Chapter 361 - 237: The Security Bureau’s Predicament, Assassination

Chapter 361: Chapter 237: The Security Bureau’s Predicament, Assassination

Xie Qing suddenly felt a shiver run down her spine. ’How does Tao Lang know such a dangerous man? And he’s so handsome...’

Yang Meng paid no mind to his own injuries and simply stared at Yu Fei in a daze. "This gentleman is...?"

’I’ve never seen anyone so powerful. Judging by his aura, he should only be at the fourth-level Inner Qi Realm, yet he cut down a whole group of fifth-level assassins as if it were nothing. He’s just too strong.’

’If we could recruit someone like him into the Security Bureau...’

Tao Lang made the introduction. "My friend, Yu Fei!"

Then, noticing Yang Meng’s fervent gaze, he immediately added, "He’s an S-rank prodigy from Shenhan. There’s no way he’s joining the Security Bureau!"

Yang Meng was great in every respect, except that whenever he met a powerful expert, his first thought was to recruit them into the Security Bureau.

It couldn’t be helped. The Security Bureau was always lacking in combat power and was chronically understaffed.

Yu Fei greeted everyone, then stepped forward to check on Yang Meng’s injuries.

It wasn’t too serious. Yang Meng was also in the Inner Qi Realm, so his regenerative abilities were astonishing. At the moment, he just had two broken legs and a dagger in his abdomen, but it hadn’t hit any vital organs.

For someone in the Inner Qi Realm, this only meant he had lost his combat capability. Even if left untreated, he wouldn’t die anytime soon.

Besides, the medical-martial arts industry was highly advanced these days. Once he was out of danger, a dip in a healing tank would fix him right up.

"Why haven’t you pulled the dagger out?" he asked, a bit curious.

Xie Qing explained, "It’s a particularly nasty dagger. It’s covered in barbs. Pulling it out would tear a huge hole in him."

"I see. So, what happened here? Are you at liberty to say?"

Yu Fei directed his question to Tao Lang.

Tao Lang was currently cleaning up the scene. His main task was to remove the hoods and masks from the dead Night Owl Mansion members, photograph them for the record, and log their identities.

"We followed a lead and confiscated an encrypted storage device. It contains a personnel directory for all Night Owl Mansion members active in Jingshan Province. We were discovered shortly after and have been hunted all the way to this place."

Yu Fei was puzzled. "For something this important, they only sent this many of you?"

Tao Lang sighed helplessly. "We had no choice. You have no idea how short-staffed the Security Bureau is.

Relatively speaking, Martial Artists would rather join the military, large corporations, or freelance mercenary groups. The Security Bureau used to only recruit Inner Qi Martial Artists at a minimum, but now we’ve lowered the requirement to the third realm.

We normally have enough people, but things have been hectic lately, so we couldn’t spare anyone on short notice.

Plus, the number of illegal organizations has skyrocketed these past few years, so the Security Bureau is fighting more and more often, and our casualty rate has shot up. You have no idea—it’s more dangerous to work for the Bureau than to fight on the xeno front lines, and the pay and benefits are actually worse..."

Yu Fei had barely gotten a word in before Tao Lang launched into a long-winded tirade of complaints. This made Yang Meng frown incessantly. ’With Tao Lang talking like that, what chance do we have of recruiting a prodigy now?’

The group waited for nearly an hour before reinforcements arrived, along with a rescue vehicle.

Tao Lang and the others then left with Yang Meng in the vehicle, leaving the reinforcements to handle the scene.

Though they were called reinforcements from the Security Bureau, Yu Fei saw only three people in the Inner Qi Realm. If he hadn’t come, they probably would have been overwhelmed.

On the ride back, Tao Lang once again asked Yu Fei for help with a mission.

"Are you free anytime soon?"

"I am. More people to cut down?"

Tao Lang’s expression grew serious. "We’ll definitely be cutting someone down. I’m just not sure who yet!"

He then began to explain the reason for this sudden mission.

The matter was still closely tied to Night Owl Mansion. It’s an assassin organization that functions like an online platform, having grown over the last decade by leveraging the internet. Using constantly changing code words, they post all sorts of assassination missions on various public platforms. A Martial Artist just has to register for a guest ID to accept a mission. Even ordinary people get involved.

By using ordinary people as intermediaries for information and operations, the organization went completely unnoticed in its early days and grew rapidly.

Night Owl Mansion focused its growth in the five southwestern provinces. The organization was initially founded by just a few third-realm Martial Artists who were skilled with information technology. Due to its unique model, it spread like wildfire, but eventually, things spun out of control.

Once the platform got big enough, someone naturally came to reap the rewards. The founders’ identities were gradually exposed, and they all "died in accidents." They weren’t powerful enough; they were in way over their heads with an operation that large.

The Night Owl Mansion of today has matured. It has a well-established membership system, and the assassins’ information is tightly controlled by the top brass, making it a dangerous and sophisticated illegal organization.

A few days ago, someone defected to the Security Bureau. Her father, a Gang Qi Martial Artist, had been assassinated by a member of Night Owl Mansion.

She later uncovered some clues and, posing as an ordinary person, infiltrated Night Owl Mansion.

Due to her exceptional skills, she was promoted again and again, eventually being tasked with regularly maintaining the Night Owl Mansion member database on their online platform. She was hoping to gather information to avenge her father.

But recently, someone suspected something was off. Facing a crisis, she defected directly to the Security Bureau, but she had to leave behind the encrypted storage device she’d been secretly compiling. And that’s what led to what happened today.

Normally, in a feud between Martial Artists, an ordinary person has no recourse except to file a police report. But because Night Owl Mansion’s model outsources so much of its basic administrative and operational work to ordinary people online, she had a way in.

"So, I want to ask you to help with the protection detail for the defector. It’ll be until we can fully decrypt that data. It should be quick, probably just three to five days."

"Alright."

"But for something like this, don’t you have a Grandmaster protecting her?"

"We do, but we’re afraid it won’t be enough!"

Yu Fei’s brow furrowed slightly. "You guys are a government agency. How can you be short on manpower?"