After hanging up the phone, Yu Sheng pondered for a few seconds, then took a deep breath: "Ah, it's not easy being the director."

As soon as he finished speaking, Erin beside him spread her small hands: "Why do I feel like half of her troubles recently are thanks to you?"

"It's not my fault about tonight's matter," Yu Sheng quickly replied, "The Artificial Saintess of the Venerate Saints Monastery had infiltrated here, and I discovered it in advance. In the long run, this could save the Special Service Bureau a lot of trouble..."

Erin thought for a moment: "Really?"

"Of course," Yu Sheng chuckled, then waved his hand, "Alright, go call Hu Li back. Let's take that arm to the Special Service Bureau for the experts to have a look first..."

Just as he finished speaking, before Erin had a chance to respond, they heard a series of lively footsteps coming from the basement stairs. Next, Hu Li came running up with the "iron arm" already disassembled into three pieces, all fingers severed, gleefully showing it off to Yu Sheng: "Savior! I cut it off!"

Yu Sheng was taken aback: "So fast?"

Erin was also surprised, widening her eyes at the thing Hu Li was holding: "It's already cut off? And all the joints are disassembled?!"

"Yup, yup," Hu Li nodded vigorously, then added, "It wasn't easy to cut. The flame I used to cut steel bars could only heat it up red, but fortunately, I managed with some spells. As for these joints, they were easier than the blades to deal with, one hard snap and they were off, though it took quite a lot of strength..."

Erin laughed at that: "See, see, that's how C-clamps are."

Hu Li blinked: "Why do you have such a big issue with these joints?"

"Imagine another demon fox exists in the world, and when it combs its fur, it does it backward from tail to head..."

Hu Li's tail visibly fluffed up—a sign of goosebumps: "I, I get it!"

At this point, Yu Sheng finally spoke: "Alright then, since it's disassembled, take the parts to Baili Qing for a look too—bring the blades that were cut off. And that headscarf, Erin, you take it. Let's head to the Special Service Bureau."

"Alright!" "Okay~~"

As they spoke, an illusory door to the entrance of Baili Qing's office was opened.

Crossing the door, the brightly lit corridor of the Special Service Bureau came into view—even though it was now deep into the night, most of the floors of this building were still brightly lit. As a special department monitoring countless Exotic Realm portals, responsible for maintaining peace in the entire Boundary Land, it seemed someone was on duty here twenty-four hours a day.

When Yu Sheng stepped into the office door, Baili Qing was behind the desk on the phone.

"...Must act as a team, be cautious of being alone, the Artificial Saintess is very dangerous.

"Focus on inspecting the northern part of the old city, but if the fog is too thick, withdraw. The first phase goal is to deploy the detectors in advance...

"Monitoring group standby on Deep Dive Channel 16...

"Report any issues to me at any time."

Baili Qing was busy and efficiently giving one directive after another, until the call ended. Looking up to see Yu Sheng walking in, she barely managed to pull a semblance of a smile on her face.

"Are you already deploying investigators?" Yu Sheng guessed based on the conversation he just overheard.

"Yes, a group of deep divers has already entered the mist. They will move towards the old city from the 'other side', focusing on the area where you were attacked," Baili Qing said, gently rubbing her forehead, "The Artificial Saintess wouldn't simply appear within the jurisdiction of the Special Service Bureau without reason. Their tasks are usually to protect important assets and personnel; there must be something nearby... The appearance of this 'Mist City' is becoming increasingly suspicious."

She paused at this point, her gaze sweeping back and forth between Yu Sheng, Hu Li, and Erin, showing a slight severity, perhaps even some concern.

Yu Sheng found the way she looked at him a bit awkward: "Uh, what's up?"

"You were ambushed by the Artificial Saintess, and you're not injured?" Baili Qing's tone was evidently incredulous.

Her words made Yu Sheng's expression a bit subtle.

How to explain this—if he said he wasn't injured, that was definitely not the case. He had suffered fatal wounds, with eight holes stabbed into him, but if he said he was injured, there was no sign of it now, just fatal wounds...

Yu Sheng's face twitched, then he tried hard to maintain a straight face: "Just some minor injuries, I have a pretty good physique, and I heal quickly."

Baili Qing looked at Yu Sheng with some suspicion, probably unable to imagine what superficial injuries looked like after being ambushed by an Artificial Saintess. Luckily, she didn't delve into this topic, instead her eyes quickly focused on what Hu Li and Erin were holding in their hands.

Yu Sheng asked the two of them to put the items directly on Baili Qing's desk.

Baili Qing looked at the pile of things seriously for a few seconds, then thoughtfully raised her head: "... How come I remember this arm in your photo being intact?"

"Ahem, that's just a bit of research spirit, and I needed these blades, so I had Hu Li take it apart," Yu Sheng said, a bit embarrassed, scratching his nose, then guilty and asked, "Shouldn't have dismantled it?"

"That's… not the case, these things still have value even when taken apart. Our goal is mainly to extract information from these," Baili Qing shook her head, "I'll have people from the appraisal department come over; some of them are more knowledgeable about these types of things."

Saying that, she paused, and cast an extra glance at Yu Sheng: "Don't worry, we'll return them to you after the examination."

Yu Sheng upon hearing this, laughed: "No problem, I mostly want the blades on these, you can keep the other parts, anyway I wouldn't be able to analyze anything from it."

As he said this, he suddenly thought of something, quickly stepping forward two steps, pointing at the veil and saying to Baili Qing: "Additionally, I discovered something—this thing actually has a trademark on it, and even a hand wash recommendation label..."

Baili Qing remained calm, listened, and asked: "Is there a problem with that?"

"Uh... is there no problem?" Yu Sheng didn't quite get it, "Venerate Saints Monastery, Artificial Saintess, these sound both sinister and high-end, yet the special equipment carried by them has a trademark and it's quite an ordinary brand—though it seems a bit pricey, this..."

"What else?" Baili Qing's expression remained unchanged, yet a hint of "what's this guy fussing about?" flashed in her eyes, "Venerate Saints Monastery is also a mortal organization—they can't be completely self-sufficient in daily life, nor can they create materials out of thin air, so isn't buying things from external channels normal?"

Yu Sheng: "... Seems so?"

Baili Qing instinctively gave Yu Sheng another two glances, for some reason, her eyes held some amused gleam.

Perhaps she was reflecting on how the usually unpredictable guy before her also had moments where his mind couldn't wrap around things.

However, she quickly concealed any oddness in her expression.

The people from the appraisal department soon arrived, taking away the remnants of the Artificial Saintess's arm and the veil, and after they left, Yu Sheng found a chair for himself and sat down, finally asking the question he had wanted to ask Baili Qing before leaving the house.

"The 'Venerate Saints Monastery' you mentioned, what exactly do they do? Are they a cult similar to the Angel Sect? How did they end up in the Boundary Land?"

Baili Qing adjusted herself behind the office desk, nodded solemnly.

"In most civilized circles, Venerate Saints Monastery is indeed classified as a cult," she began speaking, "but there's a significant difference between them and the Angel Sect in terms of organizational structure and conduct.

"The structure of the Angel Sect is quite loose; besides their common worship of the 'Dark Angel' entity, they internally divide into various 'branches'. Each Dark Angel has its small sect gathered under them, which leads to the Angel Sect, though numerous, never forming a unified force, making it comparatively simple to deal with.

"Whereas Venerate Saints Monastery, represents another extreme.

"They collectively abide by a doctrine known as 'Path of Venerate Saint', having clear organizational objectives and a complete set of conduct guidelines. With a tightly knit organizational structure, strict and efficient personnel management, their numbers, though far fewer than the Angel Sect, result in greater overall strength. In some lawless areas, they even possess stable bases and a large armament—this can be seen from their ability to produce killing machines like the 'Artificial Saintess'.

"You should be deeply impressed by the combat effectiveness of the 'Artificial Saintess'—and in fact, these things are mass-producible."

Yu Sheng was shocked upon hearing this: "...That thing is mass-producible?!"

Baili Qing nodded lightly: "Yes, you didn't mishear, mass-producible—though only small scale within the core areas under Venerate Saints Monastery's control, so the total number isn't much, you don't have to worry about encountering an entire army of 'Artificial Saintess'."

Yu Sheng clicked his tongue, after collecting his thoughts asked: "Alright, then what did that 'Path of Venerate Saint' you mentioned mean?"

Baili Qing took a soft breath, then spoke in a deep voice:

"Venerate Saints Monastery believes that our world currently has serious defects, and all disasters and suffering—including but not limited to exotic realm, wars, plagues, famines, etc.—are caused by these defects. At the same time, they also believe that all human flaws, such as greed, selfishness, cowardice, are reflections of the world's deficiencies—in brief, 'the world and everyone living in it are defective products'.

"Their 'mission' is to repair all these deficiencies.

"They believe humans can be repaired to 'perfection', that is through spiritual and physical tempering, modification, sanctifying a person into a perfect 'Saint', or directly using technical means to create a perfect 'Saint', the so-called 'Artificial Saintess' is one of the by-products of this thought.

"Based on this theory, they also believe the world can be repaired to 'perfection', only the method of repairing the world has yet to be figured out—to find this method, the first step must be to create a true Supreme Saint as described in their doctrine...

"And all efforts made towards this goal are what's known as 'Path of Venerate Saint'..."

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