Lu Chen reached out and clamped a hand around Fu An's neck. He lifted him off the ground like a little chicken.
"Talk. Where did Foreman Wang get that painting?"
"I... I don't know... I don't know anything..."
Fu An thrashed violently in his grip, his face turning liver-purple from lack of air.
"Is that so?" A flicker of icy disappointment crossed Lu Chen's eyes. "Then you're no use to me."
He tightened his five fingers, ready to crush the man's throat.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!" The fear of death finally shattered Fu An's last defense. He forced a few words out of his throat. "It... it was at the South City Black Market... A... a seller wearing a... Ghost Face Mask..."
"Ghost Face Mask?" Lu Chen's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
"Crack."
Fu An's neck lolled limply to one side, the last light in his eyes extinguished.
Lu Chen casually tossed his corpse to the ground, then turned his gaze to the guards who had long since collapsed in terror and could no longer even hold their weapons.
"You lot. Do you want to live, or die?"
"Live! We want to live! Spare us, sir! We didn't see anything!"
When Captain Li and Deputy Commander Liu hurried to Anle Duke's Mansion with a large force, this was the scene that greeted them.
Lu Chen stood alone at the entrance to the study, now reduced to ruins, a long saber at his waist. At his feet lay the corpse of the steward, Fu An, staring at the sky with unclosed eyes.
The few guards from the Duke's Mansion knelt behind him like the most loyal dogs, trembling.
"Lu Chen!" Captain Li took in the wreckage strewn across the ground and the iron door that had been smashed open by force. His pupils contracted sharply. "What happened here?"
"Reporting to you, Captain." Lu Chen cupped his hands in salute, neither servile nor arrogant, his voice even. "During my inspection, I found that the iron door had been locked from the outside. The Duke's Mansion steward, Fu An, conspired with a demon to trap and kill me here. I had no choice but to fight back, slay the Demon Painting, and break out. Fu An took his own life out of guilt. I captured the rest."
In just a few words, he had established the nature of the incident.
Captain Li was no fool. He grasped the whole story in an instant, and his face darkened until it seemed water might drip from it.
"Wang Defa!" He forced the name out between clenched teeth, murderous intent flashing in his eyes. "Good! What a steward of the Demon Suppression Division! He dares conspire with demons and murder a fellow officer! This is sheer lawlessness!"
He abruptly waved a hand and ordered the Imperial Guards behind him, "By my command! Seal off the Demon Suppression Division at once and arrest Wang Defa, steward of the Corpse Handling Room! If he resists, kill him without mercy!"
"Yes, sir!"
Several Imperial Guards acknowledged the order, then shot off toward the Demon Suppression Division like streaks of black lightning.
Captain Li strode over to Lu Chen. Seeing him dusty but otherwise unhurt, he wore an expression of utter complexity.
"You... all right?"
"Thank you for your concern, sir. I'm unharmed." Lu Chen shook his head, then took an item from inside his robes and handed it over. "From Fu An's confession, I learned that Wang Defa was the mastermind. He bought the Demon Painting from a mysterious seller wearing a Ghost Face Mask at the South City Black Market."
He placed the [Annihilation Demon Eyes] taken from the Stone-Skinned Soul-Peering Demon in Captain Li's hand.
"I suspect this is connected to the evil presence at Ghost Face Slope."
Captain Li took the demonic eyes, which radiated an ominous aura. Feeling the strange power within them, his expression grew even graver.
He gave Lu Chen a long, deep look, and for the first time, there was an inscrutable weight in his eyes.
"Well done," Captain Li said gravely. "I'll investigate this personally. You've earned another great merit. The Demon Suppression Division won't treat you unfairly."
He paused, then spoke in a tone that brooked no argument. "As of today, you are a Deputy Commander in the Imperial Guard Camp, equal in rank to Liu Quan. You'll also... temporarily take over Wang Defa's post as steward of the Corpse Handling Room."
The moment those words were spoken, the whole crowd was stunned!
Deputy Commander, and steward of the Corpse Handling Room!
It was an unprecedented promotion in the history of the Demon Suppression Division!
The warning bells rang throughout the Demon Suppression Division.
Squads of Imperial Guards clad in heavy armor and carrying long halberds sealed off every entrance and exit, their faces expressionless. The usually noisy training grounds were now so quiet that a pin could be heard dropping.
By then, the Corpse Handling Room had already been deserted.
Foreman Wang's office, usually kept fairly tidy, had been ransacked. Tables and chairs lay overturned, and teaware was shattered across the floor. He had clearly fled in a great hurry.
"Where is he?" one Imperial Guard Squad Leader asked with a frown.
"Reporting, sir. We've searched everywhere. There's no sign of Wang Defa anywhere in the Corpse Handling Room!"
"Hmph. That sewer rat can move fast!"
Deputy Commander Liu's face was grim. He glanced at Lu Chen, who stood beside him looking so calm he might have had nothing to do with the matter, and asked solemnly, "Deputy Commander Lu, what do you think?"
The title "Deputy Commander Lu" came naturally, instantly setting Lu Chen apart from everyone else present.
Lu Chen didn't look at the scattered clutter. Instead, his gaze slowly swept over the room he knew better than any other.
At last, it stopped on an inconspicuous clay basin in the corner, used for dumping medicinal dregs.
Through his [Eye of Delusion Breaking], he saw a thread of yin baleful energy, so faint it was almost nonexistent, stretching from the bottom of the basin deep into the earth.
"A rat, naturally, has a rat hole."
Lu Chen said it lightly, then walked over to the basin and brought his foot down in an apparently casual stomp.
"Crack!"
The basin shattered.
But the flagstone beneath it rang with a dull, distinctly metallic note.
Deputy Commander Liu's eyes sharpened. He immediately understood and waved to the Imperial Guards behind him. "Pry it open!"
Several Imperial Guards rushed forward and heaved together with their long halberds.
"Rumble!"
The entire flagstone flipped open, revealing a pitch-black, bottomless passage, just wide enough for one person!
A foul stench of damp earth, mold, and blood surged up from the opening.
"There really is a secret passage!" the crowd cried.
"I'll take a look." Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Chen took a torch from one of the Imperial Guards and prepared to leap down.
"Brother Lu, don't!" Deputy Commander Liu grabbed him. "Your position is different now. You can't put yourself in danger! Leave a small matter like this to the men below!"
"It's fine." Lu Chen shook his head, his gaze calm. "I fattened this rat up. It's only right that I kill it with my own hands."
Ignoring Deputy Commander Liu's protests, he blurred into motion and slipped soundlessly into the seemingly bottomless passage, light as a civet.
Deputy Commander Liu watched him disappear. His expression grew complicated, but in the end he could only issue a grave order. "Seal off this place. No one is to come near! The rest of you, follow me!"
He understood perfectly well that Lu Chen was settling old scores—and asserting his authority.