So he's the one seeking revenge!
It wasn't the thugs he'd taught a lesson during the day, but rather Zou Mingyuan's men… He hadn't expected there to be such righteous individuals willing to go to such lengths for Zou Mingyuan. Now that Zou Mingyuan was imprisoned, the final outcome would likely be the death penalty, or at the very least, he'd never get out. However, Xu Zhengyang quickly realized that these men weren't simply there to avenge Zou Mingyuan; they were genuinely angry because Xu Zhengyang had disrupted their source of income. He'd exposed such a massive antiquities smuggling case, and how could these people, who hadn't yet been caught, not hate Xu Zhengyang to the core?
Xu Zhengyang's lips curled slightly, revealing a cold smile: "Poor thugs. They don't realize how foolish it is to try and harm me on my turf, to kill my family; and to deliberately choose such a family reunion holiday—aren't they just driving me to my doom? Truly… pathetic."
The saying "Every pitiful person has something hateful about them" is something Xu Zhengyang wouldn't normally agree with entirely. However, it couldn't be more fitting for these people outside who were about to commit murder with weapons. Leaving aside the fact that they wanted to kill Xu Zhengyang, which angered him, their wicked intention to kill his entire family was enough for Xu Zhengyang to not let them go. For Xu Zhengyang, he had never liked to kill impulsively. Even with the four assassins who almost shot him, Chen Chaojiang, and Yao Chushun, Xu Zhengyang only went over with Chen Chaojiang to teach them a lesson to vent his anger before handing them over to the police. And Zou Mingyuan—he didn't kill him with his own hands either.
However, all of this is conditional: do not cross Xu Zhengyang's bottom line.
This bottom line is his family.
Therefore, Xu Zhengyang's heart was suddenly filled with murderous intent. His usual calm and composure had long been thrown to the winds. "Those who dare to come with the intention of killing my family truly deserve to die, they deserve to die a horrible death..."
"Brother Yang, what's wrong?" Diao Yishi noticed that Xu Zhengyang's expression was a bit off. His narrowed eyes flashed with a cold light, and his smile was so cold that it made people feel uneasy. So he asked in a low voice.
"Hmm, nothing, just thinking about something." Xu Zhengyang turned his head, his expression instantly returning to calm as he smiled and said.
Diao Yishi paused for a moment, then said "Oh," and chuckled as he explained that he wanted to go somewhere fun tomorrow, and also needed to buy a new phone...
Volume 3, Judge 112: One strike kills six people, sentenced to death.
In the alley outside the courtyard gate, several thugs with cold expressions and murderous intent were almost at the gate of Xu Zhengyang's house.
Suddenly, the group of people froze, stunned. Then, they turned around simultaneously and walked out of the alley. Once on the street, they opened the car doors and, with blank expressions and stiff movements, filed into the vehicle. One of them got into the driver's seat, his limbs stiff, and slowly started the car. The van drove straight to the intersection ahead, then slowly turned onto another street and headed out of the village.
The van was very slow; an average person could probably overtake it by speeding up on a bicycle.
The van left the village from the west and drove along the road toward the national highway, still moving very slowly.
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for family reunion, it was past ten o'clock. The country roads were deserted, and a white minivan drove slowly and eerily alone...
At Xu Zhengyang's home, six people sat around a round table, chatting and laughing. The atmosphere was warm and harmonious.
Before they knew it, it was already midnight. Yuan Suqin and Xu Neng were both sleepy, but they didn't want to suggest going back to their room to sleep first. Fortunately, Ouyang Ying was very clever and could tell that her two elders were tired. So she smiled sweetly and said, "I can't take it anymore, I'm so sleepy, let's go to sleep?"
The group nodded in agreement, exchanged a few words of laughter, and then went back to their rooms to rest.
Diao Yishi ate and drank quite a bit, so after returning to his bedroom and lying on the bed, he fell into a deep sleep in no time. Xu Zhengyang climbed onto the upper bunk and lay down, a slight smirk playing on his lips, a cold smile on his face.
A wisp of thought pierced through the limitations of time and space, instantly arriving at the bridge spanning the Fu River on Xinchengfeng Road, south of Futou Town. There was no village or shop in sight, and no vehicles passed by in the dead of night. In the vast, empty landscape, only the gentle murmur of the Fu River could be heard. A bright moon hung in the deep, high night sky, casting its silvery light across the land.
At the bridgehead, a white van was parked quietly by the bridge.
Beside the van, several middle-aged men dressed in black stood with their hands clasped, their expressions blank.
Suddenly, the blank stares of the group shifted, replaced by bewildered surprise and confusion. Where were they? How did they end up here? Hadn't they already arrived at Shuanghe Village, at Xu Zhengyang's doorstep?
The group exchanged glances, their eyes revealing the same confusion and shock.
What on earth happened? One of them glanced at his watch, frowned, and said, "It's 12:30... How did we get here? Can someone tell me what happened?"
No one answered him, and everyone's horror grew.
"Don't even think about it, I'm the one who sent you here."
As the cold voice spoke, the group suddenly noticed a young man in a light gray tracksuit standing a few meters away in the middle of the road. His expression was calm and his eyes were slightly narrowed, giving him an honest and simple appearance at first glance.
However, at this moment, the thugs would never think that this young man was honest and simple.
Because they had seen this young man in the photos; he was the protagonist they were going to kill tonight to exact revenge and vent their hatred—Xu Zhengyang.
"Damn it!" One of them suddenly drew his pistol, aimed it at Xu Zhengyang, and fired without saying a word.
A gunshot rang out. In the quiet night, in the empty fields, the gunshot sounded exceptionally clear, carrying far without a trace of echo.
What terrified them was that the bullets, though clearly striking the young man, seemed to pass right through him, without harming a single hair. They had no idea that the young man, or rather, the figure before them, didn't exist at all. It was merely a shadow existing in their consciousness, causing them to hallucinate.
“Actually, if you surrender and submit to the law, you will suffer much less torture. At least... you will still have hope for the next life.” Xu Zhengyang’s cold voice rang out again.
"Kill him!" the two thugs roared furiously, then charged forward, brandishing their machetes.
The blade's edge, reflecting the moonlight, appeared even colder and more icy. Countless blades slashed at Xu Zhengyang's body, whom they thought was so powerful, but it was as if they were cutting through the air. It did nothing to affect Xu Zhengyang's standing in front of them. In fact, they pounced on Xu Zhengyang, leaving his figure behind them.
In utter terror, gunshots rang out again, bang bang bang, shattering the silence of the night.
Xu Zhengyang's cold and indifferent voice rang out again: "You should never have done that, you should never have had the heart to kill my family."
The men had completely lost their nerve and were so frightened that they tried to jump into the car to escape, but they found that their bodies suddenly stopped. However, although their bodies were out of control, their consciousness remained. They looked at Xu Zhengyang in great fear, and three of them even had feces and urine flowing from their lower bodies, and a foul stench spread in the cold air.
“Originally, there was no need to waste words with you,” Xu Zhengyang sneered, then continued, “But how else can I completely vent my anger?”
"Are you very scared? Aren't you very brave? Aren't you willing to risk your lives? Aren't you completely disregarding your own lives?"
"Regret it now? Too late..."
The bodies of the several people were once again under their own control, but they were so frightened that their legs went weak and they collapsed to the ground, having no strength left to escape.
Xu Zhengyang watched them quietly.
He was using this horror to torture them! To let them taste what it means to be worse than dead, what it means to wish for death but not be able to live.
Three people simply fainted, while the other three struggled to their feet, prostrated themselves, and knelt down, weeping and begging for mercy. They were nowhere to be seen in their usual fierce and fearless demeanor.
Xu Zhengyang ignored them, looking at them calmly as if they were a pile of withered grass that showed no signs of life.
The three who had fainted slowly awoke, hoping it was just a nightmare and that they had simply woken up. However, they saw the ghostly figure of the young man again.
"Let's do it." Xu Zhengyang sighed softly, seemingly feeling sorry for them.
A bizarre scene unfolded as the six thugs watched in utter terror as each of them brandished their machetes and pistols, launching a deadly attack on their comrade. There were no cries of pain, no piercing screams, only the occasional gunshots shattering the silence of the night, and the muffled thuds of blades slicing into flesh.
Before long, everything quieted down.
The six thugs were stunned to find themselves still standing on the bridgehead, yet they could clearly see their own bodies lying in pools of blood, their postures bizarre and gruesome. Their eyes were wide open, the look of terror still lingering in them.
"Dong Qiang, Chu Guangyao, Li Jun, Li Tianyang..."
A majestic voice suddenly came from mid-air. The six thugs heard someone calling their names and hurriedly turned their heads to look in the direction of the voice.
A figure dressed in an ancient red robe and hat, radiating golden light, stood suspended in mid-air—no, a god. The Judge! He used a silver-glowing brush in his right hand to trace patterns on a piece of pure white jade in his left, saying, “In your mortal lives, you were utterly wicked and wicked, committing countless crimes, including murder and robbery. You deserve no mercy. Today, I, the Judge, sentence you six to a hundred years of torment in hell, to be reborn as toiling and suffering animals, never to be reborn as humans again…”
Before the six souls could recover from their shock, the judge, who was standing in mid-air, waved his brush, and the six souls visibly shrank in size before being swiftly absorbed into the pure white jade.
The moon is bright and the stars are few; the night is deep.
On the Fuhe Bridge on Xinchengfeng Road, six criminals lay sprawled in pools of blood under the cover of night. The cold moonlight cast a chilling and eerie glow upon them...
Xu Zhengyang's home in Shuanghe Village.
Xu Zhengyang, who was lying on the upper bunk in the bedroom with his eyes half-closed as if he were fast asleep, slowly opened his eyes and asked himself in his heart, "Is this how you become the chief judge?"
However, this judgment still needs to be decided by the chief judge of the underworld or the ten kings of hell.
Hmm, it seems I really have to go to the underworld.
It's just that it's really unclear how much divine power a trip to the underworld would consume. According to the case book, it would require an enormous amount of divine power, and it doesn't recommend it.
Or... wait until I'm officially appointed as the chief judge under the City God before going to the underworld?
Then these evil spirits will have to live in the verdict book for a while. I suppose this is a kind of punishment, making them reside in the verdict book, constantly worrying and fearing all the punishments they will face in the future…
The following day, a shocking death occurred on the Fuhe Bridge in the middle section of Xinchengfeng Road, at the border of Futou Town, Fuhe City and Xinzhuang Township, Cixian County. A total of six people died. Police found a white van, seven machetes, and two handguns at the scene. All six victims died from stab wounds or gunshot wounds.
Police quickly discovered that the deceased were all wanted suspects in a previous major art smuggling case. Initial suspicions suggest the six men died due to a dispute over the division of the loot, which escalated into a shootout. Whether other suspects were involved in the shootout remains under investigation.
This was the first time Xu Zhengyang had killed someone with his own hands! He killed six people; it was also the first time he had used the case file to determine someone's guilt.
To say that the actual perpetrator had no lingering trauma would be somewhat hypocritical. Xu Zhengyang's mentality hadn't reached that level. Admittedly, he didn't regret killing those six people in one fell swoop.
That morning, Xu Zhengyang received a call from Yao Chushun, asking him to come to Guxiangxuan so they could discuss expanding the business. Tianbaozhai was destined to disappear from the antique world of Hexi Province, and Yao Chushun's idea was to buy the four-story building owned by Tianbaozhai.
As it happened, Xu Zhengyang also took the opportunity to invite Diao Yishi and Ouyang Ying to visit his shop.
It's worth mentioning that Xu Zhengyang also received a phone call that day, a call that offered him a chance to make money.
Zhan Xiaohui didn't want to be as mediocre as he was in his previous life. He wanted to buy dozens of large freight vehicles and register a freight company. After discussing it with his wife from his previous life and his girlfriend in this life, Deng Wenjing, they decided that the two of them would own 50% of the shares, while the other 50% would be given to Xu Zhengyang free of charge.
Xu Zhengyang did not refuse as firmly as before, nor did he coldly warn the two not to contact him casually. Instead, he nodded and agreed, on the condition that he would not receive the shares for free, but would take out 1.5 million yuan as his investment capital.
In the eyes of some shrewd people, there must be a more reasonable way for him to get rich!
Volume Three, Judge Chapter 113: Between Gains and Losses, Where Can One Find Serenity?
Just as the old man living in that courtyard house nestled against the mountain and beside the water in the western suburbs of Fuhe City said, Xu Zhengyang's mentality underwent dramatic changes in a short period of time. What might take an ordinary person several years, a dozen years, or even longer to complete, he strode through in just a few months.
This mud crab is cute, respectable, and... scary.
While he hasn't yet ascended to the summit and transformed into a dragon like some historical figure, he's at least comparable to the crab's subordinates who did, clad in golden armor. Admittedly, his pincers are no longer arrogantly and nervously raised high in preparation for unforeseen events; instead, they're retracted in front of him, quietly lying in the cracks of society, squinting as he observes the myriad changes in the world. However, if anyone invades his territory, he will surely open his pincers and strike them down fiercely.
Occasionally, he would ruthlessly sweep away any dirt or grime that appeared outside the gaps and blocked his view.
Whenever night falls, or when it's drizzling and there's no scorching sun overhead, he quietly emerges from his hiding place. He cautiously swaggers around, brandishing his pincers, searching for food and storing provisions…
Hmm, that's getting a bit too artsy. Let's stop here.
Now that Xu Zhengyang is free from excessive pressure and worry, he has chosen to integrate into the lives of ordinary people. For example, he no longer deliberately promotes the existence of God to gain more faith. Although he urgently needs these things to enhance his abilities and improve his position, he knows that haste makes waste. If he takes too big a step, the imagined dangers may suddenly appear before he is fully prepared, catching him off guard and leaving him unable to resist, thus leading to utter defeat.
Moreover, he is now the acting chief judge under the City God of Fuhe City, holding hundreds of divine positions ranging from Earth God to Merit Officer to Wandering Judge and even Chief Judge. Fuhe City administers four districts, two cities, and thirteen counties, with a population of nearly ten million...
This is an enormous and terrifying number. He doesn't need to deliberately seek human faith in deities; he can obtain countless amounts of faith power from religious believers, thus steadily increasing his strength. Because in this world, at least in the current Fuhe City region, he is the only deity, exclusively enjoying the faith power of humanity towards various gods and religions.
Great rivers are formed from drops of water.
Living in this vast world, amidst the hustle and bustle of life, possessing an extraordinary identity, yet leading an ordinary life—in a sense, isn't this also a situation of hiding in the cracks?
Here comes Xu Zhengyang.
He is half-owner of Gu Xiang Xuan, the largest antique shop in the Fuhe City Antique Market; a major shareholder of Fuhe City Jinghui Logistics Co., Ltd...
Of course, they were all in a hands-off management position, only concerned with counting money every month.
Even when he invested a relatively small amount of 1.5 million yuan in Jinghui Logistics Company, he didn't meet with Zhan Xiaohui and Deng Wenjing. He simply transferred the money through the bank. In fact, Jinghui Logistics Company wasn't very formally established yet; at best, it was just a freight fleet. However, Zhan Xiaohui's years of experience as a freight driver in his previous life, Deng Wenjing's thrifty attitude, and the fact that they had over forty new vehicles right from the start—container trucks, high-sided trucks, open trucks, all sizes and models—meant that while their strength wasn't immense, it was enough to place them among the top logistics companies in Fuhe City.
Especially with the presence of Xu Zhengyang, the major shareholder sitting behind the scenes wielding an invincible cheat code, it would be surprising if Jinghui Logistics' business didn't flourish.
Huh? What cheat device?
Don't laugh at Xu Zhengyang, though. This guy, driven by his own selfish motives, wielded the judge's pen in his right hand and the case file in his left, using the power of the chief judge of Fuhe City to expend considerable divine power to grant Zhan Xiaohui and Deng Wenjing ample good fortune…
There's a saying in the countryside: "When luck comes, it's beyond our control; the wind blows and a quail is caught in the straw hat."
Don't underestimate luck, this invisible and intangible thing. From registering the company and purchasing vehicles at the very beginning, to handling all the procedures and recruiting drivers and staff, everything went smoothly for Jinghui Logistics. Subsequently, in attracting customers and bidding for factory cargo transportation, everything went smoothly and they were invincible...
For this, Zhan Xiaohui and Deng Wenjing were deeply grateful and full of respect for their current judge.
Because when Xu Zhengyang first invested, he told the two of them, "Be a good person and do a good job, and everything will be alright."
More than a month after the company opened, Xu Zhengyang said to them again: "Be patient and don't be arrogant."