The Steam Restoration Faction was a grassroots scientific organization founded at the beginning of the century. Its most prominent feature was its dedication to retro-steam activities.
So-called retro-steam activities meant using technology from the steam era to produce modern technological inventions. They built steam-powered cars, steam planes, steam computers, and steam radios...
Li Banfeng had seen steam cars before, and he had seen steam planes in historical documents, but what in the world was a steam computer?
Tangyuan explained the principles of the difference engine to Li Banfeng. This mechanical computer, which had never been successfully constructed in history, had actually been built by the Steam Restoration Faction.
This reminded Li Banfeng of the retro craze popular during his college days, when many professors and students in the mechanical engineering department were passionate about restoring ancient mechanical devices—the most famous of which was the legendary wooden ox and flowing horse.
A steam computer was still within the realm of comprehension, but how was a steam radio supposed to work? "It's called a radio, so what's with the steam?"
Chen Changrui explained, "Steam radio is a catch-all term for steam communication equipment. Unlike modern telecommunication devices, this system operates through a network of steam pipes." Tangyuan produced the blueprints for the steam radio. The transmitter utilized mechanical regulating valves to control steam pressure, transmitting signals through pressure fluctuations.
For modern technology, this bulky, complicated, and error-intolerant method of communication had virtually zero practical value, yet it was one of the Steam Restoration Faction's most significant achievements.
Li Banfeng read through this list of accomplishments from beginning to end and concluded, "Given their technological level, there is absolutely no way they could have manufactured a mechanical device as intricate as that spherical organism."
Tangyuan did not agree. "These are all research achievements confirmed from the Steam Restoration Faction's past. Over the last three years, we've gathered very little intelligence on them, so it's hard to guess how far their technology has advanced."
Li Banfeng asked, "In these three years, you haven't investigated this organization at all?"
"Our investigation never ceased. These are the leads we've gathered over the past three years."
Li Banfeng examined the files. Three years ago in Wuyang Province, an abandoned machine shop had resumed production, operating with an efficiency surpassing many neighboring enterprises, and local media had even featured it as an exemplary model.
"Because this machine shop purchased large quantities of coal, it drew the attention of our colleagues at the Wuyang Branch. They sent people to conduct an undercover inspection, only to discover that the primary machinery in the factory was entirely steam-driven.
"Such abnormal technology drew serious concern from the Wuyang Branch. But when they moved to launch an in-depth investigation, every single person in the factory vanished."
Li Banfeng didn't quite catch her drift. "Do you mean the boss disappeared, or the workers disappeared?"
"Everyone disappeared."
"How many workers did they have? That many workers couldn't have all fled with the boss, could they?"
Tangyuan took out another file. "According to the enterprise's registration documents, their person in charge was named He Yunfei. This man is indeed an entrepreneur; his records and background can all be verified.
"The identities of several core personnel at the factory were also identified, but their whereabouts at the time could not be traced.
"Apart from them, the identities of the more than one hundred registered workers remain unknown to this day. All identity records in the factory were fabricated, and no relatives of these workers could be found.
"According to our conjecture, these workers were likely products akin to artificial intelligence—what we commonly refer to as robots."
"Steam robots?"
"We have no way to deduce the specific type of robot for now, but since they came from the hands of the Steam Restoration Faction, they were most likely steam-driven. These are the news reports from that factory at the time."
Li Banfeng looked at the newspaper. In the photograph, workers stood busy beside machine tools. Different roles showed distinct postures and expressions.
"These can't be steam robots." Li Banfeng shook his head and set the newspaper aside.
The "dummies" produced by the Inner States, in Li Banfeng's view, already represented the absolute pinnacle of steam technology. Yet those dummies required external equipment, including fans, teapots, rickshaws, and the like.
Looking back at the workers in this newspaper, many of them were operating with bare hands, showing no traces of external attachments. Could the Steam Restoration Faction really have possessed technology surpassing the Inner States three years ago?
Li Banfeng suspected this was fake, yet everyone who had investigated the case believed it to be real.
Tangyuan listed several more cases:
Two years ago, in Amican, an underground garment workshop operated with higher efficiency than legitimate factories. Following a raid, the person in charge was also found to be He Yunfei.
Last year, in Austrilia, a construction company procured hundreds of thousands of tons of coal in a single year. Upon investigation, its head was also He Yunfei.
A string of clues lay before them, all pointing to one thing: He Yunfei was the leader of the Steam Restoration Faction. The organization possessed formidable technical capability and operated across an enormous geographic expanse.
Tangyuan presented the most recent case: "This year, the Steam Restoration Faction was active in Minyue Province, though we didn't launch an investigation at the time."
"Why not?"
Zhong'er replied, "Because there was a war going on."
That period had coincided with the battle at the Ruirong Textile Factory, so the case concerning the Steam Restoration Faction had been put on hold. When the Minyue Branch investigated afterward, the Steam Restoration Faction had behaved exactly as before, vanishing into thin air.
So many leads, yet not a single trace left behind. Such exquisite maneuvering was truly astonishing.
Now that the Steam Restoration Faction had inflicted severe casualties on the Special Operations Team, this elusive case that could neither be solved nor abandoned was finally placed at the top of the urgent agenda.
The agents were thrilled, including Chen Changrui.
Such an elaborate modus operandi and such rich investigative leads made anyone trained in criminal detection and reasoning itch to take a crack at it.
Chen Changrui suggested suspending all other tasks and devoting every effort to investigating the Steam Restoration Faction.
There was nothing wrong with that reasoning. This case involved nearly a hundred lives from the Special Operations Team; its priority naturally eclipsed all other matters.
After the meeting adjourned, Zhong'er asked Lightbulb, "Are you still looking into your thing? I already made an appointment with the lab—we can run tests tomorrow morning."
Lightbulb rubbed his face and replied, "Look what time it is. Why are you still thinking about that garbage? What's going through your head?"
***
Li Banfeng had never formally studied criminal investigation, but seeing such a challenging case, he felt the urge to investigate it himself.
He began combing through clues from past cases, working straight through until the next morning before realizing he hadn't slept all night. Though he was an above-the-clouds three-plus-two cultivator, the intense mental exertion left him feeling somewhat worn down.
Taking the case files with him, he returned to the companion dwelling to catch up on sleep. Before nodding off, he was still reviewing the chain of clues, feeling as though he had overlooked something.
His wife felt sorry for him and urged, "Darling husband, get some sleep. Your eyes are bloodshot."
Li Banfeng rubbed his eyes and lay down.
After sleeping for less than fifteen minutes, he sat bolt upright and muttered, "Something's wrong. It feels like a lot of pieces are missing!"
With that, Li Banfeng resumed examining the clues.
The gramophone was puzzled. "What's so fascinating that you can't put it down?"
"A case. Do you want to take a look, Madam?"
"Where would I find the time for that? I'm still brooding over the tracker. Husband, why don't you show it to Hong Ying?"
Hong Ying took one glance and shook her head repeatedly. "Seventh Brother, don't make things hard for me. I can't make heads or tails of this stuff. Just tell me where this He Yunfei is, and I'll go kill him for you."
Li Banfeng gave a wry smile. "If I could find him, I'd have killed him already."
His wife suggested, "Husband, why don't you take it to Room Eight? He likes this sort of thing."
"Isn't Room Eight a calculation cultivator?"
"Calculation cultivators think with great clarity. At high levels, many of them make excellent detectives."
Li Banfeng took the files to Room Eight. After reading through the materials and pondering for over half an hour, Room Eight repeatedly marveled, "It really is this. I never imagined I'd see such a thing to this day."
Room Eight had truly spotted something profound, which delighted Li Banfeng.
Yet Room Eight had no intention of blurting it out right away. "You came to seek guidance from me—is it proper to show up empty-handed?"
He was picking a bone.
Still, what he said was reasonable. Asking someone for a favor truly shouldn't be done empty-handed.
Li Banfeng returned to the main room to search for a gift. Hong Ying, upon learning the details, casually snatched up a stick and strode into Room Eight. "Empty-handed isn't proper, so I brought a weapon!"
"I only just finished calculating! You can't hit people!" Room Eight dutifully saw Hong Ying out, invited Li Banfeng back in, and delivered the answer straight: "This is a Problem of Ten Thousand Solutions."
"What is a Problem of Ten Thousand Solutions?"
"You went to school, didn't you?" Room Eight was simply built this way—aloof and proud whenever Hong Ying wasn't around.
Li Banfeng didn't mind. "I went to school for quite a few years."
"During your school days, did you ever encounter a problem that seemed tricky to solve, yet offered numerous possible approaches, only for you to find it completely unsolvable in the end?"
Li Banfeng recalled for a moment and nodded. "I have."
"That kind of problem is the predecessor to the Problem of Ten Thousand Solutions. But this one is crafted far more brilliantly, because it incorporates a calculation cultivator's technique called Entanglement of Ten Thousand Solutions. It's a high-level calculation technique; I've only seen it twice before. This kind of problem is guaranteed to have no answer. Don't waste your energy on it."
Li Banfeng frowned. "Why say it's unsolvable? There are so many clues here."
"Clues are useless, because the matter itself makes no sense. All of you see the Steam Restoration Faction appearing and disappearing like ghosts, and all of you want to pin down their movements, but have you ever considered their purpose in doing these things? Does it hold any real value?"
"How could it lack value?"
"Where is the value? You say they can build robotic workers using steam engines. If they truly possessed such technology, why open a machine shop? How much money do you think a machine shop could earn them? Could that factory ever recoup their invested costs?
"The case in Amican is even more of a joke. Using such advanced technology just to run an underground garment workshop? Putting aside how much profit they could make, even if it were purely to show off, what reputation could an underground workshop earn them?
"Their superb technology and elusive movements are merely window dressing for this Problem of Ten Thousand Solutions, blinding ordinary people to the root of the matter and making them overlook the real motive. You are a high-level dwelling cultivator who possesses the Sleep Soundly Without Worry technique. If you stay home for a while, you'll be able to see through the ins and outs of this.
"Take the case you just experienced: this Steam Faction dealt a heavy blow to the Special Operations Team, seemingly achieving great results. Yet no matter how advanced their technology or how dazzling their methods, they cannot mask one simple truth: this operation held insufficient value for them.
"With a precious stealth space and a batch of highly intelligent mechanical devices, the possibilities of what they could accomplish are endless. Why go out of their way to stage such an ambush? Don't tell me it was just for fame—the cost was simply too high."
Li Banfeng rubbed his cheeks vigorously, gradually growing more lucid.
Room Eight was right. What was their objective? Merely targeting the Special Operations Team? No.
Their initial target hadn't been the Special Operations Team at all—their initial target had been Lightbulb. It was Lightbulb who had discovered the stealth space and locked onto it immediately.
Could Lightbulb have entered the stealth space back then?
Even if he could have, was it worth paying such a massive price just to deal with Lightbulb alone?
Could Lightbulb have something else going on?
***
The next day, Li Banfeng summoned Lightbulb and Zhong'er to his office.
"Yesterday you mentioned looking into something at the lab. What was that about?"
Lightbulb rubbed his face and chuckled. "It wasn't anything important. Something like that shouldn't take up the bureau's resources anyway. I corrected my mistake and didn't use the lab."
Zhong'er shook his head. "I don't think it's a small matter at all. Right now we're investigating the Steam Restoration Faction, but once this busy period passes, we need to look into it properly."
Li Banfeng said, "Don't wait for things to calm down. Tell me right now—what happened?"
Lightbulb still felt embarrassed, so Zhong'er spoke on his behalf: "A new female intern arrived recently, and Lightbulb took a liking to her. That day, he invited her out for coffee at noon, and she agreed.
"He'd been taking too much harmonizing agent over the past few days because his cultivation was growing, which made his face greasy and rather smelly. I saw a tub of face cream on Sister Mijian's desk and told him about it. He took some and applied it, hoping to mask the smell on his face.
"After using it, Lightbulb's face dried up that very afternoon. It felt terribly parched and uncomfortable, and it hasn't recovered for days. I went to ask Mijian what was going on.
"Mijian called me a pervert for using her face cream. I told her Lightbulb used it, but she said it didn't matter who used it—I was still a pervert. I felt there was something wrong with that cream, so I contacted the lab to have it tested."
Lightbulb grinned. "Zhong'er's head just doesn't work right. Sister Mijian likes him, and he's the only one who doesn't know it.
"Let me tell you, Zhong'er, in terms of looks, who in our bureau can compare to Mijian besides Tangyuan? Tangyuan is completely devoted to Seventh Master, so that leaves Mijian as the prettiest. Why aren't you seizing the chance?
"Sister Mijian got promoted, her salary went up, she has a car, and word is she's buying a house in a couple of days. If you end up with her, think of how many years of hard struggle you'd skip! You should be grinning ear to ear!"
Li Banfeng frowned. "Leave that aside for now. Let's talk about the face cream. Aren't you an Oil Cultivator? How could your face dry out?"
Zhong'er nodded. "That's precisely the problem. Mijian said her face cream is an oil-control formula, but there's no way it could strip away an Oil Cultivator's oil entirely. It defies common sense, which is why I wanted to help him test it."
Li Banfeng phoned Mijian: "Bring your face cream over for me to use."
"Huh?" Mijian was stunned on the other end of the line. "Director Li, you... what are you doing with...?"
"Zhong'er fancied your cream, but he was too embarrassed to ask you!"
"All right, I'll bring it right over."
Zhong'er stared at Li Banfeng in horror. "Director Li, you can't do this to me..."
Before long, Mijian brought the face cream. As she left, she shot Zhong'er a glare. "Pervert!"
Li Banfeng took the cream straight to the lab. Seeing Director Li arrive, the analysts set their other projects aside and gave top priority to testing the tub of cream.
After conducting the tests, the technician offered a preliminary assessment: "Director Li, this is typical counterfeit, substandard merchandise. There are no oil-controlling ingredients in here whatsoever."
Lightbulb shook his head. "Isn't that nonsense? It wiped out all the oil on my face, and you're saying there are no active ingredients?"
"That shouldn't be possible. Theoretically speaking..." Hearing Lightbulb's protest, the technician also grew less certain.
Li Banfeng said, "Forget theoretical speaking. Test it with oil!"
"Oil..." The technician thought for a moment. "Epidermal oil control essentially means controlling lipids. I'll fetch some animal fat to test."
He placed droplets of animal fat onto the sample of face cream. There was no noticeable reaction. The technician raised his eyebrows. "Director Li, as you can see, it really does nothing."
"Wait a little longer."
After more than twenty minutes, the animal fat suddenly shrank rapidly, vanishing in a very short span of time.
The technician jumped in fright and quickly placed the sample back on the bench, wondering what chemical reagents to apply.
Watching with growing urgency, Li Banfeng said, "Hold off on reagents. Put it under the microscope."
"This... this is a chemical reaction involving molecular structures. An optical microscope won't show much."
"Then get an electron microscope!"
The electron microscope had been sent out for repairs. Pressed urgently by Li Qi, the technician had no choice but to find an optical microscope with the highest magnification and look through the lens. At one glance, he was terrified: "A-alive! There's an organism!"
Li Banfeng pressed his eye against the eyepiece for a long time. "What kind of organism? I can't see anything!"
"Look right here—cellular structures! Director Li, I swear I didn't see it earlier. I used the microscope before, and there was nothing then..."
Li Banfeng waved a hand. "Never mind that for now. Take another sample, add more fat, and test again!"
The technician prepared a fresh sample and applied animal fat.
Under the microscope, nothing changed at first. After waiting nearly half an hour, cellular structures emerged within the sample.
The technician applied a staining agent. This time, Li Banfeng saw it clearly: cells grew rapidly across the surface of the cream, dividing patch by patch without pause. The sight made his skin crawl with itching revulsion.
Lightbulb was frightened out of his wits as well. "Is Mijian's face like this too? Is my face also...?"
Li Banfeng ordered Zhong'er to fetch Mijian immediately and isolate her along with Lightbulb.
"Find out where Mijian bought this face cream. Assemble our personnel and investigate at once. Track down the manufacturer."
"All our people are investigating the Steam Restoration Faction."
"Forget the Steam Faction! Have everyone drop whatever they're doing and investigate this one matter!"
Zhong'er was just about to leave when Li Banfeng called him back.
While escorting the tracker, Lightbulb had discovered the stealth space. Had he acted with the slightest impulsiveness and entered it, he likely would have lost his life.
Even though he hadn't gone in, that incident had dragged the Steam Restoration Faction into the light, monopolizing the entire Dark Star Bureau's attention—and the matter of Lightbulb's dried-up face had quietly fallen by the wayside.
This whole affair was targeted at Lightbulb.
Someone knew Lightbulb had used Mijian's face cream. Someone knew Lightbulb intended to investigate it!
Someone was deliberately creating a distraction! There was a mole in the bureau!
The mole was very likely in the security squad, though the lab was also a possibility.
Li Banfeng said to Zhong'er, "Don't alert the squad. Bring the Investigation Section Chief to the lab to see me."
Zhong'er nodded, and before long he brought the section chief over.
Li Banfeng didn't mention the face cream at first. He asked the technician, "Is everyone in the lab on duty?"
"Everyone is present today."
Li Banfeng instructed the Investigation Section Chief, "Have all lab personnel turn in their communication devices, and jam all communication signals."
The technician froze. "Director Li, our lab..."
"I didn't say there was any problem with you. Keep working peacefully right here and figure out the nature of this face cream. Be exceptionally careful not to get infected."
The section chief went straight to work, first jamming the signals, severing the landlines, and collecting every communication device.
Li Banfeng explained the situation to the section chief: "Assign people who are absolutely reliable to handle this. If word leaks, the full responsibility falls on you alone!"
The section chief dared not delay and hurried off to work.
Shortly after, Zhong'er brought Mijian over. Hearing that she was to be quarantined, Mijian had no idea what had happened.
When asked about the face cream, she replied, "I bought it online. This brand is wildly popular. Its oil-control effect is fantastic, and it lasts incredibly long."
Lightbulb said with a miserable face, "Of course it's effective! The stuff is alive! Our faces became a breeding ground. Even I felt parched—how did you endure it?"
Mijian countered, "What's so bad about being a little dry? I have oily skin. Whenever I sweat, my face feels awful!"
Li Banfeng had the lab test both of them as well.
The results came back quickly: Mijian's facial epidermis carried a massive quantity of unknown microorganisms—the very cellular structures they had seen under the microscope. The density on Lightbulb's skin was more than six times that on Mijian's.
The lab provided a preliminary analysis: the microorganism resembled a fungus, initially lurking within the face cream in the form of spores. Because the individual spores were exceedingly tiny, they could not be observed with an optical microscope.
Upon encountering animal lipids, the spores would grow and reproduce at high speed. The greater the amount of lipids, the larger the proliferation. Because of the sheer volume of microorganisms on Lightbulb's face, they had ultimately devoured every drop of oil from this Oil Cultivator.
According to what Small Face had once said, Lightbulb was likely the sole remaining heir of the Oil Cultivators. Anyone else using the cream would consider their face losing oil to be normal; only Lightbulb would detect the abnormality. Someone was using this face cream to disseminate the microorganism.
Li Banfeng had no way to gauge the scale of disaster this microorganism could unleash, but from that face cream, he caught the scent of something else: war.
He had been preparing against war recently, and the scene before his eyes was very likely a war waged by the Inner States—only in a mode entirely different from the warfare he knew!
A stroke of luck—an immense stroke of luck!
It was sheer fortune that Lightbulb had uncovered it.
The Investigation Section Chief quickly traced the cream's source: "The manufacturer is right here in Yuezhou. The person in charge is named Han Xiaoxuan, a local. As far as we currently know, only this single factory produces this kind of face cream. Director Li, should we take action immediately?"
"Yes, we must take action." Li Banfeng felt a twinge of worry; under current circumstances, word might leak.
The section chief shared the concern: "I recommend severing all communications throughout the Dark Star Bureau right now, leaving only a single line for you."
Li Banfeng shook his head. Doing so would be tantamount to broadcasting to the entire bureau that something monumental had happened. A clever mole would find other means to send word out. Fortunately, Li Banfeng had experience dealing with moles from his time in Puluo Province.
Issue orders within a narrow circle, and keep key suspects under close surveillance.
Zhong'er was definitely trustworthy. Li Banfeng instructed him to assemble personnel: "Go get Zhuizi and Mijian—"
"Zhuizi went to Hulu Village, and Mijian is in the lab."
He was too used to relying on those two.
"Go call Haitangguo."
Zhong'er said, "Haitangguo used the exact same face cream as Mijian."
What a coincidence!
With several of his most capable squad leaders unavailable, he could only take Tangyuan: "Call Tangyuan and Huajia. Have them bring their teams to raid this factory with me."
"How many people should we bring?"
"Have Chen Changrui draw up an operational plan. Combat personnel must be ample—the suspect will almost certainly resist arrest. Biochemical personnel must be ample—prepare for a large-scale biochemical attack. Reconnaissance personnel must also be ample—bring plenty of drones. If we run into biological warfare, we cannot throw lives away. Bring plenty of Fire Cultivators; the area must be scorched clean after the battle..."
Zhong'er did some rough calculations. "Director Li, that's quite a lot of people. Concealing an operation of this size won't be easy. We'd better keep our eyes locked on key individuals first."
Keep eyes on key individuals.
"How many people know Lightbulb used Mijian's face cream?"
Zhong'er looked somewhat awkward. "When Mijian yelled at me for being a pervert, she had a very loud voice. Nearly everyone in the squad knows."
Li Banfeng thought for a moment. "The one on escort duty with Lightbulb that day was Mingxing, wasn't it?"
"Yes," Zhong'er nodded. "The two of them even had a bit of an argument."
The argument had stemmed from Mingxing missing out on the credit.
Mingxing had gone to buy cold drinks at the time, and Lightbulb had parked the car and spotted the stealth space. It was that coincidental.
Zhong'er was thinking along the same lines as Li Banfeng: "Director Li, should we take Mingxing into custody first?"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "This person might not be simple. While he's in custody, he might still find a way to transmit a message.
"Send him to the archives to organize materials related to the Steam Faction. Assign him a few assistants and pile on enough tasks that he won't be able to finish tonight."
Clever people needed no extra explanation; Zhong'er knew how to handle it.
Mingxing thought he was merely working overtime on the Steam Restoration Faction case, grumbling incessantly on his way to the archives.
Chen Changrui finalized the plan, Li Banfeng made adjustments, the sections assembled their personnel, logistics arranged vehicles, and Li Banfeng immediately led the force toward the factory.
Li Banfeng slipped into the workshop without making a sound. The workers were still laboring; none of them noticed him.
His primary purpose in entering alone was to apprehend the person in charge. Passing through the workshop, he entered the office building and moved through each floor at extreme speed.
On the third floor, he found the general manager's office and pushed the door open.
Behind the desk sat a dark-skinned, powerfully built man holding a compact mirror, touching up his makeup.
The powder he used was intensely fragrant. After dabbing his face with the puff a few times, the man seemed reasonably satisfied. He turned to look at Li Banfeng and asked in a soft, gentle voice, "Who are you looking for?"
Noticing Li Banfeng proved this man's cultivation was not low.
Li Banfeng smiled faintly. "Are you Han Xiaoxuan, the person in charge of this factory?"
"That's me. What business do you have?" Han Xiaoxuan closed the compact and beamed at Li Banfeng.
*Hiss—*
Through the Qiansi earring, Li Banfeng heard a crisp release of steam.
"Are you the general manager of this factory?" Li Banfeng shut the office door. "I came to buy some face cream from you."
"You came to buy face cream from me?" Han Xiaoxuan praised, "You have good taste! You really know how to do business!"
"I wouldn't say I know how to do business," Li Banfeng sat down across from Han Xiaoxuan. "Mainly, my family is waiting to be fed."
P.S.: He had come to the right place—this was an Inner States man.
Chapter 610