Chapter 104: Growing Influence

Chapter 104: Chapter 104: Growing Influence

Xiang Yi headed into the city, Containment Box of High-Quality Blood Crystals in tow.

On the way, he found himself feeling unexpectedly reflective.

He’d made the right call the first time he met Ning Ye.

With Ning Ye’s help on Abnormality research, plus access to an underground lab like that, everything was so much easier to pull off.

Saves time, saves effort — just doesn’t save money.

Xiang Yi shook his head with a small smile, then opened his terminal and pulled up the surveillance feed he’d planted near the hardware store in the Southwest City District.

Using fast-forward playback and the boost to his cognitive speed from his Spiritual Power, he burned through a full day’s worth of footage in no time, logging every person who’d shown up in the vicinity.

Nothing suspicious stood out yet, but as long as the prison side was still trying to track him down, they’d slip up sooner or later.

After saving the records, he navigated through his terminal again and pulled up the personnel list tied to the local prison’s network.

Tonight’s first target was still in the Southeast City District.

Originally, he’d planned to head to the Southwest or another district to deal with the key nodes the warden had given him.

But given the double-network problem he’d recently uncovered, he decided it made more sense to start cleaning house in his own backyard first.

This target was a minor official from the Anka Star Department of Agriculture and Forestry — Kong Surong.

He lived in a villa on the outskirts of the Southeast City District.

Nice surroundings, sparse neighbors, wide open space. Perfect for Xiang Yi to slip in unnoticed.

The moment Xiang Yi materialized in his bedroom, however, Kong Surong jolted awake, rolled off the bed, and hit his knees on the floor with both hands raised high. "Don’t kill me — I’ll tell you everything!"

"You know who I am?" Xiang Yi asked, genuinely puzzled.

"I do now. Only found out a couple days ago — someone’s been hunting down anyone connected to Iron Shell Company. Once they find you, you’re dead."

"I haven’t been able to eat, haven’t been able to sleep. I’ve been thinking about turning myself in."

"You showing up in the middle of the night — you’ve got to be the one doing the killing. I surrender!"

"If you wanted to turn yourself in, you could’ve walked into the Special Internal Affairs Department in broad daylight. Waiting for me to show up first is just called hedging your bets."

Kong Surong didn’t even flinch at being called out. He kept that same earnest, cooperative expression on his face. "Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you. Once I’m done talking, I’ll go to the Special Internal Affairs Department and face judgment."

That put Xiang Yi in a bit of an awkward spot. A voluntary confession wasn’t exactly as reliable as one squeezed out under duress.

"How about you at least put up a little fight?"

"...Huh?"

"Forget it. Fine — if you want to surrender, that works too. Start talking. How many people are you working with?"

The guy was already on his knees, and Xiang Yi wasn’t in a particularly murderous mood. Kong Surong wasn’t anyone critical — letting him live wouldn’t change much.

The downside was that sparing him meant intel would eventually leak. So the better play was to get everything useful out of him, then bring him along to deal with the more important targets he had leads on.

The small fry connected to Kong Surong didn’t really matter anyway.

Besides, Kong Surong’s surrender was proof that the last two days of killing had meant something.

Someone was already cracking. That was a good sign.

Keep the pressure up, and sooner or later others would break too — turning themselves in to the Ministry of Internal Affairs before Xiang Yi even had to knock on their doors.

He just hoped the government would take the Ministry’s role seriously enough to keep another Wan Rong from ever rising through the ranks.

The interrogation took a little while, but he wrapped it up.

Once Xiang Yi had processed the new intel, he brought Kong Surong along to the hover car and set it to autopilot.

Kong Surong quickly noticed the vehicle wasn’t heading toward the Special Internal Affairs Department building.

A flood of very unpleasant scenarios rushed through his head. "Where are you taking me?" he blurted out. "And what’s that thing on your back?"

"A nifty little tool I might need later."

Kong Surong stared at the Laser Rifle. His body gave an involuntary shudder.

"Though since you surrendered fast enough, I didn’t end up using it on you. The next person might not be so lucky."

Xiang Yi glanced down at his list.

There weren’t many targets left that were worth handling personally.

Only four remained on the prison warden’s network who actually held some kind of official position.

The rest were ordinary employees at various departments — once the core nodes were dealt with, he could hand the intel over to the government and be done with it.

If he pushed, he might be able to wrap up the whole thing tonight.

The hover car touched down in a parking lot not long after.

Xiang Yi brought Kong Surong into the adjacent residential building and made his way to the home of Ark, Minister of Culture and Tourism.

There were kids in the apartment, so Xiang Yi had Kong Surong knock politely on the door first — then personally escorted Ark out with the Laser Rifle, very cordially.

The moment they reached the empty parking lot, Ark spun around and jabbed a finger at Kong Surong. "You sold me out!"

"Actually, he didn’t. I would’ve come for you with or without him, so — what’s your attitude going to be?"

Xiang Yi spoke up on Kong Surong’s behalf, then unslung the Laser Rifle from his back and gave it a casual once-over.

Without a word, Ark dropped to his knees just like Kong Surong had, looked up at Xiang Yi, and started, "Would you be—"

"Just call me Du Bingtian."

"Brother Du, I’ve got important intel — way more than Kong Surong knows, I guarantee it. Does that count for anything? Trying to make amends here."

"Now you’re competing? Whether or not that counts isn’t my call to make. The only thing I can decide is whether you live or die."

"So pick one. You dying, or you living?"

"..." Ark caved without hesitation. "This was four days ago."

"I was doing work for the company — helping them organize banquets, that kind of thing. Bringing in people who were... open to certain ideas."

"That’s when I noticed Su Yue — the current Minister of Internal Affairs — showing up at one of my events. I never invited him. He came on his own."

"I’ve got a short clip of it."

Ark pulled out his terminal and played the footage.

It was clearly at a banquet. Whoever was filming had been recording a performance on the main stage.

At some point the terminal slipped in their hand, and the camera swung sideways — catching the surrounding area by accident.

Not the clearest shot, but it was unmistakably Su Yue’s face. Minister of Internal Affairs, caught on camera.

"After that, I realized none of the people I knew had any connection to that minister at all. So I kept him in the back of my mind."

"Whenever I had nothing better to do, I’d keep an eye on what he was up to. Turns out, I actually caught him doing some things that didn’t add up."

"I’ve got it all documented. Want to take a look?"

He held out the terminal to Xiang Yi.

The Minister of Internal Affairs — Xiang Yi remembered this name. He was on Wan Rong’s network list.

Before, Xiang Yi hadn’t been able to definitively confirm there was something wrong with the minister based on any single piece of intel. But with what Ark had just handed over, the picture was clear.

Su Yue, Minister of Internal Affairs, was dirty.

"Do you know where he lives?"

Kong Surong snorted from the side. "How would he know where someone that high up lives?"

Ark shot him a glare. "Actually, I do. I know a real estate developer who’s set up properties for a lot of people."

"And this developer just tells you everything?"

"He’s my second uncle."

Xiang Yi felt a laugh escape him despite himself. Of all the tangled webs of official corruption and family connections — he had to walk right into this one.

"Then let’s move."

Now that he had a lead on a real catch, the few small fish left could wait a little longer.