I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

"Hero, please ask me anything. I will answer to the best of my knowledge..."

While the other party was flattering him, Ji Tian turned to Ophelia and gestured for her to use divination to determine if the other party was suspected of lying, whether subjectively or objectively. He then asked seriously:

"Where do the raw materials for those arms factories you're dealing with come from? Where do the finished products go? Who are you in contact with?"

Old Hei blinked, looking completely bewildered:

"What arms factory? What raw materials? Hero, I have no idea about any of this."

"have no idea?"

"Illegally selling weapons is a capital offense, and those of us who operate in the gray area know this all too well."

He spoke with absolute certainty, and Ji Tian glanced at Ophelia.

She stood quietly by the window, tossing a gold coin between her fingers and catching it, then shook her head slightly at him.

I wasn't lying.

It seems the other party is a seasoned veteran.

Ji Tian couldn't help but reminisce about the days when he started using Soul Search.

Sigh, looks like I'll have to resort to some underhanded tactics.

He slammed his hand on the table with a loud bang, causing Old Hei's chair to slide back half an inch, splashing a few drops of tea onto the table and wetting the tablecloth.

"Do you know what you've done?!"

Old Hei was so frightened by the slap that his shoulders trembled and he sank into the back of his chair.

"I know, I know! I just introduced some men to work at sea for a few businessman friends, and helped some captains who were short on cash find some temporary workers... They're all legitimate manual labor jobs, all legitimate livelihoods!"

Legitimate my foot! How dare an underground black market broker call itself a legitimate business?

Ji Tian was almost amused by the other party's shamelessness. "What businessman?"

Old Hei's voice grew increasingly guilty, his gaze shifting:

"He's just a businessman who runs a small business..."

"Speak louder! If you lie again, don't push your luck!"

"Slave traders!"

No wonder.

Ji Tian had previously heard Lao Hei say "not to touch goods," and he thought it meant not to touch weapons, but it turned out that the "goods" Lao Hei was referring to were slaves.

Elena, standing behind him, couldn't hold back any longer and stepped forward, her tone even more direct than Ji Tian's:

"Don't you know that the Third Act Abolishing the Slave Trade was enacted several years ago?"

Upon hearing this, Lao Hei seemed to have grasped at a lifeline, and his back straightened a bit:

"My lord, you are unaware of this. The law clearly states: [The sale of humans, elves, and dwarves is prohibited], but orcs are not considered human! The jobs I'm introducing are all orc-related. What is not prohibited by law is permissible; we are engaged in legal trade!"

Wow, looks like you really know the law.

He got more and more excited as he spoke, as if he had found his own logical loop, and his voice even rose a few decibels:

"Besides, these days are tough! With the new laws from those lords in the capital, so many people have lost their land and their livelihoods. So many orcs are flooding into the city, competing with humans for jobs. How can the locals compete? By arranging for them to work on the island, I'm also easing the burden on our human brothers!"

Ji Tian suddenly asked, "What's the difference between handing them over to pirates and letting them die?"

Old Hei was stunned for a moment, as if he had never thought about this question before, after all, what he just said was also made up.

As long as I can make money, who cares about anything else?

Of course, these things cannot be said explicitly.

Just as he was about to offer a heartfelt confession, hoping that the kind and benevolent hero would see that he had a "heart of gold" and finally let him go, he saw that Ji Tian didn't waste any more words with him and waved to the guards at the door:

"Take him away and lock him up for now. We'll talk about it after we've dealt with things here."

Old Hei was still shouting his innocence when he was dragged out, and his voice echoed in the corridor for a while before gradually fading away.

Ji Tian rubbed his temples: "Go to the dungeon and see if those supervisors have confessed."

The dungeon was built on the second basement level of the main building. The stone walls were thick, and the air was filled with a damp, musty smell and a faint rusty odor. The stewards who had been brought back were locked in different cells in the dungeon.

Several military mages were organizing testimonies when they saw Ji Tian enter. They stopped what they were doing and handed him several pieces of parchment covered with writing.

Ji Tian quickly glanced through it.

The raw materials for this munitions factory, including iron ore and special coke needed for casting, were all transported from an ore processing plant to the north.

Profits would be transferred through a complex network of transfers to a chamber of commerce located in Bai'ou Port, and then dispersed by that chamber of commerce to more than a dozen different small businesses.

The workers and managers had no idea where the orders came from or where they ultimately went.

Ji Tian folded the parchment and handed it to Ophelia, asking her to perform a divination to confirm that the people's testimonies were correct. He then interrogated several factory managers separately to further confirm the information.

The final results all pointed to the factory operating smoothly in the southern region, and the William family was completely unaware of this before the second son's incident.

Even divination couldn't reveal any problems.

From this perspective, the William family's role here may be more passive than they appear.

As Ji Tian walked out of the dungeon and across the courtyard, he saw Maximilian standing in the shadow of the colonnade.

The eldest son of the William family no longer looked as composed as he had when he set off that morning; he had also been present during the interrogation of the prisoner.

They were deeply concerned that every link in this supply chain, from raw materials to transportation to cash flow, could bypass their family's sphere of influence.

This means that in White Gull Harbor, in the Southern Territory, there is another vast network operating right under the nose of the William family, even dragging in their own good-for-nothing cousin.

He, the heir to the title of "King of the South," was completely unaware of this.

What sent chills down his spine even further was that the number of powerful entities in the entire kingdom capable of mobilizing such a massive amount of raw materials and transportation resources on their territory without the William family noticing was extremely small.

Could it be that the kingdom or the church wants to take action against the William family?

……

When Valen's ship docked at the White Gull Harbour pier, the sun was just beginning to set.

He brought only two lieutenants, dressed in an old-fashioned navy overcoat, with a short sword hanging at his waist, its hilt marked with the word "anchor," as unassuming as any sailor docking for resupply.

But his face, which had been passed down by word of mouth among pirates and adventurers, was still recognized.

Before the port tax collector could even speak, Valen had already flicked a silver coin into the other man's arms:

"My ship will be docked for three days. Don't make a sound. That's an order."

According to the Kingdom's laws, Sea Lord has the right to request assistance from the armed forces of coastal ports, which is not considered a violation.

Warren walked through the dock area and headed straight for the police station.

At the entrance of the police station, he happened to meet the city defense officer, who had just finished dealing with business at William Manor and was standing by the roadside waiting for a carriage to return to his post.

Valen recognized the other person, stopped him, and asked bluntly, "I heard the hero has arrived at White Gull Harbor?"

The adjutant recognized his former colleague and superior and gave him a sergeant's salute.

"Yes, they just went to Castro Island this morning to seize the arms factory, and they should be back at William's estate by now."

After chatting with the adjutant for a while, Warren bid him farewell and headed straight for the William family's estate.