Anti-fraud manual for the cultivation world

After finishing his shift, Li Gu sat upright at the table, closed his eyes, and entered a meditative state.

Zhang Yi, however, didn't have his thick skin. She brought over a thick stack of case files and sat down next to Li Gu to look through them. This way, at least the two of them would appear to be working, not slacking off together, and it wouldn't be too conspicuous in the eyes of their colleagues.

Cai Xinzi walked past and suddenly lowered her voice, "Thank you so much! Lord Hong just summoned my cousin and said he's going to promote him to head chef. Thank you so much! You helped me so much so quickly. Oh, you really took my matter to heart. I don't know how to express my gratitude."

Zhang Yi nodded, both amused and exasperated. She had told Zheng Xiaodong and Meng Ting about it, and she hadn't expected that Lord Hong would agree so quickly. She really doted on her two newly accepted junior brothers and sisters.

She felt that things had gone too smoothly, which made her, someone who had struggled and stumbled through the previous decades of her life, feel a little uncomfortable.

Cai Xinzi quickly replied, "I've already set the table at Wangjiang Tower this evening. I hope you two will do me the honor of joining me."

Zhang Yi was a little unsure how to respond. She knew that she needed to cultivate a good relationship with Cai Xinzi in order to better infiltrate the government office, but this kind of exchange of favors and favors made her feel seriously uncomfortable.

Li Gu suddenly opened his eyes and said, "I'd better obey. We'll definitely be there by evening."

Cai Xinzi walked away happily.

Zhang Yi sighed, "Alas! Junior Brother Li, you're starting to lead me astray."

Li Gu shrugged: "I don't mean to go astray, but survival comes first. If we can't survive in the imperial court, the Demonic Sect will come knocking on our door and kill us before we can hide for even ten days. Putting aside everything else, can we really hide the noise we make when we practice our martial arts and control our weapons outside?"

Zhang Yi thought back to the dilapidated houses where the rogue cultivators lived, which were drafty and offered no privacy whatsoever, and couldn't help but sigh deeply.

Li Gu chuckled and said, "But there's one advantage to moving out: you and Senior Brother Zheng can finally share a room."

While staying at Honglin's house, men and women are not allowed to share a room.

But if she moves out and finds her own place, she and Zheng Xiaodong can become a real couple.

Thinking about it that way, I'm actually a little tempted.

"Senior Sister Zhang, you've got your eye on it! You've got your eye on it!" Li Gu said with a mischievous grin, "Have you already thought of a name for the baby?"

Zhang Yi rolled her eyes at her: "Hey, how can you talk so disrespectfully to your senior brothers and sisters?"

The two had just gotten to this point in their conversation...

A commotion suddenly broke out at the entrance of the Six Doors. Niu Xin, carrying Ma Zhi on his back, rushed in, his face filled with panic: "Something terrible has happened! Ma Zhi is seriously injured! Quickly, get a doctor! Hurry! Get the medicine! Hurry!"

He placed Ma Zhiping on a bench, and the constables all gathered around to look.

There was a clear knife wound on Ma Zhi's chest, slashing from his right shoulder down to his right pectoral muscle, dripping with blood. It was impossible to tell how deep the wound was or whether it had damaged any internal organs just by looking at it; all that could be seen was the flesh turned up on both sides of the wound, and blood had stained half of his body red...

Cai Xinzi's face darkened: "Who did this?"

Niu Xin's face turned deathly pale, clearly from anger and a bit of fear: "The Demonic Sect did this, those damned Demonic Sect!"

The moment the words "Demon Sect" were uttered, the expressions of the onlookers subtly changed. Clearly, most of them were afraid, and even Cai Xinzi's eyes flickered slightly, showing a hint of timidity: "Why did you make a move?"

Niu Xin gritted his teeth and said, "This morning, Ma Zhi and I went to the yamen to report for duty as usual. On the way, we saw people fighting in a small alley. It turned out that the Demonic Sect was fighting with the rogue cultivators again."

"Ma Zhi and I are, after all, government officials. If we see people fighting, we have to ask what's going on, so we went over and told them to stop fighting."

"Those demonic sect disciples were extremely arrogant. They said they had important business to attend to and told our government offices to stay quiet and behave like turtles for the next few days."

Upon hearing this, the constables' expressions turned somewhat grim. Ever since a few days ago, when Li Gu stole the secret manual and the Demonic Sect caused a ruckus in the neutral zone and then clashed with the Beggars' Sect, the Demonic Sect had gone mad for some unknown reason and began a large-scale search in the city.

The neutral region has been thoroughly ravaged by the Demonic Sect. Many rogue cultivators have been forced to emerge from their hiding places and expose their whereabouts in this farce, leading to fierce battles with their enemies and further destabilizing Jiangzhou.

The constables have been very busy these past few days, constantly having to go out to maintain order and collect the corpses of several rogue cultivators. The case files on Hong Lin's desk have gotten even thicker, and they're all "headless cases," the kind where the culprit can't be found. As for whether they "can't be found" or haven't been investigated, everyone knows.

Niu Xin said indignantly, "Ma Zhi and I were already exhausted these past few days, cleaning up the mess left by the Demonic Sect. And those Demonic Sect disciples were so rude, calling us turtles. We couldn't stand it anymore, so Ma Zhi lost his temper on the spot. He started arguing with those Demonic Sect disciples, and the two of them started fighting. As a result... he got slashed."

Cai Xinzi's chubby face twitched slightly: "Ma Zhicai is only at the fifth level of Qi Refining. Although he's considered above average in the government, in the martial world... especially in Jiangzhou... someone at the fifth level of Qi Refining has to live timidly. Sigh! Why is his temper so hard to control?"

His words were a bit off; he blamed Ma Zhi for being impulsive after the incident.

Several veteran constables nearby glared at him unhappily, but as the chief constable and his superior, no one voiced their dissatisfaction in public.

Cai Xinzi was a shrewd person and immediately noticed the dissatisfaction of his subordinates. His heart skipped a beat. He wasn't afraid of one or two new constables being dissatisfied with him, but the fact that the veteran constables, especially capable constables like Kailong who were at the Foundation Establishment stage, were also looking down on him made his position as chief constable less secure.

Fuck!

At times like these, you should stand up for your own brothers and not speak up for outsiders.

Cai Xinzi's tone immediately changed: "Hmph! Young people don't need to control their tempers so well, otherwise what kind of young people are they? If they really don't fight or argue, then they should retire! Of course, this matter is the fault of the Demonic Sect. They're causing trouble in the city, how can we, as constables, ignore it? They've made trouble for our Six Doors? They even dare to call us turtles? They don't want to live anymore, brothers, let's get them!"

The old constables' expressions finally softened a bit.

That's more like it. Whether you investigate the Demonic Sect's cases or not is one thing, whether you speak up for your own brothers is another. If a leader doesn't even care about the safety of his own men, who would want to work for him?

Cai Xinzi said, "Get the damn weapons, don't just bring iron rulers, bring out all the swords, spears, halberds, and hammers, let's go to Hongya Gate and demand an explanation."

The "Regulations for Government Affairs" of all prefectures, states, and counties uniformly stipulate that the equipment of constables on duty shall be double iron rulers, bamboo boards, and hemp ropes, and it is strictly forbidden to bring or carry knives or axes.

But if something really happens, nobody cares about this rule!

At Cai Xinzi’s command, the constables pulled out a bunch of weapons from somewhere: knives, spears, swords, halberds, axes, hammers, all eighteen kinds of weapons were present. Where are these weapons usually hidden in the small office?

On the contrary, Li Gu and Zhang Yi couldn't even produce a decent sword; all they had were iron rulers.

Li Gu scratched his head: "Senior sister, you still say I don't follow the rules? In this Six Doors, I should be the second most rule-abiding person."

Zhang Yi: "..."