Chapter 134: New Era, New Giant

October 29th.

The investigation team sent from the provincial capital arrived in Xingcheng and began to unfold their investigation.

At this time, the Inspection Academy's interrogation of the Meijia spies and Yan Yichen had already come to an end.

The spy case involved too much and could not be investigated by the Xingcheng Inspection Academy, so Li Lei could only hand over the interrogation results to the investigation team.

As for Yan Yichen's case, there was already a result.

This Chief did not admit anything at first, but instead kept threatening Li Lei, who was responsible for the interrogation, and ordered the other party to release people.

According to the rules, even if Li Lei was the Inspector of the Inspection Academy, he really did not have the qualifications to interrogate the Chief of the Stop-the-War Academy.

However, with the Meijia spies giving some key confessions, and later Li Lei leading the team to find physical evidence, Yan Yichen finally had nothing to say.

"This Chief Yan had problems with his martial arts foundation more than ten years ago because he was too eager for success in his practice. If it could not be solved in time, he would at least fall from the Dao Foundation realm, and at worst, his martial arts would be completely abolished!"

"In order to solve this problem, Yan Yichen finally decided to take a risk and practice demonic martial arts. This was a technique obtained when the Stop-the-War Academy wiped out demonic martial artists. He didn't practice the whole thing, but only practiced the part used to repair damage to the implanted body."

"The repair method of this demonic martial arts technique is also to plunder implanted bodies from others, refine them, and then repair one's own implanted body. But this method only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. After Yan Yichen repaired it once, his own implanted body would be damaged again after a period of time, and he would need to continue to repair it."

"In this way, Yan Yichen could only capture martial artists in secret one after another and obtain implanted bodies from them to repair himself. His behavior was finally discovered by the Meijia spies. These spies felt that this was an opportunity, so they found a way to get Yu Hu and Yan Yichen in touch, and proposed cooperation in a way that was half-threat and half-lure: Yan Yichen would support the Tiger Blade Gang, while Yu Hu would use the Tiger Blade Gang to help Yan Yichen cultivate martial artists and regularly provide the other party with mature implanted bodies to repair himself."

"This is the reason why Yan Yichen chose to support the Tiger Blade Gang at the beginning, and it was precisely because of the strong support of the Stop-the-War Academy that the Tiger Blade Gang was able to develop so quickly."

In the living room, Li Lei explained the ins and outs of Yan Yichen's case to Li Fei in detail.

Originally, according to the regulations, Li Fei could not know these things.

But first, the letter with the confession was delivered by Li Fei, so he was already involved.

Second, after capturing Yan Yichen, Shangguan Xiao came to the Inspection Academy every day to strike force into the other party's body again to reinforce the 'imprisonment' of Yan Yichen.

Shangguan Xiao had made an indelible contribution to successfully interrogating Yan Yichen, so the final result of the case should reasonably be told to the other party. So Li Lei wanted to tell Shangguan Xiao about the case through Li Fei; after all, Li Fei was Shangguan Xiao's nephew-disciple.

"Sending a Body Breaking stage martial artist to Yan Yichen every period of time, does the Tiger Blade Gang cultivate martial artists that fast?"

Li Fei raised a doubt.

He could go from the Embryo Nourishing stage to the Body Breaking stage in one month, but that didn't mean others could too.

"For Yan Yichen, the Tiger Blade Gang specially created a 'fast-track' version of martial artists. This kind of martial artist can go from Embryo Nourishing to Body Breaking in just two or three months, but the price is that their potential is exhausted, their lifespan is damaged, and their combat power is also very poor. However, the Tiger Blade Gang doesn't care about these prices; anyway, these people are 'supplements' prepared for Yan Yichen."

Li Lei said with a gloomy face.

Li Fei was silent.

Who could have thought that the dignified Chief of the Stop-the-War Academy would actually 'eat' a few people every year?

"Yan Yichen has already confessed. The result regarding him will be announced soon, and it should be the death penalty."

Li Lei said, "Originally, a Dao Foundation powerhouse like him, even if he committed a capital crime, would have a chance to perform some dangerous missions to atone for his crimes. After all, such powerhouses are rare, and the imperial court is unwilling to waste combat power. But Yan Yichen practiced demonic arts, and the imperial court has always had zero tolerance for demonic cultivators, so he can only be sentenced to death."

"What about Gu Zhenhui?"

Li Fei asked.

"Him? He is protecting himself, and he might retire early, just like Huang Weiguang back then."

Li Lei said.

"Retire early?"

Li Fei admired this Chief a little.

Xingcheng had such a big mess, bandits entered the city, the City Guard suffered heavy casualties, and some people colluded with foreigners to betray the country. In these events, Gu Zhenhui, as Chief, could not shirk responsibility. Someone else might have been directly imprisoned, but he was able to get himself an early retirement ending.

And looking at Gu Zhenhui's opponents, Yu Hu had already died, and Yan Yichen was also about to be executed.

It had to be said that this Chief's methods were indeed powerful.

"Li Shu, after this incident, you should be able to be promoted directly and become an imperial court official, right?"

Li Fei suddenly asked with a smile.

Before, Li Lei was promoted in position but not in rank. Now with this great merit, neither Datong Fucheng nor the provincial capital had any reason to block his promotion review.

"Haha, I hope so."

Li Lei also laughed.

He had never thought that one day he could become an imperial court official!

"Then I congratulate Li Shu in advance."

Li Fei smiled.

"Hahahaha."

Li Lei's hearty laughter rang out in the living room.

November 9th, after more than ten days of investigation by the investigation team from the provincial capital, many things were settled:

First was Chief Gu Zhenhui. He would retire at the end of this month, and a new Chief would be sent from above to take office.

And as Gu Zhenhui went down, many officials of his faction were also implicated, and quite a few of them 'retired early.'

However, these officials were considered lucky. The officials of the Tiger Blade Gang faction were truly wiped out, and the vast majority were imprisoned!

Then there was the disposal of Yan Yichen, which had been determined to be the death penalty, and would also be executed at the end of this month.

A part of the Stop-the-War Academy was implicated, and they were all transferred to other places to perform dangerous missions to atone for their crimes.

In this way, a Stop-the-War Academy was left with only one regular martial arts master and a few martial arts masters, plus more than ten martial artists, which was very desolate.

However, news had come from Datong Fucheng that a new Chief would soon be sent to the Xingcheng Stop-the-War Academy, and several regular martial arts masters and a batch of martial artists would be transferred to supplement the combat power of the Stop-the-War Academy.

As for who would be the new Chief, it had not been announced yet, but Li Fei already knew that this person was his Aunt-Master!

Shangguan Xiao was now a certainty to serve as the next Chief of the Xingcheng Stop-the-War Academy, jumping over two dragon gates from a commoner to become an 11th-rank official!

Finally, there was the personnel transfer of the Inspection Academy:

Deputy Inspector Li Lei led the Inspection Academy to eliminate bandits in time and saved the people of Xingcheng. Later, he arrested Yan Yichen, who practiced demonic arts, and the Meijia spies, making repeated great contributions. Therefore, he was promoted exceptionally, jumping 2 ranks from a 9th-rank subordinate official to become an 11th-rank official!

Not only that, Li Lei's position also changed from Deputy Inspector to 'Acting Inspector.'

As long as there were no accidents, within a year or two at most, the 'Acting' in Li Lei's title could be removed, and he would become the new Inspector of Xingcheng!

In addition, because Lu Sheng discovered Wu Yihua's conspiracy in time and stepped forward to stop the other party from rebelling, and later participated in the bandit suppression operation and made contributions, he was restored to his original position and served as the captain of the First Brigade again.

In just a few months, Lu Sheng had gone around in circles and returned to his position, but things were no longer the same.

"Originally, the provincial capital also had arrangements for the Martial Arts Hall."

In the courtyard, Shangguan Xiao said to Li Fei:

"They wanted Senior Brother to take over as the Hall Master of the Martial Arts Hall, but he refused. He is still only willing to be a teacher."

Li Fei was stunned: "Teacher is still unwilling to come out and do things?"

Shangguan Xiao sighed: "Senior Brother said that his biggest wish at present is to teach you, this student, to become a talent, which can be considered a contribution to the country. As for other things, he doesn't want to consider them for the time being."

Li Fei was silent, a little moved.

If Hao Yi was willing to take over as the Hall Master of the Martial Arts Hall, Shangguan Xiao would probably find a way to get him into the Stop-the-War Academy in a few years and leave the position of Chief for him.

But Hao Yi refused the path Shangguan Xiao had paved for him, only wanting to teach Li Fei well.

"He Yun has organized the account books of the Tiger Blade Gang for the past ten years. Have you read them?"

Shangguan Xiao suddenly asked.

"Not yet."

Li Fei shook his head.

He only controlled the general direction of the Azure Origin City Management Company, and other matters were handled by Liu Saner, while he focused on practicing martial arts every day.

"The Tiger Blade Gang was already the number one gang in Xingcheng ten years ago. From that time on, excluding the various expenses of the gang and the money sent to various officials, it could still have a net profit of about one million every year."

Shangguan Xiao said to Li Fei:

"This part of the money all went into Yu Hu's pocket alone. Even if he spent 300,000 to 400,000 every year to practice martial arts, he should still have hundreds of thousands in savings. Accumulated over ten years, that is a huge sum of about seven million!"

"During this period, whether it was the investigation team from the provincial capital or the investigation team from Datong Fucheng, they spent a lot of energy looking for Yu Hu's savings, but they couldn't find them."

Li Fei was thoughtful and said: "Does Aunt-Master think this money was taken by those spies from Meijia?"

Shangguan Xiao said coldly: "That is the only possibility. These spies came to our Great Lan Dynasty to cause trouble, intensified our internal friction, and finally wanted to take away our wealth to strengthen themselves. Just thinking about it makes me angry!"

Li Fei was silent.

Now, this taken wealth might become bullets fired at the Great Lan Dynasty in the future. Thinking about it this way, Yu Hu died too cheaply!

"Telling you this is to remind you that the imperial court will not let go of the spy matter so easily. Subsequent investigations may last for many years and involve many people. Don't you have the identity of a secret inspector? I estimate that people from the Datong Fucheng Inspection General Academy will soon talk to you."

Shangguan Xiao said.

"People from the Datong Fucheng Inspection General Academy want to talk to me?"

Li Fei was stunned.

"Your Aunt-Master, me, will serve as the Chief of the Stop-the-War Academy in the future, your foster father Li Lei will be the Inspector of the Inspection Academy in the future, and you have a teacher who is even stronger at the Dao Foundation stage. With so many backgrounds, the Inspection Academy will not miss you, the best candidate."

Shangguan Xiao smiled.

Li Fei understood.

The 'old era' of Xingcheng had passed, and the giants of the new era were rising, and these giants were more or less related to him. Winning him over was the lowest-cost way to win over these new giants!

"Investigating the Western nation spies is a good opportunity. Even if you go to Datong Fucheng and go to the Martial Arts University in the future, participating in this matter will be of great benefit to you. So later, if people from the Datong Fucheng Inspection General Academy find you, you might as well agree."

Shangguan Xiao said to Li Fei.

Li Fei bowed to Shangguan Xiao: "This student understands, thank you Aunt-Master for your guidance."

"You child, you are just too polite."

"Great Dragon Head."

Just at this moment, Xiang Du suddenly walked in from outside.

"What's the matter?"

Shangguan Xiao looked at the other party.

"The Chen family has sent someone, saying they want to see the Azure-Faced Ghost King."

Xiang Du replied.

"The Chen family?"

Shangguan Xiao and Li Fei looked at each other, then instructed Xiang Du:

"You take the Chen family people to the reception room and wait."

"Yes."

Xiang Du turned and left.

"The Chen family people coming to see you at this time should be wanting to talk to you about that exotic beast farm on the outskirts of the city."

Shangguan Xiao said to Li Fei.

During this period, the Azure Origin City Management Company almost completely took over the past business of the Tiger Blade Gang, while the Chen family retreated step by step, not competing with the Azure Origin City Management Company at all, and even took the initiative to spit out some of the business and territory that belonged to the Tiger Blade Gang that they had swallowed before, and returned them to the Azure Origin City Management Company.

This attitude could be said to be very 'docile.'

However, on one issue, the Chen family was very tough and never loosened their mouths, and that was the exotic beast farm.

Although the Tiger Blade Gang controlled the Martial Arts Hall before, it could continuously obtain martial arts cultivation resources. But Yu Hu and Zhang Mingze were both people who planned ahead, so the two had been planning exotic beast farming very early on. (See Chapter 31 for details)

Only by having the ability to farm exotic beasts and produce implanted bodies themselves could they not be controlled by others and cultivate their own martial artists at the lowest cost.

Looking at the entire Great Lan Dynasty, truly powerful forces were farming exotic beasts and planting raw materials for elixirs themselves, becoming self-sufficient.

So Yu Hu and Zhang Mingze spent a lot of money to build an exotic beast farm on the outskirts of Xingcheng a few years ago, wanting to have the ability to farm exotic beasts themselves.

But exotic beast farming involved many things, and a very key point was the food for exotic beasts. To raise a good exotic beast, at least a dozen different kinds of food needed to be prepared for it, and the Tiger Blade Gang did not have a channel to buy exotic beast food and could only buy it through the Chen family.

Over the past few years, the most important cooperation between the Tiger Blade Gang and the Chen family was the buying and selling of exotic beast food.

Now that the Tiger Blade Gang had fallen, the first thing the Chen family did was to annex the exotic beast farm that Yu Hu and Zhang Mingze had painstakingly built.

After Li Fei created the Azure Origin City Management Company, Liu Saner had negotiated with the Chen family about the exotic beast farm on the outskirts of the city, but the Chen family had never loosened their mouths. Liu Saner also released words that if the Chen family did not hand over the exotic beast farm within three days, the Azure Origin City Management Company would go and take it themselves!

So tonight, the Chen family sent someone to ask to see the Azure-Faced Ghost King.

"Then let's see them."

Li Fei said calmly.

In this new era of Xingcheng, he himself was actually already a new giant!

Asking for monthly tickets.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 135 =====