81: Chapter 19 Commission and Chance Encounter

A few days later, Lu Li received a new commission at the black market.

The client was a middle-manager from a shipping company in the Dock District, about forty years old.

He wore an old, washed-out suit, his fingertips embedded with ink stains that had accumulated over many years and could not be washed away, his temperament rigid and anxious.

According to him, several river cargo ships under the company's name had recently encountered strange incidents one after another.

Every night, the cargo in the holds would be rummaged through by someone, yet the cabin locks remained intact, and the night-watch Sailors heard absolutely nothing unusual throughout.

What was stolen were not gold, silver, or valuable goods, but merely a few crates of geological mineral samples imported from the Southern Continent.

"The minerals themselves are worthless; they are teaching specimens commissioned for transport by the Geological Research Institute."

The manager rubbed the rim of his teacup nervously with his thumb, his tone grave.

"But strange incidents have occurred three times in a row, and the target is always the same batch of minerals. I suspect that someone has specifically targeted my fleet."

Lu Li picked up the cargo ship's port entry and exit records from the table and flipped through them quickly.

All three records pointed to the same crime scene: downstream of the Hoi River, at Berth 3 of the Old Wharf.

This place was exactly at the end of the pier where he had previously boarded the ghost ship.

After the full moon, the thick fog of the Sea of Wraith had completely dissipated.

However, the barrier to the Spirit World in the Old Wharf area was naturally weak, far lower than other areas of Backlund.

This was an excellent crime scene for a Beyonder of the Apprentice Pathway, who could utilize the spatial weak point to repeatedly trigger "Lock Picking" and enter sealed ship cabins without a sound.

The perpetrator had boarded the ship three times, only rummaging through the minerals and taking no valuables; the goal was never theft, but rather screening for specific minerals.

"I accept the commission. The payment is eight shillings, until the identity of the intruder is determined."

Lu Li set down his teacup, sealing the agreement.

After accepting the commission, Lu Li did not immediately go to the wharf to investigate.

He first cross-referenced the dates of the cargo ship incidents with the residual fluctuation times of the Spirit World tides at the Old Wharf.

All the times of the incidents were pinned to the lowest ebb of the Spirit World tides.

During this period, spirituality was at its most dormant, which could perfectly evade spiritual tracing by Seers and Spirit Mediums.

Such meticulous counter-reconnaissance awareness was certainly not something an ordinary low-sequence Beyonder could possess.

Not long after, Lu Li found the intruder's temporary stronghold.

The location was in the depths of a secluded alley next to the Old Wharf, downstream of the Hoi River, in an abandoned old ship equipment warehouse.

The warehouse Door lock was intact, but on the edge of the Door frame, there remained a spatial rift as thin as a hair.

That was the exclusive spiritual trace left behind after the Apprentice Pathway's "Lock Picking" was triggered.

The technique was clean and restrained, and it was completely homologous to the spiritual traces detected in the library basement earlier.

In the corner of the warehouse, several sacks were stacked, filled with rummaged-through mineral samples.

Each piece of mineral had been carefully vetted, sorted by category, and arranged very neatly.

In the deepest part of the warehouse, a woman was squatting and looking through an old wooden box.

She wore a dark gray canvas coat with her hood pulled low, obscuring most of her face, and on her feet were canvas shoes that were a size too small.

Hearing footsteps, the woman did not stand up.

She merely released a faint wisp of Apprentice Pathway spirituality, sweeping it past the Door to verify the identity, and then spoke:

"Did you also accept this commission? That manager hired two people at the same time."

Lu Li leaned against the Door frame, his tone flat:

"He only commissioned me to investigate the cargo ship's strange incidents; he did not mention another client."

"He hired me to verify the quality of the minerals."

The woman slowly stood up and brushed the dust off the corner of her coat.

"His stated reason was that the mineral purity has not been up to standard recently, and he suspects the supplier is passing off inferior goods. Since we are both Beyonders, there is no need to fight over the commission."

As she spoke, she picked up a fist-sized dark green mineral from the table.

On the surface of the mineral were winding snake-like patterns, the strokes archaic and regular, completely identical to the exclusive seal runes of the Antigonus Family.

"These are the patterns that come with the fragments of the ruin's seal."

The woman explained straightforwardly.

"During the fourth epoch, these stones were the base of the ruin's seal. The moment the seal closed, a spiritual shockwave shattered the base, and the fragments flowed along the groundwater veins into the mineral layers of the Southern Continent, later to be mined by mineral merchants and circulated to the Geological Research Institute in Backlund."

"I have verified all the minerals; there is no problem with their quality or purity. But these snake-like patterns are definitely not forged; at least two pieces are original fragments from the ruins."

Lu Li looked directly at her and said with certainty:

"You are from the Secret Order. You were the one who snuck into the library basement."

The woman did not deny it.

She put the mineral back into the sack, looked up at Lu Li, and introduced herself candidly:

"My name is Vera, a probationary member of the Secret Order, Sequence 8: Trickmaster of the Apprentice Pathway. I specialize in the appraisal of ancient documents and the analysis of seal residues."

"Regarding the library incident, I have already paid the fine to the administrator, and they promised not to pursue the matter further."

As she finished speaking, Vera took a bundle of charm fragments from her canvas bag and pushed them toward Lu Li.

"These are self-made spatial perception charm fragments. The fragments that cost three pence each at the black market only have a detection range of a few dozen meters, but this batch can cover several hundred meters, enough for you to use for an entire year."

"I have only one condition: in your commission report, do not mention the snake-like seal patterns on the minerals. That manager is just an ordinary person and cannot understand anything related to the supernatural."

"The Secret Order will submit an official appraisal application to the Geological Research Institute separately, it just takes time."

Lu Li lowered his eyes to look at the charm fragments on the table and was silent for a moment.

The fact that the Secret Order took the initiative to offer high-level self-made charms in exchange for information was enough to prove that this batch of patterned minerals was of great significance to them.

"I can agree to that."

Lu Li looked up and proposed a reciprocal condition.

"Let's exchange an additional piece of information: what is the Secret Order's purpose in searching for the snake-patterned minerals?"

Vera pulled her hood back up to cover her eyes and brows, her muffled voice coming from beneath the brim.

"The Secret Order believes that 'Knowledge is Redemption' and never serves orthodox deities."

"We need to confirm whether the seal of the Antigonus Ruins has completely closed."

"If the remnant soul of the Snake of Fate has completely dissipated, the research notes on the seal bases preserved from the fourth epoch will lose their value for tracing. This batch of minerals that have appeared in the world is direct evidence that the seal closed recently."

Vera shouldered her canvas bag and walked toward the warehouse Door, then paused.

"Twenty years ago, Elliott Hoy deciphered the encrypted information on the title page of the imitation notes; he was the previous keeper of the ruin's token."

"After he passed away, the token flowed into the black market and, through middlemen, was sold to several unidentified buyers."

"After the seal of the ruins closed on the night of the full moon, the Secret Order's work of tracking the token was directly terminated."

After saying this, Vera pushed open the Door and left, disappearing in an instant at the end of the dim alley.

Lu Li gathered the charm fragments and put them into the pouch at his waist.

At this point, the truth of the commission was revealed: the intruder who broke into the cargo ship at night was none other than Vera, a member of the Secret Order.

The rummaged-through minerals were supernatural physical remnants scattered after the seal of the ruins closed.

He took out his notebook and recorded the entire sequence of events of the night in shorthand.

Then he picked up his pen to fill out the commission report, the conclusion simple and straightforward:

The cargo ship's strange incidents were caused by internal staff of the institute rummaging through goods due to a dispute over mineral quality; it is recommended that the shipping company and the institute negotiate a private settlement.

Regarding the snake-like seal patterns, the Secret Order, and the seal of the ruins, not a single word was written.

After returning to his apartment in the River Bay District, Lu Li spread the bundle of spatial perception charm fragments on the table and verified them one by one.

Vera had not cheated.

Each charm's spiritual circuit was complete and regular, the refining craftsmanship far exceeding that of mass-produced black market goods, and the detection range was sufficient to cover the entire Old Wharf area.

Putting away the charms, Lu Li picked up his pen and wrote down his subsequent plans in the notebook:

1. Continue to accept black market commissions to stabilize income from supernatural materials and money;

2. Steadily advance the digestion of the Swindler potion;

3. Keep a close watch on the movements of the Secret Order and wait for them to issue the official judgment on the closing of the seal of the ruins.

Next to the third plan, he added a note:

One of the unidentified buyers who purchased the token mentioned by Vera is the debt manager of the Abraham faction. The Secret Order is not yet aware of this, so I will not inform them for now.