The highest-ranking officials in the various county seats of the Great Zhou Kingdom only consisted of a City Guard Captain and a Secretariat Director.
The Secretariat Director was in charge of civil administration and city management, holding the second-in-command seat, but his actual authority was much smaller than that of the City Guard Captain.
Therefore, Tian Youji was the actual power-holder of Linyuan City.
Chu Ge was also considered to be among the wealthy gentry tier within Linyuan City, so naturally he had some social interactions with City Guard Captain Tian Youji.
His paternal generation had even shared a very good relationship with Tian Youji in the past.
Thus, faced with Chu Ge's question, Tian Youji had no intention of concealing anything and truthfully disclosed some of the situation, even mentioning the news of the arrival of the lords from the Demon Suppressing Division.
"So that envoy is already heavily injured, and now there are lords from the Demon Suppressing Division pursuing him outward."
Chu Ge nodded slightly, a look of relief breaking out across his face. "Viewed this way, this Heaven and Earth Incense Cult envoy surely shouldn't have any more opportunities to stir up trouble."
"Rest assured, nephew. After this incident, this Heaven and Earth Incense Cult stronghold will also cease to exist, and Linyuan City's business environment will soon return to normal."
Tian Youji patted his chest, then continued, "However, nowadays, similar incidents have occurred in many small cities across the Great Zhou Kingdom.
It is not just this Heaven and Earth Incense Cult wreaking havoc, but also evildoers from the Yellow Turban Sect and the Blackwater Army.
Therefore, nephew, although you are a merchant, it is best for you not to slack off on your martial arts cultivation either. In this world, you only have money if you have fists!"
"Thank you for the warning, Lord Tian!" Chu Ge immediately clasped his fists in gratitude.
"This world is truly starting to get chaotic; one does indeed need strength to rely upon."
Hu Xuezhi shook his head with emotion, looked at Chu Ge, and said with gratification, "Chu Ge, you have talent and some family foundation, but in all matters you should remain steady and practice diligently. Even if you have ten parts of strength, only display seven parts in front of people, and above all avoid arrogance. In the future, your prospects may be boundless!"
There were some things he found inconvenient to spell out, fearing he might frighten his disciple—just like quite a few geniuses in the past who had been utterly arrogant, only to be captured in the end by the Divine Might Sect to be sacrificed to divine weapons, meeting a miserable end.
Upon hearing this, Chu Ge naturally maintained a calm expression on the surface as he received the instruction, while inwardly chuckling to himself.
He currently possessed the strength of the four-realm blood-exchange, yet what he displayed on the surface was merely being on the verge of breaking through the Bone Training Realm, which precisely echoed what Hu Xuezhi had said.
The group did not chat for long. Tian Youji and the others had all suffered injuries to varying degrees and needed to deal with their respective affairs, so they quickly parted ways.
As for Chu Ge, after informing Steward Zhang of the Wang Family about the various pieces of information Little Qin the runner had warned them of, he turned and left.
Wang Xiuyun had already been rescued by him and was currently safe.
Perhaps it wouldn't be long before she returned on her own accord.
Therefore, although the Wang Family was temporarily in a state of chaos, it would soon stabilize again with Wang Xiuyun's return.
From this confrontation between both sides, Chu Ge could see that although Tian Youji had the upper hand in terms of intelligence, the enemy's strength had also exceeded expectations, leading to an inability to smoothly control the overall situation and still resulting in quite a few deaths and injuries.
However, although he hadn't been able to beat a drowning dog this time, he had hunted a few small puppies instead; right now, several corpses were lying inside the Dragon Clock, so it wasn't without gains.
Moreover, that so-called iron-skinned foreign envoy was heavily injured and would likely die at the hands of Lord Lin of the Demon Suppressing Division very soon, so he probably wouldn't have the chance to keep eyeing the many wealthy and influential households in the city either, rendering him, a major household, safe as well.
Thinking of this, Chu Ge felt a pleasant sensation and patted the thousands of taels of silver notes from the illicit gains he had plundered from Ding Ying and the others inside his lapel, sighing that this trip had been worthwhile and that he had quietly made a huge fortune.
"I wonder when Lord Lin of the Demon Suppressing Division will return. Perhaps I can get on familiar terms with him, and if there is an opportunity in the future, I can also try to join the Demon Suppressing Division."
On the return journey, Chu Ge calculated inwardly.
Although the Great Zhou Kingdom was currently in a state of decline, a starved camel was still bigger than a horse, and the Demon Suppressing Division it had founded gathered countless experts, supreme cultivation techniques, divine weapons, and resources.
Most crucially, unlike sects or lineages, the Demon Suppressing Division exerted the minimal degree of control over individuals; as long as one had merit, one could acquire supreme techniques and resources.
Therefore, Chu Ge had actually always felt that compared to sects and lineages, heading to the Demon Suppressing Division in the future might perhaps be a better path out.
Meanwhile.
Outside Linyuan City, within a gorge resembling bird wings.
The sky looked like a narrow strip of lead covering the tops of the two cliff walls, resembling a dizzying thread of sky.
The figure of a man wearing an iron token mask was rapidly leaping and traversing through the gorge, fleeing in a disheveled state while coughing up blood from time to time.
An hour ago, when he had attacked Linyuan City, he had been as high-spirited as could be; right now, he was just that disheveled and miserable.
Suddenly, sensing the murderous intent from behind assail him once more, his expression turned ugly, and immediately he vaulted out toward the side. His figure shot forward like an arrow, crossing several zhang of distance in a split second while the scenery of the cliff walls on both sides rapidly retreated.
Yet that killing aura was like tarsal maggots, clinging to him wherever he went; the moment he made the slightest unusual movement, he would be met with a thunderous strike.
This sensation was almost sickening enough to make him vomit blood, leaving him with no choice but to lunge forward and flee anew the instant he landed, darting in a flash across a dozen-odd zhang into a mountain path ahead of the gorge that was obscured by vines.
Yet by this point, he had also practically reached the physical limit of what he could muster in a single breath.
The iron-masked man realized things were turning ominous.
If this continued, even if the person behind him didn't strike, he would completely exhaust his strength.
"Ah! You push people too far—"
He roared wildly, his entire body's qi and blood roiling and condensing, his face instantly turning as red as a tomato. He abruptly whirled around and viciously slashed out with a saber.
With this single saber strike, his eyes shot forth unprecedented fierce rays, covered in blood vessels. He had stopped at nothing to pay an even greater price, stimulating his entire body's essence blood to unleash a strange-power secret technique.
Hum—!
The long saber flashed with an alien glow, and a wisp of strange power actually adhered to the thread-patterned blade edge.
Yet the next moment, a long spear suddenly lunged forward like a lightning strike, and upon the spearhead, a wisp of strange power also coiled, forming crackling electric arcs.
"The Demon Suppressing Division's One-Character Lightning Spear?!"
The iron-masked man abruptly widened his eyes, a sense of startled dread rising in his heart.
With a loud explosion of clang, this spear accurately and flawlessly struck the blade body, colliding with intense sparks and sending surging force-qi rippling in all directions.
The iron token man only felt a sharp pain in the web of his thumb, and the long saber slipped from his grasp. The next moment, a wave of intense pain violently struck his chest as flesh and blood flew; moreover, he was struck by the unstoppable force-qi of the spear tip, sending his body flying backward like a tattered sack of cloth.
With a bang, the iron-masked man heavily crashed into a hidden secret passage along the rear mountain path.
Dust and stone debris immediately scattered in all directions, rustling down.
Tap— Tap—
A pair of heavy black longboots landed on the ground, enveloped in an aura of formless force-qi that caused the diffused dust to scatter anew.
A middle-aged man dressed in a dark-gilded sparrow-pierced silver-tiger martial attire stood holding a spear, glaring coldly at the iron token envoy within the secret passage who was clearly beyond saving, and let out a cold snort.
"Demonic scoundrel! You deserve no pity! You exhausted all your strength just to flee here; it seems this place still has accomplices you rely upon? Let him come out."
"You... you will regret this."
The iron token envoy sneered as he stared at the middle-aged man, blood gushing from his chest, before suddenly roaring with all his might toward the depths of the secret passage.
"Lord Cang—"
The middle-aged man furrowed his brows, discerning something amiss from the iron token envoy's expression, and swiftly stepped forward, finishing him off with a single spear thrust.
The environment within the secret passage was dark and damp, the dark stone walls mottled with moisture stains and clinging to withered moss, yet no one emerged.
The middle-aged man pondered for a moment, then abruptly dismantled the long spear into two short spears, and emboldened by his high skill and bold artistry, slowly entered the secret passage.
Not long after walking, he reached an open cavern and abruptly came to a halt, staring with an ugly expression at the scene within a pit on the floor ahead.
He saw three small wooden coffins laid out startlingly inside the pit.
Within the coffins were three withered, terrifying heads resembling rotten pomelos, their hair disheveled.
In front of each head burned a small dish of lamp oil; they were actually able to burn while buried in the soil, and a fragrance that made one's hair stand on end wafted from the burning grease.
"A corpse-controller? A Flying Head Zombie?!"
The middle-aged man's pupils contracted, and he unconsciously took a step back.
Suddenly he felt the back of his neck grow chilly, as if some terrifying entity was breathing upon it, and a pair of eyes filled with malice stared fixedly at him.
"Die!—"
He roared furiously, suddenly crossing and sweeping out with the short spears in his hands.
Crack—
Lightning-like electric arcs instantly illuminated the surroundings.
A malevolent, disheveled, and gruesome giant head filled with evil intent appeared behind him, effortlessly taking flight to evade his tyrannical spear strike.
Suddenly, slippery, intestine-like things wrapped beneath the head lashed out like whips.
"Bang, bang!—"
After merely a few exchanges of blows, the short spears in the middle-aged man's hands were knocked flying, his body took hits, and he vomited blood as he was sent flying backward.
"Demon Suppressing Division Golden Sparrow Tiger Guard, you shouldn't have come here to throw away your life. This old man originally didn't want to start a massive slaughter so early."
Within the darkness, an icy voice rang out, accompanied by the ringing of life-taking bells, and instantly that evil Flying Head Zombie lunged forward once more.
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