Chapter 151

Liang Qu sat firmly on Quan Tou's back, his wolf-hair brush rapidly sketching and filling in the register.

"That's roughly how it is..."

"Are you sure you've confessed everything? Your accomplices have said far more than you have. Don't blame me for not warning you; you'd better think carefully. If you force me to take the initiative to remind you, the treatment you receive won't be like this anymore!"

Liang Qu scolded sternly.

"No, no, no, I'll think again, I'll think again."

Under Liang Qu's coercion, another piece of unknown secret information was revealed.

"Come, press your handprint here."

Liang Qu pulled up the man's hand, washed it in a puddle, then dipped it in some blood from the wound on his leg, pressing it firmly onto the register to leave a clear and complete fingerprint.

The wound was disturbed, and the man was in such pain that the muscles in his face were spasming.

After recording the second confession, Liang Qu had Quan Tou watch the prisoner and ran back to continue intimidating the first person.

Only after repeated confirmation could it be considered complete.

Comparing the two men's confessions, aside from some insignificant details, the general outline was much the same.

The entire Whale Gang had a total of three leaders, over a dozen core members, and more than two hundred ordinary members; it was the largest gang in Fengbu County.

The strongest in the gang was the leader, Liu Jie, at the Ultimate Galloping Horse Realm.

Next was the second leader, Liu Yi, who was the leader Liu Jie's younger brother; he rarely took action and served as the strategist, with strength roughly between the Initial and Mid-Level Galloping Horse Realm.

Finally, there was the third leader, Zheng Tianfu, who had grown up playing with Liu Jie and Liu Yi; his strength was around the Mid-Level Galloping Horse Realm.

How weak.

Liang Qu looked at the strength of the Whale Gang's three leaders and felt a strange, indescribable sensation.

After thinking it over, he felt the root cause was that the strength in Pingyang County was so incredibly high that his own perspective had changed.

How could an ordinary county possibly have Hunting Tiger martial artists? Having someone at the Wolf Smoke Realm would be remarkable enough.

Yet, Pingyang County had six Hunting Tiger martial masters on the surface, oh, and an old monk at the Perfected Form (Residual) Realm.

Several of the Hunting Tiger martial artists even had their own backgrounds; they were either from Duke prefectures or thousand-year-old aristocratic families, with a pile of prime ministers and generals in their families.

Exaggerated to the point of absurdity.

Even Liang Qu's several senior martial brothers—counting Cao Shixiong Xu, who had broken through not long ago—were all Wolf Smoke martial artists starting from the fourth senior brother.

One can only say that counties are different from one another.

Some counties are counties in name, but have the strength of a prefecture in secret.

Compared to Pingyang County, Fengbu County was entirely a small place.

However, as the saying goes, in shallow water there are many turtles, and in a small temple, the demonic winds are strong.

Without a stabilizing force like Yang Dongxiong, Fengbu County was swarming with demons and ghosts.

The rise of the Whale Gang had to be told starting from twenty-three years ago.

At that time, the two brothers Liu Jie and Liu Yi were still just ordinary fishermen; their father died early, and the two brothers relied on a small boat to survive together.

As the saying goes, father and son should not be on the same boat, meaning they feared that if father and son were on the same boat and an accident occurred, they would lose two strong laborers; if a family had only one son, it would cut off the family line, which would be a heaven-collapsing disaster.

The Liu brothers were not father and son but brothers; they couldn't cut off the family line, so naturally, one was responsible for taking the boat out, and the other was responsible for selling baskets and fish.

They lived like this for several years, until Liu Jie caught three treasure fish in half a month, and their fishing boat was scuttled by jealous fishermen.

However, the retribution came extremely quickly afterward.

In just one month, a great demon passed through, and twenty-eight fishermen lost their lives, including the two fishermen who scuttled the boat; in addition, countless others were injured.

Liu Jie, on the other hand, was spared because his fishing boat had been scuttled and he was practicing martial arts at a martial arts hall.

Half a year later, Liu Jie exceeded everyone's expectations by successfully breaking through his barrier, gaining the favor of the fishing pier owner, and becoming a son-in-law.

From then on, Liu Jie began his unique path of "increasing income."

"Water demons" appeared more and more frequently in the vicinity of Fengbu County, and only fishing piers and boats holding Liu Jie's family's protective talismans could be spared.

Consequently, more and more fishing boats sank to the bottom of the river.

The fishermen had no choice but to live under Liu Jie's thumb; the fishing pier business grew larger and larger, and in just ten years, all the fishing piers from one market area to the entire Fengbu County area bore the surname Liu.

And from then on, in all the towns and villages under Fengbu County, there were no more fishermen who could turn their lives around and get ahead like Liu Jie.

During this time, it wasn't as if no fishermen saw the trickery and reported it to the government.

The fishermen were uneducated and had little experience, filled with a primitive fear of water demons, but there were always one or two smart people.

It was just a pity that being smart was useless.

The county magistrate, who could eat a portion of the profits every year, was very satisfied with the fishing piers; not only the magistrate, but the private secretary, the police inspector, and the county commandant all had a share of the profits.

Often, the fishermen who filed complaints would disappear after two days, dying in the mouths of "water demons."

As for those who wanted to leave for other counties, no way!

If you don't pay up, don't think about getting a travel permit!

Originally, for the past seven or eight years, except for a few stragglers, most fishermen had started to rely on the fishing piers for a living, and the "water demons" had caused less trouble, but then the Ghost Mother Sect incident happened.

Thanks to the "blessing" of this man-made disaster, population movement became a mix of illegal and legal, and most fishermen wanted to escape.

The "water demons" had to return to their old profession, forcing the fishermen not to dare to leave; eventually, the news reached the River Patrol Office.

Listening to those two, Liu Jie set up a checkpoint on the only road between Pingyang County and Fengbu County, specifically waiting for the people from the River Patrol Office to pass by.

It's just a pity that no one expected the official from the River Patrol Office to forget to bring his compass and walk a zigzag path relying on an iron needle...

Liang Qu rested his chin on his hand.

In a single county, how many fishermen must there be, and sixty percent of all the profits.

He didn't know the specific population and couldn't calculate how much money that was, but it was definitely absurdly large.

According to the confession, sometimes the fishing piers were afraid of inciting a popular uprising, so they would actively help fishermen who really couldn't go on to become "hidden households."

Liu Jie's half-life experience could be called that of a generation of heroes, quite legendary.

It's just a pity he ran into Liang Qu.

Sky-high wealth!

How could this mission be a Grade E? At the very least, it should be a Grade B!

With Liang Qu's strength to wipe out this Whale Gang, that would be at least a Great Merit!

The River Patrol Office divided missions into five grades: A, B, C, D, and E, based mainly on difficulty, scope of impact, and influence.

The number of fishermen in a county area was in the tens of thousands; just this scope of impact alone was worth a Grade C, or even a Grade B.

Grade A and B missions had already entered the category of Great Merit!

However, whether a Great Merit could be obtained also depended partly on the strength of the person completing it.

For example, if a martial artist with low strength risked his life to hold back a Galloping Horse martial master, possessing strategic significance, and ended up permanently disabled or even dead, even if this mission was only Grade C, it would still be worth a Great Merit.

But if it were replaced by a Wolf Smoke martial artist doing it, it couldn't be counted as a Great Merit.

However, this point was also an advantage for Liang Qu.

Adding the two together, Cao Shixiong Xu was one of his own and wouldn't deliberately hold anyone back—it was a nailed-down Great Merit! It might even be more than one Great Merit!

He might even be able to go from an Eighth Rank to a Regular Eighth Rank in one go!

It's just that a Three-Pass martial artist fighting an Ultimate Galloping Horse Realm was a bit risky.

Liang Qu knew his own weight; if he wasn't underwater, he definitely had no hope of beating Liu Jie.

A martial artist's strength is determined by many aspects; besides the realm, it is mainly the three aspects of martial arts, experience, and talent.

Compared to those aristocratic family disciples in the River Patrol Office, Liang Qu's advantage was his martial bone talent; his cultivation techniques were basically on par, and his experience depended on age and experience—that is, it had to be discussed based on the specific target.

That Liu Jie had been a martial master for more than twenty years, so his combat experience was definitely richer than his, and the martial arts he knew were definitely not few, but his cultivation techniques shouldn't be as good as his, and his talent wasn't good either; if he really had martial bones, he wouldn't have taken half a year to break through one pass.

But comparing an Ultimate Galloping Horse Realm to a Three-Pass, the strength realm was an absolute crushing force.

Liang Qu estimated that his current strength was between the Initial Galloping Horse Realm of an aristocratic family disciple and the Mid-Level or even Upper-Level Galloping Horse Realm of a civilian martial master; in terms of the Ultimate Realm, he was a bit lacking.

Not to mention that Liu Jie had three Galloping Horse martial artists on his side; if he couldn't press all of them underwater to beat them, there might be a risk to his life.

No matter how great the merit, one must have a life to take it; he didn't want any posthumous awards.

Fortunately, Liang Qu could level up first!

According to the current progress, even if he just played it safe, he would only need four or five days to break through the Blood Pass.

Of the four passes of Skin, Flesh, Bone, and Blood, the Blood Pass provided a huge boost!

By then, he would find a reason to choose the battlefield on the water, and it would be foolproof!