Biochemical Martial Arts: Supreme Heavenly Venerate

As the Sixth-Rank Imperial Censor Lin Tianda entered, Zhuang Mingyue didn't even plan to rise. She merely sat there and cupped one hand in the other before her as a gesture of respect, considering her courtesy done.

Lin Rui had initially intended to stand up, but with a sidelong glance from Zhuang Mingyue, he realized he did not need to be too courteous to this Imperial Censor Lin and thus remained seated without moving.

He was now a member of the royal city's authority, holding the title of Seventh-Rank Martial Virtue Capital Commandant; he was an official, with a status on par with Zhuang Mingyue's, the Seventh-Rank Circuit Inspector.

Lin Rui inwardly sighed in admiration; they say that those from the Great Song's royal city's authority are exceptionally arrogant, even more so than crabs on land, and indeed, they were extraordinary upon first meeting.

This Lin Tianda was an esteemed Sixth-Rank Imperial Censor, a 'pure stream' within the court, with a status far higher than that of an average Sixth-Rank official, yet Zhuang Mingyue treated him with such disregard.

Lin Tianda then coldly fixed Zhuang Mingyue with a stare and looked over at Lin Rui, who was sitting to Zhuang Mingyue's left. Without bothering with courtesies, he bluntly asked, "You are Lin the Twelfth, the newly appointed Martial Virtue Capital Commandant?"

Seeing Lin Rui cup his hands in acknowledgment, Lin Tianda swept his robe sleeve aside, "I am here under the command of the superiors.

Firstly, to reconduct the investigation into the Zhu relatives' case of abducting former royal heirs, concocting demons, and slaughtering civilians; and secondly, to perform the 'Heavenly Demon Test' on Lin the Twelfth, to determine whether this person is a Heavenly Demon from beyond our domain. Since you are here, let's proceed now."

"There's no rush!" Zhuang Mingyue said with a slight smile, picking up a teacup and nonchalantly blowing on the tea leaves, "Before Imperial Censor Lin uses the Heavenly Demon Test, you need to set up an array, right? Conveniently, our Wang City's Magistrate Jiang and the Prefectural Governor's Capital Punishment Investigator Wang have also arrived. I have already sent someone to invite them.

They will join us shortly to witness the test for Capital Commandant Lin."

This arrangement would be conclusive. With a group of officials as witnesses, not only would they avoid future trouble, but it would also prevent Lin Tianda from making excuses or tampering with the test on the spot.

She then lifted her gaze and looked at the man in black behind Lin Tianda, "May I ask who is the person behind Imperial Censor Lin? He looks somewhat familiar."

Lin Tianda expressionlessly ripped the cloak off the man in black, revealing his face and expressions to everyone present.

"Jiang Hanzhang!"

Zhuang Mingyue squinted her eyes, examining the former chief clerk up and down, then her lips curled into a meaningful smile, "I didn't expect that the chief clerk would end up looking like this. To think that just over ten days ago, we were sharing drinks and working shoulder to shoulder, it really is thought-provoking."

Jiang Hanzhang, although still maintaining a human form, had undergone demonic transformation, his skin turned to resemble ancient tree bark covering his entire body, and his hands were locked tightly with iron chains.

He twitched the corners of his mouth upon hearing her words, clenching his teeth tightly.

How could Jiang Hanzhang not perceive Zhuang Mingyue's mockery?

Reflecting on the past ten days or so, he had been a highly respected chief clerk, calling the shots in Silver Moon County, making Zhuang Mingyue defer to him; yet, in just ten days, he had become a figure neither human nor ghost.

And all of this was because of that Lin the Twelfth beside him!

"Imperial Censor Lin!" Zhuang Mingyue's tone turned cold, "Are you not aware that this Jiang Hanzhang is also one of the masterminds behind the Zhu relatives' case, a wanted criminal by the royal city's authority?"

"How could I not know?" Lin Tianda's expression was cold and composed, upholding justice with resolve, "This man is also my student. Upon learning of this beast's involvement in the Zhu relatives' case, I immediately captured him and personally delivered him here to serve as living evidence, and to face the law and receive punishment!"

Zhuang Mingyue immediately came to an understanding upon hearing this.

This Jiang Hanzhang must have been sent over by the Prince's Mansion as a scapegoat.

She deduced that Jiang Hanzhang would likely take on the role of one of the masterminds and push most of the blame onto the Zhu relatives to facilitate the Prince's acquittal, as the dead could not speak.

Zhuang Mingyue, however, was unconcerned and sneered disdainfully.

This case involved over a hundred of the Great Zhou royal heirs and the thirty thousand civilians of Silver Moon County; how could the Prince expect to so easily deceive his way out?

Even the Prince's brothers would not stand by and watch the Prince get off lightly.

This time he would either not escape with his life or, at the very least, he would lose a layer of skin and suffer a significant loss of favor with the Emperor.

The hall then returned to tranquility, as Lin Tianda took out some cinnabar and yuan stones, focusing on setting up an array on the central floor of the hall.

Lin Rui, meanwhile, was waiting while also studying the essence of the muscle and bone refinement technique in his mind.

To ensure absolute certainty, he spent 5,000 soul power points to advance his muscle and bone refinement technique to the level of a Great Grandmaster.

This would elevate his comprehension to an unbelievable level, allowing him, in a very short time, to fully understand all the secrets of this secret technique, enhancing his control over it.

About half a moment later, the Magistrate Jiang and Capital Punishment Investigator Wang mentioned by Zhuang Mingyue arrived one after another.

By then, Lin Tianda had also almost finished setting up the array: "Everyone has arrived; you may check the array. If there are no issues, let's begin."

Lin Tianda appeared very confident, with his hands behind his back: "Please enter the array, Capital Commandant Lin!"

Lin Rui was himself a Great Grandmaster of basic formations and had also advanced part of the knowledge on intermediate formations from the Magic Control Divine Technique to the Grandmaster level.

With a glance, he noticed two minor flaws within the formation.

However, these flaws would only reduce the effectiveness of the formation. Lin Rui ignored them as if unseen, and after Zhuang Mingyue and the others had checked, he casually stepped into the center of the array.

Then, Lin Tianda instructed Lin Rui to remove his upper clothing and used cinnabar ink to draw some talismans on his body. Afterward, he took out a compass-shaped magic artifact and stood opposite Lin Rui to begin the 'Heavenly Demon Test'.

This was a tool jointly developed in the past by three Ninth Realm 'National Defending Masters' of the Great Song, specifically for detecting Heavenly Demons from outside their territory.

It included a series of spells, used in conjunction with specialized magic artifacts to identify the spirit, body, and bloodline of extraterritorial Heavenly Demons. Any slight flaw would be detected by the 'Heavenly Demon Test'.

The energetic Jiang Hanzhang stood beside him, staring intently at Lin Rui.

This foreign Heavenly Demon who caused his downfall was doomed to die today!

On the other side, Wang Sen was extremely nervous, exerting full control to prevent his face from showing any unusual colors.

He didn't understand why Lin Rui didn't flee and was instead obediently allowing them to perform the test.

Did Brother Rui have some way to cope? Or was he harboring a hope for luck?

Standing outside the gate, the Blood Blade Lady was silently gathering her strength, ready to draw her blade at any moment.

Although there were only three fourth-rank officials inside, they all possessed imperial seals of authority, and their combat strength was extremely high, so she had to give this battle her all.

However, half a moment later, the brows of Lin Tianda, the sixth-rank Imperial Censor, began to furrow.

There was nothing wrong with Lin No.12's body, Divine Sense, or bloodline, and he did not find that so-called 'biological chip' in Lin Rui's head.

The spirit and flesh of Lin, the Capital Commandant, were also perfectly compatible, indicating he was a native of the Heavenly Extreme Star.

"Impossible!" Jiang Hanzhang's eyes turned bloodshot as he glared at Lin Rui and roared muffledly: "He must be a foreign Heavenly Demon! He must be. There are countless abnormalities in him, too many to count. Not only is his cultivation progress unlike that of a normal person, but he also doesn't speak the official language and cannot write!

More than one person in the government office has told me that Lin No.12 sometimes behaves like a different person, his reactions sluggish and dim-witted, not at all like the real Lin No.12!"

Zhuang Mingyue, seated at the main seat, was momentarily taken aback by this. Had the clerks and government officials in the county office really said that? Why had she and Master Du never heard them mention it?

Lin Tianda, the sixth-rank Imperial Censor, however, fell into hesitation. He did not think being unable to speak the official language or to write was a characteristic of a foreign Heavenly Demon.

In the last hundred years, all the Heavenly Demons captured by the court had been proficient in the court's official language and script.

As for the point about the progression of cultivation not conforming to that of a normal person, that, on the contrary, cleared Lin No.12 of suspicions.

Those foreign Heavenly Demons, when they first descended, even if they cultivated rapidly, would always conceal this fact and not dare to expose themselves for fear of attracting attention.

So the likelihood of Lin No.12 being a foreign Heavenly Demon was very slim.

Lin Tianda then shook his head and formed a Dharma Seal with his hands.

The decision to perform the Heavenly Demon Test on Lin No.12 came at the behest of someone from the Prince of Han's residence, and Jiang Hanzhang, using some pretext, had persuaded that person to spend a large sum to procure his services.

Since Lin Tianda had taken the silver coin, and promised that person, he must handle this matter properly, leaving no grounds for criticism.

A moment later, Lin Tianda was enveloped in a blaze of blood flames. As he formed a complex Array with his hands, a huge phantom gradually appeared beneath the steps outside the county office's main hall.

This figure was nine zhang tall with a humanoid shape, covered in golden armor, three dragon-shaped heads, and six arms, resembling the three-headed and six-armed deities from ancient Chinese mythology.

"The Guardian War Dragon!"

Adjacent to him, both the chapter's presiding official and the chief prosecutor were visibly moved upon seeing the phantom of the war dragon.

Lin Rui, too, was taken aback. Lin Tianda had actually gone so far as to use the final step of the Heavenly Demon Test.

Summoning the Divine Sense of the Guardian War Dragon was a costly act that drained a lot of vital energy and life force, so normally, no one would use this method in a 'Heavenly Demon Test.'

He inwardly felt uneasy, worrying that his Transformative Bone Technique and Concealing Breath Skill might be exposed. None of the upper echelons had mentioned such a scenario in their instructions.

However, after the three-headed war dragon opened its vertical eye in its forehead and scrutinized Lin Rui for a moment, it let out a 'pchht' sound and dissipated into green smoke.

The blood flames on Lin Tianda also vanished, leaving him pale and weak as he said with difficulty, "After examination by the Heavenly Demon Strategy Technique, Lin No.12 is not a foreign Heavenly Demon!"

Hearing this, Jiang Hanzhang collapsed to the ground, his face filled with despair and confusion: "No, how can this be? How is this possible? There must be something wrong."

Zhuang Mingyue, seeing this, smiled with satisfaction, knowing Lin No.12 was indeed not a 'foreign Heavenly Demon': "You fool, take this demon cultivator away."

She stood up from her seat, pulling out an official document from her sleeve: "Lin No.12, take orders! The Commander-in-Chief of Sha State has decreed that Wu De, the Capital Commandant Lin No.12, is to immediately proceed to Wang City County to take up the post of Deputy Defence Commander of Wang City, and also to temporarily assume the role of Defence Commander of Wang City!"

As Zhuang Mingyue made this declaration, not only was Lin Rui's face filled with surprise, but Wang Sen's heart was also struck with tumultuous waves.

What did the County Magistrate just say? Lin Rui was to go to Wang City County to take up the post of Deputy Defence Commander of Wang City, and also to temporarily assume the role of Defence Commander of Wang City?

Although the official rank of Defence Commander of Wang City was low, only sixth-rank, its authority was significant, enough to stand on equal terms with the local Prefectural Governor!

Lin Rui had only been here for a few days and was already ascending to such a high official position? Experience new stories on empire

No, the most crucial point was that his Brother Rui had actually infiltrated the core reserves of the Imperial Secret Service!

Since Lin Rui could be entrusted with such an important task by the upper echelons of the Imperial Secret Service, it meant that he was being considered one of their own by a significant faction within, and deemed worthy of substantial grooming!

Even the chapter's presiding official and the chief prosecutor changed their expressions, looking at Lin Rui with eyes and smiles that became much warmer and more sincere.

Although they ranked higher than Lin No.12 officially, on the grounds of Wang City County, they both would have to defer to this Lin Defence Commander.