New and dark light years

Chapter 165 An Unexpected Name Appears
Xiao Chunzhu knelt on one knee nervously.

Li Lin pondered for a moment and said, "You are quite capable, but there is no suitable position for you under my command at the moment."

"I'm willing to start as a yamen runner," Xiao Chunzhu said, clasping his hands in a fist salute.

Li Lin chuckled lightly: "This is too much of a hardship for you."

"Don't be wronged, don't be wronged."

Seeing that Li Lin's tone had softened, Xiao Chunzhu immediately said more sincerely, "No matter what orders you give, County Commandant, I will carry them out even at the cost of my life."

Li Lin looked into the other person's eyes, thought for a moment, and nodded, saying, "Alright, you'll come back with me first and become a yamen runner. When a suitable opportunity arises, I'll let you become a head constable or a captain... Speaking of which, would you rather be a head constable or a captain?"

"It's entirely up to you, sir, to decide."

Li Lin smiled and nodded gently: "Get up, and stay by my side for now."

"Yes!"

Xiao Chunzhu was overjoyed, stood up, and then followed behind Li Lin like a follower.

Back at the camp, Li Lin ordered all the local militia to prepare for their departure back to Yulin County the next morning, which immediately drew cheers from a group of people.

The women from the southern barbarians, however, seemed somewhat uneasy.

However, Li Lin was too lazy to pay them any attention.

These women's experiences sound tragic, but now they are safe, well-fed, and far better off than their people.

Several days later, the local militia returned to Yulin County.

A group of local militia escorted the hundred southern barbarian women back to the Yarensi (a local government office).

Next, they will be 'sold' to be chosen by the old bachelors in the county town.

Li Lin then took Xiao Chunzhu to the county government office and registered him as a yamen runner.

At the same time, he was assigned to live in an empty room in the county government office.

Xiao Chunzhu clasped her hands in gratitude and said, "Thank you, sir."

Now he finally has a place to stay.

He had been in Tianjin for a long time but had not found a suitable job, and his money was almost gone.

At that moment, County Magistrate Jiang Jili came looking for them.

"County Commandant Li, you're finally back." Jiang Jili said with a troubled expression, "If you hadn't come back, things would have been complicated."

"What's wrong!"

"Is someone causing trouble in the county town?"

Li Lin was taken aback: "Where are the Spirit Hunters? Where are Bai Xunshou and the others?"

"We can't find out what kind of trickery it was made of."

Li Lin subconsciously looked up at the illusion of the peach blossom tree in the sky and said, "It may not be the work of a ghost. Is it possible that... it was done by a person and then blamed on a ghost?"

“Impossible. Bai Xunshou and the others said that the deceased’s life force was completely drained. This is clearly the work of a ghost. Another one died last night.”

"But if it's truly a mystery, the Tree Fairy will intervene."

Looking at Li Lin's confident expression, Jiang Jili also looked up at the illusion of the peach blossom tree in the sky and said, "Then I'll leave this matter to you... I'm very busy right now. The county magistrate has disappeared, so I have to handle everything on his behalf."

Li Lin said, "I can tell you're really enjoying it."

"Don't talk nonsense..." Jiang Jili suddenly said, "The magistrate has disappeared, and you're so calm, could it be..."

“I already know about this,” Li Lin said helplessly. “When I went to the Jincheng Prefectural Government, the prefect told me about it.”

"That's true... you are his son-in-law."

“I will take over and look into this matter. I’m going home to rest for half a day. I’ve been away for twelve days and haven’t had a chance to shower. I’m going to rot.”

"Go ahead, I'm going to get to work too."

Although Jiang Jili said he was tired, he walked with great vigor and was clearly very happy.

When Li Lin returned home, he was served by his two wives.

After a night of intense and enjoyable dual cultivation, Li Lin had breakfast and then went to the county government office with more than a dozen people to investigate the case.

Xiao Chunzhu was naturally among them.

Yulin County is a medium-sized county with a permanent population of over 100,000, making it quite troublesome to manage. In this era, there's no such thing as a deterrent effect from surveillance cameras; the darker side of many people's hearts is easily revealed.

Barring accidental deaths caused by trickery, two to three hundred people are murdered in the entire county every year.

They rarely manage to solve cases, since intelligence leads are hard to uncover.

Li Lin arrived at the home of the deceased from the previous night.

It was a moderately wealthy family, with a three-courtyard house and several servants.

The deceased was a man, and his body was placed in the main hall, next to which a middle-aged woman was crying in a hoarse voice.

Next to him sat a well-off middle-aged man with a blank expression.

Li Lin led the constables to the backyard. The middle-aged man stood up and gave Li Lin a perfunctory bow.

Li Lin didn't mind. The other party had lost their only son, and the fact that they thought to bow in this situation already showed they were very well-mannered.

Without Li Lin giving an order, his dozen or so constables had already lifted the white cloth covering the deceased and were examining him.

After observing for a while, Xiao Chunzhu returned and reported: "County Commandant, this man's blood and energy have been completely drained, leaving only his skeleton and skin. It does indeed look like the work of a demon."

Li Lin laughed and said, "I don't think so."

Xiao Chunzhu was somewhat surprised.

Li Lin didn't play riddles with him, but pointed to the peach tree in the sky and said, "If it's the work of a ghost, the Tree Fairy will know and will tell me."

The amount of information contained in this sentence is astonishing.

Xiao Chunzhu understood, and he felt more and more that he had followed the right person.

At this moment, he believed Li Lin's judgment. Since it was not the work of a ghost, then there must have been clues left behind.

Xiao Chunzhu clasped his hands in a fist salute and resumed his on-site investigation.

Li Lin stood aside and looked around.

Now that he's an official, he doesn't need to investigate cases personally; he can just leave it to his subordinates.

However, he still habitually took out the mask that the Tree Fairy Goddess had given him. Since he couldn't find any clues at the moment, he put it on his face.

That cool sensation returned to my eyes.

Li Lin's gaze swept across the surroundings, finding nothing unusual. However, after looking at it several times, he noticed a very faint gray aura emanating from a certain wall.

You can't see it at all if you don't look closely.

Li Lin walked over and discovered that the point of yin energy was shaped like a palm.

In other words, if someone pressed this spot, there would be residual yin energy.

Generally speaking, if a day has passed and there is still lingering yin energy, it means that this 'person' has a very heavy yin energy, so heavy that just touching the wall leaves their mark.

Logically speaking, only a great ghost could possess such a quantity of yin energy.

Could the murderer really be a cunning individual?

But even if we can fool the Tree Fairy, we probably can't fool Li Yanjing.

It's not that Li Yanjing is stronger than the Tree Fairy, but as a possessing ghost, Li Yanjing has a very strong connection with other possessing ghosts.

He asked last night, and it couldn't be a possessed ghost.

Li Yanjing even said that she was the only possessed ghost in the entire Yulin County, and if another one came, she would beat it to death.

Seeing that Li Lin was staring at them, Xiao Chunzhu walked over and asked, "County Commandant, have you discovered something?"

Li Lin removed his mask and said, "There's a palm print of Yin energy here!"

Xiao Chunzhu looked enviously at the mask in Li Lin's hand; he could tell it was a treacherous artifact.

Ghostly artifacts are something that not only spirit hunters but also martial artists greatly admire and covet.

Then Xiao Chunzhu looked at the wall, which seemed to have no special signs. The more he looked, the more suspicious he became. After a while, he said, "County Commandant, it seems I know who caused this."

"who?"

"It has some connection with Buddhism."

(End of this chapter)