"Ha ha, no way! No way! No way!"

In the study of the Jing Family's separate courtyard, Leyu held a fountain pen, marking X's on one test paper after another, enjoying grading them immensely.

These test papers had all been completed by the Jing Family members.

After so many days of this ordeal, the Jing clan members finally couldn't hold back anymore.

Unlike the rest of the Silver Blood Association, who only saw Leyu's unbridled, lawless, arrogant behavior, the Jing family saw their clever and heroic patriarch punching the Governor's residence, kicking Lord Wang Hai, handling foreign relations with the Linhai Army, ruling the Silver Blood Association from within—truly a once-in-a-millennium, legendary man!

The old patriarch hadn't misjudged him!

The family head should go to Jing Zhengwei!

Sure, the patriarch had some bad habits, like being fond of low-class women, putting commoners in important positions, paying too much attention to family rules—but those were just minor flaws, nothing serious.

As long as you can make us rich and powerful, we'd drink your bathwater if you farted in it, seriously.

But now the problem was, the new patriarch only cared about having his own fun, not letting the family have any of the good times.

Take that lapdog position, Yin Minghong's seat—God knows how many Jing clan members were coveting it.

Never mind the perks, just the thrill of being able to swagger around like Yin Minghong, crush anyone who defied you, represent the Jing family and make even ghosts scatter... that alone made their hearts pound. "Who dared to challenge you? Beat them to death! Do right by Jing, and all evil flees in terror!"

Now that the Jing family had come begging, Leyu couldn't just beat them all to death with a stick. First, when it came to raising the military fund pool, those guys had handed over their money quite happily; second, when he took over the Jing family assets, they had dragged their feet but went along in the end.

It wasn't that they respected Leyu as the new patriarch—they all knew Leyu wasn't emotionally attached to any of them, but Leyu had a knife in his hand and looked like he wanted to slaughter dogs. Nobody dared to piss him off—they figured they'd humor the little brat for now.

They had their own plans, too—"Take the assets? Go ahead, take them, but you'll still have to use us Jings to run them in the end, right? You'll still need us."

And with the new head short on people, maybe they'd get even more opportunities in the future!

If you managed ten people before, you wanted to manage a hundred in the future;

If you ran the mines before, you wanted to manage a factory next;

If you already had a factory, why not aim for a couple more?

At the end of the day, the Jing clan thought their interests were tied to the family's. The bigger the Jing family became, the bigger their slice of the pie. "Sure, right now it's Jing Zhengwei dividing the pie, but who cares—give me a shot, and I'd lick the new patriarch's ass so hard he'd blast into space!"

Too bad the head was smitten with that cheap vixen now, leaving loyal clan members with no chance to kneel and grovel properly!

But lately Leyu had been staying at Jing Garden, and Qing Lan went to work at the paper every day, so the clan members finally seized their chance—they came to Jing Garden every day, expressing fake concern, dropping hints, even sending cute cousins to massage their big bro's legs and back—girls were one thing, but the boy cousins were crossing a damn line.

Leyu saw this was going nowhere, and suddenly hit them with a tough problem.

Want a job? No problem, but first, you gotta pass the employment test.

Leyu casually put together a test sheet, all questions focused on business management, using knowledge you'd pick up in middle school—of the three bodies Leyu had driven, only Qian Yuliu had been to middle school, Yin Yinyin hadn't even gone to school, and Jing Zhengwei had been privately tutored. So Leyu could only use Qian Yuliu's homework as a rough difficulty guide when making up the questions.

Granted, Leyu mixed in plenty of questions about classical probability, physics, and brain teasers, but if someone had Qian Yuliu's learning skills, passing wasn't impossible.

Yet clearly, for the Jing family to produce geniuses like Jing Qingfu, Jing Zhengwu, Jing Zhengtang—maybe they'd sacrificed all the other clan members' brains for it.

Leyu gave them three days to solve the problems, let them discuss, ask for help, even cheat, but the test papers they handed in were still a total disaster.

Every math question answered with an essay, that was par for the course; even more wrote "Jing Zhengwei, wise and mighty, will unite the nation for ten thousand years" right on the test—way too blatant, had to be dealt with seriously.

As Leyu was grading, about to burst out laughing, he suddenly heard an explosion in the distance—a tremor shook the entire inner city.

Very soon, a servant came banging on the door, urgent and flustered, saying, "President, something's happened outside."

"What happened?"

"I don't know..."

"Then go check what's going on."

Brushing off the interruption, Leyu kept grading while thinking over his next talent selection plan. Xuanzhu County didn't have many capable people; the poor had no education and the rich didn't want to learn. Besides the permanent White Night pool, there weren't really any other wild card sources to draw talent from.

"As poor as we are, can't be poor on education." He planned on starting a few workers' night schools, figuring out a way to promote a batch of managers to get by. On that front, the Glory Imperial Court had actually laid a decent foundation—as everyone there wanted to learn Combat Technique, they'd all done at least some Mongolian Studies, and could recognize a handful of characters. The basics were weak, but better than nothing.

Plus, the gutter-level, down-to-earth Youth Daily had actually sped up basic workers' learning a bit after all—yellow jokes are the best teachers.

Xuanzhu County's National Academy, the Literary and Military Academies? Scrappable.

Even though Jing Zhengwei hadn't studied there, he knew full well that Xuanzhu's Literary and Military Academies were just matchmaking hotbeds for young Silver Blood Association members. Most of their marriages were arranged there, so him being single made sense—he'd never even teamed up with his peers.

The county's papermaking industry wasn't bad, maybe they could publish some textbooks...

"President!" The servant's breathless voice came from outside the door, "The Sea Cape Gate is on fire over there! The blaze is huge!"

"Accident or arson?"

"N-not sure."

"The second-in-command should be at the Ting Family's as a guest—after that bang, he must know something. Go, send someone to get him and handle it."

Leyu scratched his head, wondering who was making trouble.

Could it be the Ting Family? If it was them, Yin Minghong might already be dead meat.

Other merchants joining together? Impossible. Even if they could pull it off, they wouldn't dare.

The Governor's office? Now that's possible—they knew I wouldn't keep them around. But aside from the Patrol Execution Guard, they didn't have any other armed force...

Wait a second, isn't Sea Cape Gate the passage between inner and outer city? If it's burning, isn't that blocking the only main route in and out?

Leyu didn't wonder long.

Because just then, an even fiercer sound completely shredded the night sky over Xuanzhu County!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Bam! Bam! Bam!

From far away came the sounds of explosions, fire roaring, and a series of gunshots like thunder!

Leyu checked the Saint's Relic bracer on his left wrist, swapped his indoor shoes for steel-toed boots, pulled off the fancy windbreaker meant just for showing off, and pushed the door open—only to see Yin Minghong rushing over with a panicked face.

Leyu said, "Is Qing Lan back yet?"

Yin Minghong froze, nodded, "Her car's outside, she should be back... President, something terrible happened!"

"Don't tell me pointless crap I can see with my own two eyes," Leyu said.

He looked south; by now, the night sky glowed orange-red, the flames in the distance burning like great torches, illuminating Xuanzhu County's darkness.

Staring at the swirling black smoke, Leyu's face stayed calm as he asked softly, "I'm guessing this can't be the Silver Blood Nobility's style, right?"

"Even if it's not, they're definitely involved!" Yin Minghong said through gritted teeth, "After the union meeting today, one Silver Blood noble ran over two kids with his car. Uncle Hai—the guy we put forward as manager—saw people riled up and decided to take them to the inner city, looking for you, President Jing, to get justice."

"I swear, Uncle Hai really meant well, he only wanted you to punish the killer and show where you stood. He absolutely wasn't trying to seize power or make trouble—White Night really hasn't pulled any strings here—"

Leyu nodded, "I believe you, keep going."

Yin Minghong swallowed hard, "Uncle Hai didn't know how to reach you, so he sent someone for me. But for some reason, at Sea Cape Gate, they got into a clash with the Patrol Execution Guard, and it escalated till neither side could retreat, and then—"

"Uncle Hai was killed."

"The Patrol Execution Guard opened fire."

"The death toll keeps climbing, and the conflict's past the point of stopping."

"I don't know if it's the Silver Blood Nobility, but someone's definitely spreading lies in the crowd. They're inciting rage and chanting to burn the Silver Blood Association, trying to pin the crimes of the patrol and those nobles on the whole group. I'm sure the White Night Walkers are stopping them, but the crowd can't be controlled now—"

Leyu said with a laugh, "If that's all, it's hardly incitement. In the Silver Blood Association, there's not one who doesn't deserve to die."

"Boss!"

Qing Lan and the others appeared in the courtyard. When she saw Leyu, she ran over and grabbed his hand, her palm sweating with nerves. Leyu gripped back, glancing at Mu Qingmei, Mi Die, Li Sang, Huyan Siluo, and the rest, "Thanks for your hard work."

"Minghong, what now?" Mu Qingmei asked, forgetting her undercover status and directing her question at Yin Minghong, "Is there any way to calm the crowd? We can't let them keep making trouble like this!"

Yin Minghong shook his head grimly, "If there was a way, they'd have done it. By now, I'm afraid..."

"Damn!"

Mu Qingmei punched a hole in the nearby wall, making Huyan Siluo jump. "We were so close, so close! We were just steps away from safely inheriting the Silver Blood Association, from taking power flawlessly... So close!"

Huyan Siluo flinched again, glanced at Yin Minghong, Mu Qingmei, Leyu, and the others, stepping back to run—but then she realized what was happening outside, so she obediently hid behind the human tyrannosaurus, Mu Qingmei.

"Can't everyone just sit down and talk for once?" Qing Lan suddenly asked, "Isn't this all just one big misunderstanding that would be fixed if we sat down and talked? Boss, you were about to—"

"They don't trust me."

Leyu shook his head gently, "They don't trust the Silver Blood Association, don't trust the Governor's office, don't trust the nobility, don't trust merchants, and sure as hell don't trust me, the President from the Jing family."

"The sins the Silver Blood Association committed, all the killings, all the seeds of evil sown, all the infamous deeds—it's run like silver and blood through this land for hundreds of years, and through the memories of every oppressed person."

"They won't forget hatred, and they won't believe in mercy."

"To them, sitting down at the table just means handing over their lives."

"Sure, plenty of people just go along with the flow, some are caught up in it, some are lost and ignorant, but once they take that first step, they all know—they can't go back."

Mu Qingmei grew anxious, "But we all know, Jing Zhengwei, you were doing this for them—"

Leyu met her eyes and said with a smile, "They don't know that, and they wouldn't believe it. Hell, even I'm not sure if, once I have the power of life and death in my grip, I'll stick to the deal I made with you guys in White Night."

"After all, compared to a tyrant, a Saint is a lousy investment."

White Night!?

Mi Die, Li Sang, Huyan Siluo, and the rest all changed expression.

Honestly, compared to what was happening outside, the cooperation between Jing Zhengwei and White Night wasn't such a big deal. There was no shortage of shameless types in the Silver Blood Association; working with the opposition was routine, colluding with the Backlight Organization to throw mud at rivals was bread and butter. Not news.

But based on what Jing Zhengwei and Yin Minghong just said, it hit them right away—Jing and White Night weren't just simple partners in profit.

It was a kind of cooperation that had never appeared in Dongyang before, in all of Glory, practically unheard of—

The ruler and the ruled working together, toppling the entrenched class and lifting up the bottom.

Put simply,

Jing Zhengwei was leading a rebellion against himself.

While everyone else stood dumbfounded, there was suddenly a dull thud—Yin Minghong's knees hit the ground hard, forehead pressed to the floor, curling up like a shrimp, tears falling in fat drops onto the ground.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It's my fault, all my fault!"

"If I had gone to the union meeting, if I'd looked out for security, if, if... I wouldn't have let those villains succeed, it wouldn't have come to this—"

"...I wouldn't have let all the President's hard work... go to waste... wuwuwuwu..."

Mu Qingmei had only seen Yin Minghong cry this hard once before.

Last time, it was when he came back from Little Jiushan, half his bones broken by Mu Qingmei and sobbing into the night.

"Stop crying. Really, is crying going to create an age of peace?" Leyu said helplessly, "And you look especially bad when you cry. Qing Lan cries much prettier than you."

Qing Lan blushed, glaring at Leyu, but still wouldn't let go of his hand, sweaty palm or not.

"And there might not even be a conspiracy, honestly. Maybe someone really did stir things up at the union, maybe just the wrong Patrol Execution Guard was on duty, maybe... Conspiracy theorizing is pointless, because in the end, it's always open maneuvering—always the big trends—that decide everything."

"Don't go thinking that just because you did nothing wrong, you'll get a good result. Reality isn't that kind."

Mu Qingmei looked at Leyu, full of pity, "After all this, Jing Zhengwei, just stop holding it in. You must be upset, you must feel awful—just hug Sister Qing Lan and have a cry. Or you can hug Siluo, she feels great, I've tried it."

Huyan Siluo looked dumbfounded, while Qing Lan shot Mu Qingmei a dagger glare.

"Angry?"

Leyu shook his head, then grinned.

"I set up Youth Daily, I stirred up class hatred."

"I took down the Silver Blood Association, I crippled the nobility."

"I taught them to resist, to unite, to be proud, to believe in something. I borrowed the Linhai Army, destroyed the Heyang Army—those Silver Blood Association lapdogs—hacked off the Silver Blood Nobility's claws, cleared every hurdle, made a perfect stage."

"If I hadn't set the stage, no amount of schemes would've meant squat. If it weren't for centuries of built-up grudges against the Silver Blood Association, no random coincidence would've started this fire."

Leyu stared at the fire lighting up the night sky, suddenly recalling a line of poetry, murmuring:

"All wicked delights must end in violence."

Leyu reached out, hauling Yin Minghong up by the scruff like a puppy, eyeing his ugly little crying face with a sigh, then patted his shoulder.

"If I didn't have the Ice Blood Physique, would I be sobbing like the second-in-command right now?" Leyu suddenly wondered.

The Ice Blood Physique suppressed all his negative feelings, so Leyu never felt anything that might bring pain—regret, worry, sadness, all vanished, keeping him perpetually cool and elated.

But that's how the world worked, and Leyu couldn't help feeling fortunate he'd chosen Ice Blood Physique as a power-up.

Thanks to it, he'd made it this far, and could see what he truly wanted deep down—

"So, I'm not angry."

Leyu looked at Yin Minghong, as if it were that very night they'd first met at Red Moon Fortress.

"Because, this is a story I started with my own two hands."