Chapter 180 - 179: Soul-Burning Beast Control, The Old Geezer is Very Naughty

?

Yulian slowly typed out a question mark.

What could possibly go wrong with two slain Fifth Boundary Big Monsters?

Moving closer to Li Jing, Yulian cast a downward glance and then furrowed her brow.

"It seems...there really is a problem."

"How so?"

Li Jing turned his head to look at her.

"I’m not entirely sure, I need to run a test."

With that, Yulian snapped her fingers and a wisp of white flame landed on the fish demon’s bisected body.

The moment the flame touched the body, it burned a hole in the demon’s flesh as if it were melting butter.

Li Jing’s face fell when he saw this.

This was the body of a Fifth Boundary Big Monster, worth at least a hundred million at the starting price!

Is Yulian’s so-called test just setting it on fire with Fox Fire?

Yet immediately after, he realized something was off.

A Fifth Boundary Big Monster’s flesh was incredibly strong, wasn’t it?

Even in death, it shouldn’t be so easily burned through.

Moreover, the Fox Fire that Yulian had flicked out was weak, nowhere near as potent as the black flame that the snake demon spewed earlier.

Just as he was about to ask a question, the half of the fish demon’s corpse that had melted away began oozing a large clump of a substance similar to butter, and quickly shriveled up.

An extremely foul odor permeated the air.

!!!

Li Jing.

"What...what’s going on?"

"Physical decay," Yulian responded.

"To put it simply, this fish demon’s cultivation was subpar, and its body couldn’t bear the Demonic Qi. While alive, it barely maintained its state due to its cultivation level, but after death, its cultivation drained away, causing its body to completely collapse."

Saying this, she started to explain.

"This Fox Fire I used didn’t even reach half its potential, and ordinarily wouldn’t be enough to kill even a third Boundary. However, the fish demon’s body melted the moment it was burned, which means her physical strength is even lower than a Third Boundary’s. If she hadn’t died here today, she would’ve lived at most another month. We, the monster cultivators, focus mainly on physical strength during cultivation for various reasons. A primary reason is that our Demonic Qi is harder to control than humans’ Spiritual Qi. Without a strong body to withstand it, you simply cannot bear the power that comes with cultivation."

Listerning to Yulian’s explanation, Li Jing’s brow furrowed.

This wasn’t the first time he encountered such a situation.

Some time ago, in the Shangcheng District, there was a baboon pig demon girl. Her cultivation level was around the Fourth Boundary, yet her physical strength was not even close to the Third Boundary’s, and her life hung by a thread.

But that was due to her indulging in debauchery.

Now, obviously, this was a different story.

A demon with the Fifth Boundary cultivation wouldn’t easily "wear itself out".

And the decay of the fish demon’s body is too clean for comfort.

According to Yulian, the fish demon was barely hanging on to life solely by its Fifth Boundary cultivation.

Recalling how both monsters hit him earlier and couldn’t even touch the corner of his Wind King Mysterious Clothing, Li Jing had an unsettling premonition.

The lizard men in the Secret Realm also followed the path of Body Refining.

The physical strength of a Fifth Boundary Big Monster should be comparable.

However, judging by his senses, the combined strength of the two demons’ attacks was barely on par with one hit from a lizard man.

Both relied on physical strength, but the disparity shouldn’t be this huge.

In terms of cultivation, these two big monsters were actually somewhat stronger than the two lizard men he had killed.

Looking at the massive snake demon’s body beside him, Li Jing muttered under his breath.

"Check the snake demon over."

"Mm."

Yulian acknowledged and flicked her finger, casting another Fox Fire.

The snake demon was in the same condition as the fish demon.

The Fox Fire ignited immediately, burning a hole in its corpse.

Shortly after, a foul-smelling liquid, similar to butter, started to slowly flow out from the hole.

The corpse shriveled up at a speed visible to the naked eye while the scales covering its body shattered into pieces.

Upon seeing this, Li Jing’s face showed his discomfort.

The two huge demon corpses he had anticipated turned out to be mere empty shells!

Seeing this, Yulian’s slender eyebrows twisted like two twisted doughnuts.

"The situation with this snake demon seems even worse than the fish demon. If it weren’t dead, it might not have lived more than ten days at best, how could this happen?"

Upon hearing this, Li Jing remained silent for a moment, then spoke up.

"Could it be possible that the cultivation levels of these so-called big demons aren’t self-acquired?"

"Not self-acquired?"

Yulian turned her head.

"If you, Miss Yu, were my enemy, would you reveal your true form?"

Li Jing asked.

"Uh..."

Yulian was stunned.

Just now, she didn’t think it was wrong for the two great demons to reveal their true forms in battle.

It’s not unheard of for spiritual beasts to dislike battling in human form. Some independent and eccentric great demons prefer to fight in their actual form.

However, Li Jing’s statement combined with his assumptions made Yu Lian consider a possibility.

These so-called great demons, their actual cultivation level is very low.

They could not even have reached the Third Realm...

Compared to confronting the enemy in human form, they are more adept at fighting with their bestial bodies.

It is because of this reason that their physical bodies have deteriorated to such a degree.

Thinking of this, Yu Lian’s expression gradually turns gloomy.

"Evil Cultivators."

???

Li Jing.

How does this connect with Evil Cultivators?

Noticing the poor look on Yu Lian’s face, Li Jing asked.

"Have you seen this situation before?"

"I’ve heard of it but never seen it."

Yu Lian replied.

"Evil ways are unpredictable and mysterious, with many sects within them. There’s a particularly dark and secret method known as the ’Soul-Burning Beast Control’ which specifically targets spiritual beasts and monsters. This method sacrifices the potential for beast cultivation by burning their life force, instead, granting them temporarily unorthodox cultivation levels and forcefully puppeteers their soul."

While saying this, she turned to Li Jing.

"Evil cultivators who are acquainted with the ’Soul-Burning Beast Control’ became extinct over a hundred years ago. I only came to know about it from hearing about it from elder beast cultivators in my youth. I didn’t expect to witness it in person today in Jianghai. ’Soul-Burning Beast Control’ cannot manipulate high-rank demons, and it often forcibly brings low-rank demon beasts to a level slightly lesser than the caster. Whoever controlled these two great demons should be an evil cultivator at the mid to late Fifth Boundary."

Upon hearing this, a glint appeared in Li Jing’s eyes.

An Evil Cultivator of the mid to late stage of Fifth Boundary didn’t interest him at all.

Evil Cultivators don’t offer experience points.

However, he was very interested in this Evil Cultivator’s "demon-making" talent.

A Fifth Boundary level demon, irrespective of how it turns out, would bring a minimum of 6000 experience points.

Just thinking of a hoard of them was mouth-watering!

However, whether an Evil Cultivator is causing this still needs to be decided.

The Evil Method, ’Soul-Burning Beast Control’, which targets beast cultivation, has not been seen for a century, and it isn’t going just to pop up out of nowhere.

After pondering for a moment, Li Jing spoke up.

"We can discuss this later."

As he spoke, he released the energy stored in the Boundary Stone.

...

The space boundary was shattered, Li Jing and Yu Lian, along with the two severely injured great demons returned to the earthly black market.

As soon as they emerged from the subspace, they came face to face with Chen Jing standing in front of a stall.

Seeing Chen Jing suddenly, Li Jing was slightly stunned.

While Yu Lian’s face was as pale as a sheet.

There wasn’t a demon in Jianghai who didn’t know who Chen Jing was.

As the only Six Realm master in Jianghai city, he was always in the public eye.

Chen Jing was somewhat surprised to see the two of them suddenly appearing.

He glanced at Yu Lian, who was trembling in fear, and gave Li Jing a discontented look.

"As expected, you are one step ahead of me. I’ve tried so hard to find this place, yet it was all for naught."

Seeing Chen Jing, Li Jing was not surprised at all.

After all, it was within his expectations that Chen Jing would find this underground black market.

Li Jing laughed nervously, and rubbed his nose.

"I had assumed that you would be ahead of me."

"My old friends aren’t so easy to deal with."

Chen Jing shook his head and spoke indifferently.

"If I had known you were so quick, I wouldn’t have wasted my energy."

Saying this, he looked at the big snake head and half fish, which returned with Li Jing to the real world, and asked with a frown.

"So these two were behind the disturbances in the black market? Why are their bodies so fragile, just of Second Boundary strength?"

Chen Jing, as a Six Realm expert, was, after all, incisive.

Just one glance and he understood that these two demon beasts were just a shell.

In response to his question, Li Jing explained everything.

"These two indeed have Fifth Boundary cultivation, but when they died, their bodies lost the support of Fifth Boundary power and completely broke down. Miss Yu guessed there might be a Fifth Boundary Evil Cultivator mastering the ’Soul-Burning Beast Control’ behind them."

"Miss Yu?"

Chen Jing turned his head and looked at Yu Lian.

Meeting his gaze, Yu Lian responded in a small voice while trembling.

"Hello, Director Chen, I’m Yu Lian."

Chen Jing stared at her for a moment, and then asked.

"Are you, a demon?"

"Yes."

Yu Lian nodded and answered weakly.

"Yu Lian is a Fifth Boundary fox demon."

Chen Jing didn’t pick up the conversation, glancing weirdly at Li Jing.

Even with his sharp eyes, he couldn’t tell that Yulian was actually a demon.

This question was purely speculation.

He speculated only because Yulian was with Li Jing.

Li Jing had never told Chen Jing that he was closely associated with some demonic creatures.

However, considering that the ’warm-hearted citizens’ who refused to reveal their identities appeared frequently in Li Jing’s action reports, and that Chen Yuran also encountered such ’warm-hearted citizens’ when solving the theft case of the Alchemy Association, Chen Jing had already guessed something.

How could there be so many ’warm-hearted citizens’ in this world who were unwilling to reveal their identities?

What Chen Jing hadn’t expected was,

Li Jing had grown so wild that even a Great Demon of the Fifth Boundary respected him.

And the one standing in front of him right now is not only a Great Demon who hasn’t signed a peace treaty but also a tough fox demon from the demonic creature population.

Could this girl, Yulian, even compromise with him when approached?

Chen Jing was staring at him intensely, which made Li Jing cough awkwardly.

"Uncle, Miss Yu is a demon settled in East City, not our North City. She has not signed..."

Before Li Jing could finish speaking, Chen Jing waved his hand.

"I’m not in charge of East City."

With this response, Li Jing nodded with a smile.

It would be okay if he didn’t meet Chen Jing, but now that they had bumped into each other, he had to say something.

After all, Yulian was accompanying him on this trip, and if she were forced to sign a peace treaty she didn’t want to, it would be him trapping her.

Listening to Chen Jing and Li Jing’s dialogue, Yulian was stunned.

Li Jing worked for the North City Patrol Bureau, so it was natural for him to know Chen Jing.

But Chen Jing was too easy-going in front of him.

Just one sentence and she was exempted from the guilt of not signing a peace treaty?

And what did Li Jing just call Chen Jing?

Uncle?

Did the two have a familial relationship?

While she was in shock, Chen Jing looked at her.

"Miss Yu, you have cooperated with the North City Patrol Bureau Serious Case Six Group’s action this time, and provided reliable assistance for the breakthrough of the case. You may pick and take some of the ready-made spiritual objects here."

At the sound of this, Yulian blinked and hesitated to look at a certain someone.

Seeing her reaction, Li Jing shrugged.

"If uncle lets you take it, just take it. You deserve it."

He then said to Chen Jing:

"Uncle, I asked Alai to check the two guards of the Examination Institute who had monetary anomalies and confirmed that they frequently entered and exited West City recently. Also, when we encountered these two great demons, they both used demonic qi to conceal their true identities. This snake demon has the ability to control fire. If nothing goes wrong, the snake demon should be the mastermind behind the attack on the prison cart."

"Hmm."

Chen Jing nodded and said:

"The case of the prison cart is not solved yet here, the culprit has not been caught, we have to drag him out. But it is not suitable for Deadly Case Six Group to get involved anymore, it is too dangerous. You send Miss Yu home later, I will let the people of the Deadly Case Six Group come to gather and explain to them, and call people from the West City Branch to clean up. Tomorrow noon you bring Miss Yu to the North City Branch, and we discuss how to proceed."

Then he said to Yulian who was picking things up.

"Miss Yu, you should be free tomorrow noon?"

"Ah, I am free."

Yulian smiled awkwardly.

In front of these two, how dare she say she was not free?

One of them who kills great demons as if slaughtering dogs, and the other could crush her with a single finger.

Her only choice

was to obediently behave and allow them to manipulate her.

Although it was helpless, at least the two didn’t make her suffer any loss.

Li Jing saw that Chen Jing decided to continue the investigation but was going to pull the Deadly Case Six Group out of the case, he didn’t have much objection.

Involving an evil cultivator who could arbitrarily "create" a Great Demon of the Fifth Boundary, it was too dangerous for those who had not yet reached the Fifth Boundary.

The Serious Case Six Group was the elite force of the North City Branch.

If there was a loss, the North City Branch could not afford it.

...

When Yulian had finished picking the "reward" that Chen Jing had agreed to, Li Jing left with her.

With Chen Jing here, there was no need for him to meddle.

Chen Jing didn’t delay and contacted the Serious Case Six Group and the West City Branch after they left.

Soon after, a large number of people from the West City Branch arrived. They blockaded the entire Old City area to gather evidence and collect all kinds of contraband items that were scattered around the Black Market, waiting for categorization and processing.

The Serious Case Six Group also arrived shortly after, with all members assembled.

Chen Jing explained the situation to everyone, and described Li Jing as his companion who was currently performing another task.

Li Jing was already at the Fifth Boundary, so it was not convenient to tell everyone for now.

There would naturally be no objections to Chen Jing’s decision.

It wasn’t until around nine in the morning that the Old City gradually quieted down.

Leaving a mess behind, the large team from the West City Branch orderly withdrew, without making any disposition towards the people of the Old City.

As previously mentioned.

The existence of the Old City was necessary.

The West City Branch was withdrawn, and Chen Jing and his Serious Case Six Group were also collectively evacuated.

Upon returning to the North City Patrol Branch, Chen Jing sent a message to Chen Yuran, who had just clocked out and was preparing to go home to sleep.

"Yuran, come to my office."

Hearing him, Chen Yuran stopped her Sword Light mid-flight, frowned at Chen Jing, who had already landed and was walking into the North City Branch courtyard, and descended on her Sword Light.

...

Following Chen Jing to the director’s office, Chen Yuran quietly closed the door behind her.

"Did you specially call me here to tell me that Li Jing solved last night’s case?"

"Half and half."

Chen Jing replied as he glanced back at her, then went over to sit on a couch with a smile.

"You seem quite trusting of Li Jing. I haven’t even said anything yet, and you’ve already guessed that he solved the case?"

"I’m used to it."

Chen Yuran shrugged and said, walking over and unceremoniously flopping herself down on another couch.

Upon seeing this, Chen Jing pulled a face.

"We are at the station right now, can’t you act a bit more professional?"

"Who else is here that I need to act professional for?"

Not at all pleased, Chen Yuran retorted.

"I was running around from the afternoon to the night yesterday, visited several banks, trying to discern where the money for Examination Institute’s funds came from. Before I could even make headway, you tell me the case has been solved. It feels like I was just mucking about for nothing."

While saying this, she ground her teeth in frustration.

"Why didn’t you inform me when you had a lead while with Li Jing, instead of just telling me after everything was done?"

Faced with his daughter’s complaints, Chen Jing spread out his hands.

"I brought you here to explain all this. I was not with Li Jing last night; by the time I arrived, everything was already over."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yuran furrowed her brows.

"Everything was already over by the time you arrived? Do you mean...the two Fifth Boundary Big Monsters were killed by Li Jing?"

"Correct, he did it alone."

Chen Jing nodded.

...

Chen Yuran remained silent for a moment, then regained her composure and asked with concern,

"So he didn’t appear last night not because he had a special mission but because he was injured?"

"Not at all."

Chen Jing said, with a nonchalant smile.

Chen Yuran was taken aback, her expression becoming increasingly blank.

Seeing this, Chen Jing gave an enigmatic smile and pretended to be surprised.

"Honestly, I am as shocked as you are that he could single-handedly kill two Fifth Boundary Big Monsters, and even more surprised that he’s actually now at the Fifth Boundary. I asked him, and it turns out, he had already stepped into the Fifth Boundary long ago, not at the late stages of Four Boundary as we thought."

After saying this, he cleared his throat.

"Do you remember, Yuran, what you told me at the time?"

...

Chen Yuran said nothing, regained her scattered thoughts, and pouted.

"I remember you telling me to hold back and wait until Li Jing reached Six Boundary."

"Yes, that’s right, but I think you might want to reconsider now."

With a coy expression, Chen Jing reluctantly admitted,

"A 22-year-old who has reached the Fifth Boundary. Given his talent, I think it would only take him a few more years to reach the Six Boundary."

After saying this, he sighed softly,

"If you’re going to make a move, I suggest you do so sooner rather than later. Right now, you’re already behind him by a whole stage. By the time he reaches Six Boundary, whether you can step into Fifth Boundary is still a question."

"So what if I’m behind? I’m not thinking about that right now."

Chen Yuran rolled her eyes and said.

"You worrying old man, stop bullshitting me. What I said was if I regretted, I would reconsider, I haven’t regretted it yet, his cultivation level has nothing to do with me."

"Tsk!"

Chen Jing clicked his tongue.

"You stubborn girl, why are you so hard-headed?"

"Is that all you wanted to say?"

Chen Yuran asked nonchalantly.

Seeing his daughter still behaving in the same old imperturbable way, Chen Jing sighed with exasperation and resignation.

With a sigh, he said wearily,

"Keep investigating where the money for those two anomalies in the Examination Institute’s funds came from. Do it secretly, don’t involve the others from the Serious Case Six Group, and report any findings to me immediately."

?

Chen Yuran was left questioning, her sharp instinct sensing something was amiss.

"Could you elaborate?"

"This isn’t as simple as it seems."

Chen Jing said in a low voice, explaining the situation with the two Fifth Boundary Big Monsters.

Hearing there might be involvement from an evil cultivator capable of "creating" Fifth Boundary Big Monsters, Chen Yuran’s expression became serious.

"The Soul Burning Beast Control Skill has been lost for a hundred years. If this evil technique were to reemerge, I’m afraid Jianghai will be thrown into chaos."