Chapter 439

"Huo Wudi this old little Zi, I'm not exaggerating, I'd say he's probably the most vicious, ruthless person I've ever met in my life." Zhang Lao showed a hint of recollection, his left hand slightly raised, slowly stroking his few white whiskers.

Good disciple, you might as well guess how he managed to establish himself when he first came to Yunan City.

Midway through his words, the old man suddenly had a mind to test him, and he threw the question back at Chen Wuji.

Chen Wuji immediately put himself in Huo Wudi's shoes, considering how to establish himself from the perspectives of ruthlessness and cruelty.

A person who has been exiled, in an unfamiliar place with no power or influence, perhaps having hardly any money on him, is just like he was when he first crossed over.

How should he establish himself?

According to Zhang Lao, establishing oneself should at the very least mean not being troubled by food and clothing, and attaining a modest position.

Directly kill and rob?

This could be considered brutal, but it cannot be called ruthless and cruel.

This Snake Staff Old Man is someone who likes to play mind games.

Excluding the method of obtaining wealth through direct plunder, the only way to establish oneself is to rely on a power.

Attach oneself to a force with some status and strength, hatch a plan in their nest, then seize the nest, drive out all those who are in the way—no, rather exterminate them completely—and then usurp their status and wealth.

This can be considered ruthless and cruel, and also heartless.

If one wants to reach the utmost heartlessness, it probably amounts to sacrificing one's kin and renouncing all family ties.

For example, become a live-in son-in-law, then completely consume the old people, leaving not even a chicken or dog?

But doing so seems somewhat unnecessary, unless there is a greater purpose.

Seek a greater power, sacrifice one's wife's family, in order to obtain a path to promotion?

Chen Wuji thought it over, finally settled on this answer, and spoke out: "The most ruthless and cruel way I can think of to establish oneself is basically to deliberately befriend someone—be it a friend or a woman."

"To do such a thing, it's best to choose a woman, then marry into her family; after initially gaining a foothold, slaughter her whole family, sacrifice wife and children, and seek a higher position."

"If it's a friend, this matter is not easy to pull off; probably it just involves using some petty tricks like sowing discord, causing his father and sons, brothers to kill each other, then stepping in to wrap things up, finally leaving only a solitary descendant of the friend's family, posing as an old acquaintance of the father to look after them, while secretly swallowing their wealth, and so on—this tests one's skill and methods more."

Zhang Lao stared at Chen Wuji blankly, unable to speak for a long while.

"Old Master, what's this expression? Did I guess too far off?" Chen Wuji asked.

Zhang Lao snapped back to, cleared his throat twice, and asked: "Is this all what you thought of?"

"You never told me what the Snake Staff Old Man actually did, so I can only make it up." Chen Wuji laughed, saying the Old Master's question was somewhat superfluous.

Zhang Lao gazed intently at Chen Wuji, murmuring: "If I didn't know your character, I'd suspect you were Huo Wudi's second; what he did is exactly what you just said."

"How could you come up with these things? You scared this old man half to death!"

Chen Wuji stared in disbelief: "He really did that?"

Zhang Lao nodded.

"Thinking up these things is actually simple; anyway, whatever method is the most ruthless and cruel, the most heartless, you just lean toward that. But this old brat actually did exactly what I thought; honestly, I now feel a bit uneasy." Chen Wuji said speechlessly.

He had gotten a bit too into the role.

Zhang Lao came to and said: "When Huo Wudi was younger, he was quite handsome and quick-witted; within just a few days of entering the city, he went to work in the household of a wealthy merchant surnamed Han, and also became acquainted with the merchant's eldest daughter."

"I won't go into the later events; they're roughly what you guessed. After marrying into the Han family, he used various means to exterminate the Han household, then sent his wife to the then Yunan Prefect, and in one leap rose to a position as a staff officer in the county."

"After that, Huo Wudi completely let loose, flattering superiors, using every means to curry favor with the then Yunan Prefect, making acquaintances among the county's wealthy and the provincial troops' officers; speaking of which, the collapse of the Yunan County provincial troops is largely due to him."

Chen Wuji's eyebrows shot up: "So it was this old bastard who pulled this off."

I never expected there to be such a connection here; truly, the grudge has a source and the debt a debtor.

"Back then, Huo Wudi could be said to be unrivaled in his glory; imagine him, as a mere exiled convict, achieving in less than half a year the status where all the county's dignitaries and wealthy were his friends—he could indeed be arrogant for a while." Zhang Lao sighed, "It is said that at the time the Yunan Prefect even prepared to forge an identity for him, ordering him to serve as the Yunan County Assistant."

"Unfortunately, Huo Wudi still misjudged the depth of Yunan City; in his arrogance he offended someone he shouldn't have, suffered a crushing defeat, and became a total stray dog, after which he vanished without a trace."

Chen Wuji was somewhat surprised: "Just like that, the person disappeared?"

"More or less, in short he went into hiding; I heard he got married and had a child in some village, even becoming a live-in son-in-law. I didn't pay much attention either—what's there to care about a stray dog?" Zhang Lao said.

"That's also true." Chen Wuji laughed and asked, "Old Master, could the person he shouldn't have offended possibly be you?"

"That time it wasn't me; it was your military advisor!" Zhang Lao laughed.

"That kid just acted crudely, probably didn't even carefully check Huo Wudi's identity; a group of people, taking advantage of the night, seized the county office from top to bottom and slaughtered everyone. Huo Wudi was relatively lucky—he wasn't killed, and crawled out from a pile of corpses."

Chen Wuji's mouth twitched slightly.

Good fellow, is this Lao Deng with such strong toxicity blessed with the protagonist's halo?

Xu Zengyi is also fierce, but for rebels, it's probably not considered anything particularly remarkable.

Zhang Lao continued telling Chen Wuji the later story: "In Yunan City, successive prefects dared not lightly stir up trouble, fearing to cause disaster. Only when it came to the person close to Huo Wudi did the county office, from top to bottom, suddenly swell, sparing no means to extract wealth."

"They even went after the dead to collect seven or eight kinds of miscellaneous taxes, taxes I can't even understand; most of these were Huo Wudi's suggestions, and everyone in the county office, relying on Huo Wudi, basically made a fortune."

"But they made money fast and died fast; they had the life to earn that silver, but not the life to spend it. The county office, from the constable chiefs upward, was emptied overnight; the next day a crowd turned up to claim responsibility for this dirty work, each spouting grand talk claiming they did it, which instead caused your military advisor to avoid a big hassle behind the scenes."

Chen Wuji pursued: "Then how did the Snake Staff Old Man later provoke the Old Master?"

"That damned thing sees a doctor without paying, and still tries to scheme against my Ciji Zhai; how could I let him off easy? I locked him up and let him bleed for years—do you think he'd be afraid of me?" Zhang Lao said gloomily.

Chen Wuji: ……