Chapter 370: Chapter 369: Unexpected Gains, Vengeance

A few minutes later.

As per Li Jing’s request, Xiao Ai retrieved a list detailing the identities of hundreds of thousands of people.

Upon seeing the vast amount of names and personal information, Li Jing was genuinely astounded.

Being the Director of the Management Bureau was truly no easy task.

Sitting in an office approving several files, simply stamping them could potentially affect the interests of hundreds of thousands of people.

Those whose direct interests could be influenced by the top leadership’s decisions.

Were neither ordinary citizens nor grassroots workers.

They were either big bosses, or leaders of certain forces and familial clans.

There was no doubt about the power vested in the Director of the Management Bureau.

However, the propensity to offend others seemed a bit too much...

Before rushing to look at the dense list, Li Jing decided to wait a bit longer.

There was no need to say more about Xiao Ai’s work efficiency.

After an initial search for those related to this matter, the names of those from the Jiang family’s residence were quickly extracted.

The final result was a list of nearly a thousand people.

This, to be honest, was somewhat outrageous.

The Jiang family’s estate was not small.

But it was essentially similar to a large residential area.

The permanent residents numbered around nine thousand.

Most of these people were affiliated with the Jiang family.

The remaining members of the system and their families were at most three thousand?

After subtracting the ordinary family members from these three thousand, it would be impressive if there were a thousand legitimately employed within the system. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The State is vast.

So is Longyu’s system.

But not many people in the system were eligible to live in the Jiang family’s residence.

The thousand-name list in front of Li Jing now demonstrated that.

Within a short span of one year, Jiang Liao had managed to offend various officials and dignitaries residing in the Jiang family’s residence due to work-related matters.

Picking a few random names for scrutiny, Li Jing found that the reason for most of these people’s interests being adversely impacted was not because of their positions within the system, but rather because their relatives’ businesses suffered losses due to decisions made by the Management Bureau.

Staring at the list, Li Jing fell into deep thought.

Those ruthless enough to harm Jiang Liao’s wife could by no means be ordinary people.

Those "on the list" in front of him were all extraordinary.

But hoping to find a suspect from this list was unrealistic.

The suspect is a resident of the Jiang family residence.

This was Li Jing’s original line of thinking.

But nothing is absolute, he had to consider other factors.

The suspect could also be someone connected to the resident of the Jiang family’s residence, someone who can come and go at will through connections.

The possibility of this was not small.

An obvious reality.

Involved in various interests, sure, there would be people who harbored resentment toward Jiang Liao, but they wouldn’t be ruthless enough to harm his wife.

Most of those eligible to live in the Jiang family’s residence are core figures within the system.

They were rich, powerful, and had bright futures ahead.

There was no need to plot such an act over minor losses, potentially jeopardizing their own future.

Man proposes, God disposes.

Heaven’s net is wide but lets nothing through.

Some deeds, once committed, can never be washed clean in a lifetime.

The concealed truth will surface one day.

Sorting out his thoughts quietly, Li Jing raised his eyes and instructed Xiao Ai.

"Based on this list of a thousand names and using the State as the scope, leverage big data to search the social surface of the State and find all associates who have vested interests with these thousand individuals. After the results are retrieved, filter out those with a criminal past, those involved with organized crime and violence, and those under suspicion. Cross check this list with the first list of vested interest associates, and compile a list of overlapping individuals."

"Understood."

Xiao Ai complied.

Within two minutes, the list of three groups that Li Jing required was obtained.

There were around tens of thousands of individuals with vested interests linked to the thousand residents of the Jiang family’s residence.

Among these, there were roughly more than two thousand with a criminal past, those involved with organized crime and violence, and those under suspicion.

Upon cross-checking with the list of tens of thousands of vested interest associates, a final total of 496 individuals were found.

The list that was compiled after several screenings and comparisons significantly narrowed down the scope.

Li Jing was not certain that the suspect was definitely among them.

However, this list could serve as a starting point.

While swiftly scanning the list, Li Jing noticed many familiar names.

Among the list of 496 individuals, many were established figures from the Seven Great Families besides the Jiang family.

What he was seeing at the moment were those that he had come into contact with while familiarizing himself with the Seven Great Families.

There were many he did not recognize.

There was nothing much to say.

The influence of the Seven Great Families in the State was deeply rooted.

Even if they respect the "hidden rules" of not involving business in politics, one cannot survive in the State without building connections with officials and dignitaries.

After scanning the entire list, Li Jing frowned in confusion.

On this list, he saw Liu Sisi’s name.

This...

The decision made by Jiang Liao would undoubtedly affect the interests of the Liu family.

Isn’t the Liu family also one of the Seven Great Families?

But Li Jing never imagined that he would see Liu Sisi’s name on the list.

A coincidence of the same name?

Unlikely.

The identity information retrieved by Little Ai shows without a doubt that it is indeed Liu Sisi.

Yes.

The information shows that she was one year old at the time.

Still a baby...

The age is correct.

The background points to the Liu family in the national capital.

It must be Liu Sisi.

Looking at the other entries, Li Jing was taken aback.

Under Liu Sisi’s name, there is a large multinational shipping company called "Shiyun."

There are many multinational shipping companies in Longyu.

After all, Longyu is not only vast and has abundant resources, but its productivity is also top-notch.

If they rely on internal consumption for many things, it would definitely lead to resource overflow and excess production capacity. These issues need to be addressed through extensive foreign trade.

With extensive foreign trade, shipping companies would inevitably be involved.

Speaking of the top echelons of Longyu’s shipping companies, there are three.

State Transport.

This is Longyu’s official company.

Longxing.

Also an official company of Longyu.

The remaining one is Shi Yun.

As a private shipping enterprise, Shiyun Logistics, along with State Transport and Longxing, are referred to as the three sovereigns of shipping.

This...

Looking at the supercomputer widescreen, Li Jing was dumbfounded.

Little Ai did not realize that she had included her own hostess in the list she had filtered out.

She innocently just carried out Li Jing’s order, without caring about who exactly was on the list.

In fact, she didn’t need to care.

Her program was designed not to make mistakes.

As long as she presented the result to Li Jing, that was enough.

At this moment, watching her owner staring blankly at the supercomputer, Little Ai voiced her perplexity.

"Master?"

"It’s nothing."

Li Jing waved his hand, trying to sort out his thoughts.

If Shiyun Logistics is under Liu Sisi’s name, then it is indeed an industry connected to the Liu family.

The information showed

Liu Sisi held 90% of the shares in Shiyun Logistics.

You could say she had complete control over it.

Would the Liu family be silly enough to put such a huge shipping company under Liu Sisi’s name?

Definitely not.

Even though Liu Sisi was highly valued when she was one year old, the Liu family would not have been so outrageous as to place a money tree like Shiyun Logistics under her name.

Even if they did, once it was discovered that Liu Sisi could not break through to the Second Realm, it should have been reclaimed.

The information showed

that Shiyun Logistics was still under Liu Sisi’s name.

Combining all this, Li Jing quickly thought of his mother-in-law.

Shiyun Logistics was most likely put under Liu Sisi’s name by Liu Shi.

This matter, Liu Sisi herself probably didn’t know.

If she did,

why would she need to start her own business selling Spirit Chicken after leaving the Liu family?

She wouldn’t even need any fancy strategies, she could easily have Shiyun Logistics under her control, and the Liu family could only watch.

With a confirmatory attitude, Li Jing spoke.

"Little Ai, check who is the proxy for your hostess’s shares in Shiyun Logistics?"

"Understood."

Little Ai answered, then paused, a virtual image of a "?" popping above her head.

Looking at the list, Little Ai widened her eyes at the anomaly.

Liu Sisi’s presence was detected, and Little Ai’s program instantly pulled up the result showing Liu Shi as the proxy for Liu Sisi’s shares.

Seeing the result, Li Jing nodded in confirmation, then glanced at the remaining information on the list.

He had asked Little Ai to filter the information,

based on past records or involvement in black or violent activities.

If Liu Sisi was on the list, there was undoubtedly an issue.

Looking back now,

the information showed that Shiyun Shipping was suspected of underworld involvement.

There was no specific information, just a note that suspected underworld involvement dated back twenty-six years ago.

The record appears a month before Lu Qifei’s incident.

Let’s look at the rest.

Jiang Liao made a decision that affected Shi Yun Shipping’s interests, when he intensified the control over Longyu Shipping.

The decision was made shortly before Shi Yun Shipping was implicated in black market activities.

Seeing all this information, Li Jing squinted his eyes.

Shi Yun Shipping’s involvement with the black market definitely had nothing to do with Liu Sisi.

Not to mention she wouldn’t even know that she owned 90% of the shares of such a huge multinational shipping company, what could she understand when she was still an infant?

At most, she was implicated because she owned most of the shares in Shi Yun Shipping...

Li Jing sat in front of the supercomputer, pondered for a while, and then took out his mobile phone.

The list he got was an entry direction.

Not only did it include his mother-in-law, Shi Yun Shipping’s black-market involvement just happened to be before Lu Qifei’s incident, Li Jing felt it necessary to talk to his mother-in-law about it.

Liu Shi couldn’t possibly be a suspect.

Similarly, she had no reason to be inexplicably involved in black market activities.

Shi Yun Shipping’s involvement with the black market definitely meant something had happened.

Most likely, it was related to Jiang Liao’s decision to increase shipping management efforts.

Maybe talking to Liu Shi could yield some special results.

Li Jing found Liu Shi’s number in Immortal Message contacts and started writing a message.

"Mom, are you done with the bidding?"

It seemed that Liu Shi had her phone in her hand at the moment.

The moment he sent the message, she replied immediately.

"Just finished not long ago, was planning to go home. What is it? You need me for something?"

Upon receiving her reply, Li Jing wrote another message.

"I have something I want to ask you, mom. Since you’re done, I’ll come over."

"Alright, I’ll wait for you at home."

Liu Shi replied.

...

After communicating with Liu Shi through Immortal Message, Li Jing didn’t linger at home. He saved a few lists that had been filtered out by Xiao Ai on his phone and left straight away.

Due to the previous experience with Chen Jing, Li Jing drove a Spirit Soldier on his return journey.

The speed was a little slower.

About twenty minutes later, he arrived in the city.

Arriving over the Liu family’s house, Li Jing looked down and saw Liu Shi lazily curled up on a bench in the courtyard, enjoying the afternoon sun.

Without much thought, Li Jing landed with the Spirit Soldier.

Liu Shi glanced at his arrival but didn’t caution him to mind the appearance of his mother-in-law. She continued to lazily lie on the bench and gestured to the bench next to her.

"Sit down and talk."

"Sure."

Li Jing smiled and sat down as instructed.

Before he spoke, Liu Shi looked over.

"It took you quite a while to get here. Were you out of the city?"

"Yes, I went back to Jianghai for a trip."

Li Jing replied, casually adding.

"Some time back due to certain circumstances I took a trip to the Jiang family, and Uncle Jiang entrusted me to investigate an incident from twenty-six years ago."

Upon hearing this, Liu Shi frowned slightly.

"It’s been so long and that Jiang still hasn’t let it go?"

It seemed Liu Shi easily made her assumption. As Li Jing shrugged, he continued speaking,

"I guess I’ve somehow managed to get some leads."

Saying this, he explained everything from when he sensed suspicious Evil Energy in Lu Qifei’s body, straight to his search for Chen Jing for information.

After listening to him, Liu Shi had an unusual look on her face.

"It’s extremely difficult to detect traces of Miao Region Witchcraft, let alone detect it from a dead person. I can’t even imagine how far your Sky Eye Technique has advanced that you could notice the anomaly in Lu Qifei’s body."

After a light pause, she continued.

"But it’s a good thing you turned to me. I encountered people from the Witch Gu Sect over twenty years ago and I defeated a few."

?

Li Jing slowly typed a question mark.

He came to find Liu Shi to check if there could be any unexpected gains regarding the issue with Shi Yun Shipping.

But before he could even bring it up, Liu Shi told him that she had encountered people from the Witch Gu Sect and defeated some of them.

How astute was Liu Shi?

Seeing the bemusement on Li Jing’s face, Liu Shi’s eyebrows slightly wrinkled.

"Did you come to find me not for the Witch Gu Sect?"

"Not at first."

Li Jing answered honestly, explaining his findings about Shi Yun Shipping and his reason for coming.

Liu Shi chuckled after hearing this and said,

"Looks like I overthought."

Continuing, she commented lightly.

"Indeed, I arranged the Shi Yun Shipping situation for Sisi. She truly was oblivious to it. At the time, I was thinking I would have to step down from protecting the Liu family sooner or later. Personally, I’m not one for power struggles but once I had a daughter, I had to fight for her. Sisi’s father died early, and the only way she could live comfortably was if I used my abilities to secure everything I could for her."

After patiently explaining all this, she looked over at him with a faint smile.

"Don’t mention this to Sisi. Now that you’re here, she doesn’t need Shi Yun Shipping. If the Liu family loses Shi Yun Shipping though, it might speed up their downfall and removal from the Seven Great Families of the city, utterly ruining them. These things will be hers eventually, so there’s no rush."

Upon hearing this, Li Jing nodded.

Shi Yun Shipping is very valuable.

What he has now is nothing compared to Shi Yun Shipping.

Li Jing doesn’t know how the Liu family is doing now.

But if they lose the big meat of Shi Yun Shipping, they could collapse in a minute.

If Liu Shi means this, he won’t interfere.

Furthermore, Liu Shi also said.

Sooner or later, everything will belong to Liu Sisi, and it can’t run away.

After Liu Shi said that, she twisted her body on the lounge chair and changed to a more comfortable position.

"The matter of Shi Yun Shipping being suspected of underworld involvement doesn’t really have any special insider story. It’s just that back then, Jiang Liao issued documents to increase shipping control, which reduced the market size. To ensure the prospects of Shi Yun Shipping, I secretly merged several shipping companies. Then some people were not convinced and accused me of violently acquiring and monopolizing operations and making up some groundless things. At that time, it made a big fuss, and the General Bureau inspected Shi Yun Shipping more than once, and hence the suspicion of underworld involvement came about."

Liu Shi was narrating, said.

"There’s nothing much to mention about these, it’s inevitable in business to encounter these kinds of situations. Shi Yun Shipping being able to be as prosperous as it is, there’s indeed a bit of trickery behind it. Carrying the suspicion doesn’t mean I will lose a piece of meat. If I fuss over these, it might provoke other issues."

Having said that, she continued.

"As for the people from the Witch Gu Sect, I don’t remember when I encountered them exactly, but I can be certain that it was several years after Lu Qifei was murdered. At the time, an idiot came to challenge me because he heard that I was the number one person in the Six Realm of the National Capital, and he even uttered vulgar words. I separated his spirit from his body and he lay in hospital for half a year. Probably because I didn’t go hard enough, he harbored a grudge. After he recovered, he gathered a few fellow sect members and tried to bewitch me in secret, intending to control me. But I discovered it, and they were all disabled on the spot."

Hearing Liu Shi say this, Li Jing fell silent.

He didn’t understand what separating the spirit from the body meant.

However, making a Six Realm lie in a hospital bed for half a year, he could roughly imagine that it must have been quite miserable.

She called this being light-handed?

When it comes to the Witch Gu Sect, they genuinely have some stuff.

They actually attempted to bewitch and control the only protector of the Liu family out of resentment...

These people, they are simply lawless!

What do they think the National Capital is?

What do they think of the laws of Longyu?

No wonder Chen Jing warned him over and over again...

This grudge, he, Li Jing, will remember.

Li Jing has never been a very magnanimous person.

Even though it’s in the past, and Liu Shi didn’t suffer any losses.

But his mother-in-law was almost sneakily targeted and controlled by others, this is a fact.

Quietly noting the grudge, Li Jing raised his eyes.

"Mom, I helped the General Bureau with an investigation a while ago and got the list of disciples from Hidden World Sects who’ve entered society in the National Capital. It seems that there are no disciples from the Witch Gu Sect. Is this related to you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Liu Shi said.

"How would I know about the list of Hidden World Sect disciples entering society? I’m not part of the system. I know there are Hidden World Sects, but I don’t know which ones. But the fact there’s no Witch Gu Sect disciples in the National Capital indeed might have something to do with me."

"Initially, I came across six people, disabled five, and one ran fast and sought refuge in the General Bureau. With my little temper, of course I couldn’t let it go like that. But the director of the General Bureau mediated, and I had to give him the face. The Witch Gu Sect had to make a lot of compensation to me personally for this, and seems to have been heavily punished."

In the two consecutive sentences, she smiled playfully.

"Among the punishments, there’s probably one that forbids them from entering the National Capital. The General Bureau aren’t fools. The Liu family only has one protector like me, if I were to fall under someone’s control, it would be equivalent to the huge Liu family being controlled by others. The so-called challenge and harboring resentment are just for show. Everyone knows what the Witch Gu Sect is planning, wherever there are people, there are conflicts, and everyone can be ambitious, it’s not guaranteed that the Hidden World Sects are obedient."

Hearing his mother-in-law talk like this, Li Jing slightly frowned.

What Liu Shi was saying now, he had already thought of before.

Now that she mentions key points, it made Li Jing think of a possibility.

Could it be possible that the Witch Gu Sect was secretly "infiltrating" the National Capital from the beginning?

Liu Shi wasn’t the first one to be targeted.

Before her, the Witch Gu Sect made other attempts.

Such as...

Jiang Liao?

Deep in thought about the possibility, Li Jing’s brows furrowed even tighter.

Jiang Liao himself hasn’t been in contact with people from the Witch Gu Sect.

If there were, he would have suspected it to be the Witch Gu Sect long ago.

Trying to control the Director of the Management Bureau would be enormously challenging.

Not only is Jiang Liao a strong Realm Six himself. His personal safety has been secretly protected for a long time.

Not only that.

In his position, there is a separate department that specifically monitors his personal health and cultivation.

Not to mention having an extra insect in his body.

As long as there is a slight problem with his cultivation, it will be quickly discovered.

But if the target is switched to Jiang Liao’s wife...

Lu Qifei herself isn’t a part of the system, so she can’t enjoy the benefits.

As Jiang Liao’s wife, she made a good target.

Even heroes have a weakness for the charms of a woman.

And a pillow wind is even more difficult for men to resist.

If they could control her, it would be hard for Jiang Liao to not be affected.

Thinking up to this point, Li Jing realized that his considerations before might have all been wrong.

The death of Lu Qifei might not have been because Jiang Liao, as the Director of the Management Bureau, offended people as he had thought.

After a moment of silence, Li Jing looked at Liu Shi.

"Mom, do you know where to find the people from the Witch Gu Sect?"

"If you mean those five I disabled, then I indeed know where they are."

Liu Shi bared her teeth in a grin and tilted her head.

"It makes sense for a woman like me to hold a grudge, doesn’t it?"

...