Xu Ming led Jiang Yuechu around the bustling market and, after several turns, into a secluded corner.
Then he stopped before an utterly inconspicuous little shop beside the street.
Its doors were tightly shut, the wooden planks mottled and faded.
The threshold had been trodden on for who knew how many years, leaving a deep hollow in it.
Such a shabby entrance could hardly be mentioned in the same breath as the Heavenly Court's grand offices.
Even compared with the Demon Suppression Office back in Great Tang's Liangzhou Prefecture, it looked far too impoverished.
Jiang Yuechu stopped and raised an eyebrow at the man beside her.
"The Sky-Patrol Bureau?"
A faint smile touched Xu Ming's lips. "Indeed."
Jiang Yuechu's gaze fell on the two battered wooden doors. "Looks like it's seen better days."
"Uh..."
Xu Ming gave a wry chuckle and began explaining rather helplessly.
"The location of every Sky-Patrol Bureau in the Nine Immortal Provinces is personally decided by that province's pacification commissioner. The Cloud Province Directorate didn't used to look like this... But after the current commissioner took office, he insisted that those who patrolled on Heaven's behalf should hide among the common folk, neither competing nor drawing attention to themselves. He forcibly turned the Cloud Province Directorate into this."
At this point, Xu Ming changed tack.
"But these outward trappings don't affect our work. Usually, we only need to exchange messages through our Sky-Patrol Tokens to take assignments. The bureau has no mandatory roll calls, and its rules are lax. Some people even stay away for hundreds of years without returning once."
Hearing this, Jiang Yuechu gave a slight nod.
She had never placed much importance on pomp or appearances.
Back in Great Tang, even with the title of eldest princess, she had spent most of her