Chapter 182 - 181: Discussing Merits and Rewarding, "One of Us

After sending Ji Qing back to the store, Li Jing headed straight for East City.

Along the way, he took a picture of the photo he received from Ji Qing and sent it to Xiao Ai, asking him to research the background of the four individuals in the photo and to retrieve their life tracks from North City’s surveillance.

It was about eleven o’clock when Li Jing arrived in the front yard of Yulian’s house in Kangcheng Manor, ringing the doorbell.

After the doorbell rang for a while, Yulian’s voice echoed from the intercom.

"Inspector Li?"

"Yes, it’s me."

Li Jing responded.

Before the words fell, Yulian came out of the house to greet him at the outer gate and opened the door.

"I’m still preparing lunch, you..."

"No problem, I’m just here a little early. After you have lunch, we can go see the bureau chief."

Li Jing smiled, walked into the courtyard, and took out the photo he had received from Ji Qing.

"Do you recognize anyone in this group of four?"

Yulian took the photo and shook her head after a brief glance.

"I’ve never seen them. They all look unfamiliar. Who are these four?"

"They are the Great Demons active in North City."

Li Jing replied.

"All four of them are Great Demons?"

Yulian furrowed her brows.

"Do you need me to ask my friends in North City?"

"There’s no need if you haven’t seen them."

Li Jing waved his hand and took back the photo.

"With physical photos to identify their appearances, it’s easy for me to investigate them."

As long as he had reliable targets for the investigation, there was no need for others to be involved.

Besides, Li Jing had a feeling that something was off about this situation. The fewer people who knew about it, the better.

Seeing that she didn’t need to be involved, Yulian also didn’t make a fuss and offered a smile.

"It’s just past eleven now; you probably haven’t eaten yet. Would you like to have a meal at my place?"

"If you don’t mind making an extra portion, I wouldn’t mind."

Li Jing replied with a smile.

Upon attaining the Fifth Boundary, he had basically no need for food.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say he had completely eradicated this need.

But he no longer needed to eat every meal.

Going without for three to five days was not a problem.

His original plan was to come and pick up Yulian to go see Chen Jing directly. Since she was making lunch, waiting a while wouldn’t be a big deal. There was no rush.

Being invited at this moment, it wouldn’t hurt to get a free meal.

The food offered by others always tastes better.

However, needing to eat and having something to eat are not always the same thing.

Hearing that Li Jing had accepted her offer, Yulian chuckled.

"It’s just an extra bowl of rice, not a big deal at all. As long as you don’t mind my cooking."

....

After entering the house, Yulian turned around with a smile.

Since we’re friends, you can call me Yulian. Stop calling me Miss Yu, it’s awkward."

"Alright."

Li Jing nodded.

To be honest, his impression of Yulian was quite good.

Yulian, in both her words and actions, showed considerable maturity.

She was bright and smart, and her demeanor was also quite relaxed.

Befriending such a Great Demon was quite good indeed.

Upon seeing Yulian’s 7376 health bar, Li Jing paused and took out ten bloody sacks from his storage space and placed them on the ground.

"These are the flesh and blood of the Fourth Realm Pig Monster from yesterday, approximately over a thousand pounds. I thought you might be interested, so I brought it."

Yulian was slightly taken aback, never expecting that he would keep the pig monster’s flesh separate and bring it to her.

The flesh of a Fourth Realm Pig Monster was certainly of interest to her.

Although the quality of the flesh of a Fourth Realm Pig Monster is somewhat inferior for her, it still holds many benefits after consumption and digestion.

Also, Fourth Realm monsters’ meat is unlike those from the Third Realm.

The flesh of any Fourth Realm monster usually has a high medicinal value and can be used to refine high-grade Pills.

Just this thousand pounds of Pig Monster’s meat could fetch over twenty million in the Spiritual Object Market.

Moreover, the meat from Fourth Realm monsters is hard to find.

Among the cultivators, Fourth Realm individuals are very rare.

In the realm of monsters, the Fourth Realm ones are also comparatively less.

It’s hard to even see a live one, let alone one that’s hunted.

By the time they reach the Fourth Realm, monsters typically do not kill each other.

It’s not easy for monsters to cultivate.

It takes fifty to sixty years of hard work to attain the cultivation of the Fourth Realm.

Why would monsters make things hard for other monsters?

As for human cultivators hunting Fourth Realm monsters, it needs two conditions.

The first is running into them, the second is being able to defeat them.

The Fourth Realm is a big watershed for monsters.

The key point is their possession of the Demon Pill, an extra life-saving skill.

If a Demon Pill is thrown out, without any special abilities, people of the same realm can’t withstand it.

Yulian, her smiling face as beautiful as a flower, collected all ten sacks.

"Since this is a gift from you, I won’t be polite."

Saying this, she rolled up her sleeves to reveal her snow-white arm and gestured.

"Just sit and wait for a while. I’m going to tidy up the kitchen and make you some delicious food."

Yulian was clearly reaping some benefits and preparing to have a big meal. Li Jing replied with a "Hmm" and sat on the living room sofa, pulling out his phone to open the live streaming website.

Among those who helped him, Yue Lingling was the only one he hadn’t taken care of yet.

He couldn’t provide her with the flesh and blood of a monster, and he had no idea where she lived.

Compared to directly transferring her money, it seemed more practical to make a wave of contributions to her live broadcast room.

Lately, Yue Lingling had been doing well with her live broadcasts, making plenty of money. What she was lacking was a step closer to popularity.

He found Yue Lingling’s live broadcast room and saw that she was currently broadcasting.

He looked at the leaderboard and found that Meng Fanhao had lost his top spot.

This situation couldn’t help but surprise Li Jing.

Meng Fanhao had made tens of millions of donations before he died.

Had they disappeared just like that?

However, upon closer inspection, Li Jing saw that the current top donator had just donated less than one million.

It looked like Meng Fanhao’s ranking had been taken care of by Yue Lingling’s connections.

Looking at Yue Lingling’s follower count, Li Jing was taken aback.

After the incident with the Meng family, she only had tens of thousands of followers when he visited her live broadcast room. Now, she had over three hundred thousand.

In just a few months, she had transitioned from a small to a famous broadcaster.

After a moment of thought, Li Jing splurged for ten million and threw it all at once.

This gesture could also be considered as "rewarding according to merit".

The information provided by Yue Lingling helped him find Yulian.

He managed to surpass Chen Jing and make it to the black market.

Just counting the spiritual objects he pocketed alone, they were worth over a billion.

When added with what he gained from Yulian and the other monsters, the total value was nearly thirty billion.

Compared to that, what was ten million?

The donation record popped up, as a public announcement throughout the site.

"Diamond tycoon, White Jade Stone has tipped Yuehua’s live room with a cash of ten million. Hurry up and join the viewing, draw lots, and win the grand million dollar prize!"

In an instant, Yue Lingling’s live broadcast room exploded with popularity, with countless notifications of new viewers popping up.

In the blink of an eye, the barrage of comments filled up the entire screen.

All sorts of comments praising the ’boss’!

The boss is so generous!

The boss is awesome!

Yue Lingling was originally singing in front of the camera, but she was taken aback by the sudden influx of donations.

She knew very clearly who White Jade Stone was.

All at once, ten million...

This was even crazier than when Meng Fanhao was pursuing her!

Meng Fanhao’s donations came in increments.

There were quite a few popular livestreamers on her platform who had received accumulated donations amounting to tens of millions from wealthy patrons.

But there were less than three on the entire platform who had received a single donation of ten million at once.

She watched as her follower count, which had originally been around three hundred thousand, doubled to six hundred thousand. Yue Lingling bit down hard in front of the camera.

Li Jing saw this and quietly closed the live broadcast room.

With Yue Lingling’s business acumen, she would undoubtedly make the most of this situation.

There was no point in watching any further. It would only be a sore sight for his eyes.

Not long after closing the live broadcast room, Yue Lingling sent him an Immortal Message.

"This is too sudden, Inspector Li! I’m really hot now! The site’s operation just contacted me, saying that they will feature me on the homepage for seven days!"

"Congratulations."

Li Jing responded, hiding his role in her success.

Yue Lingling was not stupid, she should be able to guess that the sudden ten million donation had something to do with the information she had provided the night before. There was no need for him to offer any explicit explanation.

...

In a blink of an eye, half an hour passed.

Yulian had been bustling about in the kitchen and brought one plate after another of exquisite dishes to the table.

She really did have some impressive culinary skills.

Each dish was full of color, aroma, and taste, even better than what Li Jing himself had made.

It was clear that Yulian had spent a portion of her hundred years learning how to cook delicious food.

...

After a satisfying meal, the two set out for the North City Patrol Branch.

Upon their arrival, Li Jing directly led Yulian to the chief’s office and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Chen Jing’s voice came from inside the office.

Li Jing pushed open the door and entered.

Upon seeing the two of them enter, Chen Jing rose from his seat with a smile.

"Miss Yu, please sit."

"Sorry for the intrusion."

Yulian politely replied and took a seat on the sofa next to her.

Li Jing sat next to her.

Chen Jing moved to sit on another sofa across from them and looked at the two of them.

"Li Jing, there are a few things that you need to be aware of."

Starting the conversation, Chen Jing did not beat around the bush and repeated what he had said to Chen Yuran earlier. He also informed Li Jing that he would be handling the following affairs on his own.

Hearing Chen Jing’s speculation that the incident might have targeted him personally, Li Jing frowned in puzzlement.

After putting the pieces together with Chen Jing, it seemed like there was a very real possibility.

Moreover, it was connected to the emergence of several mysterious Great Demons in North City...

After pondering for a moment, Li Jing looked up.

"Uncle, if this matter really does involve you, do you have any idea or speculation about the other party’s intent?"

"There have been too many complications recently, I’m not sure which one it might be."

Chen Jing shook his head.

"..."

Li Jing was speechless.

So many problems can still occur...

He’s indeed the top man in Jianghai, everyone depended on him, yet he didn’t understand why he was chosen.

How many enemies, and how many rivals did he have?

Sorting out his thoughts, Li Jing pulled out a photo he got from Ji Qing.

"This is a photo I got from a friend earlier. The four people in the photo are all Great Demons. They have recently been active in the Earth Realm of North City."

Hearing this, Chen Jing raised his eyebrows.

Certainly, this matter needs to be investigated.

But he really didn’t know where to start.

He completely relied on Li Jing for this matter.

As it turned out, Li Jing was indeed pretty "useful".

He had just finished explaining the situation, and someone produced a photo for him.

Doesn’t this lift his mood?

Taking the photo and looking at it, Chen Jing asked,

"Have you asked Xiao Ai to investigate these four people?"

"The investigation is in progress, there are no results yet, but it should be soon."

Li Jing responded truthfully.

"Let me know when you have the results."

Said Chen Jing, and added,

"With the help of Miss Yu, do you think you can handle these four Great Demons?"

"There should be no problem."

Li Jing responded, calmly.

"Great Demons ’manufactured’ this way are much weaker than real Great Demons. I can handle them myself, there’s no need for Miss Yu to take action."

"Hmm."

Chen Jing nodded.

He had no doubt about Li Jing’s combat power.

Although the two demon corpses at the scene last night were incomplete, they both died from clean and decisive sword wounds. It was obvious that Li Jing killed them by himself.

When he emerged from the Subspace, he didn’t even pant for breath. It seemed like it didn’t take much effort to deal with two of them.

If two more came, he wouldn’t have much trouble taking them down.

After a brief silence, Chen Jing said,

"I’m confident leaving this matter to you. I won’t get involved in this anymore unless necessary. I need to focus on prevention in other areas. When you find the four Great Demons, keep one alive and try to extract information about those Evil Cultivators behind them."

"This... might be a bit difficult."

Li Jing murmured.

"Keeping one alive is simple, but getting him to spill information might not be so easy. Not to mention these four Great Demons are ’manufactured’ and won’t live long. Normal demons that fall into the hands of the patrol are essentially on a one way street to death. If you want them to reveal information, you need to be cunning."

Just as he finished, Chen Jing gave an inscrutable smile.

"You’re usually sharp, why are you being so dull now? Isn’t the solution right beside you?"

?

Li Jing furrowed his eyebrows.

Seeing him look confused, Chen Jing glanced at Yulian with a smile.

Yulian was a smart woman.

Meeting Chen Jing’s gaze, she gave a knowing laugh.

"Kill the females, half-cripple the males, and I can make them spill the beans."

When Li Jing heard this, he turned his head and then it clicked.

Right!

He had Yulian, which was a solution, right by his side!

Yulian’s charm is her main skill, it’s simple for her to bewitch the half-dead male demons.

Looking back at Chen Jing, Li Jing had a strange look on his face.

Chen Jing had calculated all this in advance, he had planned everything!

No wonder he insisted on bringing Yulian over after everything was settled last night...

"I understand, Uncle, do you have any other orders?"

"One thing."

Chen Jing held up a finger and said,

"No matter who is finally implicated, whether it is the Evil Cultivators or anyone else, there’s no need to bring them back or keep them alive, just let them disappear from this world. When you come back, you just need to tell me who the last one to die was, don’t worry about anything else."

"Understood."

Li Jing nodded.

This order from Chen Jing indicated that he was concerned about more people being involved in the background and that it would be difficult to handle.

This was understandable.

Those directly involved could be killed.

But those at the top couldn’t be touched without evidence.

Keeping someone alive would only cause a lot of trouble.

Moreover, he himself would be exposed to the people behind the scenes.

Yulian, listening to their conversation, couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy.

Being as smart as she was, she easily sensed something unusual from Chen Jing’s casual orders.

Chen Jing didn’t avoid her when he explained things earlier. He allowed her to listen clearly.

It seemed like she was being drawn into the game played by the big shots.

As if sensing Yulian’s unease, Chen Jing looked at her.

"Miss Yu, I owe you a favor this time. In the future, no matter what happens, you can always come to me."

Yulian was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

Was Chen Jing...

Offering her a leg-up?

If anyone else said this, Yulian may have scoffed.

But from Chen Jing, this was truly significant.

Crucially, he had quite some pull.

Although Chen Jing was just a local branch office director, in fact, as long as he was willing, the whole city of Jianghai could be under his control.

If necessary, he could even exert influence at the high-level of Hua Country.

Such was the grandeur of the Six Realm.

Without a sound, Yulian nodded to show she understood, refraining from any unnecessary pleasantries.

...

After communicating with Chen Jing, Li Jing brought Yulian directly back to his house.

Chen Jing was an old fox.

Yulian was clever.

And him, Li Jing, he understood the situation as well.

Chen Jing made a promise to Yulian, from now on she would be a tool...

Cough!

Oops.

From now on, she would be one of his own.

In practical terms, Yulian’s "usefulness" was immense.

A single wave of her finger could make a Fifth Boundary Big Monster obediently speak up, wouldn’t you say she was useful?

Leaving that aside.

He and Yulian were now friends, and of course, he had to treat her well.

After inviting Yulian to sit in the living room and serving tea, Li Jing went into the guest room to find Xiaoai.

"Xiaoai, how’s the investigation on those four individuals going?"

"I can’t find any identity information, they seem to have never registered their identities."

Xiaoai responded.

Li Jing raised an eyebrow at this.

No identity registration?

This was clearly related to the Evil Cultivators; the four individuals were undoubtedly "products" of the Soul-Burning Beast Control.

The Fifth Boundary Big Monster, who must have been alive for more than a century, should have handled identity registrations long ago.

The lack of records suggested they had only recently transformed.

Without too much thought, Li Jing asked.

"How’s the investigation on surveillance records?"

"I’m currently having my avatar cross-reference the surveillance data across the entirety of North City. A result should be available in about two hours."

"Alright, once you have a result, send me their activity locations. I don’t need the surveillance videos."

Li Jing gave instructions, then said.

"There’s a guest outside, I’ve got to attend to her."

"Understood."

Little Ai obediently replied.

After checking in with Xiaoai, Li Jing returned to the living room without lingering in the guest room.

As a guest, Yulian was calmly sitting on the sofa.

Seeing that Li Jing had quickly returned after going to the guest room, she curiously asked.

"Will we just wait here?"

"Yes, we’re just waiting for news for now."

Li Jing said as he sat on another couch.

"There’s no point in going out on a wild goose chase, as other people are investigating those four Great Demons. There should be results within two hours."

As soon as he finished speaking, the villa door was suddenly flung open, and Chen Yuran stormed in.

???

Li Jing.

Why has Chen Yuran come?

This was not part of the plan!

Taken by surprise, Yulian looked at Chen Yuran, not expecting to bump into a woman who had keys to Li Jing’s house.

On the other hand, Chen Yuran, seeing not only Li Jing in the house but also Yulian, stopped in her tracks.

Was Li Jing trying to fly to the heavens?!

He actually brought a woman home while Liu Sisi was at work?

And she was such an enchanting one?

Bewildered, she looked at Yulian, who was beautiful and charming, capable of overshadowing her and Liu Sisi, then turned her gaze towards Li Jing.

"Um, did I come at a bad time?"

At her words, the corner of Li Jing’s mouth twitched.

Chen Yuran had clearly misunderstood!

Just as he was about to explain, Yulian stood up and said,

"Hello, I’m Yulian. You must be Li Jing’s girlfriend? Don’t misunderstand, I’m just here to assist him on a case."

Assisting on a case?

Assisting all the way to his house?

Chen Yuran frowned, saying,

"I’m not his girlfriend, I’m here to work on the case."

?

Yulian slowly typed out a question mark.

She recognized Chen Jing because of his reputation outside.

But she didn’t know Chen Yuran.

At the moment, Yuran was wearing casual clothes and not a patrol uniform. Yulian, seeing her hold a key to Li Jing’s house, instinctively thought her to be his girlfriend.

When Yuran said she was here to work on a case, Yulian of course understood what it meant.

This woman was an on-duty patrol officer.

Which led to the question...

What kind of case required an investigation at Li Jing’s home?