Hearing Liu Cheng's praise, Ding Songyan gave an inward chuckle, his feelings somewhat complicated:
You were lucky. If I hadn't met Master and Senior Sister first, I wouldn't have felt the slightest qualm about using the young master of your lowlife gang as bait.
Ding Songyan ignored Liu Cheng's gratitude and merely said solemnly:
"Don't let me catch you doing evil."
Liu Cheng froze for a moment, unsurprised yet slightly taken aback.
That a Xiaoming Sect disciple would say such a thing was only natural. What surprised him was that the Brother Ding he remembered was an "interesting fellow," seemingly quite flexible in certain respects.
Principles, but also finesse? He upholds the Xiaoming Sect's chivalrous path while recognizing the complexity of worldly affairs, without going to extremes? A man like that has a boundless future... With a little more time and experience, he should become "Unwavering" and enter the Law Realm... Liu Cheng gathered his wandering thoughts and smiled bitterly:
"While I was still in the Dayan Realm, I noticed something. Noble families and sects often have histories stretching back more than a thousand years, but not one of these lowlife gangs has lasted over a hundred. My adoptive father founded the Treading the Sea Gang single-handedly, and he's only just past seventy now. The other two major gangs are much like ours. All of us only gradually took the stage of the Flame Capital over the last forty years.
"Were there no lowlife gangs before us? Did those gangs have no Martial Grandmasters?
"I've always urged my adoptive father to consider a way out, to make money through harmony, separate certain businesses from the Treading the Sea Gang, and cooperate with sects and noble families. Unfortunately, some things are easy to say and hard to do. Even with my