The dungeon.
Dim and murky, dark and sinister.
The bronze beast-head lamps flickered erratically, while screams rose from time to time, as though one had stepped out of the world of the living and into the underworld.
Since the day the Surveillance Bureau had opened its offices, it had not renovated its facade or built its main hall. Instead, it had first dug an enormous dungeon, enough to hold hundreds of prisoners.
It was still not fully completed, and laborers continued excavating it.
As Director Zhou had put it, there were so many corrupt officials in Great Qing that they could never be arrested all at once!
"Move it."
"Get in there!"
Shouts came from the dungeon entrance as black-clad agents kicked and shoved, driving a string of scholars into the dungeon.
Most of the scholars came from wealthy families. Even the poorest among them owned several hundred mu of land. In ordinary times, they did nothing but study, write, and listen to music in the Pleasure Quarter. When had they ever faced bloody slaughter head-on?
Their classmates' screams still rang in their ears. One by one, they were so terrified that their minds had gone blank, lifting their feet stiffly as they walked.
At the center of the dungeon.
Zhou Yi sat in a grand master's chair, with over a dozen black-clad agents standing on either side.
Every one of them had bulging temples and formidable martial cultivation.
The Surveillance Bureau's agents had been recruited from jianghu experts. Either they carried murder charges, or they were vicious fiends and notorious criminals.
The moment these people heard that they could serve the imperial court and receive official posts, they had rushed to join the Surveillance Bureau.
Once they draped themselves in the court's tiger skin, they no longer feared righteous