Chapter 677: Discussion
Xu Wuyi nodded and looked at Zhou Bin. "Bring Wang Haidong’s ledger here."
Zhou Bin quickly walked over to the filing cabinet, took out the dark blue notebook, and placed it on the desk.
Opening the ledger, Xu Wuyi pulled up the financial transaction records Li Zhaowen had found and began comparing them one by one. The office was extremely quiet; only the rustling of flipping pages and the occasional clacking of a keyboard could be heard.
Zhou Bin and the others stood to the side, not even daring to breathe too loudly, watching their captain verify the numbers line by line. Minutes ticked by. Meanwhile, Li Mingyuan had already been taken away and locked up.
About half an hour later, Xu Wuyi closed the ledger and looked up.
"It matches," he said. "Every payout to Li Mingyuan recorded in Wang Haidong’s ledger has a corresponding deposit in this account. The dates, amounts, and notes all align perfectly."
Fang Xiaoxiao took a deep breath, a bright smile breaking across her face. "That’s great! The chain of evidence is complete now. Li Mingyuan won’t be able to escape this!"
Zhou Bin also heaved a sigh of relief, looking at Xu Wuyi with deep admiration in his eyes.
Sun Jing walked over. He looked at the ledger and the data chip on the desk, stayed silent for a few seconds, and then said, "Captain Meng, I tip my hat to you. You’re the real deal."
Over the next few days, everyone in Team Four was rushed off their feet.
Li Mingyuan’s case was far more complex than they had imagined. Not only did they uncover his financial dealings with Wang Haidong from that secret account, but they also discovered his connections with other smuggling syndicates. Some of these connections were established through middlemen, some were direct, and others were brokered by foreign forces.
Every day, Li Zhaowen sifted through mountains of data, trying to untangle this intricate web of relationships. Fang Xiaoxiao and Chen Yunxuan were in charge of interrogating Li Mingyuan, hoping to pry more information out of him. Meanwhile, Zhou Bin and Sun Jing ran around outside, verifying the leads they had found and securing evidence.
Xu Wuyi wasn’t idle, either. Every day, he sat at his desk, reviewing the constantly updating intelligence, sorting through it line by line, and analyzing it piece by piece.
The clues formed a massive web radiating in all directions with Li Mingyuan at the center. They involved local entities, out-of-town factions, the military, local authorities, and even a few strings leading overseas. The more he looked into it, the more he felt that the waters of this case ran far deeper than they had thought.
While Team Four was swamped with work, news of their recent operation began to spread within the Inspection Department.
The first rumor to circulate was about Meng Zhishou single-handedly raiding the Celestial Swallow Battle Group to capture Li Mingyuan. This piece of news initially leaked from the Celestial Swallow Battle Group itself. It was said that hundreds of warriors had been present, watching with their own eyes as the masked man summoned a blue halo that exposed everyone in the garrison under pillars of light.
Then, he defeated Commander Li Jingsong in a single move before marching Li Mingyuan out from the depths of the compound.
When the story reached the Inspection Department, everyone dismissed it as a baseless rumor. Who in the Inspection Department didn’t know what kind of place the Celestial Swallow Battle Group was? With three Quasi-Grandmasters holding the fort, dozens of Innate Martial Artists, and thousands of warriors, it was an impregnable fortress. Let alone one person, even if the entire field operations group mobilized, they wouldn’t dare claim they could extract someone from there.
But soon, more details filtered back.
Someone caught wind that Li Jingsong had gone into secluded meditation for three full days following the battle, reportedly to repair his damaged Heart Image. Zhou Tieshan hadn’t made a single move from start to finish; he just stood at the entrance of the small building and watched. And when Li Mingyuan was taken away, not a single warrior in the entire garrison dared to step forward and stop it.
As these details became more specific and vivid, it became increasingly difficult not to believe them.
Thus, the Inspection Department exploded in an uproar. In the cafeteria, the breakroom, and the hallways, people were discussing the incident everywhere.
"Did you guys hear? Team Four’s new captain went to the Celestial Swallow Battle Group all by himself and arrested Li Mingyuan!"
"I heard! Word is he used a flash of blue light to expose everyone’s positions in the garrison, and even defeated Li Jingsong in just one move!"
"Defeated Li Jingsong in one move? Li Jingsong is a level forty-nine Quasi-Grandmaster!"
"I know, right? I heard from some folks over at the Celestial Swallow Battle Group that Li Jingsong secluded himself for three days after that fight. When he finally came out, his face was completely pale, like he had suffered massive internal injuries."
"What exactly is Meng Zhishou’s background? How is he so fierce?"
"No idea. Supposedly, he used to be in a special ops division in the military. But his exact identity is untraceable; the military’s security clearance for him is way too high."
"I heard someone went to ask Minister Luo about it, only to get chewed out and sent packing."
"Chewed out? Why?"
"Who knows? But he definitely got yelled at. From what I heard, the scolding was brutal—the guy’s face was paler than Li Jingsong’s when he walked out."
Someone lowered their voice and asked, "Do you think this Meng Zhishou could be..."
"Who?"
"Shh, keep your voice down. Don’t speak nonsense. If this gets out and Minister Luo hears about it, you’ll be in for it."
The discussions ebbed and flowed, the speculations multiplying and growing increasingly outlandish. Someone even opened a betting pool on Meng Zhishou’s true identity.
There were multiple options: a death warrior secretly trained by the military, a hidden scion of some Grandmaster Noble Family, an undercover agent returning from an alien civilization, or a secret successor nurtured by the Federation Supreme Council, among others. Quite a few named Quasi-Grandmasters within the Federation were also added to the list, but Xu Wuyi’s name was notably absent.
After all, Xu Wuyi was too young, and it hadn’t been long since his advancement to Quasi-Grandmaster. Moreover, his Heart Image Power was well known and completely different from this Captain Meng’s, so no one connected the two.
As soon as the pool opened, bets immediately poured in. In just half a day, the total betting pot exceeded five million.
Everyone in the Inspection Department knew about the pool, yet no one reported it, nor did anyone try to shut it down. Because everyone wanted to know the answer—including the bookies themselves.
***
Luo Jing’s office was on the top floor of the headquarters building. It was a modest-sized room with very simple furnishings: a desk, a chair, a bookcase, and a sofa set. A piece of calligraphy hung on the wall, featuring a single character: "Inspect."
𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
At this moment, Luo Jing was sitting behind his desk, processing a mountainous pile of paperwork.
A knock came at the door.
"Come in."
The door was pushed open. A middle-aged man in his fifties walked in. He was dressed in a sharp suit and leather shoes, his hair combed meticulously, a polite smile resting on his face.
If anyone who frequently watched the Federation news were here, they would definitely recognize this man: the Chairman of the Logistics and Support Committee of the Federation Supreme Council, Zheng Mingchuan.