Turbulent Times: Rise of a Bounty Hunter

Chaos reigns, and the martial world is in turmoil.

Thieves disregard the law, tyrants slaughter countless people, and evil forces wreak havoc on the common people. Yet, the king is infatuated with beauty and has no interest in power. The court is rife with factional strife, and each state has its own army. The state and county governments are short-handed, and their yamen runners are weak and unable to suppress the bandits in the mountains, the thugs in the martial arts world, the escaped prisoners, and the rebels.

In the martial arts world, martial arts flourished, and martial arts were divided into five realms: third-rate, second-rate, first-rate, grandmaster, and great grandmaster. Ordinary martial arts practitioners could easily crush ordinary soldiers. Famous sects occupied famous mountains, while evil sects hid in desolate marshes. Large and small gangs divided up the prefectures and counties, and wandering knights, bandits, and assassins roamed everywhere.

Unable to control the martial arts world, the government created a bounty system that has been in use for centuries. Ghostwriters are a special group that lives in the gap between government laws and martial arts rules, making a living solely from this.

The core theme of the world: there is no absolute good or evil, the law has loopholes, one lives on the edge, trading life for money, and survival is the only way.

Core Profession: Ghostwriter (Complete Character Setting)

Ghost hunters are not part of the government establishment; they receive no salary, rank, or official position. They are contractual bounty hunters operating between the imperial court and the martial arts world.

Their sole job is to accept official bounty orders issued by prefectures, counties, and even the Ministry of Justice, to capture and kill criminals on the list, verify their identities, and then collect the bounty. They are the lowest, bloodiest, and freest martial arts practitioners in this chaotic world.

The term "zhuo dao" has two meanings: one is to use a knife to apprehend criminals and make a living with a knife; the other is to "enforce the law on behalf of the government" and fill the gaps in the court's military strength.

Occupational tiers (matching bounty levels)

• White-listed Ghost Slayer (Newbie): Newly registered, can only accept white-listed bounties, capture thugs, petty thieves, deserters, and street ruffians. Their combat strength is mostly that of second-rate or third-rate martial artists.
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• Skilled Bounty Hunter (Master): After accumulating more than ten successful bounty records, you can accept the Blue List challenge. Opponents include second-rate gangsters, small gang leaders, and escaped criminals.
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• Black-listed Ghost Slayer (Veteran): A ruthless figure with a reputation in the martial arts world, who can accept hefty rewards from the black list. His opponents are top-notch masters, traitorous gang leaders, and notorious bandits. He lives a life of constant danger and has an extremely high mortality rate.
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• Top-tier Ghost Slayer: Extremely rare. They can accept imperial bounties directly under the Ministry of Justice to hunt down master-level criminals and notorious villains of the martial arts world. The bounty is enough to make them extremely wealthy, but they are also the public enemy of the entire martial arts world.

Complete Bounty System:

1. White List (Street Level)
   Published by: County Government Office
   Targets: petty thieves, local bullies, deserters, and down-on-their-luck soldiers
   Bounty: 5-100 taels of silver or exchange for basic third-rate martial arts techniques.
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2. Green List (Low-level in the martial arts world)
   Issuing Authority: State Government Office
   Targets: Mountain bandits, second-rate martial artists, womanizers, low-level gang leaders, and thugs who commit assault.
   Bounty: 100-1000 taels of silver or exchange for third- or second-rate martial arts techniques.
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3. Blacklist (Advanced Level)
   Issuing authorities: Daotai Prefecture, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner
   Targets: Top-tier martial arts expert, bandit leader, gang core member, serial killer, traitorous spy
   Bounty: 1000-5000 taels of silver, which can be combined with privileges such as fertile land, household registration, and tax exemption, or you can choose to exchange it for first-class to grandmaster-level martial arts techniques and skills.
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4. Imperial Edict (Top Grandmaster Level)
   Published by: Ministry of Justice of Beijing, Dali Temple
   Targets: Grandmaster traitors, evil sect elders, powerful bandits who control their own territories, and top assassins tasked with killing officials.
   Bounty: Ten thousand taels of gold, hereditary land, a seventh-rank nominal position, an iron certificate of immunity from punishment, or exchange for a cultivation technique that allows one to reach the Grandmaster level.

Bounty Verification Rules:

1. Kill Verification: The target's head must be brought back, and the government's painter and coroner will verify and compare it with the records on the spot.
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2. Capture and Verification: Bound alive and escorted to the yamen (government office) for a confession and identification, confirming the identity of the suspect.

Ghostwriter's daily expenses:
Constantly traveling around, the expenses for lodging, buying medicine for cultivation or healing, repairing knives, gathering intelligence, bribing officials, evading pursuit, and purchasing cultivation techniques on the black market or at auction houses are enormous.

Intelligence Rules:
All intelligence in the martial arts world is paid: at Fengyulou, you can buy any intelligence with money; you can also buy clues from shop assistants, dockworkers, brothel pimps, post station workers, gang members at the bottom, and even at the Ghost Market.

Government officials and yamen runners possess hidden clues, which can only be obtained by bribing officials; this is an essential survival tactic for ghostwriters.

Martial arts system:

1. Low-class: Street thugs, hooligans, and ordinary soldiers, lacking internal strength and only capable of brute force (primary targets on the white list).
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2. Third-rate martial artist: Possesses basic internal energy cultivation and rudimentary fist, foot, and sword techniques; capable of taking on ten opponents at once; low-level rogue cultivators and petty thief leaders (comparable to novice sword-wielding fighters).
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3. Second-rate martial artists: possess abundant internal energy, skillful techniques, and agile movement; capable of taking on a hundred opponents single-handedly; leaders of small gangs and notorious bandits (main force of the Green List).
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4. First-class martial artists: possess profound internal strength and unique skills, capable of dominating a county or prefecture, able to withstand a thousand attacks single-handedly, and are the main force of mountain stronghold leaders and disciples of various sects (main force on the Black List).
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5. Grandmaster: Can release true qi, injuring people from a hundred paces away; possesses a powerful physique; a giant in the martial arts world (a target on the imperial edict, extremely rare).
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6. Grandmaster: A legendary realm, reclusive and rarely involved in worldly disputes.

Here you can be a ghostwriter, a disciple or ruler of various factions, a master thief, a bandit chief, an assassin, a merchant, a regional lord, a general, or even the supreme ruler, etc.

You can choose your starting identity and write your own brilliant, legendary life story...

Whether you need help or not, just call the system; it can provide you with guidance.