Li Yao could not help but twitch his lips. He said in a low voice, "The Federation will not mistreat any hero who has made contributions to it, especially the nameless heroes on the secret frontline!" Long Yangjun chuckled.
"Perhaps. However, the 'cleaners' of the Dim Moon Squad had been engaged in the most clandestine and filthy intelligence work during the decades when the Federation melted the four new worlds. Most of them were wounded and left with a lot of diseases. Both physically and mentally, they were transformed into machines of slaughter and destruction by the black war. Even if such people were heroes, they couldn't have returned to society and lived a normal life easily like regular veterans, could they?"
Li Yao nodded. "What was the fate of the 'cleaners' of the Dim Moon Squad in the end?"
"There was a huge disagreement within the Secret Sword Bureau about the fate of the Dim Moon Squad or the 'Cleaning Division'," Long Yangjun said. "It is said that several leadership members of the Secret Sword Bureau were not very happy about it. In the end, all the cleaners of the Dim Moon Squad were kicked out and a 'Dim Moon Fund' was established to take care of their lives in the future, ensuring that they did not have to worry about food and clothing. They could even squander freely for the rest of their lives."
Li Yao was relieved. "Isn't that a good thing?"
"No. Not at all," Long Yangjun said.
"We are all high-level Cultivators. Let's put ourselves in your shoes. Are the words' squander freely for the rest of your lives' enough to satisfy you, Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture?"
Li Yao was slightly dazed. He gradually frowned and mumbled, "You do have a point. For those in the Core Formation Stage and above, material needs are basically no longer a problem. What the high-level Cultivators need more is spiritual satisfaction and the recognition of the public. They even need to carry out their beliefs and expand their ideology to the entire sea of stars!"
"However, speaking of which, does the 'Dim Moon Squad' have any ideology or beliefs?"
"We can't find out such specific details," Long Yangjun said. "All in all, soon after the Dim Moon Fund was established, it was absorbed by another government department and continued to work on the missions that were inconvenient for the government, the Union Army, and the Secret Sword Bureau to interfere with. Many renowned sects would also seek help from the Dim Moon Fund when they needed to protect the interests of their sects in the new world.
"You can understand it this way. Right now, the Xing Yao Federation has two intelligence agencies, one in the open and one in the dark. The one in the open is the Secret Sword Bureau, which is a public agency that focuses on defense and homeland security. You can find the building of the Secret Sword Bureau in the capital city of the Federation. Guo Chunfeng, the director of the Secret Sword Bureau, is one of the leaders of the Federation who often shows up in the media. As time goes by, the files and files of the secret operations of the Secret Sword Bureau in the past decades have been decrypted and presented to the public.
"Public, bright, and focused on security and defense. What an immaculate intelligence agency!
"In the dark, there is also a 'nonexistent intelligence agency', which is the Dim Moon Fund. It is a mysterious and cruel organization that is inclined to attack. You will never find its name in the list of the government departments of the Federation. Even the private funds keep it a secret. The leadership of the Federation will never admit the existence of such an organization or endorse all the operations of the organization. However, it does exist and has infiltrated the dark and bloody corners that the Union Army and the Secret Sword Bureau cannot reach!"
Li Yao was silent for a moment. "Got it."
Long Yangjun chuckled. "No, you don't. Do you want to know who the founder and the first commander of the Dim Moon Squad and the biggest supporter of the Dim Moon Fund is? Do you know why your good disciple Jin Xinyue is called 'Venomous Witch'? "
Li Yao blinked quickly. "Are you serious?"
"Why not? You wouldn't look down on the true disciple of the dominator of three Sectors, would you?" Long Yangjun said quickly.
"More than a hundred years ago, when the Tian Yuan Realm and the Blood Demon Sector were still at war, there was a secret agency named 'Saintess Palace' under the Pantheon of Demons, the government of the Blood Demon Sector. It was dedicated to the training of the saintesses of the Pantheon of Demons. You should know that, right?"
"Of course," Li Yao said.
When he had just met Jin Xinyue, Jin Xinyue had been a saintess of the Pantheon of Demons. She had been sent to the Saintess Palace by her father, Jin Tuyi, since she was a child to receive the cruelest and most professional training of saintesses. The so-called 'saintesses' were actually hybrids of female assassins, female spies, and female agents.
In the two hundred years after the Blood Demon Sector and the Tian Yuan Realm discovered each other, the Blood Demon Sector had always been at an advantage on the battlefield and suppressed the Tian Yuan Realm. Therefore, the Saintess Palace and the Secret Sword Bureau, which were both intelligence agencies, were very different in their genes.
The Saintess Palace was more focused on offense. Its purpose was to send more demon agents to sneak into the Federation for sabotage missions and make preparations for the Blood Demon Sector's complete suppression and even invasion of the Tian Yuan Realm.
The Secret Sword Bureau was more focused on defense. Its main job was to dig out the demon spies who had snuck in and sabotaged the place.
If the Secret Sword Bureau was the most solid shield of the Federation, the Saintess Palace would be the sharpest spear that the Blood Demon Sector stabbed at the Tian Yuan Realm brutally!
"Because the Blood Demon Sector surrendered conditionally," Long Yangjun said. "Jin Xinyue's father, Jin Tuyi, who used to be the commander-in-chief of the Coalition Army of Demons, took most of the war crimes on his own. Also, because of the imminent threat of the expedition army of the Imperium, the system of the Blood Demon Sector did not undergo any major changes. At least, it was the case before Jin Xinyue raised her saber against her compatriots. The Saintess Palace, as a training camp for the intelligence agents of the demon race, was kept under a different name and fell into the hands of Jin Xinyue.
"Jin Xinyue was born as a 'saintess' herself. Naturally, she knew everything about the Saintess Palace like the back of her hand. On one hand, she implemented the reforms on the surface with Skyfire. On the other hand, she established the first batch of absolutely loyal private soldiers through the Saintess Palace. With the private soldiers, she swept away all the dissidents in the demon race in the most ruthless and decisive ways. In the decades that followed, she performed drastic changes on the Blood Demon Sector!
"While the Blood Demon Sector was completely integrated into the Federation, she also gained the absolute control over the entire Blood Demon Sector that even her father, Jin Tuyi, did not achieve!"
Li Yao took a long breath in relief, not knowing what to say.
Long Yangjun chuckled. "I do like the little girl Jin Xinyue very much. You must introduce her to me if you have a chance! Let's go on. While Jin Xinyue was transforming the Blood Demon Sector ruthlessly, she was also marching toward the center of the Federation. She traded some of the benefits of the Blood Demon Sector for the appreciation of a lot of big shots in the Federation. That was how she joined the Secret Sword Bureau.
"At that time, the most important task of the Secret Sword Bureau was to resolve the problems that occurred in the cooperation of the three Sectors, especially in the cooperation between the Tian Yuan Realm and the Blood Demon Sector. Most of the problems were caused by the disobedient demons. It was most appropriate for Jin Xinyue, the saintess of the demon race, to resolve them in person.
"Jin Xinyue did an excellent job. Therefore, she rose quickly in the Secret Sword Bureau and became the frontline commander responsible for direct operations in only twenty years.
"At that time, the first new Sector was discovered. Also, in the foreseeable future, more Sectors would be discovered. The focus of the Secret Sword Bureau had to shift from internal to external and from defense to offense. This was a situation that the traditional agents of the Secret Sword Bureau had never encountered before."
Li Yao thought for a moment and realized that Long Yangjun did have a point.
Take Guo Chunfeng, the most distinguished Secret Sword Agent of the Secret Sword Bureau, who had confronted him many times a hundred years ago and resolved the 'Riot of the Patriots' together in the end.
At that time, Guo Chunfeng was known as the 'strongest Jin Dan' with quadruple talents. He was not scared even if he ran into a Yuanying monster. Also, it was true that he had almost caught Li Yao's tail during many hunting operations.
But it was true that Guo Chunfeng was better at defense than offense. He was better at being a cat that caught mice than a rat that snuck in and sabotaged everything. His relatively conservative and steady personality made him the best candidate to defend the homeland security of the Federation, but he was not necessarily suitable for the Federation's brand-new strategy of active expansion in the universe!
"Do you understand now?" Long Yangjun asked. "The traditional style of the Secret Sword Bureau is defense, but the traditional style of the 'Saintess Palace' is attack, infiltration, spying, sabotage, and slaughter. Now that Jin Xinyue is the director of operations of the Secret Sword Bureau, she naturally thought of her old subordinates when faced with the new situation.
"Therefore, the 'Saintess Palace', which used to be under the command of the Pantheon of Demons in the Blood Demon Sector, became the 'Fourth Division of the Secret Sword Bureau' after decades of changes. Its nickname was the 'Logistics and Cleaning Division', and its code name was the 'Dim Moon Squad' internally. Many of the members in the beginning carried the bloodline of demons. Jin Xinyue was the first commander herself.
"In the beginning, the Dim Moon Squad was perhaps just a temporary agency that was established to deal with a certain special event or a particularly stubborn and heinous enemy. However, after only a few decades, four new Sectors were discovered in a row, and the integration of resources and the unity of the people's minds was to be completed before the army of the Imperium arrived. Such 'special events' were bound to happen all the time. Therefore, in the decades that followed, the scale, capability, and permissions of the Dim Moon Squad continued to expand, and it gradually became unstoppable!"
Li Yao took a deep breath. "Wait. I'm afraid that the inside story can't be elicited in less than twenty minutes, can it?"
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