Evil Sect Talent

"Shing..." Four blades were drawn.

"Lord Pang requests that you enter the Ministry of Revenue!"

The lingering madness in Li Qingxian's eyes had yet to fade. He turned to the four Night Guard soldiers and said coldly, "You four keep yapping, and see if I won't stand right here on Ministry of Revenue Street and shout that Pang Mingjing led the Night Guard to tear down divine statues and smash Evil Sect shrines!"

The four Night Guard soldiers were dumbfounded.

"I'm practically dead already. You think I'm afraid of you? Cough... ptoo!" Li Qingxian spat at the black carriage, the phlegm landing squarely on the curtain and slowly sliding down like a crushed snail.

The four soldiers helplessly looked toward the carriage. Not a sound came from within.

Li Qingxian swept his gaze disdainfully over the carriage, hugged the kraft paper bag with both hands, and stood there blankly.

After standing dazed for a long while, Li Qingxian gradually calmed down, and his mind became increasingly clear.

Never mind whether they were Evil Sects or not—their purpose this time was far too obvious. Either they wanted to force him into the Ministry of Revenue and offend the Evil Sect disciples, or they wanted to make him fail the military order so that, the moment he left Ministry of Revenue Street, he would be expelled from the Night Guard.

For commoners in this world, nothing could not be solved with one slash.

If one slash could not solve it, then two would.

Li Qingxian recalled Han Anbo's warning. This so-called "etiquette comes first" meant that he absolutely must not violate an Evil God's taboos.

But even adding together the knowledge of both Li Qingxians, he knew only a handful of Evil Sect taboos.

Li Qingxian narrowed his eyes.

The captain and the others had dared to defy Pang Mingjing. They would not simply watch him die. Most likely, they had gone to the Night Guard Yamen for reinforcements and to contact Lord Zhou Chunfeng.

He needed to stall until the reinforcements arrived, but he also had to save himself!

How could he save himself?

Li Qingxian sighed. Across two lifetimes, he had never studied an Evil God survival manual.

Using the Qi-Gazing Technique on a dignified Principal Seventh Rank? The backlash would probably make blood pour from his seven orifices right in the street.

Li Qingxian desperately searched his memories for everything related to the Evil Sects. The Ministry of Revenue Faction wielded overwhelming power; there had to be information he could use.

The Ministry of Revenue managed all of Great Qi's money and grain.

Evil Sects loved recruiting believers.

Evil Sect disciples called themselves divine children.

The cultivation of Evil Sect divine children often depended on the offerings made to their gods.

Many factors determined the quality of an offering, but one type was universal: money.

More money allowed Evil Sects to recruit more believers. More believers made the gods more satisfied. More satisfied gods displayed more Divine Gifts. The more Divine Gifts one received, the higher one's cultivation became.

At that thought, Li Qingxian's eyes lit up. Wasn't this just using money to bulldoze through every obstacle? He understood!

The gods worshipped by the five great Evil Sects had all once bestowed genuine miracles.

Evil Gods were very fair.

Ever since the five great Evil Sects took over the Ministry of Revenue, Great Qi's national treasury had grown fuller by the day.

After repeatedly reviewing his memories, Li Qingxian found it hard to believe. Every sign showed that these Evil Sects seemed better at managing money—or rather, amassing money—than Qi Kingdom's former officials.

On second thought, it made sense. Throughout ancient and modern times, across China and beyond, fleecing money was the innate talent of crooked cults.

Li Qingxian was spacing out when a tremendous boom suddenly rang out.

His body jolted, and he looked toward the source of the sound.

At the Imperial Palace in the center of Divine Capital City, a thousand-zhang-tall Qi-Blood Waterfall on one side flowed upward against the current, while on the other, a gigantic hundred-zhang two-horned Demonic Beast head hung high in the sky.

Above the Qi-Blood Waterfall, a small sun and moon slowly descended, their brilliant radiance illuminating the capital and eclipsing the sunlight in the heavens.

A sun and moon likewise descended upon the Demonic Beast's head. An eerie power dyed half the azure sky black.

One half was pitch-black, the other blood-red. Wild winds swept through, and heaven and earth went dark.

A moment later, an enormous hemispherical blue barrier appeared, covering the Imperial City and sealing off inside from outside.

Li Qingxian's memories became clear once more.

Sun and moon hanging in the sky—this was the phenomenon of Upper Three Ranks experts.

Ever since gods and devils entered the imperial court, Great Qi's court assemblies had become tales of human-world horrors. The major factions bore deep grudges, often blood feuds spanning hundreds or thousands of years, while Upper Rank experts were all proud and unruly.

Major fights every third, sixth, and ninth day; minor fights every day.

Emperor Taining repaired the Golden Throne Hall three times a month, draining the Imperial Treasury dry.

Li Qingxian blinked.

If a whole gang of demonfiends, monsters, ghosts, and goblins wore court robes, argued in the Golden Throne Hall, and then started fighting whenever a word displeased them, it actually... sounded kind of fun to watch.

Before long, golden light blazed across the sky.

A Gold-Inlaid White Jade Seal the size of a small mountain shot into the heavens. Nine coiling dragons atop the seal looked alive. Even with their eyes tightly shut, they exuded surging pressure that spread like an ocean.

A ring of golden light erupted from the Jade Imperial Seal, sweeping across the sky and spanning a hundred li. It shattered the two pairs of sun and moon, dispersed the two-colored sky, and restored the heavens to azure.

A Night Guard soldier beside the carriage said coldly, "No matter what demonfiends or monsters they are, in this Divine Capital, none of them are greater than His Majesty!"

Li Qingxian watched the gradually shrinking Jade Imperial Seal, understanding dawning on him.

The Night Guard ran rampant through Divine Capital on the strength of a single word from Emperor Taining.

When Emperor Taining said nothing, the Night Guard became little more than rats scurrying across the street.

It seemed that if the imperial family had not been powerful, the major factions would have swallowed it whole long ago.

"How long do you intend to stand around?" Pang Mingjing lifted the window curtain and looked out.

Knowing that death was almost certain, Li Qingxian's fear of Pang Mingjing had dissipated by more than half. He sneered, "I'll stand here as long as I damn well please. You manage heaven and earth, and now you want to manage people taking a shit and farting too? Say one more word, and if I don't lure every divine child in the entire Ministry of Revenue over here, I'll write my surname Li backward! Come on!"

Pang Mingjing stared blankly at the crazed Li Qingxian. His throat bobbed as he cursed, "Madman," then released the curtain and withdrew into the carriage.

The four soldiers glanced at one another, lowered their heads, and searched the ground for ants.

Li Qingxian snorted coldly and continued racking his brains.

The boasting had to be done, and his life had to be saved. Neither delayed the other.

Slowly, Li Qingxian discovered his advantage.

He had worked in self-media. He normally spent enormous amounts of time reading articles, watching videos, and collecting material. Having endured wave after wave of internet baptism—from paid knowledge to advertising marketing, from UC's shock department to clickbait, from short videos to livestream sales, from food crises to pandemic control, from debunking rumors to debunking the debunkers—aside from flirting with girls, there was nothing he did not understand.

If online political commentary could also be ranked, he was at least a First Rank grand official, perhaps even with hopes of Beyond-Rank.

Before long, the carriage slowly pulled away and stopped over ten zhang away.

The broad Ministry of Revenue Street could accommodate thirty horses riding abreast. Its uniform gray-white stone slabs divided the Ministry of Revenue into the Northern Court and Southern Court.

The Northern Court revered gods; the Southern Court handled official business.

Not a soul could be seen on the vast street. The walls were black as ink, with strips of blood-gold paint along both their tops and bases, like two binding bands tying together every wall of the Ministry of Revenue.

Rumor had it that it was made by mixing sheep's blood with pure gold powder—the Evil Sects' famed Blood-Gold Paint.

Guarding the gates of the Ministry of Revenue's two courts were not lions, but four two-zhang-tall monsters. Though humanoid, they had green faces, savage fangs, and many arms and legs.

The area around the Night Guard Yamen was surrounded by green trees, but not a blade of grass grew here. As far as the eye could see, there was not a single tree.

As Li Qingxian pondered this, two people approached.

One wore green robes, with an oriole embroidered on the gold-edged rank badge on his chest. He wore a black gauze cap, a copper fish pouch hung from his leather belt, and a pale green ribbon for hanging his official seal showed beneath it.

The other wore black, carried a saber, had a burly build, and followed one step behind.

The two first looked at the black carriage. The four Night Guard soldiers beside it hurriedly stepped back and bowed with utmost respect.