Chapter 532: Chapter 72
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Wood was an excellent spy. He mastered a variety of skills, both for combat and for life. Of course, his skills included driving and riding. Even though he was poisoned and uncomfortable, he was still a good carriage driver. He could drive the carriage steadily on the road.
Moreover, because his carriage didn’t have much cargo, it was faster than an average carriage. He overtook many carriages on the road.
If this happened on earth, this would absolutely be cool. Certainly, it was the same in this world, but Wood was not happy about this.
He was a spy, and he had just killed his wife. No matter which crime was exposed, there would be great trouble. So now he needed to be as low-profile as possible.
According to this idea, he should have driven the carriage slowly. But now he was eager to go back. He hoped that he could own wings and fly directly to the Highest Tower. How could he slow down!
He gave it up after a day.
If he wasn’t found, that would be good. If he was found, then that would be his destiny.
In fact, what could he do when he went back? He was just a spy. Although he was at a high level, he was still a “cornerstone” of this huge “building,” the Mifata Federation. His superior was a federal high official whose ident.i.ty was almost equivalent to a governor or a great governor. If Wood met him as an artist, Wood might be able to meet him. However, if Wood met him as a spy, he might not be able to enter the door of the Intelligence Service.
Maybe, he could go through the official path. He could use this ident.i.ty, the Great Artist of the Republic of Northwest, to meet his superior.
Wood was thinking about that while resting at the station at night.
The station was built in the recent few years. To put it bluntly, it was a large hotel for overnight stays. At the same time, it also had fences and stables, as well as special personnel to take care of the horses. Of course, there were also waiters who took care of the pa.s.sengers.
As long as people were willing to spend a little money, they wouldn’t sleep in the open at night. They could sleep on a firm bed with bedding, mattress, hot water, and a good dinner and breakfast.
Of course, businessmen were so stingy. They weren’t willing to spend such little money. They preferred to sleep in the carriages at night. There was a large open s.p.a.ce next to the station for these stingy people.
However, even so, they still needed to buy water at the station.
There was no clean water in Ashes Woods. If they were willing to take up the valuable s.p.a.ce in their carriages to carry water, they wouldn’t need to buy water. However, no one would buy their water in any town.
Businessmen certainly wouldn’t do that, so they could only buy water from the station.
The water at the station had a cost because it needed to be purified by the magic array. Stations were built along the road, so they couldn’t rely on the ground vein. Therefore, in addition to some magic power from the nearby ground vein, the magic power of the magic arrays mainly came from the magic plants people planted, or simply from magic crystals.
That was not a small expenditure. If they were not operated by the government of the Republic of Northwest, many stations wouldn’t be able to sustain themselves.
The prices of accommodation and clean water were calculated based on the total cost. According to the prices, these stations could have a little surplus. It was not much, but they still made money after all.
As for the staff at the stations, they all received their salaries from the Republic. It meant that they had a secure job under the collectivism.
Sui Xiong had thought about using contracts or giving the staff a basic salary and asking them to take a percentage of the total income. However, after discussing it, everyone had thought that this method wouldn’t be very useful. The result of the predicting spell had almost been the same, so Sui Xiong hadn’t insisted on his own plan.
After all, this was not a game. He was governing a country. The results were the most important things. His personal thoughts and concepts would give way to actual results.
In fact, there was nothing wrong with collectivism. At least the stations were still working well, and although he woke up several times because of the visceral pain, Wood had a good rest that night.
The next morning, the businessmen made a lot of noise when they hurried to get on their way while Wood quietly continued on his own journey.
He started at dawn and stopped at night, and he finally arrived in Void City.
His journey was quite smooth. However, Wood felt that his body was weaker because of the poison.
He wanted to go to the temple and find a priest to treat him, but that meant that he would expose his whereabouts. It was nothing serious to expose his whereabouts, but how could he explain why he had a strange poison in his body as an ordinary artist.
Wood couldn’t think of any reasonable explanations, especially since the priests had spells to detect lies. That made it even harder for him to deceive them.
Therefore, he had to stand the pain and go to the Kingdom of Light through the portal.
The Kingdom of Light was the old Kingdom of Holy Angels. The people of the old Kingdom of Holy Angels had all believed in the former Sun G.o.d. Since the fall of the former Sun G.o.d, the upper cla.s.s of the kingdom had been greatly purged. Countless people had died, and that had laid the foundation for the new country. Over the years, although the believers of the former Sun G.o.d still wanted to create some big news from time to time, the beliefs of the human G.o.ds had essentially been stable.
After all, the G.o.d before them had fallen. His priesthood had been divided by the G.o.d of Fire Elements and the G.o.ddess of Twilight. There was no possibility of his resurrection. In this case, even though some people insisted on believing in him, what was the meaning of a belief that would never get a response?
In the capital of the Kingdom of Light, Wood easily found a temple that was willing to treat him. Although the charge was a bit expensive, he didn’t care. He didn’t intend to come back alive. Since he didn’t care about his life, then why should he care about money?
Although the charge of the temple was expensive, the treatment was really good. The main bishop treated him in person with six bishops and six priests. A total of thirteen people jointly held a ceremony. The poison in Wood was removed immediately, and he completely recovered.
Wood was healthy again. He put on makeup and then used the portal again, first to Void City, and then to the Highest Tower.
However, standing in the street of the Highest Tower, he was a bit confused.
Should I go there directly as a spy, or as an artist?
He had always been a decisive person, but at this time, he was a little hesitant.
After thinking about it again and again, he decided to wait for a while. First, he would solve the things that he wanted to deal with. When all his worries and wishes ended, it wouldn’t be too late to go to find his superior and talk with him.
After all, when he talked about the details with his superior, he would probably die.
Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and went straight to the civilian area.
A small restaurant was there. It had been pa.s.sed down by four generations. The owner had a secret family recipe and several southern specialties that were really tasty. For the past ten years, Wood had often thought about this place when he had had meals.
Wishes need to be realized one by one, so let me start with this!
After almost an hour, before Wood finished that meal, his information was sent to the hands of the federal intelligence director of the Mifata Federation.
“Wood came back?” the director asked. Reading the information, he frowned. “What does he mean?”
“Private return of a spy is treated as a betrayal,” his secretary said.
The director said, shaking his head, “We have already identified him as a traitor. His return doesn’t have an effect anymore.”
After thinking for a while, his eyes suddenly widened. He asked, “Is it possible that… he didn’t betray us?”
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his idea was reasonable. He couldn’t help but smile. He said, “I don’t know what method he used, but he definitely found out from North Wind that we thought he betrayed us. Well, he’s come back to find us to quarrel!”
“Isn’t there a problem with his method?” the secretary officer asked, frowning.
After thinking for a while, the director said, “Of course there is a problem. However, compared to Wood not betraying us, that is not important. Talents are precious. A talent like him is even more precious. I really want to punish him according to the rules, but the rules are fixed, and people are flexible. Let me put it this way, Wood has the qualification to be an exception.”
“He is just a spy…”
“Hah hah! You can’t treat him like an ordinary spy,” the intelligence director said happily. He was in a good mood. “He is almost the best spy of our entire federation. He may even be the best spy in the contemporary world. As long as he doesn’t make a fundamental mistake, everything else he does is not important.”
“However, for so many years, he has not been able to send us any valuable information,” the secretary said.
The director’s face darkened, and his smile disappeared. After a few seconds, he sent an order, asking the official, who was in charge of the spy work, to come over.
After the official came, he introduced Wood’s situation and asked the official to deal with it.
“What should I do?” the official asked calmly.
“It’s up to you,” the intelligence director replied calmly. “We only have such information. Why he came back, what he did before he came back, and even whether he betrayed us… these things are still uncertain. The most important thing is, what has he experienced in the past few years? Why did his intelligence efficiency decrease? North Wind didn’t tell us these things, and we don’t have a way of knowing it.”
“Therefore, you want me to ask him first to make everything clear?” the official asked.
“Whatever,” the director said, smiling and waving his hand. “I believe in you.”
After the official left, the intelligence director narrowed his eyes and revealed a cold smile.
Yes, of course, I believe in you. The good results will be due to my leaders.h.i.+p, but if you make any mistakes, you will let down my trust.
…
“Wood, why did you come back? What are you going to do?” the official muttered, looking up. “Anyway, no matter what you want to do, the most important thing for us is that you still obey us. I hope you can understand this. Otherwise, you won’t be ‘useful’ anymore.”