Meng Zhou jumped down from the water tank, put on his shoes, put down his rolled-up trouser legs and the hem of his robe tied around his waist.

He put a fist in front of his mouth with one hand and coughed twice. He put his hand behind his back and puffed out his chest. He slowly regained the majesty of a martial arts master and the leader of a gang.

Although he didn't do well in the spiritual world, he was involved in the world of martial arts as a martial arts master before the age of forty, and his temperament was very good.

Coupled with a tall and burly figure and a well-groomed long beard, Meng Zhou thought to himself when he saw his current image from the water tank:

"Even if you are a criminal, you can get to the top just by looking like this."

But Meng Zhou was not happy about this, and instead shook his head.

This appearance is really too ostentatious.

The original owner didn't think there was any problem with this. After all, the current image was not deliberately created by him, but was formed bit by bit over the course of decades.

When he was still wandering around the secular martial arts world as a martial arts master, this image was basically fixed, and he would not feel anything wrong.

But for Meng Zhou, the image of him now as an old casual cultivator at the bottom of Qi training who was over fifty years old and whose physical potential was almost drained due to mistaken practice of magic skills was a bit too eye-catching.

However, now he has to work hard to maintain his original personality.

As soon as Meng Zhou adjusted himself, he heard footsteps coming from far and near outside the hospital.

"Brother." Someone knocked on the door and shouted outside the courtyard.

"Come in."

Meng Zhouyi put his hands behind his back and let one hand fall naturally.

The courtyard door that he had unlocked in advance was pushed open, and a strong man walked in. It was the "third child" who knocked on the door for instructions in the morning, named Xu Lei.

"Brother." Xu Lei, the third child, saw Meng Zhou in the courtyard and quickly greeted him respectfully.

Meng Zhou nodded, walked to a nearby stone table, and sat down on a stone pier.

Xu Lei stood respectfully not far in front of him, adjusting his position slightly as he walked around, always facing him head-on.

Meng Zhou did not immediately invite him to take a seat, but first asked: "Is your tour of the river going well today?"

Xu Lei nodded and replied: "It went very well."

Meng Zhou nodded, as if this was just a casual question, and then changed the topic: "Where's the second child? Why haven't you seen anyone else today?"

"Uh..." Xu Lei hesitated.

"Isn't he always the most concerned about patrolling the river? Why did he suddenly change his gender?"

Xu Lei still didn't speak.

Meng Zhou stared at him and said "hmm", which made him feel tremendous pressure, and then asked:

"Why, is there anything you can't say to me? Are my words so useless anymore?"

Xu Lei was so frightened that he waved his hands quickly: "Big brother, second brother...two days ago, second brother just said that he wanted to go out for a walk and relax."

"Relax? Well, he feels aggrieved!" Meng Zhou nodded clearly and said firmly.

"No, absolutely not." Xu Lei defended subconsciously, but he himself seemed to feel that this statement was a bit weak, and his voice became much lower.

"Look, you think so too, right?"

Xu Lei wanted to shake his head and deny it, but faced Meng Zhou's eyes that seemed to have seen through everything, he said no more.

Meng Zhou pointed to a stone pier opposite and said, "Sit down and talk."

Xu Lei, who was somewhat embarrassed, sat down opposite him with his head lowered, like a student being disciplined in front of the teacher.

Seeing the "third child" being so submissive in front of him, Meng Zhou's eyes flashed, and the vague memories from the original owner became vivid.

The original owner was born into an ordinary farmer's family. His family was wiped out in a gang war. At a young age, he fled his hometown alone with a martial arts manual obtained by touching corpses. From then on, he started a career as a martial artist.

He took classes in private school, learned to read and write, practiced in secret, day and night, constantly pondered, applied what he learned, and improved his life. From being alone to having a small group. As he improved his martial arts skills, the small group gradually turned into a big group.

Before the age of forty, he has reached the pinnacle of life in the eyes of a warrior.

In terms of strength, he is a martial arts master and a giant; in terms of power, he has personally created a large martial arts gang. The leader of the gang follows what he says.

He has no shortage of fame or fortune.

But instead of enjoying all this, he turned around calmly. From then on, there was one less martial arts master and one more seeker in the world.

If the original owner's experience after seeking enlightenment is hidden, this is a perfect template for a protagonist in a low-level martial arts plane.

…

After practicing the Blood Demon Art by mistake and finding the only feasible method, the problem before the original owner became one: not enough spiritual stones.

Among the practices he had access to that had healing properties, "Water Nourishing Technique" was the best.

And in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes and being deceived again, he simply ignored the small street stalls and focused on large shops with a guaranteed reputation.

It has the greatest efficacy and the lowest risk. The original owner strives to do the best he can. The only disadvantage is that it is expensive.

Faced with this dilemma, the original owner showed a pattern of vision that far exceeded that of ordinary middle- and low-level Qi practitioners.

He first made sure of one thing. He was pressed for time and had no other talents except martial arts. If he relied on himself, he would not be able to save enough to buy the "Water Nourishing Technique" spiritual stones on the day he died.

And he had the life experience of starting from scratch and establishing a sect in the secular martial arts world, so he naturally thought of a way to break the situation.

If it is too slow for one person to earn spiritual stones, then form a group. With more people, the speed of accumulating spiritual stones will naturally be faster.

Once you have the idea of ​​starting a business again, the next step is to determine the direction.

The original owner, who has had an entrepreneurial experience, understands a simple truth: Eat as much food as you have the appetite, and carry as many bowls as you have the strength.

Not to mention that he couldn't think of any huge profit-making direction for a while, even if he knew it, he wouldn't touch it. Even if there were ready-made fruits within his reach, he wouldn't pick them.

After thinking about it, it was also his past life experience that gave him the answer.

There is a kind of gang that even if other forces know that there is profit to be made, they will not covet it. Even if they still encounter competition, it will only be internal competition at the same level and in the same industry.

This includes those carrying bags at the pier, those pulling fibers on the river, and those driving large trucks in the busy city.

According to Meng Zhou's understanding, these can be summarized as "labor-type gangs".

Its characteristic is that there are no ready-made fruits for people to compete for. If you want to get rewards, you have to create them with your own hands. You must work first before you can get rewards.

Those rewards are more like the condensed embodiment of the participants' labor.

Everyone knows that this kind of gang can also make money, but how many people will covet it?

Under such careful thinking, the predecessor hatched a second entrepreneurial project, the Baijiang Gang. It is said to be a gang, but it is more like a group of fishermen. A group of special fishermen with a small number of casual practitioners in the early stage of Qi training as the skeleton and a large number of ordinary warriors.

Baijiang is an ordinary river. What is extraordinary is that it is connected to the second-level top spiritual vein and the waters of the 800-mile Jade Lake.

Cuiyu Lake can catch a large number of spiritual fish and beasts every year, which is naturally not what the Baijiang Gang is qualified to covet.

However, the Baijiang River connected to the water area has also been stained with oily stars, and there are also many semi-spiritual fish and even low-quality spiritual fish moving in it. However, the number is very small, not large-scale, and the activities are irregular.

Those who want to make a fortune from this can't do it because they have no willpower; those who can do it have no power and no willpower and they don't like it at all. If you have this ability, wouldn't it be a good idea to go to Cuiyu Lake to make a fortune?

This is useless, and this is exactly what the original owner wanted.

On an average per capita basis, the speed at which the Baijiang Gang earns spiritual stones is enough to make a monk on the first or second level of Qi training hesitate at most. If a monk on the third level of Qi training takes a second glance, he is short-sighted.

But the secret is that the largest number of warriors are all working for free, and their only thought is to exchange their contributions for a chance to safely transfer to practitioners many years later.

If you look at the original owner's tragic experience of seeking Taoism, you will know how attractive such an opportunity is to ordinary warriors.

The only ones who can really participate in the distribution of benefits are him, the gang leader, and a group of Qi practitioners.

And this is the reason for Meng Zhou's so-called "feeling aggrieved".

In order to get rid of the Blood Demon Art as soon as possible, the original owner switched to the Water Nourishing Technique. When he did not have enough spiritual stones, he used up all the public funds.

This was not a spur-of-the-moment idea, but had been planned for a long time.

Of course the original owner knew the disadvantages of doing so, but he did not hesitate at all, even if the Baijiang Gang fell apart because of it, he would not hesitate.

With these thoughts running through his mind, Meng Zhou placed his right hand on the stone table, tapped his index finger lightly, and looked at Xu Lei, who was sitting opposite with his head bowed.

"Lao San, are you preparing to attack the fourth level of Qi training now?" he asked suddenly.

Xu Lei replied: "We have to wait another year or two."

"Yes." Meng Zhou nodded and said apologetically: "This is because I delayed you."

Xu Lei quickly waved his hands to defend: "Brother, please don't say that. If it weren't for your support, I might still be struggling on the second level of Qi training."

To track and catch spiritual fish in the vast river area, Qi training monks are a must. This is why the Baijiang Gang has some Qi training casual cultivators.

And the Qi-training casual cultivators selected by the original owner were carefully selected by him secretly.

Before he discovered these casual cultivators, they all had such labels: low cultivation level, no background, no means of livelihood, older age, and had practiced martial arts - for other people, this is difficult to distinguish, but for him

For example, just by taking a glance, you can roughly tell what kind of martial arts the opponent has practiced and what level he is at.

It can be said that they are at the bottom of the cultivation circle. If there is no accident, it will be difficult for them to reach the middle stage of Qi training in this life.

One can imagine the status of the original owner who rescued them from that predicament and gave them a stable career and hope in the Baijiang Gang.

Unfortunately, love is no match for reality.

At the beginning, apart from him, who was at the fourth level of Qi training, the second oldest, Li Heng, and the third oldest, Xu Lei, had the highest cultivation levels. They were only at the second level of Qi cultivation, while the others were all at the first level.
To be continued...