Star Trace Gate

Chapter 945 Clues to the Cooks, The Mysterious Woman Under the Moonlight

Night fell, past midnight.

After Ren Ye and Chu Daoye thoroughly inspected the Ministry of Revenue's treasury, they returned together to the Imperial Household Department's supply depot.

After this trip, they did gain something. At least they successfully summoned the spirit of a monk soldier in the gloomy underground vault, and Master Chu even used a secret method to imprison it, temporarily keeping it in one of his funerary artifacts.

Master Chu couldn't find out the monk's name, his official post, who had ordered him to the treasury, or why he had died there. This wandering spirit also seemed to have suffered some kind of soul-shattering technique, his three souls and seven spirits incomplete, appearing insane, his memories fragmented…

Using Taoist methods of soul-telling, Master Chu, through a combination of deception and intimidation, finally obtained only the same phrase that the ghost kept repeating: "Killing each other, killing each other... Everyone is killing each other... Liu Wei of the cooks ran away, only he ran away...!"

Although only this one question was posed, it contained a wealth of information. On the way back, Ren basically deduced that a dozen or so groups of officials from various government departments had joined forces to surround the Ministry of Revenue's treasury that day. Then, something unknown happened, leading to a bloody battle within the treasury where these groups turned on each other, resulting in many deaths, and possibly leaving no survivors…

This is why the Ministry of Revenue's treasury was covered in bloodstains and had an extremely heavy yin energy.

After making this deduction, Little Bad King was greatly shocked and kept babbling to Master Chu on the way: "These dozen or so groups were killing each other in the treasury, and they were all killing each other. What was the reason? It certainly wasn't because of the crowd, the 'what are you looking at?' attitudes, and then they started killing each other at the slightest disagreement. They must have seen that huge amount of Star Source, and they were all too shocked by the quantity of Star Source to control their greed. Then, because of the unequal distribution of the spoils, and the fact that too many people knew about it, each had their own calculations... So, these dozen or so groups all wanted to kill each other, to take the huge amount of Star Source for themselves, and to silence them?"

"At present, this is the only reasonable speculation," Master Chu agreed.

“But damn it… I just feel like something’s off about this.” Ren Ye frowned slightly, adding with a puzzled tone, “Let’s just say, these chaotic faction people, although they’re all crazy and reckless, are still an organized, disciplined army in this migration area of ​​251 years. This Tianzhao Temple is something that even a group of supreme beings in the Divine Court can’t handle. In less than a hundred years, these bald monks have captured many important cities and towns in the migration area, and even the Divine Court’s capital… has become extremely dangerous.”

"Tell me, even if Tianzhao Temple is a super sect that is unprecedentedly prosperous and has countless top experts under its command, no matter how bad it is... it is impossible for it to raise a group of soldiers who go completely crazy after seeing a huge amount of star source, and who do not care about the consequences and only care about killing each other, right?! Even mountain bandits and outlaws cannot be this undisciplined, right?"

"When Dawei Tianlong captured Beifeng Town, almost no one died, because Wang Anquan surrendered at the beginning. Now, in order to fight for a few bucks, he killed an entire reinforced battalion of his own?! Don't you think... this sounds absurd?"

"If Tianzhao Temple finds out about this, how many people will lose their heads?"

Master Chu also felt something was off, but he still offered a relatively objective assessment based on reality: "This entire migration area is in chaos. The monk soldiers may not be as harmonious as we think. There may be many factions and forces involved. So, I think their greed for money is one aspect, but there may be other conflicts that we are unaware of."

“Hmm, if you analyze it that way, then this matter sounds a little more plausible, but only a little.” Ren nodded in agreement: “So many people died in the Ministry of Revenue’s treasury, and then Niu Dali personally sent soldiers to seal off the area. This further proves that he definitely participated in the fighting in the underground treasury, and may even have been one of the leaders. So… the possibility that he secretly took away a huge amount of Star Source is also very high.”

After the two returned to the supply depot, Ren immediately summoned a civil official and began to inquire about the matter as if they were having a casual chat.

Inside the main hall on the first floor, Little Bad King sat in a chair with his hands in his sleeves and said with a smile, "Old Zhang, don't be nervous. I asked you to come here because I want to understand my colleagues in the officialdom of Beifeng Town, so that I can avoid unintentionally offending people in the future."

In the living room, the minor official, Old Zhang, sat on the edge of a chair, nodding repeatedly in agreement, saying, "Yes, I understand. Please ask whatever you want. I will tell you the truth as long as I know it."

"Oh, are you familiar with Lord Niu? Was he the commander before the capture of Beifeng Town?" Ren asked casually while sipping his tea.

"To be honest, I don't know much about this Lord Niu either. Before Beifeng Town, I was in the southwest and he was in the southeast. We weren't officials from the same city and had no contact with each other. However, I heard that when he captured Binhai City, he was a military officer commanding ten thousand monk soldiers, and his achievements during the siege were outstanding, earning him two commendations...!" Old Zhang and Niu Dali were of very different ranks and statuses, and they had no interaction whatsoever, so the information he shared was almost entirely common knowledge.

Ren listened patiently, and even asked him about the situation of several other high-ranking officials. In short, he chatted for nearly half an hour before smoothly turning the topic to the main matter: "Oh, it seems that the structure of the officialdom in Beifeng Town is very complicated. I really need to learn more from you in the future."

"No, no, I'm just a minor official. I'll do whatever you ask me to do." Old Zhang is only at the second rank and is almost a hundred years old. If it weren't for the fact that he has some people above him taking care of him, he would have been a retired person who would have packed up and gone home long ago.

"Hehe, let's look after each other. Oh, by the way, do you know Liu Wei from the cookhouse?" Ren Ye's posture was extremely relaxed, as if he were asking about a trivial matter.

“Oh, I’m quite familiar with Liu Wei. Back in Zhou County in the southwest, he was the commander of the vanguard battalion of the cooks, leading over a thousand monk soldiers. He was a skilled and courageous warrior, a rather conscientious monk soldier officer.” Old Zhang first praised him, then hesitated, “However, this person of his…!”

"Hehe, I was just asking casually. Today's conversation will definitely not leak out. You don't need to worry about anything." Ren Ye saw through his thoughts and comforted him, "Let's just leave it at that. Relax."

"Oh." Old Zhang let out a long sigh, then added, "I heard from others that Liu Wei is quite arrogant and greedy... Back in Zhou County, in order to extort money from a wealthy family, he not only found an opportunity to kill the entire family, but also... he... he took the two wives of the wealthy family's son to the monk soldier camp and raped them. You know, there are just too many monk soldiers in that camp... The two women couldn't take it and committed suicide. This matter caused a great uproar at the time, and coincidentally, Tianzhao Temple sent patrolling Arhats, so... Liu Wei was also publicly punished and whipped forty times with the Soul-Shattering Whip. He almost died."

Ren was slightly taken aback: "That's quite a punishment...!"

"Hey, if Liu Wei hadn't belonged to the cookhouse army, and if the cookhouse army wasn't so complicated, and if he didn't have connections protecting him, then just for this blatant theft and murder of an entire family, he would have been sentenced to a death by karmic retribution." Old Zhang lowered his voice and scoffed, "To be an official, you need connections above you, otherwise you're just cannon fodder. Other monk soldiers who steal tens of thousands of star resources get burned to death, but he killed an entire family and got away with it... Heh, you tell me, isn't the flexibility of the law quite huge?"

"Hehe." Ren chuckled, but didn't reply. Instead, he continued, "Why is the situation with the cooks more complicated?"

"Don't you know about the cooks' army?" Old Zhang asked, somewhat surprised.

"I have been serving my master and rarely go out, so I don't know much about the monks and soldiers in the temple," Ren Ye explained in a calm tone.

"Oh. This Huo Tou Army is a newly formed monk-soldier legion in the migration area in 246 years. Its leader, Huo Gong Buddha, is not a well-known chaotic ancient clan in our migration area, but a Dao-touching powerhouse from an ancient secret realm. In his own secret realm, he also studied Buddhism and established a temple. Later, several Buddhas from Tianzhao Temple consulted with him and decided to fight against the Divine Court together, which led to the incorporation of Huo Gong Buddha's people... Afterwards, they absorbed countless smaller chaotic sects to expand their army, thus forming the Huo Tou Army with nearly 150,000 members. However, because this Huo Tou Army was formed relatively late, and most of its members are temporarily recruited, and Huo Gong Buddha and his monks are not natives of the migration area... Therefore, our Tianzhao Temple has been lenient and tacit towards them in some matters. After all, if you want outsiders to fight the enemy, you naturally have to give them some lenient policies."

"Oh, I understand." Ren Ye nodded slightly: "So, although Liu Wei is also under the command of Lord Niu's Martial Monk Supervisory Office, he is not Lord Niu's man, right?"

“That’s right.” Old Zhang nodded immediately: “Before the capture of Beifeng Town, the temple personally appointed Lord Niu as the first military officer, and then drew six waves of monk soldiers from various armies to assist in the battle. Liu Wei received orders from the cooks’ army and led more than a thousand monk soldiers to Beifeng Town.”

"Oh, is that so...!" Ren echoed the other party, and at the same time, he had a basic understanding of Liu Wei, the cook.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Ren Ye finally let Lao Zhang go home to rest, and hinted that he would get a raise next month.

He didn't know if he'd even make it to next month, but during his term, he wanted to make as many promises as possible to his subordinates and get things done. This way, he'd gain the credit, but the trouble would fall on his successors. If they didn't follow through, the subordinates would definitely complain and be demotivated; they'd rather slack off than stand up for themselves…

After Old Zhang left, Ren Ye immediately looked at Master Chu: "We've basically got the information on Liu Wei. He's greedy, lustful, and arrogant, and he's not one of Niu Dali's men. I think we can intimidate him, scare him, and win him over, so we can find out exactly what happened at the underground treasury that night...!"

Master Chu blinked his wise eyes: "How do you plan to scare me, how do you plan to win me over?!"

"Isn't he a womanizer? Tomorrow, find a decent brothel and personally deliver an invitation to him, saying I want to invite him for a small get-together."

“Alright, I’ll deliver the invitation to him tomorrow morning and book a brothel while I’m at it.” Master Chu paused briefly, then asked, “But how are we going to cover the expenses for entertaining guests at the brothel? I checked the prices today, and the best brothels are quite expensive…!”

"You can put it on first," Ren replied casually.

"Huh?!" Master Chu looked at him incredulously: "This job in Beifeng Town is yours, and the opportunity is yours too... I only agreed to risk my life with you out of brotherhood. It's one thing to risk your life, but in the end we get nothing and I even have to pay for it. Why should I do this?"

Upon hearing this, Ren immediately bent down and sat down, looking at him solemnly. "Master Dao, I think you are sometimes really smart, but sometimes... your perspective on problems is rather foolish."

"What makes you say that?!" Master Chu asked, glancing sideways.

"I'll ask you one question: if we successfully explore this secret realm and obtain the incredible opportunities here, will you share them with me?" Ren Ye held up one finger and said logically, "If you say you don't need to share, then fine, I promise you won't have to pay a single cent for any of the expenses afterward."