The Unruly Immortals

When Han Fu's Nascent Soul saw Li Huowang pick up the torture instruments once again, it was truly frightened.

"No! No, no, no!!" The tiny head, filled with fear, tried to tilt back as far as possible, and it began trying to divert the other's attention with its mouth.

"I really don't know much about the Oblivion Path! If you want to deal with them, you should go find the Astrological Bureau! They definitely know a lot about the Oblivion Path."

"The Astrological Bureau?" Li Huowang put the torture instruments down, looking at the other party thoughtfully. "Isn't it the Emperor's government office for dealing with Evil Spirits? They're very familiar with the Oblivion Path?"

The Nascent Soul nodded vigorously, "Yes! They are mortal enemies!! The Oblivion Path, wherever it appears, is pursued by the Astrological Bureau."

"Especially more than two hundred years ago, when the emperor of Dongxia was replaced by someone from the Oblivion Path, it directly led to the downfall of Dongxia! Since then, the Astrological Bureau has taken great interest in the Oblivion Path!"

"Moreover, when it comes to dealing with the Oblivion Path, the Astrological Bureaus of places like Qingqiu, Da Liang, Siqi, and Shu are all in cahoots! A lot of information won't be hidden! They must know something!"

"Oh? Is that so....." Li Huowang sat back down on his stool and began to ponder.

"Since Bei Feng is one of the Oblivion Path's Sixi, and the two sides have been mortal enemies for years, the Astrological Bureau must collect intelligence on this old rival; perhaps I really could find out Bei Feng's background from the Astrological Bureau."

Li Huowang was not demanding now, his immediate goal was not to find Bei Feng and force him to reveal the method to escape confusion.

First and foremost, he needed to verify that Bei Feng was truly a Xinsu capable of escaping confusion, and whether this statement was actually true.

Though Li Huowang was very eager for this statement to be true, he hadn't forgotten that it had come from the mouth of someone from the Oblivion Path.

Before taking any action, he first needed to ascertain the authenticity of this major premise; otherwise, he feared he might be deceived by a deceased individual from the Oblivion Path once more.

Only if Bei Feng were truly a Xinsu and indeed had a way to escape confusion would he have a clear direction for his subsequent actions.

"The Astrological Bureau... The Astrological Bureau..." Li Huowang muttered to himself for a while, then his gaze refocused on the deformed face of the Nascent Soul before him.

"Tell me everything you know about the Astrological Bureau, think slowly, remember the details, and your pain will be less."

Then, through the mouth of Han Fu's Nascent Soul, Li Huowang learned that, plainly speaking, the Astrological Bureau was there to help those in power deal with some things that ordinary soldiers couldn't handle, such as big Evil Spirits lurking in the cities and other troubles.

Of course, the chaos-spreading Oblivion Path was undeniably one of their top priorities.

"Is it only the Oblivion Path? What about organizations like the Ao Jing Sect and Zhengde Temple, do they not care for them?" Li Huowang asked again.

Hearing his words, Han Fu's Nascent Soul's solitary eye showed a trace of confusion. "Why bother with them, they are reputable sects and temples."

"Bullshit! How could they possibly be reputable! They... they..." Li Huowang stopped mid-sentence, supporting his chin with his hand, and after pondering seriously for a while, he absurdly found that he was right, there was no need to bother.

One group torments their own cultivators, and the other, at most, can be accused of violating the monastic code; they cause uproar only within their own circles and do not affect the ruler's reign over the land. The fact that Zhengde Temple was built within the capital city is sufficient to demonstrate its status in the hearts of certain people.

He didn't believe that Zhengde Temple, in carrying out such benevolent acts as providing child blessings, would go unnoticed by the Emperor residing in the same city. Since the Emperor chose not to intervene, it implied that such actions were tacitly approved in his eyes.

In the past, Li Huowang had always thought these two groups were an evil cult. But after experiencing various incidents, he realized that in terms of harming people, they were even worse than bandits who block roads and robbers who force-feed people boiling hot dumplings.

Not to mention the An Ci Nunnery, compared with other existences, this bunch of greedy, angry, and ignorant nuns were practically Bodhisattvas endowed with Buddha's light on earth.

"And what about your Luo Sect? You've killed so many people, doesn't the Astrological Bureau bother you?" Li Huowang took out the nineteen Yangshou Pills and laid them out in front of Han Fu's Nascent Soul.

"That's true, but as long as a cultivator practices normally and only occasionally kills a few people, as long as they don't offend any high-ranking officials, the Astrological Bureau tends to turn a blind eye,"

"Heh," hearing this, Li Huowang smiled sarcastically without any mirth, "The Astrological Bureau sure is dedicated and responsible."

His Nascent Soul caught the sarcasm in Li Huowang's words and explained, "Actually, the Astrological Bureau and us aren't like cats and mice, the Astrological Bureau is also happy to use disciples from certain sects to get things done, some of my martial brothers have worked for the Astrological Bureau."

Through his explanation, Li Huowang learned that the Astrological Bureau operated with a policy of being lenient outwardly but strict internally, employing loose cultivators and rogue cultivators like Han Fu for peripheral tasks.

For these people, it was entirely a matter of casting a wide net where any means were acceptable as long as the issue was resolved, and sometimes neither party even needed to meet face to face.

Their true enemies mainly included the likes of the Oblivion Path, whose existence only wished for chaos in the world, as well as certain evil spirits that posed a great threat, or their most important objective, dealing with natural disasters.

"Wait, what did you say? Natural disasters!?"

Upon hearing this word, Li Huowang immediately became alert. He had already learned of two natural disasters: one that he had experienced first-hand, the vanishing rot, and the other informed by Han Fu, the vanishing deceit.

And dealing with natural disasters was considered the most important task of the Astrological Bureau.

Suddenly, Li Huowang slapped his forehead with some annoyance. From the name Astrological Bureau alone, one might infer that the organization was most likely established to contend with natural calamities.

He was frustrated that such a simple deduction had only just occurred to him.

"How does the Astrological Bureau handle natural disasters, and how do they make them disappear?" Li Huowang questioned Han Fu's Nascent Soul again, truly curious about the workings of this insane world.

"How they deal with them, I really don't know, I'm not with the Astrological Bureau! I'm not deceiving you!"

Li Huowang certainly wasn't surprised by the Nascent Soul's words. It was already quite impressive that the other party knew so much.

"Fellow Daoist Li, is Han Fu's Seven-Star Sword with you?"

The voice of Han Fu's Nascent Soul pulled the contemplative Li Huowang from his thoughts as he looked up at it. "Seven-Star Sword? Are you talking about that Copper Coin Sword?"

"Yes! Let me tell you, that's a great treasure! The Seven-Star Sword was woven by our Master himself using one hundred eighty-four ancient coins on the day of the year of the monkey, noon month, noon day, noon hour, during the Eight Nodes and the Three Yuan Day. It has the ability to exhaust the negative energies of the numbers two black and five yellow, and it possesses the power to transform misfortune and drive away evil spirits!"