It’s already October, and the end of the year is near. Shen Hao has been insanely busy lately, both stepping up his own Cultivation and keeping an eye on the wrap-up of the "Jingxi" Action, while also pushing for faster progress on the Black Water Plan.

Liu Meng had given him several briefings before— the training of the sisters was nearly done, and he’d asked when Shen Hao would have time to come take a look.

That’s why Shen Hao came over here today.

Just over a month left till year-end, and the task Jiang Cheng had given him had to be ready to present. On one hand, he wanted to see what shape the sisters’ training had gotten them into; on the other, he wanted to ask Zhu Shou about how he’d solved the sisters’ identity issue. Zhu Shou had provided a rough plan for that before, but never went into details.

He’d come early today, and after watching, Shen Hao’s impression was that these sisters were definitely captivating— not the type that made you just want to toss them on a bed and mess around, but rather the kind that made you want to approach slowly, get to know, and only then share intimacy— in short, much more intriguing.

According to the intelligence Chen Sheng had given earlier, Bai Changqing preferred them young, with tender faces, and a bit of talent. The sisters were custom-designed for Bai Changqing.

Having watched them today, overall, Shen Hao was quite satisfied.

"Lord Zhu, have you finalized the sisters’ identities?"

"Already done. They’re from a Xu family in this Hao City. This family used to be nobles, but after declining for a period, they pulled themselves up again through the cloth business, so now they’re merchants. They have money and connections, but their background isn’t exactly clean— and I have them by the balls. So there’s nothing to fear if they refuse.

Also, the Xu family still has property in the Imperial City, a country estate, and every year around year-end they go stay there to rest up for a while. Timing works out perfectly.

Further, the sisters will go into the Xu family at the end of this month to get familiar with everyone. Outwardly, they’ll just be called distant relatives coming to stay. For a deeper layer of cover, Liu Meng’s working on it— he’ll create a case where a distant Xu relative all dies in a big fire. ’Whole family gone,’ problem solved."

Shen Hao understood this was fabricating an identity for the sisters.

A pair of beautiful, vulnerable sisters relying on others, that identity actually adds a certain appeal. Especially for those older men whose protective instincts get triggered— it ought to be very effective.

"You must guarantee their identities can withstand scrutiny. Bai Changqing’s position is extraordinary; even if he himself doesn’t care, those around him will help him look into it. If anything slips, you know the consequences." Shen Hao wasn’t really worried, but he still had to emphasize it— the stakes were too high to make a mistake.

Zhu Shou put away his smile and said seriously, "I know— nothing will be missed on the cover stories. Everything’s watertight. Sir, you can rest easy."

"Alright, speed up everything. When I get any concrete news on my end, you’ll have to be ready to go. Work out every detail so there’s no panicked scrambling at the last minute."

"Understood."

Shen Hao and Zhu Shou discussed issues related to the dissemination of slave secret agents, mainly summarizing intelligence and developing channels. The key was to create an effective, efficient, and covert intelligence flow system— this task needed Shen Hao’s construction as well as Zhu Shou’s cooperation.

Shen Hao was even thinking how to merge the Black Market’s intelligence network with that of the brokerages in his mind.

By evening, Shen Hao returned to his home in Fengri City. After dinner, he shut himself in the study to refine qi. Lately, he’d extended his qi refining hours a lot, compressing his sleep down to only two hours.

Thankfully, the gains were significant— Shen Hao already sensed the bottleneck of the next level. As long as he kept pushing, he was confident he could break through to the Gathering Spirit Realm Fourth Layer before the March deadline.

The next day, Shen Hao saw the three Snake Race captives—now fully recovered—in the mostly empty dungeons.

They’d been locked up for over a month, about enough time for them to "dry out"; both bodies and minds had returned to their peak states. But since they had not been able to speak or move for over a month in the dungeon, they were likely in an extremely agitated state mentally.

Back when the Jingxi Action was in full swing, as the mastermind, Shen Hao had reaped all the benefits. Plus, seeing the situation outside Jingxi, he could plainly tell it was the result of struggles within the Temple Hall. In times like these, everyone’s nerves were taut—no room for anything else. If you handled the Snake Race case just then, it would waste the opportunity to maximize the value of the intelligence gathered.

Better to wait—after the heat dies down, you conduct the interrogation and submit it upwards. That way, it draws fresh attention and also demonstrates that the Fengri City Black Banner Battalion is always on the job.

Put plainly, you can’t do everything at once; too much good stuff gets ignored. Mastering rhythm and timing is important too.

This was the first time Shen Hao examined the Snake Race closely—especially after they’d been stripped. Turns out, they looked quite different from the Human Race.

Firstly, although most of the Snake Race’s bodies had skin like humans, some parts bore fine, gray-black scales. Their external organs were nearly the same as humans’, except the, uh, feature was a bit smaller. Their tails were slender and strong—couldn’t be locked up with board locks—so in the end a big nail had been used to pin them to the wooden board.

As long as their bodies were similar to humans, Xuanqing Guard’s interrogation methods would be similar as well—simple and direct.

In the end, amidst screams and snippets of Barbarian language Shen Hao couldn’t understand, the three Snake Race members, interrogated separately, all gave up their confessions. Shen Hao compared them and found no discrepancies. Originally, he wanted to ask about smuggling and the current situation in Barbarian Territory, but the confessions spilled out much more than he expected.

First, the Snake Race had never actually been exterminated; some of them escaped early from the battle, kept heading east through Barbarian lands, and took shelter for a while in Long Country. After the Black Stone Royal Court fell apart and the Barbarians lost the will to fight, the region descended into tribal fragmentation. The Snake Race returned and, relying on their racial legacy, stabilized and even grew stronger again.

The Snake Race’s racial legacy is Artifact Refining— they possess the most complete and advanced magical artifact crafting skills among the Barbarians. That’s why, back in the war, Jingjiu military issued a kill order against the Snake Race—to destroy the Barbarians’ foundation of magical artifact creation. But in hindsight, they obviously failed.

And the Snake Race’s case wasn’t unique. For example, those Long-toothed Elephant Race warriors who supplied wrought iron were also claimed by the Jingjiu Dynasty to be exterminated. But according to these three Snake Race testimonies, the Elephant Race now had no fewer than forty thousand members.