"Enough blathering. That laugh of yours is awful!"
Chen Fan muttered to himself.
He shook the Demon Blood off his Embroidered Spring Blade, sheathed it, and strode to the village entrance. Then he called out:
"Fellow villagers, the wolf demons wreaking havoc here have all been slain by my hand."
"I am Chen Fan, a Jinyiwei of Ping'an County, and the slayer of demons!"
With that, he swung onto his horse and rode away.
One by one, numb figures emerged from every corner. They watched the figure galloping away, and gradually, the light returned to their eyes!
Black Stone Town.
Wang Chao had told Chen Fan and the others to gather here after completing their patrol assignments.
Chen Fan was the last to arrive. When Wang Chao saw him return, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, but it was quickly eclipsed by relief.
"Brother Chen Fan made it back safely. We can all head back now!"
"Brother Chen Fan, did everything go smoothly on your trip to Black Bear Gully Village?"
Wang Chao asked.
"It went well enough. It's just that a pack of wolf demons ate more than half the villagers in Black Bear Gully Village."
"I happened to kill seven wolf demons there and brought back their tails. Head Wang, do you think these seven tails might be enough to get me a Jinyiwei Xiaoqi Officer position?"
Chen Fan smiled faintly and fixed his gaze on Wang Chao as he asked.
"Heh, heh."
"Of course they would."
Wang Chao gave an awkward, sheepish smile.
He was so flustered that he didn't even ask the question on his mind.
How could a Martial Artist who had only just entered the Spirit Concealment Realm Second Pass have killed seven wolf demons?
"Head Wang, did you know there were wolf demons lurking in Black Bear Gully Village?"
At last, Chen Fan asked what he had been wondering.
At his words, the others all turned to look at Wang Chao.
Thankfully, Chen Fan had run into those seven wolf demons. If any of them had been in his place, they would likely have ended up as the demons' next meal.
The patrol assignments had been set by Head Wang himself.
This... was terrifying to think about!
"You five go on ahead. Brother Chen Fan and I may have had a misunderstanding. I'll explain things to him."
Wang Chao looked at the other five and spoke.
"Yes, sir!"
After exchanging glances, the five mounted up and rode off toward Ping'an County.
Wang Chao looked at Chen Fan and saw that Chen Fan's gaze never left him. He grew increasingly uneasy. After a long inner struggle, he dismounted and dropped to his knees with a thud.
"Brother Chen Fan, I wronged you. Do whatever you want with me—kill me or carve me up!"
"Head Wang, have you also colluded with the Demonic Creatures?"
"I always thought of you as an older brother."
"A few days ago, when I was gravely wounded and at death's door, you knelt and begged Head Zhang of the Third Squad to bring the Wild Boar Demon from the foot of Black Mountain to the Jinyiwei Training Ground. You wanted to fulfill my dying wish and let me kill a demon with my own hands before I died."
"It was that surge of courage I felt after killing a demon with my own hands that let me break through. I didn't just overcome the life-and-death pass; my strength increased tremendously. I've always remembered what you did for me."
"But why are you trying to harm me now?"
Chen Fan spoke in a low voice, his expression calm.
Without Wang Chao kneeling for him, Chen Fan wouldn't be where he was today. A man's knees were worth their weight in gold, and Wang Chao had been willing to go that far for him. Chen Fan had been deeply moved.
Although Chen Fan's strength now far surpassed Wang Chao's, he still respected the older man.
But what Wang Chao had done today had truly chilled him to the bone.
He had tried to send Chen Fan to his death with his own hands!
If Chen Fan hadn't possessed the Golden Finger and grown by leaps and bounds over the past few days, if he had still been the man he was before, those wolf demons would have eaten him alive!
"Brother Chen Fan, please, don't. I wronged you."
"They threatened my family. I... I had no choice but to obey!"
Wang Chao spoke in anguish.
Between his family and Chen Fan, he could only choose his family and betray Chen Fan.
His heart was heavy with guilt, but he had no choice!
"It was Cao De."
"He's colluding with the Demonic Creatures, trying to seize control of all Ping'an County."
"Was he also the one who threatened your family and made you assign me a village where wolf demons were hiding?"
Chen Fan asked.
"It was him."
"It's always been him."
"Demonic Creatures surround Ping'an County. Both Zongqi Officers and us Xiaoqi Officers know about it. Even some of the veteran Jinyiwei know a little. It's only you young ones who don't know much."
"But Cao De controls the entire Jinyiwei. With our strength, we can't fight back against him. And on top of that, he's colluded with the Demonic Creatures. With them backing him, even if we joined forces, we still wouldn't be his match."
"Besides, most of the people in the Ping'an County Baihu Office were promoted by him. They're his trusted subordinates. How many of them would truly dare to oppose him?"
"That day, when you went out on that emergency patrol, it was Zongqi Officer Huang Chengyue who chose the team, but Cao De was the one who issued the order."
"Those on duty at the Jinyiwei Office that day were the five of you from our Ninth Squad. So Huang Chengyue couldn't find anyone else to take the assignment. The five of you had to go."
"I just don't know which of you had offended Cao De. He'd set you up, hoping to use the Demonic Creatures to wipe you all out."
Now that things had come to this, Wang Chao told them everything he knew.
In truth, he had only pieced together the details afterward. He'd buried his suspicions deep in his heart, afraid to stand up for Chen Fan and the others.
In fact, the reason he had worked so hard to fulfill Chen Fan's dying wish was that he hoped it would ease his guilt.
After all, he wasn't a bad person at heart.
"It was me."
"It must have been me."
Chen Fan answered.
Even now, he didn't know what he had done to offend Cao De.
Perhaps it had all started with that little courtyard near the County Magistrate's Residence.
Maybe he'd get the answer tonight.
All he knew was that Cao De had driven him away when he'd barged into that Separate Courtyard. As for the woman who'd been entangled with Cao De, he didn't know who she was. In any case, she wasn't Cao De's wife.
His Baihu Master had been obsessed with martial arts all his life and had never married or had children.
And if Chen Fan hadn't been mistaken back then, a demonic creature had entered that Separate Courtyard. In other words, the place was a gathering spot for Demonic Creatures.
Just imagine: an ordinary Jinyiwei member entered the private Separate Courtyard of a Jinyiwei Baihu, caught the Baihu Master in the midst of an intimate encounter, and was very likely to realize that the Baihu Master was hiding Demonic Creatures there.
Whoever it was, they would have made sure that ordinary Jinyiwei member was dead!
If that was how things had happened, then everything made sense.
But Chen Fan was no longer the greenhorn who had joined the Jinyiwei a year ago. Now, he was a Martial Artist at the Spirit Concealment Realm Peak. So what if Cao De was a Jinyiwei Baihu?
If he dared to provoke Chen Fan, Chen Fan would kill him all the same!
"Brother Chen Fan, now that we've laid everything out between us, I might as well say a little more."
"Run!"
"Run as far away as you can."
"With your abilities, you can make a decent life for yourself anywhere."
"Go to a prosperous city where no Demonic Creatures are hiding. Change your appearance, and you can start over."
Wang Chao spoke from the heart.
Chen Fan was nothing like him. His family, friends, wife, and children were all in Ping'an County; he couldn't abandon them.
But Chen Fan had been an orphan, with no one in the world to hold him back. Now that he'd gained formidable strength, wherever he went, people would welcome him as an honored guest.
"Let's go."
"We're heading back to Ping'an County!"
Chen Fan said. Then he urged his horse forward and rode straight toward Ping'an County.
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