Chapter 824: The Inconspicuous Illegitimate Son
Whether it was to Xia Fei or Xia Zonghai, a single level 3 Law Emperor was not a problem. The Law of Speed was so heaven-defying that opponents of the same level who encountered a Skywing elite could do nothing but curse their own bad luck, particularly in one-on-one fights. The lightning-esque speed was a nightmare for all enemies.
Be it Xia Fei, Xia Zonghai, or Xia Wuye, n.o.body was worried about Wu Yuming. The Moonwards were gone, and a sole illegitimate son, no matter how capable, could not stir up any big waves.
After breakfast, Xia Zonghai went to the Law Enforcement Board for his chess match, while Xia Wuye slowly began to sweep the Wind Garden as he usually did. Meanwhile, Xia Fei headed into the training room so that Xia Laos.h.i.+ could teach him to apply his artificing skills.
Just after noon, Xia Fei and Xia Laos.h.i.+ emerged from the training room. The entire morning spent matching metals had been a little like running an experiment. Using the properties of the metals, they had been trying to smelt them into the most suitable materials for weapons and armor.
“It seems like you’ve already memorized all the books I gave you. Very good. Understanding the properties of metals is only the first step toward becoming an artificer. The next step concerns the designs of weapons and armor and the selection of various materials for their production. I’ll give you some books to read. At the same time tomorrow, we will began studying the various kinds of tools,” Xia Laos.h.i.+ said.
Xia Fei nodded. He now had several hundred more thick books in his spatial ring. These were reading materials for his next step in artificing. Comparatively, the job of an energy master was simpler, as all that was required were crystals. However, artificers had to concern themselves with hundreds of millions of metals, which was quite the ha.s.sle.
Once his lesson with Xia Laos.h.i.+ ended, Xia Fei went straight to courtyard to find Xia Wuye. Wuye was already waiting with one of the clan’s spies. From Wuye’s introduction, Xia Fei learned that this middle-aged man was the deputy supervisor of the Skywings’ spy network, Xia Yang. As for the chief supervisor, though Wuye had not said directly, Xia Fei could already guess that it was Wuye himself.
Xia Wuye was from outside the family, so the fact that the grand ancestor had given him as important a job as managing the intelligence network showed just how much he valued Wuye.
Xia Yang was a rather cheerful man. He had thick eyebrows, large eyes, and two small mustaches trimmed in the western style, like two drooping willow leaves. When he spoke, he exuded a masculine aura, not like those people who usually did intelligence work, usually walked around with glum expressions, and had constantly darting eyes. Xia Fei immediately had a good impression of him.
“Young Master Fei, let’s go. We have already found the nail. All we need is for you to hammer it,” Xia Yang said with a laugh.
Xia Fei awkwardly said, “Just call me Xia Fei. We’re all family, so there’s no need to treat me like a stranger.”
Xia Yang firmly nodded. “Very well. I’ll listen to you. Anyone who has the right to live in the Wind Garden is a supporting pillar of our clan. Whenever there’s a problem, all of you are required to take the burden on your shoulders. This respect is all deserved.”
Xia Fei chuckled. “The intelligent network is just as important. With your efforts, we won’t know who our enemies are.”
…
*Whoosh~*
With the help of a spatial compa.s.s, Xia Yang and Xia Fei arrived at a shabby, mid-sized airport in the Exiled Grounds. There were several old wars.h.i.+ps on the tarmac, none of them too large. The largest was comparable to an Alliance cruiser. Two of them had even been disa.s.sembled and could not fly.
“The Exiled Grounds is impoverished, and advanced tools like spatial compa.s.ses and spatial gates are very rare. Most of the time, wars.h.i.+ps are used to transport people and goods. Such airports are rare to see in the Law Realm, but there are many in the Exiled Grounds,” Xia Yang explained.
Xia Fei nodded and asked, “Where is this Wu Yuming guy?”
Xia Yang answered, “Our investigations showed that Wu Yuming left half a month ago on an old-fas.h.i.+oned Law Realm cruiser. We don’t know where he went, and since all the wars.h.i.+ps here are unregistered, its difficult to find his movements, but according to the latest reports, Wu Yuming asked about being resupplied at base yesterday morning and arranged to land at this airport sometime between this afternoon and dusk.”
Xia Fei was startled. Half a month ago? That was exactly when the Moonward Clan bought the Rending Yang Fire from the Boundless Heaven Trading a.s.sociation at a high price!
For some reason, Xia Fei had a bad feeling that made his heart uneasy.
“There’s still time. Give me the rundown on this Wu Yuming,” Xia Fei asked, his brows creasing.
The two of them found a peach tree forest on the outer edge of the airport to sit down. Xia Yang began to speak. “Our brothers inadvertently discovered Wu Yuming’s existence when they were searching through Golcen Ward’s spatial compa.s.s logs. Every time Golcen Ward went to the Exiled Grounds, other than contacting mercenary groups, he would also pay a visit to Moon Rose, that old and run-down city north of this airport.
“That actually wasn’t enough to find Wu Yuming. After all, Moon Rose City is home to several hundred thousand people, and the Exiled Grounds is rather large, but this clue stirred up my suspicions, so I looked up Golcen Ward’s secret bank account and found out that he would often make large withdrawals of cash before heading to the Exiled Grounds.
“Thus, I had my men head to Moon Rose City and investigate the banks there. Only then did we discover Wu Yuming’s existence. At certain intervals, he would suddenly have more money in his bank account, matching exactly the amount that Golcen Ward had withdrawn. We also looked at his picture and found that his eyes were the same as Golcen Ward’s.”
Xia Fei listened and nodded along. Xia Yang was very meticulous in his leaders.h.i.+p of the Skywing Information Department. Wu Yuming had been hidden so well, but the Skywing spies had managed to dig him out, anyway.
“Wu Yuming is a Law Emperor, so I imagine that he enjoys a very high status in Moon Rose City, yes?” Xia Fei asked.
Xia Yang shook his head. “The exact opposite. n.o.body in Moon Rose City knows him, and he lives in a small apartment on the outskirts of the city, his rent only going by three grade 2 crystals a month. He’s so inconspicuous that it’s almost absurd. Our men went to search the apartment, but it was empty and smelled of mold. It didn’t feel like the residence of a Law Emperor at all.
“Most of the money Golcen Ward gave him was used on that wars.h.i.+p of his. That wars.h.i.+p of his follows a regular pattern, spending most of the month in s.p.a.ce and spending only a few days on the ground.”
Xia Fei frowned. It did not make sense for a Law Emperor to be willing to live in anonymity in the shabby Exiled Grounds, let alone someone who might be the illegitimate son of Law Overlord Golcen Ward!
In normal circ.u.mstances, even an illegitimate son would not be this inconspicuous. As the saying went, the shade under a big tree was plentiful, and with a tree like Golcen Ward, what did it matter if Wu Yuming was an illegitimate son? If he wanted to live in the White Horse Constellation, would anyone be able to stop him?
“What sort of law power is Wu Yuming skilled in?” Xia Fei asked.
It was Xia Fei’s habit to take everything cautiously. Even if his enemy had a lower cultivation, Xia Fei still would not be careless.
*Whoos.h.!.+*
To his surprise, Xia Yang’s face turned red and he awkwardly said, “I won’t hide it from you. We were unable to find out. Wu Yuming lives his life almost separate from the rest of society, so n.o.body knows much about him.”
Stunned, Xia Fei hastily asked, “Then how did you know that he’s a level 3 Law Emperor?”
Xia Yang replied, “According to our sources, last year, Wu Yuming had an argument with the owner of this airport because he had taken an extra two days of docking fees. At the time, Wu Yuming was so angry that he almost attacked, his body radiating a thick killing intent, but for some reason, he managed to restrain himself and just paid the bill.
“This airport belongs to a local mercenary group, the Tigers, and the supervisor is a level 5 Law Sovereign. He testified that the energy Wu Yuming radiated when he got angry was very powerful, at least that of a level 3 Law Emperor! It’s only then that he learned that that frequent customer of his has such a profound cultivation, so ever since then, he hasn’t dared to take even one crystal from Wu Yuming. Wu Yuming also pretends as if the incident has never happened and continues going in and out of this empty airport.”
Xia Fei shook his head and said nothing. It turned out that Xia Yang was simply estimating Wu Yuming’s cultivation and had no solid evidence. Why would such a powerful warrior want to hide his power so much? Xia Fei did not get it.
“We have too few men, our intelligence department consisting of fifty brothers in total. All of us have barely gotten a wink of sleep in the past month. Normally, we would wait until we had more detailed information to report back to the Wind Garden, but we were worried of some new development if we waited too long, so the moment we tracked down Wu Yuming, we informed Wuye,” said Xia Yang, feeling ashamed.
The Skywings were truly very strong, and if there was a place it suffered in, it would be in the small size of the clan. The entire intelligence department had only fifty people, which was a far cry from those big clans that could easily mobilize ten thousand people.
That Xia Yang could still complete his mission with so few people was proof that these brothers had done everything in their power. Xia Fei suddenly felt rather ashamed for overreacting. Xia Yang and his men could not be entirely blamed for failing to find out everything about Wu Yuming.
Stroking his spatial ring, Xia Fei took out one hundred grade 5 Origin Crystals and gave them to Xia Yang. “I understand the situation. I will take over this Moon Rose job. Take this as a sign of my good will and treat everyone to a drink.”
…
Xia Yang left with Xia Fei’s reward. Rather than staying at the empty airport, Xia Fei headed to Moon Rose City.
With the address Xia Yang had provided, Xia Fei easily found Wu Yuming’s residence. It was a rundown, two-story building, and the landlord was even raising pigeons in the loft. It was damp and moist, and the entire place smelled of bird excrement.
The lock was a simple spring lock. Xia Fei used his tools to open it and sat himself on the sole sofa in the room. He quietly waited in the darkness, the Breath Control technique wiping away all traces of his presence.
Around dusk, a set of steady footsteps could be heard outside. It was then followed by the sound of a key unlocking the door. At the moment the key was inserted into the lock, Wu Yuming hesitated for a second, but he soon opened the door and entered.
“The Skywing Clan?” asked Wu Yuming in a raspy voice, taking off his peaked cap as if nothing had happened and hanging it on a clothing rack behind the door, which happened to be missing a leg. It was all so very natural.
Xia Fei smiled, nodding in the darkness. He was rather surprised that Wu Yuming had noticed him. It was clear that he realized someone was inside the room the moment he opened the door.
“How did you discover me?” Xia Fei asked with a chuckle.
“The keyhole had half a strand of my hair, but now it’s gone,” replied Wu Yuming in a deep voice.