16: Zhenwu Bureau

Contrary to Chu Yuan's expectations, Qi Da did not ask how he had managed to cultivate to the Inner Breath Realm in such a short amount of time.

He had originally concocted a story about a mysterious and powerful Master for himself... but it hadn't come in handy at all...

It was a waste of all the effort he had put into it...

In truth, even without him saying anything, Qi Da had roughly guessed as much.

For Chu Yuan to go from an ordinary person to the Inner Breath Realm in just one week, there were only three possibilities.

One: Methods of the alien races.

Two: Having obtained a powerful Legacy.

Three: Meeting a powerful Martial Artist who took him on as a disciple.

Although none of these three scenarios were very likely, Chenyang City was just a small inland city, not worth the alien races investing much attention in.

Qi Da couldn't even remember how many years it had been since he last heard of the alien races causing trouble in Chenyang City...

As for whether he had obtained a Legacy... Chu Yuan's movements were practically transparent; it wasn't hard for those with a mind to investigate. He had stayed in the city the whole time, traveling only between home and school. Where would he have obtained a Legacy?

Could it be that a spatial rift just happened to open beside him, and a Legacy fell out of it?

If that were the case, it would be the most terrifying outcome of all. Just how Heaven-Defying would his Luck have to be...

Therefore, the possibility of him having a powerful Master was the highest.

But even so, advancing to the Inner Breath Realm within a week was still a bit too Heaven-Defying, which is why Qi Da told him to keep a low profile.

Chu Yuan didn't mind. Although his Inner Breath Realm status was a fake, judging from his clash with the killer just now, he was indeed qualified to go up against a Martial Artist of the Inner Breath Realm.

Of course, if the opponent were too strong, he wouldn't be able to win, otherwise he would have kept them there just now.

According to his previous deductions, once he completed his Foundation Establishment, he would be able to achieve a level of being invincible within the Inner Breath Realm!

After tonight, aside from clearing his own suspicion, his standing in Qi Da's eyes had risen once again. Not to mention the Li family, at the very least, any trouble from the Public Security Bureau... should be gone.

However, neither of them had expected that Qi Da's gag order had come too late.

Or rather, the Public Security Bureau captain present had reported it too quickly...

...

Inside a building in the center of Chenyang City, a man with a square face hung up his terminal communication, a flash of solemnity crossing his eyes.

He then immediately sent out two messages.

Not long after, a man and a woman pushed the door open and walked in.

"Captain."

"Have you both read the information I sent you?"

"We have." The man, who looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six, was wearing loose casual clothes. He found a seat and sat down casually. "So, what is our mission?"

"The scent of those vermin is too obvious... Go and root them out!"

The man nodded. "Understood. Then... what about that kid who supposedly broke through to the Inner Breath Realm in a week?"

The square-faced man shook his head. "Don't worry about him. If there really were an issue with him, Qi Da would have noticed it."

"That's not what I meant..." The man sat up a little straighter and leaned forward, a mischievous smile appearing on his face. "I mean, should we take advantage of the fact that he hasn't seen much of the world yet and trick him into joining our Zhenwu Bureau?

The files show that his father sacrificed himself in the Third Guard Army;

perhaps he has a different sentiment toward the military..."

"...Do as you see fit." The square-faced man acquiesced.

Great Qin had only two major violent institutions: one was the military, and the other was the Zhenwu Bureau.

The former followed a path of mass screening, piling up experts through one cruel war after another! The latter followed a path of quality over quantity, and everyone within it was elite!

Furthermore, the level of danger in the Zhenwu Bureau was not a bit less than in the military.

Criminal Martial Artists, infiltrating alien races, cult organizations... these were all under their jurisdiction. Even when a major war broke out, the Zhenwu Bureau had to dispatch experts to assist the military.

Although both served the country and often collaborated, there was still competition between them.

There were only so many experts; for every one more you had, I had one less...

After leaving, the woman who had remained silent in the office earlier asked, "Brother Fei, what did the captain mean by 'those vermin'?"

"A group of rebels hiding in the gutters." Jiang Fei explained. "The thing they love doing most is destroying Martial Artist Geniuses who haven't grown up yet!

Either by assassination, or... turning them into one of their own."

"Turning them into one of their own?" The woman was somewhat puzzled. Any Martial Artist with a halfway normal brain wouldn't mix with them, right?

"Take this person named Chu Yuan for example. Someone used his face to kill people, and they only killed those who had grudges against him;

under normal circumstances, it would be very difficult for Chu Yuan to clear his name.

Once he was arrested and tried by the Public Security Bureau, those vermin would jump out to rescue Chu Yuan, and then... he would have no choice but to join them." Jiang Fei shrugged, somewhat gloating. "But this time they underestimated the target's strength... they failed right from the start."

"That sounds like it has a lot of loopholes..."

"High school seniors aren't yet Martial Artists. Normally, homicide cases involving ordinary people are handled by the Public Security Bureau, and our Zhenwu Bureau wouldn't get involved;

but Chu Yuan is a member of the Super-Grade Azure Cloud Plan. In fact, even if Chu Yuan had been arrested by the Public Security Bureau, by the final review stage, our people would have stepped in... they wouldn't have succeeded from the start." Jiang Fei explained.

There was one more thing he didn't say, which was why the Prefectural Capital's Li family had such a small reaction to the death of one of their direct descendants? Why didn't they even send someone personally?

One reason was the Azure Cloud Plan... which was commonly known as the sponsorship quota;

the other reason was the Zhenwu Bureau.

This was part of the 'rules' that Qi Da had mentioned to Chu Yuan...

"Then why did they still waste their effort?"

"Who knows... Maybe they didn't know Chu Yuan had joined the Azure Cloud Plan?" Jiang Fei said as he walked out. "Actually, it was also carelessness. Chenyang City hasn't had something like this happen for a few years;

Xiao Yun, your vacation is ruined..."

"It's fine, Brother Fei, the mission is important."

...

"You couldn't even do such a simple task well;

tell me yourself, are you trash?" In a dimly lit room, someone spoke in a calm tone.

The person wearing Chu Yuan's face knelt on the ground, trembling all over, as if something terrible were about to happen.

His chest was bleeding, but he couldn't care about that; he just said nervously, "My Lord! I didn't expect Chu Yuan and the people from the Public Security Bureau to be hiding there in advance!

He... he is already at the Inner Breath Realm!"

"Excuses."

At this moment, someone else pushed the door open and entered.

A mocking, delicate laugh rang out: "Heh... Yan Xuan, it seems your subordinate is just as trashy as you."

Yan Xuan didn't seem to hear anything; he reached out and pressed his hand onto 'Chu Yuan's' head.

"My Lord, spare me! My Lord... Ah!"

A shrill scream rang out, and streams of red light flowed upward along Yan Xuan's palm, sinking into his body.

In just a few breaths of time, 'Chu Yuan' seemed to have been drained of all the essence in his body, turning into a dried corpse!

He then collapsed to the ground, completely devoid of life...

Yan Xuan then looked up, his killing intent still undissipated, toward the newcomer—a woman with an exquisite, curvaceous figure, but whose face was covered in dense, crisscrossing scars.

"Cao Rong, what are you here for?"

"Heh, trying to scare me by killing your own people? Even if you killed all your subordinates, what does that have to do with me?" Cao Rong curled her lip in disdain, causing the scars on her face to writhe like crawling centipedes.

"The Envoy sent me to ask you, how is the progress of the mission?"

"It can begin at any time."