The male supporting character was actually myself.

The Grand Elder of the School Affairs Department specially left his seclusion to personally check and confirm that it was correct;

Furthermore, the Grand Elder also checked the Hibiscus Chamber in Qingyue Tower, and the lingering aura there proves that you have always been there and have not left.

Ling Qiye was momentarily lost in thought, and stammered, "The little demon cat's guess was indeed correct..."

The torch burst into another burst of sparks, this time the flames flickered so violently that the light and shadows swayed.

"Hehe, the Dali Temple is really stingy." Li Changguang seemed not to hear him, looking at the torches on the wall and shaking his head with a smile. "They won't even provide any decent oil. They're really stingy to the extreme."

Ling Qiye quickly composed himself and continued to press, "Chief, how much do you know about the demon race? Where exactly is the gate between the two realms?"

Unexpectedly, he would suddenly ask about these things. Li Changguang put down his teacup and pondered for a moment before saying, "Although I am the Director of the School Affairs Department, I am not a member of the royal family and know very little about some secrets."

All I know is that the demon race once attempted to invade the human world to seize the destiny of heaven and earth. However, the brilliant predecessors of this world joined forces to suppress them and seal the gate between the two worlds.

It is rumored that the Department of School Affairs guards the gate between the two realms and has the authority to allow harmless demons to enter the human world, but this is not actually the case.

Even I don't know where the Gate to the Two Worlds is, let alone what it looks like;

As for those so-called demons, they have indeed been registered and under supervision by the School Affairs Department for generations, but... they did not come from the Gate of Two Realms, but are descendants of demons left here after the great war between the two realms.

That was a gate personally sealed by a sage. Just think about it—how absurd it is that harmless demons could pass through. And if harmless demons could truly pass through, how could they possibly withstand powerful demons?

"Are all the demons of today descendants of demons from a thousand years ago?" Ling Qiye didn't expect the answer to be so simple!

In that case, could I help the little demon cat find its parents?

After all, it's so small, so even if something changes, it will happen in a short time. Perhaps the School Affairs Department will have some clues.

"Then... has the School Affairs Department registered all the demon races?"

“Of course, every member of the demon race within the territory of the Great Sui Dynasty is strictly registered.” Li Changguang couldn’t help but feel curious. “Why are you suddenly so interested in the demon race? Although they are called demons, they are actually no different from humans except for their ability to change their original form.”

Even the more ferocious demon races like tiger demons and leopard demons, in addition to their talent, also rely on cultivation to fight.

As far as I know, the Great Sui Dynasty was founded on military strength. Although it did not possess the largest territory, it was all-encompassing. The demon race within the Great Sui Dynasty also had the highest cultivation level. Even the most powerful leopard demon, who was over two hundred years old, could only fight you to a draw.

The innate skills possessed by the demon race are not special, and there's nothing to study about them.

"So, what clues did you find? I'm really looking forward to closing this case so you can go back to the department and continue contributing."

Ling Qiye did not answer. Instead, the torches on the wall burned fiercely once more, and then the light dimmed.

"Chief, if I told you that the real culprit who killed Song Yubai was a demon, would you believe me?"

Strangely, his voice suddenly seemed farther away from me.

Li Changguang turned around abruptly and found the torches on the wall burning quietly, while Ling Qiye stood in the prison cell a zhang away.

The iron lock on the prison door showed no signs of damage.

He sat on the ground, facing the wall with his hands raised empty. There was no mat on the ground, no one opposite him, and not even a teacup in his hands!

"How did you do that?" He slowly stood up, his eyes flashing with a sharp, sword-like light as he stared at Ling Qiye, and said in a deep voice, "I was clearly sitting across from you, drinking tea and chatting..."

Ling Qiye shook his head with a wry smile, "But I have never actually left the prison. Chief, don't you think this situation is quite similar to the Qingyue Tower murder case?"

The sword-heart-clearing technique he cultivated can see through all lies. Li Changguang has never made a mistake in judging cases over the years, and the sword-heart-clearing technique is more than half of the credit for this.

However, he clearly realized that Ling Qiye was not lying, meaning that the other party had never stepped out of the prison. So, what he had been chatting with earlier was...

"How did you do that?" Li Changguang was genuinely shocked.

With the mysterious figure behind Lu Fan in front of him and Ling Qiye's strange methods that left no room for doubt, he couldn't help but start to doubt himself and the world.

Am I too old and outdated?

Or are today's young people just too outstanding?

Am I still the supposedly omniscient and omnipotent Director of the School Affairs Department? Why can't I even see through a mere scout in his twenties?

"Director, this is one of the abilities of the demon race." Ling Qiye couldn't help but smile bitterly: "I used to think that the School Affairs Department, which suppressed the gate between the two worlds and controlled the demon race here, had already reached the peak and had nothing to fear."

However, reality still slapped me hard in the face!

If the little demon cat hadn't told me the truth, I wouldn't have believed that the demon race could deceive even a Director who had just touched the threshold of level nine.

He spread his hands to show the other person the unremarkable Illusion Mirror, and explained, "I can be absolutely certain—I would never kill anyone, let alone Song Yubai."

I was framed.

The other party had clearly used illusion techniques, trapping everyone, including Song Yubai and me, in an illusion.

I stayed in the Hibiscus Garden but thought I was at home resting;

I don’t know how Song Yubai and the others were deceived, but it was someone skilled in illusion who manipulated and played with everyone and killed Song Yubai to frame me!

If you, Director, do not believe me, please carefully recall how you entered the illusion without realizing it.

This illusionary mirror can work even in the hands of an ordinary person, leaving an eighth-level cultivator with no chance to fight back, let alone when a demon race specializing in illusions personally takes action!

"Chief, the murder at Qingyue Tower is no longer a simple frame-up; it's a harbinger of another demon invasion!"

Upon hearing this, Li Changguang's pupils constricted sharply.

He stepped forward and took the mirror from Ling Qiye's hand. A thought about how to use it instantly entered his mind. The sudden change, which he had never encountered before, made even the usually calm and collected Li Changguang's face turn slightly pale.

"This treasure has already been activated, which is why we can use it freely according to the instructions," Ling Qiye continued to explain. "The little demon cat said that this is just a broken magic weapon, but if it can be repaired in the future, it will definitely display its great power!"

"Who is the little demon cat? Magical artifacts... do such unimaginable divine weapons really exist?"

"Chief, this treasure is a secret treasure passed down among the demon race;

There is an even more incredible treasure on Lu Fan's person right now!

Moreover, he is no longer the original Lu Fan. The soul of the original Lu Fan, who was stripped of his martial arts and expelled from White Crane Academy, has been devoured by the Demon King. The Demon King Xuan Mu, who has taken over the human body, is the first demon to successfully invade!

The little demon cat is a friend I met in the prison. It has a very special talent and skill. It is the guardian of many treasures passed down by the demon race. Its duty is to retrieve the treasures and make the most of them.

It promised to use these treasures to help defend against the invasion of the demon race, since the little demon cat grew up in this world and did not want the flames of war to destroy the peaceful lives of humans.

However… these borrowed treasures will all have to be returned in the future.”

Chapter Fourteen: The Closing Operation

The amount of information was so overwhelming that Li Changguang was stunned for a long time before he could recover.

Demon invasion?

The magical artifact, the Illusionary Mirror?

What other kind of soul possession is there?

These strange words, which even storytellers couldn't come up with, kept challenging his understanding. But with the newfound knowledge of how to use the Illusion Mirror and the illusion he had just experienced that was indistinguishable from reality, Li Changguang felt that he needed to calm down and prepare to accept this new world.

"No matter where you are, it's really great to be rich and powerful!" Lu Fan leaned back in his comfortable chair, holding the Imperial Bottle in his left hand and playing with the small gold nugget in the money box in his right, his face full of pride.

Since accidentally obtaining the treasure bottle and smoothly embarking on a new path in life, the resentment of that lingering soul has indeed subsided considerably.

Although she still harbored resentment towards the young lady of the Liang family and still wanted Ling Qiye dead immediately, she was quite satisfied with the fact that she was able to repair her useless body and quickly recover her strength after practicing the high-level cultivation technique she had memorized.

"The two most important things now are: first, to find a way to brand the Liang family's daughter with a slave mark and make her my exclusive slave; "

The second is to kill Ling Qiye in prison, so as to clear his name of his previous actions.

As for going to the government office to serve and slap the faces of those who looked down on me..." Lu Fan chuckled. A dignified demon king wouldn't bother with those ignorant mortals.

Now that I am rich and powerful, even the owner of the Treasure Pavilion fawns over me.

Even the revered Master Fan always finds opportunities to come here to try to become his disciple.

Ha, what a clumsy trick and excuse. After the old man discovered that he had some feelings for Gu Ling'er, he eagerly brought her over hoping to gain some advantage.

Gu Ling'er naturally already idolized him to the point of complete submission.

If it weren't for the desire to play the long game, Gu Ling'er, who could easily make young cultivators go crazy for her, would come to warm her bed and feet at any time!

Having ability is great; you can get whatever you want!

Thinking of this, Lu Fan's gaze towards the Heavenly Bottle in his hand grew even more greedy. "Heavenly Bottle! What a fitting name! With this treasure in hand, one could truly rule the heavens!"

He imagined that in the near future he would be able to cultivate to level three and refine higher-level spiritual medicines. At that time, relying on the completely unequal strength between the two realms, he would use spiritual medicines as bait to plant puppet marks on the most powerful cultivators of the Great Sui Dynasty in the human realm, and the entire royal family would be under his control.

Using the Great Sui Dynasty as a base, he instructed the royal family to expand outwards and take the opportunity to secretly supply elixirs to other countries. Before long, he would be able to dominate the human world!

Once his cultivation is complete, he will break through the barrier between the two realms and become the new emperor of the demon race...

As Lu Fan envisioned a bright future paved by the Heavenly Bottle in his hand, he couldn't help but laugh wildly to the sky.

On a street outside his residence, informants from the School Affairs Department, disguised as ordinary vendors, received orders—all monitors should move closer to Lu Fan's residence, conceal their presence, and keep a close watch on his every move, and conduct close-range tracking if necessary.

"Director, what Ling Qiye said is truly absurd." The deputy director's beautiful eyes revealed deep doubt as she covered her cherry-like mouth with an embroidered handkerchief and whispered, "If it's true, even the most powerful School Affairs Division would struggle to withstand the demon race's invasion, especially with this kind of method..."

She pointed to the seemingly ordinary mirror in Li Changguang's hand, and said with a hint of lingering fear, "With this in hand, even if I wanted to kill you, it would be a piece of cake!"

"Yes, fortunately, the treasure that Lu Fan possesses can only create spiritual medicine and has no destructive power." Li Changguang sighed inwardly as he played with the Illusionary Mirror in his hand. Even the deputy director, who was most skilled in investigation, could not escape the disaster. The power of a single mirror was terrifying!

"Even if Lu Fan's cultivation speed is fast, it will still take some time for his body to adapt. Therefore, he has just broken through the first level and is steadily moving towards the second level. The informants we have placed are all experts of level five or above, so they can conceal their auras and will not be detected."

Unfortunately, it's really unknown what treasure Lu Fan possesses, and Ling Qiye said that the little demon cat has absolute control over demon treasures and can take them away when the time is right.

"Just a demon cat, nothing to worry about." The deputy director laughed upon hearing this, his bright smile, as gentle as a breeze through peach blossoms, contrasting sharply with his words, which were as cold as winter. "A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime."

A little demon cat with little ability can control so many treasures. If it's willing to serve our school's affairs department in the future, that would be wonderful; otherwise... if all the treasures are combined, wouldn't it become useless?

Li Changguang's expression remained as indifferent as ever, but for the first time in his life, he felt an empty sense of insecurity.

How could a demon cat that may not yet be able to transform into human form give you the intuition that it is very difficult to deal with?

Am I really getting old?

Or was it that too many unknown shocks affected her state of mind?

"Meow~" Jiang Chen moved nimbly across the roof tiles.

After he couldn't escape the fluffy ball's aggressive grooming and started to give up, he found that the babyish cries weren't so unbearable after all.

On the contrary, because kittens are small and their meows are soft and have no demonic aura, they are not only not a threat to everyone, but sometimes they are so cute that they can melt people's hearts and receive some preferential treatment.

For example, right now, the entire Plum Blossom Lane is surrounded by people from the School Affairs Department. Ordinary people can hardly get close to the outer perimeter. But with her soft and cute kitten form, she can easily fool everyone. She can even jump onto the roof of Lu Fan's courtyard without attracting attention.

"Host, it's time to make a move!" Upon hearing its host's call, the little white cat eagerly jumped onto the roof, stretched out its paws, and began to stroke its fur while rubbing against it, reporting: "Lu Fan can't refine high-level pills right now, but he has already prepared the puppet medicine catalyst; Ling Qiye's side is also progressing smoothly, the School Affairs Department has already laid an ambush, should we make a move?"

Jiang Chen skillfully washed its face with its paws, glanced at the crowd outside the courtyard wall who were watching the courtyard closely, nodded, and meowed again.

"Okay, meow! I'm off to wreak havoc!" The fluffy ball finally got the signal to close the net and excitedly hopped into the yard.