Sleep

As he continued reading, he actually found his own wanted notice.

Well, not exactly his wanted notice, but one concerning the killings he had committed.

"Hereby announced: a demon slew people within Lizhou City and fled. According to eyewitness accounts, the demon stood eight chi tall, had blood-red skin, possessed astonishing brute strength, and was impervious to blade and spear. It killed more than a dozen people in Lizhou City, committing every evil imaginable. It is suspected of having possessed a porter named Li Qi and has now vanished without trace. The county is hereby warned to exercise caution. Should you encounter this demon, flee at once. Those who provide clues shall be rewarded five hundred coins; those who provide evidence of slaying this fiend shall be rewarded one thousand coins; those who capture this fiend alive shall be rewarded one thousand five hundred coins."

So, after killing more than a dozen people, he was worth only fifteen hundred coins—barely one-tenth of a gold.

At current prices, using Great Deer Wuzhu Coins, it would take at least ten thousand coins to exchange for one gold.

Lady Luofu, who could split the earth and be crowned king if slain, was worth a hundred gold for a single piece of information.

A hundred gold... What kind of fortune was that?

He did not even dare imagine it.

Li Qi looked perfectly at ease. Though he was wanted, this had all been within his calculations, so there was nothing strange about it.

But the claim that he had been possessed by a demon...

Uh, that was probably Uncle Liu's idea.

He had not wiped them out completely. Those Mighty Gang porters who had escaped back probably all knew that the red-skinned, immensely strong demon had actually been Li Qi.

And then Li Qi had fled outright.

The authorities would certainly go ask the Wave-Pushing Gang about the situation.

The Wave-Pushing Gang would surely insist they knew nothing. Besides, all these years, the Wave-Pushing Gang had always been like this; both their martial arts and their conduct were entirely normal.

Under such circumstances, the authorities would likely suspect only Li Qi himself: either he had stumbled upon some evil art by chance, or some demon had possessed him, used Li Qi's face to kill people, and then fled.

The Demon Eradication Division had surely already mobilized, but Li Qi's gamble back then had probably paid off.

He was one of the Outer Dao. Divination methods found it difficult to locate him. If divination could not do it, then they could only rely on clues to find him.

Unfortunately, the name Li Qi was unbelievably common. There were at least ten thousand people named Li Qi in Li Prefecture. Searching by name was like fishing for a needle in the sea.

Then they could only rely on a portrait.

But who would they ask for a portrait?

Heh. No one knew Li Qi better than the Wave-Pushing Gang.

He trusted Uncle Liu. Uncle Liu would certainly distort the portrait beyond recognition. As long as he did not expose that telltale red skin from the Ox-Strength Technique before others, nothing should happen.

In the end, the world was simply too chaotic. If this kind of wanted notice failed to catch him after a few months, it would simply fade away.

Because this did not even count as a real wanted notice. At most, it was a public announcement.

An actual arrest warrant was not something issued so casually. It had to be written on yellow paper.

The authorities surely knew the chances were slim, so they had not even opened a case!

After all, if they opened a case, they would have to account for it to their superiors during the year-end review. If no case was opened, then it did not matter. Did the Mighty Gang dare pressure the authorities?

So long as he weathered this period, changed his name and identity, and swaggered back into Lizhou City, probably no one would pay him any mind.

Just like those traveling merchants. Ba Kui and the others surely had blood on their hands. Those people did not care about casually doing some evil while out in the wilderness.

Merchants in ordinary times, bandits when the opportunity arose, and no one held them accountable.

That was the norm. This world was like that. Surely no one believed a world where individual strength was exaggerated to such a degree would still be peaceful?

"Precisely because of that... I need power that can protect me." Li Qi had nearly died without a burial place when he traveled alone this time. Deep in his heart, his desire to grow stronger had become even greater.

Only...

"Ah, let's go first. I need to find somewhere to sleep." Li Qi turned and left the notice board.

The boundaries between different groups were as distinct as the Jing and Wei Rivers. How could joining one be easy? Whether it was a sect or a gang, they would not trust someone merely because they joined.

Either one had grown up within it since childhood, with one's background clear as daylight, making trust easy to earn.

Or else... one had to prepare to trade one's life for trust.

Had Li Qi not saved the Wave-Pushing Gang time and again, he could never have earned such trust.

The Wave-Pushing Gang had few people and small affairs, so he could still display some of his abilities and gain trust. But what would he amount to in those great gangs and major sects? Even if he entered as a low-ranking gang member, he probably would not obtain their core techniques. It might even be inferior to Wave-Pushing Strength.

Thinking about it that way... obtaining an art by a lucky twist of fate really had been outrageously good luck.

So... what should he do next?

Li Qi paid one coin in city-entry tax. This was a poll tax. After entering the city, he received a wooden tag called a travel pass, which had to be presented whether lodging at an inn or buying goods.

The travel-pass system was quite advanced, but Li Qi did not know why Great Deer Kingdom travel passes were calculated separately city by city, records were not retained, lost passes could be reissued for money, and they could not be used in different cities.

This series of measures resulted in an extremely chaotic population flow. He did not know why such a strange system had been adopted.

Perhaps there were hidden reasons.

After entering the city, Li Qi did not intend to stay at an inn. He first took out the dried provisions in his bundle, intending to eat them tonight, then bought some fried rice, rice cakes, and similar things to store away.

There was no helping it. Rice was the cheapest.

He had heard that flour was cheapest in the north, but the Great Deer Kingdom was full of mountains and water, with dangerous terrain everywhere and little flat land. Wheat was difficult to grow, so most people ate rice.

Farmers carved terraced fields into the mountains. It was said that farming households all had methods for making crops absorb mountain qi, allowing them to grow Spirit Rice with yields of three thousand jin per mu.

In this world... even being a farmer required a few tricks. Really...

Thinking of this, Li Qi bought another pot of tea from a roadside tea stall. With the complimentary rice cakes, he dry-chewed his own provisions. His jaw ached from chewing, and when his mouth grew so dry that he had no saliva left, he drank some tea to ease it.

His belly was large, and he could eat seven or eight jin in one meal. This time, he intended to finish all his stored provisions. He kept eating until the sky darkened, only then finishing all his provisions and draining the tea. With his stomach full and round, thoroughly satisfied, he left.

The entire meal had been rice, without a single vegetable dish, but there was nothing to be done. It was better to save his money.

The sky had already darkened. Though taverns and pleasure houses were still open, those were not places Li Qi could set foot in. A single meal there cost dozens of coins. He only had one thousand coins in total, and the roadside tea stall, provisions, and entry fee had already cost him eight coins. He had just over nine hundred remaining. That was meant to cover half a year's expenses, so he needed to spend frugally.

Still, Ba Kui was treating him to a meal tomorrow.

He should be able to mooch some meat then.

With these thoughts turning in his head, enjoying the happiness of a belly round as a drum, Li Qi found a large residence with particularly deep eaves. He sat beneath them, tied his bundle tight, and prepared to sleep there for the night.