Chapter 2455: Nervous and Anxious

Unlike other government bodies, the Jixing Department held authority to supervise all hundred officials and even the Imperial City's Three Departments. Its main office was located in the outer city, occupying its own area, distinct and separate from the emperor, symbolizing its independent supervisory authority, free from any interference.

The main office of the Jixing Department was built on a grand scale. Unlike the comparatively secretive Mirror World Platform, whose main focus wasn't overt supervision, or the Central Heavenly Prison which operated primarily in the dark of night, the Jixing Department was a force of enforcement that walked in the sunlight. Its functions unified control over all Jixing departments within its jurisdiction.

The notoriously evil Central Heavenly Prison was situated directly beneath the Imperial City. Above ground lay the human heavenly kingdom, while below ground was the human hell.

Some powerful beings, through crisscrossing gaps, gazed at the sky and called it fate.

The Mirror World Platform, which supervised the world, had its core entrance in Tianming Temple's Ancestral Hall, also naturally located within the Imperial City.

The Jixing Department, tasked with "Jixing the world's unlawful," was located in the west of the Imperial City, directly opposite Tianming Temple in the east.

The world sometimes resembled a massive tree, with each branch diverging into different lives. Decay and sprouting, destruction and new birth, all occurred on the same tree, even simultaneously.

"Everyone stand still!" Ouyang Jie clenched his five fingers, already grasping the Jixing iron whip offered in the main office, and roared sternly.

At this critical moment for the empire, he dared not be negligent today; no one could be fully trusted!

All the approaching enforcers froze in place, staring at each other vigilantly, each one incredibly tense. A single spark could instantly ignite an explosion!

The pressure on them during this period was already immense. If the chief enforcer Ouyang Jie, who was usually revered like a god, had some problem, at least half the people here would collapse.

"I just wanted to see how many of you could react!" Ouyang Jie's cold eyes, like lightning, swept over them: "Your reaction is still too slow. If something happens to me, don't you know the first thing to do? First, close the doors! Protect the Jixing Department's secret files! Then, send a message to the central great hall!"

All the enforcers admitted their guilt.

"I'm fine." Ouyang Jie calmed his mind and then said: "Everyone go back to your own tasks. I still have some secrets to handle. Unrelated people are not allowed in the main hall. Disperse!"

At this time, these people were in dire need of clear commands. Regardless of the suspicions in their hearts, the chief enforcer still maintained his strength and dignity, so they all retreated like a receding tide.

Ouyang Jie, holding the Jixing iron whip in his hand, walked step by step into the main hall and sat down on the chief enforcer's chair.

After surveying his surroundings and confirming that no one had encroached upon his authority and that the Jixing Department was undisturbed, he began to trace the source of that dizziness.

The national power of the Great Jing Empire was held within his own body; the authority of the world's Jixing Department was grasped in his palm.

His power, Ouyang Jie's power, was comparable to very few in the entire central empire; he was an absolute top figure.

His strength was naturally also formidable.

Closing his eyes at this moment, before him was a realm of endless complexity, countless clues intertwined within it in the form of lines, a chaotic mess, and yet a poem of order.

Heavenly Stair Dao Law · Poem of Laws!

All information related to this matter submitted itself before him, allowing him to review it. From the chaos, a unique rhythm was woven out.

Suddenly, all the lines flew in four directions, unraveling the threads, revealing the final "truth."

Thus, he saw a flying insect.

At first, it resembled an extremely short line, hanging vertically.

But then its delicate wings spread, its trembling feathers moved, and it became vivid.

This insect had fifteen wings, seven on the left and eight on the right. Hanging from its abdomen was a gallbladder sac, with faintly visible green bile. In front of its mouthparts hung a heart—it should be a heart, beating slowly.

Both the gallbladder sac and the heart seemed to be human organs.

Ouyang Jie had handled cases for so many years, what strange things hadn't he seen? But he could not recognize the name of this insect.

He could only confirm that his earlier dizziness was precisely the influence of this insect leaving his body.

How could it parasitize on this body, completely unnoticed by a Derivation True Monarch!

Ouyang Jie dared not be negligent. He flipped his palm, took out the Jixing order, activated the chief enforcer's authority, mobilized the power of the entire Jixing Department, and used pure criminal force to cleanse his own body!

This was a rather painful experience, but only through this could those obscure attachments, undetectable even to himself, have nowhere to hide.

Fortunately, the result was good. His Dao body was left without any traces. That mysterious insect did nothing extra, it just left like that.

And when he tried to track the direction of this mysterious flying insect, he found nothing.

That moment of dizziness had already cut off all clues.

The other party was obviously also a Dao expert, willing to alarm him rather than expose the true purpose of this trip.

How could he let such an unknown entity wander in Tianjing City?

Ouyang Jie disregarded the dignity of the Jixing Department chief enforcer, simultaneously transmitting the news of this mysterious flying insect to the Three Pure Profound Capital Supreme Palace and Tianming Temple, while continuing his tracking.

He didn't trace backward; instead, he traced forward.

If he could know the origin of this flying insect, he could naturally deduce its direction.

That cluttered and disordered world of clues once again unfolded before his eyes.

This time, after unraveling the threads, he saw a very interesting person—born dashing and unrestrained, with a green gourd of wine hanging from his waist.

Great Luo Mountain successor, Tianjing Jixing Department South City Enforcer, Xu San!

Was Xu San a thief?

With Xu San's talent and identity, even if there was a real problem, it was impossible to use him now. That would be a huge waste.

Ouyang Jie continued tracing. His power extended infinitely, and his perspective seemed to follow that flying insect, continuously flying backward in the vast and boundless world. Streaming light turned into myriad forms, heaven and earth folded, and finally settled on a woman with a pale face, yet painted with rouge.

A woman with a heavy aura of death.

A corpse?

Ouyang Jie knew the truth with a single thought—Hell Has No Gate, Coroner Wang!

The trajectory of that mysterious flying insect was now so clear—Hell Has No Gate, employed by some faction, attempted to interfere with Ji XuanZhen using Beru as bait in the sea battlefield. The leader of Hell Has No Gate who came to ignite a firework was pursued across heaven and earth. Even the other members of Hell Has No Gate, the Yan Luo who only pretended to approach, did not escape the Jixing Department's pursuit.

It was precisely when Xu San was pursuing Coroner Wang that he was parasitized by that insect, and then, when reporting at sea, transmitted it to himself.

Coroner Wang could not possibly have such ability; there was certainly someone behind her.

Ouyang Jie's eyes were surrounded by blue veins protruding like dragon whiskers.

He increased the criminal force!

Secret Art · Dragon Whisker Vision!

Finally, he saw a room in the pitch-black night, Coroner Wang's corpse, lying quietly on the bed, practicing in its unique way. And beside the bed, on a chair, sat a person.

A person sat quietly in the shadow, not even their figure revealed, looking very mysterious.

Ouyang Jie looked forward, and that person suddenly turned back—

Before his eyes was a vast expanse of white!

Ouyang Jie suddenly opened his eyes!

Strands of bloody hair on his eyeballs stood up, then he smoothed them down.

A drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead.

That person, who was it?

Who wanted to use Coroner Wang to accomplish this matter?

Did the other side foresee the outcome of the sea battlefield, even knowing that he would certainly appear?

From the beginning, was he the target?

But with such elaborate effort, what did the other side want to do?

A winding path.

A "heart-hanging" strange flying insect...

Did Coroner Wang still have some secret background?

At this moment, too many questions swirled in Ouyang Jie's mind.

But he had no time to think—it could only be left for later.

Because regarding Tianjing City, the most important change had arrived. He stood up in one stride, picked up that Jixing iron whip, and conveniently took the law rope!

"The sky of different lives, like crisscrossing branches, is composed of fragmented, irregular blocks."

"Therefore, the fate we gaze at is always incomplete."

"There are always some branches blocking the shadows, at first we thought it was birds flying over the human world."

Qian Chou had been constantly recalling this passage recently.

On the same noon, Gu Shiyi sacrificed himself for righteousness in the East Sea, that strange flying insect had not yet had time to land on Ouyang Jie's body, Great Jing Emperor Ji Fengzhou in the royal garden was assassinated by Yi Zhen... The Great Jing Empire's evil-suppressing commander Kuang Ming had already fallen into Equality's siege.

On Xingyue Plain, heavenly light shifted, the chessboard of fate played out several life-and-death moves.

Zhao Zi, Qian Chou, Sun Yin.

These three protectors truly fit the image of the murderers who surrounded and killed Yin Xiaoheng on Tianma Plain.

Even their methods, even their hate!

Yin Xiaoheng's messy corpse, spread across Tianma Plain, as if it was an indictment against these three protectors of Equality Country.

The blood marks on the corpse, stroke by stroke, were their names.

But Yin Xiaoheng was not killed by them.

It wasn't that they didn't want to.

In fact, for a long time, they had been preparing to do so.

In fact, they were about to do so.

Yin Xiaoheng had already completed the accumulation of the True Person stage, in the process of the absolute peak's leap. Once he successfully ascended, he would be, after Ying Jianghong, another Military Family Grandmaster who could lead troops to launch a hegemonic country war.

At that time, killing him would be almost impossible except through a hegemonic country war.

No one was willing to see that moment.

As long as there was an opportunity before them, they would absolutely not hesitate.

And that opportunity appeared on Tianma Plain.

In some sense, the people of Jing Country attributing Yin Xiaoheng's death to Equality Country was probably not wrong. Because Zhao Zi, Qian Chou, and Sun Yin were originally prepared to do so.

Although the reason was not this reason, it's not true that having the idea of killing constitutes murder. But Zhao Zi and the others were clearer—explanation was meaningless.

Even if Equality Country stepped forward to declare the truth, they would not be trusted, only exposing weakness and causing more meaningless casualties among their members.

Gu Shiyi would step forward to say that the truth was not so, because his Dao was rooted there.

Equality Country itself remained silent.

To kill in silence, or to be killed.

The three protectors stood in three positions.

Directly facing Kuang Ming was Sun Yin. He was the only one on the field wearing a mask, a tiger head mask. That mask was not ferocious at all, but rather cute and naive. But the eyes revealed under the mask held the absolute cruelty of the king of a hundred beasts.

He quietly watched Kuang Ming.

Kuang Ming's hands were long already below his knees, holding the iron spear upside down, as if pointing to all living beings. The spiral gun patterns on it continuously impacted the Dao principles of this chessboard world.

He stood at the center, or rather, this chessboard world itself unfolded with him as the center.

He felt his power, even every part of his Dao body, being targeted by this chessboard world.

Looking at the lines of the chessboard, sharp with cold light, like a butcher's knife dissecting an ox. Looking at them, his body seemed to be dissected face to face.

These people had researched him for a long time!

He could almost imagine, in some lonely nights, all information about him, piled up and sent to these people, letting them repeatedly ponder, seeking death without residue.

"Zhao Zi, Qian Chou, Sun Yin." Kuang Ming slowly turned his body, his gaze equally sweeping over the three protectors, calling their names, the corners of his mouth curved in a cruel cold intent: "Is someone missing?"

"Have you played chess before?"

He lifted the iron spear, drew a fierce arc in the air, and fiercely thrust it into the ground: "As long as there is one breath left, it cannot be removed!"

The moment the spear tip entered the ground, cracks spread like lightning, growing wantonly in the chessboard world.

Just like lightning tearing the sky, the cracks killed by Kuang Ming cut the crisscrossing chess lines into fragments!

But whether it was Zhao Zi, Qian Chou, or Sun Yin, they all just looked at him coldly.

"Hmm?"

Kuang Ming saw at this moment that a layer of black light covered his Dao body.

While Zhao Zi, Qian Chou, and the others were covered in white light.

The enemies and friends in this chessboard world were thus distinguished.

Zhao Zi stood there quietly, lifting two slender fingers, and from somewhere, picked up a white chess piece—

"You mean... missing Li Mao?" she asked.

Perhaps this was it.

Her two fingers lifted.

Kuang Ming's iron spear had sunk several inches into the ground, being forced out inch by inch.

Zhao Zi tossed the chess piece away.

The cracks caused by Kuang Ming in the chessboard world were, just like this chess piece, taken away!

Just as he stepped over the main hall threshold, he suddenly had a moment of dizziness. His figure swayed!

For a Derivation True Monarch, this was unbelievable.

"My lord!"

In front of the hall hung a section of the "Law Rope," said to have been obtained by Taizu from the Three Criminal Palaces, capable of judging right from wrong.

The main office offered a "Jixing Iron Whip," which was initially personally granted by Taizu for the Jixing Department to hold.

This whip was exceptionally righteous, forged with thorn patterns on both sides. The front bore the four characters "No Restraint of Common Dao," and the back, "No Regard for Royalty." Its might and power were evident.

The Jixing Department was a large yamen, with officials coming and going like weaving threads, each one hurried.

Along the way, enforcers constantly stopped to salute. Ouyang Jie's eyes did not stray; he strode forward, turned around at several key points, and then stepped into the Jixing main hall.

Outside the yamen was a "Tianwen Drum," striking it would resound for a thousand li, and the criminal officials would not stop until they arrived.

Thus, these three yamen were also called the "Imperial City Three Departments," and were vital departments of Jing Country.

"Chief Enforcer! What happened to you?"

The surrounding enforcers surged like a tide.

So after Beru and Gu Shiyi successively died, he first returned to Tianjing City, stationed at the Jixing Department headquarters.

The vast Tianjing City could be roughly divided into the outer city and the inner city, among which the inner city had a core area called the "Imperial City."

The chief of the world's Jixing Department, Ouyang Jie, took one step in heavenly light and one step in Tianjing.

Bearing such an important position, overseeing security on all sides, he would undoubtedly have major responsibilities in the upcoming massive changes that would sweep the court.

The Three Pure Profound Capital Supreme Palace was the absolute core of the Imperial City. Surrounding this palace unfolded various palace complexes, together forming the Great Jing Imperial Palace. On this basis, plus the various palaces of imperial relatives, the mansions of meritorious nobles, and the residences of the so-called "Tiandu Hundred Officials," that was the composition of Great Jing Imperial City.

The "Tiandu Classics" produced there had to be classics; their original source was the bedside reading of these officials. Even the leisure books read by officials were not the same as those of commoners; they had to have their own aesthetic interests. Later, the "Tiandu Publishing House" was established on this basis, making money daily, and the "Tiandu Classics" became popular throughout the world, yet it was an unintentional willow tree story.

Reading Red Heart Patrolling Heaven.