Setting Up the Spirit-Gathering Array, Completing the Five Elements

Several days later, at Clearwind Courtyard in Anping County.

Chu Bai had spent the past few days buried in the Demon-Slaying Squad's routine affairs at the Demon-Suppression Office, assigning personnel and checking case files. He had barely stopped moving. Only today had he finally found time to set foot in the residence the Wu Household had given him.

He pushed open the heavy black-lacquered gate. A screen wall stood before him; beyond it, an air of quiet seclusion washed over him.

It was a proper two-courtyard residence, with a spacious front courtyard and a peaceful rear one. Several pines and cypresses stood among them, lending the place a pleasing sense of balance.

Chu Bai made a circuit of the house. The windows shone, the rooms were spotless, and the furnishings were all made of fine pearwood. Clearly, the Wu Household had sent people to clean and arrange everything inside and out before handing it over.

"This residence is a quiet haven amid the bustle of the city. Its market price should be around a hundred and fifty taels of silver."

Standing beneath the main hall's veranda, Chu Bai nodded slightly. "That old fox Wu Ping put some thought into this."

Two years ago, a hundred and fifty taels of silver would have been an astronomical sum to him. Now that he had risen to the Principal Ninth Rank as a Demon-Slaying Token holder, his monthly salary had climbed to a hundred taels. Buying a residence like this was no great difficulty.

Previously, though, he had devoted himself entirely to his cases, then been caught up in the change of post. With neither the energy nor the time to tend to a home, he had continued living in the Quiet Chamber provided by the Demon-Suppression Office.

Now the Demon-Slaying Squad had