Chapter 1693

The teleportation sensation came, and when Su Xiao's vision returned, he was sitting behind a desk; the wooden desk still showed scorch marks, and the full-metal ashtray on it indicated the office's owner had a smoking habit.

There were many things on the desk: a pocket watch, gold buttons, a folding knife that was clearly not a common item, emitting faint mechanical sounds, and… a potted root carving?

Upon closer inspection, he found it was not a root carving but the claw of some creature, having undergone wind-drying, the claw was entirely black, its skin and muscles long dehydrated, yet even so, Su Xiao could still feel a faint ferocity from it.

The office had a fresh herbal scent, the decoration was luxurious; if not for the Zul Empire's wealth, then it was the embezzlement of the deputy legion commander of the execution agency whom Su Xiao had replaced, but using the embezzled wealth in places visible to outsiders was clearly brainless behavior, showing the Zul Empire's wealth.

At that moment, Su Xiao's head buzzed, and some unfamiliar memories surfaced.

This empire called Zul had no dangerous neighbors, its people were united; although not everyone could be rich, they had escaped the point of starving to death, transportation was decent, with trains connecting major cities, old steam trains fueled by coal.

Even so, the Zul Empire still faced the danger of annihilation due to the existence of ghosts and demons, these monsters would not completely exterminate humanity; ghosts and demons had a habit of eating humans, or rather, humans were their main food, and humans were one of the few intelligent beings in this world (together with humans, ghosts, demons, and some strange beasts).

The cannibalism of ghosts and demons was not simply about supplementing nutrients through meat; the souls of intelligent beings were what they must consume, like humans needing vitamins—short-term deprivation was fine, but long-term, only death awaited.

Thus, the ghosts' goal was to overthrow the Zul Empire, then become rulers, raising humans like livestock to feed them, not to completely exterminate humanity.

Ghosts seemed terrifying, but their situation was not good; although they could hide in human society, awakeners were not vegetarians, often able to drag them out, so being captured alive by awakeners was a terrifying thing.

After eating humans, ghosts could increase their lifespan; humans eating ghosts might become awakeners, reason unknown, likely involving the soul level, not something this world's technology could study.

Deputy Legion Commander of the Execution Agency: Li Klasse (replaced via disguise mechanism as Kukulin Bai Ye), suspected of duty crime, the actual power holder of the Execution Agency.

Legion Commander: Lady Nancy, royal descendant, mainly responsible for communicating financial matters with other royal descendants, i. e., securing 'extra' funds for the Execution Agency; Lady Nancy was truly the god of wealth of the Execution Agency, and due to her royal descent, holding the nominal position of legion commander was justified.

Execution Agency: this was a legion established during wartime; after the war ended, its four subordinate divisions were split, and due to situational needs, the Execution Agency's numbers were greatly reduced; in fact, its combat power had been replaced by awakeners, responsible for clearing or capturing ghosts and demons in cities (only responsible for clearing and capturing, tracing etc. handled by other parts).

The memories in his mind gradually faded; Su Xiao rubbed his forehead lightly; those memories just now were not poured into his brain, but viewed in a browsing manner, feeling like watching a movie, only this movie was very long and had some trivial parts.

"So this is courting death."

Su Xiao picked up the gold button on the desk; this time the identity he replaced was different from the Iron Hand in the Xiya world—last time he had no knowledge of the Iron Hand, this time he had relevant memories of 'Li Klasse', namely the deputy legion commander he had replaced, and moreover, due to the disguise mechanism, even the name was replaced.

The Execution Agency seemed to have great real power, but this required acting within the rules, with three departments supervising it; indeed, like such a violent organization, if not properly restrained, it would not just be a financial loss.

And what Su Xiao now needed to resolve was clearing the 'duty crime' suspicion; once solved, he could get considerable help in both force and intelligence, especially intelligence, which was practically at his disposal.

The content of the duty crime was simple: not long ago, a royal descendant went missing, with many clues pointing to this deputy legion commander.

So-called royal descendants were the offspring of the seventeen founding kings; these seventeen kings founded the Zul Empire, and their descendants naturally received certain treatment, though exaggerated privileges did not exist.

In fact, there was no need to give these royal descendants privileges, as most were wealthy due to special reasons and had clean assets, so their status in the Zul Empire was not low.

Don't even mention killing a royal descendant; even if a commoner died, and without special mission, this legion commander would be dismissed for abuse of power and end up in prison, after all, this was a world with a sound legal system.

Currently, everyone only suspected, with no clear evidence, but Su Xiao knew this deputy legion commander had indeed done it; he had witnessed the entire process in those memories, the crime scene was this office, the cause was drunken lust—no, that description was somewhat inaccurate.

The deputy legion commander Su Xiao had replaced might have already been transferred to the ghost world, now sleeping in some space; this guy was very capable, and iron-blooded, ruthless, cunning toward enemies, and good to subordinates, as shown by the welfare of the Execution Agency that made other departments drool.

However, this old guy had a flaw: he was lustful, a common male ailment; Su Xiao didn't think he could avoid it either, but this old guy was extremely lustful—he brought the royal descendant's fiancée into the office, a deputy legion commander who could slaughter ghosts, alone with a twenty-year-old girl, dark night, high winds, the outcome was predictable.

What's more damnably bizarre was that the girl had Stockholm syndrome; for this 'real man' who brought her to the office and forced hehehe, she was hopelessly addicted, things gradually became perverse, but this was the fact.

The deputy legion commander old guy actually regretted it; after sobering up, he even considered a castration cure, but ultimately couldn't bear it—this was a man's symbol.

Initially, that royal descendant hadn't realized he was being cuckolded; but as his fiancée gradually despised his weakness, he grew suspicious, then followed her.

One night, that royal descendant followed his fiancée to this office, and that was his death date; the deputy legion commander was the big boss among awakeners, that royal descendant's tracking skills couldn't hide from him, and he ultimately died peacefully, though the burial site was somewhat remote.

"The corpse handling was… very clean, but that woman."

The gold button fell from Su Xiao's hand; that deputy legion commander had not dealt with that woman; from the emotions in those memories, he seemed reluctant to, or rather, this deputy legion commander's awakening level reached 86% (erosion degree), making him prone to emotionality, which was also a secret he could never reveal.

Su Xiao would not be affected by those memories, so the first thing he needed to do was dispose of that girl suffering from Stockholm syndrome, and quickly; now he didn't even have time to carefully check the promotion mission's content, and if he didn't resolve this, he might even lose his life.

The Zul Empire's military strength was no joke, and besides, Su Xiao was still in the capital, Zul City; wanting to break out of encirclement from here… was simply impossible.