"Yo, it's pretty heavy. Those two brats have racked up quite a bit of coin."
With that, he handed the ghost ape a small treat and gleefully stowed away the purse.
Not only had the two young thieves failed to pick their pockets, but the ghost ape had swiped their purse instead.
He Lingchuan gave a slight smile and murmured to him, "You've been spotted."
When half-grown brats like that went picking pockets, there were always adults watching from behind.
"Isn't this what you wanted?" Dong Rui deliberately dangled and shook the pouch a couple more times, and sure enough, two men tailed out after them, shadowing them from neither too close nor too far.
Still, there were plenty of pedestrians on the streets, and having passed an official government post, the two men didn't dare rush them.
Passing through the foul-smelling, cluttered docks and the chaotic marketplace, a row of eateries and inns appeared up ahead, their storefronts varying in size.
He Lingchuan chose the inn with the brightest signboard and the cleanest front hall, Old Qian's Inn, and went inside to ask for two first-class rooms.
While they surveyed the surroundings of the inn, the soul-snatching mirror inside He Lingchuan's breast pocket chimed in: "At the noodle shop across the alley entrance, someone has been staring this way the whole time."
As if they were the only ones. He Lingchuan swept his gaze across the inn's ground-floor hall.
There were three tables of patrons in the hall as well. Two men sat directly facing the main entrance; anyone entering couldn't escape their gaze. Though dressed as traveling merchants, their eyes were exceptionally sharp.
When coming to the Shanjin Plain, He Lingchuan and his companion followed local custom, wearing remarkably ordinary clothes like itinerant peddlers working on their own.
Dressing extravagantly here was no different from having several bold characters branded across one's forehead:
*Come rob me!*
From the moment they stepped inside, the two men scrutinized them incessantly until He Lingchuan's back vanished up the stairs.
Unexpectedly, the rooms in this inn were quite clean, the bedding was dry, and there was even hot water on the table—apart from seven or eight mosquitoes perched on the wall that looked none too friendly.
The innkeeper wore a take-it-or-leave-it expression, claiming that only three of these exceptionally fine upper rooms were left, so each came at a steep price.
At least twenty percent pricier than a good room in a fine inn at Blade Harbor.
Dong Rui suspected he was boasting. Old Qian's had plenty of guest rooms, but in a dump like Julu Port, how many distinguished guests could there possibly be to fill up his top-tier quarters?
However, he soon discovered that the innkeeper truly hadn't lied, because Old Qian's had only four first-class rooms in total, and the other two were already occupied.
The contact for He Lingchuan's mission was staying here as well.
The layout of the inn was shaped like an inverted U, with all the upper rooms on the second floor.
Once settled in, He Lingchuan walked toward the far corner on the other side of the second floor.
Yet as soon as he drew near, the two men chatting at the corner raised their hands to block his path:
"Hey. No vacancy down here."
Though dressed as ordinary guests, their eyes gleamed with keen energy, their backs were straight as ramrods, and the way they looked at people was like eagles eyeing chicks, naturally instilling fear.
Naturally, He Lingchuan felt no fear. He brushed his storage ring to bring out a black medallion, dangling and swaying it before them. "I'm looking for Jin Bai. This is the token of our meeting."
There was not a single character carved onto the medallion, yet its surface shifted constantly—one moment rushing water, the next rugged mountains, and the next swirling, misty clouds.
If one turned the medallion upside down, the mountains and waters overturned along with it, reforming anew.
Such supernatural craftsmanship was extraordinarily difficult to imitate.
He Lingchuan was not a citizen of the Mou Kingdom and could not use Mou official passes, so the investigative token Wang Xingyi gave him was called the "Cloud-Turning Token," which could represent Lingshan's subordinate organizations abroad.
Lingshan was not subject to any nation, so it was not at all surprising that the identity token of a Lingshan envoy showed no origin power.
While holding this token, he could call himself a Cloud-Turning Envoy.
The two men froze upon seeing the token. One took the medallion, muttered, "Wait here," and walked deeper down the hallway, pushing open a door and entering.
A dozen-odd breaths later, the door reopened.
The man's manner had grown considerably more deferential. "Please!"
Three people were seated by the table in the guest room. Seeing He Lingchuan enter, all rose to greet him.
The leader was as tall as He Lingchuan, with a square face, large eyes, and a sharp, piercing gaze.
He flashed a subtle signal to the guard who had led He Lingchuan inside, and the man immediately returned to the hallway to resume his watch.
Only then did the leader cup his hands toward He Lingchuan and say in a deep voice, "I am Jin Bai, Deputy Commander of the Shadow Tooth Guard. How may I address this Cloud-Turning Envoy?"
A boundary ward had been placed within the room, leaving no worry of sound leaking out.
"He." He Lingchuan briskly gave his surname, then took back his Cloud-Turning Token from Jin Bai's hand.
"Please have a seat!" Jin Bai had verified the authenticity of the token; otherwise, he would not have been so courteous to He Lingchuan.
A Shadow Tooth Guard at the side brought He Lingchuan a cup of tea.
Wang Xingyi's dossier hadn't mentioned it, but Fang Canran had explained it to He Lingchuan personally. The Shadow Tooth Guard was the Mou Emperor's personal armed force, dedicated to intelligence gathering, armed arrests, cross-border pursuits, and private interrogations of major criminals. They were his eyes and ears as well as his fangs.
In short, whatever was inconvenient for the regular army or palace guards to handle, the Mou Emperor entrusted to the Shadow Tooth Guard.
Therefore, this agency held a very unique status in the Mou capital.
Jin Bai was a deputy commander in the Shadow Tooth Guard. His rank was not high, but he possessed the authority to monitor his superiors from a lower rank. If an analogy had to be drawn, he was on par with Fan Sheng, the deputy commander of Lingxu City's Tongxin Guard.
A military officer able to sit in such a position might not possess supreme cultivation, but his loyalty to the monarch was absolute.
That the Mou Kingdom had deployed the Shadow Tooth Guard to escort the Bright Lantern Cup demonstrated just how much importance they placed on this tribute.
Evidently, this caution had not been unwarranted; sure enough, it had been stolen this time.
Having never met before, Jin Bai naturally didn't hold an abundance of respect for He Lingchuan, but he maintained basic politeness.
As a direct subordinate of the Mou Emperor, he knew full well what the Cloud-Turning Token represented.
Otherwise, why would a youth not even twenty years of age warrant a second glance from him?
He Lingchuan sat down and first handed him a letter.
The envelope was sealed. Fang Canran had only told him not to open it, but simply to deliver it to the contact.
Jin Bai received it with both hands, unsealed it, and took a look, his gaze hardening.
The envelope was plain and unexceptional, and the letter paper was completely plain white; only when held up to the light did a faint watermark of cloud patterns reveal itself.
This was the Mou Emperor's personal imperial stationery: plain cloud stationery.
Across the sheet ran only four vigorous characters penned like dragons and phoenixes:
*Hold nothing back.*
No signature, no seal.
Having served by the Mou Emperor's side for many years, Jin Bai recognized the calligraphy at a glance. He stood up with a start, turned toward the west, and bowed deeply. "I shall obey the imperial decree!"
When the Bright Lantern Cup was stolen, he had sent word back to the empire, continuing to search for the treasure's whereabouts while awaiting the monarch's instructions.
Whether their party stayed or departed, whether they continued hunting down the treasure or returned to await punishment—it was all up to a single word from the sovereign.
Losing imperial tribute, the Mou Emperor would certainly be displeased.
Yet now, National Preceptor Wang's Cloud-Turning Envoy had arrived, bearing the monarch's written directive.
He Lingchuan had already stepped aside to avoid taking the bow directed at the decree, and his first words were, "National Preceptor Wang asked me to investigate this case. I'll have to trouble Commander Jin to recount everything in detail."
He was actually invited by National Preceptor Wang? Jin Bai pulled his thoughts together.
"Very well. We have just determined the tribute's whereabouts, and we also know who the perpetrator is. Mister He, you've arrived at an opportune time—I just dispatched another urgent dispatch to the imperial capital for instructions, and we should receive a reply in a few days."
Chapter 1100