287: Chapter 288 Star Lord's Decree

"You shall personally travel to Qingzhou and find him for Us."

"There is no need to make contact, just observe him in secret."

"If this boy's talent is truly as stated in the secret report, then give this item to him."

As the emperor spoke, he took out a cyan dragon-shaped jade pendant and placed it on the edge of the imperial desk.

When the secret guard's gaze fell on that jade pendant, his pupils involuntarily contracted slightly.

He recognized that thing; it was the Star Lord Token, and every single one represented supreme glory.

Although the Star Lord Token was merely a symbol of identity, wanting to truly become a Star Lord with real power still required going through the final conferment ceremony.

But even so, this token itself was enough to allow the holder to travel unhindered throughout the entire Qingzhou territory.

Even the Governor of Qingzhou would have to treat him with courtesy upon seeing this token.

The secret guard solemnly took the cyan dragon-shaped jade pendant, then bowed and saluted, "Understood, this subordinate will certainly not fail Your Majesty's commission."

"Mhm, go."

The emperor picked up the vermilion brush on the desk again, his gaze already falling back onto the unapproved memorial.

The secret guard said no more, took two steps back, and then silently vanished inside the grand hall.

Peace returned to the hall, and the rustling sound of the vermilion brush sweeping across the paper rang out once more.

Meanwhile, in Qingfeng County, a thorough investigation was in full swing.

The Demon Suppression Division took the lead by starting with the four major Gangs of the outer city. Each Gang was led by a Demon Suppression Captain, mobilizing manpower to directly station themselves at the Gang headquarters and surround it completely.

Don't look down on the Demon Suppression Division for having few personnel; that was only because there weren't many combatants directly facing the Demon, but the peripheral members were by no means few.

Facing the aggressively approaching Demon Suppression Division, those Gang members who were usually arrogant and domineering were now as obedient as quails, not a single one daring to cause trouble.

After all, the fate of the Flying Eagle Gang from a few days ago had been widely spread, and their entire Gang headquarters had almost been razed to the ground.

As one of the four major Gangs themselves, what did they have more than them?

Therefore, the Demon Suppression Division's investigation of these Gangs was completely unimpeded, and even the aristocratic families behind them did not dare to step in and block it at this time.

However, they wouldn't have known if they didn't check, and the check gave them quite a fright.

Aside from the Flying Eagle Gang, which had already been cleared out by Lin Ye, the remaining three major Gangs of Qingfeng County—the Green Snake Gang, Iron Spear Society, and Long Wind Gang—all showed traces of remaining evil qi.

It was just a pity that those evil qi were too scattered and extremely thin, making it very difficult to directly track down the Demon's true body based on the evil qi.

This was a bit troublesome.

Demons were best at concealment. Once they chose to hide, dragging them out was as difficult as ascending to heaven, unless they actively jumped out to cause trouble themselves.

But this time, higher-ups had given a strict order, so no matter how difficult it was, it had to be done.

There was no other way; the various Demon Suppression Captains of the Demon Suppression Division could only choose the most foolish method, which was to conduct investigations one by one.

First find the Gang leader, then have the Gang leader recall all Gang members back to the headquarters, and then use the Qi Observation Technique on every single person.

This was undoubtedly a massive workload and couldn't be completed in a short time.

After all, too few people could learn the Qi Observation Technique, and even fewer could Cultivate it to a profound Realm.

Coupled with the fact that using the Qi Observation Technique consumed Mental Energy immensely, an ordinary Demon Suppression Captain could at most investigate a thousand people a day if they pushed themselves to the limit.

As for the Demon Suppression Envoys and Demon Suppression Guards below the Captain rank, they were even less useful, at most helping out and checking if there were any fish that slipped through the net.

However, these were still not the biggest problems.

The most critical issue was that no one could be sure whether the Demon would re-choose a possession target during this period.

If the Demon was even slightly smart and directly possessed someone who had already been investigated, that would be even worse; investigating until next year might not yield any results.

This was also why the Demon Suppression Division generally acted passively and rarely took the initiative to attack.

It wasn't that they were unwilling, but they truly couldn't do it.

After three days, the Demon Suppression Division had investigated almost all members of the three major Gangs, still without any substantive progress.

The only harvest was uncovering quite a few dirty deeds done privately by Gang members: theft, robbery, abduction, forcing decent women into prostitution, setting up private gambling dens, taking human lives like grass, and so on, truly a list of numerous crimes.

But these matters were not managed by the Demon Suppression Division; they could only be compiled into case files and handed over to the yamen for handling.

On this day, when the various Demon Suppression Captains gathered in the council hall to summarize the situation, the atmosphere was noticeably more gloomy than in previous days.

Everyone had an unconcealable fatigue in the depths of their eyes, which was a manifestation of excessive consumption of Mental Energy.

Lin Ye hadn't been idle these past few days; his figure was present in almost every Gang.

Just by himself, he had investigated no less than ten thousand people in these three days.

Fortunately, his Mental Energy was strong enough, so he could still manage.

It was worth mentioning that after three days of high-intensity use of the Qi Observation Technique, this Cultivation Technique was directly Cultivated by him to the Realm of perfection.

Not only was the investigation range larger, but the information obtained was also more detailed.

However, this was already the highest Realm that the Feng Shui Qi-Viewing Technique could reach. Going any further required advancing into a town-guarding Cultivation Technique.

He didn't know what new changes would appear in the Qi Observation Technique by then.

Thinking about these things inwardly, Commander Zhuge Yuan's voice suddenly rang out, "You have all worked hard these past few days."

"But since the Demon's traces have been discovered, we must find it out; otherwise, we cannot give an account to the higher-ups."

"All of you, speak up. How can we drag those Demons out?"

As soon as these words came out, the council hall fell into a silence.

They had done everything they could, and checked everything they should, but they simply couldn't find where the Demon's true body was. What could they do about this?

They couldn't possibly conduct a city-wide manhunt, right?

With hundreds of thousands of people in the entire county, just relying on people like them, they wouldn't be able to do it even if they worked themselves to death.

Right at this moment, Lin Ye suddenly stood up:

"My Lord, this subordinate believes that we might have looked in the wrong direction."

Hearing this, everyone's gazes fell uniformly upon him.

"Oh? Tell me in detail." Commander Zhuge Yuan signaled Lin Ye to continue.

Lin Ye did not hesitate and poured out his insights, "The reason why the Demon chose to hide in the Gangs is because it feels that place is a mixture of dragons and fishes, making it convenient for it to devour living beings."

"After all, Gangs are already in a gray area, and occasionally dying one or two people is completely normal, not attracting too much attention at all."

"But we have all ignored one thing: those Gangs in the outer city are, after all, merely tools of the aristocratic families in the inner city."

"If I were the Demon, rather than hiding in the Gangs and being ordered around every day, it would be better to directly possess a scion of an aristocratic family."

"As the masters behind those Gangs, whatever they do inside has people helping to cover for them, while also avoiding their traces being tracked down."

Hearing this, everyone roughly understood Lin Ye's meaning.

Old Man Shen was the first to express agreement, "Captain Lin speaks correctly. The evil qi remaining in those Gangs in the outer city is too thin; it doesn't look like a Demon has lived there long-term, but rather more like traces left behind from visiting irregularly."

Commander Zhuge Yuan also nodded at this moment, "Good, then shift the investigation target to the major aristocratic families of the inner city. We can temporarily ignore the Sun Family; among the remaining aristocratic families, you can each pick one."