Ping'an County Undercurrents

"Please!"

"I'm not blind, how could I not see you're clearly cross-dressing?"

Chen Fan inwardly grumbled, but outwardly, he simply offered a faint smile without responding.

"So boring."

"My name is Lu Xuenning, the new Rank 9 Black-Robed Head Catcher of Ping'an County. Although I've only been in office for half a month, I grew up in Ping'an County, so I'm quite familiar with it."

The female constable spoke casually.

"I am Chen Fan. Greetings, Head Constable Lu!"

Chen Fan cupped his fists and bowed, speaking.

He was currently just an ordinary member of the Jinyiwei, without rank or grade, not even a Xiaoqi Officer. She was already Rank 9. Although they didn't belong to the same system, to Chen Fan, Lu Xuenning could be considered a superior.

"Why were you following Old Huang? Do you have a personal grudge against him, or do you suspect him of something?"

Lu Xuenning inquired.

"No comment!"

Chen Fan's heart tightened. He then replied coldly.

"Oh, okay."

"Since that's the case, I'll tell him you were following him. You'll be in trouble then!"

Lu Xuenning said with a smile, looking at Chen Fan playfully.

"What trouble could I be in? So what if he finds out?"

"If you do nothing wrong, you won't fear ghosts knocking at your door."

"If he really makes a move against me, my blade is not without its sharpness!"

Chen Fan wasn't flustered by her words. Instead, he spoke calmly.

"Fine."

"Stubborn as a mule, aren't you!"

"Actually, I already know even if you don't tell me. I've been observing you for days, and I've thoroughly investigated your background."

"You think there was something fishy about the incident a few days ago when you went on patrol outside the city and accidentally encountered a Great Demonic Creature? And that patrol order was most likely given by Old Huang, so you suspect him of colluding with Demonic Creatures to harm you?"

Lu Xuenning spoke.

Chen Fan's eyes flashed with a sharp glint. It seemed this person hadn't met him by chance but had come prepared!

"Speak."

"What do you want with me?"

Chen Fan asked, not continuing the topic Lu Xuenning had brought up.

To be honest, he didn't trust this new female constable in Ping'an County at all.

"I just think your strength is pretty good, so I want to form an alliance with you to cleanse Ping'an County!"

"Ping'an County is too corrupt right now!"

"And the reason Ping'an County is rampant with Demonic Creatures is directly related to your Jinyiwei."

"The Ten Year Inspection is coming soon. I don't know if it's your Baihu Master who wants to paper over the cracks and fool the Inspection Envoy, thus reaching some kind of agreement with the Demonic Creatures to make Ping'an County seem relatively peaceful."

"Or perhaps he's not a good person at all, colluding with Demonic Creatures behind the scenes, using them to eliminate his rivals and consolidate his ruling position in Ping'an County."

"But no matter what, he's definitely not unrelated to why Ping'an County is in such chaos."

"And the deaths of your colleagues, and even the assassination attempt on you, might also be related to him."

Lu Xuenning spoke, her words shocking and resolute.

"The Baihu Master's surname is Cao!"

"The blood letter left by Brother Zhao wrote that the one who killed me was 'Cao', but the unfinished character could be 'Huang' or 'Cao'!"

"Brother Zhao, what exactly did you discover?"

Chen Fan was horrified, but he remained outwardly calm. Whether it was Cao or Huang, he would investigate it himself and would never believe this Constable Lu's one-sided story.

"You say Ping'an County is too corrupt, but in the year I've served in the Jinyiwei, although I've participated in encircling and suppressing Demonic Creatures several times, it's always been outside the city. Where are there any Demonic Creatures causing trouble within the city?"

Chen Fan, recalling the original body's memories, also raised his doubts.

In the original body's memories, the county town was the only safe haven, a pure land. In his impression, there had never been any Demonic Creatures appearing in the county town in recent years.

The last time Demonic Creatures appeared in the county town was over a decade ago. He was young then, and his memory was vague. This showed that Ping'an County was hardly as rampant with Demonic Creatures as Lu Xuenning claimed.

"Hahaha."

"Even you, a member of the Jinyiwei, think Ping'an County town is extremely safe. Naturally, ordinary people wouldn't notice anything."

"But do you know?"

"In the past ten years, hundreds of children have gone missing in Ping'an County town, hundreds of women have also disappeared, and there have been several cases of entire families being wiped out with the culprits still unknown."

"So, if we calculate it that way, how many people die in Ping'an County every year?"

"That number is too large, and too abnormal."

"But none of these things have spread widely, nor have they caused any major panic. Who do you think is covering all of this up?"

As Ping'an County's ninth-rank Black-Robed Head Catcher, Lu Xuenning naturally had the right to investigate Ping'an County's case files. After reading them, she knew that Ping'an County was in big trouble.

In the current Government Office, she trusted no one but herself, because it was highly possible that the Government Office itself had been infiltrated by Demonic Creatures. Therefore, she needed to find allies herself.

Later, she inadvertently saw Chen Fan tracking Huang Chengyue, the Jinyiwei Zongqi Officer, and became interested in him. After some investigation, she felt that Chen Fan was from a clean family background and had also become a target for liquidation by the Masterminds colluding with Demonic Creatures, making him a relatively reliable ally.

Of course, at first, she just wanted to win over Chen Fan and have him act as her informant within the Jinyiwei. But now, having felt Chen Fan's strength up close, she had already elevated him from the position of informant to that of an ally!

"Only the Government Office could cover all of this up."

"You're saying someone in the Government Office is colluding with Demonic Creatures."

Chen Fan said with great interest.

He had originally thought someone in the Jinyiwei was colluding with Demonic Creatures, but he hadn't expected that someone in the Government Office would also be colluding with Demonic Creatures.

If these people knew each other and had formed a network, it would truly be possible to deceive everyone.

"Perhaps many people in the Government Office, from top to bottom, are colluding with Demonic Creatures. Others might know, but they just turn a blind eye and pretend not to know."

"Those who dared to uphold justice are probably all dead."

"Because I investigated the case files and found that in the past ten years, over fifty officials in Ping'an County have also died due to various accidents."

"And most of these people were righteous individuals who hated evil. This shows that they have completely eradicated any voice of resistance."

Lu Xuenning said through gritted teeth.

She was a ninth-rank Black-Robed Head Catcher airdropped from Longyuan Prefecture. She had come to Longyuan Prefecture with a mission.

But she never expected that this mission would be so arduous. She might have to oppose the entire Ping'an County!

Then, what awaited her would not be victory, but only death.

Because even though she was a Martial Artist at the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm who had Leap Five Passes, she couldn't possibly oppose all the hidden Demonic Creatures and officials in the entire county.

So, she needed allies now, more and more allies. Along the way, she would investigate evidence of their collusion with Demonic Creatures and finally capture them all in one fell swoop, thoroughly purging Ping'an County!

This was a grand strategy, and she needed to play it step by step. One wrong move would lead to the loss of the entire game. At that time, not only would she die, but the tens of thousands of common people in Ping'an County would also not survive.

"So you want to cooperate with me, hoping I can help you?"

Chen Fan said.

"That's right."

Lu Xuenning replied decisively.

"How can I trust you?"

Chen Fan said again.