The Zhensui Bureau did not kill the living.
That was the rule, and many people knew it.
Hu Ma wasn't entirely sure whether that was one of the reasons the Yan family dared provoke the Zhensui Bureau, but he understood clearly this rule had three exceptions.
First: those who walk the ghost way — if they take Zhensui Bureau as their authority and break the rules, they could be killed.
Second: anyone who wrecked the order between yin and yang, who committed forbidden acts — the Zhensui Bureau could deal with them too, take them down and chop off their heads in the name of law.
Third: if ghosts or gods petitioned for justice, then after the case was clarified a human head might be required to repay the spirit.
Earlier, the Yan family had hired so many river-and-lake practitioners and scattered them about, stirring up trouble.
Hu Ma felt rightly annoyed.
But truth be told, from the Bureau’s standpoint, that kind of provocation was just common underworld etiquette; it didn’t necessarily count as breaking the forbidden.
If the Yan family had been brazen enough to let a wild god set up a shrine and privately take incense offerings, that was a different matter entirely.
Not only would the Yan family be on the Bureau’s radar, even if the Meng family learned of it they wouldn't let them off.