Those Hands Sure Were Itchy

Long after the black Sha Qi and wailing bugle calls over the mass grave mound had dispersed, the villagers at the entrance to Willow Family Village were still pale as ghosts.

The poor old Daoist had no choice but to go door to door, instructing them on the taboos of sealing and confinement, then teaching them a few rudimentary incantations to ward off evil.

Before long, every household had hung peach branches outside their doors to calm their nerves. Whenever they met, they sang the praises of the officers' formidable methods.

At the same time, inside a cave dwelling deep in the western suburbs.

Wang Defa twirled a wisp of dispersing black Sha Qi around his fingertips. It was the soul guide he had placed within the Baleful Qi Gathering Array, and the connection had now been completely severed.

Two gray-robed disciples knelt with their heads lowered below the platform, breathing so lightly they barely seemed to draw breath.

"The Yin General at the mass grave mound is gone. The Demon Suppression Bureau did it." Wang Defa's voice was hoarse, betraying neither pleasure nor anger.

One disciple raised his head and said urgently, "Elder! Shall I gather people to deal with him? He dared destroy our cultivation site—we absolutely cannot let him off lightly!"

"No need." The black-robed Yin cultivator raised a hand to cut him off.

"The other three Soul-Nurturing Formations are nearing maturity, and the core plan to refine the Baleful Corpse has reached its final stage. Clashing head-on with the Demon Suppression Bureau now would be more loss than gain."

"Send two people to watch the western gate of the Demon Suppression Bureau. Find out who it was. Put this debt on the ledger for now. Once the great undertaking succeeds, I'll settle accounts with him personally."

"Yes!"

By the time Xu Jin returned to the Demon Suppression Bureau, it was already deep into the night. Red lanterns lit up one after another before the bureau's main entrance.

The vermilion gates stood open. Demon Slayers in fitted combat attire came and went from time to time, carrying faint traces of Sha Qi.

Yin entities mostly emerged at night. It was routine for field teams to leave by day and return by night, while the mission hall remained staffed around the clock.

Before entering, Wang Lei slowed by half a step and lowered his voice to prepare Xu Jin. "Brother Xu, if we run into people from the Containment Faction inside and they start talking nonsense, don't take it to heart."

"I ranked first overall in my Containment Faction class. Qi discernment, file analysis, potion compounding—I was top-notch in all of them. Hundred-Household Zhang originally wanted to keep me in the rear to oversee demon-corpse research and train the new recruits, but I insisted on applying to transfer factions for fieldwork. There's been gossip in the team for a while."

Xu Jin raised a brow. "Gossip? Would they dare snatch your credit?"

"Not that far. They just make a few sarcastic remarks." Wang Lei gave a bitter smile. "The Containment Faction is powerful. They've gotten used to throwing their weight around."

The words had barely left his mouth when they ran into three people approaching from ahead.

Zhao Qing, dressed in blue-gray combat attire, led the group. His eyes lit up at the sight of Wang Lei, and he hurried over, his mocking tone completely undisguised. "Well, if it isn't Wang, our great prodigy, finally back! I thought following people from the Extermination Faction on a little outing would net you some earth-shattering merit. Why do you look so dusty and bedraggled?"

The two junior disciples behind him snickered, their eyes full of contempt.

Wang Lei frowned. "Zhao Qing, the mission just ended. I need to submit the paperwork. I don't have time to waste on you."

"What's the rush?" Zhao Qing sneered. His gaze swept over the mission booklet in Wang Lei's hand, and he reached out to grab it.

"Let me see how much credit you mooched. Then I can report back to Hundred-Household Zhang. After all, you abandoned the broad road of desk work to run around with that Extermination Faction that's practically dead and buried. Don't tell me you really went just to be an errand boy?"

Trainees from various factions passing by all turned to look, yet no one stepped forward to intervene.

Everyone knew the Containment Faction was powerful, rich in resources, and well connected. The Extermination Faction, meanwhile, was poor enough to rattle, and in recent years had not produced a single promising newcomer.

How could a trainee from the Extermination Faction dare oppose the Containment Faction's united bloc?

Wang Lei tightened his grip on the mission booklet and retreated half a step.

He was not afraid of Zhao Qing. He simply did not want to stir up trouble the moment he returned to the bureau, much less cause trouble for Xu Jin.

Put up with it, and it would pass.

But while he could endure it, someone else could not.

The next second.

Slap!

The wrist reaching through the air was viciously knocked aside by a blast of pure Yang energy. Zhao Qing staggered with the force and fell, his back crashing heavily into a corridor pillar. He let out a muffled groan and could not catch his breath for a long while, while his wrist was so numb it felt detached from his body.

Xu Jin withdrew the true qi from his fingertips and stepped forward, positioning himself in front of Wang Lei. "Your hands sure were itchy."

He turned toward the two junior disciples standing frozen nearby and lifted his chin. "Get lost. Don't stand here getting in my way."

The two instinctively backed up a step.

One of them gathered his courage, craned his neck, and spoke. "Xu Jin, we're from the Containment Faction! You dare lay hands on us? Aren't you afraid Hundred-Household Zhang will hold you accountable?"

"Fuck, you think waving the Containment Faction's name around makes it an immunity token with me?"

Xu Jin stepped forward and threw a punch directly into the man's shoulder hollow.

"Aah—!"

The man screamed and stumbled to the ground.

The trainees watching nearby instantly fell silent, their faces changing.

Holy shit. This kid isn't leaving the Containment Faction even a shred of face.

Xu Jin ignored the man on the ground and strode over to Zhao Qing before crouching down.

"Where's that strength you had when you were grabbing for things just now? Show it to me again." Xu Jin's eyes swept over the venom Zhao Qing could not conceal in his gaze.

He pressed his tongue against his cheek. A lead pellet rolled into his palm and transformed into a one-inch-long little sword.

"Come on. Show me that look again."

The flying sword edged another half inch closer.

Zhao Qing shuddered from head to toe and curled up as he tried to retreat, his back pressed tightly against the corridor pillar. There was nowhere left to go.

He was afraid.

This Xu Jin was a madman. The Containment Faction's name meant less than shit in his eyes. He did not care about the occasion—when he wanted to make a move, he made one, utterly unconstrained by any taboo.

"I was wrong! I won't dare do it again!" Zhao Qing frantically raised his hands before his face, his voice trembling. "I won't dare do it again!"

Xu Jin rose to his feet and dusted his hands as though they were dirty. The flying sword turned back into a lead pellet, which he swallowed.

Then he turned and headed toward the mission hall, casually firing back at Wang Lei, "Some Containment Faction prodigy you are—getting bullied here and not fighting back. Aren't you embarrassed? If anyone causes trouble for you again, just hit them. If you can't beat them, call me."

Wang Lei stood rooted to the spot, his heart burning hot and thrilled.

He had been a respectable prodigy in the Containment Faction for so many years. Everywhere he went, people fawned over him, but he had always followed the rules, maintained appearances, and believed that less trouble was better than more.

This was the first time someone had ignored the rules so completely—and protected him so fiercely.

Not for the Containment Faction's sake, nor out of concern for some grand factional balance, but simply because he was a partner.

"Hey!" Wang Lei hurried after him, unable to suppress the smile at the corners of his lips.

The mission hall was brightly lit. The duty deacon accepted the case-closing documents the two submitted, initially looking distracted. But when he flipped to the lines reading "spirit-monster-grade Yin General soul," "Baleful Qi-Gathering Soul-Nurturing Formation," and "Yin cultivator forces," his expression changed on the spot.

He abruptly looked up at Xu Jin, then quickly lowered his head and checked the copied array-pattern diagram again.

A C-rank mission had uncovered a Yin cultivator stronghold and, as a bonus, slain a spirit-monster-grade Yin General?

This was nowhere near the scale of a C-rank mission!

"Please wait a moment, you two. I'll assess the rank according to procedure immediately." The deacon did not dare delay. He swiftly annotated the documents, directly raising the mission from C-rank to B-rank. The contribution points nearly doubled, and he stamped the cover with an urgent seal.

"I'll send this report to the Hundred-Household Office immediately. Your contribution points will be credited shortly."

After turning in the mission, Xu Jin headed straight toward the Intelligence Pavilion.

Wang Lei walked beside him. Guessing what he intended to investigate, he could not help warning him, "Yin cultivators act in secrecy. Their strongholds have always shifted after every strike. Taking the initiative to seek them out is too risky. How about reporting it to the team first and acting once there's a unified arrangement?"

"Wait my ass. Taking the initiative gives us the upper hand. If we wait until they come knocking and start killing before reacting, it'll be too late to save the day."

Xu Jin pushed open the Intelligence Pavilion's door and headed straight for the Yin cultivator archives.

Sure enough, most of the files had been compiled and archived by the Containment Faction. Their methods of operation and records of past purges were described in great detail.

But there was very little on their recent movements. After going through more than a dozen files, he only found that five sites in the western suburbs had experienced abnormal Yin Baleful Qi fluctuations over the past half year. The timeline happened to align with when the Sha Qi Gathering Arrays had been set up.

Xu Jin snapped the booklet shut, his eyes gleaming with barely restrained excitement.

You dared threaten me? Fucking come on, I'm coming to find you.