Quan Yuxun still had doubts about Xia Chujian's special abilities, and they couldn't be dispelled by just the Special Security Bureau's specially made high-level Supernatural Helmet.
So, after thinking about it, he replied:
[Qilin]: You have been kind to the Quan Family, and I, Quan Yuxun, will absolutely not repay kindness with enmity.
Xia Chujian liked this kind of directness, without beating around the bush, and without exaggerated metaphors, metonymy, parallelism, rhetorical questions, or foils.
She could understand it, and she could also save it as evidence.
Xia Chujian secretly took a screenshot and saved it in her Quantum Optical Brain, then replied with a large animated sticker of a cat happily spinning in circles.
Quan Yuxun smiled, turned off his Quantum Optical Brain, and continued his work.
...
The day before Xia Chujian's school started, she received news from Meng Guanghui that Wu Fu's family had not been found.
The Special Security Bureau agreed to register Wu Fu as a minor who had lost both parents, and let her and Xia Yuanfang go to the Punishment Department in Mulan City to complete the procedures for adopting Wu Fu.
From then on, Wu Fu was officially a member of the Xia Family!
Xia Chujian and Xia Yuanfang were very happy. When going through the procedures, they set the day Xia Chujian met Wu Fu as his birthday.
So no matter how old Wu Fu actually was, he was now only two years and a little over a month old.
Also on this day, the competition for the new Baron of the Beichen Empire finally came to a conclusion.
His Majesty the Emperor issued an Imperial Edict, bestowing Mu Anyi, the head of the Mu Family, as the new Baron, with his fiefdom on a small island in the Southern Hemisphere of Beichen Star.
To be able to obtain a fiefdom on Beichen Star, where the Imperial City was located, and a separate small island at that, this favor even exceeded that of many Earls and Viscounts.
The entire upper class of the Beichen Empire was spreading rumors that the Mu Family had gone through Nine Doubts Consort's connections to get such a good arrangement.
This kind of gossip news, of course, could not be spread on the Star Network.
In fact, any news about Nine Doubts Consort would not be circulated on the Star Network.
Therefore, ordinary civilians did not know who the new Baron had gone through, and they did not care.
In any case, things like titles were too far removed from the lives of ordinary people.
It was enough to just eat melons and watch the fun on the Star Network. Everyone still had to live their own lives.
On the same day, the graduation exam results for all senior high school students on Guiyuan Star were announced.
Mulan City No. 1 High School was no exception.
Xia Chujian didn't pay attention to it at all, and didn't even remember to check her grades.
But her cheap employer, Su Buyan, kept it in mind.
He got Xia Chujian's exam number from Huo Yushen, and directly logged on to the Guiyuan Star high school graduation exam results announcement website to check using Xia Chujian's exam number.
"Xia Chujian, female, eighteen years old.
Literature: 145 points.
Mathematics: 150 points.
Physics: 135 points.
Chemistry: 150 points.
Total score: 580 points.
Ranking: Second in Guiyuan Star, second in the city."
Su Buyan couldn't believe his eyes when he saw this result.
He even wiped the physical display screen repeatedly before looking at it again.
"...The high school graduation exam for the entire Guiyuan Star has a total score of six hundred points, and this girl actually got five hundred and eighty points! - With these grades, she's still a slacker?!" Su Buyan muttered to himself, unable to resist sending a message to Huo Yushen.
[Su Buyan]: Marshal Huo, didn't you say Xia Chujian's grades were very bad? I just checked her high school graduation results, and she actually ranked second in Guiyuan Star! Then he sent a screenshot of Xia Chujian's grades.
Huo Yushen: "..."
This score looks fake no matter how you look at it.
Huo Yushen had checked Xia Chujian's academic record throughout high school. Apart from math, which was decent, her literature and chemistry scores hovered between passing and failing. Physics, on the other hand, she had never passed.
How could her grades suddenly skyrocket during the graduation exam?
Could she have cheated?
But Huo Yushen also knew that with the Beichen Empire's strict control over examination halls, cheating was impossible.
Unless someone leaked the questions beforehand.
But given Xia Chujian's status and her family's economic situation, it was impossible for anyone to leak questions to her.
Her family was neither high enough to reach the level of people who could leak questions, nor wealthy enough to afford it.
But how did she achieve this qualitative leap in her grades? However, Huo Yushen only wondered for a moment before dismissing it.
Why should he care how Xia Chujian got high scores? As long as she didn't cheat in the exam.
If she cheated in the exam, she wouldn't be able to enter the Special Security Bureau.
Su Buyan was still smugly boasting.
[Su Buyan]: I told you I have a good eye! How could the assistant I chose be a xuezha!
Huo Yushen calmly struck him down.
[Huo Yushen]: Xia Chujian is a Special Operations Personnel of our Special Security Bureau. Your private employment agreement with Xia Chujian needs to be approved by the Special Security Bureau.
Su Buyan was furious when he saw this.
[Su Buyan]: Huo Yushen! You're going too far! You didn't say it wasn't allowed when I signed the agreement with Chujian!
At that time, because of the Shao Siming Black Silver Mecha, Su Buyan had specifically asked Huo Yushen to borrow a fighter jet capable of space warping, so Huo Yushen knew the ins and outs.
Of course, Huo Yushen wouldn't say that he had moved Xia Chujian's entry date forward by half a year.
So when Su Buyan accused him, Huo Yushen deliberately misled him.
[Huo Yushen]: At that time, Xia Chujian was performing a special mission, and it was inconvenient to reveal her true identity to the public, so she could sign the agreement. But after her mission is completed, these agreements must be invalidated according to the law.
Because Special Security Bureau personnel cannot have other employment relationships with other departments or private individuals.
Su Buyan was so angry that a series of garbled curses were immediately sent over.
Huo Yushen waited for him to vent before replying.
[Huo Yushen]: However, you can be her master. A Master-Disciple Relationship is not an employment relationship and is not within the scope of the law.
When Su Buyan saw this reply, he was overjoyed, so happy that he felt an overwhelming sense of joy in his chest, and he wanted to shout.
He even stood up, ran to the lawn outside, and ran several laps until he was covered in sweat before stopping.
He had always regarded himself as Xia Chujian's master. If he could fix the Master-Disciple Relationship in the form of a contract, why not?
Su Buyan acted immediately.
Returning to his laboratory, he immediately drafted a Master-Disciple Relationship agreement and sent it to Xia Chujian.
This agreement also stated that after this agreement came into effect, all previous agreements would be void.
In other words, this Master-Disciple agreement would replace the previous employment agreement.
And in order to get Xia Chujian to agree, he even raised the monthly salary to five thousand a month!
Where else could she find a master like him!
Not only did he not accept the disciple's filial piety, but he also took the initiative to pay the disciple a salary! When Xia Chujian saw this Master-Disciple agreement, she was initially resistant.
But when she saw the monthly salary of five thousand Beichen coins, as well as the Five Insurances and One Fund fully paid by the master, she suddenly became a little uncertain.
She also had Five Insurances and One Fund in the Special Security Bureau, but institutions like the Special Security Bureau only paid half of the Five Insurances and One Fund, and she had to pay the other half herself, which needed to be deducted directly from her salary.
But at Su Buyan's place, although her identity was a disciple, the responsibilities and work were no different from an assistant, and it wasn't full-time, but part-time, and she didn't need to work forty hours a week.
And the salary was twice as high!
Such a good agreement, should she sign it, should she sign it, or should she sign it...
It looked even better than the Special Security Bureau's employment agreement!
Besides the Special Security Bureau's golden reputation, Su Buyan was not someone Xia Chujian considered reliable.
While muttering, "Chujian will never be a disciple unless it includes room and board," she accidentally clicked confirm.
Then, she forwarded the agreement to Huo Yushen, asking him: As an employee of the Special Security Bureau, is it permissible to have a master-disciple relationship with an outsider? A paid master-disciple relationship? A master paying the disciple kind of master-disciple relationship...
Huo Yushen was utterly speechless when he saw Su Buyan's master-disciple agreement.
A part-time job for five thousand Beichen Coins a month? Did that idiot Su Buyan know the salary standards in Mulan City? What was he doing to the Special Security Bureau? Xia Chujian's current salary level at the Special Security Bureau was relatively low, two thousand a month, which was definitely a high salary in Mulan City, but not enough elsewhere.
But compared to that, it wasn't even half of Su Buyan's part-time "disciple" salary.
Huo Yushen was worried that Xia Chujian might resign directly because of this...
After all, this academic zha was very greedy for money.
After pondering for a long time, Huo Yushen opened the Special Security Bureau's internal system again and wrote a report to increase Xia Chujian's salary.
Soon, Xia Chujian's salary was raised from two thousand a month to five thousand a month, just to prevent Su Buyan from luring Xia Chujian away.
He was still counting on Xia Chujian to help him find his sister.
After Huo Yushen finished writing the report, he opened the Quantum Optical Brain's quantum entanglement encryption mode and sent a video call invitation to his mother, who was far away on Beichen Star.
It was just after 9 p.m. on Beichen Star.
She Zhuyin was sitting alone in the bright living room, eating a plate of egg skin dumplings while watching the evening news on Beichen Star's Royal Television.
Clicking on the video call invitation sent by Huo Yushen, She Zhuyin said lightly, "What's the matter? I'm having a late-night snack."
Huo Yushen didn't waste words and directly picked up the Face Mask and pointed it at the camera.
She Zhuyin immediately recognized the Face Mask, her eyes slightly narrowed: "...What's going on? Who made this Face Mask?"
Huo Yushen said, "It's someone unexpected."
As he spoke, he recounted the operation where Quan Yuxun had Xia Chujian wear this Face Mask as bait.
She Zhuyin frowned: "...It's actually the Quan Family? What's their purpose in doing this?"
Huo Yushen said, "It's not clear yet, but it gave us a second clue."
She Zhuyin came back to her senses and nodded, "Not bad, could it be that someone in the Quan Family has seen, or even knows your sister's identity, and should also know where she is now, right?"
When she asked the last question, a hopeful expression appeared on She Zhuyin's face.
Huo Yushen said, "Currently, apart from this Face Mask, we can't find direct evidence to prove that someone in the Quan Family knows my sister's whereabouts."
"And I can't directly take this Face Mask and question Quan Yuxun."
"But I thought of another way and investigated."
Then, Huo Yushen was too lazy to speak and directly sent the memos he had written recently to She Zhuyin.
She Zhuyin silently clicked to view them.
Memo 1:
"On a certain day of a certain month, the raw material composition and machine production model of this Face Mask were analyzed using special instruments."
"As expected, this Face Mask was produced by the Royal Factory. In the entire Beichen Empire, only the Royal Factory can mass-produce simulated human Face Masks on a large scale."
"They have a special system that uses special biological materials and unique production methods to produce this Face Mask, which is structurally no different from a real human face."
"The first step in production is to perform a portrait mold."
"The original appearance of the portrait mold is mostly synthetic images generated by mechanical intelligence, which means they are not real photos."
"Only a few Face Masks use real human heads."
"And these real human Face Masks are all commissioned by the Special Security Bureau and are backup props prepared for the big shots."
Memo 2:
"On a certain day of a certain month, taking advantage of the Special Security Bureau's opportunity to commission a new batch of real human Face Masks in the new year, I had a 'friendly exchange' with the system at the Royal Factory."
She Zhuyin showed a knowing smile when she saw this.
To be able to describe hacking as a grandiose "friendly exchange," her son was indeed a character.
She continued reading.
"We took the opportunity to check the factory's production plans for the last five years and found a record of a similar face cast to this Face Mask, which was commissioned for production only in the middle of last year."
"Moreover, after analyzing and comparing the face cast of this Face Mask, it has thirty-two more real skeletal key points than the mechanical intelligent drawing we obtained earlier."
"This indicates that the client who commissioned the Face Mask has clearer facial photos with more angles than the one we have."
"From this perspective, the client must have seen the younger sister in person before, and may even know where she is now."
Memorandum 3:
"On a certain day of a certain month, we began investigating the client's identity, but found nothing. This client was able to mix this commission with the factory's normal annual production tasks. Unless we investigate all the factory's staff, it will be difficult to find out who the client is."
"And this factory employs a total of 150,000 people, with 80,000 having access to the factory's production task system."
"To investigate them one by one would require manpower and resources that cannot be gathered in a short period of time."
"But we still have to try."
Memorandum 4:
"On a certain day of a certain month, we changed our investigation angle and began searching for the original photos used for the character casting."
"Finally, in the recycle bin of the factory's system, we found the deleted photos and recovered the data after exporting them."
"It turned out that the client provided a total of four headshot photos from different angles, including front, left, right, and bottom-up views."
She Zhuyin asked at this point, "Where are those photos?"
Huo Yushen understood She Zhuyin's meaning and immediately displayed the four photos that had been deleted by the Royal Family factory but recovered by him on the video call interface.
He said, "Analyzing from the shooting angle, these photos were not taken openly, but were all candid shots."
She Zhuyin said with emotion, "...Someone has been tracking your younger sister and taking these photos? Why?"
Huo Yushen also felt that the more he investigated, the more doubts arose.
He now had no idea what kind of environment his younger sister grew up in, and why she was being secretly observed and coveted by so many people.
Huo Yushen said, "That's one aspect, and there's another problem."
"Do you remember that the first time we found out about the younger sister's whereabouts, it was when we discovered she had been kidnapped by the Judge organization?"
She Zhuyin nodded heavily, "We asked Mr. Hu to predict your younger sister's whereabouts many years ago, but Mr. Hu had no inspiration. It wasn't until the end of last year that he suddenly divined and gave the coordinates of your younger sister's location. But unexpectedly, it turned out to be where the Judge organization members were based."
Huo Yushen said, "Yes, I also sent people to rescue her as soon as possible, but unfortunately... someone blocked them for ten minutes. Otherwise, we wouldn't have lost the trail."
She Zhuyin said grimly, "Within those ten minutes, someone took your younger sister away and then killed everyone present at the time, including those young boys and girls who were also kidnapped."
Huo Yushen released another video, saying, "The Judge organization kidnapped these twenty-four young boys and girls for their triennial Human Sacrifice Ceremony."
"I obtained a copy of the Judge organization's internal information, as well as the scene of their triennial Human Sacrifice Ceremony. To be precise, this is the video of the Human Sacrifice Ceremony three years ago. You can take a look."
The video quickly played.
On the virtual display screen in front of them, a large three-dimensional lotus building appeared.
From a distance, it seemed like the unique Chaos Green Lotus that bloomed at the beginning of the universe.
This three-dimensional lotus building was divided into three layers.
The top layer had four unfolded petals, with a long cylinder standing in the middle of the petals, and the top of the cylinder looked like a delicately and realistically carved lotus seedpod.
The second layer had eight unfolded petals.
The bottom layer was the third layer, with twelve unfolded petals.
The carvings of these petals were lifelike, and even the tiny dewdrop marks on the petals seemed to be visible.
Each petal also had a human-shaped groove, just enough for one person to lie down.
Those kidnapped young boys and girls were all dressed in silver robes, with their hair loose, their hands tied in front of their chests, and were placed one by one into the human-shaped grooves.
Then, a woman wearing a golden robe and a bird mask emerged from the huge cylinder in the middle of the lotus building, standing right in the middle of the lotus seedpod at the top.
The woman held a gold-inlaid jade scepter in one hand and a huge feather pen in the other.
When the sunlight was almost perpendicular to the top of the cylinder, the woman raised the scepter and shouted, "The sacrifice begins!"
Suddenly, stalks emerged from the humanoid grooves on those petals, just like the stalks of lotus leaves.
The tips of these stalks were very sharp, like spears.
These sharp tips directly pierced the throats of those young boys and girls.
Twenty-four strings of bright red blood columns, like blood arrows, shot up from their throats, like crimson fountains.
At the same time, liquid began to seep out from below the humanoid grooves, merging with the blood.
Before long, the blood of those people gradually drained away, and the liquid in the grooves increased, almost filling the humanoid grooves.
From the surface, it was impossible to see anyone in each groove; only pools of blood rippled…
She Zhuyin's face turned ashen as she watched this scene: "...No wonder the Judge organization is classified as a cult!"
Just thinking that if that child hadn't been rescued, they would have suffered the same fate filled her with uncontrollable rage.
She closed her eyes. The bright living room seemed to experience a short circuit. After a few crackling sounds, the lights went out, and it was pitch black inside and outside the house.
Huo Yushen paused the video. When She Zhuyin opened her eyes, the lights in the room returned to normal. She Zhuyin said faintly, "...Continue."
Huo Yushen resumed playback.
Next, the woman wearing a golden robe and a bird mask pressed a button.
The blood contained in the twenty-four humanoid grooves was quickly sucked into the top of the lotus pod through pre-dug blood channels.
The top rapidly expanded, and the center sank, forming a round basin shape about one meter in diameter and half a meter high.
The blood mixed with other liquids quickly filled the lotus pod-shaped round basin.
The woman wearing the golden robe and mask, in full view of everyone, took off her robe.
She was not wearing any clothes underneath. It was clear that her figure was slender and well-proportioned, like undulating mountains, but it was covered with abstract lines of various colors, so it looked like she was wearing a tight-fitting suit.
As soon as this woman immersed herself in the blood pool, the abstract lines painted on her body immediately had some kind of chemical reaction with the blood pool.
Bubbles gurgled from the blood pool and rose into the sky.
The liquid in the blood pool gradually decreased, and the woman changed her posture, kneeling in the blood pool, with her hands clasped together and raised to the sky.
Then, she began to recite words that outsiders could not understand, like some kind of scripture, or some kind of incantation.
As she chanted, more and more blood-colored bubbles rose.
The previously sunny sky gradually turned gray.
When those blood-colored bubbles rose to a high altitude and merged into the white clouds.
Soon, those white clouds were stained by the blood-colored bubbles, merging together to form a larger dark cloud.
This dark cloud revealed a faint blood light, rolling in the sky, appearing directly above the altar, blocking all sunlight.
The woman became even more excited. She stood up, still holding her hands together, and began to twist her body towards the sky.
Her long hair dripped with blood mist, swaying with her body.
The white three-dimensional lotus building was also sprinkled with spots of blood, like a blooming blood-colored lotus.
The sky became even darker, and the blood-colored cloud gradually grew larger and larger, seemingly boundless, as if it would cover the entire sky.
Below the lotus altar, countless believers of the Judge organization knelt.
Each of them wore a face mask, making it impossible to see their true faces.
But at this moment, they were all kneeling there with utmost piety, chanting certain scriptures or incantations along with the naked woman.
At the last moment, everyone's voice became hysterical, screaming madly.
This is the second update, a long chapter, including bonus chapters for April's monthly tickets at 2100 and 2400.
There will be a new update at 00:05 tonight.
A reminder for everyone to vote for recommendations on Monday!
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