Chapter 192: Ugly, You Are Wrong

In the villa's main hall, Lazy Cat and God Wind were keeping Ugly company...
Ugly's complexion was exceptionally grim.
Unlike the murderous aura he had exuded earlier when he wanted to storm the Overlord Blade Sect, Ugly now wore a complex expression intertwined with anger, helplessness, and disillusionment.
"Little Madman, I have to admit, those two shots you fired earlier were really not bad!" Ignoring Ugly, He Tian sat down on his own and said to God Wind with a cheerful smile.
"Boss!" Instead of looking smug, God Wind curled his lips and glanced at Ugly...
"Ugly!" He Tian felt quite helpless. This little madman lacked coordination entirely. Did he really not sense that He Tian was merely trying to lighten the mood?
"The sky hasn't fallen, has it?" He Tian looked at Ugly and asked in a deep voice.
"To me, the sky has truly collapsed!" Ugly stared at He Tian, speaking with utmost seriousness.
"Tell me... what on earth happened!" He Tian looked at Lazy Cat and God Wind and said, "No matter what troubles we face, we can solve them ourselves. Don't keep everything bottled up inside."
"I never intended to keep it bottled up inside! My coming back now is precisely to seek your help!" Ugly looked at He Tian earnestly.
"That's more like it! Speak... we will face all difficulties together!" He Tian assumed a posture of listening attentively.
"I truly never imagined... that my perseverance would lead to this kind of outcome!" Pain was etched all over Ugly's face as he slowly recounted what he had seen and heard.
Fu'an County in Guizhou is a multi-ethnic county where the Miao, Zhuang, Tujia, and Han ethnic groups live together! This place was also Ugly's hometown.
The place where Ugly grew up was deep within a massive mountain range.
Guizhou is full of mountains! Ugly's birthplace was, in truth, nothing special.
And what was even less special was that the entire Fu'an County was exceptionally impoverished! Bordering Yunnan, their living conditions were extremely backward.
Although modern society is developing rapidly, one hard truth must be acknowledged: in some remote mountainous regions, the people living there are still struggling just above the subsistence line!
Yes, perhaps some news reports highlight earth-shattering changes happening in various mountain hollows, but those are merely isolated exceptions. The vast majority of places remain deeply impoverished!
No matter how advanced modern transportation becomes, no matter how much modern technology can conquer the mountains, there are still places that remain almost completely isolated from the outside world.
Ugly's hometown was precisely like this!
Ugly grew up in the great mountains, and all his skills were acquired from the mountains. His feelings for his hometown and the mountains were profound!
Since Ugly possessed no other skills besides his martial prowess, in order to transform his hometown's appearance and help his fellow villagers rid themselves of poverty once and for all, Ugly transformed into a master thief!
And he specialized in stealing cash...
No matter what methods were used, the more money he acquired, the better!
Ugly was successful!

During Ugly's "career," the money he stole over the years amounted to a staggering one billion five hundred million US dollars!
Apart from keeping enough to cover his own basic necessities, Ugly poured every single cent of these funds back into his hometown!
Yet herein lay the roots of future trouble and hidden dangers!
Instead of managing the money himself to transform his hometown, Ugly chose to hand the funds over to the Fu'an County government.
He hoped to utilize the power of the government to completely transform his hometown, and perhaps even reshape the entire Fu'an County!
Yet upon returning this time, everything Ugly laid his eyes on left him dumbfounded!
Fu'an County had indeed changed dramatically, even undergoing earth-shaking transformations.
The county town's area had expanded nearly threefold compared to before! The construction and greening of the entire urban area were exceptionally well done!
In particular, the office building of the county party committee and county government was built with such grandeur that words failed to describe it! It could even be called luxurious.
Furthermore, the transportation routes connecting Fu'an County with surrounding areas had been constructed quite well, completely altering Fu'an County's traffic conditions relative to neighboring regions! One could say that improved transportation had infused Fu'an County with endless vitality!
Checking various data revealed that over the past decade or more, Fu'an County's economic growth figures had been multiplying continuously. Because of Fu'an County's development, more than thirty officials who rose from humble beginnings here had been promoted and transferred out! Some had even leveraged this development platform to become the top leaders of prefecture-level cities in Guizhou!
By all logical reasoning, Fu'an County's development achievements could be described as brilliant!
However, a closer examination would reveal that this was a deeply distorted form of development.
Fu'an County's development was concentrated entirely around the county seat. Meanwhile, over seventy percent of the entire county remained surrounded by layer upon layer of mountains!
For these mountain-encircled areas, after so much time had passed, almost nothing had changed!
If one insisted on finding changes, they did exist. For instance, relatively less remote regions now had interconnected roads and electricity. For another instance, the development of Fu'an County town attracted many people from the surrounding mountains to work odd jobs, and the wages earned from these jobs trickled back into the mountains, bringing slight changes to those remote areas.
Yet these changes were not what Ugly wanted. They deviated far too much from his original vision.
What left Ugly even more helpless and disappointed was that his true hometown... remained virtually unchanged. It looked exactly as it had in the past!
Returning this time, Ugly encountered many childhood friends. Yet they were either already dead or aged and decrepit. From them, Ugly saw only the permanent brand of poverty.
Yet, in the course of Ugly's careful covert investigations, he discovered that successive generations of officials in Fu'an County had not embezzled the funds he invested! They genuinely spent the money on various projects!
This was the crucial reason why Ugly had not resorted to drastic actions and had instead returned to seek He Tian's help!
He Tian let out a long sigh!
To be honest, the situation described by Ugly was much better than He Tian had anticipated.
He Tian's original assumption was that the money Ugly invested had been pocketed by corrupt individuals!
The fact that no such situation had occurred surprised He Tian and gave him a sense of relief!

From a factual standpoint, the successive generations of officials at all levels in Fu'an County hadn't done nothing at all! On the contrary, they had made significant contributions!
It was simply that their contributions differed entirely from what Ugly had expected!
"Ugly, I can say with certainty now... when you invested that money, you didn't explicitly instruct them that they had to develop your hometown, did you?" He Tian looked at the depressed Ugly and asked softly.
"Do I even need to say that? Isn't it common sense to develop whichever area is the most backward and impoverished?" Ugly truly understood nothing about these matters! As the saying goes, no one is perfect; Ugly's kind heart, his aptitude for Qi cultivation, and his almost naive expectations—none of these could mask Ugly's ignorance in other domains!
Yes, He Tian had to use the word "ignorant" to describe Ugly!
Without a doubt, this was a conclusion that could only make one sigh and render one speechless!
"There are some things you simply don't understand yet, Ugly... I can only say that in all of this, you share some blame, and the successive officials of Fu'an County also share some blame!" He Tian said in a deep voice: "For those officials, what they need are opportunities for promotion! And how do promotion opportunities come the fastest? Naturally through the most effective economic development! And how should one develop to bring about major economic changes? How can they generate political achievements faster? By developing areas where development is easy... rather than going deep into mountain hollows to develop! Because developing mountain hollows is simply too slow! They can't afford to wait!"
"Just... just for this?" Ugly widened his eyes!
Lazy Cat and God Wind shook their heads!
The two of them were truly speechless!
Ugly was truly a rare specimen!
Lazy Cat and God Wind genuinely doubted how Ugly had managed to steal so much money in the complex environment abroad!
Although the timespan was long, the total reached one billion five hundred million US dollars, averaging over one hundred million a year! Ugly's "workload" had been substantial indeed!
Yet an Ugly who was this "naive" had remained unchanged all along! One had to admit, this was nothing short of a miracle!
"Ugly, I am asking you very solemnly! Were those funds of yours really not embezzled?" He Tian asked in a deep voice.
"I investigated! They weren't! You know that if I want to investigate something like this, no one will ever discover it!" Ugly nodded and said. In this regard, Ugly remained very confident!
True, he was a practitioner of the fifth layer of inner strength! Having such confidence was entirely normal.
"Ugly, then I must tell you this! You cannot resent anyone!" He Tian said very seriously.
"I suppose I understand this logic... but Boss, my hometown truly needs help, and I genuinely want to change its condition! No, it's not just a desire—it is something that must be changed!" Ugly looked earnestly at He Tian and said: "So, no matter what, you must help me! Even if I have to go back out to steal money, you must help me! Right now, I only trust you!"
"Ugly, rest assured, I will definitely help you! You don't need to go out stealing money anymore! We have money... but Ugly, you understand the saying about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish, right?" He Tian stared at Ugly and said.
"I understand what you mean!" Ugly took a deep breath and said: "Having wasted so much time, I've also come to terms with it. As long as it brings about change, it has to be done step by step; no one can achieve everything overnight!"
"It's good that you can think this way! Here is what we'll do: we will travel to your hometown and conduct an on-site investigation! I believe in one thing... the great mountains are filled with treasures everywhere! We can find something there to transform your hometown!" He Tian patted Ugly's shoulder and said with full confidence.
The conflicted Ugly tightly grasped He Tian's hand...