Letting You Practice Life Skills, You Grind to Divine Positions

"Second, it's also for leverage."

Qin An frowned. "Leverage? How do you leverage?"

He understood the first reason, but not the second.

Gao Quan slowly explained, "With demonic creatures lurking and false gods causing chaos, if the powers in Ling Prefecture harbor rebellious thoughts, how will the Ling Prefecture Evil Extermination Division position itself?"

Qin An rubbed his chin. "So, by arranging for key figures from these powers to join as hostages?"

Gao Quan nodded. "Exactly. Only then can the situation be stabilized."

Using influential figures as hostages was indeed a good way to control these powers.

Furthermore, if the Evil Extermination Division needed their cooperation for a mission, would these powers dare to refuse?

Qin An continued, "What exactly are these false gods?"

As he spoke, Gao Quan and Qin An arrived before a tall building.

Gao Quan lowered his voice. "Let's go inside and get some clothes to change into first. I'll tell you about the false gods later."

Qin An nodded and walked in.

Following Gao Quan's lead, he collected two sets of clothes.

One was for backup, and the other was to wear.

Before long, Qin An emerged from the building, dressed in black robes with a black saber hanging from his waist.

Gao Quan's eyes lit up. "Not bad, Brother Qin. Your build is just right, it's practically tailor-made. Unlike me, I just look like I'm hanging on a bamboo pole."

Qin An also held two books in his hands: one was the Blazing Flame Cultivation Method, and the other was the Demon Subduing Blade Techniques.

He had already learned both, but he put them away according to the rules.

Just as Gao Quan was about to speak again, a hand suddenly reached out and hooked his shoulder.

Before Gao Quan could react, a somewhat flippant voice rang out.

"Tang Lingwei is using her Bronze Captain privilege again to recruit some rejects?"

The voice carried a hint of mockery.

All the provincial clerks in the room turned their attention to the newcomer.

Gao Quan's expression stiffened slightly. He turned and cupped his fists. "Your subordinate greets Lord Zhou."

Qin An raised an eyebrow and looked at the person who had arrived.

It was a young man dressed in black robes, with a thumb-length scar on his brow.

A bronze plaque hung from his waist, similar to Tang Lingwei's.

A hint of gloom flickered across the man's brows. He reached up and twirled his hair on the right side of his temple. "You still haven't answered my question."

Gao Quan gave a wry smile. "Why must you trouble us provincial clerks with the disputes between you and Lord Tang?"

The man let out a cold laugh and turned to Qin An. "You've just entered the Body Infusion Realm, your strength is decent, but unfortunately, you've followed the wrong person."

Qin An remained silent, his hand secretly resting on his black saber.

From what Gao Quan had told him, Qin An knew that the Evil Extermination Division was not a monolithic entity, its complexities ran deep like an old tree's roots.

Not only were there people from various powers serving as hostages, but there were also power struggles among them.

The person in front of him likely had a grudge against Tang Lingwei, and since he was now under Tang Lingwei's command, he would naturally be affected.

Seeing Qin An's silence, the man raised his hand, preparing to reach out towards him.

But just then, footsteps sounded from outside the door.

"Zhou Mo, if you have a problem, take it out on me. If you treat my subordinates like this, aren't you afraid of losing face?"

Tang Lingwei leaned against the doorway, her heroic eyebrows raised playfully, her hand already resting on the weapon at her waist.

Zhou Mo turned his head, his expression shifting between anger and uncertainty. He sneered, "Forget it. With the people under you, who knows when they'll die on a mission. I won't argue with you."

With that, Zhou Mo withdrew his hand and walked straight out the door.

Tang Lingwei glanced at Qin An. "You've received your clothes, so have Gao Quan take you to familiarize yourself with the various case files. You don't need to carry out any missions for the next few days."

After watching Tang Lingwei leave, Qin An looked at Gao Quan.

Gao Quan was wiping sweat from his forehead. Sensing Qin An's gaze, he patted Qin An's shoulder.

"Let's talk as we walk."

Qin An nodded, and he and Gao Quan headed towards another building.

Along the way, Gao Quan explained the whole story.

"Zhou Mo is also a Bronze Captain, and he joined the Evil Extermination Division even earlier than Lord Tang. He has a relative who wanted to join using special privileges."

"But Zhou Mo had already used up his quota for last year, so he approached Lord Tang, wanting to use his seniority to have Lord Tang recruit his relative."

"Lord Tang refused. Then, as Zhou Mo's special recruitment opportunity for this year arrived, guess what happened? That person died during a demonic creature attack."

"From that point on, the enmity was forged."

Qin An listened to everything, knowing the grudge was still significant.

No wonder Zhou Mo wanted to suppress Tang Lingwei's subordinates.

"Are the people under Lord Tang not strong?" Qin An asked, looking at the approaching buildings.

There was a lot of information in what Zhou Mo had just said, and Qin An had caught a hint of it.

Gao Quan gave a wry smile, "Lord Tang is a newly appointed Bronze Captain and is short-handed. Every year, those recruited into the Evil Extermination Division are snatched up by veteran Bronze Captains, so our strength in the Evil Extermination Division is at the bottom."

The old suppressing the new was not only common elsewhere but also in the Evil Extermination Division.

Gao Quan stopped, "We're here. Don't overthink it. Although there are power struggles in the Evil Extermination Division, it's much fairer. As long as you're willing to fight hard, you'll get what you deserve."

Ahead, the outline of the building appeared before Qin An's eyes.

Gao Quan explained, "You're new here, so you'll start by looking through the files. You need to at least understand the situation in Ling Prefecture."

Look through files?

Qin An's expression remained unchanged, but a wave of emotion surged within him.

It was exactly what he wanted.

The Scholar profession was only 40 points away from breaking through to level four. Qin An had been thinking about visiting a bookstore later, but he hadn't expected this to happen so conveniently.

Gao Quan said a couple more things and turned to leave.

He wasn't a newcomer and had many matters to attend to.

Qin An, dressed in black, entered the building.

The building was called the Confidential Archives, filled with secret files of the Evil Extermination Division, heavily guarded both openly and covertly.

Only those who reached a certain level could view corresponding intelligence.

With Qin An's status as a prefecture clerk, he could at most look at the distribution of surrounding forces.

Qin An, following the rules, took out the token from his waist.

It was just an ordinary token, symbolizing his prefecture clerk status.

The person on the first floor, after confirming Qin An's identity, said he could only view books on the first floor and then ignored him.

The Evil Extermination Division recruited people every year, and many died every year.

Life was the most valuable here because the Evil Extermination Division needed it.

Life was also the least valuable because people died every year.

No one was willing to pay attention to a newcomer.

Qin An found it even better this way and walked to a bookshelf, pulling out a book to read.

Smoke appeared, and the proficiency of the Scholar profession began to increase.

Afternoon.

Qin An put down the book.

[Scholar Lv.3 (400/400): Your reading speed has slightly increased]

[Advancement Condition: Read one Body Infusion Realm book (0/1)]

Qin An had been reading the entire afternoon until his Scholar experience was full before he stopped.

"Need to read a Body Infusion Realm book?"

Qin An rubbed the hilt of his black saber, pondering.

From Ding County to the present, he had only obtained Qi Concealment Realm books.

Although his cultivation method had broken through to the initial stage of Body Infusion Realm, it was achieved by stacking various talents and a large amount of Blood Essence to deduce it forcefully.