The strongest intermediary in all realms

When Zhou Ming returned to his office, Gulu was released from the system space and cautiously crawled around the desktop.

This crystal salamander adapted to its environment remarkably quickly, soon finding a warm spot next to Zhou Ming's old computer case, curling up and taking a nap.

Its body emits a faint milky white halo when it breathes, like a small night light.

"You're really planning to keep it?" Xiaoqi asked, swinging her legs as she sat on the monitor.

"Earth ley spirits aren't some ferocious monsters, so we can just keep them." Zhou Ming packed his things in his backpack. "Besides, it came from the Clear Qi Spring, and I'll just take it back to the Frost Heaven Realm to eat regularly. One more won't make a difference."

Xiaoqi tilted her head and looked at him for a while, then suddenly said, "Boss, your 'Everything Shop' list is getting longer and longer. Chen Jianguo, Lin Xiaowan, Gulu, and there will probably be more in the future. Are you sure you can handle it?"

Zhou Ming paused for a moment, then laughed: "You're worried about me?"

"I'm just assessing operating costs." Xiaoqi turned her face away and swung her pigtails.

Zhou Ming didn't call her out on it, and turned to look out the window. It was already getting dark, and the steamed bun shop across the street began to light up with warm yellow lights. Night market vendors pushed their carts out one after another, and the lively atmosphere rose from every corner.

He suddenly realized that although he had only been in this world for a few days, this dilapidated office had already begun to feel like a "home".

The next morning, just as he was about to head out to the rift zone to continue gathering intelligence on the black-clad team's movements, his phone rang.

Lin Xiaowan sent an encrypted voice message. Ever since the last negotiation fell apart regarding the deep secrets of the Green Wave Sword, this girl had established a set of communication rules with Zhou Ming: encrypted voice messages, segmented content, and replacement characters for sensitive words.

Zhou Ming frowned after reading the speech aloud.

"Mr. Zhou, I discovered an anomaly while patrolling the Bureau's internal system. For three consecutive days, someone has been accessing the files for 'Green Wave Sword' and 'Azure Sky Mission.' The accessing user's ID is an externally authorized visitor account, not belonging to any of the Bureau's staff. Following this trail, I traced the login IP address and found it belongs to a trading company in Yuecheng District called 'Sihaitong.' The company's registered business scope with the Bureau is 'Import and Export Agency of Otherworldly Goods,' but my investigation of its declaration records shows a significant discrepancy between the declared goods and the actual business volume—the declared goods are all low-value items, but the actual transaction volume is at least twenty times the recorded figures."

The text was accompanied by a screenshot of Sihaitong Company's business registration information.

Zhou Ming zoomed in on the screenshot. The legal representative was listed as "Sun Sihai," and the address was in a warehouse area in the western part of Yuecheng District. He had never heard of this name before, but the business scope of "interdimensional material import and export agency" made him instinctively wary—legitimate interdimensional trade was basically monopolized by state-owned companies under the Transcendental Administration Bureau, and very few private enterprises could obtain operating licenses.

Sihaitong must have had connections to obtain the license.

"Xiao Qi, check if 'Sihaitong' has any connection with the black market time-travel team."

Xiao Qi's system search returned the result in less than ten seconds: "There is no directly related record in the database. However, there is a detail in the feedback from the independent cultivators of the Rift Zone intelligence network—someone mentioned seeing members of the black-clad team entering and leaving near the warehouse district in the west of the city. The timing matches."

"The location matches."

Zhou Ming turned off his phone and stood up. He had a hunch that Sihaitong was the Black Organization's ground base on Earth. The so-called "trading company" was a front; their actual business was providing logistical support and intelligence relay for the liquidators' infiltration operations.

"Are you going to scout out the location?" Xiao Qi floated to his side.

"Let's take a look." Zhou Ming zipped his jacket all the way up. "We won't go in, just observe from the outside. Just confirm the address and the flow of people."

He took a hoverbike to the west of the city. The west of Yuecheng District is a logistics and warehousing center transformed from an old industrial area. The roads are wide but there are few pedestrians. On both sides of the road are gray iron warehouses and container yards.

The hovercar stopped outside a courtyard with a sign that read "Sihaitong Trading Co., Ltd."

After getting off the bus, Zhou Ming didn't rush to get closer. Instead, he walked to the convenience store across the street, bought a bottle of water, leaned against the wall, and slowly drank it while observing the situation on the other side out of the corner of his eye.

The gate to the yard is an automatic retractable gate, and there are security cameras at the entrance. Inside the yard, a black SUV and two vans are parked, and the warehouse door is tightly closed. Through the yard wall, you can see lights on in the second-floor windows, and the curtains are drawn tightly.

"It looks like an ordinary logistics warehouse," Zhou Ming said softly.

"But the security cameras at the entrance are military-grade models," Xiao Qi added, "the kind you can't buy on the Blue Star market. Furthermore, the courtyard wall has embedded spiritual energy shielding plates to prevent cultivators' spiritual senses from scanning it. This level of defense far surpasses that of ordinary trading companies."

After finishing the last sip of water, Zhou Ming threw the bottle into the trash can and walked along the roadside as if nothing had happened.

He didn't turn his head when he passed through the gate of Sihaitong, but he glanced at the ground at the entrance out of the corner of his eye—there were fresh tire tracks, the width of which matched the tire treads of the car he had seen outside the Shenxiao Ruins.

Did not run away.

After walking a distance, he turned into a small alley, took out his phone, and sent a message to Lin Xiaowan: "Address confirmed. Continue monitoring the login activity of that external account. If you find him accessing 'Green Wave Sword' related files again, notify me immediately of the timeframe. Don't alert anyone."

Lin Xiaowan replied instantly: "Understood. Be careful."

Zhou Ming put away his phone and leaned against the alley wall. The mosquitoes of late summer buzzed around him, and he waved them away, but his thoughts were far away. The claws of the purgers had already reached right under his nose.

Sihaitong appears to be a trading company, but it is actually a logistics support station for the black market crossover team, and that "external authorized account" is most likely the window they use to retrieve the Bureau's files.

They are systematically collecting clues about the Green Wave Sword and the Azure Sky quest.

The Green Wave Sword is in Lin Xiaowan's hands.

Zhou Ming closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. He took out his phone and dialed a number.

It rang three times before the other end answered, sounding a little sleepy: "Feeding?"

"Old Chen, are you awake yet?"

"She's awake, she's awake. I was just getting ready to take Xiaoyue to kindergarten. What do you say, Brother Zhou?"

"Do me a favor," Zhou Ming said calmly but seriously. "You're well-liked and know a lot of people in the south of the city. Help me find out something—there's a trading company called Sihaitong in the west of the city. Has anyone done business there, or heard anything about it? I'm looking for the kind of gossip that people talk about over tea, not official information."

Without asking why, Chen Jianguo simply replied, "Okay, I'll go ask. I'll get back to you later."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ming straightened up and walked out of the alley. The sunlight was perfect, casting a long and thin shadow on the ground.

Xiao Qi popped up halfway out of the system and hovered on his shoulder: "You suspect that Sihaitong is more than just a black market outpost?"

"I have my doubts." Zhou Ming strode forward. "A base that provides logistics for transmigrators doesn't need to apply for an official license from the Administration Bureau as a cover. They can simply use a shell company without registration."

However, Sihaitong went to great lengths to obtain legal operating qualifications, which meant they needed a 'visible' identity to conceal some kind of activity related to the Administration Bureau.

He paused, then continued, "Lin Xiaowan discovered that the external account could access internal files. To obtain such access, an external account needs a recommendation and approval from someone within the Administration Bureau. Sihaitong's acquisition of legal licenses and cultivation of internal connections are, frankly, to create a loophole in the Administration Bureau's system, facilitating their long-term, stable theft of file information. This isn't a short-term infiltration; it's a 'spy' that's been in place for a long time."

Xiaoqi was silent for a few seconds: "Then you want to pull it out?"

"We can't pull it out now," Zhou Ming shook his head. "I don't have solid evidence, and the other side's roots are deeper than I thought, but at least I know where the nail is. Knowing its location allows me to avoid it and prevent it from stabbing me in this direction."

He walked out of the alley and hailed a motorcycle taxi. The driver asked him where he was going, and he said, "Back to Wutong Road in Yuecheng District."

The hovercar took off, and the gray warehouse district in the west of the city gradually shrank beneath its feet.

Zhou Ming leaned back in the back seat, looking out the window as tall buildings and ancient pavilions flashed by. He put his hands in his pockets, his fingertips lightly tapping the edge of the protective jade pendant.

The liquidator had been planning this for so many years, it was unrealistic to expect him to turn things around overnight. But his advantage was that he was small and flexible – he was just one person, with a dilapidated office and a few scattered clients. He was too inconspicuous for the liquidator to even consider "Odd Jobs Broker" a threat.

And this inconspicuousness is his greatest protection.

When Zhou Ming returned to the office, Gulu was sunbathing on the computer case. When he saw Zhou Ming enter, he raised his head and made a "squeak" as a greeting, then lay back down and continued sleeping.

Zhou Ming sat down in a chair, opened the system panel, and reviewed the intelligence gathered over the past few days.

Then he added a line at the top of his to-do list:

"Assess the internal personnel structure of Sihaitong—find an opportunity to make contact."

His finger hovered in mid-air, and he added a line of smaller text:

"No rush. Take it slow. The nail isn't going anywhere."