Humans in All Heavens: Starting with Detective Dee

Luoyang City is nestled against Mangshan Mountain to the north and faces Yique Pass to the south.

More than a year has passed since the incident in Liujiazhuang.

For more than a year, Di Chun only occasionally accompanied Di Renjie on cases.

He spends the rest of his time practicing martial arts.

It's currently the rainy season in Luoyang.

For more than ten consecutive days, thunder and lightning raged, and continuous rain shrouded the entire city of Luoyang in dark clouds.

It's really infuriating.

That evening, Di Chun was meditating and practicing internal energy cultivation techniques in his room.

Outside the window, the rain was pouring down.

It slapped against the ground with a loud crash.

"Knock knock knock".

A knocking sound mingled with the heavy rain.

"Brother Di, are you asleep?"

Li Yuanfang's voice came from outside the door.

Di Chun was startled awake and immediately got out of bed and went to the door to open it.

With a creak, the door opened.

"Brother Yuanfang? What's going on?" Di Chun opened the door, looking at Li Yuanfang with a puzzled expression. "It's so late, what's the matter?"

"Hey, it's not me, it's an adult who needs to talk to you about something."

"Is something the matter, sir? It seems there's another case." Di Chun said after a moment's thought.

"Haha, no wonder the adults always say you're like a tapeworm in their stomach, they're always right."

"How did you know there was a case?" Li Yuanfang chuckled and asked.

"The officials rarely tell us about important matters in the court; it can only be when there are cases."

"Let's go quickly." Di Chun walked out of the room, about to go with Li Yuanfang.

Seeing that Di Chun was still dressed, not in pajamas, even though it was so late, I noticed that Di Chun was still wearing clothes.

On the way to Di Renjie's room, Li Yuanfang couldn't help but ask, "Are you practicing internal energy cultivation in your room?"

"Yes." Di Chun nodded, looking helpless again: "With this continuous rain, I can't practice my swordsmanship outside. I can only practice my internal energy cultivation in my room."

Li Yuanfang looked on with admiration: "Brother Di, I am far inferior to you in terms of diligence."

"There's nothing I can do, I started practicing martial arts late, so I can only work hard to improve."

Starting from the very beginning of the Youzhou case...

He has been cultivating for a year and eight or nine months, almost two years.

With the help of his cheat system, his cultivation progressed smoothly.

After returning from Liujiazhuang to Chang'an, they went on to Luoyang.

For more than a year, Li Yuanfang was the one who fed him the techniques.

The longer the two practiced martial arts, the more amazed Li Yuanfang became.

Di Chun's cultivation speed is simply too fast.

Far beyond his expectations, there was no phenomenon of cultivation becoming more difficult with age.

In just over a year, Di Chun's martial arts skills had improved to a point that even he had to be wary of.

She's no longer the kind of person he could easily defeat with a single move when they first met.

Besides his rapid progress in martial arts, Di Chun's diligence amazed him.

He cultivates almost whenever he has a spare moment.

Now, both his internal strength and swordsmanship have reached a very high level of proficiency.

The biggest weakness right now is the lack of experience.

Although he often provides training, it is not a life-or-death battle after all.

Di Chun still lacked experience.

……

As they were talking, the two arrived at Di Renjie's door and pushed it open to go inside.

Di Renjie was behind his desk, looking at several official documents.

Hearing the noise, I looked up and saw two people walking in.

He immediately smiled and said, "You two are here."

"Take a look at these official documents."

"My lord, this is the official document approved by the Grand Secretary. Let's see if it's appropriate." Li Yuanfang was taken aback.

"It's alright." Di Renjie waved his hand and handed over a few official documents.

The two divided the documents and each took a few to read.

A moment later, Li Yuanfang looked up with a puzzled expression: "The Blood-Dripping Eagle?"

"Such a major murder case occurred simultaneously in Jiannan, Longyou, and Hedong."

Seventy or eighty people died, but no one saw the murderer.

There was only one blood-stained eagle at the scene, and the authorities found no clues when they investigated the site.

That's intriguing.

"The official document says all these people are exiles. What's going on?" Li Yuanfang asked, putting down the document.

Di Renjie shook his head: "There must be some reason for this. What caused these exiles to gather together?"

What caused them to be killed at the same time?

After each of them finished speaking, they paused for a moment, turned around, and found that Di Chun was still looking at the official documents.

They exchanged a glance, and Li Yuanfang asked, "Brother Di, what's your opinion?"

After speaking, Di Chun put down the official document in his hand.

He looked at the two men and said, "My lord, Brother Yuanfang."

During the past year or so at the Secretariat, I enjoyed looking at all kinds of documents and archives whenever I had free time.

This bleeding eagle reminded me of something.

"Oh? What is it?" Di Renjie was a little surprised, not expecting to find a clue from Di Chun.

Di Chun pretended to recall something, and after thinking for a few seconds, he said, "That was recorded in the Veritable Records of Emperor Wen of Sui."

The Xiaoguo Army, under the jurisdiction of the Right Garrison Guard, was the emperor's personal guard. In the third year of the Kaihuang era, Emperor Wen combined the Xiaowei and Guoyi Army into the Xiaoguo Guard, selecting the strongest men from the army to serve there, and had his left arm pierced with a blood-stained eagle.

In other words, the Blood Eagle is the symbol of the Xiaoguo Guard, a blood-dripping eagle.

In the sixth year of the Kaihuang era, General Yuan Zhou rebelled and was captured by Emperor Wen. His head was chopped off and his left arm was cut off to sacrifice to the Great Banner. The Xiaoguo Guard then followed this precedent.

From then on, this became the hallmark of the Valiant Guard in dealing with traitors.

"Hmm? How come a case involves the former Sui Dynasty?" Li Yuanfang asked with a puzzled look. "It's impossible that all these exiles who were killed were members of the Xiaoguo Guard."

That happened almost a hundred years ago.

Surely there aren't any members of the SWAT team still alive?

And aren't they all traitors?

Di Chun did not answer, but looked at Di Renjie: "Sir, this official document only says that there was a blood-dripping eagle beside the murdered person."

It wasn't mentioned whether their heads and left arms were intact, but I suspect they were most likely severed.

After listening to Di Chun's account, Di Renjie fell into deep thought.

A case that turns out to be connected to the Xiaoguo Guard from a hundred years ago?

For a time, there were too few clues, and he couldn't determine what was going on.

"Intuitively, this will be another major mystery of this dynasty."

Just as the group was discussing the case, the door was suddenly pushed open again.

Lu Dayou rushed in, looking completely bewildered.

He glanced at the three men and walked towards Di Renjie.

"My lord, a palace eunuch has come and says that the Emperor is seriously ill and requests that you come to the palace immediately to examine him."

"What? Quickly prepare the carriage."

Di Renjie was startled and waved his hand.

"Yes."

After Lu Dayou left, Di Renjie continued, "Di Chun, you will go to the palace with him to examine the Emperor."

"Yes, sir."

He has been taught by Di Renjie for nearly two years.

His greatest improvement was not in martial arts, but in medical skills. Over such a long period of time, his medical skills have reached at least 80% of Di Renjie's level.