Chapter 77: The Mole
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On the way to the dungeon, the practitioner from the headquarters started chatting with the foreign practitioners.
“Looking at your group, it must not have been an easy journey, right?”
Liu Ming, the practitioner from the branch division, replied with a smile, “That’s right? How can life in the branch division be compared to that of staying in headquarters? The few of us only had the chance to come to the headquarters because the demon we escorted this time was really powerful.”
“No wonder. Demons are usually escorted by groups of three practitioners. However, this time, a total of 10 of you have been sent over. Among your team, there are two silver-rank leaders.”
The practitioner from the headquarters continued, “These silver-rank practitioners are already at the level of a branch director. Their positions are only slightly lower than the gold-ranked great practitioners in headquarters. For you to treat this mission so seriously, the demon must not be an ordinary one, right?”
“Yes.” Liu Ming nodded and said, “The demon we’re holding in custody this time is one of the Blood Warrior Monks who caused a commotion in the Great Xia Kingdom.”
“If not for gold-rank Lord Shang Yun, we wouldn’t have been able to catch him at all.”
…..
“Oh? I heard that these guys are comparable to Innate Stage martial artists. Can you guys handle him with just a few of you?”
Liu Ming looked at the iron cage covered by a black cloth behind him and said with a smile, “We naturally can’t, but Lord Shang Yun did all the hard work for us.”
He continued explaining, “Lord Shang Yun has already sealed this vile creature’s inborn vitality. Other than having a slightly stronger body, it’s no different from an ordinary demon now. Therefore, the few of us are enough to escort him.”
“I see.”
After the small talk, the practitioner from the headquarters quickly brought them to the dungeon.
After a simple exchange, the group completed the handover.
Not long after, the Blood Warrior Monk was locked up in the A-grade prison by a few practitioners in the dungeon.
Everything went surprisingly smoothly.
The practitioner from the headquarters suggested, “My colleagues, do you want to go out for a drink after work? Our director said that work is important, but rest is also necessary. I have to say, ever since the arrival of the new director, Lord Green Flame, our lives have indeed improved a lot. Not only do I not have to be trapped in the Devil Slayers Division every day, but I can also get some good gifts every holiday. In the words of the director, this is called employee welfare. The purpose is to let us feel that the Devil Slayers Division values us.”
These words stunned Liu Ming.
He looked at the practitioner from the headquarters who had a smiling look of admiration on his face.
For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.
This was not his impression of headquarters.
It had been more than 10 years since he was transferred from headquarters to the branch division.
The headquarters of the Devil Slayers Division was still a very cold and desolate place more than 10 years ago.
The practitioners who lived here were just dogs kept by the celestial sect.
Every celestial sect disciple who was sent here was indifferent to everyone else.
When necessary, they would even be used as cannon fodder to test the strength of the demons. They were no different from livestock.
However, this new director seemed to be completely different from the previous directors.
The new director showed care to the employees and made them feel as though the Devil Slayers Division placed importance on them.
If only he had such a superior back then…
Pondering this, Liu Ming trailed off for a bit.
“Brother Liu?”
“Ah!” Liu Ming, who came back to his senses, looked at the practitioner from the headquarters who was looking at him with a puzzled expression.
He hurriedly smiled and said, “I’m sorry. I was a little lost in thought just now. That new director, is he really as good as you say? Could all of this be an act?”
Liu Ming’s half-joking words seemed to have prod a hornet’s nest.
The practitioner from the headquarters, who had been smiling at him earlier, immediately revealed an unhappy expression.
He warned, “My colleague, you can’t just say anything that is on your mind. We all know what kind of person Director Green Flame is. If you dare to say another word of disrespect about him, then even if you are also a practitioner, we will not sit idly by.”
Looking at the sudden change in attitude of the practitioner from the headquarters, Liu Ming knew that he had said something wrong.
“Fellow colleague, please don’t get angry at me. This is my first time here, so there are many things I don’t know. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
The practitioner from the headquarters glared at him and said, “It best be so.”
After saying this, the practitioner turned around and left.
He was not as enthusiastic as he was when he wanted to drink with Lu Ming just now.
It was apparent how much Liu Ming’s slandering of Lu Yuan had lowered the practitioner’s impression of the former.
Liu Ming did not expect this outcome either.
Due to this small episode, Liu Ming and the others could only go to the rest area in the headquarters alone.
Fortunately, he was very familiar with the layout of the headquarters.
After all, he had been a practitioner for 30 years, and he had been stationed at the headquarters for more than 10 years.
After entering a small courtyard, Liu Ming ordered someone to close the door.
The 10 of them gathered in the room, and the atmosphere became very tense, as if something was brewing.
“Practitioner Liu, when do we make our move?”
After a moment of silence, Liu Ming raised his head and replied, “We’ll wait for the signal from the palace. For now, we still don’t know if the new director has been dragged into the palace. Once the other party learns about the situation in the Devil Slayers Division, they might return immediately. We have no chance of winning against a Foundation Establishment cultivator from a celestial sect.”
The others nodded, and the room quickly fell silent again.
After about five minutes, a copper bell on Liu Ming’s waist suddenly began to shake violently.
The crisp sound of the copper bell echoed in the room.
The few people who had been silent in the room suddenly stood up.
“Everyone, the time has come.”
“As long as we can complete His Majesty’s mission, we will have served our country well.”
“This is Great Xia. It’s our motherland after all. It is not a place where immortals can trample on as they please. Those immortals treat us as ants. We’ll let them know that even if we’re ants, we can still bite through a pillar.”
“Let’s move.”
“Yes.”
In the darkness, the 10 of them quietly left the courtyard.
The place they were heading to was the courtyard where Lu Yuan lived.
As Lu Yuan was currently in the palace, there was no one else in the courtyard other than his clone.
Naturally, Liu Ming and the others did not know this.
They still thought that Xu Wan’er was the only one in Lu Yuan’s courtyard.
Their targets were Xu Wan’er and the Buddha Child statue that Lu Yuan had taken away.
After leaving the room, the few of them quickly split up.
A group of people went to Lu Yuan’s courtyard while the other group went to Lu Yuan’s study.
They were well coordinated. It was obvious that a mole had informed them of the locations of their targets in advance.
After Lu Yuan brought the Buddha Child statue back, it had been placed on the table in the study and had not been moved.
Practitioners from outside the headquarters would have never known the exact location of the Buddha Child statue.
Under the bright moonlight, the two groups of people actually arrived at the study room and Lu Yuan’s courtyard unhindered. They did not encounter any patrolling practitioner along the way.
The entire process was surprisingly smooth.
Things going so well gave Liu Ming a bad feeling.
Since when was it so easy for someone to enter such a core area of the heavily guarded Devil Slayers Division’s headquarters?
However, they had no choice but to continue.
Not long after, Liu Ming and four other practitioners arrived at Lu Yuan’s courtyard and carefully observed from the outside.
Although Lu Yuan had already gone to the palace, the courtyard of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was not a place that ordinary people could enter.
They had to be extremely careful if they wanted to take Xu Wan’er away silently..