Chapter 233: Chapter 232: Whoever Investigates, Is Responsible

She stepped into the room.

The moment she entered, Sun Yuting felt the young man inside staring at her, his eyes blazing with an unusual, fiery intensity, as if to set her ablaze.

"Captain Sun, what’s the mission this time? Ah, never mind. We can discuss it on the way!" Wu Chen stepped forward and clasped his fist in salute. His posture was respectful enough, but his intense, unblinking stare was a bit frightening.

’As I thought...’

Sun Yuting pursed her lips. It had been a while since he’d seen her, and he looked as restless as a caged animal.

Of course, she knew his eagerness wasn’t directed at her, but at the mission she held.

"Don’t be in such a hurry. Let me explain the mission first."

She casually strolled over to a chair, sat down, and leaned back lazily against it.

Taking the hint, Li Youtao rose to pour some tea before closing the door to the room.

Seeing this, Wu Chen could only return to his seat and wait patiently.

After all, for Sun Yuting to appear here—and specifically to seek him out—meant the mission was bound to be difficult, and the reward exceptionally high.

"The mission I have is, in principle, quite simple. The Demon Suppression Bureau in Cold Rain City sent a message saying that people have been continuously disappearing from the villages and towns around their city. They’re short-staffed, so they’re requesting aid from the Demon Suppression Bureau in Cangwu City."

Sun Yuting didn’t leave him in suspense. She gave a brief overview of the mission, then paused, looked at the young man across from her, and asked:

"You’ve heard of Cold Rain City, I assume?"

Wu Chen nodded. "I have."

He was no longer the naive rookie he once was; he now had a certain understanding of the Great Yun Nation and the distribution of its cities.

And, of course, he knew of Cold Rain City.

Cold Rain City was located over a thousand miles west of Cangwu City. It was a remote place, surrounded by mountains—a truly desolate and treacherous region.

However, the population of the city and its surrounding areas was not small, numbering four to five hundred thousand people.

In any case, being situated in the south, the fighting would never reach Cold Rain City, no matter how fierce the war between Qingzhou and the Northern Barbarians became.

Furthermore, because it was surrounded by mountains and far from the emperor’s reach, the rulers feared that a large military presence could lead to trouble, such as a local commander amassing troops to become a self-styled warlord.

Therefore, it wasn’t heavily garrisoned, with only about a thousand city guards. As for its branch of the Demon Suppression Bureau, it had only eighty or a hundred members.

A far cry from Cangwu City.

"This mission is a bit tricky, however. It’s not a simple hack-and-slash job. I’m sure you’ve already figured out that it’s an investigation, because the people in Cold Rain City don’t know who the culprit behind the disappearances is."

"Furthermore, Cangwu City and Cold Rain City are separated by more than a thousand miles of winding roads, and there’s little traffic between them. If we send several hundred Demon Suppression Guards without investigating first, we’ll just alert our quarry."

Sun Yuting took a sip of tea to wet her throat, then continued:

"There’s one more thing, and it’s the most important point. Even though the request for aid is marked as urgent and bears the official seals of both the Cold Rain City Demon Suppression Bureau and the City Defense Department, no one can be certain if the letter is genuine. It could be that some villain has another scheme in mind."

"If we were to rashly send several hundred Demon Suppression Guards, there’s no telling what sort of ambush they might walk into. With hundreds of Demon Suppression Guards’ lives on the line, no one dares to take that responsibility. That’s why we’re first arranging for a small team to investigate."

"Once the truth is uncovered, if the situation is serious, you can send word back to Cangwu City to dispatch Demon Suppression Guards or regular soldiers."

"Of course, this is all just speculation and might be an exaggeration, but we can’t rule out the possibility of what I’ve described."

"So, Lord Wu, will you accept a mission like this?"

After speaking, Sun Yuting toyed with her teacup, her eyes fixed on the young man across from her as she patiently awaited his answer.

She didn’t try to goad him or question whether he had the guts to take the mission. Her tone remained completely ordinary from start to finish, leaving him to make a rational decision.

After all, it was a matter of life and death; Sun Yuting would understand even if he refused.

Besides, she knew that Wu Chen’s favorite missions were those where the prelude had already been investigated, and all he had to do was show up and kill the target.

If he were to refuse, it would likely be for this reason, rather than out of fear.

"..."

Just as she expected, Wu Chen didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stroked his chin, lost in thought.

And, just as Sun Yuting had guessed, Wu Chen was indeed hesitant about this kind of mission.

Just hearing the mission description—investigating disappearances in the villages around a vast city—sounded like a complete waste of time.

Staking out village after village in an area hundreds of miles across, with a thousand or so villages in total, just to find the one responsible for abducting people... how long would that take?

’But...’

’What if I could maximize the profit from this mission?’

His eyes suddenly lit up. An idea had struck him.

"I’ll take the mission."

Wu Chen looked up at the young woman across from him and gave his answer.

"Hm? You’ve decided already?"

Sun Yuting straightened up slightly, clearly surprised by his decision.

She had been prepared for him to reject the mission for being too tedious, in which case she would have had to find someone else.

She never expected him to make such a surprising decision after only a few moments of thought.

Even Li Youtao, sitting in the main seat, had a flicker of curiosity in his eyes.

’What’s gotten into him all of a sudden?’

’He hasn’t fallen for Captain Sun’s honey trap, has he?!’

He remembered that on Wu Chen’s very first day at the Linwei Garrison, he had made it perfectly clear that he wanted straightforward assassination jobs, the kind you’d find on the black market!

"The two of you needn’t be so surprised. I have one condition for accepting this mission."

Wu Chen added this before either of them could react.

’A condition? What kind of demand could he have? This is unusual!’

Sun Yuting grew pensive, but she wasn’t surprised.

After all, he was qualified to negotiate terms with her.

But what Sun Yuting found strange was that from his two previous missions—capturing the barbarian spy and going to Hidden Wind Valley—she knew Wu Chen strictly abided by the ironclad rule of the Demon Suppression Bureau:

Work first, get paid after.

He had never overstepped that line.

’So does he want his reward upfront because the journey is long and the process will be tedious and exhausting?’

"You want to get your reward first, is that it?"

Sun Yuting nodded and immediately agreed. "That’s a small matter. Just come with me to the inner treasury later. I’ll grant you a Level A reward for this mission."

"No."

Wu Chen shook his head. "I want sole authority over this mission."

"Sole authority?" Sun Yuting was puzzled. It was just an investigation in Cold Rain City. What need was there for sole authority?

"By ’sole authority,’ I mean..."

Seeing the captain’s confused expression, Wu Chen explained in the simplest terms, enunciating every word:

"From the initial investigation to the final kill."

"I will handle every single stage of this mission myself."

"And I will be taking the entire reward for myself!"

"That is what I mean by ’sole authority’!"

"Understood?"

In Wu Chen’s mind,

’The investigation to find the truth is one reward. Solving the ultimate problem is another. In that case, why not just take both?’

There was no need to finish the investigation only to call in other Demon Suppression Guards to solve the problem.

’Was his Half-Step Great Perfection cultivation in the Leakless Realm just for show?’

As his resounding words faded, two sharp gasps of shock could be heard in the room.

Sun Yuting and Li Youtao were clearly stunned by Wu Chen’s audacious attitude.

Sun Yuting’s eyes flashed. She was about to jump to her feet, point at the young man’s nose, and call him arrogant.

But she had witnessed his abilities firsthand. It was hard to tell if he truly possessed the means to handle this entire mission alone, or if he was just letting the arrogance hidden deep in his bones finally show.

For some reason, she felt that he really could take sole responsibility for the mission and handle it perfectly.

"How arrogant!"

It was Li Youtao who couldn’t hold back. He slammed his hand on the table and shot to his feet, his face twitching as a flash of pain crossed it.

In his agitation, he had carelessly used his right hand—the one that still hadn’t fully healed from his palm strike exchange with Wu Chen.

The finger he pointed at Wu Chen trembled slightly, not from anger at his arrogance, but from the pain.

But as he pointed at Wu Chen, his mouth opened and closed for a long moment, yet he couldn’t articulate exactly what was so arrogant about the statement.

After all, the man had completed two Level A missions, and when you looked at the full reports of his actions, you couldn’t find a single fault.

He even suspected that during the Hidden Wind Valley affair, if Wu Chen had gone with the Cloud Pattern Captain from the start to defend the front line, not a single Ape Demon would have escaped from that mountaintop!

Meeting the young man’s placid, unwavering gaze, Li Youtao felt that Wu Chen wasn’t really explaining the meaning of ’sole authority’ at all.

Rather, he was *informing* the two of them that this was how he would handle the upcoming mission, and that no one could stop him.

"But you two can rest assured."

Wu Chen understood their concerns, and his tone softened as he continued:

"If, after my investigation, the enemy turns out to be too strong or too numerous, then I will of course trouble Captain Sun to send a message back requesting aid from the Demon Suppression Bureau in Cangwu City."

"This mission concerns the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Cold Rain City. I do know how to weigh my priorities."

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