The moment the Impermanence Envoys of the Bureau of Profound Mysteries appeared, the high-level cultivator who had been lording it over Xia Dong and testing him with immense spiritual pressure turned green, then pale.
He did not dare utter a word of protest. He promptly withdrew his aura and obediently stepped aside.
Not far away, the Southern Yue Province commander of the Eagle-Wolf Guard likewise yielded the floor to the Impermanence Envoys.
Their wariness was hardly surprising.
In theory, the Bureau of Profound Mysteries stood above every cultivator agency in the Great You Dynasty. It held the power of life and death, with authority to act first and report afterward.
Across the entire Great You Dynasty Court, only the unfathomable Fate Command Bureau within the imperial palace could rival its authority.
Xia Dong had once seen scattered references to the Fate Command Bureau in the Eagle-Wolf Guard's classified files. Its members were chiefly eunuchs. Some were even cultivators and martial artists who had castrated themselves willingly in pursuit of power.
Their path of cultivation was highly unusual—even sinister.
According to those accounts, such people had mediocre aptitude for conventional Daoist or martial cultivation. They might toil for decades without much to show for it.
But once they castrated themselves, severed their worldly desires, and practiced the Fate Command Bureau's rapid-advancement secret arts, their progress soared. In a short time, they could gain terrifying strength.
Such a path, however, came at a steep price. It left severe flaws in their minds, turning most of them dark, twisted, and volatile.
Seeing that Xia Dong was cooperating, the two Impermanence Envoys wasted no words. They flanked him, became two streaks of black light, and carried him into the sky, away from the Sword Cultivator Secret Realm encampment.
After more than half a day