Demon Slaying Division.
Old Man Yun was leisurely basking in the sun in the courtyard.
"What a pleasant day..."
Old Man Yun could not help sighing softly.
Bang!
A tremendous boom erupted.
The door to Old Man Yun's courtyard was shoved open.
The next second, Fang Yilin hurried inside.
"Golden-Robed Sir, something terrible has happened!"
"Lu Jun killed the pacification officer Xiao Yungui!"
"Hm?"
Old Man Yun was startled as well and quickly rose from his rocking chair.
That can't be right. Didn't that kid only kill demons?
How did he start killing people too?
"Tell me everything." Old Man Yun's expression darkened.
Fang Yilin sighed and explained the whole sequence of events.
"You're saying that Lu Jun and Li Tuo accepted a mission to kill the Skin-Peeling Ghost, and after successfully slaying the demon, Lu Jun discovered that the pacification officer had colluded with it and even concealed the truth? So, in a fit of rage, he killed him?"
Fang Yilin nodded. "That's right."
"Did you find any evidence that the pacification officer had colluded with the demon?"
"Nothing so far... But the man died horribly..." Fang Yilin only said that he had been beaten to death, leaving out the details. Xiao Yungui had been pounded into a mass of flesh by Lu Jun's fists.
Fang Yilin recalled the report that Xiao Yungui had been smashed into meat paste and shuddered.
Lu Jun was truly brutal!
"That kid... He should at least have left behind some evidence of the man's collusion with the demon!"
Old Man Yun raised his brows, then furrowed them.
Old Man Yun trusted Lu Jun's character, more or less.
If Xiao Yungui had not gone too far in colluding with the demon, Lu Jun would not have killed him outright.
As things stood, the matter was neither particularly serious nor entirely trivial.
The key was whether Xiao Yungui had someone backing him who would seek revenge.
If Xiao Yungui had no backer, Old Man Yun could handle it alone.
He could simply say that Xiao Yungui had interfered with the Demon Slayer Envoys' demon-slaying operation and that Lu Jun had killed him in the process, putting the matter behind them.
But if Xiao Yungui had someone backing him who insisted on a judicial trial, things would become troublesome.
Xiao Yungui's backer could insist that Lu Jun had killed the demon first and then murdered Xiao Yungui, who had not obstructed the demon-slaying at the time. Alternatively, they could claim that Lu Jun's official rank was too low and that he had violated the hierarchy and proper rites.
They could cling to those arguments and punish Lu Jun through private justice, accusing him of abusing his authority and handling a personal matter under the guise of public duty.
Then Lu Jun's situation would become rather dire.
Old Man Yun continued, "Does Xiao Yungui have someone behind him?"
Fang Yilin hesitated, but answered anyway. "The current Commander of the Guards is his uncle..."
Old Man Yun's expression changed. He immediately stood up. "Let's go. We're taking the man!"
Fang Yilin instantly understood what Old Man Yun intended.
Cases in Dagan Prefecture were generally tried in one of two places.
One was the prefect's office, which handled ordinary cases.
The other was the Demon Slaying Division, which handled cases involving demons.
Lu Jun's killing could be said to be related to demons, or it could be treated as an ordinary Law Seeker's murder case. After all, Lu Jun had killed the man only after killing the demon.
It was a full-blown Schrödinger's case.
It all came down to who seized the man first.
Whichever side took him, that side would conduct the trial.
If Lu Jun were tried by the prefect, his doom would be set in stone.
Being tried by the Demon Slaying Division at least left him a sliver of hope.
Old Man Yun was certainly not going to agree to that.
It had taken him great effort to find such a promising talent.
He had invested so much!
Old Man Yun could not bear to watch Lu Jun be ruined just like that, and immediately dashed down the mountain.
At that moment, Yunzhou, the Xiao residence.
Two hours had already passed since Lu Jun killed Xiao Yungui.
Everyone who was supposed to receive the news had received it.
The courtyard of the Xiao residence still bore the traces of Lu Jun's earlier battle.
Broken walls and ruined buildings, a devastated entrance.
Lu Jun sat cross-legged amid the rubble, silent-faced, his eyes slightly lowered. The hem of his black robe swayed gently in the rich autumn breeze.
Li Tuo had been frightened by the enormous display of force and crouched beside Lu Jun with a faint tremble in his body.
"What should we do now..." When confronted with a crisis, Li Tuo actually became somewhat at a loss.
Lu Jun merely instructed him softly, "I alone carried out everything in this matter. You won't be punished. Do your best to take Xu Xun away..."
Hundreds of armored soldiers surrounded Lu Jun and Li Tuo.
No one moved.
Nor did anyone dare make a sound!
Time continued to flow in that frozen atmosphere.
Suddenly, amid the solidified silence, the soldiers moved.
As their armor shifted, it produced crisp clashing sounds. They uniformly stepped aside, opening a path.
Lu Jun gently raised his eyes as well.
Standing before him was a burly, middle-aged man in silver armor, with fine, dense whiskers covering his cheeks and chin.
The man's vital energy surged. At a glance, he was clearly an extraordinary martial artist.
At that moment, the man glared at Lu Jun with a gloomy expression.
"You're the one who killed my nephew!"
"And what if I am..." Lu Jun replied softly.
"We had no grudge or enmity. Why did you kill him?" the middle-aged man barked.
"He had become tainted by demons and turned into a human traitor. Why couldn't he be killed?" Lu Jun answered indifferently. "Everyone under Heaven can be killed..."
"Tainted by demons? What evidence do you have!" the middle-aged man shouted at Lu Jun.
Lu Jun said nothing, silent as stone.
It was not that Lu Jun had no evidence. Xiao Yungui's legal wife—the woman currently wearing Xu Xun's skin—was the most crucial witness. She was clearly someone who knew the entire truth.
But Lu Jun obviously would not let the other side reveal the truth while he was surrounded on all sides.
"No evidence?" Seeing Lu Jun remain silent, the man immediately shouted harshly, "Then you murdered an official of the imperial court on your own authority!"
"Are you trying to rebel?"
The middle-aged man roared at Lu Jun, then abruptly raised his hand and ordered the crowd, "Men! Take him away!"
Lu Jun opened his eyes again and looked toward the middle-aged man.
"I can tell that your strength is not weak!"
"But relying on just you and the several hundred armored soldiers beside you, keeping me here will still be difficult."
"I'm not leaving not because I can't, but because I don't want to."
"Understand?" Lu Jun's voice was calm.
"Arrogant! You're merely a reserve who doesn't even count as a formal member of the Demon Slaying Division, yet you dare to be so insolent!" The veins on the middle-aged man's forehead throbbed. He abruptly raised his hand again. "Take him away!"
The surrounding officers hesitated for a moment, but still chose to approach Lu Jun.
Lu Jun closed his eyes and remained utterly still, but the True Qi throughout his body had already been mobilized.
On close inspection, one could see the currents of air around Lu Jun growing increasingly vigorous. The water flowing through the pond beside the artificial hill surged faster and faster. The silver mark between his brows flickered faintly, while his entire body radiated a profound, indestructible aura...
The divine ability throughout his body had already been activated, waiting to erupt.
"Ah, child..." an old, familiar voice rang out.
A trace of helplessness flashed across Lu Jun's face. The divine ability he had activated and the True Qi he had stirred up suddenly dissipated.
When he opened his eyes again, another figure had appeared before him.
The figure was not particularly tall. His hair and beard were completely white, and he wore a black robe.
"I'm truly sorry, Senior Yun..." Lu Jun said softly.
"It's nothing... But once we get back, you'll have to suffer for this..." Old Man Yun said.
"Yun Qingzhi... You're willing to offend me for his sake?" The middle-aged man looked at Old Man Yun in disbelief.
"Ah, Xiao Yugao, you're the Commander of the Guards of Yunzhou. Slaying demons and having your soldiers guard the homeland and defend the country are one and the same... How can one slay demons without shedding blood?"
"It's merely that yesterday it was his family's blood, while today it's your family's blood, and now you're unwilling... Why is only his family's blood allowed to flow, while your Xiao family's blood cannot?"
"Nonsense!" Xiao Yugao shouted furiously.
Old Man Yun smiled and ignored Xiao Yugao, instead speaking to himself.
"What happened here today is ultimately a case related to demons. I'll take him back to the Demon Slaying Division for handling. Does anyone object?"
Before you continue