Which Side Is Huang Yuxian On?

"Bureau Chief Li, we can negotiate anything else, but when it comes to matters of principle, please don't make things difficult for me. The files on both Puluo Wars are classified top secret. What I'm cleared to see is very little to begin with, and now you want me to leak that intelligence to you? Aren't you just putting me on the spot?" Li Banfeng held his teacup. "In other words, there's no room for discussion?" "None whatsoever, I'm afraid." "Then we'll talk another day." Li Banfeng raised his teacup to see his guest off, and Shen Jingye stood up and left. Back in his office, Shen Jingye felt a bit uneasy. Not helping Li the Seventh today might make things rather awkward next time he needed a favor from him. On second thought, though, he couldn't let Li the Seventh indulge every whim just because he needed him, nor could he agree lightly to every request. Better to keep his distance for a couple of days and not contact him. Li the Seventh was a smart man; he ought to understand where the boundaries lay. *** "Bureau Chief Li, my apologies for disturbing you so late." "Xiao Shen, what's happened?" On the other end of the line, Li Banfeng let out a yawn. "Here's the situation: an incident has occurred at the Gexian Hotel in Yunxiu District. Over a dozen dark-energy users have taken a guest in Room 2509 hostage. The situation is extremely critical." "Where did these dark-energy users come from?" "We can't say for certain yet, but based on a preliminary assessment, they're tied to the Birch Hermitage." "So it's retaliation. Who is the hostage?" Shen Jingye shifted his posture, not wanting too many people around him to overhear. "Preliminary judgment indicates it's one of our superiors, Director Guan—Guan Zhengyang." No wonder Shen Jingye was calling so late; this operation permitted no margin of error. "That does complicate things. What are the kidnappers demanding?" "According to our initial communications, their condition is the release of two Birch Hermitage elders currently in our custody." "That is a bit tricky." "Bureau Chief Li, do you think on your end—" "Xiao Shen, make sure you stay safe." Li Banfeng hung up. Shen Jingye stood silently in the freezing wind for a moment, a smile plastered across his face, and kept talking into the receiver. "Bureau Chief Li, thank you for your assistance. I'll give your advice serious consideration. Yes, yes, I'll keep that in mind—" He knew Li the Seventh had hung up long ago. Standing there pretending to talk was solely to cover his embarrassment. Many pairs of eyes were watching him; many people were waiting for news from Li the Seventh. Shen Jingye lowered the phone and told Chen Changrui, "Bureau Chief Li isn't in Yuezhou and can't make it to the scene tonight. Tell everyone to proceed according to the standard plan." Chen Changrui glanced at Shen Jingye, wondering what on earth a "standard plan" was supposed to mean. Shen Jingye couldn't be bothered to explain. A standard plan meant having no plan at all. And without a plan, were they supposed to just throw their hands up? The security team had handled plenty of cases like this before. Following standard operating procedure was all they needed to do; what difference did it make whether Li the Seventh showed up or not? Chen Changrui relayed the orders: all squads were to take up their positions, maintain communication with the kidnappers, and refrain from taking unauthorized action. Shen Jingye frowned. "Old Chen, is this how you run an operation?" Chen Changrui said nothing. He was no longer the captain of the security team. Although he supervised its work, proposing the tactical plan wasn't his responsibility. By proper procedure, the plan should come from the newly appointed security captain, Ji Shoulin. After Chen Changrui conducted a preliminary review, Shen Jingye would make the final call. Ji Shoulin lacked experience and was visibly at a loss for a plan at a moment like this. If the hostage had been anyone else, Chen Changrui certainly would have lent a hand. But with Director Guan as the captive, the situation was particularly delicate. The slightest misstep could bring down unimaginable accountability—something Chen Changrui had experienced firsthand. None of the security team members were fools. Each held their station, awaiting orders from their captain. And the captain was waiting for orders from the director. Shen Jingye was about to negotiate directly with the kidnappers when they sent over a gift first. They sliced off one of Guan Zhengyang's ears and tossed it out the window. A team member brought the ear to Shen Jingye. Shen Jingye looked at it, his expression calm. He had no choice but to stay calm; every subsequent move carried grave consequences. Everyone on the scene recognized this. Chen Changrui maintained his silence, and the new captain stopped talking altogether. Mijian and Tangyuan, both recently promoted to squad leaders, had initially wanted to voice suggestions, but neither dared speak now. Zhuizi and Haitangguo, on standby for the assault, kept their eyes fixed on Shen Jingye. At this moment, Shen Jingye's stance mattered more than the kidnappers'. Of course, a few members didn't seem to care much about either side. Zhong'er felt a bit drowsy and only wanted to wrap up the mission quickly so he could go home and sleep. Lightbulb was entirely focused on his positioning, not wanting to take pointless risks or assume extra blame. The kidnappers sent another message: if they received no response within five minutes, Shen Jingye would get another gift. The situation was hanging by a thread. Fortunately, Shen Jingye had weathered plenty of storms, and he quickly settled on his next move. He dialed a number. "Bureau Chief Li, we're true friends, aren't we?" "How true?" "If it's within my power, I will never hesitate." "All right then, neither will I." Before long, Li Banfeng arrived beneath the hotel. Lightbulb couldn't help smirking. "Didn't they just say Seventh Master wasn't in Yuezhou?" Tangyuan was thrilled and instructed her subordinates to get ready for action. After getting a rough grasp of the situation, Li Banfeng picked up the walkie-talkie and began laying out the tactics. "Zhuizi, you go in and secure the hostage." "Haitang, back Zhuizi up." "Tangyuan, hold the hallway." "Wowotou, hold the stairs." "Huajia, watch the windows and don't let anyone jump." "Lightbulb, if anyone breaks out, take your squad and run them down." "Zhong'er, take two men. If Lightbulb runs into trouble during pursuit, assist him in cutting them off." Zhong'er wasn't sleepy anymore, immediately conferring with Lightbulb about their firing lines. They had to move fast; Bureau Chief Li's arrival meant the fight was about to begin. The mission itself wasn't terribly difficult—the real difficulty had been that if something went wrong, someone had to bear the responsibility. Now, the man capable of shouldering it had arrived. Li Banfeng didn't use the front doors. Activating his Unimpeded Travel technique, he slipped straight through the outer wall and into the building. Not only did the kidnappers fail to notice, but even the Dark Star Bureau personnel didn't catch a glimpse of him. He moved swiftly up the stairwell to the twenty-fifth floor and entered Room 2507. Passing through wall after wall from Room 2507, he reached Room 2528 and stood right by the partition. Guan Zhengyang was in the adjoining room; Li Banfeng could hear him weeping. Li Banfeng clicked the walkie-talkie's switch twice—the signal for a twenty-second countdown. Watching fifteen seconds tick by on his watch, Li Banfeng phased through the wall, drew his sickle, and silently cut down the two kidnappers standing closest to it. Next, engaging his stride, he crossed the room and eliminated another two kidnappers. By this point, the remaining kidnappers spotted Li Banfeng and rushed him en masse. The twenty seconds were up. Zhuizi and Haitangguo charged up from the floor below and used the keycard provided by the hotel to swipe open the door to Room 2529. The room was packed with people, all of them locked in combat with Li the Seventh. Zhuizi had only one mission. He didn't need to help Li the Seventh; he only needed to secure the hostage. Three guards stood over the captive, so Zhuizi had to be fast. He severed the cuffs fastened to the headboard, scooped up Guan Zhengyang, and threw him toward Haitangguo at the doorway. Haitangguo passed Guan Zhengyang off to a subordinate and immediately joined Zhuizi in blocking the kidnappers' escape. Li Banfeng stepped back from the fray. The combat capability of these Lavshans wasn't particularly high, though it was passable. Without defined tiers or pathways, their strength was roughly on par with dark-energy users between the third and sixth tiers—perfect for honing the security team's combat readiness. Under Zhuizi and Haitangguo's containment, only three kidnappers managed to break out of the room; the rest were completely apprehended. These three were relatively formidable. One fought in a style close to a Martial Cultivator with outstanding hand-to-hand skills, while the other two resembled Travel Cultivators with exceptional mobility. Tangyuan, waiting in ambush down the corridor, led her personnel to cut off the three fugitives. If Tangyuan had used Tracing Ink Along Lines at this moment, Li Banfeng would have had Shen Jingye transfer her out of the security team on the spot. With over a dozen teammates under her command and an overwhelming numerical advantage, resorting to indiscriminate area attacks would mean she was unfit for the front lines. Fortunately, Tangyuan made no such foolish blunder. She bellowed at the kidnappers, "Bare of iron!" It was a deceptive technique. The kidnappers assumed she had cast Common Script, Shared Rule, meaning both sides would be forced to fight bare-handed. But to a Martial Cultivator, being unarmed was very different from being bare-handed; any wooden stick could be turned into a deadly weapon in their hands. Yet the three kidnappers had guessed wrong. Tangyuan had not said "bare-handed"—she had said "bare of iron." She hadn't cast Common Script, Shared Rule; she had used A Word Becomes Recognition. After becoming a Literary Cultivator, Tangyuan had mastered both arts thoroughly. Under the technique's effect, the belts of the "Martial Cultivator" and one of the "Travel Cultivators" snapped open simultaneously, for their buckles were made of iron. With their belts gone, their trousers dropped around their ankles, severely crippling their movement. After a brief scuffle, both were subdued on the spot. The remaining "Travel Cultivator" was wearing sweatpants with no belt. He bolted into the stairwell, but after a short struggle, Wowotou took him alive. From start to finish, the entire operation took barely three minutes. Lightbulb was still chiding Zhong'er. "Told you not to bother worrying. With Seventh Master here, nobody gets away." "Better prepared than sorry. We couldn't let ourselves drag him down." Li Banfeng stood by the window, watching the scene unfold quietly. If the hostage hadn't been Guan Zhengyang, the security team would have wrapped this up just as swiftly even without him. They had grown. This came not only from the help Li Banfeng had provided, but also from the adjustments Shen Jingye had made, especially the changes regarding positions and stabilizers. Yet even with their stellar performance, someone was bound to be dissatisfied—and Guan Zhengyang was thoroughly outraged. Because he had lost an ear. The fellow was quite tough and could endure pain. After his wound was crudely bandaged, instead of heading straight for the hospital, he unleashed a barrage of furious abuse at Shen Jingye. "What kind of attitude is this? What kind of work ethic? What kind of competence? Is this how you protect a hostage? If I hadn't maintained my calm and restraint the entire time, would I even be standing here talking to you?!" Li Banfeng nodded. "Good to hear you can still talk. Take him back to the bureau for investigation." Guan Zhengyang erupted. "Investigate who? Investigate me? What right do you have to investigate me?!" Li Banfeng said, "You have a residence in Yuezhou City. Why were you staying at a hotel at this hour? Can you give me a reasonable explanation?" "I... Why should I explain anything to you? Are you even qualified?" This really was hard to explain, and throwing a tantrum was the only card Guan Zhengyang had left to play. Li the Seventh, however, wasn't having any of it. "If you can't explain it here, you'll explain it back at the bureau. Put him in the car." "What right do you have?! I'm the victim! I need medical attention! I need a doctor! I need my ear sewn back on—" Guan Zhengyang was bundled into a car and driven off to the Dark Star Bureau. Shen Jingye looked conflicted. "His ear really does need to be reattached soon. Any slower and it might not take." Li Banfeng smiled. "Xiao Shen, we're true friends. Don't go forgetting that." Shen Jingye understood his meaning. "Tomorrow morning, I'll bring a file to your office." *** The following morning, Shen Jingye ordered the surveillance disabled before stepping into Li Banfeng's office. "Bureau Chief Li, have you heard? Something terrible happened at Qianliangfang in Puluo Province. Over a hundred thousand people died overnight, and the cause is still unknown!" Li the Seventh lowered his eyes. "I don't need you to give me news about Puluo Province. What I want are the files on the Puluo Wars." Shen Jingye's attempt to divert the topic had failed, leaving him no choice but to pull out a document pouch. Li Banfeng took it and found only three pages inside. "Just this?" Li Banfeng sounded displeased. "Your Director Guan is only worth three pages?" Shen Jingye signaled for him to keep his voice down. "Do you really not realize the risk I took to get these three pages?" Li Banfeng flipped through the three sheets. They were photocopies of a handwritten manuscript, with the original text on the front and a translation on the back. Judging by the tone, it appeared to be meeting minutes, but Li Banfeng didn't see the first page. The first page of meeting minutes was vital, containing crucial details like the date, location, and list of attendees. "Where's the first page?" Shen Jingye shook his head. "I couldn't get it. That page is above my clearance level; I can't even view it." Li Banfeng scanned the three pages. A name appeared on the very first line: Nelyashev. Across all three pages, it was exclusively his speech. "Xiao Shen, did you deliberately extract only his remarks?" "It wasn't deliberate. My clearance is limited; I'm only permitted to look up materials related to Nelyashev." Li Banfeng read through the speech. One passage stood out: *"I have listened closely to your views, and I am astonished that even now, some still contest our cooperation with Chernobog, even regarding it as a disgrace. I would like to ask these people: what exactly is your concept of 'disgrace'?"* During Goncharova's interrogation, Li Banfeng had once arrived at a deduction: in the Land of Slumber of the Lavshans, pureblooded Chernobogs were pureblooded people of the Inner States. The Birch Hermitage had chosen to collaborate with the Inner States. That single sentence laid bare the opposing sides of that war. The Inner States and the Birch Hermitage had joined forces, standing as enemies against Puluo Province. Huang Yuxian's enmity toward the Birch Hermitage proved that she had stood on Puluo Province's side. Old Yao had also stood with Puluo Province. Knowing Huang Yuxian's stance made Li Banfeng feel considerably relieved. He read on: *"No matter how much hatred lies between us and Chernobog, he remains the god who reigns over this realm. A god possesses the right to rule us, but owes us no obligation to treat us kindly. If we cling perpetually to old hatreds, how can we possibly face our common enemy?* *"We must distinguish principal contradictions from secondary ones, prioritize what is urgent over what is not. Our greatest enemy at present is Puluo Province. It is precisely their repeated, insolent, and brazen defiance toward the god that has brought down harsher punishment upon other lands.* *"Puluo Province is a magnificent territory. It has fields suited for farmers, pastures fit for herdsmen, factories for artisans, and bustling cities for merchants.* *"The god bestowed such a land upon the people of Puluo, yet they never learned gratitude or appreciation.* *"Look closely at what they have turned Puluo Province into!* *"They have no administrative bodies to govern, no concept of law. Order is maintained entirely through clans and gangs. They do not even possess a leader in any practical sense!* *"Can you imagine it? They have neither king nor chieftain! No one teaches them how to think, no one instructs them how to act, no one tells them what to believe or what to do. What purpose can there be in living like that?* *"They possess only a nominal leader, and absurdly enough, that nominal leader is a mere peddler! And look at the rest—pitiable generals, stubborn and foolish artisans, shortsighted farmers, rambling drunkards, drifting vagabonds, and filthy, degenerate actors!* *"What right does such a rabble have to tread upon that land? What right do they have to be its masters?* *"That land is a gift bestowed upon us by the god. We must renounce our hatred, embrace gratitude, and cherish the divine bounty!"* The peddler was the Peddler. Who was the artisan? Was the farmer Xu Han? Did the rambling drunkard refer to Old Yao? The actor certainly referred to Huang Yuxian. And who was the drifting vagabond? Li Banfeng handed the papers back to Shen Jingye. Shen Jingye let out a long sigh of relief. If Li Banfeng had refused to return them, Shen Jingye wouldn't have been able to force the issue, but keeping those files really would have exposed him to tremendous danger. Stowing the papers safely away, Shen Jingye told Li Banfeng, "The materials I can obtain are extremely limited, and the high-level archives you're looking for aren't even located within the Dark Star Bureau." He was explaining the reality of the situation; this was as much as he could do. Having learned this much was largely enough for Li Banfeng. In his mind, a rough outline of that war had already begun to form. That war had upended people's impressions of Puluo Province, just as it had overturned their understanding of it. There were many other places similar to Puluo Province, where people perhaps still couldn't comprehend how a loose, fractured territory like Puluo Province had managed to win that war. And win it Puluo Province certainly had, for otherwise the present Puluo Province would have ceased to exist long ago. Exactly how they had achieved victory was something Li Banfeng didn't know, yet he could already draw a few reasonable deductions. "Xiao Shen, will there be a Third Puluo War?" Shen Jingye shook his head. "How could I possibly know that? Our position remains unchanged: we still hope to resolve conflicts through peaceful means." As they were talking, Shen Jingye's phone rang. It was Chen Changrui. Shen Jingye usually kept his emotions in check in front of Li the Seventh, but this time he lost his temper. "I told you all at the beginning of the year to watch out for Gourd Village! Did any of you listen? Tell those people in the investigation division that their year-end bonuses are gone!" Hanging up the phone, Shen Jingye rubbed his forehead for a long while before looking up at Li Banfeng. "Gourd Village has opened for business. Over a dozen people have already been sucked in." "What is Gourd Village?" Li Banfeng had lived in Yuezhou for a long time, yet he had never heard of any urban village called Gourd Village. Shen Jingye didn't even know where to begin. "Gourd Village opens for business for one month every year, usually toward the end of the year. Its location is never fixed, and it's a primary target of vigilance for branches everywhere. Today, Gourd Village opened right here in Yuezhou, and our people were caught completely unprepared! For something like this to happen on the general bureau's home turf—it's an absolute embarrassment!" "What do you mean, 'opened for business'?" Shen Jingye was speaking in scattered, disjointed fragments, and Li Banfeng couldn't make heads or tails of it. "Let's talk on the way." Li the Seventh smiled. "Xiao Shen, we're true friends, remember?" Shen Jingye nodded. "Yes, true friends. I owe you for this one; we can settle up slowly down the line." *** The two of them took a car to Jiacheng District. Shen Jingye's phone rang incessantly throughout the journey, leaving him no opportunity to explain Gourd Village to Li Banfeng. The driver pulled up on Shunfu Road in front of a pharmacy. Upon entering, they found the pharmacy's proprietress, Fang Dongchen, describing the incident: "That man often comes here to buy medicine, saying it's for his mother. That day, after buying his medicine, he didn't walk away. He stood outside my shop, looking in through the glass door. "He pays with cash every single time. Once, I miscalculated and shorted him a yuan in change, and he stood outside my door for several minutes. "This time, I thought I'd miscalculated again. We run an honest business and don't cheat people, so I went and opened the door to check. "Around three in the afternoon, my doorway faces right into the sunlight, which glares in your eyes. When I pushed the door open to look, the man was gone in the blink of an eye." Li Banfeng asked Shen Jingye, "Did you check the surveillance cameras? Where did he go?" Shen Jingye led Li Banfeng back to the car. Once inside, after activating the anti-surveillance jamming, he lowered his voice. "We checked. On the camera, it looks like he walked into the pharmacy, but in reality, he entered Gourd Village." Li Banfeng couldn't make sense of it. "What does that have to do with Gourd Village? From her description, the man could be an Illusion Cultivator who deceived her with an illusion, or a Travel Cultivator moving so fast she couldn't see him." Shen Jingye shook his head. "It's not that. The woman was inside the shop, so she couldn't see the village. Gourd Village opened its entrance right at her storefront." The two returned to the pharmacy. Chen Changrui had summoned a taxi driver in his twenties, who recounted what he had witnessed: "When I drove past this pharmacy, I saw a guy looking over toward me, like he wanted to hail a cab. I pulled over, but when I looked back, he wasn't heading toward the curb—he was looking behind him. "I wondered what he was staring at, so I rolled down the window. Right across from him stood two women wearing next to nothing, barely covering themselves at all. "Those two women waved at him, and the guy walked right in. I knew right away that was no decent place, so I hit the gas and got out of there." The proprietress chimed in, "Officers, don't listen to his nonsense! What does he mean, 'no decent place'? I sell legitimate medicine here, fully licensed!" "I'm not making it up," the driver insisted, shaking his head. "I don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but what that guy walked into definitely wasn't a pharmacy." Li Banfeng had a rough grasp of it now. A man had left the pharmacy, hailed a cab, looked back to find the storefront transformed, and under temptation, entered who-knew-where. Li Banfeng asked, "Where is the victim now?" Shen Jingye said, "Missing. His family filed a missing person's report. The police combed through surveillance footage, traced him here with great difficulty, and located these two witnesses. That's how we realized this was no ordinary incident." It certainly wasn't ordinary, but why was it necessarily linked to Gourd Village? Shen Jingye asked the taxi driver, "What did those two women look like?" "It's been several days, I can't really remember..." The driver racked his brains for a long time. "I can't picture their faces, but their figures were incredible. Tiny waists, unbelievably thin. Big above the waist, and big below the waist—extraordinarily big." Li Banfeng remarked, "Aren't you just describing a gourd?" The taxi driver thought about it and nodded. "Now that you mention a gourd, yeah, kind of like that." Shen Jingye clutched his forehead. "It's precisely this gourd I dread. We can forget about having a peaceful New Year." Li Banfeng tapped his liquor gourd. "Big Sister, do you know a place called Gourd Village?" The liquor gourd grumbled unhappily, "Little Brother, haven't I told you before? Don't tap me below the waist. What if people see and laugh at me?"