YM778.TV Chapter 390: The Intelligence Department
Chapter 390: The Intelligence Department
“You’re the one who’s mad, you vile, heartless murderer. Who’s the one who killed his adopted brother for just a hundred gold, huh?” Guo Si snarled.
“How did you… Who are you?” The bearded man’s eyes widened.
“You want to know? You can ask those people you’ve killed when you\'ve gone to hell!” Guo Si snarled while plunging his knife into the bearded man’s solar plexus once more.
Unwilling to go down without a fight, the bearded man threw a palm strike at Guo Si’s head. However, Guo Si easily dodged the attack and pulled his knife downward, eviscerating the bearded man and causing his intestines to spill all across the road.
“Hah… hah… Someone… Someone save me…”
Desperation, regret, hatred and all kinds of emotions flitted across the bearded man’s face as he extended a hand toward the inn entrance. He only managed two steps before the light in his eyes disappeared, and he collapsed lifelessly on the floor.
“Hahaha… father, mother, I finally got revenge for you!” Guo Si laughed loudly as he stared at the bearded man’s corpse. Once done, he leaped into the air and tried to leave.
He was in mid-air when suddenly, two crossbow bolts pierced through his legs and elicited a bloodcurdling scream from him. He immediately fell from the sky like a bird whose wings were clipped.
The next moment, dozens of masked men wearing dark red, form-fitting outfits rushed out of the streets and rooftops. It took them no time to surround the inn.
The group was pretty strong. The weakest of them was a Vessel Augmentor, and they were all pointing Astral Breaking Crossbows at the inn.
The sudden incident terrified everyone, of course. No one seemed to know what to do.
There were countless jianghu warriors who used a bow, but a crossbow was a completely different story. It was because crossbows were strictly regulated weapons that only imperial officials were allowed to wield. If you ran into someone who uses a crossbow, chances were they were an imperial official.
The people surrounding the inn all wielded Astral Breaking Crossbows, a type of weapon that could pierce through astral qi like paper. There was no doubt that they were members of the imperial court.
This was the true reason everyone in the inn was panicking.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Suddenly, a series of claps came from the second floor. Then, someone said, “Unerring predictions, a life for a life. Your ability to tell fortunes is quite impressive, Fortune Taoist! But are you aware that you are also going to face a disaster today?”
The people looked up. They saw a young man with somewhat feminine features smiling down on the Fortune Taoist from the stairs. He seemed to be in his twenties.
Standing behind him were two men and a woman. One guy was plump, honest-looking, and full of smiles. He was the kind of person you take one look at and feel like smiling as well. The other guy was as skinny as a bamboo and looked like he hadn’t eaten for days. He had long arms that reached down to his knees, and his finger bones were exceptionally flat and wide. His hands were covered in calluses as well.
The woman was in her thirties and looked fairly beautiful. However, she was dressed like a Taoist. She was wearing a Taoist robe, and her hair was tied up like a Taoist. She carried a sword behind her back and looked cold and indifferent.
“Doctors can’t treat themselves, and people can’t judge themselves objectively. Naturally, I never tell my own fortune,” the old Taoist named Fortune Taoist said slowly. “Besides, I’m a good man who always does good deeds. Why would I need to worry about disaster?”
“Is that so?” The young man looked on with amusement. “You call taking a life for every life you save a good deed?’
“You call killing an imperial official and stealing their wealth a good deed?”
“You call wiping out an entire family down to their animals a good deed?”
“You seriously think that a vile, monstrous murderer like you has any good karma?”
“I killed that official because he is corrupt and abuses the law for his own benefit. I stole his gold because he didn’t use them in the right place. And I killed his whole family because there isn’t a single soul in that family who is good.”
“I killed those who deserved to die, made sure that the evil wouldn’t spread, and did what is right. If this isn’t good karma, then what is?” Fortune Taoist countered.
“What absolute nonsense and sophistry,” The young man scoffed. “Let’s pretend that everything you said is true. Even so, it is up to the imperial court to decide that official’s fate, not you.”
“Imperial court? What could they possibly do?”
Before the Fortune Taoist could react, the monk sitting opposite Ye Qing shoved a drumstick into his mouth and crushed both the flesh and the bones between his teeth. “By the time the imperial court takes action, everyone in the realm would’ve starved to death already.”
“The imperial court doesn’t give a shit about corrupt officials. In that case, we’ll take matters into our own hands!”
“All who are corrupt and abuse the law must die!”
“All who are selfish and malevolent must die!”
“All demons and monsters must die!”
“And all evils and dark spirits must die!”
“No wonder they call you the Killer Monk. Your bloodthirst is quite something.”
The young man’s scorn didn’t change. “But you’re just a nobody. How dare you criticize the ways of the imperial court? You know nothing!”
“That—cough! Cough!—is wrong. The realm belongs not to the emperor or you. It belongs to the people. As the masters of this country, why can’t we criticize the imperial court when they make a mistake?”
“You push us around as you please, but you won’t allow us to criticize your behavior?”
“You turn a blind eye on a corrupt official, but you won’t stand for it when we take matters into our own hands?”
“What kind of logic is that? Cough! Cough…”
The scholar argued between violent coughs. He sounded like he might cough out a heart or lung at any moment.
“More nonsense and sophistry! A family has family rules, and a country has country laws. That is how order is kept. If anyone can stick their nose into any business and do as they please, then what is the point of law? How can order be maintained?” The young man narrowed his eyes. “If we do things your way, then this realm would have plunged into chaos long ago!”
“You claim that you’re doing it for the people and good karma, but if that is true, you would’ve reported those so-called corrupt officials to the imperial court and let them take action. You wouldn’t take matters into your own hands, break the laws, and disrupt the order.”
“In my opinion, you’re just doing this to grow your fame and status.”
“Merchants chase profit, and warriors chase fame. Both are flies chasing after a pile of shit.” The young man let out a cold chuckle as he played with his silk handkerchief. “‘The monk, Taoist and scholar will deal with all the injustices in the world’. It’s a good slogan, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re just a bunch of deceivers and murderers.”
The plump man standing behind the young man added smilingly, “You’re like whores trying to pretend that they haven’t lost their chastity.”
“‘The monk, Taoist and scholar will deal with all the injustices in the world’? It’s them?”
It would seem that the slogan was quite famous in Tian Yong, because subdued murmurs immediately broke out inside the inn.
“Who are they?”
“You don’t know? The monk refers to Killer Monk, Bu Jie. He’s a hot-tempered and fiercely righteous monk who would fly off his handle as soon as he sees injustice. The Taoist is Fortune Taoist, and he is incredibly good at telling one’s fortune. However, he has a rule where in exchange for his service, his customers must help him in taking a life. Hence the slogan, ‘A life for a fortune’. The scholar is the Sick Scholar[2]. He calls himself the disciple of a sage, though no one knows if it’s actually true. There is no one he hates more than a corrupt official, and he will kill any corrupt official he runs into.”
“Oh, you’re talking about them! I heard them annihilating the Feng Clan of Qing He[3] and the newly appointed governor just a few days ago. How crazy are they to show up at West Yong of all places?”
“The Feng Clan? I thought that the Feng Clan is a literary family? Why did they annihilate the whole clan including the women and the children?”
“This is just a rumor, but I heard that the Feng Clan colluded with the governor to raise the price of goods and bully their competitors around. Whatever their deal is, it isn’t good.”
“Oh, then they did a good thing.”
“I agree, but annihilating the whole clan is a bit extreme, don’t you think? What about the children? Surely they must be innocent?”
……
“Fuck you and your bullshit! You officials are all as bad as each other! I will kill you and rid this world of your sins!”
Bu Jie flew into a rage as soon as he heard the young man and the plump man’s insults. Pushing off the floor with a might crack, he shot straight toward the young man like an arrow and swung his knife straight at his face. The blade of the knife shone so brightly that it blinded most people.
Clang!
There was a soft twang, and the power surrounding Bu Jie’s knife disappeared. At the same time, Bu Jie was flung back even faster than when he charged the young man. After he landed on the ground, he staggered backward and left behind footprints that were several inches deep and reeking some sort of cold energy. Bu Jie’s weapon arm and knife was also covered in a thick layer of frost.
“The Great Supreme Yin Hand?! Who are you?”
Fortune Taoist’s expression grew a little severe. Bu Jie was a veteran Spirit Purifier, but the young man had dealt him a heavy blow in a single exchange. Clearly, their situation was more dire than he thought.
The young man elegantly wiped his hand with his handkerchief while answering, “Now that you mentioned it, I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I am the inspector general of Tian Yong, Chu Renhe.”
“Inspector general? You’re a member of the Intelligence Department?!” Fortune Taoist blanched.
“What do you think?” Chu Renhe chuckled.
The murmurs inside the inn immediately rose an octave.
The Intelligence Department?
Ye Qing was caught off guard as well. Just like the Pacification Bureau, the Intelligence Department was the other department that answered directly to the emperor. But unlike the Pacification Bureau, they didn’t deal with Strangers. Their main function was to keep a close eye on the nine provinces and four seas, handle all intelligence matters within the realm, and deal with jianghu matters.
Everyone in the Intelligence Department was an elite just like the Pacification Bureau. However, they were far more enigmatic and secretive by comparison. They had branches in commanderies and prefectures only, but not all commanderies had a branch. A branch was established only in territories that hosted a vast number of factions or was plagued by complex circumstances.
Of course, this didn’t mean that the Intelligence Department didn’t have personnel planted in places that didn’t have a branch. There was a reason the Intelligence Department boasted that they knew what was going on in the nine provinces and the four seas at all times. Naturally, they had spies everywhere. They could be a peddler, a soldier, a helpless scholar, a wealthy merchant, a powerful official, a famous warrior; your acquaintance, your best friend, or even your spouse.
In fact, a large number of Pacification Sentinels were really spies planted by the Intelligence Department. Ye Qing wouldn’t be too surprised if Gu Suitang and Fang Xiaoman told him one day that they were really members of the Intelligence Department.
1. If you guys remember, this is the department that supposedly is one equal footing with the Pacification Bureau. You know what that means. ☜
2. Not to be confused with the one way back in Luo Yang even though they share the same moniker.. ☜
3. Pretty sure it’s the Feng Clan whose young master tried to have Qi Xuanyun killed because he beat him. ☜