Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

Xu Yuan glanced at the rolled-up paper intelligence report in front of him, a little surprised. He was surprised by how efficient they were. And even more surprised that the one delivering it was not Zhou Chen, but this steward.

He had ordered Zhou Chen to handle this matter. And with Zhou Chen’s current state of leisurely unemployment, there was no way he would willingly pass up a chance to show initiative and suck up a little. Yet the report had not been delivered by him.

That left only one explanation. It was a matter of procedure. Zhou Chen had no authority to meddle in the Blackscale Guards, let alone the Chancellor’s intelligence network.

This revelation made things a lot more interesting. The Chancellor’s Manor had more than one intelligence system. The Blackscale Guards that Ying’er came from was only one piece of it.

The Calm Sky Merchant Association also gathered information through all kinds of subordinate businesses, pleasure houses, restaurants, pawnshops, banks, and more. Orders came down from above. Information was collected below. It was filtered layer by layer, useless scraps discarded, useful pieces kept. In the end, the compiled intelligence was sent back in cipher.

And the person receiving those communications turned out to be nothing more than a household steward.

His authority was even greater than Xu Yuan had imagined.

Though a moment later, Xu Yuan relaxed. It appeared the influence of all those manga and anime from his previous life still ran pretty deep. They had left him with the instinctive impression that in a world of cultivation and the supernatural, the authority in a person’s hand had to be equal to their personal strength.

But in reality, talent for cultivation and talent for management had never been the same thing. If one really handed an entire family enterprise over to a bunch of muscle-brained amateurs, then no matter how vast the estate was, they would manage to burn it to the ground.

For the people at the top, this kind of power structure was actually very stable. The stewards managing the great clans’ various industries were like palace eunuchs from his previous life. They had no cultivation, so they could only depend completely on the master family. There was almost no possibility of them growing strong enough to break away and stand on their own.

Xu Yuan reached out and took the rolled-paper report, intending to open it, only to notice a thin layer of source qi rippling across the surface, along with a few simple array patterns flowing over it.

He examined the array markings on the outer layer more carefully, and his expression turned a little strange. This is... a password lock?

Seeing him take it, the old steward immediately broke into a fawning smile and said, “Third Young Master, if this intelligence report is opened directly or forced open, it will automatically shred itself. It must be unlocked by special means.”

“You know how to open it?” Xu Yuan glanced at him. So formations can be used like this too. Interesting.

Steward Li rubbed his hands together. “You jest, Third Young Master. How could this old servant possibly know how to undo the Blackscale Guard’s cipher patterns? I only handle these reports in transit, that is all.”

As he spoke, he cast a sidelong glance at Ying’er standing behind them.

So reports like these were merely sorted, stored, and passed along by the mortal stewards. They had no authority to read them. Presumably that was to prevent intelligence from leaking if one of those mortal stewards was ever put under some kind of mind-bewitching spell.

Xu Yuan casually tossed the secret report back to Ying’er behind him. “Open it.”

Ying’er silently caught it. She did not care in the slightest that Xu Yuan was observing her with his soul sense. Without hesitation, she undid the formation woven into the seal, then handed it back.

Taking the report again, Xu Yuan channeled source qi into his eyes. A blood-red glimmer flickered in his pupils as he read, while casually asking the old steward, “Are the estate’s medicinal pills collected from your side as well?”

He was out of pills, and without his little green bottle, the only thing he could do was requisition some from his father’s assets.

“The estate’s funds and pills are indeed under this old servant’s management.” Steward Li’s eyes darted around once as he answered in a low, ingratiating tone. “Only, Third Young Master, everything in the storehouse belongs to the estate. This old servant would not dare move anything without authorization...”

“Relax.” Xu Yuan glanced at him. He knew the man assumed that this Third Young Master was about to come shake him down again, so he said mildly, “My father’s orders will arrive soon enough. Go check the storehouse and see whether it has the pills I need.”

Hearing that, Steward Li gave an awkward little laugh, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “Very well. Just tell me what you need.”

Xu Yuan casually listed several kinds of pills he currently required.

Steward Li’s face darkened on the spot. Even that fourth rank Body Integration Realm retainer in the estate only got a few of those in an entire year, and this Third Young Master was asking for them by the bottle. He made up his mind at once. If an order from the Chancellor did come down, then all well and good. But if no order came, then for the next stretch of time he had better avoid this Third Young Master as much as possible.

Thinking this, Steward Li kept his tone as humble as ever. “This old servant will fetch them for you. Do you have any other instructions?”

By the time he finished speaking, the three of them had already come out of the basement. Outside, the sky stretched in a vast, flawless blue.

Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes and glanced at the guards posted outside the secret chamber. After a brief pause, he asked quietly, “I previously arranged for someone to look for a man named Qin Mo. Do you know about that?”

At those words, Steward Li’s eye twitched. How could he not know? Because of this very matter, even Xue Yong, that peak Meridian Tempering prodigy, had ended up dead.

After a second of silence, Steward Li answered carefully, “I know.”

“Any progress?”

“Yes....” The answer was affirmative, but the tone behind it was weak.

“You made a move?” Xu Yuan immediately understood and let out a faint sigh. He remembered clearly that the original order had only been to monitor and track the man.

Steward Li explained softly, “That man was extremely alert. Once he realized he was being followed, he tried to flee. Our people had no choice but to act.

”And the result of that action was letting him escape?”

“Yes...” Steward Li watched Xu Yuan’s expression as he answered.

But Xu Yuan’s face showed nothing at all. His tone remained calm and even. “Tell me the whole process in detail.”

Steward Li chose his words with care before speaking in a low voice. “After your order came down, this old servant immediately made arrangements. During the days you were in seclusion, we found that man in the eastern part of the city. But he was extremely difficult to deal with. The several Meridian Tempering guards who found him first were completely outmatched. By the time the estate’s other guards arrived, he had already vanished.”

“And after that there was no more news of him?” Xu Yuan asked, his voice as mild and steady as ever.

“There was one more lead...” Steward Li said stiffly.

“Go on.”

“We tracked him once to Everbow Valley, over sixty kilometers outside the western part of the city. But... but he was very strong. He was only at the eighth rank Meridian Tempering realm, yet even with two seventh rank Bone Tempering experts leading the team, they still weren’t his match.”

“All of our forces were wiped out?”

“One made it back alive.”

After a brief silence, Xu Yuan looked at Steward Li and asked softly, genuinely puzzled, “Why didn’t you send a sixth rank expert? If I remember correctly, quite a few of my guards are at peak sixth rank, and the estate should also have fifth rank Soul Condensation cultivators.”

At the question, Steward Li’s cheek twitched. He explained in a small voice, “Third Young Master, although this old servant is the one who pays the monthly wages for the entire Stillwater estate, I do not have the authority to directly deploy guards above the Bone Tempering Realm. And by the rules, your personal guards cannot stray too far from your side. And besides... who could have known that little scoundrel could kill people above his level?”

At this point, Steward Li paused, then gave a light cough. “But Third Young Master, please rest assured. Everbow Valley has only one exit. I already reported the matter to the main estate, and after receiving approval, three Iron Body Realm experts have now been sent to wait for him outside the valley.”