The assault was as perfect as the flash of a shooting star. In less than half a minute, he retreated with Tang Xiaoxing in one piece, leaving the secret police of the government-in-exile and the local gangsters of Fish Dragon City all over the place.
Shrill shrieks rang out from all directions.
It was the sound of countless people in Crystal Suit rushing to the place as fast as they could.
Flames were drawing bright traces in the night sky, as if a hundred flying swords were splitting the sky!
Most of them were the Exos of the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the secret police of the government-in-exile who were attacking and arresting the other senior members of the 'Election Observation Delegation'.
Their reactions were quite fast. They had arrived at the scene only one minute after the enemy disappeared with Tang Xiaoxing.
The secret police, after lowering their heads and discussing for a moment, immediately dispersed and chased after the enemy's retreat!
To this moment, none of the secret police of the government-in-exile, the local gangsters of the Chamber of Commerce, the Secret Sword Bureau, or the mysterious fourth force knew that this place was a battlefield that Li Yao intentionally chose for them.
Li Yao did not move. The two agents of the Secret Sword Bureau who were observing in secret did not move, either. The agent of the Secret Sword Bureau sniffed and said, "It's the 'Dim Moon Squad'. Are those lawless b * stards going to start a world war?"
The young agent was greatly alarmed. "It's them!"
The older agent said coldly, "Quiet!"
The two of them stopped talking. Like two snakes that had been frozen for an entire winter, they crouched in the darkness, not moving at all.
Hiding in the darkness that was even deeper than theirs, Li Yao touched the crystal processor and sent a message to Long Yangjun.
Li Yao: "What's the environment on your side?"
"The environment is quite good," Long Yangjun: "We are taking part in a dinner party that is specially prepared for the magnates. I have to admit that the … sensual pleasures of the modern Cultivation civilization are truly breathtaking. Many fellow Cultivators have been greatly enlightened. Hahahaha!"
Li Yao lowered his head and looked at his body that was crouching in the debris like a silkworm. "Something's wrong on my side."
"Oh? What's wrong?" Long Yangjun asked.
"My old problem is back."
Li Yao said, "At the wrong time, with the wrong person, in the wrong place!"
"… Do we need reinforcements? For some reason, the defense of the Chamber of Commerce has been significantly weakened. A lot of experts that we locked onto have been relocated in a hurry. So, there is no need for so many fellow Cultivators to take action together. Wait. Huh. Is the relocation of those experts related to you?"
"It is not exactly related to me," Li Yao said. "However, I suddenly found an opportunity. If it works out, we may be able to enter the Xing Yao Federation under a more suitable identity. It will be greatly beneficial for both the fellow Cultivators of the Ancient Sages Sector and the national interests of the Federation. It will be a real win-win situation."
"What do you need us to do?"
"I don't need reinforcements for now," Li Yao said. "But you'd better suspend your previous plan and wait for my message. If everything goes well, we will not need to go through the trouble of robbing and faking our identities to sneak into the Federation in fear. We will definitely have a chance to walk on the red carpet openly! Also, help me investigate a term 'Dim Moon Squad'. I need all the information related to the term. "
"Note that you must not search on the Spiritual Nexus!"
"The Dim Moon Squad is unlikely to be a top secret. Otherwise, I wouldn't have heard it from other people's mouths at all. However, even if you can find some information on the Spiritual Nexus, it is very likely that you will be targeted by certain counterattacks when you key in the term 'Dim Moon Squad'!
"Unless you are a real specialist of the Spiritual Nexus, you'd better not take the risk. Do we have any specialists of the Spiritual Nexus here?"
"… What do you think?"
"I don't think so," Li Yao said. "Then, this is how you are going to deal with the issue. So far, with such an intimidating team of Yuanying Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators and the clandestine deals that you are planning, you should've locked onto a bunch of local magnates of the Chamber of Commerce, peripheral members of the CFIA, and even special agents of the Secret Sword Bureau, right?"
"Indeed," Long Yangjun said. "But they are just the minions and peripheral members. How can the real central persons show up in public so easily?"
"It doesn't matter," Li Yao said. "How about this? You can find the minions and peripheral members who seem older and try to hypnotize them and ask them about the information about the 'Dim Moon Squad'. It is certainly not a top secret. You will be able to piece something together after you ask a few random people."
"The most critical thing about the issue is confidentiality. Is there any hypnosis technique that can make the hypnotized not know that they have been hypnotized at all without leaving any traces?"
"Yes, there is, but it depends on the Cultivation of the hypnotized. It shouldn't be a problem for the low-level Cultivators below the Refinement Stage or the Building Foundation Stage. But for the Core Formation Stage Cultivators with powerful souls, it will be very difficult to hypnotize them without being discovered or leaving any traces in their brain. Even Yuanying Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators might not be able to do it."
"That's fine. I don't ask for the accuracy of the intelligence. I only want a general understanding of the 'Dim Moon Squad'."
Li Yao said, "The most important thing is that you do it quickly. It will be best if you can tell me the relevant information in fifteen minutes, because by my estimation, I will see … the Dim Moon Squad again in fifteen minutes!"
Li Yao cut off the communication.
Exactly at that moment, the eyes of the local gangsters who were still lingering in the slum happened to move away from Li Yao's hiding place.
Li Yao leapt out of his hiding place like a black lizard that was crawling in the night sky. His body turned into hazy smoke as he chased after Tang Xiaoxing in the direction where she had been taken away.
He jumped up and down, left and right, avoiding all the eyes and the scanning of the crystal cameras at ease. Shua! Shua!
Shua! Shua!
Shua! Shua! A map of Fish Dragon City popped up in his head as he analyzed the most likely routes of escape for the enemy.
Almost twenty rushing Exos were not as easy to hide as twenty cockroaches. Li Yao did not need to take action in person at all. The local gangsters of Fish Dragon City would have found the mysterious' Dim Moon Squad 'on his behalf.
Li Yao's judgment was not wrong.
In fact, the Dim Moon Squad did not completely get rid of the double pursuit of the secret police and the local gangsters at all.
As long as Li Yao followed the local gangsters in secret, he would vaguely smell the intimidating and mysterious scent of the Dim Moon Squad again after more than ten minutes.
Long Yangjun's voice came into his ears at the perfect moment. "I've found the files of the Dim Moon Squad."
Li Yao raised his eyebrow and looked at the downtown area ahead of him. "What do you mean?"
"Decades ago, the Dim Moon Squad was a professional combat squad, or rather, a new department, under the Secret Sword Bureau, an intelligence and investigation agency of the Federation," Long Yangjun said.
"First of all, the Secret Sword Bureau, the intelligence department of the Federation, has been focused on defense ever since it was established. It is not good at offense. You know that, Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture, don't you? I'll get straight to the point."
"Okay. Go on."
Li Yao naturally understood what Long Yangjun meant.
When the Secret Sword Bureau was established, the Xing Yao Federation had only one enemy, which was the Blood Demon Sector.
At that time, the Blood Demon Sector was strong, and the Tian Yuan Realm was weak. The Blood Demon Sector had the strategic initiative and suppressed the Tian Yuan Realm on many occasions. It had also sent countless spies of the demon race to sneak into the Federation for sabotage.
The Secret Sword Bureau, which was established under such circumstances, was naturally a defensive agency that focused on internal security. In the past, Guo Chunfeng had been the supervisor of the Demon Execution Division, the first division of the Secret Sword Bureau. His main mission had been to capture and suppress the spies of the demon race who had snuck into the Federation.
Although the Secret Sword Bureau had sent a batch of spies to the Blood Demon Sector, their mission was only to steal the intelligence about the Tian Yuan Realm, not to attack the Blood Demon Sector on a large scale.
In fact, until Lu Zui and Zhou Hengdao proposed their crazy 'Patriots Plan', the Xing Yao Federation had never intended to march into the Blood Demon Sector, much less sent a large batch of agents into the Blood Demon Sector for sabotage.
The Secret Sword Bureau was born to be a defensive agency. It was part of its genes.
"Under the old system of the Federation, the Secret Sword Bureau was a defensive intelligence agency that focused on internal security. However, in the era of the new Federation, the Xing Yao Federation, which boasted three Sectors, was significantly strengthened and embarked on the path of expansion … Well, if you don't like the word 'expansion', I can use the term 'integration of multiple Sectors'. Well, that's how it embarked on the path of external integration.
"It was especially so after four new Sectors were discovered. The focus of the Secret Sword Bureau's secret work changed from internal security to … 'accelerated integration'. It shifted from defense to offense. Therefore, a lot of dirty and smelly 'wet jobs' appeared.
"Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture, I'm not going to shake your belief, am I?"
"Of course!"
Li Yao frowned. "I'm not so kind as to think that the secret intelligence work is a harmless game. Do you think my nickname 'Vulture' is for nothing? Get to the point! "
"Alright," Long Yangjun said. "The point is that the Dim Moon Squad is a special troop in the Secret Sword Bureau that specializes in 'wet jobs', especially in the four new Sectors. Of course, their name is not 'Dim Moon Squad' on the surface but the Fourth Division of the Secret Sword Bureau."
"The Fourth Division? What's the division?" Li Yao asked.
"The Logistics and Cleaning Division," Long Yangjun said. "It's responsible for cleaning the dust and filth on the way of the Xing Yao Federation."
"… And then?" Li Yao asked.
"The 'Cleaning Division' made great contributions during the decades when the Federation was integrating the four new Sectors. It is even safe to say that it helped a few of the Sectors completely integrate into the Federation decades in advance. However, I'm sort of, in the words of the modern Cultivation civilization, half an agent myself. I know the difficulties of 'wet jobs' very well. Most of the time, I'm wandering in the gray zone between black and white. If I'm not careful, I may even be stained with blood that cannot be washed away, which will slowly rot and stink …"
"So?" Li Yao asked.
"Therefore," Long Yangjun said, "inside the Secret Sword Bureau, there were gradually doubts and disagreements about the practices and styles of the Dim Moon Squad. Other departments were more and more dissatisfied with the 'Cleaning Division'. After the four new Sectors were completely integrated into the Federation, the previous' external problems' turned into 'internal conflicts'. Everybody was a citizen of the Federation now. Naturally, we could no longer follow the methods of the Dim Moon Squad.
"After the seven Sectors were melted, there was less and less time for 'dirty work' to be done. Even if there was, there would be other departments who would do it in a gentler way. The historical mission of the 'Cleaning Department', or the Dim Moon Squad, has been perfectly fulfilled. So, they are now faced with the problem of being reorganized or even eliminated."
Old Bull suddenly realized that the book was five million words long. He was so excited that his eyes were brimming with tears.
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