Book 14 Chapter 8

Ashes

"Chet, is it too late!"

An Minghu clicked his tongue and looked around at the sights around him.

Desolate. Empty. And chilly.

It was the only emotion he could feel from these landscapes right now.

What more could he possibly feel when everything was already crumbling to ash and scattering everywhere? But in fact, there was one more emotion he felt besides emptiness: anger. It was anger.

"Inspector An, I've searched every room in the building, but nothing has come up."

There are barely any traces of rooms, just charred beams and earth walls. I wasn't surprised to hear the report from my lieutenant, Yi Myung, but I couldn't help but feel a surge of frustration.

"Well, there's no way there's anything left intact after burning up like that!"

He grumbled, kicking at the mournful remains of the burned-out manor.

Special Inspector of the Zheng Tian Meng Island West Branch! That was his title.

"Chet, I got a red letter from the chapter saying 'express urgent' and I've been rushing around, but it's too late……."

The emergency call bell rang out as an eagle flew into the air. It was the first Red-crowned Night-Hawk he'd seen since being assigned to the island's west branch.

He hastily assembled an army and rushed out into the night to help, but all he saw was the flames of the fire demon staining the night sky red and hundreds of human figures running around noisily trying to extinguish it. All they could do was suck their fingers and turn on their lights in vain.

The scene burned so cleanly and boldly that all that remained was a wide expanse of ashes that seemed to mock them.

'You mean to tell me that as soon as you got the letter, you picked the fastest steed you could find, switched horses, and rode nonstop… but then you ruthlessly cut off the tail that was already showing?

It was frighteningly cold and quick thinking.

It had been a while since he had seen his old friend. He was able to keep in regular contact by e-mail, but he wasn't exactly sure where he was or what he was doing.

"Have you found any passageways or secret storerooms yet?"

"The searchlights are scouring the entire building right now, but……."

Judging by the way you blurred the end of your sentence, you're not happy with the result.

"…I think you're going to have to step up to the plate."

"Is it going to be my turn again?"

I had a frown on my face.

"I'm sorry."

The adjutant quickly apologizes. If they had been so good, they wouldn't have had to go to their superiors. But when they apologize so openly, it makes the person who bounced feel better.

"Never mind, never mind! If you're going to eat Martial Rust, you'll have to pay for it, after all, that's what you're here for. But next time, I hope you don't wait until it's my turn, because I'd like to show off that I have some competent men!"

"It's disgraceful."

The fact that Ahn Myung-hoo was able to become the inspector general of Shanxi province at the young age of 30 was due to a certain special ability that he possessed, an ability that could be said to be his very existence.

"Well, let's see if I can get you a meal……."

What he pulled from his waistband was a short iron bar about a finger's length thick, but…….

Pod!

Chorus!

With one sweep of his hand, it was no longer a wand, but a long "iron needle" that reached a length of "nine chucks".

"Come on, let's go!"

He strode about as if for pleasure, plunging his iron needle into the ground.

Shhh! Shhh!

The iron needle dug into the ground as if it were a cotton ball. Even if the ground were a swamp, it wouldn't be this easy.

"Gravel crumbs and… sand……. Not much around here."

Adjutant Lee Myung followed suit, his eyes shining.

Nine-Chuck Iron Needle Spiritual Vision Exploration Method

地觀

It's amazing technology, Yi Myung marveled. It's not just a matter of sticking an iron needle in. In that short period of time between piercing and withdrawing, the boss is able to see what's beneath his feet, as if he could see it with his own eyes.

Therefore, those who knew him called him "Nine-Step Iron Eye" because he was like an eye on the end of an iron needle. And the nine-centimeter-long silvery iron needle he now wears is the gift that has made him who he is today.

His abilities were such that the consensus of those who knew him was that he would have been a great (?) professional grave robber if he hadn't taken up residence in Zheng Tian Meng.

Shhhhhhhh!

It wasn't just the compacted earth that was helpless in the face of Ahn Myung-hoo's spikes. The charred stone walls were also pierced with ridiculous lightness, as if they were made of curdled tofu, with each pass of the black iron needle. And yet there was not the slightest crack around the hole. To him, these things seemed effortless, as if they required no effort at all, which is a good indication of the exertion of his labor.

Nine-Chuck Iron Needle Spiritual Vision Exploration Method

Stone Helm (石透觀)

It was the art of breaking through a stone wall or floor to see what was behind it.

"This was a den of machinations!"

Piercing the stones with an iron needle, An Minghu could find remnants here and there.

"No matter how much arson aided the chaos, that many men could not have slipped away unnoticed and unnoticed! There must be traces of them somewhere."

It had only been three days since the events that had sent the entire county into a frenzy. There must have been little time for all of those named in the report to destroy the evidence and hide themselves! There must be a secret passageway we haven't discovered yet.

Of course, he had no illusions that the passage was still open. He knew from experience that it was overreaching to expect such a rudimentary mistake from such a willing foe. Rather, he would have to untangle the tangle of clues elsewhere.

"Reports are that a large shipment of something was brought in here. We don't know what it is yet, but it must have been stored somewhere. Then it was moved somewhere and……."

His instincts were whispering that finding out what the contents of that cargo were was his top priority right now.

"Find them, even if it means tearing up the land and smashing every building in sight, because we're not going to stand for this!"

"Okay."

"Maybe we should look into the Zhongyuan Bureau, but I'm pretty sure they don't carry shitty stuff in their back pockets."

The most troublesome was the mutual confidentiality agreement between the agency and the client. It's a contract that's only added on if the client wants it, but it's the kind of thing you'd expect from something this shady. For a marking country, no matter where it was, the trust between the client and the marking was vital. No matter how much they claimed the authority of the Martial Masters, they would not be easily convinced. Moreover, if the other party was the Zhongyuan Marked Kingdom, what could they do?

"What a headache……."

Zhongwen Pekguk was known for being a powerhouse. This was not going to be an easy opponent.

Tick!

Ahn Myung-hoo had been poking around with the iron needle for about half an hour when he felt it. It was a very fleeting sensation, faintly transmitted through the needle. However, his senses, which had been sharpened by years of training, did not miss the short, subtle signal.

The place where they were now lodged was a thick patch of grass about five yards from the site of the manor's old warehouse.

A shiver raced down his spine to the crown of his head, and it was good to know that he was right.

"Found it!"

Ahn Myung-hoo smiled a smile of conversion and called out in a quiet voice.

The switchgear was kindly broken. After mobilizing my men and shoveling for almost half a day, I finally managed to get inside.

The interior was a stone chamber made entirely of massive stacked stones. The intricate workmanship was not the work of ordinary craftsmen.

"Well, that's what I expected!"

As you expected, the chamber is empty, but it's also more spacious than you expected. Now you need to find out what they left behind in this empty stone chamber.

"Fetch me a dog!"

He commanded.

He was a very short, dwarfish man. His nose, on the other hand, was very large and long for such a small face. His nostrils seemed to be three times as big as everyone else's, making him a man more often called by nickname than by name.

"What do you think, dog nose, did you smell anything good?"

Ahn Myung-hoo impatiently asked the dog, who was crawling around the stone chamber with his nose in the air.

Sniff!

He didn't even pretend to hear his boss's question. He seemed to be protesting that his sense of smell had developed and his hearing was relatively poor. But Ahn Myung-hoo didn't press him further. She realized that he was so focused on a certain smell that the boss's words didn't stick in his ears.

An Mingfu trusted him more than anyone else in the Island West Branch of the Spirit Blind, and that trust made him useful. The dog couldn't resist a superior who recognized his abilities, so wherever An Minghu went, the dog followed.

There may not have been a speck of dust left, but there was something else that was left untouched: the odor of things……. This man, a dog, had a special ability to pick up odors that the average person's sense of smell couldn't pick up, meaning that even in places you'd think had been wiped clean, he could find traces of odor left behind.

"Um……."

"What? Don't pause, just say it!"

I say again.

"Inspector, doesn't it seem to you that the old chancellor of that oil-flask room is really too open about his money these days? He's going to eat me up if he sees me."

It was a casual remark that came out of his mouth while doing research, but Ahn Myung-hoo immediately realized what he was trying to say. In short, they were behind on their payments.

'This slug is…….'

Ordinarily, I would have charged him with insubordination or disobeying orders. But he laughed it off. They'd worked together long enough that he could laugh it off. It was a conversation that couldn't happen with any other subordinate, because it was just the two of them.

"I see, I see! Isn't that why I told you to find Mae Hyang a little something? Are you going to pay me a whole copper coin for it?"

"Hehehe…, sorry about that!"

Gakko scratched the back of his head, looking puzzled. Apparently, the main reason he was facing a shortage of money right now was because of one of the many spice masters in this world. Mae Hyang was one of the most commonly used nicknames in Qi Fang.

"I'm going to let you know what you've done so you can get a bonus. Don't dawdle, just tell me!"

"I'm counting on you, hehehe!"

"Oh, come on, talk to me. You want to see me die of frustration, don't you?"

Only then did he begin to speak of what he had seen, a keen gleam in his eyes that had once been threadbare.

"It has a distinctive odor."

Ahn Myung-hoo's eyes suddenly turned sharp.

"Ho-ho, that's interesting, what's that smell?"

If it wasn't so unique, I would have done my usual thing and said what it was. This much pause meant that there must be something there.

"It's so far behind that I'm not sure, but it's got 'that' smell all over it."

"That?"

Then the dog came up to him and whispered something in his ear. The disappointment was immediately evident on his face.

"What is it? Isn't that smell coming from everywhere?"

You're making a big deal out of it! You don't seem to like it.

But Gakko's expression was serious. His demeanor was full of professional pride.

"But this is no ordinary object!"

"Not an ordinary object?"

Whatever remnants of disappointment remained on his face vanished with the vaporization of those words.

"I don't think it's something you'd expect to be used by the general public."

"Hmmmm……."

High purity. That meant it was a luxury item, and it was hard to make and hard to find. But that wasn't enough of a clue.

"Anything else?"

"I'm not sure about this one, but……."

"What? Don't hesitate to say anything!"

"The fact is……."

The dog leaned in close to his ear once more and whimpered something. Was there something so secret that no one else should hear? An Minghu's eyes widened as he listened to the tale.

"Well, is that true?"

His complexion had visibly changed. Even with this level of training, the emotional turmoil on his face meant that he had heard something important.

"Probably not."

"That's not something that's going to be readily available, no matter how great Sega is, is it?"

"That makes it all the more suspicious."

"I can't believe such a dangerous thing was here, enough of it to fill this place……. Are these guys going to start a war……."

But that observation was the least likely.

"I guess I'll have to investigate the money ghosts after all……."

But he knew best that Zhong Yuan Peking would not be an easy opponent.