An Jing had stored most of his valuables in the recycling house in Skysource out of caution. He only brought what he really needed with him, the Hexlotus Platform, and never left without it. The things that were in the room he rented were typical daily goods that anyone would use, which wouldn't yield any important information.

The fact that they didn't even bother to hide the break-in, however, was what truly drove him mad. "They think that they can do whatever they want just because the guardian adept's away and the mandated official can't leave his station. Do they think that the law no longer applies?"

He turned to look at Honor Pavilion and calmly said, "If this is the game you want to play, I'll show you who's better at it."

The thing with debts was that there would always be a debtor to collect it. He would start his collection from Constable Chen.

The middle-aged man who should've been at work was actually at home, seated in meditative cultivation. When someone gave his door a few knocks, he ended his qi circulation and opened his eyes. It seemed that the wrinkles on his face had decreased somewhat. He looked refreshed and energized after consuming the pill within the bamboo vial.

"Come in," he said.

A young servant dressed in linen entered and respectfully said, "Master Chen, our men not only failed to catch the rabbit, they even ended up beaten up."

Constable Chen used to be a soldier posted at Mount Crow. When the conflicts subsided, he was transferred back to Keensight as a helper. Eventually, he stumbled his way into becoming the leader of the constables.

Though others praised him for his hard work and experience, he knew better than anyone that he was only able to join the constabulary because of the boss that helped him out from behind the scenes. This boss of his had his hand in many other ventures, the most successful of which being Honor Pavilion.

Constable Chen didn't really want to work together with them at the start. But after witnessing his boss's capabilities, he quickly yielded. There were benefits to yielding, of course. The mysterious boss would never make him do anything without proper support. He would always be able to get his hands on funding for the missions he wanted the constable to perform. As for some more complicated assignments, he only needed the constable to cooperate partly and would reward him with lots of qi-nourishment pills and even a blood pill.

While Constable Chen knew more or less how blood pills were brewed, they were precious cultivation resources nevertheless. Consuming one and using it to cultivate could generate months' worth of aura progress at a time. Though the effects were rather unstable and fizzled out from time to time, not to mention some side effects like overstimulation, the time the pills saved him made them more than worth it. As for their rather disgusting origins, he thought about it as making the best use of useless vagabonds, turning them into fertilizer for the greater good.

After many years, Constable Chen assembled his own team of loyal helpers from beggars, thugs and street wanderers who would do all the dirty work that he couldn't personally show up for.

"He's more impressive than we thought," Constable Chen said in some disbelief. "He should only be at the Silk Aura Stage at most. Even if he consumed spirit items to break through, he'd only be at the River Aura Stage. How much stronger can he really get... Forget it."

Geniuses did exist in this world, after all. He chose not to overthink it and made his next move. "Use crossbows to break his leg and drag him here. The top brass didn't say he had to be captured unharmed, after all. We'll let him have a taste of pain. After interrogating him, toss him to Honor Pavilion. The medicines they've been refining lately have been rather good. It's about time we gave them better ingredients to brew with."

Constable Chen wouldn't have been that brash in times past. The absence of the adept, however, rendered the authorities impotent, creating just enough breathing room for those who lurked in the shadows to go out and stretch in broad daylight. Nothing could stop what they were going to do!

"Yes!" The servant left immediately.

Constable Chen felt somewhat nauseous, yet another side effect of the blood pill. His temper and desire flared like a flame within him, spreading through his body and soul and eroding away at his reason.

"I need to endure it..." He wanted to use a focus talisman immediately, but those were hard to come by with how Honor Pavilion kept buying them out lately. He grit his teeth and muttered, "I knew I should have prepared someone to vent on!"

At that moment, a loud bang could be heard as someone slammed the door of the constable's house, knocking it flying. A cloaked figure with an intimidating figure stepped into the room.

Who's that?! The constable's eyes glowed as his rising desire caused him to rise and unsheathe his blade. I don't know where this fool came from... How dare he disturb my—

Before he could finish that thought, one of the planks from the shattered door shot toward his head like shrapnel. He didn't have time to think and reacted by blocking it with his hand. He was a River Aura martialist at the brink of breaking through to the Tide Aura Stage, after all. There was no way something like this could—

Constable Chen lost consciousness completely. He did manage to block the wooden plank, but the figure had stepped forward so quickly that he overtook the plank and landed a kick squarely in the constable's abdomen. All conscious mental activity ceased as he slammed into the wall like an abstract piece of human art.

An Jing gradually approached and extracted the constable from the hole in the wall and splashed some water on his face to wake him up. When he noticed the bamboo vial that still contained some blood pills, he clicked his tongue and shattered the constable's shoulder blade with a kick, causing him to snap awake from the pain.

"Aaagh—" His cry of pain was muffled by An Jing with a harsh slap to the face that drew blood.

"Here's how it'll go. I'll ask the questions. You just have to answer them," An Jing said, bloody flames seemingly burning within his eyes. "Where did you send the kids, vagabonds and beggars that you captured? Also, who are you working for?"

"Hehe... Ptooey! You are so dead!" the constable said stubbornly. "It's over for you! You dared to attack a sanctioned officer of the court! If you dare touch another hair on me— Aaaaaggh! Oof!"

An Jing's slender fingers easily pulled out one of the constable's eyeballs and stuffed it back into his mouth, forcing him to swallow it. "Keep on going. I like hearing people ramble."

"Aaaaagh! Who the fuck are you?!" This time, it was a bloody ear.

"Please! I don't know! I'm only a third-rate goon! Aaaaagh!" That was his front tooth. To his credit, Constable Chen was a tough nut to crack. He thought that An Jing wouldn't kill him as long as there was something he wanted to know. As long as the constable held on, his subordinates would notice something amiss and come to his aid.

Oh, how wrong he had been this time. An Jing had never intended to reason with the man. He wasn't even really there for answers. He had come for one purpose alone: to kill. The only thing Constable Chen would get from answering his questions was eating fewer of his own body parts. An Jing would be happier if he didn't answer. You like blood pills, don't you? Blood pills made from human parts? Good for you. Have a taste of some of your own parts. Constable Chen eventually broke down.

"Mercy! Show mercy!" cried the bloodied constable who no longer appeared human. "I'll speak! I'll tell you! I gave all those people to the merchants of Honor Pavilion. I don't know where they were taken! Please, just put me out of my misery!"

An Jing didn't grant his wish. The lethal qi generated by Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal had strong metal and yang affinity. Like metal forged in fire, its key purpose was destruction; whether it destroyed other objects or people didn't matter. It was built for bloodbath and slaughter.

Even with his Seven Ruins Arc, An Jing could only barely tolerate the weight and scalding heat. For people with normal lifearcs, containing that kind of lethal qi was nothing short of torture.

An Jing drew a stream of Evenstar lethal qi and infused it into Constable Chen's body, a body without a lifearc, let alone a celestial arc. He wasn't even at the Tide Aura Stage. Soon, he stopped being able to scream in pain. His blood and flesh boiled and disintegrated as the sharp qi blades tore him apart on a microscopic level, turning him into minced meat. He died like he wanted to, just not how he wanted to. An Jing was sure he wouldn't be hearing complaints from him anytime soon.