188: Chapter 188 Strengthening Defenses and Investigating Spies

The twilight light slanted into the side hall of the Council Hall.

Chen Wuwang stood before the table, his fingertips tapping lightly on the stone surface: three long taps, two short ones, a pause, then two more.

This was the secret code rhythm of the Family's special operations team; it wasn't an order, but a confirmation that the System was still running.

He had just come out of the secret chamber, clutching the Jade Slip containing the copy of the stall rental records, where the characters "Lu San" had been circled three times in red light.

Outside, the market lights were brightening, and the voices of the crowd hadn't ceased, but he knew this wasn't liveliness; it was an undercurrent surging.

The door opened, and two clan guards entered with their heads bowed, their backs stiff and tense.

"Pass the order down: effective immediately, initiate the dual-track patrol System," he said, his voice neither loud nor hurried.

"For the overt line, Chen Xiaodao will lead the team to patrol the boundary between the market and the residential area three times a day. The routes will be public and the times fixed. Tell the public it's for maintaining stability, but in reality, it's to let everyone see—we are not in chaos."

The clan guards nodded, their pens scratching against the jade tablets.

"And the covert line?" the other asked.

"Starting today, the liaisons from each clan will be integrated into the Family's intelligence network, codenamed 'Ear Root'."

He raised his eyes: "Record all abnormal interactions, regardless of identity or reason. Note the time, location, and keywords of the conversation. Do not take action, do not test them, only record."

"What if someone notices?"

"Just pretend one of our own people made a bookkeeping error," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Who hasn't had a slip of the hand?"

The two retreated, their footsteps so light they seemed afraid of disturbing the Spirit Array patterns beneath the floor tiles.

He turned and walked into the inner chamber, his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye flickering slightly as he pulled up the communication fluctuation chart from yesterday to the present.

Several curves remained glaring—the words "transport line," "quality inspection," and "merger" had suddenly exploded between the hours of You and Xu, like someone smashing a hammer into water; the ripples were too uniform to be a natural spread.

This wasn't a rumor; it was a broadcast.

He pulled out a blank Jade Slip and input the command: "Compare all registration information of incoming merchant caravans from the last seven days. Filter for the West Desert Sand Clan's accompanying teams, exclude camel drivers, cargo managers, and physicians. Lock onto independent stall owners or accompanying medicine peddlers, and focus on checking the overlap between energy signatures and the burst periods of the keywords."

The Jade Slip hummed and began to calculate.

He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes for three seconds. It wasn't fatigue; he was suppressing his emotions.

He knew that someone outside was waiting for him to panic, waiting for him to order the market locked down, arrest people for interrogation, and escalate the conflict.

But he couldn't make a lethal move; the moment he did, he would fall right into their trap.

He had to let it simmer.

The door was pushed open again. This time it was Chen Xiaodao, still wearing his light mecha, with a bit of dust on his shoulder armor.

"Brother," he called out crisply, standing straight. "The patrol teams are assembled. Three groups will rotate; the overt groups will walk the streets and alleys, and the covert groups will carry scanners to sweep along the ground."

"What about the Southwest Triangle Area?"

"We bypassed it, so we didn't alert them. But I had the second group scatter Spirit-sensing powder in the alley behind the medicine peddlers' stalls. If anyone tampers with anything at night, the powder will change color."

Chen Wuwang opened his eyes and nodded. "Be thorough. Don't let anyone see that we are investigating; just say it's a routine check to prevent insectoid clan infiltration."

"Understood." Chen Xiaodao paused. "But do we really have to wait for them to broadcast again?"

"Wait." He stared at the data stream on the Jade Slip. "The wind has already picked up; the spark won't be lit just once. They will come again, and—" he sneered, "the more anxious they are, the better."

Chen Xiaodao didn't ask again and turned to leave.

"Wait." Chen Wuwang picked up a portable fluctuation scanner from the table and handed it over. "Take this. It's an old model, inconspicuous. Focus on scanning three inches below the ground. Don't touch the stall itself; leaving marks would be evidence."

"Understood." Chen Xiaodao took it and tucked it into his waist pouch. "I'll walk the route myself."

When night had completely fallen, Chen Xiaodao took two men into the southwest corner of the market.

There weren't many lights, and the medicine peddler area was the darkest. Several stalls were half-packed up, cloth curtains hung halfway down, and the shadows on the ground were stretched long.

Pretending to inspect the shield nodes, he crouched behind Lu San's stall, his fingers sliding over the scanner.

"There's something here," he said in a low voice.

Three inches underground, there was a residual signal, extremely weak, as if someone had deliberately suppressed it.

He had his subordinate take out a miniature digger and gently excavate a layer of loose soil, revealing a Jade Slip the size of a fingernail, its surface etched with fine runes and its edges glowing with a dark green light.

"A directional broadcast talisman." He frowned. "Can it still be used?"

"No." The deputy shook his head after checking it. "The program is incomplete; it looks like it was cut off midway, or... an attempted self-destruction."

"Take it back." Chen Xiaodao placed the Jade Slip into a sealed box. "Don't move it, send it directly to the Family Head."

He stood up and scanned his surroundings.

The neighboring mineral merchant's stall was empty, and the caravan supply point had its lights on. A man was brewing tea; seeing him look over, the man immediately lowered his head and blew on his bowl.

It was too quiet.

He didn't stay long and led his team back the way they came. The sound of his mecha's footsteps tapped out a rhythm on the stone road, like some kind of response.

In the secret chamber beneath the Council Hall, Chen Wuwang was already waiting before the light screen.

The Jade Slip was placed into the analysis slot, and the data slowly emerged. The keywords popped up again: "merger," "disconnected," "private soldiers," "monopoly"—all the same ones triggered yesterday.

More importantly, the broadcast mode showed that it had attempted to connect to three relay points, located respectively at the Xuansha Tribe trading area, the perimeter of the Beipo Liu Clan's base, and the old site of the Chiji Ridge watchtower.

This wasn't random placement; it was precise positioning.

"Model the propagation path," he ordered.

The light screen displayed a 3D heat map. The rumor's spread trajectory unfolded like a spider web, with the starting point being the location of this Jade Slip, then radiating out in three paths, each one passing exactly through the residential areas of the clans most easily incited.

"It's man-made." He tapped his knuckles on the table. "And they know where our intelligence blind spots are."

He pulled up the registration forms for the three merchant caravans accompanying the West Desert Sand Clan, combining them with the residual energy traces on the Jade Slip—trace amounts of Yin-Corrosion Fire patterns, which were a byproduct of alchemy found only in the deep desert.

Seven teams were quickly eliminated, leaving only three that matched the characteristics.

He then pulled up the records of all outside personnel who had recently entered the Alliance, cross-referencing them, and finally locked onto one of the teams—a small unit named "Yellow Sand Medicine Firm."

The leader was registered as Lu Da, with two people accompanying him: one a shop assistant, and one a medicine peddler whose name was indeed Lu San.

"Not a coincidence," he said in a low voice. "Same surname, same profession, arrived at the same time, operating in the same area."

He picked up a pen and wrote the conclusion on the Jade Slip analysis report: "The spy is still within the Alliance, with activity concentrated between the hours of You and Xu. They possess basic Spirit Array concealment capabilities but cannot block high-frequency detection for long."

"Recommendation: Maintain the dual-track patrol, have the covert group strengthen night monitoring in the Southwest Area, and set up three passive listening arrays before the hour of You tomorrow to wait for the second signal release."

After writing this, he closed the Jade Slip and stood up.

Footsteps came from outside the secret chamber, steady and powerful.

It was Chen Xiaodao returning.

He pushed the door open and entered, still carrying the chill of the night wind on his body.

"Found it." He handed over the sealed box. "It was right under the stall; it hadn't been touched."

Chen Wuwang took it but didn't open it, simply placing it beside the light screen.

"Go get some rest," he said. "Tomorrow at the hour of You, you lead the team and walk through the Southwest Area again. The route remains the same, the time remains the same, and your actions—do not change them either."

"Are you trying to wait for him to make another move?"

"He doesn't know we've discovered it." Chen Wuwang looked at the flickering red dot on the heat map. "As long as he still wants to burn this fire, he has to light the lamp again."

Chen Xiaodao nodded, didn't ask further, and turned to leave.

He was left alone in the secret chamber.

He walked to the light screen and zoomed in on the Southwest Triangle Area. The red dot hung silently above Lu San's stall like an unexploded mine.

He tapped his fingers on the edge of the table, the rhythm the same as when he first entered: three long taps, two short ones, a pause, then two more.

The System interface didn't pop up, but he knew the heavenly secret instruction was already on its way.

He didn't smile, nor did he sigh; he simply stood there like an iron statue keeping watch through the night.

Outside, the market lights were still shining.

In a certain corner, an oil lamp suddenly flickered, as if blown by the wind.

But tonight, there was no wind.