Volume One: Days in the Shantytown - The Gods Will Work Miracles (Part One)

Luo Qian made a trip down to the Mortal Realm, only to discover that the favor Du Lengning had asked of him was in trouble. His original plan had been to cast fifty thousand votes over a month and snatch the championship. Unexpectedly, the contestant in first place had also made a push in the final month. Luo Qian had planned to spread his votes evenly across four weeks. After casting twelve thousand five hundred in the first week, he calculated that, even allowing for the roughly two thousand five hundred votes first place might receive that week, Number Thirty-Five should gain ten thousand votes and narrow the gap to twenty thousand. But when the week's rankings came out, Number Thirty-Five was thirty-five thousand votes behind first place! The gap had not narrowed at all. It had grown!

Luo Qian hurried back to his base, where the people he had hired were working. He immediately gave them new instructions and put in more money, expanding his original plan twofold. They would buy seventy-five thousand copies of the magazine and keep voting online without pause. He also abandoned the idea of pacing the votes: they would throw every last one in within a week, then see what the following week brought.

Luo Qian ground out a cigarette butt viciously beneath his foot. "Damn it. The war has begun!"

He returned to the Immortal Realm and told Du Lengning what had happened. Du Lengning grew anxious. "Old Luo, do you think you can pull it off?" Luo Qian chuckled, utterly unconcerned. "It's just a rigged contest. I've seen every trick they're pulling back in the Mortal Realm. Those little bastards! Immortals are playing dirty, and they want to join in? They're asking to die!"

"Old Luo, don't worry," Du Lengning said. "I'll reimburse you for every extra coin you spend." Luo Qian shook his head. "I underestimated the situation. You shouldn't have to pay for my mistake. Everyone should bear the cost of their own errors. I may only be a smuggler, but I have grand ambitions. I'll take this loss myself."

Du Lengning was deeply moved. "Old Luo..." Their hands clasped tightly together! If Du Lengning knew those grand ambitions amounted to becoming the Immortal Realm's number-one smuggling kingpin, what would Young Master Du, gazing at him through tear-filled eyes, think then?

Another week passed quickly. Luo Qian went down to the Mortal Realm and waited outside a newsstand. The moment the magazines arrived, he bought one and flipped to the rankings. Sure enough, just as he had expected, the operator behind his rival had clearly realized from the previous rankings that someone else was pulling strings in secret. They had made their own push this week, though not as thoroughly as Luo Qian. One hundred and fifty thousand votes had propelled Number Thirty-Five into first place, thirty thousand votes ahead of the former leader.

The standings behind those two contestants had also changed dramatically. One contestant who had not even made the top twenty before had charged straight into the top three!

Luo Qian shook his head. His estimate had been off by more than a little this time. "The Mortal Realm gets more shameless by the day..." As he said it, he seemed utterly unaware that he was doing the very same shameless thing, and more thoroughly than the mortals at that.

He withdrew fifty thousand yuan from the bank and returned to his base. Slapping the stack of bills down on the table like a brick, Luo Qian declared, "Everyone, good work this week. This is your bonus. We'll keep going next week. I'm planning to buy a hundred thousand copies of the magazine and keep hammering away!"

The crowd cheered and lunged for the red brick of cash.

An emperor could not send hungry soldiers into battle, and Luo Qian understood that well. He could not skimp on the fifty-thousand-yuan reward. He would not be there to supervise them; he needed these people to fight for him.

He brought a few things back from the Mortal Realm while he was at it: the discs Ling Xiaose wanted, Mortal Realm snacks for several gluttonous immortals, and an assortment of other odds and ends. The rule of Luo Qian's trade was simple: sneak down to the Mortal Realm and earn his money one little sale at a time.

Large goods from the Mortal Realm had little market in the Immortal Realm. Luxuries such as sports cars and mansions were useless to immortals. Even a good-for-nothing Tribulation Immortal like Luo Qian could fly faster than a sports car with a casual spell, let alone anyone else.

The small, inconspicuous things, on the other hand, held real appeal. They cost little to acquire and brought in plenty of profit.

"Brother Luo? Are you there, Brother Luo?" A familiar voice called from the entrance to his cave residence. Luo Qian had changed into a sapphire-blue suit that day. He had used an icy mist conjured by immortal arts to style his short hair, making every strand stick up in a showy look that was popular in the Mortal Realm. He poked his head out of his chairman's office. "Oh, Brother Ling. You're here." Ling Xiaose slipped inside furtively. "Brother Luo, didn't you ask me to spread the word about your business..."

Luo Qian nodded. "Well? Any results?" Ling Xiaose nodded too. "I have a cousin who also likes those... discs. Could you get him a computer like mine, along with the batteries?" "Of course," Luo Qian said. "Where is he?" As he spoke, he looked behind Ling Xiaose, but there was no cousin there.

Ling Xiaose caught hold of him. "He didn't come. He asked me to handle it for him." Luo Qian looked at him, a little doubtful.

"That's fine too. But Young Master Ling, about the price..." Luo Qian rubbed his fingers together and gave Ling Xiaose a seemingly casual glance. Ling Xiaose thumped his chest. "Don't worry. I can make all the decisions." Luo Qian smiled. "Good. I sold you your original setup for two Mid-Grade Immortal Jades. With the batteries I supplied afterward, that came to three in total. Young Master Ling, we go back a long way, so let's do business honestly and skip the haggling. Prices aren't what they were back then. Everything down in the Mortal Realm has gone up. I'm telling you now: that price won't buy so much anymore."

Ling Xiaose was an otaku who had never known how to haggle. Even without Luo Qian's speech, he would not have tried. Now all he could do was nod along. "All right, then. Tell me how much." "Five Mid-Grade Immortal Jades. I'll throw in ten Premium Discs. How does that sound?"

"That much?!" Ling Xiaose was astonished. Luo Qian said, "It's not much at all. Prices are soaring. Haven't you heard? Ordinary families in the Mortal Realm can't even afford pork anymore." How would Ling Xiaose have heard about affairs in the Mortal Realm? He regarded Luo Qian with a doubtful look. Luo Qian said, "If you can't make the decision, then..." The prod jolted Ling Xiaose's pride. His eyes widened. "Fine. Five it is. But be quick about it—that fellow keeps hogging my computer lately, and I can't even watch in peace."

After seeing Ling Xiaose off, Luo Qian found himself curious about this cousin. But children of Aristocratic Clans were thin-skinned. They could hardly compare with him: he had attained the highest realm of shamelessness, that of a dead pig unafraid of boiling water.

Five Mid-Grade Immortal Jades made for a substantial deal, so Luo Qian made a special trip down to the Mortal Realm. He bought the equipment Ling Xiaose wanted at an electronics market, along with a great heap of discs. Ling Otaku would never know that kickbacks existed, but he had brought Luo Qian a fine deal. Luo Qian ought to give him a taste of the profits. That way, the next time Ling Xiaose introduced him to a customer, he would do it with even more enthusiasm—and look forward to it even more.

Since he was already down there, he decided to check on his base. But the moment he reached the residential complex, he sensed something wrong with the looks people were giving him. The woman who collected the water and electricity fees watched him warily. As soon as Luo Qian passed her, she pulled a cord from around her neck. An ancient mobile phone hung from its end, and she hurriedly pressed three digits.

"Hello, police? I have something to report. The owner of that apartment where the incident happened is back..."

The woman had tried to keep her voice low, but Luo Qian's immortal hearing caught every word. An incident? He froze, glanced around, and felt a stir of caution.

An official seal was pasted across the door, stamped with the large red mark of a police station. Luo Qian's heart sank. He broke in and found the room in disarray, with traces of fire damage. There was blood in one corner and beneath the table. This is bad. Just then, sirens sounded in the distance. Luo Qian's figure flickered, and he vanished from the room.