“Old Black’s life was filled with pain, sorrow, and struggle,” Chu Qiguang continued. “He had to fight just to survive. Perhaps being freed from this life is a blessing for him.”

Even though Old Black had once oppressed them, his tragic past still stirred a sense of grief among the dog fiends.

“Before he passed, Old Black’s final wish was for me to look after all of you,” Chu Qiguang continued.

“Who are you?” White Hide asked.

“Old Black and I once struggled for survival in the mountains together, so I consider him an old friend,” Chu Qiguang sighed. “I truly want to help all of you.”

“He’s always with a cat fiend, so he’s most likely a fiend as well, maybe of another race,” Old Tu revealed. “Should we believe him? From what I’ve seen, he seems like a good person, and his claim about being Old Black’s friend must be true if he knows Old Black’s life story so well.”

This revelation from Old Tu, coupled with the story that Chu Qiguang had just told, allowed him to earn the trust of the dog fiends, and together, they buried Old Black.

Chu Qiguang personally carved out a tombstone for Old Black using a wooden plank, then held a funeral in the same way that humans would. The gesture further convinced the dog fiends that he was on their side.

Do you need to go this far? Qiao Zhi asked.

If I’m going to put on an act, then I may as well make it as convincing as possible. Old Black’s death can’t be wasted, Chu Qiguang replied.

Qiao Zhi was speechless.

After Old Black was buried, a fragrant aroma suddenly filled the entire monastery, instantly drawing the attention of all of the dog fiends.

They turned to discover that Chu Qiguang had placed a bag of fried boiled pork onto the ground.

“I brought this for all of you. Come and have a taste.”

Having already been fed by Chu Qiguang earlier, Little Tu could no longer resist his hunger and immediately pounced on the offering. Before White Hide could stop him, Little Tu had already taken a large bite.

With Little Tu taking the lead, the other starving dog fiends also pounced on the meat, and the entire scene descended into complete chaos.

“There’s no hurry,” Chu Qiguang said with a smile. “I have more at home.”

After the meat was devoured, all the dog fiends stared at Chu Qiguang with sparkling eyes.

For constantly starving dog fiends like them, such delicious food was irresistible.

A shar pei leaped onto Chu Qiguang’s leg and shouted, “Daddy!”

Clearly, this dog had a talent for being a lapdog.

He patted the shar pei’s head with an affectionate smile as he asked, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Big Head,” the shar pei replied.

“From this day on, you are my godson,” Chu Qiguang declared. “As long as I have food to eat, so will you.”

“Let’s all calm down a little...” White Hide began, trying to serve as the voice of reason, but all the dog fiends went into a frenzy again when Chu Qiguang pulled out a bag of twice-cooked pork.

After making short work of the second bag of meat, all the dozen or so dog fiends present gathered around Chu Qiguang, wagging their tails in excitement.

Chu Qiguang petted them one by one and made sure to hold each and every one of them as well. He asked for their names, trimmed their nails and groomed their fur.

“You’re all good boys and girls. I know life has been hard for you, but from now on, I’ll make sure none of you ever go hungry again.”

None of the dog fiends had ever received such affection before, and their eyes were glowing brighter and brighter as they stared up at Chu Qiguang.

“Trust me when I say that no one in this world understands dogs better than me,” Chu Qiguang said with a sincere expression. “I’ve always gotten along very well with dogs since I was young. If you follow me, I promise you that you’ll always have enough to eat, and you won’t have to steal and fight for food ever again. I will make the dog fiends of Azure Sun County great again!

“Rest assured, I will also avenge your former king, Old Black. The Azure Sun Daoist Temple not only killed him, but is also the root of your suffering. They have oppressed fiends for far too long. I promise you, we will have our revenge one day!”

The combination of the offerings of meat and Chu Qiguang’s emphatic speech quickly won him the hearts of all the dog fiends.

Meanwhile, Chu Qiguang was looking ahead with a heavy heart.

There are seventeen dog fiends here, and they’ll probably eat through one to two qian of silver per day. Not only that, but with enough to eat, they’ll begin to reproduce, so their numbers will grow rapidly. Looks like I’m going to have to come up with some more money-making schemes.

Even so, Chu Qiguang didn’t regret his decision at all. Instead, he felt it was worth it. With these dog fiends at his beck and call, it would become much easier for him to gather intelligence and send messages in the county town. After all, no one would suspect a dog, making them the perfect spies.

Chu Qiguang made an agreement with the dog fiends. They would continue to use this abandoned monastery as their lair, but from this day forward, they were forbidden from attacking, robbing, and stealing from humans.

In return, Chu Qiguang would send Qiao Zhi and Chen Gang to deliver food to them every day, enough to ensure their survival.

In exchange, all they had to do was wander around the county town all day, gathering interesting or noteworthy pieces of information, or spying on certain people or places according to Chu Qiguang’s instructions. The dog fiends spent all day wandering the county town foraging for food anyway, so this couldn’t have been a simpler task for them.

After making all of these arrangements, Chu Qiguang assigned the dog fiends their first mission, which was to search for cat fiends in the county town.

Clearly, after taming the dogs, Chu Qiguang had now set his sights on the cats.

Qiao Zhi wanted to say something, but ultimately decided to hold his tongue after recalling Chu Qiguang’s earlier words about integrating fiends into human society.

I feel like something has changed, but I can’t tell if it’s for the better or for the worse, Qiao Zhi sighed inwardly.

***

After returning to the courtyard, Chu Qiguang decided that it was time that he moved to a place of his own. After all, living with Wang Cailiang was bound to come with certain inconveniences.

If I choose to buy, it’ll cost at least a few hundred taels of silver to buy a decent house. Even if I rent, that’ll still cost me several dozen taels of silver a year.

Comparing the sale and rental prices of housing in this world, Chu Qiguang quickly decided that buying was a superior option to renting. However, buying a house would consume a large portion of his current funds, not to mention additional expenses for things like renovations, furniture, and servants. Thus, he decided that it was best to rent for now.

Right now, I’m still in my accumulation phase, so I have to spend my money wisely. I won’t be staying very long in Azure Sun County anyway, so I might as well just rent a place for now.

With that in mind, he made his way to Chen Gang’s bedside, then gently patted him on the cheek.

As soon as Chen Gang woke up, the first thing that he saw was Chu Qiguang’s face in the darkness, and he was so frightened that he nearly died on the spot.

“Wha—What’s going on?” he asked.

From Chen Gang’s perspective, there was a smile of pure evil on Chu Qiguang’s face as he instructed, “Get up. I have something good for you to eat.”