Zhang Junliang’s lips were trembling, and he was struggling to repress the indignation in his heart.
“I am innocent.” His eyes were bloodshot with rage, and he closed them to disguise his anger as he said, “If I recall correctly, the message was sent to our government workers group chat. It can only be seen by public servants working for the government, and it was sent to the entire group chat, not to anyone individually.”
As expected of the municipal party committee secretary of the capital city, even in a situation like this, he was able to remain calm and collected.
As soon as his voice trailed off, someone immediately pulled out their phone, upon which Zheng Shuguo yelled, “Nobody move! If he really is only a scapegoat and someone sent him a message telling him what to do, then his death would make the entire trail run cold. As such, the final lead that we have would be the phones! I’ll get the relevant departments to conduct a thorough search on the contact records of all of the people in the hall just now!”
Arthis curled a finger, and several phones immediately flew toward her. She took a glance at the phones, then nodded as she said, “The message was indeed sent to everyone in the group chat, and it’s an announcement that the work meeting for tomorrow will be postponed. However, that doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook. In a message, anything can act as a signal, including a special character or a specific time, so this doesn’t mean anything.”
A resigned smile appeared on Zhang Junliang’s face. “If you insist on framing me as the culprit, then I have nothing to say.”
“Then wait for the results of the investigation,” Arthis said in a cold voice. “I’m sure the Special Investigations Department has its own tactics in this area.”
Zhang Junliang’s hands were beginning to tremble as he said, “With all due respect, do you know what an investigation like this entails for the reputation of an official like me?”
He was only in his forties, yet he was already the municipal party committee secretary of the capital city! He had a glorious future ahead of him in the political realm!
However, if were to come under investigation by the Special Investigations Department, then it would all be over for him! The contents of an investigation like this would definitely be kept strictly confidential, so no one would know why he was being investigated. Everyone would only know that he had been investigated for some reason, and that would be a permanent blotch on his resume.
“Don’t talk to me about that!” Arthis snapped as her Yin energy erupted violently, pushing everyone around her back several meters. Her gaze roamed over everyone in the room like a pair of daggers as she said, “All I know is that more than one person in the Special Investigations Department has been possessed by the inner demon! Hell gave you notification in advance, and four Yama-Kings were deployed, but someone in this building activated the supernatural perimeter to allow the inner demon’s soul fragment to escape! If you can’t get to the bottom of this, we’ll make sure the entire municipal government and this Special Investigations Department branch is laid off for new staff!”
After that, she vanished as a gust of Yin wind, leaving only a parting sentence behind. “I’ll be waiting for news from you.”
She had departed, but now one else left the scene.
After a full minute had passed, Mayor Ji Changqing silently made his way over to Zheng Shuguo, yet before he even had a chance to speak, Zheng Shuguo said in a cold voice, “Mayor Ji, at times like this, we should be keeping our distance from one another.”
Ji Changqing faltered slightly upon hearing this, and he was just about to say something when he noticed that Zheng Shuguo’s fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white.
This was extremely humiliating for him!
This was the first major collaboration between Hell and the mortal realm since he had taken over from Lei Jun, and the Special Investigations Department had made a royal mess of things.
The ones who had perished from the holes on top of their heads had to have been killed by the inner demon, which meant that they were past hosts. As for everyone else, they had been killed by gunfire from them. This had happened right under his nose, and it was utterly humiliating for him!
At the end, he had received a harsh dressing down from the Yama-Kings of Hell, forcing him to hand over the reins. At this point, he might as well not even have been involved in the plan at all!
Having been in the political realm for several decades, Ji Changqing was able to instantly guess what Zheng Shuguo was thinking. It was clear that Zheng Shuguo was already on the verge of snapping, so Ji Changqing wisely chose not to say anything and backed away.
A few seconds later, Zheng Shuguo turned around with a steely expression. “Launch an exhaustive investigation! I’ll immediately apply for an investigation of the highest level into the municipal government, the police force, and the Special Investigations Department!”
……………………………………………………
In the city god’s temple, an underworld emissary wore a fawning smile as he stood respectfully behind Qin Ye and introduced, “Yanluo Qin, this is the best tea in the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.”
These were Yama-Kings in the flesh! If he could make a good impression on them, would he be rewarded with a transfer to Everburn soon?
Everburn was the bustling and prosperous core of the Cathayan Underworld, with hundreds of different types of cuisine catered toward Yin spirits! That was certainly a far better place to work than in the mortal realm, where he could only absorb some Yin energy every night.
However, Qin Ye wasn’t in the mood for any tea or conversation.
He was standing at the entrance to the City God Temple, which had already been completely surrounded by soldiers and police officers of Cathay. One of his hands was clasped behind his back, while the other was massaging his beaded bracelet in a frustrated manner, and he was frequently taking glances onto the road.
The entire situation in the city had descended into complete chaos.
In the face of an opponent that had never been encountered before, it was imperative to dig up the special characteristics of that opponent little by little. Through this incident, he had discovered something new, which was that the inner demon targeted only one’s desires. It had nothing to do with Yin energy, and it didn’t care about national emblems of flags. As long as you had demons in your heart, you were prone to being possessed by it.
Thus, there was no way to progress this current situation.
Zhao Yun and the Harken had already returned to the Cathayan Underworld. In the near future, Hell was definitely going to have to face fierce retaliation from the inner demon. Of course, the retaliation would only be a one-off event, unless the inner demon wanted to declare all-out war on Hell right away. However, it was undeniably true that Hell was at a severe disadvantage.
All of the hundreds of millions of netherworldly citizens in the Cathayan Underworld were encompassed beneath this dark cloud, yet he was completely powerless to do anything! This complete loss of control was something that Qin Ye was not used to, and it was extremely frustrating to him.
“There’s no need for you to worry,” Arthis said. “What’s happened is already in the past. We can’t change the past, so the only thing we can do is think about how to deal with the future. Looking at the inner demon’s special properties now, it’s no wonder that even the Heavenly Dao is reluctant to oppose it. It’s perhaps only slightly more powerful than Brother Zhao when it comes to direct combat prowess, so it would be no match for Hell in a direct confrontation, but its unique properties make it the most difficult opponent to deal with.”
Qin Ye raised an eyebrow as a thought suddenly occurred to him.
What if he were to open the Array of the Nine Gods and allow this accursed thing to escape? In doing so, the inner demon would become the entire world’s problem, rather than just the Cathayan Underworld’s problem. With the four pillars working together, the inner demon’s days would for sure be numbered!
However, that idea quickly faded from his mind.
This still wasn’t the time to resort to something like that. However, they were close to being able to do this.
The development of the second-generation forbidden arts was still ongoing, and during the past few years, the education system had allowed the field of Yin runology in the nation to develop rapidly. It still couldn’t compare with its past heyday, but it was already a sufficient foundation to develop the second-generation forbidden arts.
After all, there was the new energy resource team, which was filled with extremely skilled and experienced personnel, holding the project in good stead.
Once the second-generation forbidden arts were developed, it would be time to invade Amano Iwato and undo the Array of the Nine Gods!
However, prior to that, he had to ensure the stability of the nation by ridding the world of the inner demon!
“What do you think of Zheng Shuguo?” he asked as the passing breeze picked up his hair, causing it to dance all around him.
“He’s not bad,” Arthis replied. “He’s extremely observant. As soon as he saw what had happened in the control room, he immediately suggested that I should use alternative investigation methods, and his analysis was very sound.”
Qin Ye nodded in response.
If Zheng Shuguo weren’t capable, then he would suggest for the government to replace him.
The Special Investigations Department was the department of the mortal realm that came into the most frequent contact with Hell. All of the monthly reports of the city gods and the lords of the land also entered the Special Investigations Department first. If the director of the department couldn’t pull his weight, then he would have to be replaced.
Before Qin Ye had a chance to ask anything else, Arthis continued, “The situation at the site of the incident was very complicated. There was no way for us to discern who the rat was, so I ordered everyone to stay at the Special Investigations Department building. I’ll be approaching Zheng Shuguo again tonight.”
“What are the specific issues that we’re facing?”
Arthis thought about this question for a moment before replying, “The number of people who had been possessed by the inner demon was higher than we expected. On the surface, it looks like Secretary Zhang’s bodyguard was the direct culprit, while someone else told him what to do. However, bodyguards don’t have access to the supernatural perimeter activation facilities. Despite this, the investigator who activated the supernatural perimeter perished by the hands of the bodyguard, and that can only mean that the investigator had also been possessed in the past. The bodyguard was responsible for killing all potential informants, then committing suicide. There are some suspicions surrounding Secretary Zhang, but they’re nothing major. I intentionally singled him out in the hope that this would lure everyone else into a false sense of security. I’m sure the Special Investigations Department will give us a response very soon. After all, they’ve been thoroughly humiliated here.”
If they didn’t want to all be laid off, then they would have to redeem themselves.
Qin Ye closed his eyes in silence. He knew that the Special Investigations Department alone couldn’t be counted on to do this.
After a long while, he finally reopened his eyes, then said in a cold voice, “If we want to capture the inner demon, then we must lure it into our trap, and perhaps there’s a way to accomplish that.”
Arthis’s brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this. She couldn’t think of any way to achieve this.
Qin Ye turned and looked her directly in the eye as he concluded, “We can use the Book of Life and Death.”
Arthis immediately raised her head as if she had been struck by a bolt of lightning upon hearing this, and even with her toxic personality, she couldn’t help but praise Qin Ye. “That’s genius!”
Arthis had immediately understood what Qin Ye’s plan was.
The Book of Life and Death recorded the sins and virtues of one’s life. This was the initial screening to decide where a Yin spirit was supposed to go, and only after that came the trials held by the Anitya Hellguards and Infernal Judges. In terms of judging Yin spirits, Hell had thousands of years of experience that it could draw upon.
They wouldn’t be able to see who had been possessed by the inner demon in the past, but they would be able to see who had demons in their hearts.
If they could find that person, and they just so happened to be a high-ranking provincial official, then they would have the perfect bait with which to lure the inner demon!
The inner demon definitely wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to possess an important provincial official!
