Sweeping Operations Beyond the City

A crisp slap echoed through the Corpse Handling Room.

Zhang Mazi was sent spinning half a turn on the spot. Half his face swelled rapidly before the naked eye, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

"What the hell are you? You dare lay a hand on my man?" Foreman Wang pointed at Zhang Mazi's nose and roared each word through gritted teeth, spittle spraying across his face.

"From today onward, Lu Chen's business is my business! Whoever dares trouble him again is picking a fight with me, Wang Defa! Get the hell out!"

Zhang Mazi and his two companions were scared out of their wits. They scrambled and crawled their way out of the Corpse Handling Room.

For a moment, only Lu Chen and Foreman Wang remained in the room.

The rage on Foreman Wang's face swiftly faded, replaced by a genial smile that looked even uglier than crying.

He walked over to Lu Chen and warmly patted him on the shoulder, this time keeping his strength well under control.

"Lu Chen, don't stoop to the level of those idiots. You're a capable fellow. From now on, just focus on working for... working for me. I guarantee that no one in this Demon Suppression Division will dare bully you."

"Thank you, Foreman Wang." Lu Chen put on a perfectly timed expression of tearful gratitude.

"Mm." Foreman Wang nodded in satisfaction. This was exactly the effect he wanted.

"Oh, right. Captain Li has given orders to specially permit you to leave the Corpse Handling Room and accompany the investigation. The site where that Imperial Guard died is still sealed off. Captain wants you... to take another look at the scene and see whether you can uncover more clues about that Ranked Demon!"

Leave the Corpse Handling Room?

Lu Chen's heart stirred slightly.

This was an opportunity.

An opportunity to legally and properly access more information about demons, perhaps even gain more sources of corpses.

He suppressed his thoughts. His face still wore that overwhelmed, frightened look as he bowed. "This subordinate... this subordinate accepts the order! It's only that this subordinate is insignificant and weak, unable to even tie up a chicken. I fear I may hold all of you lords back..."

"Hmph. If you're told to go, then go. Why all the damn nonsense?" Foreman Wang impatiently cut him off, though a trace of satisfaction flashed through his eyes.

What he wanted was Lu Chen looking obedient and utterly nonthreatening.

"Stay close, look less, ask less, and do more!" Foreman Wang tossed out those words before turning and striding outside.

Lu Chen hurriedly followed him out of the Corpse Handling Room, a place that never saw the light of day.

This was the first time since arriving in this world that he had truly stepped beyond his own little patch of ground.

Beyond the Demon Suppression Division, the streets of Nanling Prefecture City buzzed and boiled with life. Crowds flowed like weaving threads, vendors cried their wares, carriages clattered past, and children laughed and played, all blending into the vivid warmth of mortal life.

Yet when Foreman Wang led Lu Chen and several other grim-faced Imperial Guards onto the street, the lively atmosphere seemed to be cleaved apart in an instant by an invisible blade.

The common people saw the black fitted uniforms they wore, symbols of slaughter and ill omen.

Especially when they caught the faint, chilling aura emanating from Lu Chen, an aura formed from dwelling among corpses year after year, their faces changed in horror.

They retreated to either side as though avoiding vipers and scorpions, forcefully opening a wide path through what had been a packed street.

Foreman Wang thoroughly enjoyed this. He straightened his back, looking pleased with himself.

All along the way, he boasted to Lu Chen and the accompanying Imperial Guards about how he had recognized talent with his discerning eye and nurtured the younger generation. Between the lines, he subtly claimed for himself the credit for discovering the crucial clue of the Black Claw Heart Rot Sha.

On the surface, the Imperial Guards showered him with praise, repeatedly calling him "Steward Wang, wise indeed." Yet deep in their gazes lay a faint, barely perceptible disdain.

And whenever their eyes happened to pass over Lu Chen at the rear of the group, that disdain became even more naked—the ingrained contempt reserved for the profession of a corpse handler.

Lu Chen kept his head lowered and silently followed at the end of the group, taking it all in without the slightest ripple in his heart.

Once they passed beyond the towering walls of Nanling Prefecture City, the landscape abruptly turned desolate.

Abandoned farmlands stretched along both sides of the broad official road. Waist-high wild grass swayed in the wind, rustling softly.

Mountain ridges rose and fell in the distance, shrouded in a blanket of gray mist that made them appear dark and gloomy.

The air gradually filled with a faint mingled odor of rotting vegetation and the fishy scent of earth and stone, laced with an almost imperceptible trace of demonic miasma.

The mood of the group instantly grew grave.

The Imperial Guards, who had still been forcing smiles moments before, now shut their mouths. Their expressions turned wary, and their right hands unconsciously settled on the hilts of their sabers.

The group fell silent. Only heavy footsteps remained, along with the faint clatter of armor plates rubbing together.

Lu Chen silently sensed the changes in the surrounding environment, gaining a more direct—and colder—understanding of this world's dangers.

After traveling for roughly half an hour, the group stopped before an abandoned village at the foot of a mountain.

A crude wooden fence enclosed the village entrance. Two Imperial Guards left behind to keep watch immediately stepped forward and saluted them, their expressions solemn.

The entire village lay in ruins, with charred wooden beams scattered everywhere. It had clearly suffered a fire not long ago.

The lingering aura of the Black Claw Heart Rot Sha—cold, bleak, and deathly—was especially dense here.

Although the main body of the Sha Poison had dissipated with the demon's departure, this contaminated field of energy still made ordinary people feel tight in the chest, short of breath, and unsettled in spirit.

One Imperial Guard took out a bundle of specially made incense from his robes and lit it. A strange fragrance blending sandalwood and medicinal herbs spread through the air, dispersing some of the chill.

The moment Foreman Wang stepped into the village entrance, he could not help pinching his nose. With a disgusted expression, he hid in a relatively clean open area and pointed from afar toward the center of the village.

"Lu Chen, go! At the place where Li Si fell, take another damn thorough look! See whether that beast left behind any hair, scales, or anything else! Don't miss a single corner!"

"Yes." Lu Chen answered respectfully and headed alone toward the center of the village.

The closer he came to the center, the denser the Killing Intent became.

Lu Chen stepped into the scene. A fierce battle had taken place here. Several claw marks, deep enough to expose bone, scarred the ground. Dark brown blood was splattered across a half-collapsed earthen wall, long since congealed and blackened.

Without drawing attention, he circulated the Turtle Breath Technique. A thread of inner qi within his dantian slowly flowed, resisting the pervasive, bone-chilling Killing Intent.

At the same time, nourished by that inner qi, his five senses became sharper than usual.

But that was not enough.

Lu Chen had to find something that neither Foreman Wang nor those Imperial Guards could discover. Only then could he further secure his value as a "tool."