Daqian Martial Saint

'What does Fan Zheng Heng want with me now?' Chen Ping'an slowly opened his eyes, lost in thought.

...

In Fan Zheng Heng's office, Chen Ping'an met the Commander-in-Chief of the Weishui Garrison.

"Lord Fan."

"Ping'an, you're here. Have a seat." Fan Zheng Heng looked up and greeted him.

Chen Ping'an clasped his hands in salute, then sat down at the desk.

"Lord Fan, you summoned me. Has something happened?" Seeing Fan Zheng Heng's solemn expression, Chen Ping'an asked.

"Yes." Fan Zheng Heng nodded and handed a letter to Chen Ping'an. "Take a look at this."

Chen Ping'an took the letter and read it. The moment he did, he froze.

"How could the Ten Thousand Demon Thieves be so brazen!?"

"Exactly! That's how brazen they are!" Fan Zheng Heng said grimly. "To be honest, when I first received this letter, I couldn't believe it myself!"

Chen Ping'an fell silent.

The confidential letter Fan Zheng Heng had just given him was from the State Garrison Command. It concerned the recent operation to encircle and suppress the Ten Thousand Demons Sect in the tri-county area of Li Yang, Earth Fire, and Weishui.

Ever since the Beicang Chaos, a massive crackdown had been launched within Canglong State. Under the unified coordination of the State Garrison Command and with the participation of various factions, this suppression operation had been progressing exceptionally smoothly.

Under the overall coordination of the State Garrison Command, the thirty-seven counties of Canglong Province were roughly divided into several war zones based on the progress of the campaign.

One such zone was the nine-county war zone adjacent to the Weishui Earth Realm. The State Garrison Command deployed its elite forces, and with coordination from the various County Garrison Commands, they established multiple layers of encirclement. They tightened the dragnet, cracking down hard on the Evil and Heterodox Dao.

In the course of the crackdown, in addition to the routine suppression of Evil and Demon Dao strongholds, subtle clues led to a discovery: within this war zone, there was suspected to be a branch of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect.

Subsequently, under the coordination of the State Garrison Command, a meticulous search began. Ultimately, the location of the Ten Thousand Demon Sect Branch was narrowed down to a seven-county area that included Li Yang, Earth Fire, and Weishui.

Then, as the encirclement tightened, they not only fully confirmed the existence of the Ten Thousand Demon Sect Branch, but also narrowed its location down to the tri-county area of Li Yang, Earth Fire, and Weishui!

The operation was coordinated by the State Garrison Command, with participation from various factions and support from the Qiankun Bureau. The combined forces of several County Garrison Commands were deployed to carry out the suppression.

With the Garrison Commandant's Office mobilizing so many resources and wielding such overwhelming force, it was believed that even with its considerable strength, the Ten Thousand Demon Sect Branch could only meet its doom.

That's what everyone thought.

The local Garrison Commandant's Offices all eagerly participated, each hoping to get a piece of the glory from this suppression campaign.

However...

The reality of the situation was far beyond their expectations!

As they continued to shrink the encirclement to pinpoint the Ten Thousand Demon Sect Branch's location, the local Garrison Commandant's Offices encountered unimaginable resistance.

To this day, they still hadn't managed to pinpoint the branch's exact location, but they had already suffered heavy casualties from the Ten Thousand Demons Sect's relentless harassment.

If that were all, it would have been manageable. The Garrison Commandant's Office would have simply had to pay a higher price to eventually conquer the Ten Thousand Demon Sect Branch. But a few days ago, a series of vicious incidents occurred outside the encirclement!

The most serious of these was the death of the Commander-in-Chief of the Li Yang Town Guard Office, who was killed while dispatching reinforcements!

Although the masters who took part in the assassination were all killed afterward, the incident had dire consequences. Panic spread outside the encirclement.

According to the investigation report from the State Garrison Command, there was a very high probability that this was the work of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect. The sect had deployed numerous sleeper agents for this operation. From the initial diversions and the mid-stage routing to the final assassination, the shadow of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect's scheming was everywhere.

Most critically, the Ten Thousand Demons Sect masters involved in the assassination had all been specially dispatched from other Earth Realms. To achieve this single objective, the Ten Thousand Demons Sect had sacrificed dozens of their sleeper agents in the process.

Among those agents was one who had already attained a critical strategic position. Had they remained undercover, they could have caused tremendous damage to the Garrison Commandant's Office. Yet, to ensure the success of this operation, the Ten Thousand Demons Sect had exposed them without hesitation.

And the root cause of all this was the suppression campaign against the Ten Thousand Demons Sect in the tri-county area of Li Yang, Earth Fire, and Weishui.

Chen Ping'an and Fan Zheng Heng exchanged a look. Combining all the information from the letter, they instantly reached a conclusion.

This was no ordinary branch.

Unimaginable resistance; sacrificing sleeper agents to summon masters from thousands of miles away; the death of the Li Yang Town Guard Office's Commander-in-Chief; demons running rampant outside the encirclement...

Every piece of information pointed to one thing: the Ten Thousand Demons Sect stronghold located in the tri-county area of Li Yang, Earth Fire, and Weishui was far more than the ordinary branch they had initially suspected.