Long Street was bustling.
Peddlers wound through the streets and alleys, while shopkeepers shouted their wares at the tops of their lungs.
Servants from wealthy households clustered by the roadside, chatting idly.
As two figures appeared at the end of the street, the lively atmosphere abruptly froze for a moment.
The servants and maids hurried back inside as if fleeing a plague god, while the peddlers quickly dragged their stalls farther in, afraid of blocking the pair's way.
"Master Lin, after you!"
Anxious greetings rang out one after another.
Whenever a new Wolf Lord took to the streets, his Young Wolves would surely spread the word in advance.
Even if passersby didn't recognize the young man's unfamiliar face, how could they fail to recognize Dong Cheng beside him?
But unlike everyone else's fearful expressions, the shopkeepers by the street seemed much more at ease.
"Master Lin. Lord Dong."
They smiled and nodded politely.
They seemed respectful, but their eyes held a trace of disdain.
By their reckoning, this young man was probably the third Fierce Wolf to come to the street this month.
Every blade of grass and every tree in the city belonged to someone.
But the master of Four Directions Street was very obviously not the Blackwater Gang.
"What a bunch of fair-weather friends."
Dong Cheng spat out the curse resentfully, but unfortunately, he couldn't afford to make a scene.
The odds were against them.
When they had to endure, they had to endure.
"They only have eyes for the Yamen now," Dong Cheng explained quietly.
"Isn't that normal?" Lin Shu glanced at him.
As far as Lin Shu could tell, the fact that gang members could swagger down the street and make legitimate businesspeople flee from them already made the Yamen look utterly incompetent.
Did they really expect people to set them up on a pedestal like the authorities?
"How could it be?"
Dong Cheng stared at Lin Shu in surprise, as if he were an out-of-towner. "Do you really think the Yamen is still what it used to be? Aside from wearing the court's skin, aren't they just another Blackwater Gang now?"
The Yamen's authority came from the court.
But to the people of Blackwater City, the court had long ceased to exist.
As they saw it, two vicious beasts had fought, and one of them had simply lost.
"Fearing the Yamen but not us is, of course, abnormal."
"It's not like this on the other streets."
"Take Lord Yan's Chongyang Street, for example. The merchants there don't even have to pay taxes. They only need to pay the Blackwater Gang's monthly dues."
Collecting taxes on behalf of the authorities—how impressive!
Just thinking about it made Dong Cheng want to run away.
If he hadn't been utterly unable to figure out Lord Yan's preferences, who would want to stay on Four Directions Street and take all this abuse?
"..."
Lin Shu lifted his eyes to the long street before him.
He suddenly felt a little irritated.
They were both Fierce Wolves. How could some people be so rich?
He wasn't the sort to begrudge the wealthy, but this was just too shabby.
"Master Lin, you're hungry, right? This place's tripe is second to none!"
Dong Cheng suddenly stopped and pulled Lin Shu down onto a stool at a roadside stall.
He was all smiles, praising the food to high heaven.
But Lin Shu merely glanced at the restaurant not far away, and Dong Cheng's smile grew a little awkward.
"I-I'm not exactly flush with cash either. That Tian guy's been squeezing us too hard."
"Next month, next month will be better!"
Dong Cheng was the classic example of someone who had stumbled upon an Immortal Family relic and seized the chance to turn his life around.
Before entering the Qi Refining Stage, he had grown up on this street.
Dong Cheng certainly wouldn't dare disobey a Fierce Wolf's orders, and he was by no means kindhearted.
Take what had happened earlier: if Lin Shu had truly wanted it, Dong Cheng would have gone along with it for the sake of his own future.
But deep down, he knew these poor neighbors had no more fat left to squeeze out of them. He wasn't too keen to keep a hand around their throats, forcing them to bleed and break their backs just to make money.
In that situation, Dong Cheng had only a little silver to his name, and he still needed to save up for Qi Replenishing Pills.
Naturally, he wasn't about to spend it treating a superior who didn't look like he had much of a future.
"Let's just do this."
Lin Shu sat down casually and watched the owner swiftly bring over a few plates of tripe.
He picked up his chopsticks and ate with relish.
Still, for some reason, he felt even more impoverished.
"Have some wine."
Dong Cheng had the owner bring over a pot of rough wine, then carefully filled the cup of this Greedy Wolf.
So far, the man didn't seem as greedy as the rumors claimed. He actually seemed quite easy to get along with.
Just as the two were making idle conversation, the Long Street, which had grown lively again, suddenly quieted down.
The grease-stained owner nervously clenched his hands. A hint of urgency welled in his eyes, but he didn't dare say anything outright and could only stand dumbly beside the little table.
"..."
Chopsticks in hand, Lin Shu lifted his gaze toward the street.
At the far end, by the entrance to a teahouse, a richly dressed fat man was saying something ingratiatingly.
Standing before him was a middle-aged man dressed in black.
He wore an official's uniform, but there was a slack, lazy air about him. His eyes were bleary, as if he had just woken up.
He yawned.
Then he looked toward the tripe stall.
His gaze fell on the two men eating there.
The man suddenly grinned, then raised a hand and lightly drew it across his throat twice.
It was an undisguised threat and an open display of contempt.
After making the gesture, he smiled and strode into the teahouse.
It all happened very quickly, but the people on the street had seen every bit of it.
Nobody said a word, but they were all the more certain of what they had already suspected.
"That guy's Liu Zhen. Ignore him; he's got a screw loose."
Dong Cheng instinctively lowered his head, but he clearly wasn't pleased. He couldn't help muttering, "It's your first day here, and he's already trying to intimidate you. If he pushes me too far—"
"Don't blame me if I kill him!"
"Can you beat him?" Lin Shu looked away and set down his chopsticks.
"Uh... I definitely can't. He is, after all, a Mid-Stage Qi Condensation Cultivator."
Dong Cheng gave an awkward laugh. He suddenly remembered that the man before him had just killed Tian Jingyuan, and hurriedly added, "A proper Mid-Stage Qi Condensation Cultivator."
Thanks to his position as deputy constable, Liu Zhen had already rounded out his methods.
"But whether I can beat him or not, back then he needed Wolf Lord to put him in touch with the White Tiger Hall so he could make dirty money."
As if to prove he wasn't just blowing smoke, Dong Cheng scared the owner away with a glare, then sneered and tapped his chopsticks. "I've kept track of every single thing he's done."
"If that's the case, why does he still dare to bully you?" Lin Shu raised his eyes with interest.
"Ahem." Dong Cheng's smile faltered. He sighed. "That constable's already cozied up to the White Tiger Hall. Wolf Lord's no use to him anymore, and he didn't want to keep splitting the money for nothing, so he had him killed. As for the ledger..."
As for that ledger, it was only good for giving him something to talk big about.
This involved the White Tiger Hall itself. If he really tried to use it to threaten Liu, never mind the Yamen—the tiger would devour him alive first.
Just then, a wave of cries rose from the end of the street where Liu Zhen had first appeared.
People rushed this way, retreating as they called out:
"Someone's been killed!"
"..."
Dong Cheng promptly pulled himself together.
He'd spent years making his way around the streets, and had gained plenty of experience. He could tell at a glance what had happened.
"It has nothing to do with us. Leave it alone."
To put it bluntly, although the Fierce Wolves were in a weak position on Four Directions Street, the Blackwater Gang's name still carried weight. Even if they couldn't bully the wealthy merchants, they could at least keep ordinary people in line.
If they couldn't do anything about it, they should keep out of the excitement.
Otherwise, they would only lose face.
The consequences were easy enough to foresee.
After all, what the gang lacked right now was only the Fierce Wolves' provisions. If they damaged the gang's reputation—
For example, the people of Chongyang Street didn't have to pay taxes because the Yamen had lost all credibility.
They couldn't let Four Directions Street become a counterexample, or no one would pay the Blackwater Gang's monthly dues either.
But before Dong Cheng could explain further, he saw the young man in front of him slowly rise to his feet.
Lin Shu brushed at his sleeves and said casually, "Come on. Let's go take a look."
Before you continue