Yang City a Month Later

"I don't know."

"But I know one thing—something you must know too, Father."

"What?"

Zhang Ming said seriously, "Our Zhang Family has been involved in the Salt and Iron Trade."

"No, not involved. The Salt and Iron Trade is an indispensable part of the Zhang Family's commercial empire."

"Salt and iron, salt and iron, salt and iron! That is an Imperial Monopoly!"

"Right now, the Zhang Family is insignificant before the Empire. Its gaze may not fall upon us."

"But what about later?"

"If we are exposed one day, that will be the day the Zhang Family is destroyed."

Looking at his father's stunned face—perhaps he had known this before, yet had always clung to a trace of luck and never truly thought it through—Zhang Ming spoke solemnly.

"So, the Empire may not be our enemy, but we must regard it as one."

"We must grow strong enough that even if the Empire learns of the salt, iron, and countless other businesses, it will not dare make a move because of all sorts of considerations."

At that, Zhang Ming smiled again.

"Isn't the Zhang Family's current status the result of just that? Compromise from all sides, mutual benefit for all?"

"It is only that the target has changed from Xinhe Commandery to the entire Empire!"

Zhang Ming knew that, in the end, his father was still a man of this ancient era—a man who had once merely been an ordinary townsman.

Perhaps he possessed intelligence and talent, but when it came to the bigger picture, the overall situation, and the ability to strike straight at the heart of certain matters—

As well as an utterly lawless way of thinking.

Even a hundred million flattering words could not compare to him, a transmigrator.

"M-Maybe."

For some reason, Zhang Ming suddenly had a strange feeling.

His father had grown up?

Oh, no, that was not the right phrase.

He had matured?

"Haha, Father, don't be so serious. That is all for the future. There is still a long road ahead."

Zhang Yongfeng let out a long breath and revealed a faint smile.

"Son, oh son, what immortal deity descended to earth are you?"

"Who knows?"

Zhang Ming shrugged and did not deny it.

Being mistaken for an immortal descending to earth was better than being suspected of being some old ghost who had taken over his body, or a transmigrator.

"Oh, right. Father, there is something you need to handle carefully these days. Best do it without a sound."

"I know. You mean the families and relatives of those people?"

Over these past days, Zhang Ming and the Zhang Family's guards had killed quite a few people.

Not every one of them had family or friends, but some certainly did.

They had killed those people. If their families came seeking revenge and were not dealt with, it would become troublesome.

"Mm. I'll leave this matter to you, Father."

"Fine, fine. Who told me to be your father? It is my lot in life to wipe your ass."

Zhang Ming returned to his study.

Thinking back over every action taken since returning from the mine, he let out a long breath.

"Finally, this chapter is over."

Now, both the underworld and the lawful side of Yang City were under the Zhang Family's control, while the disobedient members of the county yamen had been made to "disappear."

Other than the County Magistrate and Assistant County Magistrate, who sat high above everything and ignored worldly affairs—as long as Yang City remained stable, money kept flowing, annual taxes were sufficient, and their political records remained excellent, they cared only for their own official careers—

The Zhang Family was the greatest power beneath the heavens.

"Yang City has now fallen into my hands. Next, I only need to consolidate our power and keep developing."

"I can leave those matters to my father.

As for me?"

"Cultivating as quickly as possible is still best."

"No amount of development can compare to cultivating strength."

Everything that had happened during this period appeared to be the Zhang Family's expansion.

But without Zhang Ming's strength safeguarding them, without him dealing with those Postnatal Martial Artists in advance—

The Zhang Family wanted to develop?

It would have been fortunate if those martial arts hall masters and gang leaders had not joined hands and swept away the Zhang Family in one wave.

"Mm. After this round of expansion, it is time for the Zhang Family to settle down and properly build its foundation."

"Moreover, after this expansion, the Zhang Family is no longer merely a wealthy merchant lineage. It has become a true powerful clan, a powerful clan ruling one region."

Previously, though the Zhang Family had money, its functions had been limited to commerce.

Now it was different. They had integrated both the lawful and unlawful sides, erased the disobedient clerks in the county yamen, and added the County Magistrate and Assistant County Magistrate, who had been forced to stay out of affairs after being given Full Belly.

The functions the Zhang Family would perform from now on had become those of a small Government Office.

Becoming a "Government Office" and previously being merely one part of society naturally required entirely different things.

For instance, one item in the plan Zhang Ming intended to give his father was this:

"Purge every landlord in the Three Towns and Eighteen Villages under Yang City, reclaim all land as Zhang State-Owned property, and turn every farming household into tenant farmers of the Zhang Family."

Tenant farmers were farmers without land of their own, who cultivated a landlord's fields and had to hand over a sufficient rent each year.

Being a tenant farmer under a landlord had its good sides and bad sides; it depended entirely on the landlord's disposition and Heaven's favor.

Zhang Ming did not know what treatment tenant farmers received under other landlords.

But Zhang Ming could guarantee that becoming a tenant farmer under him would be ten or even a hundred times better than serving under any other landlord.

The reason was simple. Zhang Ming was a transmigrator; he did not care only about grain.

He placed even greater importance on the future.

For example, these tenant farmers could later change professions and become workers, employees, miners, armored soldiers, and so on.

After all, how much profit could a tenant farmer bring Zhang Ming? How much could a worker, miner, or armored soldier bring him?

Zhang Ming could still tell the difference.

"Second, repair roads and irrigation works, merge villages into towns, renovate dilapidated houses, develop agriculture, establish Farmer Cooperatives, purge Mountain Bandits, rectify official administration, abolish feudalism..."

And so on. Zhang Ming wrote out a whole series of plans one by one, intending to hand them over to his father, Zhang Yongfeng.

A moment later, Zhang Ming looked at the densely packed plan he had filled with writing, rubbed his temples, and sighed softly.

"Ah, things are different from before. There is far too much to consider."

"But as long as five or six tenths of these measures can be carried out.

If the influence of Martial Dao experts is excluded.

I would not dare say so before the entire Empire, but within Jiangnan Province, no one should dare stroke the Zhang Family's whiskers, right?"

"I do not need much. As long as I achieve five or six tenths, among the hundred-odd thousand commoners in Yang City's territory, pulling together an army of thirty to fifty thousand with complete Armor and Weapons and sufficient logistics will be no problem at all!"

"It is just a pity that having many people and complete Armor and Weapons is useless..."

"If only this were a true feudal age. With these thirty to fifty thousand armored soldiers, seizing the world would not be a problem."

With a sigh, Zhang Ming was not discouraged.

"Now that those martial arts halls are no longer interfering, starting tomorrow, I'll have the guards cultivate the weakened version of the Mighty Bull Cultivation Method."

"I'll first teach ten people, then have those ten teach the other guards, and so on in a cycle, raising the Zhang Family's strength."

"And the establishment and distribution of the great medicine production line."

"Mm, that will do for now. The development of Martial Dao strength cannot be completed overnight."

"What a headache. There are too many matters to handle."

Time flowed onward.

In the blink of an eye, more than a month passed.

Over that month, Yang City had begun to undergo earth-shaking changes compared with before.

The city's commoners felt that public security had improved.

Small merchants and peddlers found that the gangs demanding protection money had disappeared.

Gamblers and whoremongers watched helplessly as brothels and gambling dens were flattened.

And so on, and so forth...

This string of changes filled Yang City with an indescribable restlessness, yet that restlessness was mixed with a tide-like vitality.

For a time, others might not have felt it too clearly.

Those who felt it most keenly were the villages and towns around Yang City.

The farmers in those villages and towns discovered that they could seemingly find work with ease.

And the pay was not low—far better than farming the land for an entire year.

Should they honestly remain farmers, or become laborers for money? The clash between tradition and change erupted abruptly in their minds.

However.

No matter how the outside world changed, Zhang Ming, who stood at the center of Yang City, was not affected in the slightest.

Over the past month, Zhang Ming successfully integrated every cultivation method, martial art, and other technique he had collected into his own Martial Dao system.

Cultivation methods, saber arts, lightness arts, poison arts, archery, concealed weapons, and more—all of them had been enhanced.

"System."

Of course, Zhang Ming had no system.

But if Zhang Ming secretly pointed at the sheet of paper on his desk, upon which he had just written down his own information, and called it a system—

Probably no one would step forward to object...

[Name: Zhang Ming

Cultivation: Postnatal Martial Artist 13%

Cultivation Method: Mighty Bull Cultivation Method, 300 Acupoints

Abilities:

Black Tiger Saber, 66 Acupoints (Grand Completion)

Great Wind Leg, 55 Acupoints (Grand Completion)

Five Poisons Art, 45 Acupoints (Grand Completion)

Consecutive Shot (Bow), Concealed Weapons, 33 Acupoints (Grand Completion)]