"Three hundred taels... of gold?"
Lu Guan frowned. "I tallied up these valuables. They're worth about fifty taels of gold. All of this for that saber!"
"Officer, is this fucking haggling? Are you taking old Jia here for a ride?"
Jia Guofu immediately grew agitated, his beard bristling and his eyes bulging.
"Who's taking you for a ride?"
Lu Guan patted his flying fish uniform, perfectly composed. "What, do you want to fight?"
"Cut the nonsense. Sold normally, the Primordial Saber would fetch not just three hundred taels of gold, but five hundred."
"But the question is, can this thing stand the light of day?"
Stolen goods called for a bone-breaking discount!
Lu Guan suddenly sneered. "If you don't even want these fifty taels of gold, don't blame me for sealing up this shady shop!"
Jia Guofu was dumbstruck.
Fuck, how was this a greenhorn?
This was clearly a wolf cub that devoured people without spitting out the bones, wearing an official uniform to rob a fellow crook!
If he wasn't mistaken, these valuables were stolen goods too!
"What are you saying, sir...? Fifty taels it is. Consider it the price of making your acquaintance."
Commoners didn't fight officials. He would swallow it!
Of course, the main reason Jia Guofu chose to back down was the Qi and Blood Lu Guan deliberately radiated.
Where the fuck did someone this young at the perfected Qi and Blood Realm come from?! What sort of background did he have?!
Was this someone an old officer like Zhao Tielin could know?
Lu Guan paid and took the saber.
Before coming, he had already looked into market prices.
His valuables were worth a fair amount, but they were still nowhere near enough to buy a treasure-grade saber.
Never mind this Primordial Saber; he couldn't even come close to affording the other broad saber.
So he had simply put on his flying fish uniform.
If the deal fell through, they couldn't blame him for enforcing the law in the name of justice.
They were running a black market. How could any of them be decent people?
The next day, at the Lu ancestral residence on Green Tile Street.
Dawn had barely broken, and Lu Guan was already standing in the courtyard.
The Primordial Saber left its sheath.
Its blade was black as ink, with faint patterns like flowing water along its surface.
He drew a deep breath and unleashed the Demon Subduing Saber Technique.
In the opening stance, the blade pointed diagonally toward the ground as Qi and Blood poured into it.
With a hum, the blade trembled slightly. Then came cleaves, chops, rising cuts, and sweeps, each move faster than the last.
Saber winds howled through the courtyard as he performed the Demon Subduing Saber Technique with imposing might.
After a day of familiarization, the Primordial Saber now moved like an extension of his arm. It was more than ten times better than his previous broken half-saber!
If he encountered yesterday's perfected Qi and Blood Realm White Bone Demon again, his beginner-level Demon Subduing Saber Technique would be enough to sever those bones as hard as refined steel!
He sheathed the saber.
Lu Guan bathed, washing off his sweat with well water, changed into a brand-new flying fish robe, and headed out.
Yesterday, he had barely returned with his new saber before a notice from the bureau arrived.
The messenger was an errand boy who handed over a letter and left.
The letter contained only one line: Report to the First Squad tomorrow at the hour of the Rabbit.
"They really are in a hurry to send me to my death."
Lu Guan's lips curled upward. Zhou Kaishan's thoughts were as clear to him as a blazing fire.
He had already asked Zhao Tielin what sort of place the First Squad was.
It was the sharpest blade in Qianqiu County's entire Demon Suppression Bureau, specializing in gnawing through hard bones.
But he didn't understand why Zhou Kaishan was so certain he would die on White Bone Mountain.
Others might not know he was at the perfected Qi and Blood Realm, but Zhou Kaishan knew perfectly well.
"Unless..."
Lu Guan narrowed his eyes and murmured, "That True Qi Realm demon king on White Bone Mountain makes a move against me."
Of all the demons on White Bone Mountain, only that True Qi Realm demon king could pose a lethal threat to him.
But the question was, why would the White Bone Demon King act?
One possibility occurred to Lu Guan:
"Zhou Jie had dealings with demons... is his uncle, Commandant Zhou, clean?"
At that thought, a chill settled in his heart.
These Zhous... they really were rotten to the core.
Of course, this was merely his conjecture, with no actual proof.
But sometimes, conjecture alone was enough.
Inside the Demon Suppression Bureau.
The hour of the Dragon had just passed, and the bureau was already bustling.
The squads were taking roll call, people came and went beneath the covered walkways, and saber-wearing officers gathered in groups of three or five.
Lu Guan crossed the front hall and headed straight for the training grounds in the rear courtyard.
The First Squad was stationed in a row of side rooms on the eastern edge of the training grounds.
He reached the door, and before he could speak, someone came out to meet him.
"So you're Lu Guan?"
A young chief banner officer leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded, looking him up and down.
He was about twenty-four or twenty-five, tall and slender, with handsome features and the distinctive air of aristocratic reserve between his brows.
His flying fish robe was tailored to fit, and a long saber hung at his waist in a silver scabbard, its hilt wrapped in silver wire, its workmanship exquisite.
Lu Guan remained calm as he raised his head and met his eyes.
Seeing this, the young chief banner officer chuckled. "Interesting."
He straightened and circled Lu Guan once, his gaze lingering briefly on the Primordial Saber at his waist before shifting away.
"For your information, my surname is Wu. I'm at the perfected Qi and Blood Realm, and from now on, I'll be your commanding chief banner officer."
Wu Yong spoke with an air of superiority:
"Before we head to White Bone Mountain, let me make this clear: I have no room for anyone who clings to life and fears death!"
He paused, sweeping his gaze over the seven or eight officers gathering in the courtyard, and curled his lips. "Every brother under me is an iron-boned, hard man who's plunged through water and fire!"
At his words, the surrounding officers all laughed, watching Lu Guan with mocking expressions.
Their gazes were like those directed at a sheep that had wandered into a wolf pack.
"Little Lu, was it?" Someone leaned by the door with a grass stem between his teeth, sizing him up sidelong. "Don't piss your pants once we get to White Bone Mountain."
"Come now, don't say that," another chimed in, his face full of amusement. "He's at least in the Qi and Blood Realm, even if he's only at the early stage..."
"Early stage?" The first man scoffed. "Then what's he doing in our First Squad? Dragging us down? Or serving himself up to the demons?"
The men burst into laughter.
Was a newly promoted officer like him even worthy of joining their First Squad?
Wu Yong raised a hand to silence their laughter, though the amusement remained on his face. He stepped up to Lu Guan until only a single pace separated them.
"If you dare flee in the face of battle on White Bone Mountain, our First Squad can't afford that disgrace. I'll cut you down myself."
His tone was level, yet carried a sinister chill.
Hearing this, Lu Guan narrowed his eyes slightly, and the information about Wu Yong swiftly surfaced in his mind.
This man wasn't from Qianqiu County, but had come down from Langya Commandery City.
He was said to come from an aristocratic clan and had come to Qianqiu County to build up experience at the grassroots level. Once he had accumulated enough merit, he would be transferred straight back to the commandery city.
And it wasn't just him. The entire First Squad consisted of aristocratic scions from the commandery city, who normally held their eyes above their heads and never fit in with the bureau's local officers.
In Qianqiu County, however, the First Squad were outsiders.
Yet here in the First Squad, he had become the outsider instead.
Still, this is just as well.
Lu Guan felt no anger.
Young men were most eager to win merit and make their names. In that respect, their aims happened to align with his.
Besides, these people looked down on him for no other reason than that they thought he was weak.
His expression calm, Lu Guan said evenly, "Scars on a man's back are his shame. I won't give you a chance to act, Chief Banner Officer Wu."
As his words fell, the officers put away their mockery and turned serious, looking Lu Guan in the eye for the first time.
Anyone who could say that was a real man, even if his cultivation was a little low.
Everyone present was a martial man who licked blood from a blade's edge. However cutting their words, deep down they respected only one kind of person-
Those unafraid to die.
"I hope you're not all talk."
Wu Yong gave Lu Guan a long look, his gaze taking on a measure of scrutiny.
Whether he was a mule or a horse would only become clear on the battlefield.
He turned and walked back. After a few steps, he suddenly stopped, as though remembering something, and asked without looking back:
"By the way, your cultivation is... early Qi and Blood Realm?"
After all, this man would be serving under him. He had to establish his exact cultivation to avoid any mistakes.
Lu Guan shook his head.
"Perfected."
At those words, the officers present erupted into an uproar.
"Perfected?!"
"Him?"
"Impossible!"
They were all well-informed scions of Langya. By rights, they shouldn't have lost their composure like this.
But Lu Guan was simply too young. At only seventeen or eighteen, he would have been one of the foremost geniuses even in Langya Commandery City.
And he was only a mud-legged commoner!
What? Supposedly a fourth-generation officer?... That wasn't much better!
Yet this very mud-legged commoner had reached the perfected Qi and Blood Realm at seventeen or eighteen.
"..."
Wu Yong stumbled, nearly tripping over the threshold.
He steadied himself against the doorframe and slowly turned around, much of his nonchalant aristocratic manner falling away.
He stared at Lu Guan for several breaths, as though trying to determine whether it was true.
Lu Guan's expression remained unchanged as he let him look.
After a moment, Wu Yong exhaled, his tone considerably gentler. "I'm Wu Yong. Just call me Brother Wu."
There were no idle words in the military. No one would dare lie about something so easily exposed.
Since that was the case, a genius ought to receive a genius's treatment.
What was wrong with being a little polite?