In the name of supernatural powers

Chapter 232 Daozheng Bureau Meeting
Pingkaibang, Penglai Road, Kyoto Gang.

Inside the Japanese-style mansion, Horikita Tao knelt on the ground, flanked by two third-tier extraordinary beings who appeared to be at least fifty years old.

They were the personal guards left to him by Naito Goichi, and also the remnants of the shogunate's forces.

In Naito Goichi's words, these old folks have reached the end of their rope; they can't go any further, nor can they show their faces in public.

But Horikita Tao is different; his record with the federal authorities is clean.

Although not a citizen, he is not a separatist, nor is he wanted by the authorities. When a power grows too large, it inevitably needs to come to the forefront, and the leader standing in the spotlight is best off with a clean record.

This is also why they chose Horikita Tao.

He is capable, talented, and not wanted by the federal government.

8:20 a.m.

Naito Goichi did not return. When the sunlight shone into the courtyard, he still had not returned, which meant he was dead.

"Tao Jun, you are now the head of the Kyoto Gang."

Horikita Tao took a deep breath, suppressing his emotions, and nodded, saying, "Hi."

The guard said, "According to Naito-san's will, he left you an inheritance that is enough for you to advance all the way to the fourth-level transcendent."

"Please come with us."

Led by their bodyguards, they then drove away, changing to other vehicles along the way. They drove around for an hour, being extremely cautious about their movements, as if afraid of being discovered by others.

Finally, they arrived at a dilapidated old house.

Knocking on the door and exchanging coded messages in Japanese, Horikita Tao saw ten more Tier 3 Transcendent beings.

They are at least 50 years old and have obvious physical disabilities, such as missing hands, missing feet, or blindness.

This was the first time Horikita Tao had realized that the Kyoto Gang had so many Tier 3 superhumans.

After being introduced, I learned that they were all former subordinates of the Shogun, who could not show their faces in public and had physical disabilities, so they could only hide.

They are the foundation of the Kyoto Gang.

Many gangs have numerous extraordinary individuals in private, but they are generally kept out of the public eye.

Because unofficial superhumans who want to obtain resources for advancement must engage in illegal and criminal activities.

Horikita asked, "Are they the legacy the Chief of Staff left me?"

"No, please come with me."

The guard shook his head and went into the dark room under the stove in the old house's kitchen.

The entrance was very narrow. After going down, there was a dark room of 10 square meters with a very low temperature. There were four freezers inside, which were filled with test tube-shaped containers.

A faint medicinal aroma wafts out, the smell of a life-sustaining tonic, and the quality is quite good.

Horikita asked, "Are these all life-sustaining supplements?"

The guard replied, "They are all T6 advanced life supplements, a total of four thousand five hundred and thirty bottles."

"How many?!"

Horikita Tao's eyes widened, wondering if he had misheard.

He has been in charge of the Kyoto gang's affairs for over a year and is very familiar with the prices of high-end life supplements on the black market.

The average minimum price is 10,000 yuan per bottle, and some extremely high-quality ones can sell for 100,000 yuan.

A bottle of high-grade life supplement with a purity of T6 sells for 20,000 yuan, and special brands are even more expensive. Even at the lowest price, these four thousand-plus bottles could sell for 100 million yuan.

This is a life supplement worth 100 million yuan. Its actual purchasing power is higher than cash and it has more value than assets.

The Kyoto Gang is a large and powerful family with assets that can be valued at billions, but they can't come up with a hundred million in cash, let alone a life supplement worth a hundred million.

They are the Chen family's black gloves, who can usually get some high-level life forms that are about to expire, and the price is several thousand per bottle.

These shouldn't be nearing their expiration date.

How did the Chief of Staff manage to obtain so many life-sustaining supplements?

He was familiar with the affairs of the Kyoto Gang, including their dealings with Chen Wuhou, which he was also in charge of.

He knew very well that the Kyoto Gang had actually obtained less than one-tenth of the life-sustaining supplements here.

He guessed, "Are you secretly developing life-sustaining supplements behind Chen Wuhou's back?"

The guard did not deny it, saying, "We have some business dealings with pharmaceutical companies in private, helping them sell their surplus high-end life supplements, without any middlemen taking a cut."

"Isn't this too risky?"

Horikita Tao frowned.

If Marquis Wu finds out, the destruction of the Kyoto Gang is just a matter of his whim.

They were able to establish themselves entirely because they gained Chen Wuhou's approval, and they were able to grow stronger because of his support.

Otherwise, the establishment would be raided every few days, and gang members would be constantly arrested, making it impossible to continue operating.

The guard said, "Nothing without risk makes money. What we do is inherently risky, so we don't mind doing a little more."

"Tao Jun is now the chief executive officer. If you don't want to continue, you can terminate your contract with the pharmaceutical company."

Horikita asked, "How much commission do we get each month for helping sell our surplus life supplements?"

The guard replied, "One hundred bottles of advanced life supplements every month, most of them are T6."

That's a profit of 200 million.

Horikita's heart raced; he couldn't possibly give up such enormous profits.

"Then we'll have no choice but to stick to this path. Which pharmaceutical company will we be cooperating with?"

"Five grains".

"I heard that there are production quotas for high-grade life supplements, and each factory has a set production limit. How do they have so many life supplements?"

"We don't know about that, and it's none of our business anyway."

"How did they manage to bypass the Chen family's supervision?"

"Usually, we use high-grade goods to pass off as mid-grade goods. We buy specific containers and then gradually release them into the market."

Horikita learned in detail about their transaction process with the pharmaceutical company.

Financial supplements are essentially a gray market, and the Chen family merely acts as a platform with very weak regulatory capabilities.

Pharmaceutical companies can easily bypass the process and sell a portion of the drugs themselves.

Perhaps Chen Wuhou himself knew this, but he simply turned a blind eye.

But what puzzled Horikita was how the factory managed to exceed federal standards for production. Did the federal government have absolutely no oversight?
Other pharmaceutical companies may have similar businesses, but they simply don't know.

These doubts flashed through Horikita Tao's mind, and he didn't pay much attention to them.

Because it's none of his business.

He should focus on breaking through to the third tier first; he's only one step away from that.

Horikita Tao was quite talented; if he had been able to take the college entrance exam back then, he would have been guaranteed admission to a top-tier university.

With the support of the Kyoto community over the years, his life development has been quite rapid.

If you don't become an official, you can see your entire future laid out before you. Even if you eventually succeed in advancing to the fourth rank, you'll only be able to dabble in one region, ultimately still working as someone else's lackey.

Hori Kita was even more unwilling to leave Shenzhou.

Take my hometown as an example. The island is not uninhabited, but it has regressed to the agricultural era.

The few existing industries were disorganized and unable to support modernization; even basic industries were difficult to maintain.

One major drawback of city-states is their low population carrying capacity and scarcity of resources, leading to a vicious cycle where the upper limit is locked.

The villagers were like wild men, so poor they were practically baring their teeth.

Even if the federal government is bad, it is still a modern society.

With the widespread adoption of television a few years ago, the launch of touchscreen phones this year, and the future widespread availability of wide-area information services, things are changing rapidly.

Contradictions exist, and so does development.
-
Nantie District, Public Security Bureau.

The news of Li Mufeng's affair had not yet spread, but many people within the Public Security Bureau already knew about it.

No matter how stern the warnings, there will always be some people out of the hundreds who can't keep their mouths shut, especially since paparazzi have been trying to bribe people within the Public Security Bureau lately.

They don't need to break the law; they just need to tell the other party what happened at the police station that day to get hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Collective secrecy has always been a matter with extremely high barriers to entry.

It's difficult to keep secret things like rebellion, which can cost you your life, let alone something that's not so easy to be suspected of being illegal or criminal.

The most nervous people were undoubtedly the two bureau chiefs and deputy bureau chiefs, as they were the people primarily responsible.

Even if the Chen family pins the blame on Lu Zhao, and newspapers everywhere write that he killed Li Mufeng, in official procedure, Lu Zhao will at most bear secondary responsibility, and at most receive a warning.

However, even if the two leaders of the Public Security Bureau did nothing wrong, they would still be questioned because the person died in their unit, which would be considered negligence.

After Li Mufeng was transferred to a major hospital, Lu Zhao no longer needed to stay at the Public Security Bureau.

At nine o'clock in the morning, I prepared to lead the team to leave the Nantie District Public Security Bureau.

Before leaving, Zhou Wanhua pulled Deputy Director Zhao aside and found Lu Zhao.

"Brother Lu, Director Zhao is also involved. Can you protect him?"

Deputy Director Zhao stepped forward, bowed slightly, and said, "Captain Lu, please help me."

At this point, someone must take primary responsibility, and the most likely candidates are myself and the bureau chief.

He needs to find connections to avoid becoming a scapegoat, and his biggest connection right now is Lu Zhao.

Lu Zhao quickly stepped forward to help him up, saying, "I will do my best to help Director Zhao, but oversight is unavoidable."

"It's good that we overlooked it, it's good that we overlooked it."

Deputy Director Zhao nodded repeatedly.

The oversight went unpunished, requiring no suspension whatsoever.

To appease the two and to keep his promise, Lu Zhao took out his phone and said, "I'll call Uncle Liu right now and ask about the details."

After saying that, he dialed Liu Hao's number.

Zhou Wanhua and Deputy Director Zhao subconsciously slowed their breathing, and as they listened to the dial tone, they became inexplicably nervous.

This is the head of the South China Sea Dao Human Organization Department, the most powerful Dao-level official below Wuhou, and also the chief secretary-general of the South China Sea Dao.

The call connected, and a calm voice came through.

"Xiao Lu, what's wrong?"

The fact that the leader proactively inquired about the situation indicates an exceptionally close relationship.

Lu Zhao said, "Uncle Liu, I would like to ask how to handle Li Mufeng's matter? My friend Zhou Wanhua and the deputy director of the Nantie District Public Security Bureau are involved. They have helped me a lot, and I would like to ask you to mediate."

Liu Hao replied, "I'll inform him later. Tell the deputy director of the local unit to temporarily take over the work of the Public Security Bureau. There may be a crackdown later, and we'll need his cooperation."

"Ok."

Lu Zhao nodded.

Deputy Director Zhao, who was standing nearby, heard everything clearly. His eyes widened slightly, and his first reaction was:
Holy crap, I got promoted!
He had been in this position for five years without any chance of being promoted, but now it seems like a single phone call has made him a permanent employee.

Choosing sides is truly a matter of one step to heaven or one step to hell.

If he was helping the Chen family before, then he is now a scapegoat.

After hanging up the phone, Lu Zhao asked, "Should this be considered resolved?"

Zhou Wanhua asked shamelessly, "Brother Lu, what about me? Can I get a promotion?"

"Do you take me for the federal chief?"

Lu Zhao said speechlessly, "When you're old enough to be promoted, I can help you find some connections. We've only been out of the cadre academy for a few months, how could we possibly be promoted right away?"

Lu Zhao himself doesn't even know when he will be promoted to lieutenant colonel.

He didn't mind helping Zhou Wanhua find connections, just like Lin Xuemei helped him find connections back then. Only through give and take can a relationship be maintained in the long run.

Zhou Wanhua smiled and said, "Then I'll leave it to Brother Lu."

After a few casual words, Lu Zhao led his team away.

On the way back to the camp, I dialed Li Dongxue's number and asked, "Are you free?"

"You may have."

"Come out tomorrow, to the orphanage."

"Ah."

After a brief conversation, the call ended.

Unlike Lin Zhiyan's long phone calls that often lasted two or three hours, Lu Zhao's conversations with Li Dongxue were very brief.

The closer the relationship, the simpler the communication becomes.

------------

That afternoon, the Provincial Administration Bureau.

Liu Hanwen convened an emergency meeting of the Daozheng Bureau, which was attended by all the Dao-level officials, as well as a number of powerful adjutants.

Seated at the oval desk were high-ranking officials from the entire Nankaido region.

Before the meeting even started, everyone had already guessed what it was about.

Liu Hanwen, sitting in the main seat, began, "Just last night, an extremely serious attack occurred in the Nantie District. Someone attacked the Nantie District Public Security Bureau, resulting in multiple injuries and one person being seriously injured and unconscious."

"Preliminary investigations indicate that the attackers are a gang called the Kyoto Gang from Pingkai State. Openly attacking a security bureau is no ordinary gang action; they must be severely punished!"

"I propose a crackdown on organized crime in Ping Khai State!"

The voice echoed in the conference room, and everyone's eyes were drawn to Chen Yunming.

Chen Yunming's expression was slightly gloomy, but he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

At least Liu Hanwen's goal is not financial supplements.

(End of this chapter)