Generally speaking, encountering a major case also means encountering a major opportunity, and at the same time it means great risk.
There are ways to reduce the risk, you just need to hand the case over or submit it to the higher-ups, but doing so also means giving up the opportunity that comes with it.
If you don't fight for some dignity in life, you should at least fight for some benefit, right? Chen Tianwen's choice was to bet everything on Shen Hao. First, even if he loses, he can afford it, and second, because he believes in Shen Hao's ability.
A junior cultivator with no background who could climb all the way up to the position of Xiaoqi in such a place as Xuanqing Guard, where the relationships are highly complex, that alone says a lot.
And Shen Hao was well aware of Chen Tianwen's calculations, and he was thinking the same thing.
Once the case was solved, as the handler, could Shen Hao possibly miss out on the benefits?
"If only I could get another two Small Nourishing Pills." On the way back, Shen Hao couldn't help a surge of hope rising in his heart. He didn't notice, the moment he stepped out from the Teleportation Array, a pair of eyes were observing him from afar, cold and sinister.
...
The afternoon of the third day after the crime.
One hundred Xuanqing Guard soldiers marched into Five Rams City from Li City Guard Station. Not only did they take over the defense of the two city gates, but they also took over the records room in the Five Rams City Government Office, and began to conduct a citywide dragnet search together with the Five Rams City Guard Soldiers.
The large-scale presence of the Xuanqing Guard brought an invisible sense of oppression to everyone in Five Rams City, like a shadow weighing down the entire city. Not only did the officials in every government office of Five Rams City tread cautiously, but even the street vendors and ordinary folks didn't dare to shout to sell their goods as loudly as before.
Wang Jian's efficiency was very high; by the next day, he had already dug up all the Qi Family's old secrets in Five Rams City. What excited him was that his theories had made new progress.
From the mouths of a few people connected with the Qi Family, Wang Jian learned that besides the large cloth shop outside the city, the Qi Family had another unregistered property: an abandoned manor.
No matter what the Qi Family was secretly involved in, on the surface they were one of the most famous wealthy families in Five Rams City. Why would they secretly own a useless derelict manor as an asset?
Doubt arose in Wang Jian's heart. He took his men to check out the manor overnight, and as soon as they arrived, Wang Jian felt his Evil Chasing Disc vibrating violently in his chest, nearly scaring him off his horse.
"There are Evils here! And... and it's Third Grade!"
After a simple search, Wang Jian didn't find the Evil head-on and let out a breath, but with a cold face he ordered his men to dig three feet into the ground. He sensed an unusual coldness at this desolate, abandoned manor, to the point that the stench of blood hung in the air everywhere you went.
As a result, just after casually digging up a small courtyard, Wang Jian realized he'd stumbled on something incredible.
Wang Jian immediately ordered the rest to seal off the abandoned manor and then rode back to Five Rams City at top speed to inform Shen Hao in person.
By the time Shen Hao arrived with fifty Xuanqing Guard soldiers and a hundred Five Rams City Guard Soldiers, it was already deep night, but over a hundred torches lit up the whole manor as bright as day. Especially the small courtyard that had already been dug up—its knocked-down walls exposed by the torchlight, making everyone's back go cold.
"Is this a mass grave?"
"It doesn't look like it. It's so messy—this is even worse than the mass graves on battlefields. Actually, it's more like... like a living pit."
"A living pit? Unlikely. These people were dumped in after being killed, you can tell from the way they're scattered."
"I know. I'm just saying what it looks like."
...
The timid couldn't utter a word, some even looked away.
The braver ones whispered quietly among themselves. After all, even Shen Hao, who'd been with the Xuanqing Guard for eight years, had never seen such a scene.
In a derelict courtyard no more than ten zhang wide, a huge pit had been dug up. All that remained exposed in the pit were hands, feet, or a variety of unrecognizable heads—broken, not a single intact body.
These corpses were piled in the dirt like trash, all decayed to a similar degree. That suggested they were all buried here at about the same time.
Shen Hao frowned, took out his Evil Chasing Disc, circulated his True Essence, and after a while put it away again, having confirmed in his heart that, as Wang Jian had said, there had indeed been a Third-Grade Evil present here.
Only Wang Jian, who was closest to Shen Hao, was puzzled. He could clearly feel that their Xiaoqi officer's True Essence just now was definitely not at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer. Had he broken through?!
Shen Hao had no time to care what Wang Jian was thinking. After putting away the Evil Chasing Disc, he stared at the corpses in the pit and said in a deep voice, "Have the brothers start digging. The entire abandoned manor reeks to high heaven—the earth can't even cover up the smell. I'm afraid this isn't the only pit."
"Yes, Xiaoqi." Wang Jian replied as he waved to those behind him.
An hour flew by.
Most of those digging were the Warriors of the Xuanqing Guard. These killers had already crossed the threshold into being cultivators, so in terms of strength alone they far surpassed ordinary people. Their shovels flew, and they quickly dug up nearly all the abandoned courtyards of the manor. Just as Shen Hao had expected, under each courtyard there was another sizable corpse pit.
They'd uncovered at least a thousand bodies already, and with each pit only shallowly dug, without digging deeper to the very bottom, the actual number was likely to be much higher than what could be seen.
"Xiaoqi, I think these corpses are the apprentices who 'disappeared'."
Wang Jian's deduction had basis. The bodies in the mass graves showed noticeably different degrees of decay. Those buried longer were already bones, while the more recent ones still had maggots. This matched up with the pattern of the large number of apprentices who regularly 'left' the Qi Family's cloth shop. Just pick out a few recognizably-faced corpses and have the shop's masters ID them—it'd be enough to confirm.
Shen Hao nodded in silence. In his heart he knew what Wang Jian said didn't need further verification. These had to be the apprentices from the Qi Family's cloth shop. Now that the bodies had been found, it seemed to also confirm Wang Jian's prior suspicion that the Qi Family were human blood sellers. After all, if you want to sell human blood, it's not just a matter of bleeding someone and keeping them alive—sometimes they're drained dry, costing their lives.
Seeing Shen Hao silent, Wang Jian continued, "Xiaoqi, there are also traces of a Third-Grade Evil here, and just like before, it wasn't recorded in the Five Rams City records, meaning this Evil was lurking here all along—or... was it being controlled by someone?"
As Wang Jian said the words "controlled by someone," his lips trembled a bit. A trace of terror flashed in his eyes, and he lowered his head, afraid Shen Hao would see his fear.
"You've finally caught on. Two days ahead of what I expected." Shen Hao, for once, gave a slight smile and patted the shoulder of this School Commander only a few years younger than himself.
"Huh? Xiaoqi, you—you'd already guessed that?"
"Heh, hadn't you mentioned it before too? A Third-Grade Evil entered the city, and only the Qi Family was affected? That doesn't make sense. Either the Evil Chasing Disc is wrong, or the Evil's murderous instincts were forcibly suppressed. So you should've been prepared for this."
At this, Shen Hao couldn't help thinking of an old saying: Rule out all other possibilities, and whatever remains, no matter how unbelievable, must be the truth.