After an unknown stretch of time, Di Jiu's fingers suddenly stopped tapping the table. He opened his eyes. "Let me look at the information on that [Taiping Partridge], Qiu Tianyu, again."
Li Zhao blinked, then immediately dug it out. "It's still very sparse, very superficial."
Yet Di Jiu did not examine it carefully as he had the previous few times. He took it, opened it, and browsed page by page. "...We've always said that all this man's reputation in the Jianghu is tied to the Taiping Transport Gang, with very little beyond that, haven't we?"
"Yes."
"But how could a cultivator who has opened the Profound Gate and undergone Body Recasting simply appear out of nowhere?" Di Jiu turned the pages until he stopped at one and pointed. "Look. Tracing backward, before the Taiping Transport Gang was founded nine years ago, information on him began to thin out, but there was still some to be found. Twelve years back, though, it disappears entirely."
Li Zhao frowned. "...And?"
"Three years, Li Zhao. You're far too slow to spot it." Di Jiu closed the dossier with a soft sigh. "Three years-isn't that precisely the rotation period between the Imperial Guard and the Frontier Army?"
Li Zhao's eyes suddenly widened.
Di Jiu stood and coughed twice. "Come on. To the Ministry of War."
"Now? Why don't you get some rest, and wait until daylight?"
Di Jiu shook his head. "No more waiting. Knock until they open."
When their carriage reached the Ministry of War, the lights in many offices were indeed still out. The petty clerk who came to answer the door froze at the sight of that scarlet robe. Di Jiu needed no guide; he asked him for the keys and went straight to the place he wanted.
The Ministry of War's