Chapter 204 : Chapter 204
Chapter 204: Joining the Swordbearers Hall
The corner of Li Mu’s eye twitched.
As expected, he really was Bai Tiewei’s father.
After Old Bai finished speaking, he turned and walked outside.
Li Mu had no choice but to follow.
Zhang Baihe hurried after them and stopped him with a smile.
“Wait, wait, Old Bai, Old Bai...”
“Where are you taking Tiger Marquis Li?”
Bai Shouheng glared.
“What? Do I have to file a report with you?”
Zhang Baihe smiled bitterly.
“That will not be necessary, but I also came this time because I happened to have something to discuss with Tiger Marquis Li.”
Bai Shouheng said irritably, “Discuss it tomorrow!”
Li Mu immediately stepped in to smooth things over.
“Dragon General Zhang, you should go to Wanren Military District first. The Cultivation Arts Faculty of Wanren Military District is also looking forward to your guidance.”
“Once Old Bai finishes speaking with me, I will go to the military district to find you.”
Zhang Baihe could only nod.
“Very well, then.”
After that, the three of them walked out of the courtroom together under the anxious gazes of Zhou Min’an and the others.
The moment Li Mu left the courtroom, he was also startled.
The shocking sight of more than a thousand people outside made Li Mu’s heart feel warm.
So there were this many people standing behind him.
Not only had people from the five great military districts come, even the Liang Family and Ironbone Military Academy had all arrived.
Since they dared to come and support him, that meant they were standing against Zong Hongyuan.
That required tremendous courage.
Zhang Baihe praised softly, “It has been a very long time since I last saw such a grand scene of several Abyss-Suppressing Army military districts standing so united.”
Li Mu knew that Bai Shouheng could not expose himself in public for too long.
So after cupping his hands and thanking everyone, he followed Bai Shouheng and left first.
Zhang Baihe remained behind to explain things to everyone.
Several seemingly ordinary figures in the crowd followed them without a sound.
Very soon, they gathered behind Bai Shouheng.
Li Mu guessed that they were all members of the Swordbearers Hall.
Every one of them carried a mysterious and powerful aura.
Even the weakest among them was at the Profound Rank Seventh Grade.
Bai Shouheng soon brought Li Mu into a car.
Bai Shouheng and Li Mu sat in the back row.
After getting into the car, Li Mu relaxed considerably.
But he was still shocked by Bai Tiewei’s background. This father-daughter relationship had been hidden far too deeply.
There were probably only a handful of people who knew they were father and daughter.
If Bai Tiewei had ever wanted to scheme for power, she might have already been sitting in an even higher position by now.
Li Mu said apologetically to Bai Shouheng, “This junior failed to recognize Old Bai. I was discourteous. I hope Old Bai will forgive me.”
Bai Shouheng first turned his head and looked Li Mu up and down for quite a while.
Then he smiled and said, “Forgiving you will not be easy. You brat did not commit a crime against the nation. You committed a crime against my Bai Family.”
“Do you know when I first started watching you?”
Li Mu smiled awkwardly and shook his head, indicating that he did not know.
“After the Abyss First Battle!” Bai Shouheng said.
Li Mu was shocked.
Had that not been half a year ago?
Had he been under the Swordbearers Hall’s surveillance for the past half year?
Ah, of course, it was possible that the surveillance had not been so strict that he had no privacy at all.
Otherwise, there was no way he would not have noticed.
It would have been even more impossible for him and Wang Yinhuan to have already become husband and wife in truth without this old man flying into a rage.
Instead, Li Mu secretly felt relieved.
He shamelessly grinned and said, “Watching me? Old Bai, did you start evaluating me as your grandson-in-law back then?”
Since Old Bai had come over to support him, that in itself was a kind of recognition.
He had to seize the chance to use this matter to provoke the old man more, lowering their threshold for accepting the matter between him and Wang Yinhuan.
“Bullshit!”
The moment Bai Shouheng mentioned this, his anger rose.
Wang Yinhuan had been taken by Li Mu. Wang Longcheng was somewhat satisfied with it.
But this old man was truly angry.
His precious granddaughter was completely like a flawless piece of jade.
Whenever he thought about how much brutish strength this brat had used on his obedient granddaughter, his teeth itched with hatred.
His appreciation of Li Mu was genuine.
The problem was that, in his mind, these two matters could not offset each other.
Even if Li Mu were a thousand times more outstanding than he was now, he still would not be worthy of his granddaughter.
The old man also felt miserable, as though the flesh of his heart had been plucked away by someone.
Bai Shouheng looked at Li Mu irritably again.
“At that time, my son-in-law Wang Longcheng saw that you were worth considering, so he asked me to place you under an Observation Period.”
“You should know what the Swordbearers Hall does, right?”
Li Mu answered honestly, “Only vaguely.”
Bai Shouheng nodded slightly and explained the role of the Swordbearers Hall to him.
To put it plainly, the Swordbearers Hall was the gun in the nation’s hand.
Its main target was corruption and crime, which it eliminated without shaking the foundation of society.
It possessed the authority to act first and report later.
But this gun had to be silenced.
Just like the Heaven Society, it was hidden in various places and at various levels. It could not be exposed.
Only a very small number of high-ranking officials within the system recognized some members of the Swordbearers Hall.
As for the Personnel Roster of the Swordbearers Hall, aside from the highest leader of the Central Council, no one had the right to inquire about it.
This was also meant to deter corrupt officials and criminal elements. They did not know who around them might be a member or informant of the Swordbearers Hall.
Because of that, they would not dare to commit crimes lightly.
However, Li Mu also asked the question that puzzled him the most.
“Then how many members of the Swordbearers Hall are there in Linyuan City?”
“Why was such a poisonous worm like Zong Hongsheng still able to live until now?”
Bai Shouheng let out a long sigh.
“This is precisely the most severe problem the Swordbearers Hall is currently facing.”
“We are short on people.”
“Our screening mechanism of preferring shortage over mediocrity means that we must observe you for an extremely long time.”
“During the Observation Period, observing you alone requires two people.”
“And currently, the number of Swordbearers Hall members in all of Linyuan City does not exceed this number.”
Bai Shouheng crossed two fingers together.
He made the number ten.
Li Mu was shocked.
Fewer than ten?
But after thinking about it, that seemed right. This was a department that wielded the great authority to act first and report later.
“The lowest cultivation level among them is also the Profound Rank Sixth Grade!”
Only then did Li Mu understand.
That made sense.
In the entire city, how many people were there above the Profound Rank Sixth or Seventh Grade?
An Xing, as a Deputy Commander-in-Chief of a military district, was only at the Sixth Grade.
Moreover, one had to pass observation in every aspect.
“The most severe issue the Swordbearers Hall faces right now is the shortage of manpower.”
“We do not have enough people to infiltrate more grounded frontline positions.”
“That makes it very difficult to discover problems.”
“A matter like Zong Hongsheng’s...”
“If you had not arranged for Lu Chenfeng to enter the Law Enforcement Bureau...”
“And if that careful female Law Enforcement Officer had not happened to reveal this matter to him, it would have been extremely difficult to seize a clue and slowly unravel the whole thing.”
Li Mu nodded with deep agreement.
Even Sun Yujie herself had said that the reason she paid attention to the matter was that all those who had gone missing were girls.
She would have nightmares in her sleep, dreaming of those girls crying in pools of blood and begging her to help them.
Otherwise, even if she wanted to report the case to a young man like Lu Chenfeng, who had only just taken over leadership of the Law Enforcement Department, she would still have had to carefully weigh the consequences.
And if she had not happened to run into Li Mu, once Zhou Yunhe died in prison, everything would have ended there.
After all, if he had not spoken, who would dare to randomly run up to a Tiger Marquis of the Abyss-Suppressing Army and say, “You, go investigate the Commissioner of the Law Enforcement Bureau. I suspect he has not been doing anything good.”
“So, what is the result of your observation of me?” Li Mu asked.
Bai Shouheng said, “You have been selected into the Swordbearers Hall!”
“I do not want to hear the word no from you. Otherwise, I will also have to say no!”
Bai Shouheng looked at him meaningfully.
The Swordbearers Hall member driving in front was speechless for a moment.
What era was this?
The Swordbearers Hall was a place countless people dreamed of entering but could not.
Why were there so few people in the Swordbearers Hall? Was it not because of this damned observation mechanism?
If they loosened the authority even slightly, the Swordbearers Hall would have long since flourished everywhere. Of course, viruses would also infiltrate it more easily.
All those who had been observed and passed were people who, during the Observation Period, had done many things the Swordbearers Hall ought to do through their own initiative. This was a very important standard.
So it was almost impossible for anyone to refuse.
Yet now, this old man was actually using his granddaughter to threaten him.
Moreover, Li Mu’s Observation Period was considered short, which showed how much Old Bai wanted Li Mu to enter the Swordbearers Hall.
Li Mu did indeed possess rare methods and courage.
But Li Mu asked, “The Swordbearers Hall does not require people to attend meetings all day, does it?”
Old Bai looked at him somewhat strangely.
“No.”
“There will not often be boring missions, right?” Li Mu asked again.
Bai Shouheng’s beard began to tremble.
“No!”
“The Swordbearers Hall is the same as those things you usually run around stirring up. Aside from the fact that you cannot casually tell others you are a member of the Swordbearers Hall, there is no other difference. Do whatever you should do.”
Li Mu nodded.
“Ah, then I am willing.”