Chapter 255

The brief calm on the Hebei front failed to ease the taut nerves inside Bianliangcheng.

Especially for Qian Gui, the Jing'an Marquis tasked with purging internal threats, the passage of time felt like being roasted on charcoal each moment.

The emperor's twelve-shichen limit has already passed more than half.

Night once again shrouded Bian Liang; inside the Inspection Bureau's temporary command hub, lights blazed, the air thick with strong tea tannin and an almost stagnant oppression.

Qian Gui's eyes were blood‑red, like a cornered beast ready to bite, and before him lay thick stacks of files, interrogation transcripts, and city defense maps densely marked.

Three names, like three poisonous thorns, pierced his heart.

Sun Jing, Li Congshan, Fu An.

The emperor had granted him the power for "more direct probing," but he knew that against such a cunning foe, startling the snake would likely waste all prior effort and might even backfire.

What he needed was solid evidence, an opportunity to kill him in one strike.

"Marquis, this is a cross‑comparison analysis of the movements and contacts of the three men and their associates over the past twelve shichen."

A gaunt but sharp‑eyed clerk‑officer presented a fresh‑ink analysis report.

"Also, this is an urgent return from Chan Prefecture: further examination of the jailbreak scene's residual evidence, and…… a third interrogation of Zhao Si, the tea‑shop owner of Yongtong Fang."

Qian Gui snatched the report, his eyes flashing like lightning as he scanned it rapidly.

Sun Jing, today using the pretext of inspecting the armory, approached the west gate of the palace twice, exchanging brief words with the duty officers—normal talk—but among his retinue a minor clerk once slipped away under a pretext for about the time it takes to burn half an incense stick.

Li Congshan spent the day buried in the Ministry of Justice's file vault, appearing diligent, yet among the dossiers he consulted were several old maps of Bian Liang's underground drainage network.

Fu An, whose conduct was most proper, hardly left the Wardrobe Bureau, but one of his junior eunuchs, in the evening, went to a secluded courtyard of the inner palace on the pretext of delivering laundered garments—a courtyard near the abandoned Cold Palace, long deserted.

Taken individually, these clues seemed to amount to nothing.

Sun Jing's inspection of the armory was reasonable;

Li Congshan's perusal of old maps might have been for some old case;

and Fu An's junior eunuch taking a wrong turn was understandable.

But in Qian Gui's eyes, these seemingly unrelated fragments faintly pointed toward a common direction.

His fingers unconsciously tapped the desk while his mind swiftly synthesized all the information.

In the Chan Prefecture jailbreak, the enemy used "Annihilation Thunder" to disrupt the perimeter and stormed the inner compound.

In the assassination attempt in Bian Liang, the foe precisely avoided some dark sentries, seizing an excellent moment.

On the night of the Blood Moon, multiple disturbances erupted simultaneously, making command and coordination anything but easy.

What does this indicate?

It shows that the Iron Crow Army must have one or more efficient, covert communication and command nodes inside Bianliangcheng!

Such a node must be sufficiently safe, hard to detect, and able to relay information relatively quickly to coordinate actions.

His gaze suddenly fell on Li Congshan's consulted "underground drainage distribution map"!

Beneath Bian Liang lies a labyrinthine underground drainage system built by previous dynasties and even earlier, much of it abandoned and forgotten—a subterranean maze.

Isn't that an ideal spot for a secret command post, to hide personnel and materiel, and to conduct covert communications?

And Sun Jing's approach to the west palace gate……

and the secluded Cold Palace courtyard visited by Fu An's subordinate……

According to his mental map of Bian Liang, beneath or near these two locations there appear to be known or possible underground drainage entrances or vents!

A bold conjecture flashed across Qian Gui's mind like lightning!

The Iron Crow Army's central command hub inside the city is very likely located somewhere within an underground drainage channel!

Sun Jing, Li Congshan, and Fu An—perhaps not all of them are "Cold Crows," but they may each, in different ways, be facilitating or shielding that hidden command post!

Is Sun Jing using his authority to scout the guard situation at the underground drainage entrances near the palace?

Is Li Congshan using his perusal of old maps to confirm or seek safer drainage routes and node locations?

And is Fu An, leveraging his inner‑palace convenience, responsible for relaying orders from "above" or receiving infiltrators?

So, who is most likely the true "Cold Crow"?

Who has the means to consolidate this information, directly contact the Iron Crow Army's high command, and direct operations?

Qian Gui's eyes locked firmly onto one of the three names.

Fu An!

Chief eunuch of the palace Wardrobe Bureau!

His special status lets him access inner‑palace news and, under the guise of managing clothing distribution and cleaning, move relatively freely in parts of the palace, even using his junior eunuchs to pass items and information without arousing suspicion.

Moreover, the Wardrobe Bureau's clothing management itself includes the distribution of garments to low‑rank palace servants and maids!

This perfectly explains why, on the night Wang Pu was assassinated, a person dressed as a palace servant appeared near the scene!

It also explains why, during earlier purges of palace personnel, Fu An could easily cover up the loss of that set of low‑rank servant attire!

What about motive?

Why would a eunuch collude with the Iron Crow Army to throw the court into chaos?

Qian Gui's mind raced through all the files on Fu An.

Fu An, a remnant of the former dynasty's palace staff, not a confidant of Chai Rong or Chen Wen, managed to keep his post after the dynastic change through caution and an appearance of being unworldly.

But his hometown seems to be in Hebei, overlapping with Liu Yanzuo's sphere of influence? Perhaps his relatives were detained? Perhaps some leverage fell into the Iron Crow Army's hands? Or perhaps… he himself resents Chai Rong for, after his illness, failing to grant him greater power?

These all need further verification.

But at this moment Qian Gui is about seventy percent certain that Fu An is that deeply hidden, most dangerous "Cold Crow"!

"Someone come!"

Qian Gui sprang to his feet, his voice hoarse from agitation and fatigue.

"Immediately triple the manpower and have me keep a tight watch on Fu An! Including all his capable junior eunuchs!"

"Focus surveillance on the route from the Wardrobe Bureau to that secluded Cold Palace courtyard, and on all possible underground drainage exits and entrances outside the west palace gate!"

Notify our people in the Ministry of Works to immediately retrieve the most detailed map of Bian Liang's underground drainage channels, especially the sections near the palace city and the cold palace!

Also, bring Zhao Si back to me again!

His eyes flashed with a terrifying light.

This time, I will make him know what it means to be unable to live and unable to die!

The opportunity has already appeared; what he must do now is seize this fleeting tail, follow the vine to the melon, and uproot this 'Cold Crow' and its command node at the root!

The orders were swiftly carried out.

The entire Inspection Bureau operated like a precise and ruthless machine, beginning to revolve around the two core points of Fu'an and the underground drainage channels, running at high speed.

More clues were sifted out from the vast sea of information.

A distant nephew of Fu'an, doing business in Hebei, has recently seen his trade mysteriously boom;

At the cold palace compound, unidentified 'repair workers' have occasionally been seen coming and going at night lately;

At a sealed drainage vent outside the west gate of the palace city, there are traces of having been slightly pried open from inside recently……

And in the depths of the prison, after another round of 'special' attention, the tea shop owner Zhao Si's mental defenses finally collapsed completely.

He tearfully confessed that he was merely the lowest-level peripheral scout, responsible for observing and recording the troop movements and public sentiment in Yongtong Fang, and that he conveyed signals by placing or removing specific-colored pebbles at the bottom of the water jar in the tea shop's rear courtyard at set times.

The person he alone contacted, known as 'Shadow,' was someone he had never seen in person; he only remembered that the person had a sharp, thin voice, a slight build, always met him late at night, and seemed extremely familiar with the palace's routes.

'Shadow……sharp voice……slight build……familiar with the palace……'

Qian Gui listened to his subordinate's report, and the cold arc at the corner of his mouth became ever more pronounced.

All the clues, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, ultimately pointed to the seemingly modest and humble eunuch in charge of the Wardrobe Bureau—Fu'an!

'My lord, should we move immediately to arrest Fu'an?' the subordinate exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement, asking for instructions.

Qian Gui, however, slowly shook his head.

No.

"Arresting him now would at most cut off a single information node, and might even provoke him into alerting the real big fish hidden in the drainage."

"What we want is to net them all in one go!"

He stepped up to the map and firmly pointed his finger at the location of the palace city's west gate and that remote cold palace compound.

"Pass on my orders!"

"All 'Dark Blade' squads, from this moment split into two groups, carrying strong bows and powerful crossbows, fire oil, and smoke agents, shall covertly approach these two locations and seal every possible ground exit!"

"Another squad of experts in underground warfare is to be readied to forcefully break in from the already identified drainage entrances!"

"We must wait!"

"Wait for them to send their next message, or to take action……"

Qian Gui's eyes flashed with a hunter's light.

"When they think they have succeeded and bare all their fangs, we will give them a……surprise!"

The night grew deeper.

Beneath the surface calm of Bianliangcheng, an invisible net is silently tightening.

The opportunity has arisen; we only await the moment to cast the net that will shock heaven and earth.