Snow Empress glanced at him, the smile on her lips unchanged, and simply said, "You should go back and get some sleep. Song Xuanwei and the people from Court of Judicial Review will handle the rest; we can take a break for now."
Mu Canglan stretched lazily, the collar of his old cloak undone without him bothering to fasten it. "Then I'll head back to the tavern. The manager's been gone for a few days; I wonder if my jars of wine are still safe. Snow Empress, if you need anything, just call me again. Same old rule: leave a secret signal at the back door of the tavern."
He turned and strode out of the council chamber, his dusty figure quickly disappearing around the corner of the courtyard.
Snow Empress walked to Yin Wujou's side, and the two looked out the window at the sky. The sky over the capital was a clear, bright blue, with a few white clouds floating leisurely in the air. The distant sounds of bustling city life drifted over, and everything seemed peaceful and ordinary. Yin Wujou felt a sense of disorientation. Just a few days ago, they had been traversing secret passages, fighting desperately in the miasma, and facing hundreds of awakened Puppet Armor in the armor storehouse. Those thrilling scenes now seemed veiled by a layer of water, becoming somewhat unreal.
"Let's go." The Snow Empress folded the scroll of the imperial edict and put it into her sleeve. "I'll take you to rest. The safe house in the east of the city is simple, but at least it's quiet. There are still a few hours before the people from the Court of Judicial Review come to collect the evidence, so sleep as long as you can."
Yin Wujou nodded and stood up. The two walked out of the Imperial Guard's barracks one after the other. The morning light shone on them, casting two parallel shadows behind them. Yin Wujou watched the white figure walking in the sunlight. She was not walking fast, her shoulders and back were slightly relaxed, and her usually straight spine finally had a slight curve.
He knew this matter wasn't truly over yet. The thorough investigation by the Court of Judicial Review, Meng Qi's detention, the exoneration by the Spirit Vein Bureau, and the confiscation of the Puppet Armor Treasury—each required time, effort, and strategic maneuvering. But at least at this moment, on this bright and sunny morning, they were all still alive, and things were moving in a positive direction.
He silently counted in his mind: Liu Yanzhao had been captured, Zhou Jing had been captured, the armory had been locked, the secret memorial had been delivered, and the imperial decree had been issued. Five moves, each one fraught with danger, but in the end, they were all completed.
The Snow Empress suddenly stopped and turned around. Her face was not clearly visible in the backlight, but her eyes shone as if tempered by sunlight. She stretched out her hand to Yin Wujou, and in her palm lay a small copper bell, the protective bell that Mu Canglan had given her. The Southern Frontier runes on the inside shimmered slightly in the sunlight.
"Here, take this." She placed the copper bell into Yin Wujou's palm. "Keep it as a souvenir. If you encounter danger in the future, ring it. Although it's not as practical as a communication talisman, at least it will remind you that you have someone behind you."
Yin Wujou gripped the bronze bell; its body was slightly cool, and the runes on its inner side felt rough against his fingertips. He looked up as if to say something, but Snow Empress had already turned and continued walking forward, the hem of her white robe swaying gently, and she quickly disappeared into the crowd of people in the market.
It was 3:45 AM, before dawn.
Pei Jichuan, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, stood outside the iron gate of the armory of Xuan Abyss Workshop, the soles of his official boots making a soft crunching sound as they rolled over the gravel. Behind him followed twelve armed constables, four of whom carried a battering ram about ten feet long, its iron-bound head gleaming coldly in the morning mist. A strange, burnt smell permeated the air, like pine resin mixed with copper rust, and tinged with some indescribable spiciness.
"Collide."
At Pei Jichuan's command, the battering ram slammed against the iron gate. The deafening crash echoed through the empty workshop courtyard, startling a few crows roosting under the eaves. The iron gate remained unmoved, leaving only a shallow dent. The second, the third, and on the seventh strike, the hinges let out a sharp groan, and the entire iron gate tilted inward, crashing to the ground and raising a cloud of choking dust.
Pei Jichuan covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, and only stepped into the armory after the dust had settled slightly. He had worked as a criminal investigator for twenty-three years, investigating cases of burning corpses, excavating coffins from sunken ships, and even searching through corpse pits during epidemics for three days and three nights. He thought he had seen all kinds of tragic scenes, but the sight before him still made him pause.
The armory was much larger than he had expected, with a depth of over twenty zhang. The dome hung high, and in the center was a huge, long-extinguished glass lamp. Two rows of iron racks extended along the walls into the depths, on which were neatly arranged humanoid Puppet Armor. Each one was covered with Xuantie plates, and intricate copper gears were visible at the joints. Embedded in the center of the chest cavity was a fist-sized Spiritual Power center, which was now flickering at an extremely slow frequency, like a group of half-asleep, half-awake giants breathing in the darkness.
Pei Jichuan counted them. There were twenty-six in the left row, twenty-six in the right row, plus a main armor displayed separately on the central pedestal, for a total of fifty-three.
"Lord Shaoqing, the secret report says there are one hundred bodies..." the clerk behind him whispered a reminder.
"The secret report mentioned 'the private manufacture of Puppet Armor,' but it's impossible for Liu Yanzhao to keep all the puppets in one warehouse." Pei Jichuan squatted down, examining the scattered tattered pages of the dossier beside the central platform. He picked up a charred corner of paper with his fingertips, on which the words " Mysterious Abyss... Unit Seven... Test..." could be vaguely discerned. "He had at least seven experimental models; what's stored here are probably the parts of the mature models that he couldn't transfer."
He stood up and glanced at a stone wall at the end of the storehouse. Unlike the rough kiln bricks around him, the stone wall was polished to an extremely smooth finish, and a huge star map was carved on it. Pei Jichuan walked closer to examine it closely. Some nodes in the star map were marked with arrows and numbers in cinnabar, and the highest star was encircled by two red circles, with the three small characters " Ziwei Enclosure " written next to it.
"This is..." He frowned and turned to instruct the registrar, "Quickly go to the Imperial Guard's garrison and invite Chief Instructor Song over. Also, immediately send someone to report to the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, requesting him to come to the palace to meet the Emperor. Liu Yanzhao's scheme is not only to kidnap the Emperor; he has marked the location of the Ziwei Enclosure, and probably even knows the rotation map of the Imperial Guards."
The registrar received the order and hurried out of the armory. Pei Jichuan stood alone in front of the star map, a thin layer of sweat seeping from his back. He suddenly remembered something; the secret report mentioned that the armory's Spiritual Power center had only been locked for seven days.
Seven days later, these Puppet Armor will automatically return to their active state.
Today is the third day.
When Mu Canglan pushed open the back door of the tavern, the sun was already high in the sky.
The first thing he smelled was the aroma of liquor. A rich scent of sorghum liquor mixed with the sour smell of aged lees wafted out from under the door. He took a deep breath, and most of the fatigue on his face disappeared. He pushed the door open and saw a gray-clad shop assistant dozing off at the counter. Hearing the noise, the shop assistant looked up sharply and his eyes lit up when he saw Mu Canglan.
"Manager! You're finally back!" The shop assistant hurriedly wiped the table. "Two groups of people have come looking for you these past few days. One group is Mr. Liu from the silk shop in the east of the city, saying he hasn't settled the payment for that jar of thirty-year-old wine. The other group is a man wearing a straw hat, asking if you have any 'new goods from the south'."