Prefect's Office Official Lu Qian

While Lin Fan was immersed in cultivation.

Out in the wilderness beyond the town, the crater hundreds of meters wide left by the Flower Thief's self-destruction remained a shocking sight. Charred earth had been heaved into scattered mounds, broken grass and shattered stones covered the surrounding ground, and a faint trace of cold, sinister demonic energy still lingered in the air—the distinctive aura of Inner Qi produced by demonic arts.

After receiving the town authorities' urgent report, Commandery City had immediately sent a Mid Bright Force Realm expert to examine the scene.

After all, the town authorities had no one in the Bright Force Realm, and there were many things concerning that realm they could not identify. Besides, someone who had only just entered the Bright Force Realm killing another expert of the same realm was fairly unusual.

Town officials and clerks stood gathered with papers and case files, explaining the situation to a man at their center. He wore a dark green martial robe, and his aura was steady and weighty. He was the Mid Bright Force Realm military officer sent by the prefecture to assist with the investigation. Paying no heed to the junior clerks around him, he swept his sharp gaze slowly across the ravaged scene, judging the marks left by the fight for himself.

Dents from colliding Inner Qi riddled the crater's rim. Impact marks of varying depths scored the ground, left by Lin Fan and the Flower Thief during their fierce clash. Many stones also bore mottled scorch marks where Demonic Inner Qi had corroded them.

The officer walked a slow circuit around the vast blast crater before stopping. He pinched up a little earth that the violent force had burned to dust and felt the lingering fluctuations of power against his fingertips.

"This explosive