I'm here in the martial arts world just to find love.

The peculiarity of the little stone man, Shi Gandang, reminded Jiang Chao of someone: Li Muqing, the holy maiden of the Jin Xiao Sword Sect, with whom he had engaged in numerous martial arts sparring sessions, and who had given him his first taste of intimacy with a woman, a true worthy opponent.

When Li Muqing was poisoned by witchcraft and became a living dead, she did not eat human food, but instead liked to swallow snake venom to replenish her life force.

I wonder how she is doing now.

When they parted, Li Muqing said she was going to settle old scores.

Before parting, she gave Jiang Chao a blue jade pendant that he always carried with him, saying that when they met again, she would use the jade pendant as a token to take it back and complete her emotional entanglement with Jiang Chao.

Since leaving Yunmeng Mountain, Jiang Chao has experienced a lot along the way, and even had some things happen with the heroine Chu and Su E, although he was forced to do so to save people.

But Jiang Chao still felt somewhat guilty.

He felt somewhat sorry for Li Muqing, and of course, for Liu Yiyi, the woman he fell in love with at first sight during the lantern festival on his first trip down the mountain.

Thinking of this, Jiang Chao sighed.

It is said that people from the martial arts world are not bound by trivial matters, but when it comes to matters of love and affection, even he is not immune to them.

Three percent of the boasts I made on the mountain have already come true.

Encountering one hundred soulmates...

Shaking his head, Jiang Chao put those years behind him and shifted his attention to matters in the capital.

This place is not far from the capital, but incidents of bandits occupying the mountains, killing and robbing people still occurred.

This shows that the imperial court was probably in dire straits, otherwise it would not have allowed these things to happen without taking any action.

Bi Sheng and the others had some questions for Jiang Chao, but seeing that his face looked rather pale in the firelight, Bi Sheng moved his lips but ultimately didn't ask.

What he really wanted to say was, "Brother Jiang, since you have such abilities, why bother getting involved in the murky mire of the imperial court? You can still make a name for yourself by venturing out into the world alone."

But considering the other party's status, Bi Sheng felt that his perspective was indeed too narrow.

Feeling somewhat ashamed, he couldn't help but unfasten the wine flask from his waist, tilt his head back, and take a sip.

Dong Jiajia secretly glanced at Jiang Chao and whispered to Liu Yu'er beside her. Although they spoke softly, everyone present was a leading figure among the younger generation, so they could hear them clearly.

Dong Jiajia said, "Sister Yu'er, have you noticed that Young Hero Jiang seems to be preoccupied?"

Liu Yu'er nodded emphatically, "Perhaps today's events have troubled Young Hero Jiang. After all, so many people turned to banditry, committed heinous crimes, and were all wiped out by us. If these people were to become good people, they might benefit many civilians."

Dong Jiajia was taken aback, blinked her beautiful eyes, and asked, "Yu'er, what do you mean by that? I don't understand."

Liu Yu'er said, "Sister Jiajia, think about it. Those people are all skilled in martial arts and very strong. If we let them do farm work, wouldn't they be even more useful than oxen? One person might do the work of ten oxen in a day!"

Dong Jiajia suddenly realized, and gave Liu Yu'er a thumbs up, "Yu'er, you're so smart! You even came up with this idea!"

"Hehe, well, it's not that amazing." Liu Yu'er smiled shyly, but her eyes kept darting to Jiang Chao.

She seemed to want Jiang Chao to praise her for being understanding or something.

Jiang Chao smiled, pulled himself out of his thoughts, looked at Liu Yu'er, and said:

"Miss Yu'er's idea is really good. In the future, when we catch some really bad people, we will do the same thing, so that they can make the best use of their talents and give full play to their value, and atone for their past evil deeds."

"Oh? Really?"

Liu Yu'er gasped softly, somewhat incredulously asking, "Is my idea really that good, Brother Jiang?"

"Why did you speak with an accent when you got excited?"

Jiang Chao smiled and nodded, saying, "However, your idea is indeed good. How about we discuss this and come up with a solution, then implement it and see if it works?"

These words were not only spoken to Liu Yu'er, but also to everyone present.

Because of Liu Yu'er's words, Jiang Chao suddenly remembered something: among those memories that did not belong to this era, there were some cultists who would destroy and rebuild the minds of some people in order to control them for their own use.

He would certainly not do such a heinous thing, but if Liang Qixiong were to imitate the behavior of some cult members and use it to deal with those evil people in the underworld, it would not be unreasonable.

Since ancient times, evil people have always been punished by evil people. Some people have made mistakes that have reached the point where they must be beheaded. Only by killing them can the people's anger be appeased.

But killing them would be too easy on them, so it's better to let them atone for their past sins through their actions.

The simplest example is to make those martial arts practitioners with extraordinary physiques, far surpassing ordinary people, do hard and tiring work.

For example, farming, mining, or doing rough and heavy work that ordinary people cannot do.

Of course, this method is quite difficult to implement and requires a strong ability to intervene mentally. It would be best to set a goal for them and give them a belief to support them.

Only in this way can those unruly martial artists be firmly restrained without bloodshed.

"Why don't we form a force based on the people among us? A force that specifically accepts villains from the underworld."

Jiang Chao suggested.

"What do you mean by that, Brother Jiang?"

Bi Sheng frowned and asked.

Why accept villains from the martial arts world? Those wicked people who commit evil deeds deserve to die, and righteous people would rather get rid of them than accept them.

The female knight-errant Chu also looked puzzled. "Jiang Qilin, what kind of crazy idea have you come up with this time?"

Qin Shaoling continued, "I believe Ah Lang wouldn't speak without reason. Let's hear his plans first."

Jiang Chao gave Qin Shaoling a grateful look, then said:

"Here's what I'm thinking: since we're going to the capital to help the court rebuild its order, restore order to the nation, and bring prosperity to the people, we need to have our own power. Otherwise, with the constraints of various factions in the court, it will be difficult for us to achieve anything; we'll be stuck at a loss."

Seeing that Xiao Qiushui wanted to speak, Jiang Chao waved his hand and continued, "I know what Brother Xiao just said. He was just saying that our strength is enough to overcome the obstacles of various forces. But that's not true. Sometimes strength can't solve everything. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many conspiracies and tricks in the court. When you encounter injustice, just draw your sword and fight back."

Jiang Chao said with a serious expression, "In my opinion, the most powerful method in this world is the strategy of winning hearts and minds. To kill someone is to destroy their spirit; that is the best strategy."

"Using force is the worst possible solution."

"The methods used by dynasties throughout history to govern the country were nothing more than to appease the people, educate the populace, combine kindness with severity, and clearly distinguish between rewards and punishments, so that the people could live and work in peace and contentment, abide by the law, and thus achieve long-term stability and security. This is the true way of the king."

"As the saying goes, one can conquer the world on horseback, but one cannot govern it on horseback. This is the same principle."

"We can build a force to serve the imperial court. On the one hand, we can accomplish things that are impossible to do openly. On the other hand, we can also keep those idle people in the martial arts world busy, so they have no time to do evil."

"Some people are not born evil, but are led astray by their environment. Of course, there are also many born evil people who are beyond redemption, but killing them directly would be a waste. There are only so many people in this world. Birth, aging, sickness and death take away many people every day, and the feuds in the martial arts world consume many young and strong people. Compared with ordinary people, those who can practice martial arts are very few."

"So what I mean is, we should find a way to gather these people who have done evil, and make use of them. Through intervention and education, we can make them abandon evil and do good, and use them for our purposes."

After Jiang Chao finished speaking, everyone fell into deep thought.

They understood what Jiang Chao meant, but how easy was it to make use of evil people?

Those bandits they had killed earlier—weren't they all unruly and arrogant? Forget about persuading them to abandon evil and do good; they probably wouldn't even have a chance to utter a word of advice before the bandits came at them with their knives.

Jiang Chao's idea is nothing short of a pipe dream, a pipe fantasy.

Jiang Chao naturally noticed that the others did not agree, so he smiled slightly and explained what he planned to do.

After hearing this, everyone looked at Jiang Chao with suspicion.

Bi Sheng couldn't help but ask, "Is this really feasible? If it is... then how are we any different from those evil cults despised by the righteous sects of the martial arts world?"

"No."

Jiang Chao shook his head and laughed, "Brother Bi, you don't understand."