188: Chapter 188 The Underworld issues a warning letter? Sorry, I'm following national law enforcement procedures.

Three days after Chen Guoliang's case was closed.

Donghai City Bureau of Abnormal Affairs, Director's office.

Even though the air conditioner was set to twenty-six degrees, the cup of hot tea on the desk had developed a layer of white ice crystals.

Old Wei wrapped his duty jacket tightly around himself, holding a pair of specialized insulated pliers in his hand.

Clamped between the pliers was a pitch-black envelope.

The envelope wasn't made of paper; it felt like some kind of cold leather, and its surface emitted a faint, eerie blue chill.

In the bottom right corner, an ancient seal was stamped in bright red cinnabar.

Old Wei placed the envelope on Gu Changan's desk and took two steps back.

"Director Gu, this was sent from below." Old Wei swallowed hard. "It came through the Bureau of Anomalies' top-secret dedicated channel."

Gu Changan leaned back in his boss chair and glanced at the seal.

It bore four characters: Order Maintenance.

Gu Changan opened a drawer, put on a pair of tactical gloves engraved with micro-carved runes, and picked up the black envelope.

It was freezing to the touch.

He opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of dark yellow letter paper.

The handwriting on the paper was written in some kind of black liquid, carrying a very faint smell of damp earth.

Sender: Chief Officer of the Underworld Order Maintenance Department, Judge Cui.

The wording in the letter was very official, carrying the heavy air of someone in a superior position.

The gist was: The Underworld acknowledges the handling of Chen Guoliang's case.

However, Bureau of Anomalies Director Gu Changan unauthorizedly utilized mortal technological equipment to create a spiritual projection to assist a departed soul in attending a mortal wedding.

This action constituted an overreach of authority, interfering with the order between Yin and Yang.

It was a serious violation of the 'Heaven and Earth Yin and Yang Separation Regulations.'

It demanded that the Bureau of Anomalies provide a profound explanation for this matter and guarantee that it would not happen again.

Old Wei stood across from the desk; although he hadn't seen the contents of the letter, just seeing the name of the sender made his legs tremble.

"Director Gu, what does it say?" Old Wei asked cautiously.

Gu Changan didn't speak.

He laid the letter flat on the desk, picked up a red sign pen from the side, and began writing directly on the blank space of the letter.

The pen tip scratched across the paper, making a rustling sound.

"The obsession of the involved party, Chen Guoliang, was caused by a malicious miscarriage of justice in the mortal realm.

Solving major mortal crimes falls entirely within the legitimate law enforcement scope of the China Bureau of Abnormal Affairs."

"The spiritual projector is merely an auxiliary law enforcement tool used to resolve the obsessions of the involved departed souls and facilitate the closing of cases.

Throughout the entire process, it did not cause any panic or disrupt the order of Yin and Yang."

"This Bureau maintains that the entire disposal process was legal, compliant, and consistent with national procedural justice."

Writing up to this point, Gu Changan paused his wrist and added one final sentence.

"If there are any objections, please initiate a formal cross-boundary arbitration procedure with the relevant superior department.

This Bureau is ready to accommodate at any time."

Gu Changan put down the pen, folded the letter, and tucked it back into the black envelope.

"Take it." Gu Changan tossed the envelope to Old Wei. "Send it back the way it came."

Old Wei scrambled to catch the envelope with the insulated pliers; after glancing at what Gu Changan had just written, he gasped in shock.

"Director Gu!" Old Wei's voice cracked. "Do you know who you are clashing with?

That is Judge Cui from the Underworld! A big shot in charge of Yin and Yang order!"

"I know." Gu Changan picked up the frozen teacup and walked to the water dispenser to refill it with hot water.

"But I am following national procedures, and everything is based on the law.

No matter how far-reaching his authority is, he cannot govern the judicial matters of our mortal realm."

Old Wei wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Send it. Get it done internally within ten minutes." Gu Changan issued a strict order.

Old Wei dared not disobey; he clutched the envelope and trotted out of the office.

Less than half an hour later.

The temperature on the desk plummeted again.

An identical black envelope appeared on the desk out of thin air.

Gu Changan walked over and tore it open with his bare hands.

Unexpectedly, the tone of Judge Cui's second letter had changed dramatically.

All that high-and-mighty bureaucratic jargon was gone, replaced by something unusually direct.

"Gu Changan, your way of handling problems is appreciated by some within the Underworld, while others are extremely dissatisfied."

"But none of that is important.

There is a more troublesome matter at hand that requires the cooperation of your Bureau of Anomalies."

Gu Changan raised an eyebrow and continued reading.

"In the last three months, seventeen malicious prison breaks have occurred in the Underworld."

"The types of escaped departed souls are extremely mixed.

There are ordinary souls who had just finished their sentences and were preparing for reincarnation, vicious souls with blood debts, and even a few evil ghosts who were under heavy guard."

The handwriting on the paper became somewhat messy, revealing the letter-writer's emotional fluctuation.

"More seriously, these departed souls did not run away on their own.

An external force in the mortal realm forcibly 'pulled' them back."

"We have determined that the person responsible for guiding the departed souls to escape is a long-missing mortal Cultivator."

"This person possesses an extremely rare Yin and Yang Dual Cultivation Technique, capable of using their own physical body as a medium to carve out temporary passages between Yin and Yang."

"According to the Underworld's tracking grid, this person's location is right here in Donghai City, which is under your jurisdiction."

Gu Changan slammed the letter onto the desk, his eyes turning completely cold.

On the territory of Donghai City, someone was privately opening passages between the Yin and Yang realms.

This was no longer an ordinary public security incident; it was a major crime endangering public safety.

He picked up the red secure phone on his desk and directly dialed Chen Xiaobei's internal extension.

"Xiaobei, bring your computer and come to my office immediately."

Two minutes later.

Chen Xiaobei rushed in, wind and fire, clutching a specialized military laptop covered in anime stickers.

"Director Gu, got work for me?" Chen Xiaobei's eyes lit up.

Gu Changan handed him the letter.

Chen Xiaobei took a look and curled his lip: "Is the Underworld's firewall that bad? Letting someone hack in seventeen times in a row to fish people out?"

"Don't talk nonsense." Gu Changan tapped the desk.

"Hack into the city's household registration and medical big data System.

Pull out all cases in Donghai City from the last three months that were classified as 'sudden death' or 'bizarre disappearance'."

"Then, compare them one by one with the identities of these seventeen escaped departed souls provided by the Underworld."

Chen Xiaobei placed the laptop on the coffee table, his ten fingers turning into a blur on the Keyboard.

Huge streams of data scrolled crazily across the screen.

Fifteen minutes later.

Chen Xiaobei pressed the Enter key, and an intricate relationship network map popped up on the screen.

"Director Gu, there's a pattern." Chen Xiaobei pointed to the red connecting lines on the screen.

"These seventeen escaped departed souls are not random.

Behind every departed soul, there is a specific 'beneficiary' in the mortal realm."

Chen Xiaobei clicked on one of the case files.

"For example, this departed soul named Wang Dafu was an antique appraisal expert during his lifetime.

The time he escaped from the Underworld was exactly the day before an underground black market auction in the mortal realm."

"And at that auction, an upstart who knew nothing about antiques managed to pick up three genuine items in a row, making a profit of one hundred million."

Chen Xiaobei clicked on another document.

"And this one.

A vicious soul with a murder case on his back escaped.

The same night, a gang leader in the southern district of Donghai City died suddenly and bizarrely under his own tight security.

The one who took over the territory was his biggest rival."

Chen Xiaobei looked up and swallowed hard.

"Director Gu, these beneficiaries in the mortal realm are all either rich, noble, or have complex backgrounds.

They are all using these escaped departed souls to help themselves obtain huge profits or clear away obstacles."

Gu Changan stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the bustling Donghai City outside.

"Someone is doing business." Gu Changan's voice was as cold as ice.

"Someone is paying a high price to hire that Cultivator who knows Yin and Yang Dual Cultivation to go to the Underworld and pull specific departed souls back to the mortal realm."

Gu Changan turned around and looked at the huge relationship network map.

"This is hiring ghosts."

"That Cultivator, right under our noses, has opened an illegal departed soul agency."