Chapter 224 - 223: The Mysterious Veil, Revealed

Faced with someone’s frank words, the female demon found it hard not to understand.

She could pretend to be deaf.

But the three words "five million" hit her heart like a heavy hammer.

Five million was an astronomical figure for her, who was reduced to doing flesh business in a dark alley.

Five million could completely change her life.

With this money, she wouldn’t have to do this kind of work anymore. She could leave the dark alley, start a small business, or even open a small company and be the boss lady.

The flesh business, after all, couldn’t see the light of day.

Not to mention the limited earnings, the nature of it wasn’t that easy either.

Some clients with unique tastes weren’t easy to entertain.

No one liked doing this kind of work if they didn’t have to.

Looking at the harmless looking person in front of her, the female demon was torn between two choices.

Seeing that the female demon was obviously shaken but remained silent for a long while, Li Jing took out his mobile phone to check the time and said calmly,

"Ten million."

"..."

The female demon.

She saw her fair share of people who flaunted their wealth.

There was all kind of people in the dark alley.

She had been wandering in the dark alley for over two years and had seen many generous bosses.

However, she had never seen someone as generous as Li Jing.

Five million at first sight, and then he immediately doubled it!

Even though she hadn’t spoken a word yet...

The female demon took a deep breath.

Ten million!

She herself wouldn’t be worth so much even if she sold herself!

Taking a deep breath, the female demon spoke out.

"Senior Ren has done me a great favor, I..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Li Jing broke in indifferently.

"I’m not looking for him to give him a hard time, but to ask him some questions. You can rest assured, I’m here only for the Demon Beast Union, not for anything else."

After that, he continued.

"Tell me where I can find this Senior Ren you mentioned, and I can transfer you the money and leave. Think it over well, for once the chance is missed, there’s no going back. As long as he’s in the dark alley, I’ll find him even if you don’t tell me, just need to spend some more time."

"..."

The female demon was silent, conflicted for a while, then whispered,

"No. 889, Dark Alley, the house there is a pawnshop run by Senior Ren."

Having obtained the information he wanted, Li Jing spoke clearly.

"Give me your Immortal Message number."

The female demon did as he asked and read out her Immortal Message number.

Li Jing instantly added her and transferred ten million to her.

"You’re too soft-hearted, the dark alley isn’t the right place for you. With this money, you should leave as soon as you can, do a small business, and try a different way of life."

Making this simple remark, Li Jing turned around to leave.

The female demon sat on the edge of the bed, clutching her mobile phone in a daze.

The prompt of ten million transferred to her mobile account was right there, making it feel unreal to her.

What she had just been through was even more dreamlike.

Pulling a patrol officer, one could call it bad luck.

This patrol officer spotted at once that she was a demon, which was taking bad luck to a whole new level.

However, as Li Jing had said in advance.

He had no intention of hurting her at all, let alone giving her a hard time.

Even when he saw that she knew who the Fifth Boundary Big Monster in the dark alley was, he didn’t press her, but instead humbled her with the power of his money, and without hesitation, he paid her after the fact.

Looking back.

The words Li Jing left behind sounded more like a good deed based on the premise of spending money to buy information, giving her a chance to change her demon life.

This...

Is this a patrol officer?

The female demon was a little confused.

The patrol officer as she knew was not like this.

Staring at the empty doorway with a dumbfounded look for a long while, she bit her red lips, looked at the "props" scattered around the room, decided to leave everything behind, and got up to leave the shabby room.

In any case, this was her chance.

The dark alley was not suitable for her indeed.

Leaving to embrace a new demon life was undoubtedly the right choice at the moment.

...

Meanwhile, Li Jing had come deep into the dark alley.

Following the house numbers, he quickly found No. 889 that the female demon had mentioned.

No. 889 was a rather big house.

Just as the female demon had said, there was a pawnshop inside the house.

The shop seemed quite deserted, with only two girls in slim-fitting cheongsams guarding inside at first sight.

It’s worth mentioning that.

Both were demon beasts in the early stages of the Three Realm.

One had a health bar value of 3013, and the other one was 3007.

They were even weaker than the female demon he had met earlier, and their transformation time was probably less than two years.

Obviously, they were not the Senior Ren the female demon had mentioned.

Pausing slightly in front of the pawnshop, Li Jing stepped inside.

The two female demons guarding inside saw him coming, and their lovely faces immediately lit up with smiles. One of them got up to greet him.

"Dear guest, welcome to ’Anything for Pawn’. What can I do for you?"

Li Jing paused slightly at these words.

’Anything for Pawn.’

This shop’s name was quite something.

Without thinking much about it, or caring what kind of business this pawn shop was specifically doing, Li Jing took out his patrol certificate.

This time, he had learned his lesson not to open the certificate.

Seeing the patrol certificate, the complexion of the female demon who greeted him changed.

The other female demon didn’t fare much better, her body stiffened noticeably in her seat in front of the counter, she lowered her head with a slightly frightened look.

Seeing the poor psychological quality of these two female demons, Li Jing put away his certificate.

"Don’t be nervous, I’m just looking for someone, is your shopkeeper in?"

"Ah, the shopkeeper is out."

The female demon forced a smile and glanced at the door, seemed to be wondering whether it would help if she called for assistance.

Li Jing saw her hesitance and couldn’t help but feel amused.

Just because he’s a patrol officer, doesn’t make him a hooligan making a scene. What use would it be to call for help?

Moreover, this was the dark alley.

If it happened outside, there might have been people who would call him out for bullying, just for the sake of watching the drama.

Who would dare to say anything in the dark alley?

What concerned Li Jing was.

These two female demons appeared incredibly naive and naturally belonged to a quite weak disposition.

Taking the initiative to seek help in times of trouble isn’t the behavior of the dominant amongst demons.

Such inexperienced demon beasts, if unprotected, could be cheated out of anything in the dark alley – notorious for taking all and leaving nothing, from their color to possibly even their lives.

As for these two in the shop, rather than having been employed to work here, it seemed more likely they were taken in out of pity by the shopkeeper and given a job to make a living.

Reflecting on how the female demon had mentioned that Senior Ren had done her a great favor, Li Jing guessed she had also worked in this pawnshop before later "going solo".

If that is the case, this Senior Ren could be considered a very benevolent demon.

To avoid making the two female demons overly nervous, Li Jing smiled gently.

"When will your shopkeeper be back? Or, can you help me get in touch with her?"

After he finished speaking, he added.

"I did not come with any intentions against your pawn shop. I merely have some things I wanted to understand from the shopkeeper; I will leave once I do so, without disrupting your business."

Li Jing spoke mildly, and the two female demons in the shop did indeed relax a bit.

After all, they did not realize that someone could tell just by glancing that they were demons, and it was only their instinctual fear of an inspector that made them nervous.

They hesitated for a while in front of Li Jing before one of them made a ’please’ gesture.

"Sir, please sit for a while. Our shopkeeper has a regular day job, so she usually isn’t in the Dark Alley during the day. I will contact her to see if she is available to come to the shop."

"Alright, thank you."

Li Jing smiled, acquiescing to sit and wait.

The female demon who invited him to sit nodded and took out her phone to make a call.

The other female demon who did not come over is curiously looking at him while serving him a pot of hot tea.

"Sir, please have some tea."

"Thank you."

As Li Jing responded, his expression didn’t change, but his curiosity about this Senior Ren grew.

The two female demons in the pawn shop were incredibly naive.

Even purer than ordinary innocent girls.

If he could not see the health bars over their heads, Li Jing would hardly believe that they were demons.

Bringing two pure demons that made people feel unscientific to run a pawn shop in the Dark Alley, keeping a regular job, and having the surname Ren. Isn’t it more mysterious?

Just as he was speculating, the female demon who had gone to make a call hurried back.

"Sir, our shopkeeper is busy at work and cannot come back in a short time. But she let me give you her phone number so you can communicate with her."

Li Jing raised an eyebrow at the sound, standing up and taking out his phone.

"Okay, please give me the phone number."

The female demon did not hesitate divulging a phone number.

Having obtained the phone number, Li Jing nodded his head.

"Sorry for the interruption."

Having said that, he turned to leave.

He didn’t necessarily have to meet this mysterious Fifth Boundary Big Monster.

After all, he just wanted to use this person to get a sense of the Demon Beast Union, to understand why they set up their base in a place like the Dark Alley.

Since the person had given him her phone number and agreed to communicate over the phone, he should show some sincerity and not continue to stay in the shop, putting pressure on her employees.

...

After walking some distance from the pawn shop, Li Jing dialed the number he got from the pawnshop’s female demon.

The phone was quickly answered.

Following that, a pleasant female voice sounded.

"Hello, are you the one who was at the pawn shop just now?"

Hearing this female voice, Li Jing paused.

He found the female voice from the phone strangely familiar, like someone he knew.

After a slight pondering, his expression gradually grew strange.

With the memory of a Fifth Boundary being, he didn’t need to say much.

Feeling familiar, he quickly recognized the voice, and recalled someone he had just met this morning, who also happened to be surnamed Ren.

Pausing at the side of the alley, Li Jing ventured a guess.

"Ren Jie?"

"..."

There was silence on the other end of the phone before the woman speaks again.

"Li Jing?"

At her response, Li Jing was dumbstruck.

Is it really Ren Jie?

TM, is Ren Jie a monster?

He had just heard from Jiu Li that there was a demon who could disguise its demonic qi as spiritual qi. Even thinking that the latter could serve as a patrol officer, he ran into one immediately.

And this one, he had just seen in the morning and had not noticed a health bar above her.

Just as he was unsure of what to say, Ren Jie grumbled over the phone.

"I thought it was someone from the Special Action Team who came to my shop, turns out it’s you? You sure have a lot of time on your hands, not only did you wander into the dark alley, but you also found my shop."

"..."

Li Jing remained silent.

Ren Jie clearly hadn’t realized that it was through clues provided by a demon that he had found her; she simply thought that he had stumbled upon her pawnshop by coincidence.

She was willing to give him her phone number, probably thinking that as he was both a patrol officer and a member of the Special Action Team, he would be relatively easy to talk to. Hence, she gave the instructions to the female demon in the shop.

There was no denying it.

Ren Jie’s disguise abilities were pretty awesome.

Even his unrivaled ability to see health bars was fooled; doesn’t this mean that she not only hid her demonic qi as spiritual qi, but completely disguised herself as a human?

The ability of Li Jing to see health bars was not based on the nature of the power.

He was quite sure of that.

Except for humans who cultivated, he had never seen an alien species whose internal power was spiritual qi.

However, he had seen evil cultivators whose internal power wasn’t spiritual qi - they didn’t have a health bar above their heads.

Thinking that it was necessary to confirm in person that Ren Jie was indeed the great demon hidden in the dark alley, Li Jing didn’t rush to break the news, and said...

"Inspector Ren, I am returning to the Patrol Office at the moment. Would it be convenient for us to meet?"

"We are both officers and even acquainted with each other, so what’s wrong with meeting?"

Ren Jie agreed to this and then said,

"Don’t trouble my store staff too much. Also, bring back a cup of milk tea for me when you return. I’m too busy to get out and buy it myself."

"Alright."

Li Jing replied and hung up the phone, starting to walk out of the dark alley.

...

About half an hour later, Li Jing arrived at the Patrol Office by controlling a Spirit Soldier.

After purchasing a cup of milk tea at a nearby tea shop, he rushed to the Intelligence Department without delay.

Upon reaching the entrance of the Intelligence Department, he saw that a small meeting was being held inside.

Including Lu Yangcheng and Ren Jie, all the members of the Intelligence Department were gathered in front of a whiteboard in the office, while a stranger-looking patrol officer was explaining something to everyone.

Seeing this, Li Jing paused at the door, not wishing to interrupt them.

Ren Jie, who was standing next to Lu Yangcheng, noticed his arrival fairly quickly and turned back to give him a charming smile.

Seeing her turn around and smile, Lu Yangcheng unconsciously followed her gaze and looked over.

Seeing Li Jing standing outside the office, Lu Yangcheng was slightly taken aback and pointed at himself, casting a questioning gaze.

Before Li Jing could respond, Ren Jie spoke a few words to him with a smile at the corner of her mouth, causing Lu Yangcheng’s expression to become rather strange.

Seeing this, Li Jing frowned.

Although he didn’t know what Ren Jie had said to Lu Yangcheng, considering the mischievous smile on her face, it was probably something that could easily lead to misunderstandings.

Without saying a word, Li Jing gave Ren Jie a glance and sent a sound transmission to Lu Yangcheng.

"Do you know about Ren Jie running a pawnshop in a dark alley?"

Upon receiving the sound transmission, Lu Yangcheng displayed a slightly astonished expression, glanced silently at Ren Jie next to him, and then sent a sound transmission back.

"I didn’t know. However, she has always been in charge of intelligence work in that area of the dark alley. She has developed quite a few informants. The information I told you this morning was actually from her intelligence gathering over the years."

"Hmm, I came here to ask her about some things, don’t misunderstand."

Li Jing replied via sound transmission, and then asked another question.

"The man who is holding a meeting here looks unfamiliar and doesn’t seem to be from your Intelligence Department?"

"This man is a special envoy from the National Administration. There is one in each area where the presence of a Demon Alliance Branch has been confirmed. He just arrived in Jianghai at noon, and then came straight to our North City Branch. He should be heading to your Major Crime Unit later."

Lu Yangcheng narrated via sound transmission, then sent another message,

"Please wait a moment. He is just holding a brief meeting. It will be over soon."