Can't I Cultivate Myself?

After advancing to the Second Tier, the Demon Spirit gained a special ability: it could hide beneath someone else's shadow and act from there.

The restriction was that "Lin Qi" could not be too far away.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang!!!

The Demon Spirit, appearing out of nowhere, began unleashing a frenzied barrage on Adler. Its swinging fists became afterimages as they slammed into Adler's cheeks. It was too fast—there was no way to count how many punches it threw!

At last, Adler's swollen body rapidly contracted. The Demon Spirit threw one final punch, sending him flying into the wall at the edge of the Clock Tower.

Ryan walked over and fired several more shots at the seemingly dead Adler. Then he picked him up and threw him off the Clock Tower.

"Goodbye, my dark past."

Nearly fourteen thousand words across two chapters. Please subscribe! Please support me!!!

Marganna: Ryan, Nice to Meet You. Ryan: ? [5k5!] ### Bang!

Adler's body hit the ground like a pile of mush.

From such a height, even if he had not already been dead, he would have been thoroughly finished by that fall.

Ryan stood at the edge of the Clock Tower. He tilted his head up at a forty-five-degree angle, closed his eyes, and spread his arms, savoring this moment of peace.

Finally, cleared his name!

The greatest threat to his identity knowing the truth was dead. Next, he only needed to find a way to deal with Kaisa. Besides, Kaisa was merely an ordinary Singer within the Hand of Darkness. Probably no one even paid attention to her.

Truthfully, Ryan did not care whether he was white or black. The key was that he did not want to pick a side.

If it were an Alt Account joining Grand Duke Marganna, that would be fine. He could directly shout, "Grand Duke, I'll love you forever!"

If an Alt Account died, he could just make another one. There was even a chance to inherit the original class once through changing classes after death. But if his main body died, it would be game over for good.

That was why Adler had to die!

At the top of the Clock Tower, "Lin Qi" controlled the Demon Spirit as it stood behind him.

This brief moment seemed especially beautiful and sacred—until movement came from below the Clock Tower. Princess Cassidy, drawn over by the battle just now, had discovered Adler's body, smashed into a pulp.

"Dead?"

Cassidy cautiously examined him and confirmed that Adler was truly dead.

She looked up and met Ryan's gaze as he peered down from above.

"Ryan? What is he doing up there?"

Ryan hiding in the Clock Tower had certainly not been ordered by Cassidy. In theory, he belonged to the League of Fire, and only Jonathan had the authority to give him orders.

Therefore, Cassidy had not expected Ryan to do anything in the entire plan. His role had merely been to mislead Adler and help lure him out.

After leaving the church and arriving at the Coffee Shop, Ryan had left behind several police officers before departing.

"Was it Jonathan's order? Or..."

With Adler dead, half the meaning of this operation had been lost. The words "silencing a witness" instinctively came to her mind, but it felt impossible. After all, Ryan belonged to the League of Fire. Then another head appeared, and when Cassidy saw "Lin Qi," she completely dismissed the thought.

After all, with "Lin Qi" there too, it was impossible for the two of them to have conspired to silence a witness together, right?

One was from the League of Fire, and one was from the Gate of Janus. If both of them had problems, Adler would have ruled Berman City long ago.

"Behave yourself!"

Jonathan's voice rang out.

Behind her, the Level 3 Investigator, covered in injuries, was dragging Kasa over.

When he saw Cassidy, he grinned. "Your Highness, we caught this guy."

"You've worked hard." Cassidy sighed softly. "It's a pity Adler died."

"Hm? Dead? How could he... fall to his death?"

A while later, Ryan and "Lin Qi" came down.

"Ryan, why are you here too?" Jonathan froze. He had thought Ryan had stayed at the Coffee Shop to deal with those Believers.

"I followed Miss Lin Qi here," Ryan said. "Originally, we were just waiting to see if we could help with anything. Who knew Adler would suddenly show up? So Miss Lin Qi and I beat him up... ah, no, fought him together."

Jonathan glanced at the silent Cassidy and inwardly thought that things were not good. He hurriedly crouched down to carefully inspect Adler's condition. There were several bullet holes in Adler's body, but for a Third Tier Transcendent, wounds of that level definitely would not have killed him.

Not to mention Adler was a Soul Eater, thick-skinned and durable. He had not even died after taking Cassidy's sword head-on.

So the whole sequence must have been that Princess Cassidy seriously wounded Adler and he fled. Then, unexpectedly, he ran into Miss Lin Qi and Ryan halfway. With Ryan's help, Miss Lin Qi successfully killed Adler... Jonathan silently pondered.

He stood and said, "Your Highness, before falling, he should have suffered an extremely severe beating."

In other words, he had not been killed by Ryan's revolver.

"Miss Lin Qi, did you do this?" He looked at "Lin Qi" again.

"Lin Qi" nodded. "Yes, I killed Adler. I was the one who punched him down. Is there a problem?"

"I also fired a few extra shots," Ryan said.

Jonathan's face darkened. "No one will mistake you for a mute if you keep your mouth shut. Do you think killing Adler counts as an achievement?"

"Your Highness, then this..."

"Enough." Cassidy waved a hand. "Since he's dead, there's nothing to be done."

How could she not see that Jonathan was making excuses for Ryan? But Adler was already dead, and there was no point in pursuing anyone's responsibility. Besides, in that situation, neither Lin Qi nor Ryan had any choice. If they had not struck hard, they might have been the ones to die.

Still, understanding it was one thing. She could not help feeling some regret.

This had been their best opportunity.

"Jonathan, I'm heading back first. Take him away and lock him up, then interrogate him thoroughly." Cassidy said, "Lin Qi, Ryan, see you later."

Having tossed out those words, Cassidy was the first to leave.

She still had other matters to handle.

"I should be going too."

'Lin Qi' turned and left.

Soon, only Ryan, Jonathan, and the unconscious Kasa remained.

Once he saw that no one else was around, Jonathan finally let out a breath of relief. "Thank goodness, thank goodness. Her Highness didn't make trouble over it."

"What would Her Highness make trouble over?"

"You brat, aren't you usually pretty sharp? Couldn't you tell that Her Highness the Princess was in a bad mood just now? This was a capture operation, not an execution operation. Otherwise, why would she have gone to such great lengths?"

"You mean Her Highness might blame us over Adler's death? No way." Ryan spread his hands. "Miss Lin Qi and I were acting in self-defense. Besides, if we hadn't stopped him, he probably would have escaped."

"That may be true, but sometimes reason doesn't care about reason. Understand?"

Ryan said, "My heart and my actions are all for justice."

Jonathan: "..."

Rolling his eyes, he said irritably, "Then go be righteous. Anyway, Adler was killed by Miss Lin Qi. She's Her Highness's friend, and she's with the Gate of Janus, so Her Highness won't do anything to her. But you... that's another matter."

What's wrong with me? I was once someone who rode Her Highness herself.

Still, Ryan was quite grateful that Jonathan would say such things for him. The old man really was a good person. Strange, though—why did he have no impression of such a good character from the game?

Wait... it was not like he had no impression at all.

Ryan frowned in thought, feeling as if he was about to remember something, but his memories were simply too vague.

"What are you thinking about?" Jonathan slapped Ryan hard on the back. "Quit spacing out. Bring him along too. Let's clean up this mess first."

"Mm... okay."

Strange. There seemed to have been a storyline involving Jonathan in the game, but why could he not remember it? Was it too short for him to notice?

The feeling of being unable to recall it was unbearably frustrating. Ryan could only set it aside for now and try to think it over properly when he had time.

That afternoon, the Bureau of Investigation announced the death of Secretary-General Adler.

The moment the news came out, the entire Empire... no, Berman City, fell into turmoil yet again.

This time was unlike before. Adler had been the Grand Duke Marganna Faction's representative in Berman City. With his death, their leader was gone just like that, and everything below immediately descended into chaos.

Cassidy had to be said to be quite clever. Seeing this, she began arranging for people to secretly monitor the changes in the situation, hoping to analyze Adler's faction from scattered clues.

Ryan did not care much about that. So what if Cassidy figured out it was Marganna? As long as she did not find out about him, it was fine.

A clean slate. Completely clean!

Goodbye, Grand Duke Marganna.

However, this incident became even bigger than the previous ones. Those crazy believers from the Hand of Darkness had engaged in a gunfight, battling until the skies darkened and the earth shook. Central City was also where Noble Merchants lived, so afterward, a whole group of people went to the Bureau of Investigation demanding answers. One after another, they insisted that Ryan focus on improving public security management and assign more personnel to resolve Central City's safety issues.

Put simply, they felt unsafe.

Ryan could not be bothered with them. Though he was not a noble, he did have a bit of a background, so those minor nobles could do nothing to him.

But Adler's death had been far too suspicious. He had attended Mass with the princess and the mayor, only to become a corpse shortly afterward. It was only natural for people to be suspicious.

Cassidy was not suited to appear publicly in this matter. They could not tell the public that Her Highness the Princess wanted to deal with Adler, so the matter became tied to the evidence of Adler's crimes.

Fortunately, that part was not too troublesome. His connection to the Hand of Darkness was indisputable. Secretly cooperating with Heretics alone was enough to get him executed a hundred times over, not to mention the many "good deeds" he had done over the years as Secretary-General.

But direct evidence was not easy to find. Then Ryan had a flash of inspiration and launched a campaign within the Municipal Office for people to report Adler's crimes.

The report box was immediately stuffed full.

He had figured that after all the dirty work Adler had done over the years, he must have worked with plenty of others. There were so many nobles in Berman City, and at least thirty percent of them had likely been involved. Now, every one of them feared for themselves and desperately wanted to distance themselves from Adler.

So once the reporting campaign began, all the dirty water was immediately poured onto Adler.

And as for those accusations, they were all made by major figures in the municipal government. Never mind whether they were true or not—when this Director and that Minister all came forward to report him, could there possibly be no problem?

Ryan gathered all this evidence of Adler's crimes to serve as evidence for his trial. After all, Adler had been both Secretary-General and a noble. His death required a ruling from the Empire's Court of Justice before an official judgment of his crimes could be issued.

The Bureau of Investigation was only responsible for making arrests and filing charges. Convicting people was not Ryan's responsibility.

But this alone was not enough. The accusations from those nobles did not actually have any substantive evidence, because the evidence would implicate them as well.

"Search the house!" When Ryan asked Captain Jonathan how to deal with Adler afterward, the latter answered without hesitation, "That guy definitely had direct evidence in his home. Take some men and search the place. While you're at it, see if there's anything that can prove his identity. Give it to Her Highness the Princess as soon as possible. The sooner she figures things out, the sooner she can leave Berman City."

Ryan was suddenly enlightened.

"Just as expected of Captain Jonathan. Hearing your words was better than hearing nothing at all."

How had he not thought of searching the house?

As a Third Tier Transcendent, Adler must have kept plenty of good stuff at home.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm warning you—don't do anything stupid. The higher-ups are watching this case. You can pocket a little, but don't swallow everything."

"Captain, what are you talking about? Why can't I understand a word? How could I possibly hide anything? I'm a law-abiding citizen recognized by all Imperial Citizens."

Captain Jonathan said nothing, but he was definitely rolling his eyes.

After hanging up, Ryan immediately gathered his men and charged toward Adler's home.

On the very day Adler died, Ryan had people take control of his family. They were now all confined inside the villa. When Ryan arrived with his men, the Police Officer guarding the entrance immediately came over.

"Captain."

"Mm. How's the situation?"

"They're all inside. Adler's wife, his mistress, his younger mistress, and one child."

"Keeping mistresses so openly when he was the Secretary-General? He's disgracing the Imperial Noble class."

The people beside him said nothing, but they were all thinking the same thing: wasn't this just everyday life for Imperial Nobles?

Adler was actually fairly restrained. Some kept more than a dozen at home. Others kept men, kept Slaves—there was every kind of vice.

They had been Police Officers for so many years, and sometimes when they encountered murder cases, the victims had simply been played to death by those Noble Lords.

For cases like that, it was basically just Fuck and done. There was nothing to investigate, and even if they did investigate, it was useless. No one would care, and they themselves might end up in trouble afterward.

"You all stay outside. I'll go in and take a look," Ryan told the others. "What if there's important evidence of a crime? If you lot fumble around and ruin it, there'll be trouble."