Special Management Bureau

Biodata

Background

The Special Management Bureau was established to oversee affairs throughout Great Xia alongside the older Demon Suppression Division. The two agencies operated openly and secretly, respectively. Si Qianjun credited the bureau’s first Department Head with helping it attain equal standing with the Division 627.

Its operational structure resembles a state-controlled mercenary organization: personnel undertake individual assignments or join teams assembled for particular missions. Its reputation as a national weapon makes even powerful families reluctant to challenge it directly 64 85 183.

By Si Qianjun’s account, nearly three centuries of development had drawn parts of the organization away from its original purpose. Its later activities were complicated by internal corruption, rival branches, and attempts to strip away its independent authority 80 417 436 627.

Organization and Leadership

National and Branch Authority

• Headquarters — Coordinates national affairs and appoints senior officials. It created the Chief Inspector position specifically for Lin Shuguang, granting him oversight of branches throughout Great Xia and rank equal to a Governor 340 597.
• Governors — Provide direct oversight and political backing. Governors across Great Xia opposed efforts to divide the bureau’s authority and place it under the Political Department 56 417.
• City branches — Maintain their own leadership, departments, resources, and operational teams. Huai City’s branch initially has nine divisions 64 436.
• Division chiefs — Exercise substantial operational authority. As Huai City’s Ninth Division director, Lin Shuguang outranks a lieutenant colonel in administrative rank 235.

Documented Departments

The text uses division, department, section, and division chief for its internal units and leadership positions 64 197 505.

Notable Personnel

• Si Qianjun — Huai City Bureau Chief. Protects the branch’s authority, directs major operations, and supports Lin Shuguang’s advancement. His breakthrough to the Profound Connection Realm is confirmed when Lin returns with Liu Bai 71 417 529.
• Lin Shuguang — Recruited into Huai City’s Ninth Division; later becomes a division director, Seventh Section chief, and headquarters Chief Inspector authorized to mobilize bureau forces 56 64 235 505 597 617.
• Luo Hui — Bureau Chief who confirms Lin Shuguang’s credit for recovering Professor Ding. Director Luo also chairs the response meeting concerning the Underground World breach 148 265.
• Liu Bai — Profound Connection Realm archery expert recruited through Lin Shuguang. Si Qianjun creates the Seventh Section’s honorary Inspector position for him, making him its second-in-command 529 530.
• Bai Heng — A key member of Lin Shuguang’s Seventh Section team and one of his closest colleagues within the bureau 417 617.
• Cao Chao — Demon Capital operative involved in raids, investigations, and field operations alongside Lin Shuguang 143 258 356 540.
• Fang Yuan / Director Fang — Third Department official who supports Lin Shuguang against criticism, reports Zhou Mojun’s conduct, and supplies intelligence on the Qin Family 435 436 547.
• Lu Hong — Third Department director involved in resource procurement, emergency coordination, and high-level bureau meetings 257 265 340.

Mandate and Operations

Law Enforcement and Intelligence

The bureau investigates threats, arrests suspects, conducts armed raids, and coordinates intelligence across departments 81 143 182 197.

• Anti-cult operations — Targets Demonic Cultivator organizations, including the Blood Moon Cult and Divine Temple networks 85 203.
• Criminal investigations — Uncovers human-smuggling operations and seizes contraband 152 182.
• Counterespionage — Investigates foreign infiltration and stages deception operations to expose hostile agents 450 451.
• Citywide emergency measures — Can seal off Huai City, impose martial law, and mobilize armored units 451.
• Covert intelligence work — Uses undercover operatives whose bureau affiliation must remain concealed 471.

Threat Response and Protection

• Ferocious Beast suppression — Issues extermination missions and cooperates with military containment forces 65 67 258 265.
• Scientific protection — Assigns elite escorts to researchers and secures equipment during dangerous expeditions 128 172.
• Spatial incidents — Establishes containment lines with the military and searches for suspected spatial tunnels under scientific guidance 265 424.
• Research support — Maintains laboratories and experts studying unusual creatures, including the Flame Wyvern’s remains 238.

Recruitment and Mission Rules

• Strength-based advancement — Han Li presents the bureau as an alternative to conventional officialdom, claiming that strength determines standing within it 56.
• Recruitment incentives — Lin Shuguang accepts Huai City’s offer of 2.5 million and a bureau position after Si Qianjun promises admission to any martial arts school in the country 56.
• Assignment requirements — Upon joining the Ninth Division, Lin must complete at least one of two offered solo missions that month 64.
• Mission rewards — Assignments carry rewards; Lin’s early beast-extermination missions also allow him to dispose of the carcasses himself 64 65.
• Transfers and secondments — Personnel can be registered with another city’s bureau or temporarily assigned to the Demon Suppression Division 84 105 494.
• Discipline — Arbitrarily withholding mission rewards is a serious offense. Unauthorized private dealings can also lead to expulsion 164 341.

Major Operations

Political Conflicts and External Relations

• Political Department — Repeatedly interferes with bureau affairs. Higher authorities seek to break up the bureau, transfer its authority to the Political Department, and leave only the Demon Suppression Division. Si Qianjun and the Governor consider Lin Shuguang a prospective representative in the resulting power struggle 417.
• Demon Suppression Division — The bureau’s older counterpart, operating secretly rather than openly. Cooperation includes Lin’s three-month secondment, though later attempts to recall him provoke disputes over his assignment 417 494 515 627.
• Military Department — Coordinates containment, reinforcements, equipment, and emergency responses with bureau branches 235 265 340 542.
• Science and Education Institute — Supplies assessments of rising spiritual energy, Secret Realm activity, and spatial threats; its experts participate in high-level bureau meetings 340 424.
• Beining City branch — Has a longstanding feud with Huai City. After escalating confrontations, Lin defeats Director Wan and demands ten years of resource allotments. Si Qianjun approves the seizure while preparing to expose internal traitors 429 435 436.
• Provincial Capital’s Third Research Institute — Attempts to obtain Huai City’s wyvern corpse through a transfer order. Lin destroys the order and expels the visitors, preserving the bureau researchers’ work 238.
• Qin Family — Challenges the bureau over detained relatives and later threatens to obstruct its leadership transition 547 573.
• Steel Alliance — Treats bureau backing as a deterrent. Si Qianjun offers an official warning to protect Lin’s waterway interests but explicitly rules out deploying troops for the dispute 540.

Facilities and Resources

• Armed personnel — Field teams wear matching special-operations uniforms; branches deploy experienced guards, intelligence operatives, and larger combat formations 182 197 221.
• Vehicles — Uses prisoner transports, armored vehicles, and bulletproof buses 180 451.
• Cultivation facilities — Huai City maintains Cultivation Rooms, resource stockpiles, and archives of cultivation methods 429 440 493 540.
• Laboratories — Bureau experts conduct experiments on unusual specimens and plan dissections of selected research subjects 238 440.
• Procurement — Signs an eight-billion contract for elemental stones from the Panlong Mountain mine, rejecting Lin Shuguang’s request for cash-only terms 257.
• Field equipment — During the Underground World response, Lu Hong distributes Induction Stones and Jade Talismans to help teams remain together and resist subterranean hazards 265.

Institutional Culture

• Frontline solidarity — Survivors of the Blood Desolate Land expedition regard one another as brothers after years of shared missions. Injured operatives try to leave their hospital beds when they learn that Lin has been attacked after returning 179 182.
• Earned authority — Soldiers continue calling Lin “Captain Lin” after an expedition despite his not formally holding that position, reflecting their trust in him 183.
• Secrecy and restricted access — Some operations remain unknown even to most bureau personnel. Visitors, including powerful martial artists, are expected to obey access rules 529 546.
• Occupational danger — Fatalities are an accepted risk, but the annihilation of Zhao Minghui’s entire team still shocks the bureau as an unusually severe disaster 159.
• Limits of protection — Si Qianjun acknowledges that the bureau cannot protect everyone from sufficiently powerful enemies. The Governor likewise stresses that the organization does not belong to any one individual 84 494.

Notable Quotes

“The Special Management Bureau will not be insulted!”
— Si Qianjun, defending the bureau’s standing at Zhu Shaoqiang’s banquet 71

“The Special Management Bureau doesn't belong to any one person.”
— The Governor, responding to Si Qianjun’s request that the bureau support Lin Shuguang against the Qin Family 494