Within just two days, the items sent by the Demon Suppression Division appeared on Nan Zhi’s desk.
Aside from a set of Demon Suppression Division arrest uniforms that fitted her figure so well they seemed custom-made, there was also a palm-sized itinerant emissary waist tablet that represented her identity as an arrest officer.
This waist tablet had an ancient and simple design, square and seemingly substantial in weight. On the front, neat small characters were engraved: “Fourth-class Arrest Officer under the Northwest Circuit Demon Suppression Monastery.”
The back was exquisitely carved with patterns of the Four Sacred Beasts: the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger. Each sacred beast statue was awe-inspiring and radiated divine brilliance.
Just looking at it, one could feel a soul-stirring deterrent force.
Between these two items, the former was merely an ordinary uniform, possessing no attribute bonuses besides looking good.
However, the attribute bonuses brought by the latter were quite interesting.
【Demon Suppression Division Arrest Waist Tablet: +20 Reputation, 20% chance to intimidate low-rank ghost-demons.
Combat power +10 (Shenzhou Great Zhou: Wherever Empress Wu’s gaze falls, it is all the realm’s territory.)
(A pseudo dharma treasure refined from Tianshan Cold Iron and refined gold, having a certain intimidating effect on low-rank wandering spirits, vengeful ghosts, and demons.)】
【Demon Suppression Division Faction Favorability: Friendly (As a fledgling arrest officer who has just entered the ranks, you still need to work hard to gain the recognition of your comrades)】
【Shen Luohe Favorability: Two hearts】
【Hua Xijian Favorability: Three hearts】
Joining the Demon Suppression Division had not only allowed her to find a way to obtain a Mirage Pearl, but also earned her two good friends; Nan Zhi was quite satisfied with this.
As for the thirty taels of gold obtained from slaying the demon tiger, Nan Zhi chose to withdraw them into reality.
Six gold ingots weighing five taels each were arranged neatly on the desk, shimmering with golden light, bringing genuine delight to anyone who looked at them.
According to the terrifyingly high price of gold these days, as long as Nan Zhi sold all of them, she could basically enjoy a life of lying flat.
Yet after looking at them over and over, she merely locked these chubby gold ingots into her bedside cabinet.
Nan Zhi felt that, in the end, she was still an ordinary mortal.
Since she was an ordinary person, she naturally feared troublesome complications.
Selling this gold was simple, but having such a massive sum of money enter her account all at once would inevitably bring endless trouble in its wake.
In truth, Nan Zhi felt quite content with her current state of life.
Her savings were enough to spend, her salary covered monthly rent and utilities, she relied on the subway for travel, rarely socialized, and her greatest hobby was playing video games.
If there was any spending, it was probably just microtransactions in games, but she was generally very restrained and had no real addiction.
Just like this, working during the day, slacking off and chatting with colleagues, and then returning home at night to play games and cultivate.
Life after starting cultivation didn't seem much different from before.
—Yet Nan Zhi knew that something substantive had changed.
She was no longer timid or hesitant, but rather more confident and poised.
With confidence in her heart, any change was merely a minor interlude in her eventful life.
I hold trump cards.
I am unstoppable.
I forge ahead without hesitation.
Nothing can impede my steps.
That feeling was truly wonderful.
...
“Hey, hey, hey, have you heard?”
On the first day back to work, Zhang Qiuyu pulled Nan Zhi into the pantry, her eyes brimming with gossip:
“The boss of the 27th-floor game company got thrown in jail. I heard his family is scrambling everywhere looking for connections, trying to find a way to bail him out.
And also, wasn't it said earlier that Chen Ping committed suicide? Guess what?
The day before yesterday, that game company’s official website reposted an obituary, saying ‘In deep memory of our dedicated employee, Comrade Chen Ping,’ and ‘A year and a half after Comrade Chen Ping unfortunately fell to his death during work operations.’”
She winked at Nan Zhi, looking as though she had uncovered some monumental secret:
“Look at that, just look! I told you something was fishy. The person has been dead for over a year, so why post an obituary now or mark a ‘year and a half’ anniversary? In all my years, I've never heard of such a thing!”
“Tell me about it! There's something even more absurd.”
Nearby, Da Liu, a veteran of the office who was brewing coffee, leaned over and shared mysteriously:
“The property management for our building also underwent a massive overhaul because of this matter.
Didn't an employee downstairs claim she ran into a ghost earlier? I found out that as soon as that girl resigned, she turned around and posted a celebratory message on Moments about passing the civil service exam and landing a public sector job.
Tsk, tsk. Mark my words, if there isn't something going on behind the scenes, I'll take your last name.”
Nan Zhi felt that coworkers were truly miraculous creatures.
On normal days, they either stared blankly with lifeless eyes, dealing with superiors like wandering souls, or they were completely devoid of vitality, radiating a frantic energy of wishing they could perish together with this lousy job.
Yet the moment gossip came up, they instantly acted as if injected with chicken blood, their eyes and ears catching everything in all directions.
No matter how confidential the information was, they could always manage to have “heard” a tiny little bit of it.
Aside from these peculiarities, the building's elevators had also been modified during their seven days of paid leave.
In the past, among the six elevators inside the building, each one could take you directly to whichever floor you wanted to visit.
However, yesterday the company sent out an advance notice that the building's elevators had been upgraded, and going forward, all employees had to swipe keycards to enter.
Want to go to other floors?
Sorry, that really wasn't an option.
“Ah? I really didn't know about that. But did you guys notice the elevators when you came in today?”
Nan Zhi brewed herself a cup of coffee, furrowing her brows after taking just one sip:
“It seems the floor buttons for everything above the twentieth floor have been removed. Did some other company move in upstairs already? That fast?”
“Yeah, now that you mention it, I find it a bit weird too.”
“I haven't heard about employees from upstairs companies resigning, though?”
“Last time's incident ended rather mysteriously, but I heard the authorities suggested that enterprises ‘lighten the burden’ on employees and discouraged working overtime. That part is pretty nice.”
“I know about that! My sister's company issued a document too, saying they're answering the call and won't enforce mandatory overtime anymore.”
“I nearly died of embarrassment coming into work today. We even had to take off our shoes to pass security check. Anyone who didn't know better would think we're some secret organization.”
“Exactly! The fruit knife in my bag was confiscated, and they gave me a plastic one instead. Like, excuse me??”
“This should be a good thing, though. People carry so much hostility these days; tighter security is fine.”
Nan Zhi felt like laughing listening to them.
In reality, the moment she stepped into the building entrance today, she had noticed something off.
Two bulky security screening machines had been added at the entrance, claimed to be new equipment purchased by property management in consideration of the complicated traffic flow in the building.
The few familiar security guards from before had vanished, replaced by a crew of handsome, crew-cut young men, all over 1.8 meters tall and well-muscled.
The murderous aura on them could not be concealed, even when dressed in rumpled, cheap security uniforms.
—They had likely all seen bloodshed.
Whose security team consisted entirely of agile, crew-cut young lads in their early twenties in the prime of their youth?
Could it be that the authorities intended to secretly protect Hongxing Mansion?
In that case, after fulfilling his wish, Chen Ping hadn't gone on to reincarnate?
Judging from all these changes, the authorities' attitude toward Chen Ping was clearly extraordinary.
Nan Zhi stirred the coffee in her cup, not finding it unexpected in the least.
Having just spent an exceptionally pleasant holiday, suddenly returning to work felt like withdrawal symptoms for everyone, and they all crowded into the pantry to slack off.
The group chatted enthusiastically until the supervisor appeared at the doorway with a sullen face, whereupon everyone dispersed in a flurry.
Only Nan Zhi slowly carried her coffee, returning to her cubicle to continue pondering.
What kind of identity should she use to contact the authorities?
How could both parties cooperate to achieve a win-win situation while ensuring her own protection?
What kind of identity would allow the authorities to have no wariness toward her while trusting her words unconditionally?
Her head felt so itchy, as if she were about to grow a brand new brain.
Rate on N.U.
