The Yamen Makes Its Move

"So that was how it was.?"

Shen Yi savored the Blood Baleful Blade Technique that had appeared in his mind. Every move brimmed with ferocious, vicious energy.

It had clearly taken on much of the ruthlessness of demons. There was no sign at all that it had evolved from the by-the-book Demon-Subduing Blade Technique.

Meeting violence with violence!

This was a complete martial art truly belonging to the Initial Realm. It was on an entirely different level from the Zhengyang Saber, which had taken a shortcut by forcibly crossing realms.

Add his cultivation at the peak of the Initial Realm, and if he faced the Yellow Weasel again, Shen Yi was confident he could take it down in three strikes.

He looked at the panel.

Only a hundred and thirty years of demon lifespan remained. The excess had gone toward the other two martial arts, but he had little to show for it. All he had gained was a talent similar to mastery of fists and palms.

[Light as a Swallow: Years of accumulated lightness skills have made you more adept at controlling your body. Your movements have become lighter.]

It was better than nothing.

Shen Yi wasn't disappointed. He now had a grasp of how the panel worked.

When deducing a new martial art, the accumulation of "material" mattered more than time.

Relying on lifespan alone meant putting all his hopes in some elusive flash of inspiration.

Only by learning more martial arts could he draw inferences, integrate what he knew, and create something new.

It wasn't something he could accomplish by sitting around with an empty head and daydreaming.

The Blood Baleful Blade Technique, for instance, had incorporated the baleful power in Beast Essence. The Wind and Thunder Precious Scroll, too, had only been able to evolve a path to the Initial Realm because the Zhengyang Saber existed.

"People should learn to be content."

What he'd gained in a single night might have taken an ordinary person a lifetime without rare medicines or fortuitous encounters.

This was already a tremendous stroke of luck.

Shen Yi got out of bed and looked toward the cabinet, where the clothes Lin Baiwei had washed and hung out to dry were kept.

He took them out and removed his undershirt, revealing a nearly perfect set of muscle lines. The only flaw was that his skin was a cold, unhealthy white, because he was so lazy he couldn't even be bothered to walk on his own while patrolling the streets.

That wasn't a big problem. He just needed to get more sun.

Shen Yi quickly changed, then turned and saw a woman standing still by the back door, holding her breath.

"Need something?"

"Just looking around."

Lin Baiwei reluctantly tore her gaze away and rubbed her stomach expectantly. "Is there breakfast today?"

"Wait for me."

Shen Yi went out and bought two pancakes from a street stall. Remembering the two martial arts manuals he had yet to get his hands on, he hesitated. "How much extra for an egg?"

By rights, he was the head of a squad of constables, and he had no bad habits. He shouldn't be short of money.

His predecessor had plenty of ways to make money. If he could only bring himself to—

"Master Shen, I wouldn't dream of charging you for two pancakes. Have as many as you like." The vendor bowed and scraped as he wrapped them up and handed them over.

"Thanks for the kind offer, but I'll pay." Shen Yi shook his head and set ten copper coins on the table.

He took breakfast home.

Shen Yi walked toward the yamen, biting into a pancake. Halfway there, he sensed something was off.

Whether they were selling buns or carrying vegetables, everyone on the street glanced at him curiously. Whenever he looked back, they hurriedly lowered their heads and pretended to be busy with their work.

"From now on, if anything demonic or supernatural happens in Baiyun County, they'll have to go to him."

"Him? Master Shen?"

"What nonsense are you spouting this early in the morning? If you're worried your daughter or wife is too chaste, or you've got too much silver in your pocket and don't know how to spend it, then sure, he can be a big help. But demons?"

"Keep your voice down. Do you know what happened yesterday? There aren't any demons left in the West Suburbs. Two villagers said so themselves. Demons covered the mountains, and every last one of them was beheaded and brought to our county. Master Shen led the way."

Now a martial artist at the Initial Realm, Shen Yi caught every whisper around him, faint as the buzzing of mosquitoes.

He quickened his pace and stepped into the Constabulary Office.

Inside, everything was as usual, except the place looked rather empty.

There were only four people in the huge courtyard. Chen Ji swept the ground with a blank expression, while the Niu Brothers and Zhang Dahu squatted by the doorway, staring into space and looking at one another.

When Shen Yi entered,

Zhang Dahu sprang to his feet with a yelp and shouted, "Lord Shen, you're finally here! You have to stand up for us!"

He rushed over, looking thoroughly aggrieved.

"Why won't they let us patrol the streets? They're making us deal with demons instead! There's so much money to be made on the three streets in the West Suburbs. That's the livelihood we brothers worked so hard to build, and Head Song wiped it all out with one word!"

"Lord Shen, you're Liu the Clerk's favorite. How dare that Song fellow act so arrogantly? He's not just slapping us in the face. He's clearly—"

Chen Ji silently bumped him aside and came up beside Shen Yi. "It was the clerk's order."

The four people left in the Constabulary Office were precisely the ones who had gone to the scene of the Liu Family tragedy yesterday.

Liu the Clerk's intentions were perfectly clear.

He wanted to sideline the four of them—and he wanted them dead, too, so everyone else could see what happened to those who followed Shen Yi.

You're so good at killing demons, aren't you?

Then go kill them all.

Post notices and make it public. First hoist him up to the highest point, then watch coldly as he fell.

If he didn't dare, he could just behave himself and stop stirring up trouble.

"He knew you killed the Yellow Weasel. He came over in the middle of the night and threw a fit, then left before dawn so he wouldn't run into you."

Chen Ji smiled bitterly.

Shen Yi's sudden display of strength had clearly shaken Liu the Clerk to the core—perhaps even terrified him.

But it still wasn't enough...

Even the expert the county magistrate had brought back from Qing Prefecture, who was just as capable of fighting the Yellow Weasel, received only six hundred taels in salary a month.

Six hundred taels of fine silver could crush an ordinary person. But tossed into the muddy waters of Baiyun County, it wouldn't even make a ripple.

Aside from the dog demon, even more terrifying man-eating demons lurked outside the county.

If trouble broke out, even bringing in the Demon Suppression Division would require taking control of the entire county first and relocating the people. Then they'd have to proceed steadily, step by step. They'd be lucky to wipe out the demonic infestation in three to five years.

It might seem like only a few years.

But to the county magistrate and the other officials, that would mean all their hard-won success from years of study had come to nothing. Their prospects would turn bleak, and they'd have little chance of rising any further.

Even if the imperial court removed the demonic threat and returned him to his post, all he'd have left was an impoverished county with a dwindling population. He absolutely couldn't accept that.

If obstructing the extermination of demons weren't a crime punishable by the execution of nine generations of one's family, and if Shen Yi didn't possess extraordinary martial arts, the higher-ups probably wouldn't even bother with such a dirty scheme. They'd simply strip him of his uniform or find someone to take his head.

"Lord Shen." Chen Ji's expression was complicated. He still had a younger sister at home to care for, yet the higher-ups had suddenly branded him one of Shen Yi's "accomplices." It was hard not to feel weighed down.

If he felt this way, the person they were targeting most of all must feel worse.

A hint of sympathy entered his eyes.

"Before Liu the Clerk left, he told me something. He said that if you've come around, you should bring a jug of wine and go sit with him... He said the county magistrate can give someone else six hundred taels. Surely he can spare that much for you too..."