Chapter 103 - 102: Overnight Growth, Exam Patrol

When women shop, those who know, know.

After entering the shop, Li Jing simply became a background ornament, dragged around aimlessly by Liu Sisi.

As long as it was an object, Liu Sisi had to stop and take a look, asking about its use and price.

But you wouldn’t believe it.

Shopping at the Spirit Item Trading Market is unlike mundane shopping at a mall to buy clothes, it’s not that boring.

What are sold here are all kinds of items that can be used in cultivation.

A vast majority of these things Li Jing had never even heard of, let alone seen before.

Following Sisi around was quite novel and inadvertently broadened his horizons.

It had been over four months since Li Jing had ended up in this world.

He had learned quite a lot about this world.

In his daily life, he was also constantly trying to explore further.

But without encountering many things and many situations, he was unable to understand them in a directed manner.

Artifact Refinement, Elixir Refinement, and Talisman Creation, he had a clear concept of.

But like Spiritual objects, Spiritual materials, and Strange objects, etc.

If you randomly picked one and threw it in front of Li Jing, he might be able to see that it’s not common, but aside from the Yin Crystal and Soul Devouring Crystal that he already owned, he couldn’t recognize any of them by name.

What Li Jing found difficult to bear was that

As Liu Sisi got "into the zone", she gradually let down her guard.

Her little hand was tucked into his arm, increasingly neglecting the distance between them until eventually, the slight gap they’d always maintained unknowingly vanished.

Not only did she lean on him while walking, she would unconsciously rest her little head on his shoulder when selecting goods, being as girly as one could get.

Clinginess index, off the charts.

Bonus index, maxed out.

Being so intimate with a woman, that was an experience the singleton Li Jing had never had before.

His previous travels with Ji Qing were really no different.

But Liu Sisi and Ji Qing were two different things after all.

No matter what, Li Jing wasn’t going to develop feelings for a cat.

But when he encountered Liu Sisi, he genuinely had a hard time resisting...

Xu Jiayi, accompanying them, noticed Liu Sisi’s gradually lowered guard and Li Jing’s awkwardness.

Aside from finding it quite amusing, she frequently wore a smirk on her face.

Although Xu Jiayi was actually younger than Li Jing, she was much more informed.

Coming from a merchant’s family, she has no issues with being naïve.

As for Liu Sisi’s carefree attitude, nothing much needed to be said.

Lured by the dazzling goods and feeling trust and reliance on Li Jing, she naturally let down her guard.

Seeing the usually mature and steady Li Jing behave so naively was quite surprising to Xu Jiayi.

This guy, a little green!

If Liu Sisi ever did develop certain feelings, he’d probably be swept away.

If it were someone else, that might not be the case.

The key was their relationship was close enough to have a certain foundation for development.

Otherwise, at most Liu Sisi would just be giving away, it wouldn’t make Li Jing feel constrained or concerned.

...

Night deepens.

After visiting Xu Jiayi’s Strange Item shop, the three of them took a tour of other stores.

Unknowingly, it was near midnight.

Having shopped for more than three hours, Liu Sisi bought a lot of stuff, and despite the bountiful harvest, she was in great pain.

This trip cost her nearly fifteen million yuan.

And this was based on the Second Realm’s items being relatively cheap, and Xu Jiayi giving a generous discount.

Otherwise, her expenditure this time would easily have reached twenty-five million yuan.

Liu Sisi was doing well in her business and naturally was not short of money.

But she had never been so extravagant in her life.

Truth be told, Xu Jiayi kept her word.

The discount she promised to give, she gave without any hesitation.

Having received the valuable business information from Li Jing earlier, she further increased the discount for Liu Sisi, she never intended to make a profit from her, selling her goods at cost.

Liu Sisi and Li Jing were both aware of this.

After all, both of them, one being a merchant and the other having spent a large part of his life around money, were very sensitive to it.

After a round of splurging, Liu Sisi was satisfied and realized she had given Li Jing too many perks while being absorbed in shopping. Her cheeks reddened as she maintained her distance from him.

After bidding farewell to Xu Jiayi, the two of them left the Spirit Item Trading Market.

Stepping out of the market into the slightly chilly night air, Liu Sisi let out a breath with lingering excitement, her face full of joy as she looked at Li Jing.

"I really reaped benefits from you tonight, I’ll give you an extra meal at my shop tomorrow."

By now, Li Jing had long gotten over his initial uneasiness.

It wouldn’t matter if Liu Sisi hadn’t maintained her distance, let alone if she had, it wouldn’t affect his behavior.

People, huh?

Experience always helps us to grow, right?

If we’re being honest, seeing Liu Sisi expecting him to keep his distance makes him feel a bit awkward now.

Hearing that Liu Sisi was giving him an extra meal, Li Jing raised his eyebrows and turned his head with interest.

"What kind of extra meal?"

"Obviously it’s about eating more Spiritual Chicken Meat. What else would you think?"

Liu Sisi answered and then suddenly tilted her head.

"Could it be that you want to eat me, the boss too?"

..."Li Jing was silent.

The conversation had taken a huge leap, it had taken a flight.

He dared not respond.

Seeing Li Jing choke, Liu Sisi huffed and gave him a ’look at you’ look.

This was just about her regaining the upper hand.

Li Jing’s initial discomfort, she hadn’t noticed.

If she had, she would have realized it long ago.

By the time she did realize it, she was pretty much blushing and embarrassed.

But what about Li Jing?

As stable as an old dog!

As if nothing had happened!

This, Liu Sisi really couldn’t accept.

Did she just not have any allure at all?

She gave him all these bonuses, and he didn’t even bat an eyelid, totally took it for granted?

He had to show at least some sign of concern, right?

She had kept this dissatisfaction in her heart.

There weren’t many opportunities to express it in public.

Now that they were alone, she finally found her chance.

On seeing Liu Sisi’s challenging look, Li Jing was quite perplexed, but he didn’t pay it much attention.

Liu Sisi always said things without thinking, that was just her nature.

She could be quite unruly and dares to say anything, he was used to it.

In order to prevent Liu Sisi from continuing to go off on a tangent, Li Jing avoided the topic of the extra meal.

"It’s quite late now. Should I send you back?"

"Yeah, we’ve been shopping for so long, I am a little tired, it’s time to go back and rest."

Liu Sisi agreed.

Upon hearing her response, Li Jing hailed a taxi from the side of the road, and they began their journey home.

...

On the way home, Li Jing informed Liu Sisi that he planned to take the patrol exam in about a week.

This surprised Liu Sisi.

Normally, Li Jing would have to be an assistant inspector for at least a year to be eligible to take the patrol exam. There was no reason for it to happen so quickly.

However, she didn’t inquire much about it.

If Li Jing could become a patroller smoothly, it was something she was happy to see.

Working as a helper in her chicken shop has no future to speak of.

It’s not that she didn’t want to give Li Jing a raise.

However, doing so would be akin to just giving him money for free, not to mention that others might interpret their relationship as her financially supporting somebody.

The journey was uneventful.

Li Jing dropped off Liu Sisi at her home and used Sky Control to return to the villa.

By the time he got back, Chen Yuran had not yet come home from work. To ensure that he could successfully pass the Patrol exam, Li Jing returned to his room to continue studying.

No sooner had he settled in front of the computer than his pocket device beeped.

"Master."

?

Li Jing was taken aback and took out his device.

"What’s up?"

"I was simply idling and I checked the secret wanted list within the Patrol System, besides Academician Jiang, the other three have been confirmed dead."

While speaking, the device lit up, displaying a copy of the secret wanted list.

Seeing this, Li Jing’s brows furrowed slightly.

On the wanted list, only Jiang Guanwen’s identity information was still highlighted, while the identity information of the other three had turned gray.

Gray signified confirmed death.

Obviously, after encountering Wang Zhi, Liu Guangbo and Zheng Shiming had been found.

Without giving it much thought, Li Jing turned his attention away.

"As for this, you should keep an eye on it yourself, I’m not yet a member of the Patrol, so I can’t deal with these matters."

"Oh."

The device responded, then said.

"Master, don’t misunderstand, I just thought you should know about this, it’s nothing more."

Having said that, it obediently turned off the screen.

...

The days passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, six days passed.

During those six days, no news came out of the Secret Realm.

The Disaster Management Bureau did an excellent job of maintaining secrecy.

As for what happened subsequently, Li Jing did not know.

However, according to online news, the stability of the Secret Realm entrance was deteriorating and could vanish at any time. The personnel from the Disaster Management Bureau began to evacuate yesterday.

It’s worth mentioning that.

After six days, Jiang Guanwen’s identity on the secret wanted list remained highlighted, and he had not been found yet.

On this early morning.

Li Jing rose early and left the villa, heading to the North City Patrol Branch.

Besides his daily visits to Liu Sisi’s shop for a working lunch of Spirit Chicken, he spent most of his time at home studying intensively for the exam.

Today was the day to officially step onto the "battlefield".

Like the Assistant Inspector Department, the Patrol Branch was also continuously recruiting.

What distinguished the Patrol Branch was that individuals took the exam alone.

Even if several people came together to apply, they would be tested separately, with a high degree of confidentiality.

As such, Li Jing didn’t coordinate his application time with Lu Yangcheng and Yi Xiuzhu, who were also intending to apply for the Patrol position.

Heading into the North City Patrol Branch, Li Jing went straight to the application window.

Sitting inside the window was an attractive female patrol officer.

Looking at the badge at the side of the window, Li Jing learned that this female patrol officer was named Mu Nianjun. He took out his ID and handed it to her.

"Hello, Patrol Officer Mu, I am here to apply for the Patrol position."

"Hello, please wait."

Mu Nianjun at the window smiled and took his ID, operating the computer in front of her to pull up his identity information. She then frowned slightly in confusion.

Li Jing’s identity record was completely blank.

Aside from him not being a local resident of Jianghai and the fact that Liu Sisi was listed as his guarantor during his identity registration, he didn’t even have bank account information listed.

With an identity record as clean as this, could there really be any issues?

After examining it left and right without finding anything out of the ordinary, Mu Nianjun put her badge on the scanner at her side, accessing the Patrol System.

Li Jing’s blank identity information was obviously not enough to apply for the Patrol position.

However, since he came, he must have met the required conditions.

Who would come to take the patrol examination without knowing the prerequisites?

Years of experience in administering exams told Mu Nianjun that the answer should be in the patrol system’s records.

As the scanner confirmed her status as a patrol examination officer, Li Jing’s file in the patrol system popped up.

At first glance of the file, Mu Nianjun was stunned, and her face became extremely expressive.

Li Jing’s resume was outstanding, to say it was the best one she had seen since she started, wouldn’t be overstating it...

Just as Chen Jing had previously told Li Jing, everything he had done was detailed in the Patrol System’s records.

This included his first kills in Liu Sisi’s shop of the Chicken Demon and the Fish Demon in the market, clear records were present in the patrol system.

These, however, were nothing.

What followed was somewhat outrageous.

After joining the Assistant Inspector Department, not only did Li Jing discover critical information about a Demon Miasma incident during his duty, but he also participated in the Evil Cultivator and prohibited substances cases handled by Major Case Squad Six, thus repeatedly distinguished himself.

For this, Dai Hong, the squad leader of Major Case Squad Six, personally left a note in his file.

But that was not all.

There was also a piece of information in the files that even Mu Nianjun, who had the highest authority in the examination process, wasn’t qualified to view. The file was sealed by Chen Jing, the district director of the North City Patrol Branch.

Looking up at the unremarkable Li Jing in front of the window, Mu Nianjun was full of bewilderment.

Where had this guy appeared from?

He had worked temporarily for Major Case Squad Six, made great achievements, earned a note from Dai Hong himself and even managed to get "listed in the files" by the district director, Chen Jing?

Was he anointed by heavens?

Seeing Mu Nianjun staring at him with wide eyes, as if trying to discern something from his appearance, Li Jing couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.

He didn’t know what information his identity and file contained.

That he met the conditions for the patrol examination was something Chen Jing had told him.

There shouldn’t be any discrepancies.

Chen Jing had no reason to deceive him.

But Mu Nianjun’s appearance gave him the feeling that something was amiss.

"May I ask..."

Li Jing hesitated to ask.

Before he could finish his question, Mu Nianjun snapped back to her senses and quickly responded.

"Ah! Sorry, I was a bit lost just now."

Then, she spoke very cordially.

"Xiaoli, I’ve already looked over your identity information and records. Please wait a moment while I register your examination information. Since you have already taken practical tests when you were part of the Assistant Inspector Department, you have met the threshold for the patrol examination. There is no need for additional tests for your offensive and defensive magic skills. Once I’m finished here, I’ll take you to the written test."

"Alright, thank you."

Li Jing nodded.

Once he confirmed that there wouldn’t be any issues for the examination, he relaxed.

Being called "Xiaoli", he didn’t feel anything wrong. He just thought that Mu Nianjun was very friendly.

...

Not long after, Mu Nianjun came out of the window and led Li Jing to a conference room, where she handed him a test paper.

The written test went smoothly, all the efforts Li Jing put in the past week did not go to waste.

Within an hour, he filled up the answer sheet and handed it to Mu Nianjun.

As it was a one-man examination, Mu Nianjun reviewed the submitted answer sheet right on the spot.

In a few minutes, she put down the answer sheet.

"Not bad, it seems Xiaoli, you have been studying very hard recently. You aced the written test."

Hearing that he scored full marks, Li Jing looked up in surprise.

"So, I... "

"Congratulations, you passed."

Mu Nianjun beamed as she turned and said,

"Follow me, I’m going to take you to Human Resources. There, someone will issue you a uniform and patrol certificate, process your admission procedures, and provide you with job options. Once the formalities are done, you will be a full-time patroller."

Her every word sounded like music to Li Jing’s ears.

When he came to take the patrol examination, he was very confident.

But now, as he received the definitive news, his heart’s burdens finally lifted.

Patroller, accomplished!