated, it is easy to fall into self-destruction. Therefore, they must maintain this bizarre and distorted "loyalty".

Uncle Huang, as the leader of the swindlers, knew this well. He also knew that this kind of loyalty was not so noble in reality. It was just a set of rules that a bunch of scoundrels set for themselves so that they would not completely rot into the ditch and be unable to get back up.

That's why he treated Ye Qingmu and the other little swindlers under his command better, making things easier for them so they wouldn't do anything too unethical, and also making them abide by the rules. This was to leave himself a way out.

And now... he is very glad that he did it.

This backup plan eventually came in handy.

"Sir... as you can see, we usually follow the rules. We didn't participate in any of this harvesting or mutilation..." Uncle Huang wiped away his cold sweat, looking at the mess in the entire temple.

It was truly... a complete mess.

It was as if a pack of wolves had come to the mass grave, dragging flesh, bones, intestines, lungs, and other waste everywhere. The walls, the ground, and everywhere else were covered with bits of flesh and bone fragments caused by the immense force.

These were once the monks, but now it's really hard to tell what they really are.

This important figure... really went all out.

Uncle Huang felt that if he had gotten involved in these businesses for money... he would probably be the one with the photos plastered on the wall.

After all, the next step after "turn" is "deception".

In reality, these two families rarely separate. As for the source of these children, apart from those who are sold voluntarily, the majority are naturally obtained through abduction.

Fortunately... he only did business with the wealthy. He initially felt it wasn't right to continue, but a sudden pang of conscience saved his life.

Gao Jian nodded: "I know you weren't involved, otherwise you wouldn't have any work to do, right? Help me out and clean this place up. A monk will be coming over in a bit, so just hand over all the children from before to him."

Then he continued, "Also, could you please help me contact some of the larger gangs in Wei Su? I'd like to say that someone named 'Gao Jian' wants to meet with them and hopes they can spare some time. The specific schedule is in three days."

Uncle Huang lowered his head: "I will emphasize your identity to them..."

"No need to emphasize it, just tell them my name." Gao Jian waved his hand: "You can even hide your identity as a student of the Imperial Academy, just keep this name."

"Just this name? Well... I'm afraid it'll be difficult to arrange a meeting. After all... sir, if I may be so bold, your name isn't that well-known right now," Uncle Huang said, bowing his head.

Gao Jian should be contacting the real upper echelons of the underworld.

In Weisu, besides those who dominate the labor market, there are even more powerful gangs.

Those are already organized groups. These large gangs are generally organized into chambers of commerce or even immortal sects. Through business and sect activities, they engage in violent bullying and market manipulation, as well as opening casinos, profiting from the profits, and even colluding with the government or the police to buy, sell, and smuggle goods to grow bigger and stronger.

Even some who reach the highest level in this line of work can be granted official positions and control many channels, appearing to be respectable upper-class people. However, behind the scenes, there are countless assassinations, collusion between officials and businessmen to extort money, demolitions, control of docks and transportation, competition for large-scale construction projects, and conflicts of interest and violence in earthwork projects.

This is undoubtedly against the law.

But... what God has in abundance is those who are not afraid of breaking the law, those ultimate privileged individuals, whom the law cannot restrain at all.

Therefore, these organizations can exist openly because they are 'convenient'. They may look glamorous, but in reality, they are just glove for those big shots to do their jobs.

Big shots don't have the time or inclination to haggle. They need to do what they need to do, and it would be too undignified, tiring, and embarrassing if they always did it themselves.

At times like these, ordering these gangs to take action can avoid many legal entanglements and achieve the goal quickly and easily.

Even if you are a student of the Imperial Academy, you can only barely keep an eye on a gang with such a background... let alone hide your identity as a student of the Imperial Academy and just use your name.

Uncle Huang's questioning is entirely justified.

Gao Jian smiled in response to the other party's questioning.

He smiled and said lightly, "Don't worry, in three days, the whole of Yangjing will know my name."

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The next day. Smoke and mist swirled around him, with hidden thunder swirling around him.

A silver-red dragon expanded its body without restraint, growing to a hundred feet long. It was born from the essence of the East Sea and possessed the energy of the tidal bore. Its dragon horns were rugged and hung with thousands of crimson clouds.

The scales below the throat are half-transparent with a rouge color.

The dragon whiskers beside him were entirely made of silver threads.

Its tail trails for seven miles, gleaming like molten gold, its scales overlapping like jade, mottled with silver and red.

The rosy clouds dyed the vast sea, and the dragon's form appeared. Wherever it passed, a fierce wind followed, and wherever it rested, thunder accompanied it.

But then they saw Gao Jian riding a dragon, leaping through the clouds and ascending to the palace. The dragon moved very fast, its head held high and its tail low, its form light and soaring. People on its back felt terrified and perilous. Before they had even reached any point, they had already traveled a great distance away. They passed by pavilions and palaces everywhere, and even in the capital city, they were not inferior in the slightest. Their grandeur was not overshadowed by the city itself!
Such a magnificent sight of riding a dragon!

Normally, even gods would rarely make this gesture.

It's not that people can't do it, but in the capital, everyone understands the principle of 'keeping a low profile,' and no one will show off in a big way unless necessary.

Therefore, such behavior naturally attracted the attention of many people.

"Wow, which family's reckless young master is this?"

"Wait, isn't this the Imperial Academy student who was expelled by the Ministry of Rites yesterday? I forgot his name, but judging from this entourage, he's back to settle scores?"

"That's possible. We might see something interesting today."

People on the street pointed and whispered, speculating about what exactly was going on.

Are people about to start a fight?

Or is it even more exciting?

The Imperial Academy, and indeed the entire Taiwei Enclosure, is usually quite quiet; generally speaking, no one would cause trouble here.

Especially at the Imperial Academy, most of the place was empty, and even the teaching itself was 'self-service', with few teachers staying there to give lectures.

Only in the library would people linger there.

Therefore, the fact that someone has risen to prominence has attracted a lot of attention.

Putting everything else aside, that dragon was really beautiful, and... it looked like a real dragon.

Whose descendant is this, a powerful figure, to be able to ride a true dragon? This is quite an honorable thing. In the Divine Dynasty, killing dragons is not uncommon, but to ride a true dragon and make such a proud and arrogant scaly primate willingly submit is something to be proud of.

Because of this incident, another piece of news soon followed.

“A few days ago, people saw this dragon in Taiwei Enclosure and the Water Mansion in Zhuque District. However, she had shrunk her body at that time and was not as conspicuous as she is now. Someone has investigated and found that she and the person on her body were registered on the flying boat. The flying boat's files show that the person is named Gao Jian.”

"Insightful opinion? The freshman from Cangzhou? Canghai should be in charge of welcoming the freshmen this year. I'll go ask Canghai."

"No need to look anymore, Canghai has arrived."

As they spoke, a group of imperial students surrounded Cang Hai, and Shui Cang Cang was among them.

He didn't actively want to crowd around; mainly, he was curious about what Gao Jian was planning to do, so he joined other classmates to watch him.

"Brother Canghai, this seems to be a new recruit you took on. He was kicked out of the Scripture Pavilion before. Why are you making such a big deal out of this? What are your thoughts on this?" a student from the Imperial Academy asked.

Cang Hai crossed his arms and said, "Well... how should I put it? I'm not very familiar with him. I've only met him twice. He's a bit smooth, but he's very ruthless inside. I think it was the incident with Helun Sabao that provoked him. Maybe he's here today to set up a challenge and fight Helun."

"Set up a challenge? I heard that He Lun asked him to leave the Imperial Academy. Setting up a challenge is a good option. If he wins, he can definitely stay." Someone nodded slightly.

"What if we lose? We might not even be able to save our lives," someone else said.

"He seems very confident, not afraid at all. I guess he's sure of himself."

"Doesn't Helun have any confidence? He possesses the Taotie pattern passed down through the Taotie tribe, which devours everything and has immense killing power. He is not an easy opponent. This person is said to have no specific inheritance and is not from a noble family. Can he really defeat Helun?"

Listening to his classmates' guesses, Cang Hai shook his head: "Instead of guessing so much here, why don't we ask his acquaintances, that guy over there, Shui Cang, right?"

As he spoke, Canghai stretched out his hand and pointed to Shui Cangcang in the crowd at the steps outside.

At this moment, everyone's attention turned to Shui Cangcang.

Upon seeing this, Shui Cangcang stepped forward and bowed slightly, saying, "Greetings, senior. I am Shui Cangcang."

Cang Hai, however, didn't seem to care: "It makes no difference, whatever. You and Gao Jian are both from Cangzhou. I even picked you up at the port. You should know each other, right? Why don't you introduce this Gao Jian to everyone?"

But Shui Cangcang said very seriously, "Senior, it's Cangcang."

He continued, “The sky is vast and boundless, the heavens.”

"The sky is vast and blue, is that its true color? The sky has no substance, and when you look up at it, it is high and far without end, and your eyes are blinded by its exquisite beauty. Hence it is called 'vast and blue'. My ancestors did not give me this name casually."

This attitude surprised Cang Hai.

The other students from the Imperial Academy also quieted down, and some even looked puzzled.

Shui Cangcang used to be quite easy to talk to, and after being knocked to the ground in the last sparring session, she became even more humble. How dare she talk back to her senior now?

On the other side, Cang Hai simply smiled and said, "Alright then, Shui Cang Cang, would you please share your insights with the students?"

"I dare not refuse your request, senior." Shui Cangcang stepped forward and raised her voice slightly: "Gao Jian is my good friend, so... I think what you all said earlier was a bit conservative."

"What do you mean by that?" someone asked.

"Gao Jian's grand arrival is probably not just aimed at Helunsabao alone. Given his personality... he may be challenging the entire Imperial Academy."

(End of this chapter)