For a long time, the Heavenly Secret Bureau had been one of the Great Xia Dynasty's most important forces.
The organization was made up of experts absolutely loyal to Great Xia: descendants of the Di Lineage, relatives of the Zhu Zhao, veteran generals, and children of fallen heroes. With eight generals, twenty-four commandants, and three hundred sixty elite warriors, its total membership never exceeded three hundred ninety-two.
In practice, though, the Heavenly Secret Bureau had almost never been at full strength.
Unlike the Royal Secret Guard, the Tianji Bureau's members cultivated complete, flawless supreme arts. If they rebelled, the Imperial Court had no reliable means of restraining them.
Great Xia had therefore always been exceedingly cautious about selecting people to join the Heavenly Secret Bureau.
The bureau itself posed another problem. Chancellor Wen—one of the pair known as "the Martial Emperor and Chancellor Wen"—had founded it with a single fundamental purpose: to safeguard the peace and stability of the Great Xia Dynasty.
...Yes, its members were devotedly loyal. But their loyalty belonged neither to their superiors nor even to the reigning emperor. It did not belong to the Di Lineage. It belonged to Great Xia itself.
Rules were rigid, while people could change. But Chancellor Wen had built safeguards into the martial arts. To master those complete, flawless supreme arts, a person first had to be free of brainwashing or control, harbor no fanatical worship of anyone, and possess a clear, independent mind. Even their temperament and way of thinking had to align with the principles he had laid down.
Once such people entered the Heavenly Secret Bureau and cultivated Chancellor Wen's supreme arts, his ideals would naturally influence them further.
At the center of the Heavenly Secret Bureau's grounds stood a stone stele Chancellor Wen had erected with his