Snow Empress had already entered the main gate of the armory. Her white robes fluttered in the wind, making her stand out in the empty warehouse. The two moving Puppet Armor immediately turned towards her, their Xuantie arms raised, revealing dark, gaping Spiritual Power cannons in their palms. Before they could lock on, Snow Empress flashed to the left iron rack, and two Spiritual Power bullets grazed the hem of her clothes and struck the back wall, blasting two charred craters.
Taking advantage of the fact that the Puppet Armor's attention was entirely focused on the Snow Empress, Yin Wujou descended from the mezzanine maintenance ladder to the ground, moving along the wall towards the central platform. The air in the armory was filled with a heavy smell of copper rust and a faint acrid odor. His boots stepped on a piece of broken porcelain, making a very soft, crisp sound. The head of the Puppet Armor closest to him suddenly turned, and the central spiritual light flashed in his direction.
Yin Wujou immediately held his breath and remained motionless against the iron frame. The Puppet Armor "watched" for a few moments, then turned its head back and continued moving towards the Snow Empress.
Snow Empress moved swiftly through the armory, her white robes appearing and disappearing among the Xuantie puppets. Her tactic was simple: draw the attention of all the moving puppets, buying time for Yin Wujou. Two moving Puppet Armor were drawn into firing their Spiritual Power cannons frequently, the light bullets striking the iron frame and the dome, sending debris flying. One of the light bullets hit the shoulder armor of a stationary puppet, causing the puppet's central nervous system to flash brightly, and its arm began to move.
"Faster!" Snow Empress's voice came from the other side of the iron frame, tinged with a hint of panting, "More and more puppets are waking up."
Yin Wujou rushed to the central platform, crouched down, and felt around its bottom. Sure enough, there was a fist-sized groove with the old emblem of the Spirit Vein Bureau engraved on its bottom. He inserted the talisman into the groove, and the patterns on the talisman fit perfectly with the bottom of the groove. A subtle fluctuation of Spiritual Power emanated from inside the platform, as if some mechanism had been triggered. A small door popped open on the side of the platform, revealing a tangled mass of spiritual vein lines inside, with an egg-sized Spiritual Power core embedded in its center, expanding and contracting at a visible speed, like a beating heart.
This is the central hub of the armory. As long as the Spiritual Power supply to the core is cut off, all the Puppet Armor will stop operating. Yin Wujou reached out to pull out the core, but his fingertips were repelled by a scorching Spiritual Power as soon as they touched the surface, and a blister immediately appeared on his fingertip. He gritted his teeth and endured the pain, took out the bottle of wound medicine that Mu Canglan had given him earlier from his pocket, applied it haphazardly to his finger, and then reached out again. This time, he mobilized the Spiritual Power in his body to protect his fingertips and slowly pulled the core out.
The moment the core was pulled out, the entire armory emitted a muffled hum. The central control systems of all the Puppet Armor simultaneously went dark, and the two moving puppets froze in place, their arms hanging in mid-air. The gears emitted a final, creaking sound before falling silent again. The dozens of puppets on the iron racks also fell silent, and the armory was plunged into a deathly stillness.
Snow Empress walked out from the end of the iron frame, her white shirt had several cuts, and there was a burn on her left arm, but her expression was normal. She walked to the pedestal, looked down at the core that was still faintly glowing in Yin Wujou's hand, reached out and took it, weighing it in her hand.
"Take this back to Pei Jichuan," she said. "This is physical evidence. It proves that the central control of the Jia warehouse was given instructions from the outside."
Yin Wujou stood up; the blister on his finger had burst, and he hissed in pain. Snow Empress glanced at his hand, took a clean white handkerchief from her sleeve, and tossed it to him. "Wrap this up. Go back and find a doctor to treat it."
Yin Wujou wrapped his fingers with a white handkerchief, then suddenly remembered something. "We don't know who Meng Qi's mole is."
"I know." Snow Empress put the core into her sleeve and turned to walk out of the armory. "Only the builders of the workshop know the location of the armory's ventilation shaft. Besides Liu Yanzhao, Zhou Jing, you, and me, there is one other person who knows."
"Who?"
" Meng Qi's chief of staff, a man named Cao Jing'an. He was the supervisor of the Spirit Vein Bureau back then, and later joined Meng Qi." Snow Empress pushed open the main door of the armory, and sunlight flooded in, illuminating her pale face. "Among the old people of the Spirit Vein Bureau, he is the only one who is still alive and working for Meng Qi today."
Pei Jichuan's tense shoulders finally relaxed when he saw Snow Empress and Yin Wujou emerge from the main gate of the armory. He quickly stepped forward, his eyes lighting up when he saw the Spiritual Power core in Snow Empress's sleeve. "You got it?"
"Got it." Snow Empress handed him the core. "The central control system was given external commands. There are remnants of commands in the core. Find a master of formations to analyze it and reconstruct the contents of the commands. Also," she paused, "Investigate a man named Cao Jing'an. He was the former supervisor of the Spirit Vein Bureau and now lives in the south of the city. He's most likely Meng Qi's mole."
Pei Jichuan immediately ordered his men to investigate. Just as he was about to say something more, a Court of Judicial Review from the Court of Judicial Review ran in from outside the workshop, holding a letter sealed with wax. "Your Excellency, someone from the Meng family has arrived, saying that Meng Qi suddenly fell ill this morning and requests permission from the Court of Judicial Review to leave the city for medical treatment!"
Pei Jichuan took the letter, opened it, glanced at it, and sneered. "A sudden illness? I think he's in a hurry to escape. The letter says his 'old illness has relapsed, and his life is in danger; he earnestly requests to move to a villa outside the city to recuperate.'" He handed the letter to Snow Empress, "What do you think?"
Snow Empress glanced at the letter but didn't take it. "If Meng Qi really wanted to escape, he wouldn't have gone through the proper channels to request approval. This letter is a test; he wants to see the Court of Judicial Review's reaction, to see if the Emperor is truly determined to conduct a thorough investigation. If the Court of Judicial Review approves it, he'll know the court's investigation is just for show, and he can simply leave; if the Court of Judicial Review doesn't approve it, he'll know the Emperor is serious this time, and he'll destroy evidence, collude with others, and might even resort to desperate measures."
Pei Jichuan nodded. "Then I won't approve it. Not only will I not approve it, but I'll also send more men to surround the Meng residence, and no one will be allowed to enter or leave."
"Let the Imperial Guard handle the siege of the manor," Snow Empress said. " The Court of Judicial Review's men will be kept to inspect the armory and workshops. Also, we can't wait with Cao Jing'an. If Meng Qi discovers that his informant has been exposed, he'll strike first to silence him."
Pei Jichuan's expression hardened, and he immediately dispatched another team of yamen runners to the south of the city to arrest Cao Jing'an. Snow Empress and Yin Wujou did not go with them. The two walked out of Xuan Abyss Workshop and stood on the overgrown open space outside the workshop. The sun was already setting, and the slanting sunlight cast long shadows on them.
Yin Wujou's fingers, wrapped in a white cloth, still throbbed slightly, but he felt more at ease than ever before. "We've got the central command, Cao Jing'an is almost here, and Meng Qi is surrounded." He counted on his fingers, "This time he can't escape, can he?"
Snow Empress gazed at the orange-red sunset on the horizon, not answering immediately. After a while, she spoke, her voice carrying a hint of weariness that Yin Wujou was not familiar with. " Meng Qi can't escape. But for the Spirit Vein Bureau's case to truly be overturned, one more thing is needed."