Demon-Suppressing Bureau
Immortal Master, He Really Is a Demon
- Original Name:
- 镇魔司 (zhèn mó sī)
- Gender:
- Neutral
- Kind:
- Organization
- Scope:
- Novel-specific
- Status:
- Active
- Source:
- AI
- Occurrences:
- 389
- Chapters:
- 117
- Context Up To:
- Ch. 504
- Wiki Model:
- GPT-6.1 Terra
- Updated:
Biodata
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Demon-Suppressing Bureau (镇魔司) |
| Affiliation | Great Li Dynasty; its envoys belonged to the emperor’s personal guard 63 75 |
| Occupation/Role | Monitoring and eliminating demons and evil entities 63 |
| Status | Severely weakened after the loss of its senior fighters; Qin Yan later gathered remnants and maintained its organization in his territories 281 302 402 |
| First Appearance | Chapter 63 |
History
The Bureau was established roughly fifty years before Qin Yan learned of it, with the previous monarch taking the lead. Its earliest members were soldiers selected for their Sha Qi; it later acquired Daoist and Buddhist cultivation methods and recruited members of both schools 63.
Qinghe Town and Mass Grave Mound
Di Feng recruited Qin Yan after witnessing his ability to fight an evil entity. Ma Daren assessed him during an operation at Wei Mansion and provided the document for his appointment as Qinghe Town’s Demon-Suppression Envoy 63 64 75.
When Mass Grave Mound became a major threat, the Bureau mobilized envoys from Youshan Prefecture and brought in experts from surrounding prefectures. Southern General Qin Zhu led the response, while Buddhist and Daoist experts helped seal the site and raise a Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. The local yamen and Bureau were left responsible for its upkeep 88 92 109.
Decline and remnants
As supernatural threats multiplied, the Bureau’s strongest fighters were tied down guarding dangerous regions. Its upper ranks later made an unprecedented mobilization of experts to the Capital; subsequently, its high-end combat forces suffered almost total losses 237 275 281.
Under the Hongwen Emperor, the Bureau’s benefits were reduced, and many branches were left to fend for themselves. Qin Yan took over the Bureau in Yunzhou and invested in specialized equipment to improve its members’ survival 302 369.
In the Western Desert, isolated Bureau guards continued protecting the people of the thirty-six cities despite Great Li’s collapse. Qin Yan reached their outpost, where Ming Xuanxiang and Qu Fu pledged loyalty to him; he learned that the Black Mo Cult had killed nearly fifty Bureau members 402 403.
Organization
| Position or unit | Responsibilities and authority |
|---|---|
| Demon-Suppressing Pillar of the State | Highest commander in name; the Elder Pillar no longer handled ordinary affairs by the time Qin Yan reached the Capital 195 |
| Four Directions Demon-Suppression Generals | Managed the Bureau’s affairs and guarded major regions. Each was described as at least a Third Realm Supreme Grandmaster 89 195 |
| Prefectural branch | Coordinated operations across a prefecture. Zhao Zhen’s Youshan branch guarded the capital and dispatched stronger experts when local envoys needed help 63 124 |
| Commandant Inspector | A Principal Sixth Rank military official and senior prefectural fighter. Promotion required both outstanding merit and strength 145 |
| Demon-Suppression Envoy | A Principal Seventh Rank military official, also called a Demon Suppression Commandant. Envoys normally oversaw their own territories and assembled against especially powerful threats 75 |
| Demon-Searching Bureau | A subordinate organization whose personnel gathered intelligence and patrolled for supernatural threats. Di Feng served as a Demon-Seeking Envoy in Qinghe Town 63 84 144 |
| Demon-Searching Guards | Salaried local assistants without official rank. Qin Yan was entitled to recruit around five in his jurisdiction 84 |
Envoys answered through the Bureau’s own chain of command rather than the civil bureaucracy. Local officials were required to cooperate with them on missions, while offenses by Bureau personnel were handled by their direct superiors 64 75.
Recruitment and rewards
Candidates for Demon-Suppression Envoy had to meet a strength requirement and pass an assessment on an actual mission. The selection process was dangerous: peak Marrow-Washing Realm was described as the minimum, while Qi Origin Realm was the norm 64 85.
The Bureau recruited from the army, the martial world, and Buddhist and Daoist schools. Despite its high ranks and salaries, the work’s high death rate discouraged many prospective members 75 76 143.
| Reward or benefit | Details |
|---|---|
| Salary and pills | Envoys received a monthly salary and Qi-Concentrating Pill, plus an annual Origin-Embracing Pill 64 |
| Treasury access | Envoys received at least one opportunity to select an item from a Ding-grade treasury 64 |
| Mission merits | Points were awarded according to difficulty and could be exchanged for cultivation manuals, treasures, or fifty taels of silver per point 64 |
| Ghost bounties | A Vengeful Ghost earned one or two points, an Evil Ghost five to ten, and a Fierce Ghost generally more than twenty 76 |
| Recruitment merit | Di Feng expected ten points for recruiting someone with Qin Yan’s talents and offered to split them with him 64 |
Methods and resources
- Local intelligence: Demon-Seeking personnel patrolled their jurisdictions and maintained intelligence locations. One such location in Eastern Heaven Prefecture used a coded knock and spoken exchange 84 189.
- Cooperation with religious schools: Daoist and Buddhist schools worked with the Bureau against supernatural threats. Local arrangements could reward outside contributors with treasures obtained through Bureau merits 63 64.
- Demon-sealing tools: Branches kept difficult-to-make tools as reserves for enemies they could not defeat. Even ordinary people could use them to suppress evil spirits for transport to the Capital 196.
- Spirit-Binding Demon-Slaying Platform: A formation in the Capital suppressed powerful evil entities and amplified a caster’s Thunder Method. Bureau experts used it to destroy a Green Sha-level spirit Qin Yan brought in 196 197.
- Armor and seals: A commandant’s black armor could resist attacks from ghosts and evil entities. Qin Yan also received a Pixiu-carved official seal that could ward off evil in a home 76 92.
- Cremation Site: Jiang Fuji agreed to establish one under the Bureau. Qin Yan handled dangerous corpses that resisted ordinary cremation 80 109.
Notable members
- Elder Pillar of the State — The Bureau’s highest commander in name and a founder who had trained members of both the Bureau and the military 195.
- Qi Hong — Northern Demon-Suppression General, responsible for the north and the Capital 195 237.
- Qin Zhu — Southern Demon-Suppressing General, who led the response at Mass Grave Mound and guarded the south against invading monsters 89 92 237.
- Zhou Wang — Western Demon-Suppression General, stationed in the Western Desert royal city; he was later killed in the Capital 237 402.
- Zhao Zhen — Demon-Suppression Commandant of Youshan Prefecture and Qin Yan’s superior 75 109.
- Ma Daren — Veteran envoy and night watchman who assessed Qin Yan and helped numerous younger Bureau members 66 75 91.
- Di Feng — Qinghe Town’s Demon-Seeking Envoy, who recruited Qin Yan. A later investigation found that he may have secretly served another faction 64 84 370.
- Qin Yan — Qinghe Town envoy who became a Commandant Inspector and later maintained Bureau remnants in his own territories 75 145 402.
- Kong Zhao — Bureau member who investigated the Yinluo Way and interrogated the captured Gu master Jingu 99 122.
- Zuo Qifeng — Deputy Commandant at Tianlan Prefecture 172.
- Ming Xuanxiang and Qu Fu — Personnel at the isolated Western Desert outpost who pledged loyalty to Qin Yan 403.
Reputation
The Bureau operated partly in public and partly in secret; many commandants concealed their identities while containing threats before ordinary people learned of them 92. Its members were known for protecting one another, and despite hostility between the court and the martial world, the Bureau earned respect for fighting threats to ordinary people 91 145 196.