The proof of Emperor Wu began with daily rewards for diligence.

Q: Is it a loss or a gain to spend 27,000 to buy three Spirit Sprout Pills that I refined myself?

After bidding farewell to Wu Nanyuan, Chen Jue juggled three Spirit Sprout Pills with his right hand and fell into deep thought.

When he returned to the Cangshu Street clinic, Old Jiao praised him, saying, "You're truly a kind and righteous young man..."

"Don't worry, Zhu Hang is out of danger, but he's lost too much blood and is currently unconscious..."

Chen Jue rolled his eyes to the sky and said, "I'm naturally cold-hearted. When Uncle Lin was injured, I didn't even bother to come and see him, okay?"

"Oh! You're really not very kind." Jiao Fengchun laughed out loud upon hearing this, and followed up on Chen Jue's words with a barrage of criticism.

"..." Chen Jue's face immediately darkened.

"Alright, enough joking. What brings you back?" Jiao Fengchun asked, getting straight to the point.

Chen Jue pulled Jiao Fengchun into the consultation room and whispered, "The order in the outer city has collapsed, and the Shi Huo Sect is too powerful to be controlled. My uncle and I are planning to run away together."

"Could Elder Jiao send a few members of his organization to pose as members of the Fire Sect and help us put on a show?"

Chen Jue explained his plans on the way to Jiao Fengchun in detail.

Old Jiao was stunned for a moment, then his expression turned to one of utter disbelief as he asked, "You mean... you want me to find someone to impersonate a member of the Fire Cult and severely injure you and your uncle?"

"Then you can stay at home and pretend to be sick."

"First, they scam a few months' basic salary, then they just sit back and wait to be fired by the inspection department?"

Chen Jue nodded.

"A wise man does not stand under a crumbling wall. The outer city is in complete chaos right now. If we don't run away as soon as possible, are we just waiting to be caught in the crossfire?"

Jiao Fengchun was amazed by Chen Jue's shamelessness.

"Holy crap... The patrol inspection department is incredibly lucky to have found someone like you."

This plan isn't something others couldn't come up with; it's just that no one would be so shameless.

Running away in a crisis is human nature.

But to play the victim and then extort money from the employer is truly cunning.

"Just tell me if you can help. If you can't, I'll think of another way."

"With so many miscellaneous matters to attend to, I might not have enough time and energy to refine pills..." Chen Jue said meaningfully.

"..." Jiao Fengchun was speechless.

In this world, some people are young, yet they have a belly full of filth and rottenness.

He organized his thoughts and said:

"There's no need to hire someone to impersonate you. Our organization has someone infiltrated the Fire Cult. I'll have him personally lead a team to ambush you..."

"You'd better be careful."

"Those instructors who become True Qi Realm martial artists through sacrifices are always ruthless. Don't take it too seriously and kill them..." Jiao Fengchun warned.

Upon hearing this, Chen Jue's mind stirred slightly.

Since the Divine Interpretation Organization has spies in the Fire Sect, they must have them in other sects as well, right?

Once he successfully escapes with the bucket, he'll have to come back and ask the old man if he can help him gather information about the Star Demon Cult related to "earth".

After all, of the five elemental true qi in his dantian, only the earth element was missing.

After agreeing on a time for being "ambushed" with Jiao Fengchun, Chen Jue left the clinic and contacted his uncle He Yuanshan.

……

Kaiyang Community, on a sandbar in the center of Cuihu Lake.

Tang Xi was fishing in the lake. The water was clear, but the bottom was not visible.

There was a dark patch floating at the bottom of the lake, as if a demon was lurking there, ready to devour everything on the surface of the lake.

"In a few more days, the shadowy creature at the bottom of the lake will successfully reincarnate."

Tang Xi raised and lowered his fishing rod, leaving his fish basket empty. He said to Liang Ben, who was fishing with him.

"Oh, so what? What can be done?"

"Does this mean that once it successfully reincarnates, the entire Xue family who raised it will be resurrected and return to the ranks of powerful clans?"

"Forget about it. It's just a fourth-realm Xuan Iron creature. At most, it has higher defense, but it's useless otherwise."

Liang Ben stuck the fishing rod into the ground, operated his mobile game with both hands, and habitually argued with Tang Xi.

"With the Zong family acting so recklessly, is there no one in Linjiang who can bring them down?"

As one of the aggrieved parties, Meng Liang harbored deep hatred for the Linjiang clan and had absolutely no good impression of them.

"Who can cure it? The Five-Colored Sacred Land is standing behind them."

"Isn't the Pei family powerful enough?"

"As members of the 'Four Families and One Prefecture' in Linjiang, the Zong family married off their daughter to the Pei family. Not only did the Zong family take over the management of the main household from her mother-in-law, but the first daughter she gave birth to was also forcibly given the surname Zong."

"And that Pei family woman who changed her surname is now a super powerhouse known to everyone across the five lakes, seven continents, and eight oceans..."

"Who?" Meng Liang asked curiously.

"She is... who unlocked the 'Martial King' level achievement at the age of twenty-five, the white moonlight in the eyes of countless young male and female martial artists, the champion of the World Martial Arts Championship for eight consecutive years, the strongest exchange student of the Ming Dynasty in Europe, who once single-handedly slaughtered the European lizard dragon, the number one person below the Immortal level, the number one young martial artist of the contemporary era, the relative that the Pei Clan of Linjiang most wanted to save, invincible among her peers, and the eternal nightmare of the holy sons and daughters of the nine holy lands..."

Liang Ben, feeling honored, launched into a long, rapid-fire monologue.

He knew the ins and outs of the four major families in the inner city like the back of his hand. He also held a deep admiration for a certain lady surnamed Zong.

Meng Liang was confused.

"It's one thing for the Zong family women to be able to bear children, but how come the Pei family is so tolerant, actually allowing so many children to change their surnames..."

"Hahahaha!~~"

Tang Xi was amused by Meng Liang's teasing and was about to chime in when his communicator rang first.

He answered the call and saw that it was a name with the code name "Bian Que".

"Shh! The team leader is calling..."

Tang Xi answered the phone solemnly, thinking it was some kind of troublesome task, but after listening to Bian Que's description, it turned out to be to cooperate with the "alchemist" in staging a play.

He grunted a few times to indicate that he understood, and after hanging up the phone, he said to Meng Liang and Liang Ben, "That Alchemist Chen from Kaiyang Garrison is quite a remarkable person."

"They actually let us impersonate Fire Cult soldiers, injure them, and then use that injury to escape."

"I told you that guy was an interesting person," Liang Ben commented. "He was right to do it."

"This both avoids being controlled by the garrison and gives me a legitimate reason to leave the garrison."

"Even if someone finds time to dig up old grievances later, they will most likely not be able to find any fault with him."

"That's not necessarily true. You think too highly of the powerful clans. If they want to kill a commoner, a fabricated charge is enough for them," Tang Xi said.

"But he's the son-in-law of the Pei family!"

Liang Ben pointed out incisively, "Although Miss Pei is not favored because of her extremely poor talent in martial arts."

"But the Pei family's daughter is the Pei family's daughter; she's not from a lowly family like the Qi family, who can easily pull off such an act..."

"That still requires the Pei family's approval." Tang Xi threw down her fishing rod and stood up.

"Hey! Another fish caught!" Liang Ben threw his phone aside, pulled up the fishing rod from the ground, and immediately hauled in a two-meter-long giant fish, which slammed onto the sandbar with a "thud".

"..." Tang Xi was speechless upon seeing this.

How can someone be born into such a good family and still have such good luck?

"Are you going? Extras, 500 yuan per show," he asked Meng and Liang.

"Yes! Of course we'll go!"

"I was humiliated by him last time, but this time I have a chance to beat him up when he's down, so I have to get my revenge." Liang Ben plunged his sword into the giant fish's head, ending the lively and wriggling life of the fish.

"I won't go. I'm about to break through to the Spirit Seed stage, so I need to cultivate a bit more," Meng Liang said.

"Okay..." Liang Ben glanced at the two-hundred-pound giant fish at his feet and kicked it next to Meng Liang.

"Grill the fish for me while you're at it. Tang Xi and I will bring back some beer tonight."

Meng Liang gave an "OK" sign, then turned to Tang Xi and asked, "Jian Hong, where's your fish? Want to come along?"

"..." Tang Xi. Are you being polite?