Volume 2, Chapter 29 – Demon-Suppression

On the other side of town, on East Ring Road, Han Li had just finished reporting to Zhang Daoming.

Good news: despite the brutal attack at No. 1 High’s gate, not a single student had died, and Chen Jing’s mother, Yu Wanhua, had also been successfully protected.

The bad news was that eighteen adults were dead, including the middle-aged man who’d drawn his sword to stand up for justice, and another forty-three were injured and in the hospital.

Han Li had already confirmed the middle-aged man’s identity. His name was Dong Ren, formerly a sword arts professor at Chilong University, in his early fifties and only recently retired.

Chilong University might not be on the level of Qizhou University in Qiyun Circuit, but it was still one of the top schools in Chilong Circuit. They’d have to inform the university about this, and just thinking about it gave Han Li a headache.

“Boss, I don’t get it.” He wiped the dust from his face and asked into his phone, “Why don’t we just go straight at Qingyun Pharmaceuticals?”

The reason he’d rushed to No. 1 High in time with a team was because Bai Xiang had called Zhang Daoming.

Han Li had been there at the time, so he knew: this whole attack had happened because someone wanted to silence people—down to the victim’s wife and daughter.

So wasn’t the arrow pointing directly at Qingyun Pharmaceuticals?

They’d made it that obvious. How could they not investigate?

Han Li found it unbelievable. It didn’t fit Zhang Daoming’s character at all.

Don’t be fooled by his bookish air and long robes, always looking out of place among a squad of burly inspectors. Han Li had seen what he was like when he went for the throat.

Before Zhang Daoming took office, the Inspectorate’s relations with all the powers in Chilong Circuit had been fine. The inspectors’ days were easy. No one thought there was anything wrong with that.

But in his first year on the job, he personally shut down twenty-six companies. The Inspectorate’s relationship with the local merchants collapsed overnight.

Han Li remembered clearly that even inside the Inspectorate, a full third of the people had been arrested and investigated—and every last one of them had been hanged by Zhang Daoming’s own hand.

He’d even led teams himself to “collect fire safety fees” from uncooperative companies.

Don’t like it? First he’d beat you half to death.

Then he’d ransack the place, smash the glass, and knock over your shelves.

Still not listening? He’d torch your shop on the spot, drag you back to jail, slap a hat of “negligent fire safety” on your head, and you could forget about getting out without losing all your assets and a layer of skin.

Rеαԁ оո ΚаtRеadіnɡСαfе

Han Li didn’t pity those businessmen. He knew what they’d actually done—it was far worse than “negligent fire safety.”

It took an evil man to grind down evil men. Following Zhang Daoming, they had to watch for revenge every day and endure glares from every faction, but the inspectors’ income had quintupled.

Scared?

What was there to be scared of?

With that kind of pay, there was no shortage of people ready to sell their lives to Zhang Daoming.

“You don’t know shit.” Zhang Daoming’s language with him was crude—proof of trust.

“Qingyun Pharmaceuticals’ approvals are all stamped. You know what ‘joint pilot project’ means? You know what ‘the will of the people’ means? Believe it or not, if I so much as set foot into their building without a search warrant, my hat’s coming off with my head still in it.”

“Huh? It’s that bad?” Han Li broke into a cold sweat. He hadn’t expected this to involve power plays among the higher officials.

“It’s obvious there’re still people pushing the New Affairs line. Chilong Circuit is their test field.” Zhang Daoming sighed. “Zhang Longze will be over later—give him a heads-up. Tell him the schools here are going to have their curriculum changed soon so he can brace himself.”

Even the curriculum?

Han Li stared.

Wasn’t that overkill?

“Qingyun Pharmaceuticals is going all-out producing drugs for Black Collar Co. right now. Supposedly they ‘detox’ and speed up the body’s ‘metabolism.’” Zhang Daoming read off a few new buzzwords. “Basically, they’re laying groundwork for those battlesuits. That’s out of my hands.”

“Then—” Rage surged up in Han Li’s chest. “Then all these people died for nothing?”

If Qingyun wanted to silence people, there had to be some unspeakable secret in the dark.

Drag that secret into the light and they’d have a pretext to make a move, wouldn’t they?

“They didn’t die for nothing.” Zhang Daoming went quiet for a moment. “They’re calling them foreign mercenaries? Then we investigate that.”

“How did the guns get in?”

Rеаԁ оո КatRеαⅾiոgСafe

“That big brute couldn’t have made it through a normal flight check. So how did it get in? Or was it a local who got modified by someone? Those are surface-level questions. That’s what we dig into next.”

“But—”

“I know, that doesn’t cure the root.” Zhang Daoming cut him off.

“But it’s all we can do right now.”

“Because this isn’t just about other people’s opinions.”

“Lu Xueling doesn’t have the guts to deny me a search warrant. If he did, it’s only because that one told him to.”

That one?

Han Li was puzzled for a second, then broke out in a full-body sweat.

Above the Inspectorate was the Supervisory Directorate.

Lu Xueling was a supervising judge there—technically Zhang Daoming’s direct superior.

Han Li had never met the man, but he’d heard Zhang Daoming talk about him. Roughly the same sort of person, the two of them very much “like-minded.”

And the Inspectorate and Supervisory Directorate answered directly to the imperial throne.

Thinking about it that way, did he still need to ask who “that one” was?

Han Li suddenly felt a little hollow.

In that one’s eyes, was Chilong Circuit just a disposable test subject—something to be tossed aside, or consumed?

“Don’t lose heart.” Zhang Daoming could guess exactly how Han Li was feeling. He’d felt the same.

“All I can tell you is, it’s not like there’s no room at all for a turnaround.”

If that one didn’t allow an investigation, what kind of turnaround could there be?

Rеаԁ οո КatReаⅾіոɡСаfе

Han Li was curious, but Zhang Daoming wouldn’t say more. He just told him to finish up on site quickly and come back to report, then hung up.

Han Li stood there in a daze for a moment, until a subordinate came over and asked how they should deal with the lizard-man’s remains.

“How? You send it straight to Third Hospital for analysis, of course!”

He gave the young inspector a smack on the head. “Idiot! This is key evidence! What, you planning to take it home and stick it in your freezer?”

“But Captain,” the younger man protested, clutching his head, “there’s this damn civilian messing around at the scene!!”

A damn civilian?

Han Li perked right up.

He was already pissed to hell and back, and here was a sandbag volunteering itself. He rolled up his sleeves. “Take me to him!”

Rounding a broken wall, he saw a scrawny, ragged old beggar squatting by the road, holding a chunk of lizard-man flesh up under the streetlight to examine it.

Han Li’s face twisted in disgust. He’d just watched the old man stick out his tongue and lick the meat.

What the fuck kind of kink was that?

“Hey, old man~!”

He hollered and charged over. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Investigating the case, obviously.”

The old beggar muttered under his breath, dropped the meat, and slowly stood up.

Investigating?

You?

Han Li was about to blow up when the old man fished a token out of nowhere.

Rеαⅾ оո ΚаtRеadiոɡСafе

The token was old bronze, with a rousing lion carved in the center. There were four hollowed-out gaps around the edges, revealing the gem set within.

Four-Square Rousing-Lion Bronze-with-Jade—that was the State Chancery’s token?

No—that jade inside… why was it blood-red?

Han Li stared at it, dazed, then noticed there was also a sword engraved over the lion’s head, point hanging straight down, pinning a cloud of mist beneath it.

A token he’d never seen in his life…

“Young man.” The old beggar gave him a smile. “It’s fine if you don’t understand. As long as your boss does.”

Han Li immediately thought of the “turnaround” Zhang Daoming had just mentioned.

Could it be…

“Tao Shuohua is the only daughter of Hantian Dao Lord Tao Muyun. Why do you think someone like that would come all the way to Qizhou to pledge herself to someone else?”

The old beggar “reminded” him.

“You don’t really think she’s just here to be her daughter’s bodyguard… do you?”

“You’re with the Demon-Suppression Office ?”

Han Li finally remembered.

Rumor had it that the State Governor had one special privilege: he could establish a Demon-Suppression Office in his jurisdiction.

It was just that this office was extremely secretive.

He’d lived this long and had never once seen it.