The two men, one named Wei Yong and the other Wei Wu, their names sounded like brothers. Their waist tokens, registered at the Teleportation Array, indicated their origin: Ministry of War’s Magical Artifact Department (Jia Flag).

Their departure from the Imperial City was on the morning of November 28 last year. Their destination was Guangshun City in Jingxi.

Guangshun City was not only conveniently close to the Jingxi Army’s main base, but Ma San also happened to be there on November 28. Adding the fact that both men officially belonged to the Ministry of War’s Magical Artifact Department, the coincidence of their identities and circumstances was uncanny.

Looking at the time they returned to the Imperial City, they didn’t come back until December 11. This matched Shen Hao’s screening criteria, and made their errand even more suspicious. For in the time window set by Shen Hao, only these two from the Magical Artifact Department traveled in the direction of Jingxi.

However, this was still not enough to completely confirm it.

"This assignment was handled well. Keep your mouth shut, don’t let any word slip. Understand?"

"Understood, sir."

"Good, you may go now."

Even though Wang Yiming had gained more of Shen Hao’s trust now, his identity as a scion of a noble family in the Imperial City naturally made Shen Hao unwilling to let his guard down completely. On the one hand, he needed to rely on Wang Yiming’s family connections; on the other hand, he had to spend a long time vetting him. Thus, Shen Hao had gone through quite a few twists and turns with Wang Yiming. So far, things seemed to be going well.

As soon as Wang Yiming left, Shen Hao took a Thousand-Mile Sound out from his Storage Bag and sent off a message. This Thousand-Mile Sound was linked to Flying Dragon, who had become the king of the entire Jingxi underground black market.

Having identified suspicious personnel from the Imperial City Teleportation Array within that time window, Shen Hao still needed to rule out the possibility that someone had traveled to Guangshun City from Jingbei or elsewhere, crossing the Imperial City. So, by the same logic, Shen Hao wanted Flying Dragon to use his own connections in Guangshun City to check the Teleportation Array.

Guangshun City was not like the Imperial City, and Flying Dragon was not so conspicuous as Xuanqing Guard. Shen Hao believed that Flying Dragon had his own ways and wouldn’t disappoint him.

Although all these back-and-forths were rather cumbersome, this was currently the only method Shen Hao could think of for mapping things out, and his instincts told him it would be effective.

Sure enough, Flying Dragon moved faster than Wang Yiming; that very afternoon, someone delivered a transcribed intelligence report through the "Four Divisions," and Wang Jian personally handed it to Shen Hao.

Flying Dragon had done this kind of thing many times and knew the procedure—at the start of the report, he clarified the source and context, which made the intelligence seem credible. Only then did the main summary follow.

Because Flying Dragon didn’t know what Shen Hao intended, nor did the "Four Divisions," the report consisted only of very simple records, without any analysis. After reading through it one by one, Shen Hao closed it heavily.

"Done. Look over these documents carefully and memorize them."

Wang Jian quickly took all three reports: not only the one brought by Flying Dragon, but also the one Wang Yiming had returned with, and the ones sent by Zhang Qian and Gan Lin. Only by combining these three pieces of intelligence could Shen Hao tightly pin down the judgment about the origin of the Storage Bag that Ma San had exposed.

Wang Jian quickly finished reading the three reports, then looked up, his face full of excitement.

"Sir, there’s finally some clues to this case! What should we do next?"

"Clues? It’s still early. What you need to do now is find Zhang Lie and the others who were involved in the goods transfer on October 30, and have them produce portraits of the other two besides Ma San. Then you’ll need to deploy your contacts in the Imperial City."

"Imperial City? Sir, the intelligence network over there has only been set up for less than three months, and since we can’t be reckless under the Imperial City’s walls, we only have some people on the streets, just barely able to maintain intelligence relay for the Xu Family Sisters in Tea Mountain Manor. Anything else might be beyond our current ability."

Shen Hao smiled, "Don’t worry, I won’t make things hard for your men. Surveillance is your specialty, isn’t it?"

"You mean to surveil the Ministry of War?"

"Precisely! Once you have portraits of the two, watch the Ministry of War Office for me—both front and back doors. Check if those coming in and out match the two on the portraits."

Shen Hao could not help suspect that the two who assisted Ma San with the transfer were in fact Wei Yong and Wei Wu, who had left the Imperial City.

Without a way to reach deep into the military, if he could lock down the identities of two specific people from the outside clues, the nature of the case would shift again.

"That’s doable. But, sir, if I have to surveil the Ministry of War, sending new faces over would be too obvious and risky. Could you approve some ’Capture to Death’ agents? I plan to try the methods you taught me in Li City back then."

"All right. But be careful—even a tiny leak would cause huge trouble. Don’t make a mess for me."

"Rest assured, sir. I’ll strictly control it and absolutely won’t let this out onto the streets."

After receiving the order, Wang Jian quickly left, taking a note to the Alchemy Room to fetch "Capture to Death." These would be used on the vagrants roaming the streets of the Imperial City.

"Capture to Death" worked fast and offered quick control over vagrants lacking resistance. With some temporary surveillance techniques taught, they could be put to use. Their familiarity with street life and routines was their perfect camouflage.

Though there were new clues, real progress was still lacking, so Shen Hao could only jot a few notes in the dossier; it still wasn’t time to report up yet.

Just as he was about to head out, noise suddenly sounded outside. Shen Hao frowned; such disturbances were rare in the Xuanqing Guard. He was about to call someone to investigate, but his door was already being knocked on. Wang Yiming came in, looking elated.

"Sir, the Governor’s Office just released the announcement!"

Shen Hao’s face lit up with a smile at the news. After waiting for so long, it was finally settled.

The announcement was posted on the wall just inside the Thousand Households Station’s entrance. As Shen Hao expected, Tang Qingyuan, "the toolman," had fulfilled his mission: removed from his "acting" post, he returned to his previous duties with no new changes for now. Meanwhile, Deputy Thousand Households Kuang Shengyuan, who normally managed the Tu Kui City district, successfully rose half a rank to Senior Fifth Grade, assuming the post of Chief of the Thousand Households.

Interestingly, among the remaining Deputy Thousand Households, one actually got transferred elsewhere, leaving a vacancy. The empty post was likely meant as a bargaining chip for the new Households Officer. Since it happened to be for the Li City district, Shen Hao was optimistic that Tang Qingyuan would step up for it.

As a toolman who had performed flawlessly, Tang Qingyuan was currently on an idle post, but now had an opportunity and coincidentally was a centrist, which should make him easy to recruit.

Shen Hao did not join the lively crowd in Kuang Shengyuan’s Public Office; too many people were already there. He’d find another time, no rush.

Kuang Shengyuan’s appointment at this moment must have passed Jiang Cheng’s discerning eye and was surely one of their own. When the time came, he’d bring Zhang Qian and Gan Lin along to get a feel for things.