Chapter 63 : Chapter 63
Chapter 63: Shaking Off the Surveillance
Lu Zhan walked out of the Demon Nest.
Wang Botao and Shangguan Ling, who were in the middle of settling the crowd, could not help letting out sighs of relief.
“Brother Lu, how did it go inside?”
Swish, swish, swish!
The scene instantly fell silent. Everyone’s eyes turned toward Lu Zhan at once, filled with expectation.
“The Demon Nest has been completely cleared out!”
The crowd erupted in cheers.
“Lord Lu the Just flattened the entire Demon Nest all by himself?!!”
“Lord Lu the Just is... so strong!”
“That’s wonderful. Those damned Demon Beasts are all dead.”
“Bah, serves them right. Did they not stop to think whose territory this is? Did they really think Lord Lu the Just’s nickname was for nothing?”
Many people in the crowd had also lost loved ones.
Though they were grief-stricken, they still all knelt down and kowtowed to Lu Zhan in thanks.
“Thank you, Lord Lu the Just, for avenging my son...”
“Thank you, Lord Lu the Just, for avenging my father...”
“Lord Lu the Just...”
“Lord Lu the Just...”
...
One cheer after another erupted through the Western District of Peach Blossom Alley.
He Rong smoked in silence as he watched the scene. Suddenly, he understood what it meant to have the people’s hearts behind you, what it meant to be the one everyone hoped for.
He had worked criminal investigations for over thirty years.
He had dealt with too many Jurisdiction Heads to count, yet he had never seen anyone carry the same kind of presence Lu Zhan did.
The burning sensation at his fingertips brought the old detective back to himself.
Beside him came his apprentice Ma Yuan’s envious voice.
“Master, do you think that after I Awaken, I’ll be able to follow Brother Lu?”
For once, He Rong did not joke around. He crushed out his cigarette and could not help saying,
“Forget you. If I were younger, I’d want to follow him too... No, hell, I want to follow him right now. The problem is, would he even take a fancy to me?”
Then he slapped the back of Ma Yuan’s head and cursed with a grin, “You little brat, stop daydreaming and get your ass back to work...”
Ma Yuan twisted his head away, lifted his chin high, and said in an especially smug tone, “Old man, just wait. One day I’ll definitely Awaken and become a martial artist. When that happens, you can get ready to retire and enjoy your old age.”
His master was good in every way, except that he always risked his life when chasing fugitives.
At his age, he still refused to retire.
He always said he wanted to contribute to society, but in Ma Yuan’s view, the old man was just stubborn.
Was the entire Great Xia really missing his tiny, negligible bit of strength?
Standing among the crowd, Lu Zhan felt a strange sensation for some reason.
Forget it. Better go home first.
“Wang Botao, Shangguan Ling, I’ll leave things here to the two of you. If anything comes up, contact me directly.”
With that, Lu Zhan turned and headed for his car.
“Don’t worry, Brother Lu!”
Watching Lu Zhan’s departing figure, Shangguan Ling could not help sighing.
“Old Wang, Brother Lu should already be in the Divine Sea Realm by now, right?”
Wang Botao nodded. Just now, when Lu Zhan faced the crowd’s gratitude, a trace of his aura had leaked out.
“Brother Lu really is Brother Lu. I was just about to share the news that I’d broken through to the Ninth Level of the Qi Condensation Realm.”
“Now it looks like I’d better keep quiet and save myself the embarrassment.”
Shangguan Ling felt both shocked and helpless.
They had all taken the assessment on the same day, and at the time, she had even been one realm above Lu Zhan.
But after one glance back— well then, Brother Lu was already so far ahead that even his shadow was nowhere to be seen.
“Compete with Brother Lu? Aren’t you just asking to be humiliated? Forget you and me, even in the whole of Great Xia, Brother Lu would still be one of the most dazzling prodigies.”
The second- and third-place finishers of the Demon Extermination Bureau’s 56th class felt somewhat discouraged.
Meanwhile, inside a hotel on Zhonggu Street, two young men were staying in a room.
One of them was slurping luosifen, while the other leaned against the window with a pair of binoculars, keeping watch on the movements of the owner of the villa across the street.
“Brother Sheng, why did the Commandant have us come monitor a guy at the Third Level of the Divine Sea Realm? If this man really offended the Commandant, wouldn’t it be easier to just kill him?”
The youth sounded puzzled.
He casually grabbed an apple from the table, wiped it on his clothes, and took a bite.
“The two Xu brothers went and caused trouble in Peach Blossom Alley, and in the end the Asura Saber dismembered them in the street. You heard about that, right?”
The youth eating the apple nodded and said around a mouthful of fruit, “Yeah, I heard. The Asura Saber sounds fierce enough, but who knows how strong he really is.”
Zhang Sheng continued explaining, “The one we’re monitoring across the street is Xu Ji.”
“I heard Xu Ji lost his father at an early age and was raised by his older brother Xu Maoshan. The two brothers were quite close.”
“But his older brother died in that Demon Tide in Linhai City all those years ago, leaving behind only two sons.”
“Xu Ji was still young at the time, but he was seriously injured in that Demon Tide too. His vital organs were damaged, and he can’t have children, so he treasured those two nephews especially.”
“Xu Ji himself actually had decent talent, but he poured most of his resources into raising those two nephews. Otherwise, with their aptitude, how could they ever have Awakened?”
“And now the Asura Saber killed both of them outright. That’s the same as cutting off his family line. How could he not be desperate?”
“So now do you understand why the Commandant sent us to monitor him?”
The youth with the apple nodded. “Got it, got it. But Brother Sheng, didn’t the Commandant already warn him? Is there still any need to keep watching him?”
At that, Zhang Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly.
“You think he doesn’t dare kill Lu Zhan?”
“The only reason he hasn’t is because he knows we’re watching him. The moment he slips out of our sight, he’ll head straight to Peach Blossom Alley and kill him.”
“You should know the Demon Extermination Bureau isn’t a solid block. Some people want to protect Lu Zhan, and naturally, some people want him dead.”
“Have you heard of Gao He?”
The youth across from Zhang Sheng took another bite of his apple and nodded again.
“Yeah. I heard he was from the 55th class.”
“He had some talent, but he didn’t know how to behave. He relied too much on the fact that his father was a Commandant and acted way too overbearing. I’ve heard quite a few Jurisdiction Heads from his year complain about him.”
Zhang Sheng gave a cold laugh.
“Heh, overbearing? So what if he was? Didn’t that kid from Peach Blossom Alley kill him all the same?”
The impact of that incident had been bad, so it was later suppressed by the higher-ups.
By coincidence, the Commandant had sent them out on a mission that day, and he had seen the report submitted by the Criminal Investigation Division.
“When you get down to it, that brat Gao He brought it on himself. He ran into someone else’s territory to snatch their things. What Jurisdiction Head could tolerate that?”
The youth eating luosifen slurped a mouthful of noodles, then hissed from the spice. After chugging a mouthful of mineral water, he asked, “A Kuan, what’s Xu Ji up to right now?”
“That old bastard’s in the bathroom.”
Zhang Sheng’s slurping motion paused at once, and he immediately felt his appetite sour.
Then he walked over to the window.
“How long has he been in there?”
“Come on, Brother Sheng, do we really need to track things that closely?”
The youth eating the apple looked speechless. Brother Sheng was good in every way, except that he was too cautious. Still, he answered honestly.
“About twenty minutes, I’d say. He’s holding some woman right now and fooling around with her.”
Twenty minutes was normal. In this day and age, ever since people got smartphones, who spent less than half an hour on the toilet?
“A woman?!!”
“This is bad. That old bastard may have slipped away.”
As he spoke, the youth called Brother Sheng leaped straight out the window, bounding from treetop to treetop along the street.
The other youth hurried after him, clearly still not understanding.
“No, Brother Sheng, how do you know he might’ve escaped?”
Zhang Sheng did not answer.
Very quickly, the two youths arrived in front of the villa.
Bang!
The villa’s front door exploded inward.
Inside stood a man with a back figure similar to Xu Ji’s, holding a curvy woman in his arms as the two flirted intimately.
“Oh my~ Brother Kun, you’re awful~”
The woman half-refused and half-encouraged him, her voice coy and coquettish, sending the man’s hormones surging. He immediately reached out and put his hand where it absolutely did not belong, giving it a hard squeeze.
“You little vixen, let’s see whether Brother Kun doesn’t teach you a proper lesson today...”
Just as he was about to get down to business, the door exploded apart, startling him so badly that he jolted in place. Then rage overtook him and he cursed, “Fuck, are you blind? Don’t you know this is Lord Xu’s... territory?”
Before he could finish, a large hand seized him and lifted him straight into the air.
“Speak. When did that old thing Xu Ji leave?”
Seeing the Demon Extermination Bureau uniform on the other man, the man immediately realized he was not someone he could afford to offend, and quickly answered,
“This morning. Lord Xu left this morning...”
Zhang Sheng threw him aside, his expression dark.
“Damn it, Xu Ji, you old bastard. If you make my mission fail, I’ll kill you myself!”