blueteamnovel Chapter 33: 32: Soul Stone
Chapter 33: 32: Soul Stone
Chapter 33: Chapter 32: Soul Stone
“`
“It seems the boat has capsized,”
On the second floor of Zuihua House, the young County Magistrate still stood by the window, watching Zhang Tianchang and Lin Rui below, “Sir, you’re right, this official has acted rashly. I should have been more patient.”
The advisor standing behind him bowed slightly to the young County Magistrate, “It’s due to Your Honor’s benevolence. You were unwilling to let the townspeople continue to suffer at the hands of corrupt officials and demonic beings, and thus your actions were a bit hasty. However, I didn’t expect the connection between Historian Jiang and the County Magistrate to run so deep.”
Just now, when our County Magistrate passed over that account book, it already implied a reluctance to further investigate Historian Jiang’s transgressions. Yet, contrary to expectations, Historian Jiang still resolutely chose to flip the table and sided with the County Magistrate.
That is quite rare elsewhere, after all, historians generally have conflicts of power with the County Magistrate and are naturally the arm and right-hand helpers of their own County Magistrate.
...
However, ever since taking office, our County Magistrate used several strategies to sow discord but failed to divide and rule the historian and the County Magistrate.
This indicated a much larger issue at hand.
“There’s certainly something strange about this. To my knowledge, Historian Jiang has no kinship ties with the County Magistrate. When the County Magistrate first took up his post, they even had some conflicts. Why would Historian Jiang cling so tenaciously to the County Magistrate’s coattails?”
The County Magistrate shook his head with a wry smile, “Discussing this now is pointless. We need to swiftly deal with that Blood Blade servant.”
“This shouldn’t be too difficult,” the advisor said with indifference, “Now, with three hundred county soldiers about to enter the city, the daily security of the city should be no issue. Once the imperial envoys arrive, it will take just a day or two to capture that Blood Blade servant—”
But before he could finish his sentence, he heard the young County Magistrate’s lightly floating voice say, “There is no more imperial envoy.”
The advisor was startled and looked intently at the County Magistrate, “Your Honor, what do you mean by this?”@@@@
Go to novgo.co
“News from the county town: the imperial envoy’s ‘Wang City Corps’ suffered severe damage a few days ago. Almost the whole ‘Imperial Dragon Squad’ was wiped out in one fell swoop. I’m afraid we can’t rely on the imperial envoy for the next month or two.”
The young County Magistrate handed a letter to the advisor, “As for the county soldiers from the county town, they can’t stay here long either. In at most a month, they will have to return to the county town.”
The advisor opened the letter and skimmed through, then his face was covered in dark lines, thinking with this kind of situation, you still dare to confront Historian Jiang?
He quickly realized that the County Magistrate’s actions must have been a last resort.
The news of the Wang City Corps’ heavy loss would soon spread. Once Historian Jiang learned of this, he would be even less likely to compromise, and even the three arrest officers leaning toward the County Magistrate might turn on him.
Today’s move was actually a way to force them to take sides.
“So from now on, we can only rely on ourselves.”
The young County Magistrate looked toward the government office, “Sir, do you think that those victims who died one after another in the past four days, truly died at the hands of the Blood Blade servant?”
“I went to the scene myself. Whether it’s the traces on the site or the wounds left behind, it’s undoubtedly the work of the Blood Blade servant, especially since those corpses were all drained dry,”
Lin Rui then followed Zhang Tianchang to the back courtyard where the County Magistrate lived and received a set of third-grade armor and three low-grade soul stones.
Soul stones were a special product of Tianji Star, capable of strengthening spiritual power, and their effects far surpassed the ‘spiritual power enhancers’ developed by the Federation.
The effect of a single low-grade soul stone was equivalent to three doses of spiritual enhancer, and it had no adverse side effects.
The official Federation purchase price was five thousand Federation coins per stone, and the offers from mutant companies were even more lavish.
The third-grade armor was even more precious. It was a set of full-body Divine Porcupine Armor, whose defensive capabilities were on par with the exoskeleton armor worn by a Federation Major, incredibly sturdy with the ability to inflict retaliatory damage.
Armor of this level was rare in the entire yamen. Not even the arrest officers of the third realm had it, and the companies’ purchase price could go as high as over one hundred thousand Federation coins.
Thus, the character of the County Magistrate was quite magnanimous.
As Zhang Tianchang led him around, he introduced Lin Rui to the many colleagues in the yamen and explained the importance of the role of the deputy arrest officer.
“You know how to use the badge, right?”
Zhang Tianchang had a grave look and a hint of worry in his eyes as he said this, “You must be careful these days. If you encounter any emergency, do not hesitate, just use your badge to notify me.
As for manpower, according to the regulations of our county yamen, a deputy arrest officer is assigned one black-belt and three green-belts. Hanhua Alley is rich and, in principle, should have increased allocation, but as you saw in Zuihua House just now, the yamen doesn’t have any extra manpower. I saw that you’re quite close to Wang Twenty-Seven, so I’ve simply assigned him to you. For the remaining three, I’ll supplement them for you once the yamen recruits more people these next few days.”
Lin Rui had not had a positive impression of Zhang Tianchang originally.
He had not forgotten how Zhang Tianchang had conscripted men forcefully this morning, and just now in Zuihua House, how tense his muscles had been.
Had the County Magistrate given the order, Zhang Tianchang would have struck his head with a palm, shattering his skull.
However, after accompanying Zhang Tianchang around, Lin Rui had already lost much of his resentment.
Lin Rui cupped his hands together, “Arrest officer, you seem deeply concerned. Do you feel that the situation is ominous?”
Zhang Tianchang smiled wryly in response, “The current situation seems like a storm is coming. I actually regret recommending you to the County Magistrate a bit. I didn’t expect him to appoint you as the deputy arrest officer directly. It might put you in the eye of the storm.”
He immediately perked up, patting Lin Rui’s shoulder, “Anyway, be careful these next few days. Do what you can in Hanhua Alley, and if you truly can’t cope, I will speak for you with the County Magistrate. There’s no need to be too concerned. The County Magistrate is exceptionally astute and has everything under control. He will surely have a solution to this crisis.”
Having said this, he rested his hand on his waist knife and strode out the door with determination.
Lin Rui watched his resolute figure and pondered, is the situation in the county really so perilous?
He then thought about the management bureau’s warning and, while contemplating, stuffed a low-grade soul stone into his mouth and crunched it to pieces with a ‘crack’.
The correct way to use soul stones was to grind them into powder, mix with water, and swallow. If that wasn’t possible, crushing them with teeth also worked.
Shortly after the powder entered his mouth, Lin Rui felt a refreshing coolness inside his mind.
The digestion of a soul stone by the human body was a long-term process. For the next three days, he would remain in this state until the soul stone was completely absorbed.