Chapter 248: The Legend of the Bureau of Punishnts, Ma Yinlong!
Given that person’s capabilities, the guards around the plump rchant shouldn’t be a match at all. Ordinarily speaking, the plump rchant would be the one getting beaten up instead.
But the conclusion was the opposite of what Wang Chong expected.
"Interesting."
Clearly, the middle-aged man didn’t intend to retaliate at all. Given the circumstances, Wang Chong also thought that it was inappropriate for him to step in, so he watched by the side.
"What a downer!"
"Let’s go! We shouldn’t waste our ti on trash."
Having vented his anger, the plump rchant walked away while hurling insults. After that, the unkempt middle-aged man slowly climbed to his feet.
Despite having suffered such a vicious beating, the man’s body was still astonishingly stable. His feet and shoulders didn’t shake in the least with his movents, as though he wasn’t injured in the slightest.
"What a formidable martial artist!" Miyasa Ayaka narrowed her eyes and exclaid in shock from Wang Chong’s side.
The guards employed by the plump rchant possessed considerable strength, and they did give it their all while pumling the man. Under such a torrent of blows, if Miyasa Ayaka were to choose not to retaliate as well, she would surely have suffered grievous wounds.
And yet, the man seed to be completely unhurt at all.
"A true expert!" Wang Chong’s eyebrows twitched in surprise. That person was much stronger than he had initially expected him to be.
The onlookers dispersed, and pedestrians quickly filled the street once more. Just like a bubble on the surface of the sea, the commotion slowly disappeared. Other than Wang Chong, Miyasa Ayaka, and the guards from the Zhuang Clan and Chi Clan, no one paid the matter any heed.
And the person didn’t seem to have noticed Wang Chong and his group either. As the man finally straightened his body, Wang Chong suddenly caught sight of his face.
"It’s him?" Wang Chong’s eyelids twitched, and a na suddenly flashed across his mind. He didn’t expect to et that person here.
"Gongzi, you know him?" Miyasa Ayaka asked as she stared at the gloomy back of the middle-aged man, until he slowly disappeared amidst the crowd.
"Un," Wang Chong nodded with a bizarre glint in his eyes.
"Follow . We might have really found a formidable aid this ti around!" Wang Chong said, changing his mind. Instead of returning back to the Wang Clan, he turned around and walked in the direction the middle-aged man disappeared in.
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"Bureau of Personnel? He’s an official from the Bureau of Personnel? But if I’m not mistaken, this should be one of the branches where the minor officials in charge of copying docunts live. Given his capabilities, isn’t it a huge waste for him to be working here?"
Staring at the yan in front of her, the doubt in Miyasa Ayaka’s eyes deepened. Even though it hadn’t been long since she had arrived at Central Plains, she learned quite a few things in her ti as an assassin in the capital.
The Great Tang royal court was divided into the Bureau of Rites, Bureau of Personnel, Bureau of Works, Bureau of Military Personnel, Bureau of Punishnts, and Bureau of Revenue. However, other than these six main bureaus, there was still almost a hundred smaller yan throughout the capital in charge of handling different problems.
Considering how dilapidated this yan looked, it should be one of the least important yan under the Bureau of Personnel.
Throughout the year, the officials here would rarely et any important official. They would spend the majority of their ti copying books and docunts. In a sense, they were the most lowly-regarded mbers of the Bureau of Personnel.
The requirents of this job were low, and even a commoner could rise to the job. Given that middle-aged man’s skills, it was a waste of his talents to be working here.
Wang Chong gazed silently at the dust-filled signboard of the yan. If he was only half-certain before, upon seeing this yan, he was now one hundred percent confident of that middle-aged man’s identity.
"Li Man, you should wait outside with the others. I’ll enter for a mont,’ Wang Chong instructed the Zhuang Clan and Chi Clan guards before walking into the yan.
The rules of governnt administrative offices were strict. Even a small yan that was only in charge of paperwork wasn’t accessible to the average citizen.
After flashing the token King Song gave him, Wang Chong walked in without any problem.
"What are you doing? Do you know what ti is it? Do you think that you’re still working at your Bureau of Punishnts? You really think that you are the sa genius back then?"
"You trash. Back then, you couldn’t capture the murderers who killed the important officials of the royal court, and now, you’re even having problem copying docunts. Tell , is there anything that you are capable of?"
"Useless fool! I’ll tell you this now, if you don’t finish copying these docunts today, don’t even dream of returning tomorrow!"
While Wang Chong was still in the courtyard, he heard a crude voice bellowing insults in the residence. The words uttered were so grating to the ear that even Wang Chong couldn’t stand it any longer.
"Enough!"
Frowning, Wang Chong stepped into the room. With a quick glance, he saw a dozen or so officials busy copying docunts with their heads down. However, considering the huge mountain of papers placed on their desk, it was unlikely they would be done anyti soon.
At an angle diagonal to the entrance where Wang Chong was standing, a person who seed to be the supervisor of this yan was currently wagging his finger at the middle-aged man Wang Chong had seen outside the Royal Jade Pavilion.
On the other hand, the unkempt middle-aged man had his head lowered, listening to those insults without the slightest complaint. Recalling the reputation of this man a decade ago, Wang Chong couldn’t help but feel deep sympathy.
No one would have thought that this man would end up in such a state back then.
"Who are you?"
The supervisor was currently at the peak of his rage, and upon seeing a stranger barging in, he imdiately flew into a temper.
"This is an administrative office of the royal court, don’t you know that outsiders are banned from entering the premises?! Furthermore, to dare to interfere in the affairs of my yan, who do you think you are?"
Shua shua shua!
In the hall, the other officials also raised their heads to look at Wang Chong. Considering how there were only a total of thirty or so people in the entire yan, they were extrely familiar with one another. As such, the presence of an outsider such as Wang Chong was so conspicuous that it was hard to not notice it.
"Hmph!" Wang Chong couldn’t be bothered to waste his words, so he imdiately whipped out a golden token and flashed it to the supervisor.
Upon seeing the golden token, the supervisor’s face imdiately paled.
While he was only a small supervisor in a shabby yan, to survive in the capital, he had to at least know those standing above of him. The token in Wang Chong’s hand was clearly the token of a qinwang, and considering how the word “Song” was inscribed on it, there was no doubt that it belonged to the reputable and influential King Song, Li Chengqi!
It had been twenty years since an influential official had visited their office, let alone a real qinwang.
"So gongzi is a man of His Highness King Song!" The supervisor quickly walked over the desk and up to Wang Chong. Then, with a bent back and a subservient tone, he asked, "Pardon for my lack of courtesy, I didn’t know of gongzi’s arrival. May I know if there are any instructions from His Highness?"
"That’s none of your business. I’m here for him."
Wang Chong lifted a finger and pointed toward the unkempt middle-aged man not too far away. His actions caught everyone off-guard.
The unkempt man had been listening subserviently with a lowered head all along, but upon hearing that this unfamiliar young man was here for him, he couldn’t help but glance at the outsider in astonishnt.
"Him?"
The supervisor was surprised as well. He didn’t expect that Wang Chong was here to look for the most despised person of their departnt.
"Gongzi, are you certain?"
"Hmph! Do you think I don’t know who I am looking for? Or do you think that you know better than ?!" Wang Chong replied sharply.
"This... Gongzi, please do not misunderstand. This is not what I ant!" The supervisor quickly waved his hands awkwardly. While he was perplexed over the happenings, he was sharp on his feet.
Regardless of what Wang Chong was here for, it was none of his business. A person as noble as King Song was not soone that insignificant officials like them could offend, so it was best for him to stay out of the other party’s way.
"Alright, everyone should rest for today. Ma Yinlong, I’ll leave this gongzi to you. Take care of him well. If anything happens, I’ll have you take responsibility."
Knowing that he had probably incurred the dislike of that gongzi with his previous shouting, the supervisor quickly beckoned everyone out, leaving behind only Wang Chong and Ma Yinlong.
"It’s really him!"
The final sliver of doubt vanished from Wang Chong’s mind. Recalling the celebrated genius of the Bureau of Punishnts a decade ago, and looking at the subservient, unkempt middle-aged man before him now, Wang Chong found it hard to believe that the both of them were actually the sa person.
Back then, those who suffered from the Goguryeon assassinations weren’t just the victims themselves.
"Who are you? I don’t think that we have t before."
Now that only he and the young man was left in the room, Ma Yinlong finally lifted his head and gazed at the other party coldly. He exuded an aura that seed to distance others from him. His attitude was much different from how he was before the plump rchant and the supervisor.
Ever since the incident a decade ago, he didn’t want to have anything to do with influential officials or nobility anymore.
"Hehe, you might not know , but I know you," Wang Chong chuckled as he revealed the true aim of his visit. "I’m here to invite you to help capture a man."
"I fear that you might have gotten the wrong person. I’m just a humble official in charge of copying docunts. If you need help capturing soone, you should visit the Bureau of Punishnts or Bureau of Military Personnel. I won’t be able to help you at all, so I advise you not to waste your ti," Ma Yinlong replied coldly.
"You need not be in such a rush to reject . Allow to finish my piece first. Our operation this ti round involves the Goguryeons," Wang Chong said.
A frown appeared on Ma Yinlong’s face, but it disappeared in a flash, as though it was just an illusion.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m uninterested in the Goguryeons. The door is there, so I advise you to leave right now."
Ma Yinlong grabbed a folder of docunts and started working copying them onto another sheet of paper. It couldn’t be clearer from his attitude that he wanted Wang Chong to leave.
"Not even King Sosurim?" Wang Chong chuckled.
Boom!
Those words imdiately caused a huge storm. Ma Yinlong’s face imdiately warped, and his brush was abruptly folded into two halves.
At the sa mont, the air in the room suddenly turned turbulent. A powerful and fearso aura burst into the surroundings.
This aura was so strong that even Wang Chong, who had already reached Origin Energy Tier 9, felt insignificant, like an ant before a tsunami. It was as if he was plunged into the most stormy ocean in the world, and a huge wave of thousands of chi high was threatening to crash down on him, reducing him to dust.
To think that this fellow is actually this fearso! Feeling the imnse pressure weighing down on him, Wang Chong’s face darkened.
More than a decade had passed, but not only had Ma Yinlong’s fighting prowess not declined, he even seed to have grown much stronger. Even the True Martial realm Goguryeon warriors that Wang Chong faced previously would be nothing more than a speck of dust before him.
This was true strength!
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TL Notes:
Yan is an administrative office and/or the residence of a local bureaucrat.
Qinwang is a position usually conferred to the brothers or relatives of the emperor. For example, King Song and King Qi.
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