darknovel Chapter 588 The Demon Blade (Part 2)
Chapter 588 The Demon Blade (Part 2)
Chapter 588 The Demon Blade (Part 2)
Before he turned eighteen, Zhang Jiuzhong always thought he was an ordinary person.
He had studied for a few years, but his achievements were limited to recognizing characters and words.
He had studied martial arts for several years, and he learned from real martial arts practitioners, but after several years of practice, his skill level was about the same as that of apprentices taught by farmers.
As a teenager, Zhang Jiuzhong's family suffered another misfortune, leaving him all alone and destitute.
Fortunately... he was also considered "both scholarly and martial," and soon found a job as a constable in the yamen.
At this point, some people might ask, didn't we mention earlier that the constables in those days were a mixed bunch, with many even more thuggish than local ruffians? How come Zhang Jiuzhong, who seems to be a middle-class young master from a fallen family, became a constable?
We can use the Hong Kong Police Force as an example in this regard—"Detectives" and "Inspectors" have completely different recruitment and promotion systems. Although the threshold for the former is low, they usually stop at the "Sergeant" level. It is very difficult for the former to cross over into the latter, that is, the management promotion system.
This same principle applies to the constable profession in Da Ming...
You might recall that among the constables and police officers who appeared in this book, the smaller the place they belonged to and the lower their rank, the more streetwise they were, and the worse they were at handling emergencies.
Because these constables generally don't need to have particularly strong abilities, their main daily work is dealing with local thugs and hooligans, or acting as henchmen of local officials to oppress the people. In fact, many of the constables are actually the county magistrate's "own people".
However, once you reach a certain level, such as the chief constables or chief constables in large prefectures or the capital city, then there are different rules.
These people are like a small elite group who have moved from being detectives to the supervisory system. The imperial court recognizes them, and most of them also have the power to enforce the law across regions. Many local officials have to show them respect.
So where did these people come from in the first place?
Naturally, these young men were selected and promoted from among those "young men whose qualities were far superior to those of ordinary rogue constables," such as Zhang Jiuzhong, by the previous chief constables.
After all, a team can't be full of hooligans. You need to hire a few educated and well-mannered people, because you'll need them in certain situations.
So, Zhang Jiuzhong didn't have to put in much effort to find a job in a decent government office. He was well taken care of by his superiors as soon as he entered the office, because compared to the other guys around him, he was indeed considered "both scholarly and martial".
The other seasoned constables around him naturally wanted to curry favor with Zhang Jiuzhong, because who knows, maybe one day this young man would become their superior?
Then, unsurprisingly, they took him to a brothel.
That same year, eighteen-year-old Zhang Jiuzhong discovered something that shocked even himself—he didn't like women.
He changed after that day.
He was very confused about his situation, and this confusion quickly turned into inferiority, fear, and violence...
He buried this secret deep in his heart, suppressing himself and disguising himself... and venting the enormous mental pressure he was under through other channels, namely his work.
When he has too little free time at work, he practices martial arts.
As a result, Zhang Jiuzhong, who had never been diligent or focused in his studies or martial arts training since childhood, made great progress in his martial arts skills in just a few years after he started working.
To his superiors and colleagues, who were completely unaware of his secret, these behaviors suggested that this kid was trying to get ahead...
It would be a waste for such a young person who is eager to improve to stay here. Otherwise... how about we help him "get in touch"?
Hey, don't let his colleagues' terrible character fool you. They're loyal friends, not the petty type who can't stand seeing others do well.
The group of constables discussed it and pooled some money together, which they then gave to the head constable to "lobby" for. After several transfers and several months of waiting, a transfer order was finally issued.
As the saying goes, "Those who work in public offices are bound to have good opportunities for self-cultivation." They are all employees of the Six Doors, so to put it bluntly... they can get discounts on official positions by showing some face, right?
And so, at the age of twenty-two, Zhang Jiuzhong was transferred to the capital to serve in the government.
Five years later, due to his outstanding work performance, he was promoted again and became the assistant to the "Number One Detective in the World".
Of course, Yue Youque's assistant is definitely not just Zhang Jiuzhong. If you imagine Yue Youque as a "team leader", then he must have at least ten or so team members under him, otherwise he would be too busy.
However, Zhang Jiuzhong is definitely the one among these group members who pays the most attention to and cares the most about Yue Youque.
And his reasons are probably obvious to everyone.
In those years, they went through fire and water together, risking their lives, and forged a deep bond of camaraderie, and they lived peacefully together ever since.
Zhang Jiuzhong... never intended to reveal the secret in his heart.
He even often thought: If one day I could die for the waning moon, so that the other person could remember me as a "brother" forever, that would be the best ending for my life.
Unfortunately, God did not wish.
One day, Zhang Jiuzhong was at home alone, sorting through some miscellaneous items left over from past cases.
Then, as if possessed, he was drawn to a box of rouge.
Years later, he still didn't know why he had been so bewitched that day, opening the box of rouge, sitting in front of the mirror, and starting to put on his makeup.
Perhaps it was just his true self, which had been suppressed for too long, wanting to breathe in the fresh air on a lonely, sleepless night, nothing more.
After applying her makeup, Zhang Jiuzhong stared blankly at her reflection in the mirror, then unconsciously began to sigh softly, "If only I were a woman..."
As luck would have it, Yue Youque, who had drunkenly arrived at his doorstep, was about to ask him to have another drink with him.
When Yue Youque was sober, his first reaction was to leave, because he knew that pretending he had never been there and acting as if he hadn't heard anything was the best way to handle the situation.
But before he sobered up, his footsteps had already given him away.
"Who?" Zhang Jiuzhong was lost in thought and didn't notice someone approaching his room. By the time he realized it, the footsteps were already at the door, and he had even started muttering to himself. This startled him greatly.
Yue Youque reacted quickly, immediately reverting to his drunken state, even yawning, and said in a normal tone, "Haa—Old Nine, it's me. I saw there was still a light in your room, so I came to ask you for a drink."
Upon hearing that the moon was waning, Zhang Jiuzhong panicked even more, but he immediately realized: the other party's tone was very normal, so he probably didn't hear what I said.
So he composed himself, said he was going to sleep, and sent the matter away.
Even if the moon is waning, we can still find a way to back down; let's say we'll do it another day.
The matter would have been over by now, and given Yue Youque's character, he would never have told this secret to anyone.
But unfortunately... that night, it wasn't just the two of them who heard these words.
Someone loyal to the illegitimate son, who had been secretly monitoring Yue Youque, also overheard this…
At this point, many people might think that the young master would immediately send someone to blackmail Zhang Jiuzhong.
But he wasn't in a hurry to do that, because he felt that this handle wasn't strong enough—he needed to draw out the "evil" in Zhang Jiuzhong's own heart before he could truly control this person.
So after that day, he had people subtly hint to Zhang Jiuzhong that Yue Youque already knew his secret and that he despised and loathed him.
This information was half true and half false. In addition, Zhang Jiuzhong's mind was already twisted due to excessive repression. He had only managed to keep from collapsing all these years. Now that someone had found a crack, Zhang Jiuzhong's spirit would soon be unable to bear it.
Behind love lies hate. After his breakdown, Zhang Jiuzhong became obsessed and had the idea that "as long as Yue Youque dies, I won't be in so much pain."
At this moment, the young master felt that the time was ripe...
As everyone knows, he was captured and imprisoned by the illegitimate son of the concubine, and the most unexpected and fatal blow he suffered at the critical moment came from Zhang Jiuzhong.
With no way out, Zhang Jiuzhong completely fell into depravity. Although he always said he was unwilling, he had in fact become the lackey of the concubine.
Afterwards, the illegitimate son used an extremely rare substance called "Bone-Eating Immortal," which resembled cordyceps (a parasite that could be precisely controlled by temperature), to modify Zhang Jiuzhong, making him a substitute whose appearance and voice were exactly the same as Yue Youque's. As for the identity of "Zhang Jiuzhong," a corpse was already arranged at the scene to make him "fake death" on the night Yue Youque was ambushed, and it was disposed of in the process.
A few months later, Zhang Jiuzhong, who had completed the transformation and trained his posture and tone to be extremely similar to Yue Youque, replaced the original Yue Youque and reappeared in front of people.
During the months he was missing, he easily covered it up by saying that "after being ambushed, I was seriously injured, so I simply hid to recover and secretly investigated and wiped out that group of people." After all, he was using the identity of Yue Youque to narrate the story, so how could the "person himself" be lying?
However, having read this far, you, dear readers, have probably noticed another crucial issue—appearance, voice, speech, and behavior can all be faked, but what about martial arts skills?
Internal skills are alright. The internal skills practiced by Yue Youque are the kind of "common stuff" that are very common in the martial arts world. They are neither strong nor weak, but they certainly don't reach the level of "secret sect secrets". Many famous sects can disguise their basic internal skills as this kind of internal skills with just a slight modification.
However, the exquisite swordsmanship that Yue Youque unleashed in conjunction with his internal energy, or rather, his combat prowess in actual combat, was far superior to Zhang Jiuzhong's.
Therefore... this part still needs the help of the illegitimate son to find a solution.
Of course, the young master had always wanted to find a "test subject" to try out a weapon he had obtained from his "friend" that might pose some risks to the user.