Just then, Blackhead slowly raised his head. His expression was unchanged, his voice calm: "I sensed a vast wave of Demon Qi sweeping over. I judged that we were outmatched, so I fired the Command Arrow to minimize losses."
At these words, the other new recruits stared at him, their expressions dazed.
"You judged that you were outmatched?"
Yu Duchuan almost laughed in anger. He slowly rose to his feet. "A Junior Cultivator who hasn’t even reached Foundation Establishment... since when was it your place to make that judgment?"
Amidst the chilling interrogation, a faint voice suddenly drifted out from the crowd. "So you’re aware that we’re just Junior Cultivators who haven’t reached Foundation Establishment."
Yu Duchuan’s expression flickered. He shot a cold, sharp glare at Wang Hong. "Insolence!"
Just then, a lazy voice came from the right.
A spirited woman in Profound Armor, a scar on her face, was sitting in a chair with one foot on the seat, holding a wild fruit.
"Mind if I interrupt?"
This woman was Ruan Xiangling, the same Vice General who had switched destinations with Xu Zhonglin earlier.
She was originally the one supposed to go to Shihu City.
She casually took a bite of the wild fruit and spat out the skin. "Mountain God Duchuan, you don’t seem to work for the Demon-slaying Bureau. So why are you interrogating our constables?"
"..."
Yu Duchuan’s face stiffened. He shot the woman a hostile look, his gaze then falling on the sturdy man beside her.
The Ruan siblings. Although they served the Demon-slaying General of Anren Prefecture, they had once trained under the Demon Slayer General.
Aside from their tutelage under the Qi Family, the General in charge of the Yongzhou Demon-slaying Bureau was also considered a quasi-master to the two siblings.
"Vice General Xu’s whereabouts are unknown. I was simply concerned," he explained casually.
"He’s not missing. He’s dead. Isn’t it a bit unnecessary to start worrying now?" Ruan Xiangling turned her head and corrected him earnestly.
"Xiangling, what is that tone you’re using with Mountain God Duchuan?
The old Vice General frowned as he looked over. His name was Hong Wei, the most senior of the nine Vice Generals.
As he spoke, he looked at the constables and said indifferently, "The Mountain God is correct. These men shirked their duties. They are cowards by nature. Especially this Captain named Chang. He was just promoted and immediately behaves like this. He should naturally be..."
Just then, the voice from the crowd, originally timid, sounded as if it could finally take no more.
’It was bad enough being bullied by an Immortal Descendant of the Yu Family, but now even a Vice General of the Demon-slaying Bureau has this attitude!’
"Be what?" Wang Hong suddenly pushed himself up, his face beet-red, and roared on the verge of a breakdown. "Be executed? Is that it?"
"Go on, then!"
He jutted his neck forward. "I’ve had it! First, they use their own people as bait, then they push us to the front lines as human scouts."
"They make us take all the risks! And then, goddamnit, they blame us when they can’t win."
"They promised rewards for everyone if we found the Demon General! And what’s our reward? Getting tied up and locked away for a day and a night without a drop of water!"
Wang Hong’s unrestrained, furious shouts quickly infected the nearly one thousand constables present.
He pointed at Chang Yi with his bound hands. "Go on! Cut him down first! His dad is just some worthless County Magistrate in Black Water City; he can’t make any waves. Then cut me down! My Wang Family has no power; we’re just lowly salt merchants."
The young man then turned his head, pointing to others one by one. "This one, his dad’s just a poor Supervisor, only Seventh Grade. And that one, kill him too. His dad’s even more useless, can only tag along with the Yu Family to get scraps from their river transport business!"
Wang Hong couldn’t clearly recall the skills the Demon-slaying Bureau had taught him.
But when it came to what his colleagues’ families did for a living, the information rolled right off his tongue.
The hundreds of constables were all from respectable families in Yongzhou.
Any single one of them was insignificant before the Demon-slaying Bureau, but enough of them together could certainly raise a stink.
"..."
Hong Wei’s eyes narrowed, his face sinking.
Once you entered the Demon-slaying Bureau, it didn’t matter who you were before. You had to obey orders completely, life and death be damned.
But that was for when they were slaying demons.
If he wanted to execute all of these constables who had fled back, he would need a sufficient reason to silence their families.
"We did the Qi Seeking, and we found the Demon General."
Wang Hong’s face was a picture of misery. "The most ridiculous part is, we tried to warn him! Even Chang Yi could see it was a trap. He told him not to go in, that we should fall back and discuss it first."
"But that Vice General Xu just went on and on, making it all sound so logical, and then he rushed in and got himself killed. Is that our fault, too?"
"Pfft."
Ruan Xiangling couldn’t hold back a laugh. She stuffed the wild fruit in her mouth and slapped her Profound Armor chest piece.
’I really didn’t expect this Blackhead had actually tried to warn Xu Zhonglin.’
’This is getting more and more interesting.’
"Xiangling."
Ruan Changfeng shot her a glare.
Even if the two factions within the Demon-slaying Bureau didn’t see eye to eye due to conflicting philosophies...
...it was wrong to mock a colleague who had fallen to a Demon in front of everyone.
"I didn’t mean to."
Ruan Xiangling waved her hand dismissively. "It’s just that the way this kid tells the story is hilarious."
Chang Yi slowly got to his feet and said earnestly, "Vice Generals, I received only two orders. First, to find the demon, which we have completed. Second, to give a warning, and I did indeed fire the Command Arrow."
"I did not receive any orders to engage the Demon in combat."
"These colleagues are all recent recruits to the Demon-slaying Bureau. Our strength is insufficient; we are merely Qi Cultivation Junior Cultivators. Our priority was to get the information back alive to warn the other Generals and avoid being slaughtered by that Demon."
"If one must recklessly charge to their death, to serve as a funeral offering for Vice General Xu, to be considered loyal and dutiful..."
"...then I plead guilty."
The dark-faced youth exhaled slowly and stood in silence, offering no further defense.
Ruan Xiangling tossed away the fruit core, looking over with a hint of surprise.
’For this kid to be so calm and speak so logically under these circumstances... ’
’He’s got some nerve.’
"..."
Chang Yi silently endured everyone’s scrutiny.
’That Mountain God Duchuan is clearly less experienced than Xu Zhonglin was.’
’He didn’t separate us for confinement, which gave Wang Hong and me a chance to coordinate.’
’One of us was to highlight the backgrounds of the new recruits, while the other was to lay out our responsibilities and reasoning.’
While he was kneeling earlier, Chang Yi had made a point to observe the expressions of the various Vice Generals.
He couldn’t afford to miss a single opportunity to save his own life.
Throughout the entire ordeal, he never once looked in a certain direction.
But he knew that a young man was there, quietly watching him, observing his performance.
Brother Lin was with him.
This was Chang Yi’s first test, his answer to those three lessons from before.

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