Chapter Four: The Sinister Forgemaster

Dozens of crows turned the Hall of the Judicial Authority into utter chaos. Crow Lord landed on Liang Zhi’s shoulder. “These are my little brothers. They can hold them off for a while, but now, are you willing to fulfill your last wish?”

Liang Zhi did not agree immediately. Instead, he asked coldly, “You knew this would happen all along, didn’t you?”

Crow Lord blinked his small eyes, looking at Liang Zhi with innocent surprise.

Liang Zhi shook his head. “None of that matters anymore, but I have a question. Even if they change my appearance, I am still myself. In the end, I can’t hide forever. What will they do then?”

Crow Lord scratched his head with the tip of his wing. “Perhaps you’ll try to escape... and get killed for it.”

“So it is,” Liang Zhi gasped, his breath ragged. “One more thing. Where is this furious feeling coming from? Right now, I want to destroy everything!”

Crow Lord planted his wings on his hips and declared loudly, “Even though you haven’t completed your wish, in essence, you are a Full-Linked Faction Practitioner!”

“Among all the arcane practitioners of the Linked Faction, you are the highest-ranked. To think a mere low-level Twisted Healer is chasing you—how could your body possibly accept such humiliation?”

Liang Zhi lowered his head. “I see. So as long as I agree to fulfill my wish, I’ll have the power to kill that Twisted Healer and escape from here?”

Crow Lord raised his bird head. “Of course!”

“In that case, I agree to complete the wish!”

Crow Lord bowed low with his wings. “Congratulations on making the right choice.”

The crows scattered, leaving only Crow Lord behind.

Liang Zhi lifted his head. The linking sigil in his eyes blazed with intense light.

Dr. Su’s heart began to pound violently, every instinct warning him that Liang Zhi was an extremely dangerous man.

But Liang Zhi did not look at him; instead, he turned his gaze to Fan Dai.

The string of bizarre events had left Fan Dai drenched in cold sweat, his black official robes soaked through.

“You know, of all the nonsense you’ve spouted, only one thing was correct.”

Fan Dai swallowed hard. Even though he had no special abilities, he could sense how dire the situation was. “Which one?”

“I am indeed a wanted criminal. But I am not Wu Zinan... If you have a wanted notice here, take it out and see for yourself.”

With trembling hands, Fan Dai rummaged through the drawer of wanted notices, finally finding Liang Zhi’s name.

Name: Liang Zhi

Crime: The Dazong Codex

Bounty: Forty million coins!

...

“Hey, Crow Lord, can I try that again?” Liang Zhi lay on a straw-filled cart, gazing at the sky, excitement in his voice.

“No. That kind of experience is once in a lifetime. If you want to feel it again, work hard at being a villain.” Crow Lord sprawled beside him, wings stretched out to enjoy the sunshine.

“I get it—a members-only trial. But I didn’t get to try it thoroughly enough.”

Liang Zhi plucked a straw from his hair. “I was so hyped up at the time, I can’t even remember exactly what I did.”

Crow Lord replied gloomily, “It’s better if you don’t remember. Otherwise, you’ll be traumatized...”

A day had passed since the Antai Town incident.

Destroying the Judicial Authority was a major event; a small town like that couldn’t possibly hide anyone. Liang Zhi had no choice but to seek refuge elsewhere.

On the road, he and Crow Lord occasionally chatted. By now, he had a basic understanding of this world.

The country he was in was called the Dazong Dynasty—the last great nation of humanity. Dazong was divided into thirty provinces, and he was currently in the central Ji Province.

Their destination was the imperial capital, Wangjing City.

Wangjing had the largest metropolitan area in all of Dazong, a sprawling patchwork of several megacities—half of Ji Province fell within its domain.

Over ninety million people lived here, a true melting pot. If someone wanted to hide, not even a ripple would show. For someone like Liang Zhi, who was often up to something, it was the perfect place to disappear.

Liang Zhi was also quite curious about Crow Lord’s other abilities.

Talking was one thing, but earlier he’d seen this fellow sweep his wing and stash away all the loot taken from Fan Dai. Every reward on the last wish list was also kept by Crow Lord.

He glanced sidelong at Crow Lord. “Maybe I don’t need to complete the wish list. If I just kidnap this silly bird, I could get those relics myself...”

Sunbathing, Crow Lord shivered. He shot Liang Zhi a suspicious look.

Was this rascal plotting against him?

Feeling guilty, Liang Zhi changed the subject:

“Let’s see what you got from the Judicial Authority. I was out of it at the time, I don’t know what we ended up with.”

Crow Lord unfolded one wing and, with the other, reached under his armpit, producing a gray cloth bag.

Inside were a stack of banknotes and some coins, an identification document, a medical face mask, a black metal plate the size of a card, and various pieces of jewelry and sundries.

Crow Lord had been nothing if not thorough in cleaning up, even taking the recorder’s gold-rimmed glasses.

Not that he’d need them anymore.

The currency of the Dazong Dynasty was called ‘Coinage’—a special copper coin. The banknotes in the bag were called Coinage Notes.

The largest note, the Big Gold Bill, was worth a thousand coins; the smallest, the Little Copper Note, was worth five coins.

Both coins and notes bore complex anti-counterfeit features, making them nearly impossible to forge.

From Fan Dai and the others, Liang Zhi had obtained a total of 4,600 coins. They felt substantial in his hand. He pressed the Coinage Notes to his face, his eyes curving in delight.

This—this must be happiness.

To hell with striving, to hell with suffering in youth for comfort in old age, to hell with glory born of hardship and toil.

This life, all Liang Zhi wanted was to enjoy himself!

He then examined the identification document, which bore the words Dazong Identification Pass—something akin to a driver’s license.

The name on the document was Liang Feng, likely the Twisted Healer.

Crow Lord hopped onto Liang Zhi, pointing at the pass with his wing. “Wangjing isn’t a small town. Without identification, you’ll only be able to live in the Lower City.”

“What’s the Lower City like?” Liang Zhi asked curiously.

Crow Lord stuck out his little tongue. “Caw, caw! It’s paradise—delicious food everywhere, especially those energetic flying cockroaches, as big as my head, full of juicy, tender meat...”

“Alright, there’s no way I’m living in the Lower City,” Liang Zhi shuddered. “But even with an ID, it’s not mine. Will it work?”

Crow Lord stomped on the face mask. “That’s exactly why I brought this.”

Liang Zhi held the mask between two fingers. “This belonged to that Twisted Healer, didn’t it?”

“It retains some of his twisted powers. Wear it and you can slightly alter your appearance.” Crow Lord puffed out his chest, clearly expecting praise.

But Liang Zhi looked at him with disdain. “What’s the point of changing my face if I have to keep the mask on?”

Crow Lord froze, tilting his head as his little brain crashed.

While Crow Lord was blanking out, Liang Zhi picked a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and two coins from the bag.

He placed the mask and those two items in his palm, then covered them with his other hand.

The melt-blown fabric mask began to twist, compress, and disintegrate, shreds falling away until the remnants clung tightly to the gold-rimmed glasses.

Next, the coins began to warp and liquefy, slowly spreading over the lenses like molten metal.

About ten minutes later, a brand-new, thick-framed pair of bronze glasses appeared in Liang Zhi’s hand.

“There, that solves the problem!”

Liang Zhi’s greatest gain from the Judicial Authority wasn’t the coins, nor was it escaping death.

It was the power of the Arcane Forger, one of the eight ability branches of the Linked Faction!