Demon, come and cultivate for me.

Most of the territory of the State of Qi was a flat plain with smooth roads.

The official road was wide and smooth, which made their travel speed several times faster than when they were in the Yan Kingdom.

In one day, they walked more than 300 li (approximately 150 kilometers).

As darkness fell, the five arrived at Linzi, the main capital of the State of Qi.

Linzi was much larger than Changcheng, and merchants from all over the world gathered there, making it extremely prosperous.

In Linzi City, the group encountered another predicament: they had nowhere to stay.

Here, as long as you have money, you can find any kind of inn.

Zhao Ji led the group to a luxurious inn far from the bustling city.

This inn is very large, but because of its price, not many travelers stay here.

Zhao Ji requested five superior rooms and instructed the manager to take good care of the horses and feed them the finest fodder.

Seeing that these people were spending lavishly, the shopkeeper naturally wouldn't neglect them and specially assigned two assistants to take care of the horses.

The innkeeper personally led the group to their room.

Just as Zhou Chu and the others were following the innkeeper upstairs, another person arrived at the inn's entrance.

This man was around thirty years old, short and stocky, carrying a large burlap bundle on his back, and his triangular eyes kept peering into the inn.

This man was the sorcerer named Wang Ji who controlled the paper figures to steal in Changcheng.

As Chen Xiangzi said, Wang Ji came from the State of Chu.

He studied painting under a painter in the State of Chu for several years, but unfortunately, he was not very talented and could never master the art.

Often, it's like drawing a tiger but ending up with a dog, or adding legs to a snake.

Over time, I lost my patience.

In addition, due to his impoverished family background and lack of money, he unknowingly went astray and followed an unknown sorcerer to learn evil magic for a few days.

He was also unskilled in sorcery and was eventually driven away by the sorcerer.

Unexpectedly, after returning home, Wang Ji pondered for several months on his own and actually combined evil magic with painting techniques to create a unique method for controlling paper figures.

From then on, he used paper figures to steal from all over the place, and before long, he had amassed a considerable fortune.

They built a big house, bought a horse-drawn carriage, and lived a life of luxury and happiness.

Everyone in the neighborhood knew that Wang Ji was an uneducated and incompetent man who never went out to work.

How did these people suddenly become rich?

Therefore, those with ulterior motives began to secretly observe Wang Ji.

Within half a month, a man named Wang Ye actually figured out the secret behind Wang Ji's wealth.

Relying on his strong physique and years of martial arts training, Wang Ye kicked open Wang Ji's door and exposed Wang Ji's magic face to face.

He threatened Wang Ji, demanding that Wang Ji give him half of the stolen goods from each theft, or he would drag Wang Ji to the authorities.

Wang Ji was no match for his opponent and was even more afraid of getting into legal trouble. In the State of Chu, theft was a serious crime, and if caught by the authorities, chopping off one's hands or feet would be the least of one's worries.

Wang Ji immediately gave in and agreed to Wang Ye's extortion demands.

From then on, Wang Ye would come to Wang Ji every day to share the spoils. Wang Ji dared not keep any for himself and honestly gave half of the stolen goods to Wang Ye.

As the saying goes, greed is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant.

Seeing that Wang Ji was easy to bully, Wang Ye became increasingly disregardful of him. As time went on, he was no longer satisfied with a 50/50 split and proposed that Wang Ji take 70% of the spoils.

Wang Ji had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

This situation didn't last long; Wang Ji felt increasingly uneasy.

Why should someone put in the effort and take the risks, only to have the lion's share go to others in the end?

In the end, anger rose in his heart and evil thoughts arose in his mind, so he decided to control the paper figure to kill Wang Ye to silence him.

On the very day he was about to take action, an accident occurred.

Wang Ye is a complete gambler, with an insatiable addiction to gambling.

Once he's on the gambling table, he won't care if his house catches fire or his wife cheats on him.

Now that Wang Jiyuan is constantly providing him with gambling capital, the gambling den has become his second home.

Every day, besides going to Wang Ji to get money, he would go straight to the casino and wouldn't leave until he had lost everything.

A few days ago, Wang Ji stole a ring-shaped jade disc. Wang Ye saw it and thought it was very valuable. Without waiting for Wang Ji to explain where it came from, he took it away.

That day, Wang Ye lost more than a dozen rounds at the casino without making a single bet. Refusing to believe his bad luck, he bet all the silver he had on him, hoping to turn the tables in one fell swoop.

Unsurprisingly, they lost everything.

Wang Ye was unconvinced, so he took out the ring-shaped jade disc and placed it on the gambling table as his last chip.

The casino clerk, with his sharp eyes, immediately recognized the pattern on the jade disc as something no ordinary folk object. He then said he couldn't make the decision himself and needed the manager to assess its value.

The shopkeeper, upon seeing this, also realized it was something special, so he went and summoned the casino owner.

The family in charge is a prominent figure in the area, with influence in both official and private circles.

Upon seeing the jade disc, he immediately ordered his men to take Wang Ye into custody.

This ring-shaped jade disc belonged to a very important person. After it was lost, the person ordered a search for it and offered a very attractive reward.

The casino owners naturally received this news as well, much to their surprise that it came so easily.

After interrogating Wang Ye, they learned that the thief was Wang Ji, so they sent men to arrest Wang Ji.

In the middle of the night, as usual, Wang Ji infused a wisp of his soul into the paper figure, controlling it to leave the house.

This time, however, they weren't going to steal; they were going to silence Wang Ye.

As soon as the paper figure stepped out of the door, it encountered a group of fierce-looking men heading towards Wang Ji's house.

Thinking of Wang Ye taking the jade disc, Wang Ji felt something was wrong. He immediately retrieved the wisp of soul from the paper figure and packed his things to escape through the back door.

The men who came to arrest Wang Ji found nothing. They inquired around but couldn't find out where Wang Ji had gone, so they had to give up.

Wang Ji basically thought that he could hide outside for a while and then go home once the storm had passed.

A few days later, he heard that Wang Ye had been severely beaten at the casino and died a few days after being sent home.

Wang Ye's family went to the government to appeal their case, but the government officials not only refused to accept it, but also said that if they caused trouble again, they would treat Wang Ye's family as accomplices of the thieves and hold them accountable.

This incident made Wang Ji realize that the owner of the jade disc was no ordinary person and that it would be impossible for him to return home in the next few years. So he committed crimes along the way and traveled north to the most commercially developed state of Qi.

To his utter surprise, his soul was scattered during his first theft in the State of Qi.

The sorcerer who once taught him magic had said that a person has three souls and seven spirits. Once these are damaged, the consequences are that the person loses their mind and becomes an idiot, or loses their heart and becomes a walking corpse, or even loses their life directly.

Wang Ji lost one of his souls, but he did not lose his mind or his life, nor did he feel any abnormality in his body.

He had only one thought in his mind: to kill the person who had scattered his soul and take revenge.

He followed Zhou Chu and others from Changcheng all the way to Linzi, but they couldn't find an opportunity to make a move along the way.

He knew in his heart that if it came to a head-on confrontation, he couldn't beat any of these five people, and even that curvy young woman could probably take his life.

If you want revenge, you can only look for an opportunity to use your strengths to attack the other party's weaknesses.