"Hao Xiangtong? She's a remarkable woman," Qiao Zhi mused. "It takes a truly extraordinary prodigy to reach the Dao Comprehension state after what she endures for twenty years in the northwestern grasslands. If she were able to cultivate Dao arts in a normal environment, she would rise to the top in no time!"

"That's why I'm planning to get close to her, then convince her to pursue Dao arts," Chu Qiguang explained. "It's all thanks to you that I'm able to invest in someone with such immense potential, Master Qiao."

"That's why you've got to listen to me!" Qiao Zhi declared smugly. "I have a lot of wisdom to impart!"

"Indeed," Chu Qiguang agreed. "I am fortunate to benefit from your unmatched wisdom and foresight."

Chu Qiguang spent the entire day focused on his martial arts cultivation. By this point, he was already able to throw two hundred and fifty consecutive audible punches.

Chen Gang's two brothers are eating a lot as well, and I only have less than four hundred taels of silver left now.

With so many cat, dog, and human mouths to feed, he was burning through money at an alarming rate.

It might be time for me to start selling some things to the Hao Clan...

***

That night, Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi planned to put Chen Gang's two brothers through the Heavenly Fiend Foundation Establishment Technique as well. Of course, Chu Qiguang was busy with other things, so he delegated the task to Qiao Zhi.

Only after they were put through the Heavenly Fiend Foundation Establishment Technique could Chu Qiguang place more trust in them. Furthermore, the procedure would improve their physical qualities and latent potential, making them more useful.

At this moment, Chen Gang was reassuring his two brothers about the procedure to come.

"Don't worry. It hurts a little at the start, but it starts feeling good very quickly, and by the end, it'll be the best feeling you've ever experienced. Just look at me."

He lifted a nearby large rock with ease, then continued, "See how strong I am now? You two can become just like me!"

"But big bro, won't we have to collude with fiends..." Chen Two said hesitantly.

"Aren't we going to make the Profound Origin Dao Lord angry?" Chen Three asked, looking just as concerned.[1]

Chen Gang was so frustrated with his two brothers that he slapped both of them on the head.

"Good-for-nothing cowards! Do you want to stay in the Wang Clan Village and farm for the rest of your lives?"

Chen Two and Chen Three shook their heads in unison.

"We don't want to farm anymore. It's back-breaking work, and we barely make any money from it."

"Then you need to seize this opportunity!" Chen Gang encouraged. "Do you know how much money Brother Chu and I have made since coming to the county town? Over a thousand taels of silver, that's how much! It's more than you two could earn in ten lifetimes of farming! Did you hear what happened to Hao Yongnian? Brother Chu and I did that! The young master of the Hao Clan, the Daoist priests of the Daoist temple, and the son of the county magistrate all treat us like good friends!"

Chen Two and Chen Three's eyes lit up.

"What do we need to do, big bro?" Chen Two asked excitedly.

"We won't have to kill people, will we?" Chen Three asked with concern.

"You think Brother Chu's going to trust a coward like you to kill people? Don't make me laugh!" Chen Gang scoffed disdainfully. "All you two have to do is clear the flower bed of cat poop every day."

"That's it?" Chen Two asked.

"That's even worse than farming!" Chen Three wailed.

"What are you three doing over there?" White Rice yelled from the flower bed. "There's barely any space for us to step on! Hurry up and clean up this place!"

The three Chen brothers began scooping poop out of the flower bed, while Chu Qiguang practiced calligraphy at his desk.

There was a written component to the martial examination, so he had to improve his handwriting to at least give the examiners a decent impression. He was also preparing the syllabus for the cat fiends' ideological and political education.

By reading through all of the documents in the county office, interacting with people like Hao Yongtai and He Xian, and learning from Qiao Zhi, he was becoming increasingly familiar with how the officialdom functioned.

The right to speak was only granted to those with sufficient knowledge. With this wealth of knowledge at his disposal, he felt much more prepared to take on the task of educating the cat fiends.

***

That night, the cat fiends were seated in an orderly formation, and all of them had their eyes fixed on Chu Qiguang, who was in the middle of telling a tragic story.

"... Black Cat A'De was forced to the ground by ten Daoist priests, and one of them even knelt on the back of his neck to restrain him. He kept yelling that he couldn't breathe, but no one cared. All the surrounding bystanders were celebrating his capture. In the end, A'De suffocated to death. The Daoist priests didn't know if A'De had done anything wrong, they simply wanted him dead because he was a cat fiend."

Chu Qiguang turned his gaze to White Rice, then asked, "Why does everyone want to kill cat fiends?"

White Rice was stumped by the question.

"Were you not listening?" Chu Qiguang asked with a displeased expression. "We've been through this before. Were you not paying attention?"

White Rice instinctively sprang to his paws at the menacing tone in Chu Qiguang's voice and hurriedly recited, "Because the Daoist temple tells everyone that all fiends are evil and like to eat humans. Because the imperial court wants to wipe out all fiends as they're afraid of their latent potential and the possibility that they might join forces with humans. If we want to change the social standing of fiends in this world, then we need to show the people that we are principled, moral, and upstanding new-generation cat fiends..."

This exact spiel had been drilled into all the cat fiends over and over again until it was firmly committed to memory. As White Rice sat back down, he could feel a phantom pain in his backside. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Meowdammit! These people have beaten me so much that I'm starting to hallucinate pain even when there isn't any!

Chu Qiguang gave a pleased nod. The beatings that he had administered over the past few days had clearly worked.

Regardless of whether the cat fiends truly accepted these ideologies or not, at the very least, they had become much more obedient.

True ideological change wasn't something that could happen overnight, and as blank slates, the cat fiends were already much easier to reform than the people of the Great Han Empire.

Chu Qiguang was very pleased to see the thoughtful looks in the cat fiends' eyes.

They no longer resented humans and other races for no reason. Instead, thanks to Chu Qiguang's education, they were beginning to think about why this resentment existed and the reasons behind the current hardships that the cat fiend race was experiencing.

Even so, they're still much more difficult to deal with than Big Head and the others. The dog fiends do whatever I say as long as I keep them fed, whereas these cat fiends have to undergo training and education every day.

1. No names have been provided for Chen Gang's younger brothers. Instead, they're being referred to as Chen Two (the middle brother), and Chen Three (the youngest brother) ☜