Chapter 31: Retaliation

Early in the morning, Su Chen was still eating breakfast when he suddenly felt the jade ornament hanging at his waist heating up as it glowed with a bright red light.

This was the emergency communicator given by the Origin Bureau. Anyone who received the call would need to go to the Origin Bureau at once.

Did something happen?

Su Chen calmly ate his last bite of breakfast before wiping his mouth. “Iron Cliff, prepare the carriage. We’re going to the Origin Bureau.”

When Su Chen arrived, a majority of the Origin Qi Scholars had already arrived.

Upon seeing Su Chen, they bowed in unison. “Greetings, Knowledge Executor!”

Even though Su Chen spent most of his time in his research lab, he would still come to the Origin Bureau at least once a day to keep his control over the Origin Bureau. At this point, he was familiar with everyone who worked here.

“What happened?” Su Chen said as he walked over. However, he immediately discovered the reason for the summons.

As the crowd parted, he found a corpse lying within the main hall.

The deceased person was called Liu Jiyun. He was one of the Origin Qi Scholars at the Origin Bureau. He wasn’t very strong, with a cultivation base only at the Qi Drawing Realm, but he had been one of the first individuals to openly support Su Chen. He could be considered to have been Su Chen’s trusted aide.

But now, he had died, and his corpse had been put on display in the Origin Bureau’s main hall.

Su Chen asked expressionlessly as he stared at Liu Jiyun’s corpse, “Who discovered it? And where?”

“One of the night watchmen discovered it. He was found dead in West Water Street,” replied one of the Origin Qi Scholars responsible for standing guard.

“Why wasn’t there a report yesterday?”

“There was. The Investigations Office took the case and just handed him over to us.”

“The Investigations Office?” Su Chen’s gaze shrank viciously.

He gazed at the corpse and asked, “Was no one sent to the scene of the crime at West Water Street?”

“Someone was sent, but unfortunately, the person didn’t discover anything. The Investigations Office didn’t do anything to keep the location off-limits. People have been trampling all over the scene since early in the morning, and it’s been ruined already. I asked them why they didn’t hand over the victim earlier and why they didn’t protect the scene earlier. They replied that the Origin Bureau isn’t responsible for investigating and that we don’t have the authority to lecture them. They said that they didn’t give us the victim because there was no one at night and that everyone needed to rest. They didn’t keep the location off-limits because there was no value in keeping it off-limits. This was just a gang murder as a result of a robbery gone wrong.”

“A gang murder?” Su Chen harrumphed angrily. “Quite the excuse!”

Liu Jiyun’s corpse only had two wounds on it - one in his chest and one in the back of his neck. Both were fatal wounds. It was obvious that he had been ambushed and killed by two Origin Qi Scholars.

Gangsters didn’t kill people like that.

Evidently, the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans were carrying out their revenge against him.

Even if we can’t attack you directly, we can at least attack your underlings!

Upon realizing this, a cold smile danced on Su Chen’s lips. “So it’s begun, has it?”

“Knowledge Executor Su! What should we do?” Duan Feng asked.

Su Chen had realized it, but so had the rest of the people present.

Su Chen knew very well that if he didn’t manage this situation carefully, he, who had taken control of the Origin Bureau by force, would quickly lose the trust of his subordinates, and eventually his authority would be in name only. At that time, the Origin Bureau would fall into the hands of the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans again.

He lowered his head in thought for a moment before saying, “From today onwards, everyone should be careful when on business, and try not to be alone. The Origin Bureau also needs to be more heavily guarded; we will need four Origin Qi Scholars here at all times. If you feel unsafe where you live, you can also come live in the Origin Bureau itself. In addition, we must begin to utilize the martial artists in the Origin Bureau better. Every person must take at least ten Origin Bureau martial artists with them before going out on business.”

Someone said disdainfully, “How useful can a bunch of Body Tempering martial artists be?”

“Using them as shields against ambushes, to secure retreat routes, and to delay and waste time are all possible.”

“But that’s still not a way of dealing with the issue.”

Su Chen said, “Just focus on protecting yourselves for now. I’ll take care of everything else. Duan Feng, you come with me to the City Lord’s residence.”

“Yes, sir!”

Half an hour later.

In the City Lord’s residence’s backyard.

An Siyuan teased his white-beaked parrot as he said, “I already know what happened. Unfortunately, I probably won’t be of much help concerning this matter. Even if we know that they were the ones who did it, it won’t be of any use; without evidence, we can’t just charge over there and demand payback, can we?”

“Junior officer understands. Actually, even if there was a formal investigation, it wouldn’t have made a difference. The people at the Investigations Office are under their control anyways.”

“As long as you know. It’s hard being the City Lord; I have a lot of ambition, but I’m always being restricted by these nobility clans and can’t bring my full strength out to bear. Don’t you think so, Little White?”

The white-beaked parrot flapped its wings and screeched, “Those Nobility Clans are tyrannical; they ignore the law, cling to their self-importance, and corrupt basic moral order!”

“Well said,” An Siyuan laughed as he fed his white-beaked parrot some treats.

Su Chen said, “Junior officer realizes this. But City Lord, don’t you think that allowing the Investigations Office to do as they please for such a long time without restricting them is a big problem?”

“What? You also want to snatch the Investigations Office for yourself?” An Siyuan laughed.

Su Chen replied, “Junior officer is just one person, and I don’t have the ability to clone myself; I’m not thinking about controlling the Investigations Office. However, the Investigations Office is responsible for handling security within the city, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to hand its duty over to a third party. Since that’s the case, why not expand the authority of the Origin Bureau a bit......”

“Hm?” An Siyuan froze. “You mean, let the Origin Bureau take over the Investigations Office’s job? That’s impossible. That would be interfering with their authority.”

“Of course, it’s impossible under normal circumstances, but what if it involves Origin Qi Scholars and turns into a joint operation?”

“Involves Origin Qi Scholars and is turned into a joint operation?” An Siyuan squinted his eyes. “You mean?”

“City Lord, why don’t you send out a notice saying that the Investigations Office didn’t do a good job investigating the death of Liu Jiyun and that because this matter involves Origin Qi Scholars, the Origin Bureau should also be added to the case?”

It was definitely impossible for the Origin Bureau to officially replace the Investigations Office. But a joint operation on one of the cases, with its authority restricted to that specific case? There wasn’t any issue with that at all.

An Siyuan understood what Su Chen was getting at. “You want to blow the whole thing up?”

“That depends on how they respond,” Su Chen responded indifferently. “They’ve already fought their way to our front step; it won’t make sense if we don’t counterattack. As long as City Head is willing to give me this authority, I am willing to spearhead this attack.”

“Have you thought about the consequences?”

“The consequences are that they will die very tragic deaths.”

An Siyuan was slightly startled before he tilted his back and laughed loudly, “Haha, good! Ambitious! Bold! Truly a hero amongst youths! Since that’s the case, I’ll agree. I’ll write a letter granting the Origin Bureau the authority to participate in this case. The rest will depend on you.”

Su Chen leading the Origin Bureau into battle against the ten Great Nobility Clans would only benefit An Siyuan no matter what the outcome of the battle was.

With An Siyuan’s support, Su Chen clasped his hands and said, “Many thanks for your support, sir. Please wait for the good news!”

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TL note: Below is the author’s note. He whines a lot about his readers but in case any of you had some questions or comments I felt like this would be pertinent to read. You may feel that it’s controversial, in which case feel free to skip it. (Yes, he really does whine a lot.)

I know that there are many people who have made many different suggestions and complaints throughout the process of my writing this novel. Some people are right, some people are wrong, and some people are just looking to pick a fight. To the former, I thank you; to the middle group, I can explain things; and to the latter, I will ignore you.

This is a kind of progress in the human life.

However, even though I’m not going to argue with you, I still need to explain some things so that misunderstandings won’t be turned into the truth and propagated.

I’ll explain some of these absurd ideas below for you.

Some people attack Su Chen’s moral character simply because he performs human experiments and question how a person like him is fit to talk about the prominence of the human race. Others think that because Su Chen was only in the Qi Drawing Realm when he made his vow to transform the human race that he is too naive.

I think that’s quite laughable.

Let me first address the “idealistic” concerns. People who raised the latter concern probably don’t understand what “youthful ambition” is. But at the very least, I know what “Reading for the Reading for the Rise to Prominence of China” means. If you don’t know who said it, you might want to go and take a look at who said it, and how old he was when he said it[1. Zhou Enlai (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai), a very, very famous Chinese politician from the Mao Zedong era of communist China, said it in 1911, supposedly, which would be when he was 13. According to other biographical notes, he also said lots of things along these lines when he was younger.]

If you don’t understand still, Stephen Chow said it best: “If a person doesn’t have dreams, what’s the difference between them and a salted fish?”

That’s all I’ll say about being idealistic. There’s no need to say much more, because that’s mostly a personal opinion, not really fallacious reasoning. It won’t confuse too many people.

The people with fallacious reasonings are the former, who think that Su Chen’s performing experiments on humans is unethical and means that he isn’t worthy of talking about the prominence of the human race.

There are two main points that I must address.

Firstly: Main points have always been different from details. Those who wishfully believe that people who don’t bother with the details can’t have grand ambitions are too naive. In fact, I have emphasized in this very novel that details and main points are very different. There are many examples of people who neglect some details but don’t forget their main goal. Read some books and you’ll be able to find plenty.

Secondly: The ethical backlash against human experimentation is a modern concept. It’s not that we can’t use current standards to evaluate the past, but please, be balanced. In this age, using humans for experiments isn’t ethical, and neither is murdering people. The idiom that human life is invaluable isn’t just a saying; no matter what kind of maltreatment you are subject to, you don’t have the right to carry out your own form of vigilante justice. There is only one organization that can kill people lawfully, and that’s the government’s way of enforcing the law. However, in xuanhuan[2. This novel falls under the xuanhuan category. See this thread for more details (I like lividdeath’s explanation the best): https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/difference-between-xianxia-xuanhuan-and-wuxia.39018/)], people are always getting killed as long as the author gives them a reasonable motivation.

Vigilante justice is entirely justified in the world of xuanhuan novels.

If someone wrote a novel where the main character wouldn’t kill anyone under any circumstances, I can only imagine how this novel would flop.

That is because the valuation of human life in a novel is different.

In the same principle, if killing people is allowed, then experiments that don’t kill people should also be fine. As long as the people being experimented on aren’t ethical themselves, then it’s fine. This kind of principle, again, is very common in settings of xuanhuan novels.

Being fine with killing people but not with performing human experiments is a double standard in and of itself, and those who are trying to pick a fight often use this line of logic.

I just want to explain this so that people aren’t misled without even realizing it.

There are a few other people who say things like “Su Chen wants to start a revolution, but revolutions are only possible with women”, etc. These kinds of thoughts haven’t spread, however, and will never spread, so I won’t trifle with them.

As the author, I will speak through my creation. You have the right to stop reading if you don’t think it’s a good book. But spouting nonsense...... Be careful not to get your face slapped; even if I’m not the one doing it, someone will do it.

That’s all I’ll say for now.