County Office

Biodata

Organization and Duties

• County Magistrate Lin Youwei — governs Qiulin County’s civil and military affairs and bears responsibility for dealing with demons. He is a seventh-rank court official, but not a martial artist 43.
• County Assistant Zhong Baiyu — an eighth-rank court official. He and Lin Youwei are the office’s only two registered court officials 49.
• County Lieutenant Hu Dongxing — supervises criminal investigators, intervenes in disputes over demon cases, and oversees interrogations and prison security 7 34 47.
• Criminal Investigation Department — investigates crimes through its chief, head constables, and constables. Its officers claim jurisdiction over a demon that commits a crime within the county 7 29 34.
• Patrol Division — an armed county force established to counter demon incursions. Its claim to handle demons within the city puts it in competition with the criminal investigators for kills and corpses 6 7.
• Martial arts instruction — Master Yuan, sent from the prefecture, guides the county’s constables in martial arts 10.

Demon Cases and Rewards

• Constables can send slain demons’ corpses to the Demon Suppression Bureau and receive contribution points, exchangeable for money, cultivation resources, and techniques. Exchanged manuals cannot be passed on 27.
• Demon corpses are valuable enough to cause a confrontation between the Patrol Division and criminal investigators after Shen Lin kills an Ape Demon; Hu Dongxing intervenes and takes charge of the corpse 7.
• The court does not automatically compensate fallen constables without official rank. Hu Dongxing asks demon-slayers to share their rewards with bereaved families; after the Xiangyang Mountain case, he orders additional compensation for the dead constables’ families 8 34.

Notable Cases

• Xiangyang Mountain — after four investigating constables fail to return, Chief Qian sends Shen Lin to investigate a mangled corpse. Shen Lin brings a captured demon cultivator back to the office; the victim is identified as the magistrate’s nephew, and Hu Dongxing interrogates the prisoner 29 34.
• The Flying Thief — the office investigates thefts from wealthy households. When Inspector Cheng Yi is caught as the thief, Lin Youwei brings in Li and Zhang family retainers to help guard the prison and orders Cheng Yi’s execution under pressure from the robbed families 11 47.
• Prison break — fires draw constables away from the office on the night before Cheng Yi’s execution. Hu Dongxing suspects a diversion and recalls them, but Shen Lin enters the prison, defeats its defenders, and rescues Cheng Yi 49 50.

Internal Problems

• Sun Zhi’s dealings with demons compromise cases handled by the office; his repeated visits to Baoshan Village end with reports blaming villagers’ disappearances on wild beasts 3 38.
• Shen Lin suspects higher-level collusion after a reported demon stronghold is found abandoned and the head constable who discovered it is later found dead 28.
• Lin Youwei’s decision to use family retainers as prison guards reflects his loss of confidence in Hu Dongxing after a captured demon cultivator is killed during an earlier investigation 35 47.