Mutated Tao

At Li Huowang's question, the pale-looking eunuch politely explained, “Sir, only those below the Seventh Banner would have to look for someone to give them a mission. The procedure changes slightly from the Seventh Banner onward."

Li Huowang nodded, verifying that Tuoba Danqing hadn't lied to him.

The Surveillance Bureau was very lax to outsiders but strict to their own members.

The higher Li Huowang's rank, the stronger the restrictions he would have to face.

If Li Huowang were to become a Ji Xiang, it would be no different from becoming an official of the Imperial Palace. Li Huowang would have his own custom-made uniform as well as daily missions to accomplish.

Of course, the Surveillance Bureau would become more generous to him by then.

The Surveillance Bureau might bestow upon him the method to disperse a person's obsession, which would allow them to keep on extending their lifespan using lifespan pills. Of course, that wouldn't be it; Li Huowang would also gain access to the Surveillance Bureau's treasures and hidden techniques.

The higher his rank, the stronger the treasures and techniques he could receive. A mercenary like Li Huowang would never be able to have access to such things unless he made a drastic move. At best, Li Huowang could buy items from the Surveillance Bureau using lifespan pills.

Li Huowang's quality of work and speed would be the deciding factor when it came to when the Surveillance Bureau would officially allow him entry into their inner circle.

Once the higher-ups of the Surveillance Bureau believed that a certain worker was smart, hardworking, strong, and with a reputable background, they would send someone to negotiate with the said worker, asking them to enter the inner circle.

Of course, Li Huowang didn't really care about that. He just wanted to fulfill his own goals. “Are there any missions related to the Sitting Oblivion Dao?”

“Please give me a moment, sir. I'll go and fetch the relevant documents,” said the pale-looking eunuch with a bow. Then, he turned around and walked out of the screen.

Sima Lan frowned, and the blind black bird spoke in his stead, “Why are you looking for the Sitting Oblivion Dao?”

“I have a grudge against them,” said Li Huowang. His excuse was both believable and reasonable.

Sima Lan didn't probe any further, but it was unsure whether he believed Li Huowang or not.

Soon, the pale-looking eunuch returned with a stack of parchment and papers.

“Sir, these are all—”

The pale-looking eunuch's words had yet to finish echoing in the air when Li Huowang grabbed the documents and read them. He read through all of them but found none of them contained anything about Bei Feng.

Li Huowang looked up and saw that Sima Lan had disappeared somewhere.

Li Huowang merely shrugged and asked the pale-looking eunuch. “What's wrong with these missions? These are just some random small fries. The majority of them are suspicions as well rather than confirmed sightings. Do you have any missions involving the Four Joys or the Three Officials?”

The pale-looking eunuch became even more pallid at Li Huowang's remark as he hurriedly said, "Oh, no, sir. If there were any missions involving the Four Joys or the Three Officials, we would send people to deal with them immediately!

"Those figures are exceedingly dangerous, and we can’t let any missions related to them rot in here, waiting for someone to take the mission during their spare time.

"Missions are divided in ranks as well, sir, and the missions involving the Four Joys or the Three Officials would always be considered Third-rank missions.

"The leader would immediately dispatch people to deal with such missions as soon as they appear. There’s no way we'll wait for someone to take it here.”

Li Huowang nodded, finding the pale-looking eunuch's explanation as reasonable.

The Surveillance Bureau had to react fast enough to the appearance of the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s higher-ranking members; otherwise, the Liang Kingdom would suffer greatly.

Unfortunately, the discovery put Li Huowang at an impasse. He was in the Surveillance Bureau, but he still couldn't find Bei Feng.

Li Huowang pondered briefly before asking, “Are there any information or records about the Four Joys and the Three Officials? Anything is fine.”

“We do have those. Please give me a moment, sir.”

Li Huowang had just in case, but the pale-looking eunuch moved speedily and soon returned with a massive stack of documents. “Sir, you're a Seventh Banner, so you can read all of these.”

Li Huowang decided to do just that. Of course, his goal was to find any information related to Bei Feng. After reading the entire stack of documents, Li Huowang finally discovered something. Bei Feng was in Tanyang County's Wu State three years ago.

According to the records, Bei Feng had accompanied Dong Feng to seize control of a Strayed One. They had blackmailed the Strayed One, saying that Bei Feng would kill the family of the Strayed One if the latter refused to cooperate with Bei Feng.

Li Huowang frowned and continued reading.

Bei Feng was one of the Four Joys, so he was extremely strong. He was strong enough to instantly drown anyone in confusion. He had excellent synergy with Dong Feng, allowing him to exchange bodies with others.

They needed just a single eye contact to exchange bodies with that person.

To make matters worse, they would retain their abilities even after the exchange.

The records revealed that they had plunged the entire Tanyang County into chaos, and they exchanged the bodies of many people; a notable example of it was the incident wherein they exchanged the bodies of the wife and the grandmother while they exchanged the bodies of the grandson and the husband.

They caused great confusion in everyone’s relationship with each other.

Bei Feng was an exceptional expert at exploiting others through tricks and deception by taking advantage of their desires, which was the hallmark of the Four Joys.

Bei Feng managed to fool a ton of people into becoming his accomplice. He even managed to transform a seventeen-year-old girl into a member of the Sitting Oblivion Dao in just two hours, effectively turning her into Wu Tiao[1].

The battle on that fateful day resulted in the deaths of a Ji Xiang and a Jian Zheng. However, they managed to secure the Strayed One, and they also killed Dong Feng.

Li Huowang memorized every single piece of information related to Bei Feng. Li Huowang knew of the Ji Xiang position, and he reckoned that Jian Zhengs were most likely higher in rank compared to Ji Xiangs.

The Surveillance Bureau had sent over a dozen people, but they still lost two members, which was enough evidence of Bei Feng's formidable strength.

Moreover, Bei Feng possessed the strange power to make anyone else exchange bodies with someone else; he could also transform someone into a member of the Sitting Oblivion Dao through deceit.

The pressure on Li Huowang's shoulders abruptly became heavy upon realizing the true strength of the Four Joys. Based on the records, it was impossible for Li Huowang to stand against them alone.

Thankfully, Li Huowang no longer needed to fight by himself.

Can Bei Feng threaten to kill the people inside the hallucination of a Strayed One?

Li Huowang hesitated at the thought, and his expression turned ugly at the thought that his mother and Yang Na could fall for the deceit of the Sitting Oblivion Dao or die in the worst-case scenario.

Li Huowang handed over the stack of documents to the pale-looking eunuch.

“You may return these,” Li Huowang said.

“Yes.” The pale-looking eunuch bowed and turned around to leave.

"Wait," Li Huowang stopped the pale-looking eunuch and asked, "With my rank, can I read the majority of the documents here?"

“Yes, you may read anything in the first to fourth archive.”

“I need information about Strayed Ones. Anything will do,” said Li Huowang with clenched fists. Li Huowang was a Strayed One, but he wasn't actually quite clear as to what exactly were Strayed Ones.

Li Huowang was already here, so he decided to take complete advantage of the Surveillance Bureau’s resources to understand the Strayed Ones.

1. unknown position for now, will change after more info ☜

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