Chapter 173: Chapter 172: Too Shabby

Wu Chen’s gaze scanned the twenty-some portraits on the wanted board.

Compared to Mountain Mist City, the portraits on Cangwu City’s wanted board were not only clearer but also included the person’s name, their corresponding crime, cultivation realm, and signature technique.

Qin Latou, a lecher. Fifth Layer, Organ Refining Realm. Body Technique: Treading the Wind...

He Tushi, a masked bandit. Third Layer, Organ Refining Realm. Horizontal Training: Iron Shirt...

...

Wu Chen looked them over one by one, but soon shook his head to himself.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t tempted by their Martial Arts and the bounties on their heads. He just knew that trying to find them all by himself was practically impossible.

After all, the world was a vast place. It was all too easy for a criminal to change their identity and simply lie low.

"Is there anywhere I can get information on these criminals?"

Wu Chen looked at Li Qi, who stood beside him, and asked directly, wasting no time on pleasantries.

"There is, of course there is!"

Li Qi nodded eagerly, looking less like the fierce Demon Suppression Guard he was and more like Wu Chen’s personal gofer.

After all, Wu Chen had previously bought one of his Martial Arts manuals for a one-thousand-tael silver banknote and had even given him pointers. Thanks to that, Li Qi was now thriving in the Demon Suppression Bureau.

In terms of personal strength, he was now one of the top experts in the Jade Bone Realm.

So, the moment Wu Chen asked, he immediately replied:

"The Demon Suppression Bureau’s Provisional Guards!"

"When it comes to information, the Demon Suppression Bureau is naturally the best connected."

"Informants get paid as long as a Demon Suppression Guard verifies their intel is accurate, so there’s a never-ending stream of people bringing in tips."

"So when it comes to intelligence, if the Demon Suppression Bureau claims to be number one, no one would dare claim to be number two."

Wu Chen nodded. He knew Li Qi wasn’t just boasting. The Demon Suppression Bureau was an institution founded at the same time as the Great Yun Nation.

Even though the nation’s power was in decline, the Demon Suppression Bureau’s deep-seated influence extended throughout the Great Yun Nation, making its intelligence network truly extraordinary.

However, he also read between the lines of what Li Qi had said.

’The Demon Suppression Bureau’s Provisional Guards?’

’Provisional Guards?’

’Temporary workers?’

"Working as one of these Provisional Guards for the Demon Suppression Bureau... I assume there are a lot of restrictions? Like fixed duty hours?"

Wu Chen stroked his chin. He could accept humbling himself to work as a grunt for a while if it meant obtaining new Martial Arts.

But just waiting around for news every day before going out to capture criminals—that wasn’t his style.

He’d already been lazing around Refining Valley for days. If he didn’t draw his blades soon, his bones would start to rust.

"Brother Wu, as for these Provisional Guards... of course you can’t just come and go as you please."

Li Qi explained with a smile, "The Provisional Guard is a branch the Demon Suppression Bureau set up for unaffiliated wanderers. When these freelancers are short on cash and have a clean record, they can come to the Provisional Guards to find some work."

"Of course, the minimum commitment is one month. During that time, you have to stay at the guard post and be at the beck and call of the official Demon Suppression Guards."

He quickly added an emphasis:

"However, for every mission you complete, you earn Contribution Points based on your performance. You can accumulate these points and exchange them for Martial Arts Elixirs at the Demon Suppression Bureau’s Arsenal."

’Just as I thought!’

Wu Chen shook his head to himself.

He didn’t care about being dispatched or having to follow orders.

The problem was the number of missions the Demon Suppression Bureau had to offer!

He didn’t have the time to just sit around waiting for missions to come to him.

He wished there was a huge backlog of missions that he could accept all at once, saving him the trouble of running back and forth.

After hearing Li Qi’s explanation, he temporarily ruled out the Demon Suppression Bureau and asked another question:

"Are there any other channels in the city for information on these criminals? I just want to go straight to capturing them."

Li Qi heard this and immediately understood what Wu Chen meant.

’So it’s not just the lack of freedom that bothers him, he also finds the mission process too tedious and not fast enough for capturing criminals!’

He couldn’t help but click his tongue in amazement.

Many of the wanderers who joined the Provisional Guards hoped for fewer missions, content to just get by for a few days and earn eighty or a hundred taels of silver.

But this man in front of him was the complete opposite; he couldn’t wait to find out where the villains on the wanted board were, set off immediately, and collect their heads.

’Why is he in such a hurry?’

"There is."

But in response to Wu Chen’s question, he still answered at once:

"Besides the Demon Suppression Bureau’s Provisional Guards, there are two other organizations in the city that gather ’Blade-catchers’ who also hunt these villains."

"Blade-catchers?" Wu Chen had heard the term before, but he didn’t know the details.

Seeing his confusion, Li Qi explained:

"These Blade-catchers are a bit more... free than the Demon Suppression Bureau’s Provisional Guards."

"The two also have countless ties to each other."

"Wanderers with clean records can become Provisional Guards. Those who aren’t so clean, who have a criminal record or operate in the shadows but still want to make money, can become Blade-catchers."

"However, a Provisional Guard can get a base salary for the month, even if they don’t get any missions."

"But Blade-catchers are different. Only after they take a criminal’s head can they split the Contribution Points and bounty silver with their organization on a thirty-seventy basis."

Wu Chen frowned. "Why do I only get seventy percent?"

Li Qi exclaimed in shock, "They’re the ones who get seventy percent!"

Wu Chen’s frown deepened. "Are you telling me that after all my hard training, after honing my skills, I’m supposed to risk my life, fight to the death, and take a criminal’s head, only to receive a measly thirty percent?"

With a pained expression, Li Qi tried to explain to this naive young master, "The organization spends a great deal of manpower and resources to get that information, even buying some of it from the Demon Suppression Bureau. Thirty percent isn’t a shabby cut..."

"A raw deal? It’s too damn..."

Wu Chen shook his head again. That thirty-seventy split essentially made it impossible to earn enough to exchange for a Blood Coagulation Realm Cultivation Technique.

He figured that even if he rounded up every single villain on the wanted board, the earnings would barely be enough for a single Blood Coagulation Realm Cultivation Technique.

Even if he caught two major criminals a month, with over twenty people on the wanted board, it would take at least a year!

’A whole year just to advance one minor realm? What a joke!’

"Young Master Wu, if you want to earn some Contribution Points from the Demon Suppression Bureau, it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more... flexible..."

Li Qi looked at Wu Chen, trying his best to phrase his words tactfully.

Wu Chen sighed to himself but didn’t respond.

He certainly knew when to stand firm and when to yield.

But the issue wasn’t about yielding or not; it was about the speed at which he could acquire a new Cultivation Technique!

He didn’t have the patience to spend several years just to advance a single major realm.

’Looks like the Demon Suppression Bureau and the Blade-catchers will have to be my last resorts.’

Wu Chen had made his decision. He would set aside the Demon Suppression Bureau and the Blade-catchers—two places where it was difficult to obtain a Cultivation Technique—and look for a Blood Coagulation technique elsewhere first.

’For example, the Jiang Clan Commerce Association in Cangwu City.’

’Or the martial arts dojos in Cangwu City.’

’Hsss... for a Blood Coagulation Realm Cultivation Technique, fifty thousand taels in silver banknotes might not be enough...’

Wu Chen figured if worst came to worst, he could write a letter to Refining Valley and borrow another thirty or fifty thousand taels.

It wasn’t that Wu Chen was being polite by not cashing in his Contribution Points.

Rather, if he were to exchange all his Contribution Points for silver banknotes, Refining Valley would probably go bankrupt.

After all, Refining Valley’s original rule of awarding Contribution Points for killing demonic cultivators was meant as an incentive for its Inner Sect Disciples.

Who could have ever predicted that a monster of a man would appear out of nowhere and slaughter the Blood Slaughter Sect from top to bottom?

Wu Chen naturally understood this and wouldn’t be foolish enough to cash in for hundreds of thousands of taels in silver banknotes.

Besides, he had already achieved his goal with those four sects.

He had absorbed all their Martial Arts!

This, after mastering countless Meridian Passage Realm Martial Arts, allowed him to learn a method for precise muscle control: the Disguise Skill.

Furthermore, bolstered by seventy or eighty Jade Bone Realm Martial Arts, his body had gained the hardness of unyielding stone.

And then there were the two reforged blood-red blades.

The value of these things, in the currency of the four sects, would have been worth an astronomical amount of Contribution Points.

But Wu Chen’s biggest worry was something else entirely...

’But when it comes to Martial Arts at the Blood Coagulation Realm level,’ Wu Chen thought, ’I’m afraid people might not be willing to sell them, even if I have the money, right?’

With this in mind, Wu Chen’s gaze left the wanted board. He gave Li Qi, who was at the base of the wall, a slight nod of farewell.

Leading his horse, he walked alone into Cangwu City.

He decided to have a look around the city first before making any concrete plans.

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