CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 57: RATTLE, FISHING_3

Wen Yan didn’t spell out the rest, but as soon as Feng Yao heard the words "Soul Devouring Beast," he understood Wen Yan’s intention.

And he could be sure that Minister Cai would definitely agree to this without hesitation.

"It’s such a waste of talent that you didn’t join the Scorching Sun Department as a full member." Feng Yao let out a long sigh.

These strategies—even those old foxes might’ve thought of them, but the Scorching Sun Department shoulders immense responsibility. All along, the rules have been strict because they’re after stability, after the ultimate backup. After decades of this, it’s inevitable that the entire department has become overwhelmingly conservative in its ways.

Just like last time with the Hopping Corpse—Wen Yan dared to take the risk of keeping it.

But once the Scorching Sun Department learned what the Big Executor Corpse was, they absolutely wouldn’t dare to keep it.

They’ve only become what they are now after paying in blood, time after time, forced into this state.

Following the rules in everything—maybe not every single one of a hundred operations will have a perfect result, but the chances of catastrophe are extremely low.

If you pursue maximum flexibility and the most perfect result every time, the risk inevitably rises—out of a hundred, a single failure could spell disaster.

The casualties from that one catastrophe might actually outweigh those saved in the other ninety-nine, and the losses could be even greater than all the recoveries combined.

Unable to afford mistakes, afraid to make mistakes—they’ve inevitably become what they are now.

Doesn’t the higher-up know?

They all know.

But this already is the best possible outcome.

When the Flame Demon descended—in that great fire, nobody could accurately count how many died. With a cost so tragic, the Scorching Sun Department simply couldn’t bear it.

Everything needs people on the scene to make snap decisions. It’s all about real-time improvisation—the ceiling is high, but the basement could be deep too.

Like with the Big Executor Corpse. Wen Yan handled it, controlled the corpse, which was an above-expectation outcome—truly out of the ordinary.

But things like that don’t happen all the time.

You can deal with one case like this, but you can’t gamble every case will turn out so well.

People are different, and even the same person is different at different times. You can’t hold the line at the bottom.

All sorts of contingency plans, protocols, rules—they can hold the bottom line.

"I’ll personally report all this to the Minister."

As he spoke, Feng Yao took out his laptop, tapping rapidly on the keyboard, and pulled up a dossier on the screen.

"As for that Water Ghost you saw on the short video, we’ve tracked her down. Here’s the file.

The other wild demons you mentioned—we’ve only found that One-eyed Wolf so far.

The rest, including Lady Lie, are still off the grid. No records, no cases involving them."

With that, Feng Yao pulled out a new phone and handed it to Wen Yan.

"This phone’s for you—I applied for it. You’ll have clearance to part of the Scorching Sun Department’s database. You can check it all yourself. I have to go see the Minister and get all this moving now—there’s no time to waste. If we stall, it might be too late."

Feng Yao bustled out, leaving Wen Yan to check out the phone. Setting it up for the first time was a pain—not just fingerprints, but also facial recognition, a character password, and a voiceprint password.

After all that, once he logged in, it looked like any ordinary phone—but there was only a single app, its icon a blazing sun.

Logging into the app, he found a bunch of files Feng Yao had sent him.

The One-eyed Wolf had roamed the northern grasslands. Ten years ago, it attacked herders and got one eye blasted out by a shotgun, then vanished. A year later, it reappeared, bit hundreds of sheep to death in revenge, and this time, it was confirmed to have left the Divine Land entirely—never seen again.

As for that girl in the short video—her name was Wang Xueqi, a kindergarten teacher. A month before, she’d gone traveling for summer break and simply vanished, with no trace since.

Her last known whereabouts actually weren’t in the Water Ghost Domain’s coverage area.

What exactly happened remains unclear for now.

Wen Yan clicked a link below—it was Wang Xueqi’s personal social media account.

It was full of videos of her singing and dancing with the kids, entering all sorts of contests. Judging by the comments, the children liked her a lot.

Most of her posts were about handmade crafts, drawings, food; not a single travel post to be found.

So how did she go missing while traveling, end up drowned, and become a Water Ghost?

There were no records of that for now. Her last log was before the trip, telling her best friend she was going on a hike.

Wen Yan checked other files. According to the Scorching Sun Department’s records, when they encountered a Water Ghost, the standard protocol was elimination.

Because professionally speaking, the basic rule of the Water Ghost occupation meant suffering the pain of drowning once a day, endlessly, forever.

Unless the Water Ghost found someone to take their place, to inherit the job—only then could they be freed at last.

This Water Ghost even had her own Domain, which was rare, and the Domain even repelled human entry—they’d never seen this before.

He checked into the chemical plant case too, but with his current clearance, he couldn’t dig deeper. All he saw was confirmation of a Class II Domain over there.

He didn’t try to snoop further. When he saw the sun rise, he put the phone down and looked at Zhang Laoxi.

"Old brother, I’m off to practice boxing—you should get some sleep."

"Not that sleepy. I’ll coach you a bit, that’s when you’re most likely to train wrong. If you try to fix it later, it’s tough." Zhang Laoxi’s bloodshot eyes were still full of spirit, a hint manic.

"Alright, then you coach me for a while. Then you should hurry and catch up on sleep."

"Aren’t you tired?"

"Not at all. At my age, missing a little sleep isn’t a big deal. After what happened last night, I just can’t rest. Let’s start with the boxing."

"Alright."

...

As the sun set, Lady Lie—who’d been soaking in the pond all day—finally sensed the light shimmering across the water above her. She broke the surface.

She checked the sky, and as expected, the Domain had appeared.

This was the Domain’s rule—when it disappeared, anyone left inside would be dragged back into the pond by the Domain’s power, and only when the Domain returned could they come up again.

Water on her fell off in tiny beads as she walked, nimble and quick, making her way to where Wen Yan had vanished the night before.

She eyed the scattered ashes on the ground, reached out to touch them, and recoiled as if shocked by electricity.

She was absolutely certain—this had been the Lone Wolf.

Wariness clouded her eyes.

"What a vicious Black-haired Zombie—truly sucked up every drop of blood and essence, not wasting a thing."

A zombie that ferocious and ruthless must be pretty advanced in Spiritual Intelligence, and without any risk of going berserk. There had to be an even stronger master behind it, able to keep such a Black-haired Zombie suppressed by force.

Her gaze shifted, seeing the little gift she’d left yesterday also thrown away here, and her face darkened slightly.

They’d obviously noticed her, maybe even figured out what she did, and discarded her gifts as a warning.

The test results were in—way beyond her expectations. She regretted, now, making such a rash attempt.

Thank goodness she hadn’t left yesterday; otherwise, if she’d gone home eager to claim credit, she might’ve discovered she’d just made herself a powerful enemy.

Besides, that Young Master Su hadn’t come today...