Chapter 59 Policy Change

The white mouse in the cage didn’t appear different from a normal one.

But it had a health bar, which was definitely a problem.

And its health bar was not short, reaching as high as 819.

Health Bar 819.

One Realm Intermediate phase.

The moment he saw the white mouse, Li Jing turned on his heel without hesitation.

"Brother Lu, I suddenly remembered I didn’t submit the review report of yesterday to the company system, go ahead, I will wait for you in the car."

Lu Yangcheng, who was walking in front, was thinking about starting a conversation with Cao Yixuan.

Caught off guard by the calling of "Brother Lu," he stopped in his tracks and turned around with a puzzled look.

This pause just blocked Li Jing’s retreating figure.

He turned around and saw Li Jing leaving the apartment with only his back seen, leaving Lu Yangcheng confused.

What on earth was going on?

Despite his confusion, he reacted swiftly.

Turning to Cao Yixuan, who had also stopped, Lu Yangcheng smiled and said,

"Newcomers in the company are always like this, absent-minded."

Unexpectedly, his words resonated with Cao Yixuan.

Cao Yixuan was one of the two recently unemployed contacts, and he had once been a door-to-door salesman and mentored newcomers in his role.

"I understand. I used to be a salesman and mentored many newcomers,"

Cao Yixuan said with a sigh.

"Most young people nowadays are like this. When they first enter society, they don’t know anything. Even when they follow their seniors to learn, they don’t know to pay attention and want to make it in the society easily."

"Exactly! Isn’t it?"

Lu Yangcheng continued the conversation smoothly.

Just as he was about to change the topic, Cao Yixuan led him into the living room.

Similarly, he noticed the white mouse in the cage and stiffened for a moment.

He had to deal with Cao Yixuan, so he had been focusing on him previously.

Browsing around would easily attract suspicious eyes.

Seeing the white mouse at this moment, he immediately understood why Li Jing had retreated.

Last night, after discussing the division of labor with Shi Xiuzhu in the inspection bureau’s meeting room, Li Jing explained the situation related to the evil cultivators case, including their ability to control monsters.

Dai Hong also mentioned in the meeting that the mastermind of the evil cultivators gang, Ji Xiumin, had purchased a large number of white mice and cultivated them into monsters.

Although Lu Yangcheng could not see the monster’s health bar like Li Jing did, observing a white mouse being raised as a pet in Cao Yixuan’s house, many thoughts crossed his mind.

Without breaking his composure, Lu Yangcheng maintained his natural demeanor, feigning interest in the white mouse that was looking at him.

"Mr Cao, your white mouse is really well taken care of! I used to have a white mouse as a pet, but unfortunately it died in my hands."

Upon hearing this, Cao Yixuan subconsciously turned his head.

"This white mouse is not..."

Halfway through his sentence, his expression changed and he said,

"This white mouse was gifted by my niece. I’ve been raising it for a while now."

"Is that so?"

Lu Yangcheng cheerfully responded, caught Cao Yixuan’s slight change in expression, and avoided the sensitive topic by pulling out a form.

"Mr Cao, this is our company’s customer experience form. Being a former salesman, you should understand this is routine. Could you please fill it out for me? After that, we can chat, and add each other on Immortal Message, that way I can send you the company’s electronic shopping coupon as a feedback to our customers."

Hearing about the electronic shopping coupon, Cao Yixuan responded with "okay" without much thought and took the form.

...

Meanwhile.

With a sigh of relief, Li Jing exited the building and stared up at the high floors of the apartment complex.

The white mouse in Cao Yixuan’s apartment was undoubtedly a monster and related to the evil cultivators’ gang.

It wasn’t a coincidence that he happened to have an only spiritual white mouse as a pet.

Moreover, just a few days ago, he was only a common man stuck in the One Realm, ordinary people like him couldn’t afford a spiritual beast.

The monster white mouse was likely used for surveillance and observation.

To be safe, Li Jing chose to retreat.

Previously at the seafood market, he took advantage of the rat demon getting distracted by the Sixth Major Crimes Team members arriving at the scene to prepare to escape. Without drawing attention, he took the initiative to kill it.

The Evil Cultivator hiding in the shadows, controlling the rat demon to observe the scene, didn’t know that it was Li Jing who had taken action.

However, he had made eye contact with the Rat Demon at the scene that day, it was hard to ensure he wouldn’t be recognized.

As for Lu Yangcheng, that was not an issue.

This guy had been sunburned in the Outer Sea for more than a week. After two days of nourishment from the Spiritual Qi, he had somewhat recovered his fairness, but he was still a thorough black head, only not as black as when he first returned.

Not to mention the unfamiliar people, even those who knew him might not dare to recognize him unless he spoke first.

This incident can be considered an unfortunate coincidence.

Fortunately, when Li Jing entered the door, he deliberately walked behind Lu Yangcheng to facilitate observation, otherwise a direct encounter could cause trouble.

Back in the car, Li Jing was itching.

Upstairs, were 819 experience points...

However, he couldn’t kill this Rat Demon.

Even if he could avoid being seen, the death of the Rat Demon would certainly alarm the Evil Cultivators.

Quietly sorting out his thoughts, Li Jing took out the communication headset used for undercover contacts within the Serious Crime Unit Six and connected with Dai Hong.

"Captain Dai, I’ve discovered something."

"What is it?"

Dai Hong responded promptly.

Taking advantage of Dai Hong’s presence online, Li Jing didn’t beat around the bush. He explained what he saw in Cao Yixuan’s house and his choice to avoid the Rat Demon. He also mentioned that he and Lu Yangcheng were trying to establish contact with Cao Yixuan through the convenience of the latter’s family business by revisiting clients.

Dai Hong listened to his account and then, after a moment of silence, spoke.

"You’re doing a good job, I didn’t expect you could make progress so quickly. Tell Lu Yangcheng that I’ll remember his effort, and I will also remember yours and Yi Xiuzhu’s."

As he spoke, Dai Hong continued.

"After seeing the Rat Demon, we can now confirm that these people who’ve made sudden breakthroughs have all obtained their advancements through forbidden items from the Evil Cultivators. They’re all ’lab rats’. I had predicted this scenario correctly; there are indeed people from the Evil Cultivators observing secretly in Jianghai."

After making his lengthy explanation, Dai Hong asked.

"You’ve already met Cao Yixuan. Do you think there’s a chance that he’s already joined the Evil Cultivators? Is the Rat Demon acting as a liaison?"

"I don’t think that’s plausible."

As Li Jing spoke, he continued.

"If he had joined the Evil Cultivators and practiced Forbidden Cultivation Skill, he wouldn’t be so unguarded, let alone agree to a revisit from us just because of two boxes of supplements. Evil Cultivators are universally condemned, it takes a lot of courage to take this path. At most, Cao Yixuan could be having a tough time in his life, but not to the extent of going astray."

"Another important point is, assuming he had already joined the Evil Cultivators, he would have no reason to go to the hospital for a check-up and expose himself. The Evil Cultivators would never allow him to make such a move that could attract the attention of the inspection bureau. The Rat Demon was probably given to him by the Evil Cultivators under some pretense to monitor and observe."

He continued, his voice becoming more serious.

"The Evil Cultivators are directly using the Rat Demon to monitor the ’lab rats’, there’s a bigger problem. There is no need to make it so obvious if they wanted to observe the ’lab rats’, there’s too much risk for the Evil Cultivators lurking in Jianghai. The situation might be different from what Captain Dai envisioned. The forbidden items they used to help these ’lab rats’ break through are probably not some stable item they have perfected, but rather something new that they can’t predict the side effects of and requires constant observation. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have taken such a risk. After all, the existence of the Rat Demon is a known association, which leads us directly to them."

There was silence from Dai Hong on the other side of the communicator for a while.

Li Jing sat in the car, not in a hurry.

He could probably predict that at the other end of the communicator, Dai Hong had already put on a mask of pain and needed some time to cope.

After a good while, Dai Hong finally spoke.

"Perform one more revisit. If the next target also has a Rat Demon, don’t continue. The product experience revisit is logical, but your targets are too specific. If you do it many times, it’s easy to be noticed. Afterwards, try to get in contact with the target through other means."

As he spoke, he continued.

"Aside from that, change your operation guidelines a bit. If you confirm that there are more ’lab rats’, just arrest them. Of course, it would be best to retrieve a sample. If not, don’t force it. Regardless of whether you have results on your end or not, I will arrange a mass arrest at midnight tonight, catching all known ’lab rats’."

"Understood."

Li Jing acknowledged, then cut off the communication.

It was understandable for Dai Hong to change the operational plans.

Based on the initial assumption, the Evil Cultivated products were assumed to be refined to some extent. Whether the "lab rats" who touched the forbidden items would live, was still up for observation.

At least both Xie Miao and Yang Yongan, who had been ’lab rats’ before, survived and joined the Evil Cultivators.

No one knew exactly what changes occurred to them aside from their biological characteristics.

It would be a different case if it involved a new thing that even the Evil Cultivators couldn’t control.

Whether or not this lot of "lab rats" would eventually die was a secondary concern for now.

The Evil Cultivators placed Rat Demons around "lab rats" for close observation; they must have identified that some of the "lab rats" had gone for a medical examination.

Given the potential that the incident might have already been noticed by the Inspection Bureau, they should stay low and see how things play out.

But they didn’t lay low, nor did they kill or hide their tracks.

Clearly, the Evil Cultivators are prepared for exposure.

If they’re prepared and conducting an experiment with something new, the more subjects they have, the better.

They’ll just pack up and leave after they’re done with this, no one can find them then.

With nothing to fear, there’s a high chance they’re still expanding their experimental scope.

Whether it alarms them is no longer important. What’s important is to grasp all the clues that can be grasped as soon as possible, carry out a sweeping operation, and let the Evil Cultivators know that the Inspection Bureau has started investigating, in order to prevent further damage.