Snow Empress silently folded the confession, stood up, and walked to the window. The sky outside was about to brighten, and the eastern horizon was already turning a pale white. The capital city was gradually awakening in the morning light, and the distant bell and drum towers rang out with the melodious sound of the morning bell.
"There's a way," her voice came from the window. " Song Xuanwei is the chief instructor of the Imperial Guards. Although he's been held hostage by Liu Yanzhao for ten years, he's still nominally a key figure within the Imperial Guard system. If he's willing to testify after rescuing his daughter, his identity can serve as a formal channel. He can draft a petition, which can then be submitted to the palace through the Imperial Guard' internal channels. The Imperial Guard have a dedicated secret reporting channel; their documents bypass the Court of Judicial Review and can be presented directly to the Emperor."
Yin Wujou's eyes lit up. "Where is Song Xuanwei now?"
"Judging by the timeline, he should have already rescued his daughter from the Southern Frontier prison." Snow Empress turned around. "But I'm not sure if he's taking his daughter directly back to the capital or finding a place to settle her first. Yin Wujou, after dawn, go to the ' Mooncome Inn ' near the Imperial Guard's garrison. Ten years ago, the people from the Spirit Vein Bureau often stayed there. If Song Xuanwei returns to the capital, he'll most likely go there first."
Yin Wujou nodded in agreement and carefully put the confession away close to his body.
The morning light was bright outside the window, and the first rays of sunlight pierced through the city walls and shone on the mottled courtyard wall of the safe house. Snow Empress looked at the golden light and slowly breathed a sigh of relief. The workshop was destroyed, the armory was locked, Liu Yanzhao and Zhou Jing had been captured, the list of the twelve hidden agents was in hand, and Song Xuanwei was expected to come forward to testify. Everything was developing in a positive direction.
She turned and walked to the table, tidying up the files, secret letters, and tokens one by one. The edges of the papers were curled, and the tokens bore the marks of the clash of Spiritual Power. Each piece of evidence bore the imprint of the battles of the past three days.
"We'll begin the operation after dawn." Her voice was calm and resolute. " Yin Wujou will go to the Mooncome Inn to find Song Xuanwei, Mu Canglan will go to the Chongwen Ward Teahouse to keep an eye on that messenger informant, and I'll prepare a complete copy of the case file and hide it in a safe place outside, just in case. Tonight at midnight, if all goes well, we'll meet at the Bell and Drum Tower in the city."
Located three miles outside the Imperial Guard's garrison in the western suburbs of the capital, the Mooncome Inn is an unassuming, medium-sized inn with two courtyards. Its facade is simple and its signboard is old. It is neither a place frequented by high-ranking officials nor a place for ordinary people to linger, maintaining a perfectly unassuming mediocrity. Ten years ago, when the Spirit Vein Bureau was still in operation, its staff often stopped here to rest. The innkeeper was a taciturn old man who rarely asked about the origins of his guests.
Yin Wujou left home at the crack of dawn. He changed into a simple blue cloth outfit, wore a straw hat with the brim pulled low, and mingled with the farmers who were going to town to sell vegetables in the early morning, passing through the city gate. Along the way, he deliberately concealed his Spiritual Power fluctuations, walking slowly and steadily, his eyes subtly scanning his surroundings, and only after confirming that no one was following him did he turn onto the dirt road leading to the Mooncome Inn.
The inn's main door had just been removed, and only a few early-rising travelers were having breakfast inside. Yin Wujou walked to the counter, where the innkeeper was working on an abacus. Hearing footsteps, the innkeeper looked up and his gaze lingered on Yin Wujiu's face for a moment.
"Stay at a hotel or have a meal?"
"Looking for someone." Yin Wujou took out a copper coin from his pocket and placed it on the counter. The coin was face up, with a thin red string pressed against the back. This was one of the secret marks of the Spirit Vein Bureau ten years ago; the copper coin with the red string meant "fellow disciples searching for each other."
The shopkeeper's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly. He calmly took the coins and whispered, "Room number three, upstairs, someone's in."
Yin Wujou felt relieved, thanked him, and turned to go upstairs. The wooden stairs creaked under his feet, and the doors of the rooms on both sides of the corridor were tightly closed. He walked to the door of room number 3 at the end of the corridor, raised his hand and knocked on the door three times, two lightly and one heavily, which was the secret signal he used with his fellow disciples back then.
There was a moment of silence inside the door, followed by a series of dragging footsteps. The door was pulled open a crack, revealing a haggard and tired face. Yin Wujou recognized the face as Song Xuanwei, only that he was thinner than when he had seen him in the secret room of the Meng residence half a month ago. His eyes were sunken, his cheekbones were prominent, and a layer of dark stubble had appeared on his chin.
"You are..." Song Xuanwei looked him over warily.
" The Snow Empress sent me." Yin Wujou squeezed through the doorway and closed it behind him. "Your daughter has been rescued?"
Song Xuanwei's expression softened for a moment upon hearing the words " Snow Empress," then tightened again. He turned and walked to the bedside, where a thin girl, about sixteen or seventeen years old, sat. She was pale, with sparse hair, and large, empty eyes, as if she hadn't focused on anything for a long time. She was wrapped in Song Xuanwei's outer robe, and her bare feet bore the bruises left from the Southern Frontier Frontier's dark prison.
"She's out." Song Xuanwei's voice was terribly hoarse, as if he hadn't slept for days and nights. "The guards of the dark prison were even tighter than the Snow Empress described. It was all thanks to that Formation-Breaking Talisman... Without it, I wouldn't have been able to break through the first gate. We brought her out, but she's extremely weak. We carried her all the way from Yuanzhou back to the capital, the carriage bumping along for three days and three nights, and she barely ate anything."
Yin Wujou stepped forward, bent down, and gave the girl a gentle look. The girl's gaze met his, and a glimmer of wariness and curiosity finally appeared in her empty pupils. She shrank back behind Song Xuanwei, her fingers gripping her father's outer robe tighter.
"Don't be afraid," Song Xuanwei whispered to his daughter, "They're friends."
Yin Wujou straightened up, took out Zhou Jing's confession from his robes, and handed it to Song Xuanwei: " Snow Empress asked me to give this to you for review. She said that if you are willing to testify, you, as the chief instructor of the Imperial Guards, will draft a secret memorial to be submitted to the palace, bypassing the Court of Judicial Review and delivered directly to the Emperor's desk."
Song Xuanwei took the confession and began to read it carefully, his expression growing increasingly solemn with each word. After reading the last word, his gaze fell on Zhou Jing's red fingerprint at the end, and he remained silent for a long time. The girl on the bed noticed her father's change in mood and timidly reached out to tug at his clothes.
"What will happen to your daughter in the future?" Yin Wujou asked in a low voice.
Song Xuanwei folded the confession and placed it on the table. He sat on the edge of the bed and held his daughter's cold hand. "I have arrangements. There's an old friend in the south of the city, a kind and honest couple, who are willing to take care of her for me. After settling her in, I'll go to the Imperial Guard's garrison to draft a petition."
" The Snow Empress also said that if you are willing to testify, she will include the details of how you were coerced by Liu Yanzhao ten years ago and how your daughter was taken hostage in the case file, in order to try to get a lighter sentence for you. While it is true that you are guilty of cooperating with Liu Yanzhao to cover up evidence, there are extenuating circumstances, and the Court of Judicial Review will not sentence you too harshly."
Song Xuanwei gave a bitter smile, "Regardless of the severity of the punishment, I should have paid for this life anyway. Ten years ago, more than three hundred people from the Spirit Vein Bureau died in a bloodbath. Although I wasn't the murderer, I covered for the real culprit for ten years. The karmic burden I bear in this life is too heavy to repay. But at least... my daughter cannot bear it for me."