Fatty Sun's grin deepened, though he waved his hands dismissively. "No need to be so polite."
"Oh, one more thing." Fatty Sun instinctively glanced at the closed door and lowered his voice. "Rember when soone broke into your room right after you joined the Supervision Departnt?"
"Of course." Su Chen's pulse quickened, unsure why Fatty Sun was suddenly bringing this up.
He'd never told Fatty Sun about the letter he'd received a few days prior — the contents were too difficult to explain.
Fatty Sun continued, "The Director had his eye on the bigger picture for all of Nanfeng City, but he didn't forget your case. He had investigate quietly, and I've only recently turned up a few leads."
"Anyone capable of slipping past standard surveillance is no ordinary 1st-tier professional. At the ti, there were thirty-two 2nd-tier-and-above professionals in HQ."
"Of those, only seven were alone during the relevant ti window."
"Two from the Patrol Division, three from Investigation, one from Internal Affairs — that's ..." Fatty Sun chuckled. "And one from the Secretariat. Here's the list. Anyone look familiar?"
Su Chen looked at this outwardly obsequious Section Chief Sun with new appreciation. He'd never expected this case to actually produce results.
The list was handwritten. None of the nas struck an imdiate chord — the only ones remotely familiar were the chief and deputy chief of the Patrol Division.
"If you don't have any leads on your end, this gets complicated." Fatty Sun scratched his head and took back the list. "With the Director gone and the City Lord running the Supervision Departnt now, it's hard to keep digging. This might be as far as we get."
"Thanks for the effort, bro." Su Chen said sincerely, then raised another matter. "I'm running low on Black Fla Potions and Spiritual Light Potions. Think you could help get more?"
"I've got so funds — about twenty thousand gold from a job outside the walls. Nothing huge."
This was what Hu Xiang had delivered recently; the Azure-Scaled Lions they'd killed outside the city had finally been processed through the system.
Fatty Sun visibly tensed at the first half of Su Chen's request, but relaxed considerably at the sight of the savings card being offered.
After a mont's thought, he accepted the card and thumped his chest. "Relax, little bro. If I can't get it for less than sixty percent of market price, then all my years in this ga were for nothing."
Su Chen had complete faith in Fatty Sun's abilities. Photocopies in hand, he left amid Old Sun's warm farewell.
He'd barely stepped out of the elevator when his wristband chid. The ssage ca from an unexpected source.
"Old Su, sothing urgent. Go to the back-end system and grant temporary access for your floor — I can't get up there."
It was Han Da — a mber of the 17th Patrol Squad he was officially assigned to. They'd exchanged a few words during the Qi Chuan arrest, and the man was clearly the type to treat acquaintances like old friends.
Su Chen thought for a mont, then swiped open his wristband and navigated the virtual interface to the Supervision Departnt's back-end, granting Han Da temporary access.
He waited by the elevator, and before long, Han Da stepped out.
"Old Su, waiting here for ?" Han Da seed pleasantly surprised and greeted him warmly.
"What brings you here?" Su Chen led him to his room.
"Tch, the old-tirs get all the nice digs..." Han Da gazed around enviously, then hastily added, "Not talking about you, of course."
Once the door was shut, Han Da lowered his voice. "The Captain sent . He wants you to know — soone's been sniffing around about... that day. About a certain person's death."
Su Chen instantly understood he ant Qi Chuan.
After that incident, Yuan Chenyang had personally issued a gag order and wiped all records of their deploynt — even erasing any trace of Su Chen's visit to Qi Chuan.
It hadn't been their scheduled patrol day. Fatty Sun had arranged the assignnt on the spot, and it had been late at night. With the records scrubbed, no one should have known.
"...Who?" Su Chen's heart jolted.
"The captain of the 3rd Patrol Squad." Han Da relayed Zhao Xiong's ssage. "First, he noticed that the patrol airship we used that day had consud extra fuel that didn't match the dispatch logs. He asked a few casual questions."
"The Captain didn't think much of it at first and brushed it off. But later, the guy ca back and privately asked if the Captain had been skimming fuel to sell on the side. The Captain shot that down imdiately, but only realized after the fact — the bastard had been trying to get him to talk."
"A patrol captain? 1st-tier?" Su Chen paused, then pressed, "Who does he answer to?"
Every organization had its factions.
Han Da seed to have anticipated the question. He uttered a single na: "Deputy Division Chief — Pan Yu."
Cross-referencing the list Fatty Sun had given him — it had to be this man.
"Got it." Su Chen's face betrayed nothing.
As Han Da was leaving, he hesitated and added, "Oh, one more thing. We took a report in the slums during a recent patrol — several refugees have gone missing. One of them seed to know you... surna Huang, I think?"
The squad had been baffled that a refugee would have any connection to Su Chen. After looking into it, they'd been stunned to learn that Su Chen had originally been a refugee himself.
Captain Zhao Xiong had sternly reprimanded them on the spot — this information was not to be spread around. Han Da only thought of it now as an afterthought.
'Huang Peng?' Su Chen was taken aback. The forr leader of his refugee group — missing?
Han Da added, "Also, the guy who manages that sector's Refugee Bureau — Zhang Man, I think — asked to pass along a ssage. He said the five hundred gold is his congratulatory gift."
"Zhang Man? Congratulatory gift?" Su Chen recalled the man who'd brokered his introduction to Jiang He. "What did you tell him about ?"
"Just that you're the Director's student now." Han Da grinned ear to ear. "You should've seen the look on his face — absolutely priceless."
"Ha..." Su Chen laughed. They chatted idly for a bit, and he learned that Zhou Li had already beco a 1st-tier professional.
"She has you to thank for that. That collective third-class rit let her redeem a rare potion." Han Da gave him a knowing look. "She hasn't stopped talking about you lately. Zhou Li's sothing of a beauty in our squad, you know."
Su Chen bantered with him a while longer before seeing him off.
Click.
The door closed. Su Chen's expression turned cold. 'So they have started investigating the Evil God Artifact.'
Yuan Chenyang and Nanfeng City's leadership believed the Artifact had been empty when it was found.
But the Evil God cultists knew that thing hadn't been hollow at all.
Why had it beco empty? Where had the power inside gone?
This wasn't just a question Nanfeng City wanted answered — the Evil God cults cared even more about the truth.
Even if they didn't yet know he'd killed Qi Chuan, his history with the man made Su Chen an obvious place to start digging.
The letter from a few days ago hadn't been conclusive proof on its own, but combined with what Han Da just reported, Su Chen could now be almost certain.
He even suspected that Huang Peng's disappearance might be connected — the cult investigating his background. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but it wasn't impossible.
'Pan Yu...' Su Chen mulled over the na. A venomous snake lurking beside him was deeply unsettling.
'Once the Snake Shadow Body Forging thod reaches Master rank, the Void-Rending Warrior developnt progress should hit maximum too. That's when I can advance to 2nd-tier. At my current training pace, it shouldn't take long.'
'But still...'
After a mont's thought, Su Chen opened his wristband and found Hu Xiang's contact. He sent a ssage: "I need a favor..."
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