The Human Emperor (200-400)

C248: The Legend of the Bureau of Punishments, Ma Yinlong!

Given that person's capabilities, the guards around the plump merchant shouldn't be a match at all. Ordinarily speaking, the plump merchant would be the one getting beaten up instead.

But the conclusion was the opposite of what Wang Chong expected.

"Interesting."

Clearly, the middle-aged man didn't intend to retaliate at all. Given the circumstances, Wang Chong also thought that it was inappropriate for him to step in, so he watched by the side.

"What a downer!"

"Let's go! We shouldn't waste our time on trash."

Having vented his anger, the plump merchant walked away while hurling insults. After that, the unkempt middle-aged man slowly climbed to his feet.

Despite having suffered such a vicious beating, the man's body was still astonishingly stable. His feet and shoulders didn't shake in the least with his movements, as though he wasn't injured in the slightest.

"What a formidable martial artist!" Miyasame Ayaka narrowed her eyes and exclaimed in shock from Wang Chong’s side.

The guards employed by the plump merchant possessed considerable strength, and they did give it their all while pummeling the man. Under such a torrent of blows, if Miyasame Ayaka were to choose not to retaliate as well, she would surely have suffered grievous wounds.

And yet, the man seemed to be completely unhurt at all.

"A true expert!" Wang Chong's eyebrows twitched in surprise. That person was much stronger than he had initially expected him to be.

The onlookers dispersed, and pedestrians quickly filled the street once more. Just like a bubble on the surface of the sea, the commotion slowly disappeared. Other than Wang Chong, Miyasame Ayaka, and the guards from the Zhuang Clan and Chi Clan, no one paid the matter any heed.

And the person didn't seem to have noticed Wang Chong and his group either. As the man finally straightened his body, Wang Chong suddenly caught sight of his face.

"It's him?" Wang Chong's eyelids twitched, and a name suddenly flashed across his mind. He didn't expect to meet that person here.

"Gongzi, you know him?" Miyasame Ayaka asked as she stared at the gloomy back of the middle-aged man, until he slowly disappeared amidst the crowd.

"Un," Wang Chong nodded with a bizarre glint in his eyes.

"Follow me. We might have really found a formidable aid this time around!" Wang Chong said, changing his mind. Instead of returning back to the Wang Clan, he turned around and walked in the direction the middle-aged man disappeared in.

---

"Bureau of Personnel? He's an official from the Bureau of Personnel? But if I'm not mistaken, this should be one of the branches where the minor officials in charge of copying documents live. Given his capabilities, isn't it a huge waste for him to be working here?"

Staring at the yamen in front of her, the doubt in Miyasame Ayaka's eyes deepened. Even though it hadn't been long since she had arrived at Central Plains, she learned quite a few things in her time as an assassin in the capital.

The Great Tang royal court was divided into the Bureau of Rites, Bureau of Personnel, Bureau of Works, Bureau of Military Personnel, Bureau of Punishments, and Bureau of Revenue. However, other than these six main bureaus, there was still almost a hundred smaller yamen throughout the capital in charge of handling different problems.

Considering how dilapidated this yamen looked, it should be one of the least important yamen under the Bureau of Personnel.

Throughout the year, the officials here would rarely meet any important official. They would spend the majority of their time copying books and documents. In a sense, they were the most lowly-regarded members of the Bureau of Personnel.