Demon-Slaying Bureau

Biodata

Background

After Great Yong was founded, the Demon-Slaying Bureau came under the imperial court. Blind Chen states that this arrangement existed to help maintain stability, not to bind the Bureau personally to an emperor who prolonged his life through Human Corpse Pills. He distinguishes the Night-Wandering Gods, who stand above the Bureau and protect living beings, from servants acting solely for the sovereign 40.

The Bureau operates beyond Fan City. Li Baiyi identifies himself as a fifth-rank chiliarch and discusses Buddhist guest elders and historical materials unavailable to a low-ranking officer such as Xu Chunliang 25.

Organization and Personnel

Documented Positions

Notable Members

• Xu Chunliang — Fan City officer who took his father's place approximately one year before the Guo Family Village investigation. His predecessor entered through his father's influence 10 25.
• Jin Jun — Solar Halo Realm expert and Liu Jie's powerful backer; later leads the operation against the Human Cook 8 9 49.
• Yu Ming — Third Squad captain who attempts to appropriate Xu Chunliang's credit. Jin Jun kills him after Liu Jie's death 7 9.
• Zhou Dafu — Succeeds Yu Ming as Third Squad captain. Liu Jiu murders him and his family after Liu Xin names him a suspect in Liu Jie's death 33.
• Shi Qin — Xu Chunliang's protective colleague and his late father's disciple. He accompanies Xu on investigations and joins his five-person crisis-response team 8 10 49.
• Liu Jie — Third Squad colleague whose connections allow him to threaten Xu Chunliang with little opposition. Xu secretly kills him at Xiaoxiang Tower 7 8 9.
• Liu Yong — Participates in the Guo Family Village investigation, where the Scale Immortal's power kills him and erases memories of his existence. He later reappears there among the dead 10 12 35.
• Li Baiyi — Fifth-rank chiliarch who allies with Xu Chunliang inside the Buddhist Ruin Realm 20 25.
• Zhang Yu — Protests the execution of civilians at the Bureau. The military cultivator stabs him, and the strategist removes his tongue for the living military treatise 47 48.
• Chen Ge — Accompanies Xu Chunliang's group during the city crisis and disturbs the enormous leaf concealing a giant bamboo rat 49.

Duties and Resources

Investigations and Patrols

• Missing-person cases: Xu Chunliang's captain sends him to the Bronze Sparrow Tower to investigate repeated disappearances of men 1.
• Suspicious deaths: Bureau officers accompany Head Constable Liu to investigate deaths at Squire Guo's estate 10.
• City patrols: An on-duty squad responds to Xu Chunliang's cries for help during one discarded timeline 6.
• Evidence and reporting: Officers submit remains such as the Paper Ghost Face to their squad leader, who reports results to the flag officer 7.
• Emergency deployment: During Fan City's crisis, Jin Jun orders personnel into five-person teams to locate the Human Cook and destroy the Blood-Boiling Grand Array 49.

Training and Combat Strength

• Black Tiger Saber Technique is the Bureau's most basic saber art 2.
• Xu Chunliang initially considers Star Transformation Grade sufficient to make him the strongest among Fan City's small banner officers and potentially capable of exchanging blows with some squad leaders 5.
• Local patrols cannot necessarily handle stronger threats: a Moon Glow Grade attacker kills an entire responding squad in one of Xu Chunliang's discarded timelines 6.
• Jin Jun provides the Fan City branch with Solar Halo Realm combat strength 8 49.

Archives and Specialist Knowledge

• Secret Ruin Realm files: The Bureau records Ruin Realms and assigns code names. The Buddhist grotto encountered by Li Baiyi has neither a record nor a code name when it appears 19.
• Buddhist expertise: Eminent monks serve as guest elders; one teaches Li Baiyi about Buddha Script and accounts of an ancient world ruled by Buddhas 25.
• Buddha Script fragment: The Bureau possesses a palm-sized piece of stone stele bearing the script 25.

Internal Conduct

The Fan City branch combines genuine loyalty between colleagues with patronage, falsified records, and violence by superiors 7 8 9 33.

• Credit appropriation: Yu Ming offers Xu Chunliang ten taels of impure silver while claiming that he and Liu Jie should receive the main credit for destroying the Paper Ghost Face 7.
• Retaliation through rank: Yu Ming invokes the claim that defying a superior is a capital crime. Liu Jie then uses that accusation to justify attacking Xu Chunliang 8.
• Falsified attendance: The Third Squad's pleasure-house outing is recorded as a full deployment 9.
• Patronage payments: After becoming captain, Zhou Dafu plans to present Jin Jun with two hundred taels borrowed from his wife's family 33.
• Reluctance to investigate: Shi Qin advises treating Bureau service as a means of earning a living rather than seeking danger, passing on advice learned from Xu Chunliang's father 12.
• Protection between colleagues: In a discarded timeline, Shi Qin pushes Xu Chunliang aside and dies intercepting Liu Jie's copper coin attack 8.

Major Incidents

Bronze Sparrow Tower and the Third Squad Dispute

Xu Chunliang destroys the paper ghost responsible for the Bronze Sparrow Tower encounter and brings its remains to the Bureau. His refusal to surrender credit to Yu Ming and Liu Jie triggers ostracism and an attempted killing. After testing confrontations through repeated rollbacks, he secretly kills Liu Jie during the squad's Xiaoxiang Tower outing and frames Yu Ming, whom Jin Jun executes 2 7 8 9.

Guo Family Village Investigation

The Bureau sends Xu Chunliang and Liu Yong to investigate deaths at Squire Guo's estate, with Shi Qin joining them. The case exposes the Scale Immortal's power to kill people and erase memories of them. Liu Yong is lost, while Xu Chunliang eventually leaves with Shi Qin. The two report that nothing is wrong and complete the assignment; Xu privately warns Shi Qin not to spend the cursed Life Silver 10 12 14.

Third Squad Leadership Losses

Zhou Dafu becomes captain after Yu Ming's death but is subsequently murdered alongside his family on Liu Xin's orders. With no replacement appointed, the squad falls into aimless inactivity; Xu Chunliang and Shi Qin spend the following workday drinking tea at the offices 33 37.

Fan City Supernatural Crisis