I bear witness to immortality in the human world.

Chapter 91 Military Camp
After bidding farewell to the two elders, Wu Ming packed his things and returned to the Shenxing Division.

When he arrived at the Censorate, many of the patrolmen had not yet arrived; only a few people were waiting in the office. Wu Ming stepped into the inner room of the office and saw Zhou Huai'an sitting upright at his desk, reviewing several files on the table.

Upon seeing Wu Ming enter, Zhou Huai'an handed the dossier in his hand to Wu Ming.

"These are some recent developments outside the city. Take a look and familiarize yourself with them first."

Wu Ming reached out and took the dossier, sat down cross-legged to the side, and began to read it. It described the general situation outside the city and some recent demonic incidents.

This territory, centered on Jingye City, encompasses hundreds of miles. In addition to the city itself, there are many scattered separatist forces. They either build fortresses outside the city or gather in special spiritual lands with resources, developing into villages or towns with hundreds or thousands of households.

These remote city forces are attacked by demons more frequently, but they are basically self-sufficient. The areas controlled by the Black Fiend Sect and the Profound Jade Sect even include hundreds of thousands of households, making them veritable small cities.

The city of Jingye is bordered by other territories of Yong Kingdom to the southeast, west and south. Only to the north lies an uninhabited wasteland, stretching endlessly and unchartedly, rarely visited by humans.

Those wreaking havoc in the Jingye City territory are mostly demons and monsters that have escaped from the desolate regions.

Although Jingye City is a large city, it cannot defend the thousand-mile border in the direction of the wilderness. Therefore, the defense mode of Jingye City is to establish many strongholds in the northern area outside the city, scattered like stars, each guarding a region.

Once it is discovered that demons are rampaging in a certain area, nearby troops will be immediately mobilized to suppress them.

These strongholds are more concentrated closer to Jingye City, especially in the area about 30 miles from Jingye City, where there are 'city guards' stationed. This city guard has tens of thousands of people, most of whom are conscripted soldiers who are ordinary people, but there are also a large number of martial artists in charge of the army, patrolling day and night.

But demons are demons after all, unlike ordinary wild beasts. They possess various abilities. Some are incredibly strong and can tear apart raw iron, while others have innate demonic arts that can bewitch people and infiltrate the area near the city in various ways.

"Near city, distant city, border, wasteland..."

Wu Ming looked at the contents of the file and pondered.

Centered on Jingye City, extending outwards for more than thirty miles, this area is the 'near-city' region. The city's guards have set up defenses and patrol day and night, so there are fewer cases of demonic disturbances. Furthermore, in this area, most of the land, mountains, and rivers are owned.

From there, about three hundred miles outward lies the 'Distant City,' an unclaimed territory with numerous scattered strongholds of the Demon Suppression Bureau. It is also a place where various forces from Jingye City go out to hunt demons, train, and gather resources.

Further out, it becomes the border.

Although it is not yet a true wilderness, it is already on the edge of Yong Kingdom, and rarely visited by people.

This group of people was dispatched to assist the Demon Suppression Division outside the city. They were responsible for the defense of the 'near-city' area within a radius of more than 30 miles. Once a demon was discovered to have infiltrated this area and attacked a village, they would be responsible for pursuing and suppressing it, eliminating it as soon as possible, and bringing the situation under control.

"No wonder the Demon Suppression Division sent people to assist in the defense."

Wu Ming carefully reviewed the records in the case file.

This file comes from the Demon Suppression Division. According to the intelligence information on it, the area of ​​Yuancheng, thirty miles away, has recently been plagued by serious demonic attacks, and the external strongholds have been in a state of constant combat.

In this situation, many demons crossed the city guard's defenses and invaded the area near the city. Since the Demon Suppression Division could not spare any manpower to eliminate the demons that had infiltrated the area near the city, the Cautious Punishment Division had to send troops to take their place.

Eliminating the monsters that have infiltrated the area near the city is much less dangerous than guarding the strongholds in the distant city. Even if the Shenxing Division's men are not very experienced in fighting monsters, it will not have a significant impact.

"The Black Fiend Sect and the Xuanyu Sect, together with Jingye City, form a strategic alliance and also bear some of the pressure from the demon attacks."

Wu Ming then looked at another unfolded map of the distribution of power.

He studied and deliberated on it.

After an unknown amount of time, the number of people from the Censorate finally increased, and all of Zhou Huai'an's night patrolmen arrived. Wu Ming also followed Zhou Huai'an out, and together they set off from the Censorate towards the outskirts of the city.

Led by Zhou Huai'an, the group left the city and traveled a long way to the city's defense line, which was located more than 30 miles north of Jingye City. The city's defense points were densely distributed along this straight line. Every day, the patrol was led by martial artists and hundreds of soldiers, who patrolled back and forth along the two points. Once they found any trace of demons, they would immediately send a signal with a 'whistle arrow'.

"Lord Zhou, how have you been?"

From the outpost, a commander of the city's guards stepped out. He was wearing armor, had a square face, and a thick beard, looking quite rugged. He greeted Zhou Huai'an with a smile.

"Captain Li."

Zhou Huai'an responded with a smile.

The commanders of the city's defense forces were all experts who had achieved the third stage of blood coagulation, and their status and rank were equivalent to Zhou Huai'an's.

"Who is this?"

After Li Minggang greeted Zhou Huai'an, he noticed Wu Ming, who was standing next to Zhou Huai'an. Wu Ming was also wearing the official robe of a seventh-rank official from the Shenxing Division. Although he was very young, he did not look down on him and asked very politely.

As a commander of the city's garrison, he rarely returned to the city throughout the year and knew little about what was happening there. He only had some acquaintance with Zhou Huai'an, and this time he only knew that Zhou Huai'an was leading the team to temporarily stay at his stronghold.

"This is my deputy, Wu Ming. Although he is young, his marksmanship has reached a state of perfection."

Zhou Huai'an took the initiative to introduce him. Upon hearing this, Li Minggang was immediately surprised. He cupped his hands towards Wu Ming and said, "Deputy Inspector Wu is so young, yet he has mastered the skill of combining marksmanship with martial arts. His talent is truly extraordinary. Given time, he will surely rise to great heights."

"Lord Commander, you flatter me. My martial arts skills are still developing, and my achievements are but a few minor ones, not worth mentioning."

Wu Ming said frankly.

It wasn't that he was being modest; his martial arts skills were indeed nothing special, far inferior to the primordial spirit cultivation techniques he practiced. To say that he had achieved only a minor accomplishment would not be an exaggeration.

Seeing that Wu Ming had mastered the skills of a young man with no arrogance and a steady temperament, Li Ming's eyes showed even more admiration. He immediately invited Zhou Huai'an and Wu Ming to enter the central military tent together.

Only Zhou Ruoyun accompanied them, as she was Zhou Huai'an's eldest daughter. The others were not qualified and were led by soldiers around Li Minggang to other tents to rest.

……

"Last night, another village was attacked by monsters."

Li Minggang invited Zhou Huai'an and Wu Ming into the military tent, but instead of offering them wine and meat, he straightened up and began to discuss serious matters with them.

In the center of the military tent was a map, which covered in detail the mountains, forests and rivers within a radius of dozens of miles.

"This is Wu Village. It was this village that was attacked last night. According to intelligence, the one that attacked Wu Village should be a tiger demon. This tiger demon is lurking in the territory and has attacked nearby villages many times. I led people to search for it, but because we were short-handed and also had to be responsible for the defense of this area, we were unable to capture it."

"Wu Village..."

Upon hearing Li Minggang's words, Wu Ming's gaze sharpened slightly.

Observing Wu Ming's expression, Li Minggang asked, "Does Deputy Inspector Wu also know about Wu Village?"

"I am from Wu Village."

Wu Ming did not hide anything and frankly stated that he came from humble origins.

The attack on Wu Village last night weighed heavily on his mind. Although he had no close relatives in Wu Village, the villagers were all his distant and close relatives, and many of them were related by blood. Hearing that Wu Village had been attacked by a demon, he felt a slight unease.

"I wonder what the situation was like last night? Were the casualties in Wu Village serious?"

“Deputy Inspector Wu, there’s no need to worry. Last night, several martial artists from Wu Village were in the village. The tiger demon only attacked a house on the edge of the village, resulting in only one person going missing. There were no large-scale casualties.”

Li Minggang looked at Wu Ming and said.

Upon hearing this, Wu Ming felt slightly relieved, but he still felt a surge of murderous intent towards the tiger demon that had attacked Wu Village.

"This demon has committed crimes in several nearby villages over the past half month. In my opinion, it will probably continue to attack within the next few days... I have led my men to temporarily settle in several villages. If this demon comes again, we will make sure it never returns."

Looking at the map and listening to Li Minggang's account of the events of the past half month, Zhou Huai'an pondered for a moment and then came up with a plan.

Previously, Li Minggang's side lacked manpower and could not continuously search for the tiger demon day and night, but now with his group of people, the problem is not so big. According to the intelligence, this tiger demon has not yet reached the 'third transformation' stage and is not considered a great threat. Two or three martial artists with second-stage blood condensation, wearing armor, are enough to fight it.

Martial arts cultivation is a gradual process of refining blood and qi. Demon cultivation also has its own special system, called 'Demon Transformation'. Each transformation can strengthen the demon body, which echoes the blood condensation cultivation.

"So good."

Li Minggang nodded slightly.

Now that the tiger demon has disappeared, instead of blindly searching in the mountains and forests, it would be better to wait for it to come to us in the nearby villages.

"In that case, since you are from Wu Village, Deputy Inspector Wu, you will be in charge of guarding Wu Village."

"How about we split the rest of the men into two teams to guard Dongzhang Village and Xu Village, while Brother Huai'an will be in charge of Xizhang Village?"

Li Minggang looked at Wu Ming and Zhou Huai'an.

"it is good."

Wu Ming had no objection.

Zhou Huai'an nodded slightly and said to Wu Ming, "Wu Ming, since you have no experience in fighting demons, let Ruoyun accompany you to guard Wu Village. We can also transfer some more people from the military camp to the other two villages."

Upon hearing this, Wu Ming initially wanted to say that it was unnecessary, but then he realized that he had no experience fighting demons, and Zhou Ruoyun might not either. Compared to the other groups, it would be safer for Zhou Ruoyun to travel with him. Zhou Huai'an's arrangement implied that he should keep an eye on Zhou Ruoyun.

Upon thinking of this, Wu Ming nodded slightly, glanced at Zhou Ruoyun beside him, and said:
"fair enough."

Zhou Ruoyun also understood Zhou Huai'an's meaning. She remained silent and did not raise any objections. She also had a strange feeling in her heart. After all, Wu Ming was her patrol officer before, but in just a short time, it was her turn to receive Wu Ming's care.

(End of this chapter)