My Scales Can Make Equivalent Exchange
Chapter 490 - 439: Report

Chapter 490: Chapter 439: Report

Even for the least populated Inheritance Peak among the remaining six peaks, there were disciples sporadically moving up and down, with escape lights shooting up everywhere.

Between the jungles, pavilions could be vaguely seen. Surrounded by spiritual energy, it was truly a scene straight out of a blessed land of immortality.

However, the Demon Suppression Peak was quite the opposite. The entire mountain peak seemed like a primeval jungle, densely covered with vegetation. Apart from a few places where high-grade medicinal fields could be seen, few traces of human activity could be found.

The entire Demon Suppression Peak was almost detached from the Outer Sect. Even the various departments of the Inner Sect maintained only a somewhat loose connection with it, like the Internal Affairs Hall and the Law Hall.

Being completely independent of the other peaks, it had very few disciples.

Hence, the Demon Suppression Peak and the Demon Suppression Tower had always been associated with mystery and serendipity in the folklore of the Sect.

In many tales, the only entity that could rival them was the Repository Guard of the Scripture Pavilion, who was basically a walking "surprise package" delivering serendipity!

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Guided by the identity card appointed to him as the head of the Dark Department, Wang Zijia floated into a place at the waist of Demon Suppression Peak, located within a cliffside canyon.

The entire canyon was not large, and at its center was a chilly pond. Apart from one side that served as the entrance, the other three sides were all cliff faces, lending the whole place a somewhat desolate appearance.

"Here?"

Wang Zijia checked the guidance of the identity card and looked around, but he didn’t find any entrance.

After a moment’s hesitation, he didn’t activate his Spirit Eye, but instead attempted to activate his identity card.

In the next moment, the spiritual light guiding him to this place started to flicker.

At the cliff to his right, a similar spiritual light flickered, revealing a cave.

"Do they always make it this mysterious inside the Sect’s Inner Door?"

Looking at the suddenly appearing entrance, Wang Zijia was momentarily taken aback before he floated up and entered it.

The entrance wasn’t particularly large, merely looking like a natural cave with a radius of about two and a half feet.

However, as Wang Zijia delved deeper, the surrounding space suddenly broadened, revealing an incredibly large underground palace inside the belly of the mountain.

Rows of stone rooms and a medley of caves and halls led Wang Zijia to doubt whether the so-called main hall of the Dark Department had hollowed out the waist of the Demon Suppression Peak!

There should be quite a few people inside the underground palace. On the way guided by his identity card, Wang Zijia encountered many passersby.

They were either dressed like Wang Zijia, without any concealment, or covered themselves tightly.

Of course, those without any disguises probably, like Wang Zijia at the moment, had already undergone a facial transformation.

None of them showed any inclination to speak to each other; everyone passed each other hurriedly without any interaction, like strangers.

In the slightly dark palace, everyone went about their own business, a stark contrast to the goings-on in the Outer Sect or the other peaks of the Inner Sect.

Given this was the Dark Department, Wang Zijia quickly accepted its unique style and culture.

Following the guidance on his identity card, and traversing various roads and buildings, he finally arrived at a bizarre great hall at the center of the mountain belly.

This was the dedicated hall for newcomers to report. It was very spacious inside, except for a huge faceless statue at the center; there was nothing else.

The style of the statue was rather niche, resembling a faceless man dressed in a fitted suit, holding a somewhat strange dagger in his hands. It gave off not the vibe of a monk, but of a romantic vigilante.

Upon arriving in front of the statue, Wang Zijia took a moment to examine it, kneeled and kowtowed three times, and announced, "Disciple reporting!"

As Wang Zijia finished his announcement, the faceless statue suddenly came to life, taking on the appearance of a young man.

But the grey statue still didn’t exhibit any color difference. In the dim-lit palace, the statue examined Wang Zijia with stone bead eyes, an eerie sight.

"Disciple pays respect to Minister Wu Mian!" When the statue came to life, Wang Zijia paid his respects again.

The Head of the Dark Department, code name: Wu Mian (Faceless). His real name, Dao name, cultivation, and age were all unknown.

Well ... so far, Wang Zijia only knew one code name, which already meant he knew quite a lot.

After all, in the Sect, not to mention disciples from the various factions of the Outer Sect, many of the Perfected in the Inner Sect even found the concept of the Dark Guards a mere rumor!

Just like the legend of the ’Dragon Group’ in his previous life!

After surveying Wang Zijia for a moment, the statue didn’t say anything. With a flip of his hand, a grey command token coalesced from a piece of stone, and with it, a stone lamp appeared.

The stone lamp was very simple, just like an ordinary oil lamp. The high-legged bowl contained a rock lamp wick, with the entire body exhibiting the grey color of a rock.

Wu Mian pushed the stone lamp first, and it floated in front of Wang Zijia.

"What’s this?" Wang Zijia asked doubtfully, looking at the stone lamp.

The statue, be it a split entity or a puppet, responded somewhat woodenly:

"This is the Spirit General Lamp. You can choose to provide a strand of essence blood, or a divine thought, or a strand of vitality, or a strand of mana, any of which can light it."

"Using essence blood or divine thought as an ignition will offer partial soul lamp effects, allowing verification of your life or death. Using vitality and mana only offers basic support request effects. In other words, in an emergency, you may request support from the Spirit Generals in the department."

"Igniting the Spirit General Lamp for the first time requires no contribution. Subsequent ignitions require contributions. Each support request will extinguish the Spirit General Lamp. Reigniting it will cost contribution points, along with the contribution points for the previous support request."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zijia directly released a strand of mana into the lamp.

"Poof!"

The stone lamp suddenly burned without oil, with its illusory flame like a phantasm, possessing not a hint of warmth but only a faint glow.

At the same time, Wang Zijia sensed a connection between himself and the lamp.

After sensing his Sea of ​​Consciousness and finding no unusual weights, Wang Zijia was quietly relieved.

The faceless statue beckoned, retrieving the stone lamp.

"Each Dark Guard must have a codename, especially for someone of a hall master level like you. Do you have any ideas?" The faceless statue asked, holding the remaining command token and looking at Wang Zijia.

Wang Zijia pondered slightly and said, "Demonic Child, perhaps."

Upon Wang Zijia’s words, the characters "Demonic Child" quickly emerged on the command token held by the faceless statue.

At the same time, the grey stone order quickly turned into a black iron color, the runes flickering, with a hint of streaming light.

The command token was the size of a palm, the overall shape was a combination of a triangle and a rectangle.

In the black iron color structure, patterns were densely engraved, one side was inscribed with the characters "Demonic Child," the other side read "Dark."

Once the changes to the command token were complete, the faceless statue tossed it to Wang Zijia.

Wang Zijia watched as the command token floated before him and he reached out to catch it.

"From today onwards, for all matters of the Dark Department, do not use your sect identity card anymore, use this secret command."

"In the Dark Department, there is only Hall Master Demonic Child, Dao Child of Scripture Pavilion no longer exists. In the sect, Demonic Child is Demonic Child, the Dao Child of the Scripture Pavilion is the Dao Child of the Scripture Pavilion. "

"This command token has the same function as the identity card, with even greater access in some areas. For instance, when it comes to personnel query authority, you already possess access to most of it."

"As for your mission this time, it has been issued. Coordinate with the relevant personnel and plan your departure yourself."

While Wang Zijia was sizing up the command token, the faceless statue spoke again, "Do you have any further questions?"

Wang Zijia pondered for a moment and asked, "Based on the information I received earlier, can disciples independently appoint Dark Guards?"

"You can decide on unregistered disciples yourself. To become an official Dark Guard, they need to complete the registration, submit for review, and your command token contains the relevant authority."

"Although there is no quota limit, typically, the top hundred names submitted by a hall master every ten years receive certain privileges, and the review becomes more stringent subsequently."

Wang Zijia nodded and continued to ask, "Can disciples assign Dark Department missions?"

"You can issue orders to the people under your command in your own hall. If you want to issue a mission to the whole Dark Department, we will charge a contribution depending on the difficulty of the mission," the faceless statue replied without any expression.

Wang Zijia followed up by asking, "Can I assign Infant God Spiritual Object collection missions?"

"As long as it does not violate the sect’s fundamental rules, it is permissible. But, whether someone takes up and completes the mission depends on how attractive your mission is. In the Dark Department, contribution is everything, there is nothing that cannot be measured with contribution."

Wang Zijia nodded, along with the information he had learned previously, he now had a sound understanding of the so-called Dark Department.

He pondered for a moment and asked, "Was Chu Jiefu’s Corpse kept? It would be beneficial to have it when I assume his role."

The faceless statue didn’t respond immediately but stood quietly for a while, seemingly checking something.

After a minute, he suddenly flipped his hand, and a palm-sized mini stone coffin was thrown out by him. He said, "This is it. Because of his special identity, fearing that it might be needed eventually, even the Entering the Coffin ritual hasn’t been done. But after seven years, even if it is well preserved, it’s unlikely to yield anything."

Wang Zijia casually replied, "Having the corpse is enough!"

"Do you have any further questions?"

Wang Zijia shook his head and replied, "None!"

"Click!"

Just as Wang Zijia finished speaking, the statue returned to its initial state as the faceless stone figure.

Wang Zijia glanced at the statue, took a look around the vacant Great Hall, and turned to leave.

The Great Hall resumed its silence, the dim space was utterly quiet.

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Wang Zijia did not return the way he had come, instead, he followed the guidance from his identity card and once again passed through several underground palaces.

Finally, he emerged from a group of halls at the foot of Demon Suppression Peak. Judging by the instructions he received when he emerged, there seemed to be several hundred exits!

The entrance he had used earlier was probably an exclusive entrance for newcomers to report.

Stepping out of the hall, he found himself around the living area of Demon Suppression Peak’s tower guards.

At the moment, Wang Zijia was mingling amongst them just like an ordinary disciple.

’The sect must put a super high level of confidentiality on the Dark Guards. And rightly so, if they want to keep it a secret from all the other sects to prevent any counter-infiltration, they must first obscure it from their own general public.’

He quietly left the group of halls, soaring into the sky and looking back at the somewhat primitive Demon Suppression Peak.

’Then, from today onwards, not only is Demonic Child a secret disciple that is not recorded in the sect, but also a registered hall master of the Dark Department! It is official, I have moved from a guerrilla farmer soldier to an official operative!’

Feeling a sense of elation in his heart, Wang Zijia turned into a blood-colored streamer and left Demon Suppression Peak.

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