Catching the Flower Thief

Capturing the Flower-Picking Thief

Several more days passed, and Bai Yan arrived at the Pacification Bureau as usual to mark attendance.

He had thought it would be another dull, uneventful day. But just after Bai Yan crossed the stone arch bridge in the front courtyard, he saw Ren Hong hurrying over, a grave look on his face.

"Brigade Leader, sir!"

When Ren Hong saw him, he quickly stopped, clasped his fists, and bowed respectfully.

"Commander Zheng has summoned you urgently. He wants you to go see him in the central hall at once."

"Oh? Is there a mission?"

Bai Yan's eyes lit up.

He had gone half a month without a mission and was practically bored sick.

Bai Yan hurried to the commander's central hall. Zheng Haihan stood with his back to him by the window. Just as Bai Yan was about to bow, Zheng Haihan tossed a dossier over.

"Take a look. This is your mission, just transferred from the Ministry of Justice."

Bai Yan opened the dossier and read it. His gaze swept over the first page, and his expression darkened slightly.

It recorded a series of rape-and-murder cases.

On the eighth day of the fifth month, Zhang Cuier, daughter of the wealthy merchant Zhang Baihao in the eastern part of the city, received a cuckoo flower. The following night, someone broke into her boudoir. After being violated, the young woman could not bear the humiliation and hanged herself at dawn. Her body was discovered by a maid.

On the eleventh day of the fifth month, the heiress of Yongtang's Hu Hu Medical Hall likewise received a bouquet of cuckoo flowers. That night, screams rang out from the rear courtyard of the clinic. By the time the workers arrived, Miss Du was already lying in a pool of blood. Not only had she been violated, her face had also been slashed to pieces with a sharp weapon. Her death was too gruesome to bear.

On the night of the fourteenth day of the fifth month, the Yang Family Martial Arts School in the southern part of the city was invaded by thieves. The schoolmaster Yang Jianshan's only daughter, Yang Musi, fought the villains but was killed.

After hearing the commotion, the schoolmaster and many Martial Masters rushed over and fought the villains in succession, only to be killed one after another.

All thirty-two members of the Yang Family Martial Arts School had been wiped out in a single night. Not one survived.

According to the Ministry of Justice's investigation, Yang Musi had also received a cuckoo flower the day before she was killed.

Bai Yan continued turning the pages of the dossier.

The seventeenth day of the fifth month...

The twentieth day of the fifth month...

The twenty-third day of the fifth month...

There had been a case every three days without fail.

The latest record stopped at the twenty-sixth day of the fifth month. The wealthy merchant Ye Youcai of Peaceful Ward had gone to the Ministry of Justice to report that his daughter had received the cuckoo flower, the Flower Thief's token. He hoped the Ministry of Justice would send someone to protect his daughter.

After reading the dossier, Bai Yan's eyes turned icy, and he instantly pieced together the pattern.

This was a serial rape-and-murder case, and the culprit was the Flower Thief, the most infamous criminal in the Martial World.

Not only were the thief's methods vicious, his conduct was outrageously brazen. Before striking at each target, he would always send that cuckoo flower as a token. It was less a warning than a naked provocation.

"The Flower-Picking Gentleman?"

Bai Yan stared at those four words in the dossier, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold sneer.

"A scum who only bullies women actually dares call himself a gentleman? Disgusting!"

There had always been an unspoken chain of contempt among bandits.

Flying thieves looked down on common thieves, despising them for knowing only how to throw punches and use brute force, without a shred of skill.

Common thieves, in turn, looked down on tomb robbers, believing that they dug up people's ancestral graves, damaged their virtue, and did not even spare the dead.

But no matter which bandit spoke of Flower Thieves, every one of them wore a look of disdain. They thought such men only knew how to bully women and did not deserve to be called men at all.

Bai Yan also despised trash like Flower Thieves. Besides, the Flower-Picking Gentleman was no inexperienced novice.

Attached to the end of the dossier was a wanted notice requesting assistance. Before this man had fled to Yongtang City, he had already committed dozens of crimes across three prefectures and seven counties in the surrounding area. More than sixty victims had been recorded, and half of the women, unable to bear the humiliation, had either killed themselves or gone mad. Their fates were tragic.

"More than sixty..."

Bai Yan repeated the number under his breath. Killing intent churned in his eyes like a tangible substance.

"A scum like this must be killed to soothe the people's fury. He must be cut to pieces to vent the public's wrath!"

He frowned and looked toward Zheng Haihan.

"What is the Ministry of Justice doing? They can't even catch a Flower Thief? Is this Flower-Picking Gentleman's strength really that formidable?"

Zheng Haihan shook his head and explained:

"It's precisely because the Ministry of Justice couldn't catch this Flower Thief that the case was transferred to the Imperial Guard for us to handle."

"This Flower Thief isn't particularly strong. He's only at the Early Innate Stage. But his Lightness Skill is excellent. Most Ministry of Justice constables are ordinary martial artists. When they run into a martial artist from the Martial World who excels at Lightness Skill, they're naturally helpless."

Nine out of ten of the Imperial Court's top experts were concentrated in the Imperial Guard, Six Doors, and the Eastern Depot. The Ministry of Justice had always lacked powerful experts to hold the fort. After all, they usually dealt with common civilians who had never learned martial arts.

When a martial expert committed a crime, the case should normally have been transferred according to procedure.

But every department wanted to claim credit and make an appearance before the emperor, and the Ministry of Justice was no exception.

Whenever they encountered cases like this, they always wanted to solve them with their own abilities. The result was often prolonged delays, allowing more innocent people to suffer. By the time the case was transferred, the best opportunity to make the arrest had long since passed.

This was a common ailment of ancient dynasties: the struggle for fame, profit, and rank between departments. In the end, it was always the common people at the very bottom who suffered.

Zheng Haihan changed his tone, his voice turning solemn.

"More importantly, this case has already reached the Son of Heaven's ears, and His Majesty is furious."

"His Majesty knows about it too?"

Bai Yan's heart jolted.

This was no longer a minor matter.

Once a case reached the Imperial Court, it meant someone had poked a hole in the sky.

Let alone a trifling Flower Thief—even a sacred Martial World sect with a Grandmaster presiding over it would not escape having its sect slaughtered and destroyed if it provoked the Imperial Countenance.

"Yongtang is the imperial capital, beneath the Son of Heaven's feet, yet a Flower Thief has thrown the whole city into panic and caused the Imperial Court to lose face."

"The Minister of Justice has already been publicly rebuked by His Majesty and docked half a year's salary. We of the Imperial Guard have received an Imperial Decree: within three days, we must capture this fiend and bring him to justice."

Zheng Haihan looked at Bai Yan and continued:

"You've already broken through to the Innate Stage, and your Lightness Skill is also quite good. This is an opportunity for you."

"As long as you capture this Flower Thief, it will be a great achievement."

Bai Yan understood. Zheng Haihan's words were already an open attempt to pave the way for him.

Capturing a Flower Thief in the Early Innate Stage might be an earth-shaking challenge for the Ministry of Justice, but to the Imperial Guard, packed with experts, it was hardly anything.

Within the Pacification Bureau, there were at least eighty people capable of completing this mission, if not a hundred.

Yet Zheng Haihan had specifically handed the mission to Bai Yan, a newly appointed Brigade Leader. Clearly, he wanted to give him a chance to earn merit.

If he handled this mission beautifully, he could be promoted to Hundred-Man Commander openly and honorably, establishing a firm foothold in the Imperial Guard.

"Thank you for nurturing me, sir!"

Bai Yan clasped his fists and bowed, standing tall and neither servile nor arrogant.

Zheng Haihan stepped forward and patted Bai Yan on the shoulder, anticipation in his voice.

"Don't disappoint me."

"Rest assured, sir. As long as that fiend dares show himself, I will capture him!"

"Go."

Zheng Haihan waved his hand.

"This subordinate will take his leave!"

Bai Yan clasped his fists in salute, turned around, and strode out of the central hall.

The instant he stepped outside the gate, the system's notification chime rang in his mind.

Ding! The host has triggered a mission: Capture the Flower Thief

The Flower Thief is scum of the Martial World. Everyone has the right to kill him!

Please capture the Flower Thief and bring him to justice. Dead or alive.

Mission reward: Snow Drinking Saber