Investigation (2)

[Thanks for pointing that out. I checked, and it was my mistake. I'll find a reasonable way to explain the earlier issue with the Dou Ling Empire, and to avoid further controversy and protect the book's reputation, I'll push back the appearance of Rus Wang and the Zheer Continent by a thousand years.]

Here's the latest map.

As for the fragmented plot and whether I have an outline, don't worry—I've already sorted it out.

Looking at the new orders Ulides had issued her in the Communication Book, Thranduil quickly slipped back into the role after more than a decade away from Grey Feather Division assignments.

[I understand.]

Thranduil took a Communication Book from the storage Soul Tool shaped like a bracelet, wrote a few lines in it, then left the room.

"Ma'am, are you going out shopping?"

The uninformed maid asked.

"No, I have official business. I might be gone for a month, or perhaps several. Keep the estate maintained. As for my daughter Noelle, I've entrusted her care to an elder of the Dragon Race."

"Yes, ma'am."

The maid asked no more questions and remained by the entrance.

When Thranduil saw the black car outside, she hesitated for half a second, then walked to the back and opened the door before getting in.

As soon as she took her seat, the Soul Tool car hummed to life and set its four wheels in motion.

"So, what's going on up there? Is it serious enough to call in a nine-star agent like me?"

"This time, it really is urgent. For the details, you can read this, Agent."

The Grey Feather Division agent at the wheel handed Thranduil a sealed dossier marked "Top Secret" in cursive. Then the agent turned her gaze back to the road.

"You'll need to use the military's space-transmission array, ma'am."

"The military's space-transmission array?"

Thranduil was taken aback. She looked at the dossier in her hands, opened it, and began reading the papers inside.

The military's space-transmission array was a simplified version of the one the Light Dragon King had once given Rus Wang. By expending Soul Power to activate it, the array could transport five hundred Soul Beasts eight thousand kilometers to another array on the opposite side.

Rus Wang had handed it over to his son Barus and a team of Elves from the Elf Kingdom who specialized in researching and developing Soul Tool arrays, asking them to simplify it and make it suitable for military use.

After five years, Barus had worked out ten possible simplified designs. He then left the Elf team to test them. They needed only a year to confirm that all ten were viable, but activating the arrays consumed too much of the available energy-mineral materials, so they still weren't fully suitable for military use.

The Elf team didn't want to trouble Barus, who was then learning to make Dragon Ascension Pillars under the Light Dragon King's guidance. It took another forty years of work before he found a safe mineral with the high energy concentration the array needed: Thorium-90. (Radiation at this level was harmless to Elves.)

"Damn, this is huge! Has their location been exposed? Even the ancestor and the Dragon King are keeping an eye on it firsthand?"

In the spiritual space, Scher the Turquoise Dragon had read every page of the dossier through Thranduil's eyes and exclaimed in shock.

"I'll have to investigate this in person and find out what's going on over there."

Thranduil thought grimly. She reached into the dossier again and felt a ring inside. It was also a tool the Light Dragon King and Rus Wang could use to observe the situation in real time. She slipped it onto the index finger of her left hand, then tossed the dossier into her storage Soul Tool belt.

As the car entered a stretch of uneven road, the whole vehicle began to jolt violently...

Riven the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, Colonel Elion, and the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Stias had been stationed in Dragon Valley Forest for thirty years. The three of them had been just about ready to trade places with the Giant Mountain Golden Ape and another team of officers. But right at the time of the handover, the observation team below had caused a massive leak.

When an investigation report came from the King's court, rather than the Ministry of Defense, Riven, Elion, and Stias fell into a long silence.

"When will Grey Feather Division and the military tribunal get here?"

Riven asked his adjutant Elion in a hoarse voice.

"I don't know. All we can do is submit to the investigation. Our subordinates were this negligent, so we superiors can't escape blame."

They had never felt such torment. The office they had long been accustomed to now seemed unbearably dim. The Soul Tool temperature regulator was still running normally, yet the two Elves and the Dragon had never felt so hot.

No Elf official wanted to face an investigation by Grey Feather Division. The military was no exception. Grey Feather Division had a department within the army called the Zero Military Police, which reported directly to the King. Normally, it took orders from the highest-ranking officer, whether the Field Marshal or a general.

Since the order had come from the King's court, the Zero Military Police should have been the first to arrive. But they hadn't, which clearly meant the people at the top were sending a heavyweight from Grey Feather Division to conduct a special investigation.

"Have all the people who went to those observation posts this year to monitor the Black Water River front been taken into custody?"

Riven asked Elion.

"They're all in the detention cells. Grey Feather Division personnel stationed in Dragon Valley Forest have already gone to guard them."

"Now all we can do is await our punishment."

Riven looked toward Stias, who was standing by the coffee machine. "Stias, get me a coffee. No sugar. Maybe something bitter will help me feel better."

"Make one for me too, please."

Stias nodded, filled three ceramic mugs, and set two of them on the coffee table between them. Then he returned to the table by the coffee machine and leaned against the wall, sipping from the third mug.

Stias spoke.

"But I still can't understand it. We used both concealment runes and soundproofing runes. Even though we hollowed out the entire mountain, the inside of the facility is more than a hundred meters below the surface. How did those humans find us? Do they have X-ray vision? Could they see our subordinates' body heat or Soul Power through the mountain?"

"The facility inside the mountain was specifically equipped with an array that blocked outside detection of Soul Power. It wasn't even a simplified version—it was a proper Dragon Clan Rune Array."

The Star Luo People and Indigenous People now facing off along the kingdom's Black Water River defensive line weren't being observed from some random patch of trees, as Rus Wang, Yanjin, and Barus had done back in the day.

Instead, an observation post had been built fifteen kilometers from the battlefield, deep beneath a mountain. Using a Dragon Clan Rune Array and the trees around the battlefield as its eyes, the post monitored the fighting.

From there, it relayed information to the Elves and Soul Beasts lying in ambush along the Star Luo People's supply line.

But that was exactly where the problem lay. The images from the Grey Feather Division observation post far outnumbered the photos of the ambush on the Star Luo People's supply line. Yet the exposed contents of the supply line showed only Soul Beasts, not a single Elf. Riven and the others couldn't make heads or tails of it.

How had anyone infiltrated the observation post inside the mountain to take those pictures? They had gone over the Image Recording Stones from the post dozens of times, yet not a single human figure appeared. Had the Dragon Race's Image Recording Stones betrayed them? That made no sense.

The three of them—general and officers alike—had no way to explain themselves.

"Major General Riven, the people sent by the higher-ups to handle this have arrived."

"Oh, they're finally here?"

After hearing the Grey Feather Division agent's report from outside, Riven knew she had to leave the office and face the investigation at last.

"We failed in our duty too. Let's prepare for questioning."

"Right."

The three grimaced, then made their way to the teleportation array at the Dragon Valley Forest military base, steeling themselves for what was to come.

When they arrived, Riven's eyes widened slightly.

"You?! Thranduil Frederick."

"What? Something this serious, and I'm supposed to stay away? Who else could come—Grand Mentor himself?"

At the center of the array, after the teleportation spell had run its course, Thranduil tossed her long hair and smiled with narrowed eyes at the astonished Riven.

"Now then, General Riven, you and the others have been stationed here for thirty years. I ask that you cooperate with me in investigating this major leak. Thank you."