The Martial Saint, starting with daily intelligence.

Li Weimin glanced at the funding application at the bottom.

[Intelligence purchase fee: 8 silver dollars, 362 copper coins, and 6 copper coins]

There are both small and large plots of land.

Station manager Li Weimin was speechless.

Eight silver dollars were used to purchase information about a Refining Spirit Realm expert, while the remaining three hundred copper dollars were spent on market vendors, rickshaw pullers, and street stalls.

Don't underestimate these seemingly insignificant little tasks.

They might overhear a casual but important piece of information at any time.

"I can give you this month's intelligence reimbursement and allowances right now."

"As for intelligence rewards, they need to be verified."

"If the intelligence is accurate, you will receive all the rewards you deserve for your contributions."

"With the stationmaster's words, I feel relieved."

Zhong Ming expressed his gratitude.

Li Weimin walked to the counter to the side, opened the drawer and took out some loose silver dollars.

"These are yours."

Zhong Ming counted them; there were fifteen silver dollars in total.

Zhong Ming looked puzzled.

"Station manager, what's this?"

  [At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name 1110 ...

"To round it up, ten silver dollars is your reimbursement for this intelligence report, and the other two are your allowance for this month."

"The last three pieces are your reward."

Li Weimin took a sip of tea and said calmly.

"You're a bold and meticulous guy, a master of intelligence gathering."

"The intelligence every month is excellent, categorized and detailed. With you here, I feel at ease about the intelligence regarding Zhenyuan Martial Arts School."

"I've had quite a few spies infiltrated into martial arts schools in the past, but none of them have been as good and attentive as you in terms of intelligence gathering."

"Although I want to train you, the organization also has rules. If you cannot break through to the Blood Refining Realm, I will not be able to help you become a full member."

"Keep practicing hard, I have high hopes for you."

Zhong Ming's eyes lit up, and his face was filled with joy.

"Really? That's great!"

"I just broke through in my stance training a few days ago, and I've now reached a minor level of mastery."

"I am confident that I can condense the thirty-sixth drop of essence blood within six months, and then break through to the Bone Forging stage."

The other person's expression froze, and the tea they were about to drink suddenly stopped.

"Cough cough."

Li Weimin: I was just being polite, and you actually made a breakthrough?

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Li Weimin finally managed to utter a sentence.

"Hmm, not bad."

"Fine, you're indeed a good intelligence officer. It's just a regular member position, so here you go."

"Practice diligently. When you officially break through to the Bone Forging stage, you'll draft the application, and I'll approve the report."

"At that time, you will be a formal member of my Listening Wind Pavilion, and both your monthly salary and reimbursement allowance will be increased."

Li Weimin looked intently at Zhong Ming.

"You are also a martial artist, so you naturally understand the importance of martial arts techniques and skills. The organization has many powerful techniques and skills that are far superior to the generic ones provided by Zhenyuan Martial Arts School."

"Thank you for your promotion, Station Master. I will follow your lead and dedicate myself to your cause until my dying breath."

When the mood struck, Zhong Ming also expressed his loyalty.

Li Weimin nodded, thinking to himself that he was a promising talent.

Just as Zhong Ming was about to take his leave, Li Weimin asked again, unwilling to give up.

"How confident are you about this information regarding the Refining Spirit Realm?"

"I wouldn't dare say more, but five or six..."

Zhong Ming gritted his teeth and said, "Seventy percent, I'm still seventy percent sure."

"Seventy percent?"

Li Weimin's eyes were glazed over, and he muttered to himself, seemingly lost in thought.

That's enough!

"This kid's a bit strange; his intelligence reports have rarely been wrong."

"I'll believe you this time."

"Even if it's wrong, so what? Who can guarantee that every piece of information will be accurate? It's perfectly normal for some changes or errors to occur."

After Zhong Ming left, Li Weimin picked up a pen and paper and rewrote and polished the intelligence report.

When writing about "intelligence reimbursement expenses", he changed "eight silver dollars" to "eight hundred silver dollars" without thinking.

"Anything less than eight hundred silver dollars is an insult to a Refining Spirit expert."

"Even if this is just unverified intelligence!"

It's not shameful to get some subsidies to help with household expenses.

Besides, this has long been an open secret.

Isn't this the case for all expenses that are claimed for reimbursement?

These days, where are there any honest people left? They're all long gone.

"I'm just adding two zeros to the end. I've heard that Old Li from the next station dares to ask for three thousand silver dollars for a fee that's three hundred copper coins. He's much bolder than me!"

"Moreover, he dares to fabricate things that are completely unfounded, but his own intelligence is all solid and highly credible."

Of course, for an intelligence organization, these are tolerable "losses".

You can't expect a horse to run without feeding it.

First, the intelligence must be accurate; second, the cost of the intelligence is far less than its value, so for Tingfenglou, it is all worthwhile.

After writing down this intelligence report, station chief Li Weimin took out several other important intelligence reports from his person and copied them down one by one.

Reporting to Tingfenglou headquarters would certainly involve more than just one piece of intelligence; it would involve many, many pieces of information.

Li Weimin only selected a few of the most important pieces of information to transcribe separately, while the rest of the miscellaneous intelligence was naturally transcribed by his subordinates.

For example, the various miscellaneous reports Zhong Ming submitted, as well as intelligence from the Zhenyuan Martial Arts School.

This intelligence is compiled and sent to headquarters periodically.

To put it simply, intelligence gathering is just a matter of collecting and organizing information.

Over 98% of the intelligence is worthless and will likely be useless in the future, but it is still necessary.

No one knows what the future holds, and it's impossible to be 100% certain which intelligence will be useful and which won't.

Just like toilet paper, the actual usable area is very small, but would you dare to use that little bit of paper to wipe?

I'll definitely let you slip a secret.

The same applies to intelligence gathering. We must not only think about investigating when we need to, but prepare relevant intelligence well in advance of events, or at least file it, so that we are not completely in the dark.

The intelligence gathered in real-time is available to you, and others can access it as well.

Why should you sell information that everyone can access at a high price?

For example, if a big shot emerges from the Zhenyuan Martial Arts School that Zhong Ming is in charge of, and someone wants to buy related information, you can't just go to the Zhenyuan Martial Arts School to get the information, can you?

Why should they give it to you?

Are you qualified?

Even if you pay a high price to obtain it, can you be sure it's genuine?

Therefore, a lot of intelligence is actually not that complicated; it's just the simplest way of recording, summarizing, and organizing.

Of course, Zhong Ming doesn't record all information; he does so selectively and with a certain bias.

If the martial artist is of mediocre talent or has poor aptitude, their name, age, aptitude, place of origin, strength, etc., will be simply recorded.

The records mainly focus on those talented martial artists with good aptitude who have a high probability of becoming Qi Refining Realm experts in the future.

As for those with mediocre talent, unless there are special circumstances, Zhong Ming will not waste too much energy and ink on them.