If I, a death row inmate, am not to become a demon, am I to become a member of the Imperial Guard?

The official robes were a bit heavy to wear.

The flying fish robe was made of fine material, conforming to the figure. The satin embroidered with clouds shimmered with a cool light in the sunlight. Zhou Yang stood at the entrance of the Anyang Imperial Guard headquarters and stretched out his hand.

The weather was nice. The sky after the rain was as clean as if it had been washed. Sunlight shone on the new plaque, the three large characters "Anyangwei" gleaming with gold paint.

He took a deep breath; the air smelled of earth and grass. He stepped onto the stone steps, walking steadily with each step.

There was no one following behind him.

He wanted to go in by himself.

Pushing open the vermilion gate, a musty smell hit me. The courtyard was full of people. They were dressed in black, with embroidered spring knives at their waists. Captains, lieutenants, junior officers—a good hundred or so.

They had been scattered, talking in hushed tones. The moment the door opened, all sound ceased.

A hundred or so eyes immediately turned to them.

Those eyes held scrutiny, dissatisfaction, and an undisguised contempt.

Zhou Yang didn't pay any attention. He knew these people were all former subordinates of Commander Chen. It was understandable that they were resentful after Commander Chen's downfall. He merely glanced at them and then walked towards the main hall.

"stop."

A burly man stepped out from the crowd. He was half a head taller than Zhou Yang, with a face full of scars and a short beard. He was wearing the official robes of a captain.

He stood in front of Zhou Yang, blocking his way.

"New commander," the constable clasped his hands in a sarcastic tone, "our yamen has high thresholds; a mere junior officer like you probably won't be able to get in."

Snickers rose from the courtyard.

A squad leader chimed in, "Chief Zhang, you can't say that. Lord Zhou was promoted by Commander Qin... We have no idea how capable he is."

"Skills?" Zhang, the head constable, spat. "Skills gained by climbing into women's beds? When I, Zhang Meng, was risking my life alongside Lord Chen, he was still nowhere to be found!"

The tone of the voice grew increasingly harsh. But no one stood up for them.

They were all watching. Watching how this newly appointed commander would handle his first task.

Zhou Yang stopped in his tracks. He looked at Zhang Meng, his eyes calm, like a deep pool of water.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Your grandpa's name is Zhang Meng!" Zhang Meng puffed out his chest. "What, new broom sweeps clean, are you going to start by targeting me?"

"Very good." Zhou Yang nodded. "I'll remember you."

After he finished speaking, he stopped looking at Zhang Meng and continued walking forward.

Zhang Meng's expression changed. He hadn't expected this reaction. Disdain, pure disdain. As if he were nothing more than a stumbling block in the other's path.

"You fucking stop right there!" Zhang Meng roared, reaching out to grab Zhou Yang's shoulder.

His hand had just reached out.

Zhou Yang didn't stop.

He simply raised his right hand, his index and middle fingers together, and gently pinched them together in the air.

"Click."

A barely audible sound.

In the shadows of the corner of the courtyard, something stirred. Then, a wisp of black smoke drifted out. The smoke stretched and deformed in the air, coalescing into a blurry human figure.

It has no facial features, no physical form, and is just a distorted shadow.

Zhang Meng's hand was about to touch Zhou Yang's flying fish robe.

The shadow moved.

No sound.

It flashed past Zhang Meng like a stretched-out ink line. Everyone only saw a blur before their eyes.

Then they heard a muffled thud.

puff.

It was like an overripe watermelon being smashed open with a fist.

Zhang Meng's roar abruptly stopped. His expression froze. He looked down at his chest.

There were five more holes there.

Five neat, deep holes that revealed the bone. Blood was gushing out from them, staining his official robes red.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but only spat out a mouthful of bloody foam. A gurgling sound came from his throat.

The shadow had returned to Zhou Yang's back, turning back into a wisp of green smoke, disappearing into his sleeve.

The entire process took less than a breath.

Zhang Meng fell straight backward.

Bang!

He fell heavily to the ground. He died.

The courtyard was deathly silent.

The captains who had been laughing moments before were now deathly pale. They stared at the corpses on the ground, at the five horrific bloody holes, their throats dry.

They couldn't even see what it was.

A knife? A person?

The speed was unbelievably fast.

Zhou Yang then stopped. He turned around and looked down at Zhang Meng's corpse.

"Head constable?"

He spoke softly, his voice not loud. But in the quiet courtyard, it was like a thunderclap.

"You dare touch my people?"

He lifted his foot and stepped over the warm pool of blood. A drop of blood stained the sole of his boot, leaving a dark red mark on the bluestone slab.

He walked to the center of the main room, turned around, and faced all the Imperial Guards who were too frightened to utter a sound.

His gaze swept across everyone's face.

That gaze was cold, like a knife.

"My surname is Zhou, and from today onwards, I am your new commander of a thousand households."

"Some people seem to disagree."

He didn't name names, but everyone knew who he was talking about.

"That's fine. It saves me the trouble of remembering their names one by one."

He paused, his voice completely flat.

"I only have three things to say. First, hand over all the account books and all the illicit income from Chen Qianhu's tenure. You have three days. Whoever has problematic account books, or cannot hand them over..."

He glanced at Zhang Meng on the ground.

"That's his fate."

A commotion broke out in the crowd. Several officers turned pale. They all had a lot of dirty things in their hands.

"Second, military discipline will be restored. From today onward, my words are orders. Those who disobey orders will be executed. Those who harass women will be executed. Those who oppress the innocent will be executed. Those who collude with foreign bandits will be chopped up and fed to the dogs."

His voice was calm, but every word carried a bloodthirsty undertone. Those captains who usually acted arrogantly and domineeringly involuntarily lowered their heads.

They could sense that this new commander was not joking. He really dared to kill.

"third."

Zhou Yang's tone finally changed a little.

"Follow me, and you'll have meat to eat."

He looked at the group of people with a pure sense of enticement in his eyes.

"I can give you ten times the benefits that Commander Chen can give you. I dare to take you to do the businesses he wouldn't dare to touch. What you need to do is very simple."

"obedient."

"Working for your life."

"Then point the knife at the enemy I'm pointing at."

He held up one finger and tapped his heart.

"I, Zhou Yang, keep my word. Whoever feeds me and keeps me warm, I'll make sure they live a life of luxury. And whoever dares to trip me up behind my back..."

He smiled.

That smile sent chills down everyone's spine.

"I'll show him what it means to wish you were dead."

After saying that, he stopped looking at the crowd.

He turned and walked into his own main hall. The heavy wooden door slowly closed in front of him, shutting out all the gazes from the courtyard.

Outside the door, a hundred or so Imperial Guards stood there, like wooden sculptures.

A gust of wind blew, swirling up a few fallen leaves. The blood on the ground was slowly darkening. The corpse was still a reminder of what had just happened.

Not a dream.

A new era has begun.

An era paved with blood and knives.

A captain stood guard at the gate, his hands clammy with sweat. He nudged his companion and asked in a low voice.

"What should we do?"

His companion's face turned pale, his lips trembled, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence.

"What else can we do?" He pointed to the corpse on the ground. "Hand over the ledgers...."

Everyone was stunned.

Then, as if infected, the crowd began to stir. Several people exchanged glances, hurriedly squeezed out of the crowd, and ran towards their residences.

They were going to search for those hidden black books.

If you're even one step too late, it might be too late.

The large courtyard was soon mostly empty.

Only a few hesitant people remained, along with the gradually cooling corpse and the blinding sunlight covering the ground.