Chapter 28: The Discussion of Self-Worth

A crustacean monster?

Li Jing raised his eyebrows and advanced using Sky Control.

Before him, the other two patrollers had already landed on the beach.

Before Li Jing came close, the female patroller took out a gauge with a pointer aimed at the large pit.

The next second, the device started beeping rapidly.

Hearing the buzzer, the faces of the two patrollers on the side changed drastically.

The female patroller saw their changes in color and spoke up.

"Don’t worry, the reading of the Demon Miasma intensity is only 16, below the harmful standard. It seems that whatever was down there was killed before it had a chance to release its Demonic Qi. However, we can’t be sure about the intensity of the Demon Miasma within its body. We should set up a warning line and contact logistics to come deal with it."

Hearing that the reading of the Demon Miasma was below the harmful standard, the two patrollers’ expressions eased slightly.

A Demon Miasma intensity over thirty, if inhaled, would cause irreversible harm to the human body.

This was no joking matter.

The two patrollers took out the special warning line used by patrollers from their storage space and began to set it up.

The female patroller who stayed on the scene looked at Li Jing.

"Colleague, there’s residual Demonic Miasma here. For the sake of your cat, you’d better not linger."

"Okay."

Li Jing nodded, secured Ji Qing, and moved to where Yi Xiuzhu’s beach house was using Sky Control.

Using his earlier approach to the large pit as cover, he took a look inside.

It was a big thing, buried about ten meters under the beach.

Standing on the beach and looking down, he could not see the entirety, only the part of the shell that had been pierced.

It looked like it might be a crab.

...

A moment later, Li Jing returned to the rooftop of the beach house.

At this point, Yi Xiuzhu was still calming his breath.

Perceiving Li Jing’s return, he looked up.

Seeing Ji Qing hanging on Li Jing’s shoulder, he looked puzzled.

"Where did you get this cat?"

"Found it on the side of the road."

Li Jing said casually, "This little guy seems to be lost, I plan to take him home and take care of him."

Yi Xiuzhu glanced at Ji Qing and didn’t pay much attention to it.

After taking a deep breath to finish calming his breathing, he stood up and looked in the direction Li Jing had come from.

"That explosion just now was earth-shattering, did you check it out when you were over there?"

"Um."

Li Jing nodded, nonchalantly replying.

"Underneath the beach over there, there’s a monster severely corroded by the Demon Miasma. The thing is already dead. The patrollers speculate that an expert from the Three Realm who didn’t want to show himself passed by and killed it, causing the explosion."

"An expert from the Three Realm who didn’t want to show himself?"

Yi Xiuzhu frowned, feeling skeptical about the situation.

But he couldn’t point out what was wrong.

After all, the judgment came from the patrollers.

Without thinking too much, Yi Xiuzhu asked.

"So, is the killed monster the one we’re looking for?"

"No."

Li Jing shook his head, "The monster that was killed was a crustacean, not a sea eel."

Upon hearing this, Yi Xiuzhu sighed.

"So we still have to stay here on patrol?"

"Patrolling is patrolling, it’s better than being assigned to do something else."

Li Jing laughed.

Just as he was about to say something, over a dozen sword-lights shot towards the Outer Sea along the coastline.

Behind the sword-lights, a few speedboats with searchlights followed.

Yi Xiuzhu, noticing this scene, unconsciously looked over.

"Those people should be from the Patrol Department? Why are they heading straight to the Outer Sea? Aren’t they searching the near sea?"

"I wouldn’t know that."

Li Jing feigned ignorance, "We are only assistants, there’s no need to be too concerned. We can ask Lu Yangcheng about what’s going on when we get off work tomorrow morning. Since we are in the same group with him who is in the front-line, we definitely will not lack reliable information."

Mentioning Lu Yangcheng, Yi Xiuzhu grimaced.

They, as assistants, couldn’t access a lot of things firsthand.

Lu Yangcheng being chosen as the strongman and following the front line indeed provided them with a reliable source of information.

But after getting off work tomorrow morning, Lu Yangcheng might complain to them first.

Without continuing the topic, Yi Xiuzhu said, "I’ve finished recuperating, shall we continue patrolling?"

...

The night passed quietly.

Eight o’clock in the morning.

The sea eel-type monster that came on shore was still a mystery.

The related work was still ongoing.

However, Li Jing and Yi Xiuzhu, for now, are off the hook.

The assistant inspector’s duties are usually filled with miscellaneous tasks.

But in their favor, they have enough staff.

Unlike the patrol, where lack of manpower invariably leads to overtime, which is a frequent occurrence.

Knocking off on time can indeed be considered one of the scarce advantages of the Assistant Inspector Department.

After handing over duty to the staff from the Patrol team who were up for the night, Patrol Team Nine, where Li Jing and Yi Xiuzhu were stationed, officially ended their first day’s work, except for Lu Yangcheng.

This guy, he was out in the Outer Sea.

If the patrol doesn’t come back, he can’t come back.

All he can do is to work overtime ...

The key is that with his Second Realm abilities, he can’t fly back on his own using Sky Control.

It’s too far.

In light of this situation, both Li Jing and Yi Xiuzhu communicated their deep sympathies for his predicament through their communicators, while opportunistically inquiring about the specific situation in the Outer Sea.

Unfortunately Lu Yangcheng had been gagged, so the two couldn’t find out anything.

Li Jing didn’t really care though.

He could just ask Chen Yuran when he got home.

Since he was the one who had pin-pointed the location, Chen Yuran probably would tell him something.

Yi Xiuzhu, on the other hand, was a bit upset.

A gag order had definitely been put in place, and the patrol office must have made some breakthroughs, he was so curious.

However, no matter how curious he was, there was nothing he could do.

He was just a newbie assistant inspector, he had no right to get involved in more in-depth matters.

...

It was probably around eight-thirty.

Li Jing took Ji Qing in the guise of a puppet cat on his shoulder and flew back to his villa.

Having the authority to use Sky Control within the city did indeed make things convenient, which was a rather unusual privilege of the Patrol team that Li Jing was capitalizing on.

Otherwise, returning from the Eastern Coast could become quite a hassle.

As he was landing in the courtyard, Li Jing began to address Ji Qing, who was draped over his shoulder.

"Last night you should have heard Chen Yuran mention that there’s a dog in the house, you ..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ji Qing, still maintaining her ragdoll cat illusion, yawned and croaked in human language.

"Just a dog, there’s no need to specifically tell me about it. I’m not a common cat, I won’t fight with a pet dog. If I had to, one slap would be enough to scare the crap out of it."

Hearing this, Li Jing smiled and said.

"The dog that Chen Yuran keeps isn’t just a regular dog, it’s a spiritual beast from the Three Realm, I doubt one slap from you would scare it."

"A Spiritual Beast from the Three Realm?"

Ji Qing was startled for a moment and then straightened up a bit.

"Is it powerful?"

"I’m just giving you a heads-up, don’t worry about it too much."

Li Jing chuckled, "Stinky Tofu is at the early stages of the Three Realm, a bit weaker than you in terms of strength. But it’s a Husky, you know what Huskies are like."

"Silly Husky?"

Ji Qing was at first dumbfounded, then shocked: "Silly Husky may be a little stupid, but in the world of pets, it’s a genuinely precious breed. The one in your house is even a spiritual beast, wouldn’t that be worth tens of millions?"

Watching Ji Qing appraise Stinky Tofu, Li Jing was both amused and exasperated.

When it comes to "value", Ji Qing was definitely worth several times more than Stinky Tofu!

A spiritual Husky was extremely rare to begin with.

A demon ragdoll cat, it’s not any less rare, is it?

Spiritual Beasts possess spirituality and understand human language.

But their IQ is relatively ordinary.

In comparison, a human-shaped demon with human-like wisdom would be superior.

That combined with Ji Qing’s enchanting human form, that of a beautiful Catwoman.

She could be cuddled, and could also serve as a body warmer.

If she were put up for sale, wouldn’t the price reach astronomical levels?

Being a demon wasn’t a problem.

There are plenty of daredevils out there.

There are those who keep demons, too.

In fact, in some foreign places, the breeding of demons is a legitimate industry. Of course, the demons they sell have been stringently screened and trained to minimize harm to people.

Without picking up on Ji Qing’s comment, Li Jing reached out to push open the villa door.

As soon as the door opened, Stinky Tofu, who had spent a night alone at home, immediately came rushing to the door, thrilled.

Seeing Li Jing’s return, Stinky Tofu wagged its tail excitedly.

Although it had only been two days, Li Jing was much nicer to it than Chen Yuran.

Just as it was about to rush out of the house, Stinky Tofu abruptly stopped; standing rigidly in place, it quietly tucked its tail between its legs.

It had seen Ji Qing.

Li Jing couldn’t help but smirk at the sight.

He had witnessed just how timid Stinky Tofu could be.

So he wasn’t worried that Stinky Tofu would have issues with Ji Qing.

He had given her a heads up earlier just so she would be mentally prepared.

Stinky Tofu, at this moment, did not disappoint him.

At the sight of Ji Qing, it became frightened right away ...