Bold Speculation

A meeting.

Another meeting.

Endless meetings.

In the conference room, everyone seated around the table had a grave expression, with lingering traces of exhaustion visible on some of their faces.

—All of them had been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night for this meeting.

The air conditioner hummed continuously. In the quiet space, the rustling of turning pages broke the silence every now and then.

Footage from ten body cameras had been pulled by the Special Investigation Bureau, giving a group of former trace evidence specialists something to analyze again and again.

The segments involving Ma Guniang were isolated and examined frame by frame under high magnification, for fear of missing any crucial details.

Every word Ma Guniang spoke, every glance she gave, and every movement she made was analyzed by assigned specialists.

What did that expression mean?

Could that gesture be hinting at something specific?

Under the ultra-high-definition lens, every move, smile, and subtle shift in Ma Guniang's expression was magnified several times over and displayed before the group.

The four historians who had arrived overnight immediately turned sour upon hearing the question Ma Mingyuan posed.

—While none of these historical scholars dared to claim absolute mastery over Great Xia's history, what in the world did he mean by barging in and asking whether humanity had discovered the existence of ghosts during Empress Wu Zetian's reign?

They studied history, not the occult!

If you want to know about that stuff, go find the folklore people!

Since they needed help, the Special Investigation Bureau didn't hide anything and directly played the operation footage for them.

The cameras hadn't captured everything that transpired.

Neither the fire nor the illusion appeared in the recording.

In the first half of the video, a group of action team members acted as if they had eaten poisonous mushrooms, engaged in a battle of wits against empty air, and walked in circles around the stairwell.

In the second half, a woman in purple robes arrived through the mist, her milky-white fog swirling around until it almost obscured the lens completely.

After a brief conversation, the woman leaped off the towering high-rise building and rode the wind away.

The shaky footage perfectly captured the camera holder's bewilderment and shock.

The historians: "..."

This camerawork, these special effects, this ridiculous plot and grand exit...

Are you trying to fool us with clips from a TV drama?

The four old men, whose combined ages nearly reached three hundred, scowled and turned to leave.

Only after Ma Mingyuan gave repeated assurances, swearing on his political integrity, did the old scholars begrudgingly believe the footage was genuine.

The four spent the rest of the night flipping through historical documents, attempting to locate any trace of the "Demon Suppression Division" mentioned by Ma Guniang.

However, their findings were meager.

"There are two possibilities."

Ma Mingyuan's brows were tightly knitted as his fingers tapped unhurriedly on the tabletop. He spoke at a measured pace:

"First, this so-called 'Ma Guniang' is lying.

'Whatever exists leaves a trace.' If an organization like the Demon Suppression Division truly existed in history, why isn't there a single historical record of it?

However, based on my personal judgment, this possibility is low."

The others fell into thought, knit their brows, or rubbed their temples, many nodding in agreement.

Indeed.

The fire at Green Ti New City had occurred seven years ago.

When Ma Guniang appeared before the Special Investigation Section, she had first notified the authorities of the evil ghost's potential arrival.

Then, she had observed Qin Yue's team from the shadows, stepping in at just the right moment to save lives, slay the ghost, and gift a cultivation technique to Qin Yue.

Finally, she had made a dashing departure.

If she was lying, why go to such great lengths to construct a lie that could be so easily disproven?

Ma Mingyuan nodded.

"Yes, that's my line of thinking as well.

Ma Guniang destroyed the evil ghost Zheng Tong with effortless ease, proving that with her capabilities, she was fully capable of completing whatever task this 'Lord Commissioner' assigned to her.

Yet she insisted on involving official authorities—giving us prior notice, saving our people...

To me, it feels more like she was giving us a warning, or perhaps testing our stance."

Someone raised an objection:

"Testing us?"

"Then wouldn't it have been simpler to just tell us directly that the spirit haunting the Ghost Building was Zheng's ghost?"

"Exactly. Why go in such a huge circle? What is her goal?"

"Perhaps we can look at the problem from her perspective."

Qin Yue, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly had a flash of inspiration, her eyes lighting up.

"In our Great Xia myths and legends, there are often tropes involving 'tests.'

Take Journey to the West, for instance, with the 'Four Saints Testing the Zen Mind.' Or how Lü Dongbin had to pass ten trials before being enlightened by Zhongli Quan to become an immortal.

Could the case at the Ghost Building also be a test given to our Special Investigation Section by Ma Guniang?"

"Little Qin's train of thought is spot-on!"

Ma Mingyuan slapped the table, growing excited.

"She might have simply wanted to see whether our comrades would participate in this mission.

Didn't Ma Guniang mention that the 'Demon Suppression Division' is merely a general title? Throughout every dynasty, whichever agency dealt with evil spirits belonged to the Demon Suppression Division, even if the designation varied.

She might not have been sure whether our Special Investigation Section was the entity she was looking for.

This must have been a test. The performance of Little Qin and our comrades during this mission earned Ma Guniang's approval, which is why she left behind what she called a 'cultivation technique.'"

In the conference room, every eye turned to the blue-covered book resting beside Qin Yue's hand.

—Small Twelve Bone Forging Method.

Unlike the cheap knockoffs on street stalls selling three for ten yuan online, this book could potentially be a real cultivation technique.

Cultivation.

Heat burned in everyone's eyes.

Which citizen of Great Xia hadn't dreamed of cultivating immortality in their heart?

With the global environment abruptly shifting and supernatural incidents occurring more and more frequently around them, a genuine cultivation technique obtained directly from a non-human entity...

Ma Mingyuan knocked on the table, pulling everyone's attention back.

"We're straying from the topic. Let me outline the second possibility.

Ma Guniang might not have lied to us. In history—or rather, in the unrecorded parts of history—the organization known as the 'Demon Suppression Division' truly existed.

It's just that with the changing times and succession of dynasties, historical records were destroyed, leading to a severance of the legacy left by the Demon Suppression Division."

Assuming everything Ma Guniang said was true:

Then the "Empress Shenlong" she mentioned could very well be Empress Wu Zetian, the sole female emperor in Great Xia's history.

Since Ma Guniang claimed to be a person of the "Great Song," having survived until now meant she was a centuries-old ghost.

In ancient times, productivity was low and technology was primitive. When humans encountered inexplicable phenomena, they attributed them to "ghosts and gods."

To maintain social stability and consolidate imperial power, rulers could indeed have established a department specifically dedicated to handling matters of gods and ghosts.

As for why there were no records in history...

Perhaps, just as Ma Guniang said, when Manchu troops breached the pass, the Qing rulers rewrote Han history, burned historical records, and concealed this portion of history to consolidate their rule.

"That's not impossible either."

He Xiaoyi narrowed his eyes, recalling memories for a long moment before continuing:

"My He family's ancestors moved here from beyond the pass.

I heard from my grandfather that our family originally branched off from a lineage of shamans, changing our surname back then to escape disaster.

From what I know, when the Manchu troops breached the pass, in order to suppress the monsters and ghosts within the pass, Hong Taiji formed a pact with the immortal spirits and demons cultivating in the Northeast.

I'm not clear on the specifics of the pact, but it was roughly this:

In the Age of Dharma Decline, demons and immortal spirits borrowed the Dragon Qi of the Qing court to cultivate. In exchange, they agreed not to cross Shanhai Pass to cause trouble in the central plains.

Ordinary people couldn't see immortal spirits and demons, so there must have been people specifically responsible for communicating with them.

That group of capable individuals working for the Qing court was likely similar to the members of the Demon Suppression Division, serving exclusively the imperial family.

So my guess is that the Demon Suppression Division might really have existed. It's just that over years of development, it gradually evolved into a secret imperial agency, which is why no records survived after the founding of the republic."

With so many ghosts and gods in ancient times, the imperial family feared death too.

—Therefore, if there was a secret demon-hunting agency serving the royal house, it was by no means impossible.