knife

Chapter 62 Cooperation
A faint breathing sound came from next door. It belonged to a martial arts master with extremely high cultivation. Looking at Zhang Qingyun, who was still smiling innocently, Wu De smiled wryly and said, "Miss Qingyun, may I ask who is next door? You really don't need to be so careful. This is Tai'an City. Even if I had the greatest courage, I wouldn't dare to act recklessly here, would I?"

A slightly sinister laugh came from next door, and a fat man came out with the laughter. He cupped his hands in greeting to Wu De and said, "Wu, you misunderstand Miss Qingyun. I wasn't here on her orders. I came on my own. It's mainly because Miss Qingyun is of noble status. We absolutely cannot allow any mistakes to happen to her. Even if she is just frightened, when you return, young master, you will definitely skin me alive."

"Who are you?" Looking at the pale-faced, beardless fat man in front of him, Wu De felt that he looked very familiar.

"My name is Li Kaixin, the steward of the Tai'an City Lord's Mansion." Li Kaixin pulled over a tuan (a type of flatbread) and sat down.

"The steward of the city lord's mansion?" Wu De was slightly surprised.

Li Kaixin nodded: "Actually, there's no need to hide it from Wu Tixing anymore. The bandit Li Dachui is also the young city lord of our Tai'an City."

Wu De lowered his head, but his heart was filled with a myriad of emotions.

It turned out to be the case.

Li Dachui truly owns a vast fortune in Tai'an City.

"So, what should I call him?" Wu De looked up and asked.

“A name is just a label. You can call him Zhang San or Li Si, it doesn’t matter!” Zhang Qingyun laughed. “Everyone has their own secrets, there’s no need to investigate them all, just like you, isn’t there?”

Wu De exhaled a breath of stale air, glanced at Li Kaixin beside him, and then looked back at Zhang Qingyun: "I have a question I'd like to ask you!"

"Please ask away, Magistrate Wu."

"How did you know I had another identity?" Wu De asked, feeling resentful. "This identity of mine wasn't something I made up on a whim; it's real. For decades, I've truly been doing the work of a criminal investigator."

“Let me explain this!” Li Kaixin said, “Wu Tixing may not know this, but my young master’s martial arts have a special feature: they can roughly estimate the level of the other party’s cultivation. As long as the other party’s level is not higher than his, it is fine.”

Wu De was stunned.

“The Prefect probably used some secret method to suppress his cultivation level to a very low level,” Li Kaixin said. “But just like someone who has experienced the vicissitudes of life, no matter how hard they try to pretend to be a country bumpkin who has never seen the world, they will still inadvertently reveal some small flaws. In that battle with the bandit Ao Sheng in that dilapidated temple, although you only showed the level of a sixth-grade Qi Control cultivator, your technique, insight, and judgment were clearly higher than the strength you displayed. Of course, you could say that this is experience, but this flaw, combined with the special characteristics of our young master's martial arts cultivation, seems rather significant.”

Zhang Qingyun said quietly, "Chief Wu, if you had gone all out back then, wouldn't your men have survived? To conceal your identity, you just watched those brothers die in battle?"

Wu De remained silent for a moment, then picked up a cup of tea in front of him and drank it all in one gulp. He didn't know whether the tea tasted bitter or sweet in his mouth at that moment.
“If it weren’t for Li Dachui, they wouldn’t be dead!” Wu De said. “I could have easily killed all those damned bandits like Ao Sheng, but Li Dachui just happened to appear, and I didn’t dare to show any weakness.”

Zhang Qingyun sighed softly, "He suspects you, and you are wary of him. Both of you have your own ulterior motives, which is why several of your men died needlessly in that dilapidated temple and on the journey ahead. Wu, what do you think those brothers who are still drinking in the inn will think if they knew the truth?"

“I’m afraid they’ll leave me!” Wu De said. “But it’s fine. Now that my identity has been exposed, they’ll live longer if they leave me. Someone like me doesn’t deserve to have friends.”

After saying this, a slight crackling sound came from Wu De's body. Li Kaixin narrowed his eyes, while Zhang Qingyun stared at Wu De in front of him with some curiosity. It seemed that this person had grown a little taller at this moment.

"Peak of the eighth rank of Xuan Yuan!" Li Kaixin said. "So, Wu Tixing, can you tell us your true identity now? We didn't actually go to that general store in the west of the city, because even if we had, we probably wouldn't have gotten any information. A Black Ice Guard spy who has been lurking for many years is unlikely to know anything about the core of the Black Ice Guard. It wouldn't serve any purpose other than confirming your identity as a member of the Black Ice Guard."

“My real name is Wu De. Besides being a provincial inspector, I also have another identity: I am in charge of building the Black Ice Guard’s infiltration network throughout the country. I use the identity of provincial inspector because it allows me to travel the world openly and honestly, and if the mood strikes me, I can also go and arrest those heinous villains,” Wu De said.

"The original Black Ice Guard outside the pass is no longer useful; it's basically become Linghu Ye's tool. So, you've come here this time to reactivate the backup team that was previously infiltrated?" Zhang Qingyun asked. Wu De said in surprise, "Miss Qingyun, you are of noble birth, a daughter of a prominent family, yet you know these things?"

“I didn’t know at first, but after coming here and reading some documents, I’ve learned about some of the shady dealings involved!” Zhang Qingyun said, “It seems that the Black Ice Guard outside the pass is back in operation, right? Our Tai’an City should be an important node!”

Wu De nodded and said, "Yes, Tai'an City itself is a place where intelligence from beyond the Great Wall gathers, so the Black Ice Guard will naturally regard it as a key base for its operations."

"Chief Wu, if I may ask, what is your position within the Black Ice Guard?"

Wu De was silent for a moment before saying, "I was just promoted to fourth place this year. The original fourth place was demoted and imprisoned because of the failure in the intelligence war against Southern Chu."

"I didn't expect to catch such a big fish!" Li Kaixin seemed very happy: "Wu Tixing, let me continue to answer your questions. Because our young master became suspicious of you in the dilapidated temple, he naturally paid extra attention to you from the beginning. From the moment you arrived in Zhenwu City, a full-scale surveillance of you began."

"I was completely unaware!" Wu De exclaimed in astonishment. For a veteran spy, this was an utterly unacceptable humiliation.

“They are only observing you, they will not have any hostility towards you, and they will not take any action!” Li Kaixin said, “Although our Zhiqiu Academy is not as old as the Black Ice Platform, which has been operating for hundreds of years, we also have some special abilities of our own. Precisely because we know your special characteristics, we only observe you, but we conduct the most detailed investigation on everyone you come into contact with. Once we find out who these people are, your identity will be obvious.”

Wu De nodded: "I understand. Zhi Qiu Yuan, you know autumn is coming just by seeing a single leaf. What do you want to do after you've revealed my identity?"

“As I said before, it’s naturally a collaboration!” Zhang Qingyun said with a smile.

"I don't know how to cooperate?" Wu De said, "The Black Ice Guard is now weak outside the pass. Those loyal to the court have basically been wiped out by Linghu Ye. The dead stakes I just started can only maintain the most basic things. It will take time for them to play a role. If we really cooperate, wouldn't we be the ones who benefit?"

“We are not cooperating with the Black Ice Guard, we are cooperating with you!” Zhang Qingyun said. “The Black Ice Guard has been operating for hundreds of years, and now it is a big but useless thing. But we value you and your loyal followers.”

"What do you mean?"

“We would like to invite you to join our Zhi Qiu Academy!” Zhang Qingyun said. “In the past, our focus was on places outside the Great Wall and Bei Yuan, but next, we will be making our moves inside the Great Wall. If you join us, it will not only be more efficient, it will be a chance for us to soar to new heights.”

"Is Li Dachui also going to rebel?" Wu De asked in surprise.

"That's getting ahead of ourselves!" Li Kaixin shook his head repeatedly. "Right now, we just want to establish a foothold outside the pass. To be honest, Wu Tixing, we want to replace Linghu Ye. Then, we need to deal with the Northern Yuan. If we finish all of this and the Great Qin is still in this hopeless state, then we might have to move on to the interior of the pass."

Wu De pondered for a while, then said, "In other words, at this stage, our goals are actually aligned."

“Of course! Right now, the court has absolutely no way to deal with Linghu Ye. Cooperating with us can actually restrain him. If we can replace him, the court will actually breathe a sigh of relief, right?” Zhang Qingyun said with a smile. “Who can say for sure what will happen in the future? Perhaps after we succeed, we will be willing to guard the border for the Qin Dynasty forever?”

"If I don't agree, will I be unable to leave this room today?"

"No, no, no!" Zhang Qingyun shook his head repeatedly with a smile: "If Inspector Wu doesn't agree, then let's part ways. You go your way, and I'll go mine. They say even if a deal falls through, we can still be on good terms. Let's leave a way out for each other today, so we can meet again someday."

Wu De looked at the other person with some disbelief. Was that really the case? This seemed quite different from the way the people who did this job operated!

Seeing Wu De's expression, Zhang Qingyun explained, "Chief Wu, there's no need to be surprised. What's so strange about this? Actually, you know nothing about us. What difference would it make if we let you go? We're completely out of the loop inside the pass. Your return won't cause us any harm. On the contrary, all your spies are right under our noses. To be honest, you should be begging us, not the other way around. To put it bluntly, if we just decide to do something, all those secret agents you've painstakingly reactivated will become useless. What good would that do you?"

(End of this chapter)