Chapter 813: Li Hao’s Speed (II)

Li Hao waited less than an hour for the profusely sweating vice minister to return with ten booklets.

“Commander, these are first edition Divine Master Rankings that we’ve collected from various sources. We can’t promise that these are the originals, but we can guarantee that these were the first versions to appear in the market!”

Li Hao took the ten booklets without further word and held them up for close inspection. The golden covers gave them a valuable air. A red light sparkled in his eyes as the young man scanned them.

He quickly threw out one of them—it was different from the other nine. Either that one was a fake, or the other nine were fake. He continued his observations before saying, “Get me some veteran craftsmen related to paper-making. I want those with a lot of experience!”

“Understood!” The vice minister could guess at Li Hao’s intentions and quickly found the right people for his superior.

......

Li Hao questioned a lot of people throughout the day. Having served one year as an inspector, his powers of observation, deduction, and intelligence gathering were unmatched, despite his lack of big cases under his belt. He wouldn’t have identified the connection between the eight families otherwise.

He just didn’t personally conduct any investigations after his strength grew. But today, he was thoroughly enraged. Not only did he personally conduct the investigation, he summoned some veteran inspectors from Silver City to jointly scrutinize the origins of the Divine Masters Ranking.

......

Night.

A group of powerhouses broke through the void and headed straight for South Peak province. The Divine Masters Ranking first appeared in the central region, but according to Li Hao’s information, the originals were printed on paper unique to South Peak. Therefore, their base was very likely in that particular province.

South Peak was the southern bulwark of Skystar City’s southern belt of territories.

The South Peak Governor General’s office.

The South Peak governor general was a hard working individual as he was still holding meetings late at night. His expression shifted drastically and he wanted to raise a warning when the conference room doors were thrown back. A group of people rushed in.

Eyes widened with alarm, the look in his eyes changed to surprise and slight fear when he recognized the visitors. He rose with bafflement. “I did not expect Commander Li to grace us with your presence... I have failed to properly welcome you!”

Li Hao inclined his head and ignored the greeting. A red light sparkled in his eyes as he looked at everyone in the conference room. His hand flashed out!

A middle-aged man’s face slackened with dismay and he wanted to run, but spat out blood after a loud collision. In the next instant, he dangled from Li Hao’s hand.

The governor general’s eyes widened with horror!

“This has nothing to do with you!” Li Hao said coolly. “I am pursuing scum of the Wind and Cloud Pavilion. Who is this person?”

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Why did you attack him if you don’t know him??

cursed the governor general. He grit his teeth, but kept his temper in check considering the crowd of heavyweights at Li Hao’s back.

“He is the first deputy director general of the provincial government... Commander Li, this is South Peak province and Deputy Wu is an important official...”

“He is a spy for evil supernaturals, are you sure you want to plead on his behalf?”

The governor general blinked.

Is he a spy just because you say he is??

The middle-aged man continued coughing blood. “Save me, governor general... I... I don’t know anything... about a Wind and Cloud Pavilion...”

Li Hao slammed his palm down and nearly burst the man’s head open.

“None of you are leaving, you will assist in the investigation!” the young man announced to the room. “This person is hiding his strength. A mere deputy director general is an Arcanus and carries a treasure concealing his presence. No matter whether or not he is with the Wind and Cloud Pavilion, there is something very wrong with him!”

The South Peak governor general blinked, looked at Li Hao, and then at the man. That was truly an astonishing revelation. Arcanus?

South Peak was overseen by a Governor General’s Office and he had just broken through to Arcanus. There were no other Arcanus in the province before him. He’d accomplished the ascension only through the twenty drops of Water of Life that the Ministry of Administration had sent him. Otherwise, no one in this age could individually make the advancement without a plant spirit backing them.

His expression started shifting again.

An Arcanus!

The man was stunned after Li Hao’s blow and finally collected his senses with another mouthful of blood. “Governor general... I am... innocent... The Ministry... of Armed Forces... sent me... to keep the governor general under surveillance... I am not... from the Wind and Cloud Pavilion...”

The governor general straightened and said no more. Perhaps Deputy Wu really was from the Ministry of Armed Forces, but arranging for an Arcanus to keep watch by his side was quite an investment.

Since Li Hao had fished out the man, he didn’t want to say anything more. Although it was embarrassing, so did the young man also humiliate the nine ministries. A governor general of South Peak province was nothing.

Li Hao couldn’t be bothered to explain more and walked out with the man. His people sealed off the conference room when he reached the door, and a ghastly scream echoed outside the door.

......

Li Hao looked at the man in front of him and took out a book. “Do you recognize this?” he asked calmly.

Panic flashed through the man’s eyes, but he quickly responded, “I do, the Divine Masters Ranking.”

“Did you create it?”

“No... I’ve only seen it before... Commander Li, I...”

“The Divine Masters Ranking is swiftly disseminated to all parts of the dynasty whenever it is published,” Li Hao laughed softly. “There must be other factions involved. A group withdrawn from the world cannot conduct their affairs so efficiently. There must be someone else coordinating with them, and they certainly have a high status!

“Since the source of the paper is from South Peak, then there must be a South Peak powerhouse or executive coordinating with the Wind and Cloud Pavilion! This kind of paper can only be found in South Peak and all paper-making factories were taken over by the state five years ago.

“Civilians are not permitted to make paper in order to curtail the spread of culture. Thousands upon thousands of copies of the Divine Masters Ranking are disseminated when it is printed. My investigation would be difficult if education flourished throughout the land.

“Skystar Dynasty, however, controls the development of education and does not print more than ten thousand books a month in the entire central region! But there are thousands of copies of the Divine Masters Ranking each time it is updated! Are you going to force me to get down in the weeds and see which paper-making factories are printing it?”

In an age of proliferate education, a small workshop could easily print ten thousand books a day. But in this age, strict control was exercised over paper-making factories and print shops in order to control the spread of education. Printing more than one thousand books a year would attract official attention unless that shop was sheltered by an official, to say nothing of thousands upon thousands of products.

Li Hao had chosen to come tonight because he knew that the South Peak heavyweights were holding a meeting. He wanted to catch them off guard. And as he anticipated! He caught a hidden Arcanus!

He wasn’t sure if this one was behind the ranking; it was sufficient that there was something wrong with the man. The man’s powers of concealment were very strong, but nothing could stop Li Hao’s eye that saw through falsehood.

Despair crept into the man’s face.

Too fast!

Truly!

The Wind and Cloud Pavilion had just appeared in the day, and here he was, captured that night in South Peak. Everything had happened all too quickly and the concealment abilities that he was so proud of didn’t prove useful in the slightest.

“Commander, it has nothing to do with me...” he admitted hopelessly. “I’m just... doing a job... in return for payment... They give me some cultivation resources and I give them protection... I haven’t participated in anything...”

“So this means you admit you’re a Wind and Cloud Pavilion member?”

“No!” Color drained from the man’s face. “I’m just... one of their many partners...”

“You’re an idiot and so are they!” Li Hao frowned. “Only South Peak has this kind of paper, yet they directly print the Divine Masters Ranking here! And you! You really dare print it! Skystar Dynasty prints more than one hundred thousand books a year. Do you know what that entails??”

The man smiled morbidly, who cared about that? As a powerhouse, they didn’t really care about the details. Who would look into where the paper came from? It was just a few thousand booklets—that was very little in the grand scheme of things. The Divine Masters Ranking was quickly replicated whenever it was disseminated. Many more copies appeared in the blink of an eye, so a few thousand booklets were insignificant.

He’d underestimated the abilities of the nine ministries and Li Hao.

“Commander, I really... am just doing a job for pay. My crime should not deserve death... Please give me a chance to redeem myself...”

“An Arcanus accepting payment for a simple job?” Li Hao sneered. “Do you take me for a fool? I will consider not killing you if you give me important information!”

He was in a good mood at reeling in a big fish on his first stop. As for alerting his enemies ahead of time, what did he care about? They would’ve moved against him a long time ago if they had the ability to. Had they dared show themselves earlier today?

He would get to the bottom of their identity first; there would be plenty of ways to eliminate them then. They were just rats hidden in the shadows. It was best if they panicked—panicking meant mistakes.

I’ll see how they publish a Divine Masters Ranking in three days! Are they going to write it by hand?

Even if they’re hidden in a ruin with printing machines, almost all of the ruins have fallen into silence these days, so the Wind and Cloud Pavilion couldn’t use them. They wouldn’t be looking for help in the outside world if that wasn’t the case.

Li Hao was going to make them

write

their blasted ranking! If they wanted to disseminate their ranking in three days, they could write thousands of copies!

The man looked bleakly around him. Everything had happened too quickly; there were no words to describe the depths of his despondency. Those idiots at the Wind and Cloud Pavilion just had to antagonize this one! He’d arrived on their doorstep in less than a day!