Star Odyssey

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on 𝙛𝙧𝓮𝓮𝙬𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝓮𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝙢

It was not long before the first person arrived. Lu Yin saw an older man whose disheveled appearance gave him an air of eccentricity. As the man approached, he barely glanced at Lu Yin before turning to look at the Bureau Manager in a questioning manner.

With a gesture from the Bureau Manager, the old man took a seat.

Lu Yin’s eyes remained closed, giving him the appearance that he was in deep contemplation.

Another man arrived next. This man had a long azure blade strapped to his back. The second man also glanced at Lu Yin before looking at the Bureau Manager. The manager did not have any reactions, and the swordsman snorted coldly before taking his own seat.

The third arrival was a gaunt man. This man’s arrival roused Lu Yin from his thoughts and even prompted him to open his eyes. This was not because this man was powerful, but because he was weak. It was clear from a single glance that the man had only just become a Void Brillium, which meant that he was about as strong as a one-tribulation Envoy. Could someone with that level of strength really serve as a team captain?

The man looked at Lu Yin with a flattering smile on his face, instantly reminding Lu Yin of Ku Wei.

Next to arrive was a woman. She was strikingly beautiful, aside from eerie green patterns that were on her face. Perched on her shoulder was... a toad?

Lu Yin stared at the toad, and it stared back at him, locking eyes with him.

The lady also turned to the Bureau Manager. "Has the Bureau Head been by?"

The Bureau Manager politely answered, "Yes. While here, he named Xuan Qi as acting Bureau Head. Starting today, all of the Bureau’s operations will be overseen by Mr. Xuan Qi."

The four people all turned to stare at Lu Yin, surprise etched on each of their faces.

"Him?" The man with the azure blade arched a brow before turning and directing a menacing glare at Lu Yin. Red tinted the depths of the swordsman’s eyes. A hand reached for his sword, and for an instant, a terrifying aura erupted, slicing through the void as it headed for Lu Yin.

No one else reacted, as they were all waiting to see how things played out.

Lu Yin chuckled. A test? He did not move a muscle and simply allowed the attack to sweep over him. He looked quite relaxed throughout the entire process.

The man lowered his hand back down. "Passable."

Ning Ran frowned. "What special ability could he possess that qualifies him to be the acting Bureau Head?"

Not everyone was able to determine the cultivation level that Lu Yin was revealing. As far as Lu Yin could tell, only the old man was able to discern Lu Yin’s voidforce cultivation, and that was because the old man was a Void Morphora. All of the other team captains were Void Brillium, and none of them had a higher cultivation level than Lu Yin's.

The Bureau Manager did not respond to Ning Ran’s question.

Ning Ran stared at Lu Yin. "In pure strength, you can’t compare to the Bureau Head. Since he has still appointed you as acting Bureau Head, what special ability do you have?"

"What are you hoping for?"

Ning Ran replied, "Something that can help catch spies."

Lu Yin laughed. "I can do that."

Ning Ran stared at Lu Yin and stopped talking.

"What is this toad of yours?" Lu Yin asked curiously.

Ning Ran replied, "I oversee all interrogations. This is my life-bound voidforce puppet, a Poison Toad. There are few who can resist its poison."

"Is that so?" Lu Yin was instantly reminded of someone: Mistchild. That woman possessed an innate gift that allowed her to grow stronger the more poison she consumed. The last time Lu Yin had seen the woman had been a very long time ago.

"Didn't you say that there were five team captains? Where's the last one?" Lu Yin asked.

The Bureau Manager replied, "Boss Guan didn't come."

"Did he go out to capture spies?" Lu Yin questioned.

Bureau Manager replied bluntly, "He didn't come because he looks down on you, Mr. Xuan Qi."

The other four did not react at all, clearly accustomed to such behavior.

Lu Yin arched a brow. "That’s rather frank. What's his cultivation?"

"Peak Void Brillium."

Lu Yin nodded. "So he’s worth keeping around, and he has a backbone. Leave him be for now."

He stood up and scanned the four people before him. "Right before arriving here, I discovered that the Cloudview Clan’s Yun Wu is a spy. The Bureau Head has already ordered the information to be sealed, but I need you four to find out everyone who has had any sort of contact with Yun Wu and make a list of all their names."

Lu Yin turned to the man with the long azure sword. "You're Skinner, right? Go visit the Cloudview Clan and cross-check things with them. Yun Wu wasn't acting alone."

Skinner was frozen, stunned. "Yun Wu? The Cloudview clan?"

The other captains were similarly surprised by what Lu Yin had just revealed. He had only just arrived, but he already had an impressive accomplishment under his belt.

Lu Yin grew solemn as he looked at the few people before him. "While I’ve only just arrived and am still unfamiliar with all of you, capturing spies is extremely important for all of humanity. I don't want any of you to say one thing and do another, so would you all prefer that I demonstrate my authority?"

Skinner stood up. "There's no need for something like that. We all joined the Bureau to uncover spies. As long as there are any clues, we won't let them get away."

With that, the man walked out.

Old Dian and Ghost Three also left, leaving Lu Yin with just the Bureau Manager and Ning Ran.

"Where is Yun Wu?" Ning Ran asked.

Lu Yin shrugged. "The Bureau Head didn't bring her back."

Ning Ran's expression fell, and she also turned to leave.

The Bureau Manager then asked, "Mr. Xuan Qi, do you have any orders for me?"

"Where is Boss Guan?"

"Just inside the city walls, at the northwest corner."

Lu Yin had intended to leave the man be, but after giving the matter a second thought, he decided to settle matters now. It would not be much trouble.

The Bureau was widely hated. The people who joined it despite the organization’s stigma had either been forced into it or were genuinely passionate about rooting out spies.

While Xu Wuji did not seem to be very strict with his management of the Bureau, appointing someone as a team captain was not a small matter. Xu Wuji absolutely would have performed thorough background checks on all the captains, and since Boss Guan held such a role, it proved that the man was trustworthy. He might be a bit arrogant and overbearing, but as Xu Wuji had told Lu Yin, the young should be a bit domineering.

When Lu Yin found Boss Guan, the man was drinking with his subordinates, and he ignored Lu Yin as though he was invisible.

Lu Yin immediately used Spiral Domain, and the bone pike appeared in front of Boss Guan's forehead. This scene had become familiar in recent days.

Even so, the people who saw Spiral Domain appear in the Bureau’s headquarters were terribly shocked by the sight, and there was a fundamental shift in how they perceived Xuan Qi.

The next time the Bureau Manager met with Lu Yin, the man’s voice no longer sounded calm, and it instead carried great respect.

The same was also true of Boss Guan. His initial defiance transformed into obedience. "Master, let me take care of matters with the Cloudview clan. Skinner's cultivation is too low, so they won't respect him."

Lu Yin replied, "That’s not necessary. Just wait here. I’ll be assigning you some more tasks shortly."

Taming Boss Guan was far too easy for Lu Yin. He could summon a Semi-Progenitor with his Champions' Stage, and he had even imprisoned a Progenitor in the bowels of Aeternus Nation.

It took more than ten days from when Skinner left to investigate matters at the Cloudview clan’s territory for the list to be delivered to Lu Yin. Most of this time was because of how long it took to travel to and from the bureau’s headquarters.

"Yun Wu kept herself isolated from the rest of the Cloudview clan in order to avoid generating any suspicions that she was stealing the clan's intelligence. That same caution drove her to do everything that she could to reduce or eliminate others’ suspicions of her, but that was also her weakness.”

"That caution was what allowed me to find Aeternus’s symbol, and it will also show us exactly who she has been dealing with.

"While she was open about who she interacted with, there are absolutely some other spies among her contacts," Lu Yin casually commented as he scanned the list.

Boss Guan, Skinner, and the rest of the team captains were sitting across from Lu Yin, listening to him with the Bureau Manager.

Lu Yin was not saying anything that most people could not think of, but discovering spies was incredibly frustrating, and it was impossible to catch all the traitors.

Also, anyone who interacted with Yun Wu was far from ordinary.

Lu Yin himself did not really know what he was saying. The only reason why he had asked for the list of names was because of one person.

"Look into this person." Lu Yin circled one name on the list before tossing it over to the captains.

They checked who he had marked. "Yi Jun?" freeweb(n)ovel.co(m)

"Master, is there a problem with Yi Jun?" Ghost Three asked.

"Yes."

Ghost Three glanced at the others.

Old Dian spoke up, "Yi Jun is no ordinary person. She stands above all others in the Voidforce Universe in terms of both looks and talent. She has many followers and admirers, including even the descendants of Void Supremas. She stepped onto the Endless Frontier in order to save her father, and in doing so, accumulated great honor and earned a reputation for herself. She is connected to many powerful people. It will not be easy to investigate her."

Lu Yin glanced up. "It's exactly because of all that that I’m certain that there’s something off with her. If I were Aeternus, I would absolutely recruit such a person as a spy."

"But she accomplished great things on the Endless Frontier," Skinner interjected.

Lu Yin asked, "And how did she do that?"

Everyone was taken aback.

Lu Yin answered his own question, "When she first arrived on the Endless Frontier, what was her cultivation level? She was nothing more than a mere Void Ascendia. How could any Void Ascendia achieve great things in a place as brutal as the Endless Frontier? Even powerful Void Morphora struggle to stay alive in that place. The fact that a Void Ascendia accomplished anything of significance should be nothing but a joke."

No one said a word of argument, as Yi Jun’s record did sound a bit far-fetched.

"Of course, I'm not saying it’s completely impossible, but the chances are incredibly low. In my opinion, there’s only a way to guarantee achievements in that place," Lu Yin's face grew solemn as he declared, "Aeternus."

"Aeternus deliberately gave her those achievements?" Old Dian asked in astonishment.

"That’s the only explanation that I can think of," Lu Yin replied, "As part of the Bureau, our jobs are to consider the worst-case scenarios, but proving that someone is a spy requires evidence, not speculation. Starting now, the Bureau only has one mission."

Lu Yin’s hand fell upon the list of names "Investigate Yi Jun."

Yi Jun was Yun Wu’s contact who had taken the information that Yun Wu had gathered. Yi Jun was a spy, but Lu Yin needed her name to be on the list so that he had a reasonable excuse to investigate her. Without anything to trigger an investigation, looking into Yi Jun would be far too suspicious.

Even if Lu Yin's reason for investigating the woman sounded a bit far-fetched, that did not make his words any less true. The bureau was indeed tasked with expecting the worst. On top of that, his reasoning explained many things.

Given Lu Yin’s orders, everyone in the Bureau started researching Yi Jun, regardless of how willing they were.

Unfortunately, things did not proceed smoothly. The only information that the Bureau was able to gather regarding Yi Jun was public record. They had no means of obtaining direct access to the woman.

The Bureau could not afford to reveal their investigation and act openly against Yi Jun. Not only would doing so raise the woman’s guard, but they would also find endless obstacles impeding their progress.

"Yi Jun is not someone you can meet just because you want to. There are many people who wish to meet with her any given day, and unless we reveal ourselves as officials of the Bureau who are conducting an investigation, there's no way for us to personally meet her," Skinner grumbled in frustration.

Boss Guan added, "I might be able to meet her if I used a different identity, but that would take a bit of time. I can’t even say how long it would take."

"Even you, a peak Void Brillium, can't meet her. This woman is a real celebrity," Lu Yin muttered.

Boss Guan smiled bitterly. "There's nothing that we can do about it. Unless a person is somehow exceptional and stands above all others, it will take an extremely long time to meet Yi Jun."

"Exceptional?" Lu Yin grew puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"

"It means being the best," Old Dian replied. His messy hair gave him a bizarre appearance. "Someone who stands above all of their peers in some manner, such as the most powerful Void Brillium, or someone who has achieved something unprecedented. Things like that."

"I've crossed the Void Pass. Would that count?" Lu Yin asked.

The moment he spoke, a stunned silence fell upon the room.

The Bureau Manager was flabbergasted, and he asked, "You- you crossed the Void Pass?"

Boss Guan was shocked. "You're the one who crossed the Void Pass?"

Lu Yin replied, "Yes, that was me. Does that make it possible for me to meet Yi Jun?"

Once again, their perspective of their young boss transformed.