Bureau 749

Biodata

Mandate and Authority

• Supernatural law enforcement: Investigates supernatural incidents and arrests, imprisons, or contains harmful spirits, monsters, and demons. It is distinct from ordinary State Security 14.
• Lethal containment: Missions may authorize killing or capturing a target. Taking a monster alive can earn additional rewards, but killing it is not inherently against bureau rules 9 14.
• Operational privileges: Investigators may carry firearms, require unconditional cooperation from local departments, and exercise the highest temporary command authority in their operating area 4.
• Civilian qi-refiner oversight: People who have opened their apertures but decline membership must avoid endangering society, report to their local bureau office monthly, and remain within the country 4.
• Concealed credentials: Ordinary people perceive bureau credentials as State Security identification, while qi refiners see Bureau 749 credentials 29 30.

Recruitment and Investigator Ranks

Entry and Promotion

• Newly awakened qi refiners can join as trainee investigators. Recruits receive one basic cultivation method free of charge 4 5.
• Employees who recruit newcomers receive rewards based on the newcomers’ talent 5.
• The stated promotion requirement is ten completed missions or ten monster containments to become an official investigator 4.
• Investigators must undertake at least one mission each month 4.
• Trainee investigators wear one shoulder star; official investigators wear two 15 16.

Newcomer Assessment

Assessments normally take place on the first day of each lunar month. Combat performance and observations determine accommodation, rewards, and mission permissions, helping prevent unsuitable assignments and unnecessary casualties 5.

• Preregistered newcomers stay in single rooms before assessment 5.
• Lu Ding successfully requested immediate assessment rather than waiting for the next monthly intake. He subsequently became the only participant in his group to receive a perfect score 5 8.
• The assessment uses wooden combat figures, with administrators monitoring the venue from an observation room 7 8.

Operations and Regulations

Patrols and Field Assignments

• Jurisdictional patrols: Investigators patrol designated urban areas and report threats beyond their capabilities so stronger personnel can respond 5.
• Paired deployment: Both trainees and official investigators must undertake missions in groups of at least two. The rule provides mutual supervision, assistance, and a way to report emergencies 9.
• Mission credit: A jurisdictional patrol counts as one mission; individual supernatural incidents resolved during that assignment each count as additional completed missions 24.
• District offices: Bureau personnel can operate from local public-security facilities. Baofan District’s assigned administrators have offices on the top floor of its Public Security Administration 26.
• Night operations: Investigators are particularly active at night, when monsters are more active and qi refiners’ night vision allows them to continue working 15.
• Live support: Investigators can contact a bureau operator directly to report emergencies and request reinforcement 40.

Confidentiality and Accountability

• Restricted intelligence: Detailed mission information cannot be disclosed to outsiders. Internal assignment information is also tightly controlled 26 34.
• Regulated memory erasure: Memory-erasure methods require video documentation and at least two investigators present. Procedural violations can result in immediate arrest 13.
• Post-incident inquiries: Investigators can be questioned over deaths, operational decisions, and incidents witnessed by civilians 24 34.
• Disciplinary action: Bei Heguang and Ming Jun are recalled for punishment after mishandling their duties in Baofan District 26.
• Limits on collective punishment: The bureau has no policy allowing people to be implicated without cause merely because of their associates or relatives 48.

Emergency Response and Cleanup

• During the Dinghao Residential Complex Yin Domain Overlap, the operator advised Lu Ding to hold out or withdraw until investigators could assemble to eliminate the monsters and seal the domain 40.
• Six patrol investigators from three nearby districts arrived as reinforcements 42.
• Emergency measures included road closures, network monitoring, and preparations to explain casualties through a natural-disaster account. Protecting civilian lives and property was the stated priority 41.
• Cleanup crews document battle scenes and send photographs and reports back to the bureau 24 44.
• Post-battle cleanup reports are circulated to inspire weaker investigators and deter hostile qi refiners by demonstrating the bureau’s strength 44.

Facilities and Resources

Base and Logistics

• Valley base: The base Lu Ding joins lies outside the city in a valley reached through a tunnel 5.
• Specimen corridor: A technologically advanced corridor contains numerous lifelike monster specimens behind transparent glass 5.
• Residential facilities: Accommodation ranges from shared dormitories to single rooms, depending on assessment results 5.
• Mission hall: Investigators return to the base to submit completed missions 15.
• Logistics Department: Overseen by Deng Guofu, who distributes assessment rewards and offers Lu Ding advice on selecting a cultivation method 8.
• Cultivation support: Members can obtain cultivation methods, medicinal resources, heavenly treasures, and guidance from teachers 4 5.
• Archives: Bureau records include information on monsters, treasures, and cases of ancient beings reviving 6 33.
• Issued equipment: Documented equipment includes employee phones, uniforms, credentials, body cameras, mission-specific memory-erasure tools, and access to a government SUV 5 13 25 29 36 47.

Bureau 749 App

• Provides mission listings with intelligence, recommended cultivation levels, and separate rewards for leaders and assistants 9.
• Includes a contribution-point shop and a forum where investigators can recruit teammates 9.
• Supplies reference material on cultivation, monsters, and treasures. Access to higher-level information depends on the user’s clearance 6.
• Allows contribution points to be exchanged for cash at 100,000 yuan per point 9.

Contribution-Point Exchange

Training and Competition

First-Year Martial Competition

• The competition awards ten prize-winning places 44.
• The top three qualify for an advanced training site jointly established by Bureau 749 branches across the country 44.
• The training program selects exceptionally gifted prospects for further development 44.
• Investigators who joined within the month before the previous competition may enter the following one, accounting for their limited preparation time 44.

Known Personnel

• Deng Guofu — Head of logistics; distributes newcomer rewards and advises Lu Ding on cultivation-method selection 8.
• Zhou Jie — Trainee investigator who explains bureau membership, cultivation, and civilian qi-refiner restrictions to Lu Ding, then recruits him 4 5.
• Long Shanshan — Trainee investigator and Zhou Jie’s patrol partner; helps investigate Lu Ding’s encounter with the South Mountain Stubborn Stone 4 5.
• Lu Ding — Trainee investigator with a perfect assessment result; later assigned jurisdictional patrol duties in Baofan District 8 24 26.
• Yan Feifan — Trainee investigator who becomes Lu Ding’s mission assistant and Baofan District patrol partner 24 34.
• Wen Yuquan — Official investigator known as Life-Taking Blade; participates in the Baiyao Ancient Town operation 16.
• Yin Feng — Official investigator known as Wind and Fire Hammer; fights alongside Wen Yuquan against Heavenly Principle Sect members 16.
• Shi Yinghe — Official investigator known as Looking Back with a Smile; battles a Heavenly Principle Sect puppeteer during the same operation 19.
• Bei Heguang and Ming Jun — Official investigators formerly responsible for Baofan District; recalled after operational failures 26.
• Ji Yanshuang — Joins after awakening as a qi refiner and asks fellow investigators about the First-Year Martial Competition 44.
• Wen Ruchu — Investigator known as the Genial Warm Immortal Official; possesses two awakened talents and killed a Spirit Sea pursuer after breaking through to that realm 45.

Relations with Civilian Qi Refiners

• Independent practitioners — Remain subject to bureau oversight but are allowed room to earn a living and acquire treasures. Bureau personnel explain that monopolizing such resources would make management more difficult 25.
• Local qi-refiner factions — Can assist when bureau investigators are short-handed, particularly during recurring supernatural outbreaks around Ghost Festival, Qingming, Double Ninth, and New Year’s Eve 49.
• Heavenly Principle Sect — Targeted in the coordinated Baiyao Ancient Town operation; surviving members subsequently attempt to seize the Flying Centipede’s inner core from investigators 16 21 23.
• Five Viscera Life Society — Its leader Tang Hu and associated qi refiners are killed by Lu Ding after the detention and torture of public-security officer Yan Biexi. Lu Ding invokes his authority as a bureau patrol investigator 47.
• Reputation among practitioners — Bureau officials are counted among the qi-refining trade’s “four you don’t provoke,” reflecting the reinforcements and retaliation an attack on an investigator can bring 35.

Major Operations