What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

"This time, I was specially dispatched by the General Administration."

Lei Zhenshan leaned back on the sofa, his hands crossed over his abdomen, the scar on his arm looking particularly sharp under the light.

"Chen Yang, I told you to wait for my message. Now, I've brought it."

Upon hearing these words, my once calm heart was stirred up as if a stone had been thrown into it.

News about my parents.

I looked at Lei Zhenshan, my back straightened unconsciously, and my eyes became sharp.

"Uncle Lei".

I changed my form of address, speaking in a low voice.

"I've been waiting for you for over half a year. Tell me, I'm listening."

However, Lei Zhenshan did not immediately reveal the news that I had been waiting for for more than half a year.

He pulled a pack of unbranded, specially supplied cigarettes from his jacket pocket, took one out, and put it in his mouth.

After exhaling a smoke ring, he stared intently at me.

"Chen Yang, before I tell you about your parents, I have to ask you a question first."

"How much do you know about the name 'Ninth Division of the Folklore Bureau'?"

The ninth location?

I was slightly taken aback, and quickly searched my memory for related information.

I'm not unfamiliar with this word, but I certainly don't understand it.

"I know nothing."

I spoke calmly.

"The only time I heard this name was more than half a year ago at the medical base in Guizhou Province, when you told me about it yourself."

As for what this organization does and what authority it has, I have absolutely no idea.

Lu Yan has never mentioned it to me either.

Lei Zhenshan nodded, seemingly unsurprised by my answer.

He flicked his cigarette ash, his gaze becoming somewhat profound, as if lost in some distant memory.

"Although Lu Yan has a powerful background, she is too young and not high enough to access things at this level."

Moreover, the very existence of the Ninth Division is now considered a semi-public taboo within the Bureau of Folklore.

He paused, his tone turning grim.

"The Folklore Bureau is a cultural protection unit to the outside world, and an enforcement agency to suppress evil spirits and maintain order in the folklore community to the inside world."

Local branches and provincial bureaus all have their own special operations groups and action teams.

But what if we encounter a catastrophic event that conventional forces simply cannot counter?

What if we encounter a rebellion from a hidden sect with a history spanning hundreds of years and profound foundations?

Lei Zhenshan pointed to the horrifying scar on his face.

"The Ninth Division is a special combat team established to deal with such extreme situations."

It is a Damocles' sword hanging over the entire Chinese folk culture community.

It is also the sharpest boning knife within the Folklore Bureau.

"None of the people who were able to enter the Ninth Division got in through back channels."

They are all top elites selected from branches and orthodox sects across the country through the most brutal real-world selection process.

They always carry out the most dangerous and deadliest top-secret missions.

Listening to Lei Zhenshan's description, I frowned deeply.

I have witnessed the combat effectiveness of the Jiangcheng Branch Special Operations Team, and I have also seen the methods of those experts from the Provincial Bureau.

He even witnessed firsthand the combat traces of experts like the "Tiangong" from the General Bureau.

If the Ninth Place is a sharp dagger that surpasses all of this, how strong must the people inside be?

"You're telling me all this..."

I had a vague idea of ​​what was going on, and my voice carried a subtle fluctuation that I myself didn't even realize.

Lei Zhenshan looked at me, stubbed out his cigarette, and said, word by word:

"Because your father, Chen Tianhe, was the first captain when the Ninth Division was first established."

At the time, I was his deputy.

Your mother, Lin Wan, was also one of the most core members of the Ninth Division at the time.

boom!

Hearing Lei Zhenshan's words, my heart was instantly filled with shock.

My parents are not ordinary people, but members of the government's top combat team.

From childhood to adulthood, my grandfather was always very secretive about my parents' affairs.

In my memory, they were just two vague figures, irresponsible parents who, in other people's eyes, "abandoned their child and disappeared."

If it weren't for the occasional phone call during the Lunar New Year when I was a child, I would have thought they had met with an accident long ago.

But now, Lei Zhenshan tells me that they once stood at the pinnacle of the nation's folk culture!

"The three of us have known each other since our debut."

A rare tenderness and nostalgia shone in Lei Zhenshan's eyes.

"Your father was a true genius. He had an incredible talent for manipulating the malevolent energy of the Corpse-Sealing lineage."

Your mother is proficient in Qimen Dunjia and talismanic arts.

We've been through thick and thin together, crawling out of piles of corpses countless times; we're practically brothers.

"Back then, the Ninth Division was a force to be reckoned with throughout the martial arts world."

"All sorts of sorcery from the southern borderlands, magicians from beyond the Great Wall, and sorcery from Southeast Asia—the mere mention of your father's name will send them tumbling away."

Lei Zhenshan's tone revealed an undisguised pride.

But soon, that pride faded, replaced by a deep weariness and solemnity.

"But, twenty years ago, everything changed."

Lei Zhenshan stared intently at me, his voice extremely low.

"Twenty years ago, your parents mysteriously disappeared while carrying out a top-secret mission issued by the General Administration."

They were nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead.

Not only them, but also something extremely important disappeared with them: a fragment of the main body of the Nine Provinces Cauldron.

The Nine Cauldrons!

Upon hearing those three words, my pupils suddenly contracted.

The Yu Ding! The Nine Ding of China!

Li Qing once told me that the fragments of the Yu Ding were related to the fate of the Chinese nation and were a deadly object capable of stirring up bloodshed.

And my parents disappeared twenty years ago, taking a fragment of the main body with them?!

"Uncle Lei..."

I suppressed the shock in my heart: "Could my parents' disappearance be related to the guardian of the tripod?"

Lei Zhenshan glanced at me with some surprise, seemingly not expecting that I could call out the name of the guardian of the tripod so readily.

"It seems that what you've experienced in Jiangcheng over the past six months has been even more exciting than what's written in the report."

He sighed and continued, "The Nine Provinces Cauldron is a divine object used to suppress the fortune of the nine provinces of China."

The specific details are beyond my full knowledge, even at my level.

All I know is that when your parents disappeared with that main fragment, it caused an extremely terrifying shock at the highest levels of the General Administration, and even the entire higher echelons.

"Some people suspected them of treason and fleeing with the sacred object."

Some believe they encountered an irresistible, terrifying force and have died in the line of duty.

During that period, the Ninth Division was practically turned upside down, and I was suspended from my duties for a full year under investigation.

"But because no conclusive evidence could be found, the matter ultimately became an unsolved mystery."

Your parents' files have been classified as top secret by the General Administration and are permanently sealed.

He was neither labeled a traitor nor posthumously recognized as a martyr.

It's as if they were wiped off the face of the earth by an invisible hand.