Death… and me

Who says that there are no bandits within the city? That's absolutely nonsense. Bandits do not discriminate against cities or villages! Look at Ma Tuo Zi, his eyes turned green as he heard about the houses which were filled with money.

The pudgy man just cried.

Not only did that fellow almost scare me to death but he also stole my money and a few pieces of silver before fleeing!

He even had the cheek to say that he was doing was justified and part of God's work! Before he left, he said to me "I am relieving you of your money to prevent trouble from coming to you. You don't need to mind. My intentions are pure."

If everyone was the same and had a 'good heart' like yourself, everyone in the world would have died a long time ago.

I have already taught you what you need to do. If you want to find people to help you serve 'justice' or if you just want to look for beautiful and well-endowed women, I will definitely not get in your way. I just hope that you will not come looking for me because I am not rich at all!

The stout man prayed to himself as he walked.

Chu Yang immediately left the citadel for the mining area that afternoon. If he wanted iron, he needed to visit the mines. Moreover, although Wu Yun Liang gave him a thirty thousand silver taels note before he left the sect, it was almost nothing if he wanted to purchase iron!

"Sorry, Iron Cloud Nation has a very strict policy when it comes to iron."

Chu Yang had to spend about a thousand silver taels on 'business relations' just to buy iron at a ridiculously marked up price. As a result, of his thirty thousand, more than half of it was spent!

Chu Yang started at the block of fine iron which he had purchased and almost cried.

Being left without any choice, he ended up having to use up the remainder of the money. Just like that, his wealth vanished and he became a pauper. Moreover, what he had was barely even enough to what he needed. Chu Yang was enraged and his eyebrows clenching together in frustration.

What I require now more than ever is money!

"A coin can force a good man to die!" He used to laugh at this saying and thought of it to be an absolute joke with no element of truth to it whatsoever. A coin can force an idiot to die, but not me! Haha…

His eyes suddenly lit up as he was struck with a brilliant idea.

The following day, the wealthy houses of Iron Cloud Citadel realised that they had been robbed and many of their valuable items were lost.

The robberies were extremely well carried out. Despite the number of homes that were robbed, there was not a soul who had spotted anyone suspicious nor any traces that were left behind by the thief. All the wealthy individuals could do was to look where their treasure used to be which was now an empty space.

Even if their treasuries were invaded by a thousand mice, it wouldn't have been left so empty! There should at least have left a couple of valuables here and there yet there was nothing at all! The owners were infuriated with anger that it was as though the entire citadel began to tremble in fear.

However, their tantrum and stomps were only returned with nothing by echoes of their own voice and dust being stirred up in the air.

All of their gold, silver and valuable treasures were gone. In fact, everything of value simply vanished. This thief was far too cruel, taking every single item of value within their house and sparing them with not a single tael!

None of the guards had heard or even seen anything during the night!

Amongst the wealthy families, there was an old man by the name of Li whom instead of hiding all his treasures in the treasury had hidden many banknotes under his pillow. Therefore, even though he saw his empty treasury, he thought to himself that at least he still had some money left with him. However, as he was about to check his hidden stash, he was knocked unconscious with a powerful punch. Upon regaining his consciousness, he realised that the thief had made away with all his money which amounted to tens of thousands of silver taels.

He did manage to catch a glimpse of a man who was hunched over before he passed out…

Within each treasury, there was a message left behind by this thief who had pillaged from these wealthy men which read "The name will never change, rob from the rich and give to the poor, Five Flower Mountain's Ma Tuo Zi!'

Whoever did this gave the impression of a hero but yet also a thief.

The following morning, the courthouse of Iron Cloud Citadel was harassed by many of the victims each of them seeking justice. Most if not all of them were big bosses who were angry and wanted justice to be served as they shouted and began to make a scene in front of the courthouse. As the day went by, the situation only got worse as more people gathered and began screaming and crying in protest.

Their cries sounds were so miserable, that they even made bystanders shed tears.

However, the officials of Iron Cloud Citadel just sat there apathetic to their situation with some even gloating at how pathetic they had become.

These officials simply wrote up a report and sent these bosses home to wait for their news.

The reason that these officials had done this was that these wealthy individuals were not morally upright themselves. They were often extremely arrogant and perpetually looked down on others who were poorer than them also using unscrupulous means to earn more money. Despite their wealth, they had not contributed financially to the efforts of Prince Bu Tian he was busy raising money to build the army. They had reasoned that their families were on the verge of starvation because they were too poor, refusing to give any money at all.

The brink of starvation? If you were really on the brink of starvation, how could you lose hundreds of thousands of taels of silver and gold?

You people didn't have any money, right? What could the thieves actually want? Now you want us to hunt down the thieves for you. Even if we could, we would rather say we couldn't.

Investing everything in the military fund would be best.

Nonetheless, the notice to capture the Five Flower Mountain Ma Tuo Zi was sent out immediately. They still believed that they had to bring him to justice because he was considered to be a vicious and greedy criminal.

It would have been impossible to rob 50 to 60 houses in a single night unspotted. Hence they came to the conclusion that it wouldn't have been an individual but rather a group of them acting in tandem. Such danger couldn't simply be ignored!

Despite mobilising the entire law enforcement of Iron Cloud Citadel for the next couple of days, they were not able to capture Ma Tuo Zi. However, they did manage to capture a couple of petty thieves in the process.

Outside of the courthouse, at small corner far away, there was a well dressed fat man who watched as the wealthy people cried and scream to the heavens for justice outside the courthouse. His eyes widened, his lips shook, and face turned blue.

God…! This was the doing of Ma Tuo Zi! I swear what he did had nothing to do with what I said.

This thief was far too fierce!

Fortunately, he caught me earlier on. Otherwise, I would have probably been of those crying people.

Chu Yang's actions were deliberate. He had only targeted those stingy yet wealthy individuals thanks to the information provided by the stout man. He often hung out with many of such individuals because he was one of them.

With his life being threatened by Chu Yang, he selfishly sold out his friends in order to save his own life. Despite there being some outstanding business people who were enthusiastic about public welfare, just because they rubbed individuals like this fat man the wrong way, he gave out their names. The pressure and stress he was under led him to give out the names which were at the top of his mind and most familiar with!

The fat man covered his ears from all the crying and turned his fat butt to go back home. I am now the richest! Haha! You guys normally looked down on me saying I have no money. Now, haha, who would dare compare themselves to me?

Thank you Ma Tuo Zi!

…

Three days later, Chu Yang opened an ordinary shop on the busy main street two blocks from the prince's manor.

It was a three-story house; until yesterday it was still an ordinary tea shop, but today the storefront had changed. Three groups of workers were busy with the renovations for one day and one night.

The old owner thought it was a little weird, but after seeing a pile of shiny gold immediately cooperated and moved out.

How could he not accept? His shop was worth a little over fifty taels of gold, but the other person threw out two hundred taels. In addition, the buyer did not want anything inside the shop. With that amount of money, he could easily find a better place to open shop. It would have been foolish not to accept such an offer!

So this place now belonged to the rich and powerful man with the surname Chu.