Chapter 207 - 206: Backstabbing Behind the Scenes, Target Locked

After hanging up the voice call, Li Jing was left fumbling with his phone, his expression odd.

The information provided by Yue Lingling seemed inconsequential but the actual content was quite explosive.

The headquarters of the Demon Beast Union was located in a small foreign country.

This beast organization, headquartered abroad, was quietly making its moves in Hua Country.

Their intentions didn’t require much guessing to know there was an issue.

Moreover, the Demon Beast Union was formed on a shareholder system with humans who were long-term sponsors. The Wang family was not the only one supporting them.

The few shareholders Yue Lingling had seen in the Jianghai branch definitely were not part of the Wang family.

So...

Exactly how many shareholders were there in the Union?

How many were domestic and how many were from abroad?

Apart from Hua Country and its headquarters in a small foreign country, did they have operations in other nations?

Li Jing dared not speculate further.

The fact that Hua Country, extremely sensitive to foreign influences, was quietly infiltrated implied that the Demon Beast Union must also have activities elsewhere.

The darkness lurking behind this unknown beast group was perhaps far more sinister than the Rebirth Society’s demonic alliance!

At least the Rebirth Society was unambiguously evil.

The Demon Beast Union, however, lurked completely behind the scenes, developing steadily and invisibly.

And from Yue Lingling’s trust in the Union, it was not difficult to see that their "brainwashing" efforts were very successful.

As a human-shaped demon, Yue Lingling was indeed inexperienced.

However, despite her inexperience, she was still a renowned and sly fox demon.

She might not have experienced as much as Yulian and Brother Jiu, the great demon-level foxes, but her intelligence was certainly not lacking.

The information she knew was enough to show that there were serious issues with the Demon Beast Union.

Despite this, she firmly believed that the Union could not possibly do evil.

An organization that secretly cultivated human-shaped demons, backed not only by the beasts but also by human sponsors, clearly couldn’t be anything good even a foot would know that!

Shaking his head, Li Jing put away his phone after pondering for a while, took out a Spirit Soldier, and ascended into the sky.

...

A moment later, he arrived at the Liu family residence and landed in front of Liu Shi’s courtyard.

Just as he touched down, he saw Liu Shi lying contentedly on a long bench in the courtyard, basking in the afternoon sun, looking as though she was enjoying her old age.

Catching sight of Liu Shi in this posture, Li Jing silently turned his gaze away.

If it were just anyone else lounging about, it would have been just a glance.

Every man enjoys a good look at women for both physical and mental pleasure.

It’s also necessary to feast one’s eyes once in a while.

But she...

Was his mother-in-law!

In the courtyard, Liu Shi glanced at Li Jing’s arrival, her slender eyebrows knotted slightly, and she sat upright.

"Why did you suddenly come? Is everything settled with the Wang family?"

"No."

Li Jing shook his head and said,

"I am here to inquire something from you." he said, then glancing around in confusion and asked,

"Where’s Sisi? Why isn’t she here?"

"She’s been learning magic skills from me all night and needed some time to digest. She went shopping with Xiaoya after having a meal. Xiang Di is also with them."

Liu Shi shrugged as she responded.

"..."

Li Jing.

She needed time to digest after learning magic skills all night, only to go shopping with Liu Xiaoya?

That’s typical Sisi...

Li Jing smiled slightly, while feeling a bit relieved at the same time.

Sisi’s nature was more of the free-spirited sort.

However, ever since they established their relationship, she had reined in this trait, always playing the docile and sweet girlfriend in front of him.

Li Jing noticed this change in her.

Had Sisi changed?

No.

She was just trying to change her image to be more like a girlfriend.

A woman, you know!

Isn’t she always unable to open the bottle cap in front of her boyfriend, and then she can twist off the top of the bottle in a minute?

Such things.

It’s good if you understand, but boring if you expose it.

However, Li Jing was genuinely worried.

What would be the situation when Sisi couldn’t hold back any longer.

Especially in the past two months, she has been in high-intensity closed training, with no entertainment at all.

Upon hearing that Sisi and Xiaoya had gone out, Li Jing thought it was good news.

She had been in closed training for almost two months, and she got her license yesterday. If Sisi doesn’t release her feelings, she might explode one day.

Without worrying about where Sisi went, Li Jing asked,

"Mom, do you know anything about the Demon Beast Union?"

"The Demon Beast Union?"

Liu Shi blinked in slight surprise, then nodded.

"I have heard of it. It’s a mysterious organization of demons. The Lu family seems to have some connections with them."

Hearing this, Li Jing frowned.

He specifically came to inquire about it, mainly because Head of the Liu Family, Liu Teng and the head of the Wang family had illicit dealings with a Fifth Boundary female cultivator and even had an illegitimate child. It was possible they had dealings with the Demon Beast Union.

Before he went into the details, he wanted to ascertain whether Liu Shi had heard of the Demon Beast Union.

Moreover, Liu Shi’s response mentioned another one of the Seven Great Families.

The Lu family.

Wasn’t this the family that had brought in Evil Cultivators and tried to meddle with Morning Star Prison in Jianghai?

Li Jing rubbed his temples. His head was starting to ache.

This matter was getting more and more complicated.

The death of Wang Youwei had stirred up such a complex situation.

Was this what the capital city was like?

He sighed lightly and asked,

"Could you tell me more about the Lu family and the Demon Beast Union?"

"I’m afraid I can’t give you a detailed explanation of that."

With a look of helplessness, Liu Shi said,

"I am just a guardian in the Liu family. I don’t manage other affairs and I don’t like to interfere too much. Ultimately, I stay in the Liu family to repay a debt. I have no interest in delving into the matters of the Liu family, let alone other families."

Then she added,

"The only thing I can tell you is that only the Jiang family among the Seven Great Families is a bit cleaner. Including our Liu family, the other six houses are not so innocent. There isn’t a single house that doesn’t have something they’d rather keep hidden. In this respect, all the houses are the same. If they want to grow in the long run, it’s inevitable that they will touch on certain areas."

Hearing Liu Shi’s words, Li Jing nodded silently.

He understood the reasoning.

It is a bunch of nonsense to say that any of the Seven Great Families, such massive entities, are very clean.

Even the Jiang family is just a little bit cleaner at most.

All of them have hundreds to thousands of years of history, and dozens of generations have acquired their positions at the top of the "food chain" in the country. If any were truly good-natured, they would have been replaced long ago.

The Lu family.

Li Jing narrowed his eyes and said,

"There is a matter about Liu Teng that you may need to know about."

After that, he told her about Liu Teng’s affair with a Fifth Boundary female from the Wang family and the birth of their child. He also mentioned that he had discovered that the Wang family had been funding the Demon Beast Union for a long time, and that Wang Youwei’s death might be related to this.

Upon hearing Li Jing narrating the story, Liu Shi furrowed her brows.

As the guardian of the Liu family, she usually didn’t intervene in the family affairs nor did she participate in the competition for fame and gain. She allowed Liu Teng and others to do as they pleased.

However, she could not ignore this.

Liu Teng was not an ordinary member of the Liu family; he was the head of the family.

If he were to marry a Fifth Boundary woman from the Wang family in a proper marriage, that wouldn’t be an issue.

Marriage alliances, right!

It doesn’t necessarily have to be the younger generation.

If she officially enters the Liu family, she becomes a daughter-in-law of the Liu family and is not considered an outsider.

But if they have a child without official marriage, then there’s a problem.

A son who grew up in the Liu family is entirely different from one who didn’t.

His bloodline is undoubtedly from the Liu family, but how much does he feel about belonging to the family?

A bastard son who is far away from the Liu family but has the right to inherit the family headship, this could potentially cause the Liu family to change their surname in the future.

Especially when the Liu family only has Liu Shi as a guard.

If she ever quit or left, Liu Teng would have the final say.

With the power in his hands and Liu Teng potentially blinded by greed, coupled with interference from the Wang family, who knows, the Liu family might end up having to change their surname to ’Wang’...

Back to the previous matter.

The Wang family secretly supporting the Demon Beast Union is very sensitive news.

If conclusive evidence were to reach the higher-ups of Hua Country, the good days of the Wang family would come to an end immediately.

Admittedly, the officials wouldn’t take a family of ’The Seven Great Families’ down all at once.

Any collapse of the ’Seven Great Families’ would inevitably cause chaos across the nation.

The officials will exercise caution, giving the Wang family some breathing space.

But even so, they would at most be barely surviving.

Especially at this critical moment.

With the case of Wang Youwei serving as a precedent, it clearly shows that the Demon Beast Union possesses the capacity to threaten ’Six Realm’, and even dares to carry out acts in the capital of Hua Country.

The country’s officials will certainly not be lenient towards such a demon organization.

Whoever is involved must be completely eradicated.

Once this happens,

Not only would the Wang family be in trouble, the Lu family that also has ties with the Demon Beast Union probably wouldn’t be able to escape this adversity either.

Unless they act quickly and sever all their ties now.

Of course, Liu Shi doesn’t care about what happens to the Lu family.

But she can’t help but be concerned about the Liu family!

Did Liu Teng’s involvement with the ’Fifth Boundary’ of the Wang family, producing an illegitimate child, already create ties with the Wang family?

Her expression changing between sunny and cloudy, Liu Shi lifted her gaze.

"Did you report the incident about the Demon Beast Union to the Inspectorate General?"

"Not yet."

Li Jing responded.

"Currently, I only understand part of the situation and there isn’t any conclusive evidence yet. It isn’t urgent to report this just yet, and this will save the Inspectorate some needless busywork."

Listening to his words, Liu Shi nodded. Suddenly, she had a thought and asked, puzzled.

"You’re not communicating with the Inspectorate in your investigation, are you planning to..."

"Mom, Sisi and I are already married; supporting a family does put pressure on me."

Li Jing smirked

"..."

Liu Shi was speechless and then burst out laughing.

"I don’t know what tricks you’re trying to play, but using ’supporting a family’ as a reason to bullshit me isn’t giving me any face."

With that, her figure turned into a bubble-like shadow which dissipated on the long bench, leaving behind a sentence.

"I don’t bother with, or control you. You should weigh your actions yourself; everything should be done according to your capabilities. You’re no longer a loner. If you take any risks, do remember to think about Sisi."

Li Jing quite liked Liu Shi’s attitude.

What is the most annoying thing for young people?

Elderlies constantly interfering without asking for the full story."

Seeing that she had already left, presumably to find trouble with Liu Teng, Li Jing simply sat down to wait for Xiao Ai’s message.

...

Without realizing it, it was already past one o’clock in the afternoon.

Li Jing occupied Liu Shi’s seat, enjoying the afternoon sun when his phone vibrated in his pocket.

Realizing the vibration, his spirit was uplifted and he pulled out his phone.

He illuminated the screen and saw that it was a message from Xiao Ai.

"Master, I have completed the cross-reference. Out of a total of four hundred and forty-eight confirmed and suspected individuals, twenty-eight of them have had contact with Wang Youwei in the past year. Fifteen of them have had relatively frequent meetings with him and have appeared multiple times near his residence as captured by surveillance cameras."

After reading the content of the message, a sparkle flashed in Li Jing’s eyes.

The number of people who had purchased spiritual objects from the black market on the dark web in large quantities and had contact with Wang Youwei was much larger than expected.

A total of twenty-eight people.

If his earlier speculation was correct, these fifteen people with frequent contact with Wang Youwei were likely the accomplices helping him launder the spiritual objects.

These fifteen people could be monsters or humans, and whether they were part of the Demon Beast Union was still uncertain.

But there was no doubt that they were closely involved.

As for the other thirteen people, they might be Wang Youwei’s "comrades".

It’s understandable that they would all want to make money together.

However, some things still need to be properly confirmed.

After giving it some thought, Li Jing sent another message.

"Compile the identity information of these twenty-eight people and their surveillance images of contact with Wang Youwei and send them to me. Search for surveillance footage across the capital and see if we can confirm their current whereabouts."

A few seconds later, Xiao Ai sent a document and a message in reply.

"Everything about the twenty-eight people is in the document. There are a total of nineteen individuals who had been filmed by surveillance around the capital within an hour, their last recorded locations are in the document."

"Good, also follow-up on the remaining nine people. Notify me as soon as you have the information on their whereabouts. Also, check if these twenty-eight people had contact with the main people from the Lu family within a year."

Li Jing replied.

He wasn’t very interested in Lu family.

The Wang Youwei case was what he was truly interested in.

But if he could hit the Lu family while he was at it, he wouldn’t mind.

The Lu family had no idea yet that he had ruined the Morning Star Prison, but no one could guarantee that they will never find out.

This was to preemptively safeguard against potential threats.

No matter whether the Lu family would cause him trouble in the future, he decided to take the first stab at it.

After sending the message, Li Jing opened the document sent by Xiao Ai.

Those twenty-eight people who had contact with Wang Youwei were not from the ’Seven Great Families’.

After reviewing the identity information of the twenty-eight people one by one, Li Jing contemplated for a moment, took out his phone and looked up Brother Jiu’s Immortal Message then composed a message.

"Brother Jiu, I need your help."

Without waiting long, Brother Jiu’s message came in reply.

"Come pick me up."

Receiving this reply, Li Jing responded with a "Sure", produced a spirit soldier and ascended into the sky.

...

Soon after, Li Jing arrived at Brother Jiu’s place.

Brother Jiu was already waiting outside.

Seeing Li Jing arriving, Brother Jiu glanced at both sides of the street, puzzled.

"It’s only been a few hours, and you’ve already found the ’Six Realm’ Great Demon responsible for the crime?"

"I’m not sure if I have found it, but there are already some leads."

Li Jing gave a brief explanation and asked,

"Brother Jiu, being a fox demon, do possess the ability of Charm?"

"Charm is one of our fox demon’s racial talents, of course I have the ability to Charm."

Brother Jiu responded,

"However, my Charm talent isn’t very strong and casting spells takes a bit of effort. I can barely charm women who are a realm lower than me."

"Only able to charm women?"

Li Jing frowned.

"I can charm men if necessary, but the cost is a bit high."

Brother Jiu replied without beating around the bush.

Li Jing, hearing these words, opened the document that Xiao Ai sent once again.

Of the twenty-eight people, only six were women.

Also, none of these six women were among those who had close contact with Wang Youwei.

After remaining silent for a while, Li Jing said,

"Brother Jiu, you might need to make some effort to help me charm men later. For this, I can give you thirty pounds of ’Six Realm’ Great Demon flesh in compensation."

"That’s too little."

Brother Jiu shook his head and held up five fingers.

"Fifty kilograms."

"Tsk."

Li Jing clicked his tongue and helplessly nodded his head.

"Okay."

Hesitating after hearing Li Jen’s consent, Brother Jiu turned around and said,

"Wait a moment, I’ll go upstairs and change into women’s clothing."