Chapter 123: Su Jin Dragged Out for Night Duty

Xu Chengzhu thought for a moment and said, “What you’ve said is very likely.”

He paused, then continued, “The patrol squads under the Neijian Office are too diverse in composition. They’re prone to problems. And right now, the patrol squads seem understaffed—everyone’s doing more work, but their salaries haven’t changed, so resentment is high, and they’re easy to bribe.”

Bao Junyi’s face flushed red at once.

How could he not know that patrol squads were understaffed and overworked?

This situation was precisely what he himself had created.

For the sake of incremental progress, he had no choice but to arrange it this way.

Only when the patrol squads kept failing could he smoothly place his trusted people one by one into those positions.

“Besides, the employees in your Neijian Office’s Intelligence Division can be traced back as far as forty years ago—to the era of Sima Xuan’s predecessor.”

“Sima Xuan’s poisoning might have been caused by someone in the Intelligence Division leaking his dietary habits and movements.”

Bao Junyi nodded. He thought Xu Yi’s speculation made considerable sense.

“Use this incident to clean out both the Intelligence Division and the patrol squads. Don’t keep springing surprises on me.”

“My heart can’t take another sudden strike from you.”

Bao Junyi’s expression suddenly flickered with suppressed amusement.

“My lord Xu, don’t forget we still have a mutated leech outside the city. So I’ll still be coming to you.”

Three kinds of insects?! Xu Yi’s face turned as dark as ink.

“Why are these Star Insect Clan creatures targeting our Xiancheng?” Xu Chengzhu looked utterly baffled.

Bao Junyi thought to himself: I have no idea either.

“Tell me your plan first,” Xu Chengzhu asked again.

After Bao Junyi laid out his idea, Xu Chengzhu nodded immediately.

“Do it. I’ll have Xu Ji, commander of the City Guard, contact you. He’ll coordinate with you to deploy the City Guard.”

Hearing this, Bao Junyi nodded in satisfaction.

The position of City Guard commander is only entrusted to the new lord’s confidants.

This isn’t just to establish the new lord’s authority—it’s also for his personal safety.

In the past, sects have seen too many cases where the City Guard rebelled and killed the lord.

So after each new lord ascended, replacing the City Guard commander became an unspoken rule among sects.

Though this unspoken rule might also encourage the lord and the City Guard to jointly betray the sect.

But it’s still less damaging than the City Guard killing the lord.

After all, killing the lord directly causes the sect’s prestige to plummet, triggering a crisis of trust among the sect’s billions of human subjects.

They’ll start thinking the sect isn’t strong enough, since lords keep dying.

In contrast, if the lord betrays the sect alongside the City Guard, it’s merely a matter of how long the suppression takes.

Everyone assumes the sect is powerful enough to send a few high-level cultivators to crush the rebellion.

The main reason for this phenomenon is that all lords come from the sect’s powerful factions.

As for the City Guard stationed within Xiancheng to defend the city, they’re merely irregular local garrison troops in the sect’s hierarchy—combat effectiveness negligible, barely better than rabble.

Even granting them to each Xiancheng’s lord poses little danger.

If they ever rebel, just send elite forces to exterminate them outright.

But in today’s Xiancheng, the City Guard remains a force of considerable importance to Bao Junyi—he even relies heavily on them, since he has no one else at his disposal.

…

Night deepened, yet Xiancheng erupted in noise.

Whether in the inner or outer city, the large-scale sweeps had woken the entire Xiancheng.

Common folk could only huddle at home waiting for inspection teams, but those with status and power took immediate action.

Even if their own neighborhoods hadn’t been checked yet, they could take their families to already-inspected districts and lie low.

Better than being suddenly attacked by a parasitic human.

As the Su clan swept through more and more neighborhoods, they pulled in large numbers of personnel from smaller factions to work—free labor, why not use it? But with more people, they needed Su clan insiders to supervise and guide them.

So the Su clan conducted a third round of personnel mobilization.

This time, Su Jin was pulled in again.

In the dead of night, they dragged her out of her warm bed and her wife’s arms.

Utterly dishonorable!

But could she refuse to go?

She didn’t have the nerve.

So she had to go.

This time, she “luckily” got assigned to the inspection team led by Su Hanlin.

Su Jin and another female cultivator from the family were both assigned to Su Hanlin’s team. The moment Su Jin saw Su Hanlin, she silently handed him the late-night snack her wife had made her carry.

“My wife said you didn’t come home last night. Before I left, she packed me an extra snack, just in case I found you to give it to you,” Su Jin thought to herself: Has my luck really improved so much? Who could’ve guessed her assigned team leader would be Su Hanlin.

“Thank you, Sister-in-law,” Su Hanlin said cheerfully, taking the food box. He’d find a quiet spot later and devour it—he was hungry.

“How’s it going?” Su Jin asked as she approached.

Su Hanlin first assigned an elder cultivator to take the female cultivator away and give her tasks.

Then he told Su Jin, “The inner city inspection results are decent. Sometimes we sweep three or four neighborhoods without finding any parasitic insects. After all, it’s the inner city—each neighborhood is managed far more strictly than outside.”

“Thank goodness everyone’s strict,” Su Jin said at once. “Otherwise it’d be a disaster.”

“I heard this new insect was first discovered by your little Su Jin?” Su Hanlin asked.

“Yes. On her way to school. The insect launched a surprise attack—almost got her. Luckily, she was carrying protective items my cousin-grandfather had prepared for her in advance,” Su Jin said.

“Why would the parasitic insect target little Jin? Could someone have leaked her information?” Su Hanlin asked suddenly, his expression grave.

He knew Su Jin was the blood-red leech’s master.

If someone discovered that secret, trying to kill Su Jin wouldn’t be impossible.

Because if Su Jin died, the blood-red leech would lose its chance for rapid growth. It wouldn’t die, but its growth would slow, and once it reached a certain stage, it would stop growing entirely.

“Probably not. It feels more like an accident,” Su Jin said, frowning.

“Still, be careful. From now on, escort her to and from school yourself—at least for now. It’s necessary, so you won’t regret it if something truly happens,” Su Hanlin warned.

Su Jin nodded. “I understand.”