Overseer Takes Office

The sun rose higher, and the heat blazed fiercely.

In the slanting shade of the trees, beneath the handcart, two sturdy Grey Jackals had just finished gnawing the bones. Now they lay there resting.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, they jolted awake.

"Whine~"

They let out low, helpless whimpers, shrinking themselves tightly into a ball and doing their best to reduce their presence.

They were not the only ones!

Just now, in the woods around this corpse-transport path, the carrion-eating beasts that had been watching the Corpse Burial Wasteland as usual, reluctant to leave, all fell silent in perfect unison. Those that had been trembling lowered their heads, not daring to make the slightest sound.

Because someone terrifying was coming.

Du En stood beneath the sun, silently stopping what he was doing and turning to look over.

The others also noticed the glaring anomaly one after another and grew tense.

Soon, two figures appeared in their field of vision.

One was He Bo, the Corpse Affairs Steward. The other was an unfamiliar young man.

Du En's eyes flickered slightly as he said, "The steward is here."

At that, the others all breathed a sigh of relief.

They had not actually seen He Bo in person before. When they had been assigned here, it had been a servant who conveyed the arrangements.

Only Du En had seen the man once, when he had initially demanded his wages.

Under his lead, the gravediggers put down their shovels and walked over to the two who had stopped. After giving them a slightly perfunctory salute, they silently waited.

Because they had not welcomed him with bowed heads and fawning greetings, He Bo's face immediately darkened, making the atmosphere turn cold and rigid. Ning Caize and the others belatedly realized what was happening and hurriedly bent their backs.

Only Du En continued standing there without moving, his expression unchanged.

The young man who had come with He Bo watched this scene, a trace of oddness surfacing in his eyes.

However, he did not say anything. He merely observed in silence.

The focus was still on He Bo.

The steward stopped at the edge of the wasteland. Disgust at the stench here showed in his eyes, along with a faint trace of nervous unease. Thus, he did not cross over directly or make any move to lecture them.

Still as ignorant of rank and status as ever. No wonder you can only live off carrion!

He thought resentfully. With a flick of his sleeve, he said gloomily, "Because quite a few incidents have happened recently, I've arranged an overseer for you."

After making the simple announcement, he did not want to see Du En again, so he simply turned his head away.

Turning to the young man, He Bo's tone softened slightly as he continued, "Ren Li, this is the current crew of gravediggers. There aren't many of them. Make them work, and if they dare disobey, beat them if they should be beaten, kill them if they should be killed. Don't hold back!"

His words sounded sinister, and Ning Caize and the others could not help breaking into a cold sweat.

Du En merely followed the momentum and looked over.

Ren Li was roughly twenty-three or twenty-four years old. At Peak Qi Refining, he stood ramrod straight, with star-bright brows and eyes. Dressed in blue-and-white silk robes, he looked nothing like someone who had come to serve as an overseer.

Especially since the overseer's position among the gravediggers had been disdainfully left vacant for so long...

No. Now that I look at it, there's clearly something strange. Perhaps the situation isn't as I previously understood?

Du En thought to himself. Then he said to Ren Li, "Du En, the foreman here. Welcome to your post, Overseer Ren."

Hearing the somewhat polite words, Ren Li merely nodded blandly. Aloof and cold, he showed no further response.

Clearly, he did not particularly care about Du En's attitude. He had simply grown used to seeing people bow and scrape along the way, so encountering someone neither servile nor overbearing had aroused a little curiosity and surprise.

This indifferent reaction left He Bo feeling somewhat regretful.

He had thought he could use the opportunity to egg Ren Li on into teaching Du En a lesson!

Therefore, He Bo said nothing more afterward and turned to leave very decisively.

Ren Li, the overseer, also showed no intention of immediately supervising the corpse-burial work.

Instead, he first looked around, seemingly searching for something.

Du En waved to the others, signaling them to return to their posts, while he himself fell into thought.

As it turned out, the stewards truly did not care about the Evil Cultivator's wanton behavior or Du En's role in fanning the flames. Still, it was not as though they had done nothing at all. At the very least, they had inserted an overseer among the gravediggers.

Although these overseers did not actually bear the responsibility of protecting the people beneath them, they were nevertheless openly stationed here. If anyone wanted to do something, they would first have to get around them.

However, if this had merely been a normal appointment, there would have been no need for He Bo to personally bring someone over.

At the same time, a normal overseer would not put on such an attitude of complete indifference toward his duties.

Harsh treatment without reason and increased exploitation—that was the norm for overseers!

"So they used this opportunity as an excuse and inserted him here under the pretext of a routine arrangement?"

Du En made a rough judgment. He needed to verify it in practice.

Thus, when Ren Li found a suitable spot and began moving, Du En also turned and followed behind him.

Ren Li suddenly stopped. His brows drew together, and without turning his head, he said, "What is it? I don't need people fussing over me. Besides, this person doesn't look like he knows the first thing about waiting on others."

He seemed somewhat displeased, and his voice was especially cold.

Du En remained calm and answered, "It's like this. Something happened here before, and I wasn't certain how to handle it. I just remembered the regulations that had previously existed in name only. It seems I'm supposed to report it to the overseer."

"Oh? You didn't report it to Steward He?"

Ren Li raised a brow. From what had just happened, he had already guessed that this place was probably in a state where the higher-ups despised the lower ranks, the lower ranks refused to flatter the higher-ups, and both sides loathed each other.

But he had not expected Du En to answer so bluntly: "No. If I went to report it, I'd only be made things difficult for or even falsely accused. Besides, the regulations don't say that we're allowed to report to the stewards."

That would count as reporting above one's level. It was not the normal procedure in the first place. If he truly did that, He Bo would certainly seize the opportunity to make things difficult for him.

Of course, given He Bo's attitude, if he learned that Du En had deliberately withheld something, he could also seize on that as an excuse!

So, did he notice something and deliberately offer me leverage, hoping to use it as a pledge of allegiance and curry favor by another route to improve his circumstances?

Ren Li was genuinely a little interested now, so he turned half his body to the side.

"Tell me about it first."

He could not help giving a cold laugh, clearly displeased by this sort of petty cleverness.

After all, if that sort of scheme really succeeded, would that not mean he was being treated like an idiot and used as a weapon?

Although the saying went that one should look at the master before beating the dog, where was this dog's master?

Facing the cold, displeased look Ren Li revealed, Du En showed no fear or panic. He simply told him about Zhang Song.

It was the fellow who had disguised himself as a corpse, attempting to massacre the gravediggers, only to be worn to death by the turning wheels of the cart in the end.