Chapter 167 – 146: Hooked Fence
Yu Family Refining Hall.
Although the He Family essentially controlled all the metal smelting throughout Yu County, the Yu Family, as a major clan in the Inner City, was not completely restricted and had their own forging and smelting facilities within their residence.
“Do we need to match it with top-quality Mysterious Iron?”
Upon hearing the reply from the smelter in the Refining Hall, Chen Mu couldn’t help but show a hint of contemplation.
The smelter respectfully said, “Patterned Silver Ore is a type of soft ore that enhances the flexibility and sharpness of a weapon. It’s not that it can’t be used alone to forge weapons, but it is commonly used to forge ’Soft Swords.’ Since Lord Chen, you want to forge a blade, you need to pair it with top-quality Mysterious Iron to balance softness with rigidity…
If paired with other ores, forging is still possible, but that would somewhat waste such a piece of Patterned Silver Ore.”
“I see.”
Chen Mu nodded slightly.
The supply of Mysterious Iron in Yu County currently came from a single vein, fully managed by the Smelting Bureau, which, along with the entire smelting industry in Yu County, was under the control of the He Family; thus, the Mysterious Iron produced would naturally be subject to various restrictions for the Yu Family.
Now that the Yu Family’s Refining Hall lacked Mysterious Iron, Yu Zuting had given him a piece of Patterned Silver Ore, perhaps hoping he could resolve this issue. However, obtaining one or two pieces of Mysterious Iron would be easy for him, but completely opening up this route would not be so straightforward.
Indeed, with his status as the Metropolitan Commander of the Inspectorate, he could directly coerce the Smelting Bureau into submission, forcing them to completely open the Mysterious Iron trade channel to the Yu Family, but that would involve leveraging Yan Jingqing’s influence to suppress the He Family.
However, four months ago,
Yan Jingqing had already put pressure on the He Family once, causing them to behave cautiously over these four months and scarcely leave any faults to be found. If he exerted influence to pressure the He Family now, it would be akin to a personal vendetta. If this matter reached Yan Jingqing’s ears, it would not be good.
But this difficulty was only relative. If he got a hold of some leverage over the He Family and had a suitable reason to make a move, then no matter how he twisted and turned them, it wouldn’t pose any issue.
And as the Metropolitan Commander of the Inspectorate,
To inspect, what else to inspect if not this very matter?
The He Family had been discreet in their actions and free of mistakes for the past few months, not because they had been impeccable, but simply because he was too busy silently cultivating his martial skills to bother with them.
Since he generally disliked tedious struggles and found little enjoyment in using his position as the Metropolitan Commander to force the He Family to back down, he had previously planned either to refrain from intervening or to strike decisively like thunder, uprooting the He Family entirely!
After giving it some thought,
Chen Mu placed the Patterned Silver Ore he held down and said, “Leave this piece of Patterned Silver Ore here for now, fetch me an ordinary Fine Iron Knife for temporary use. Once I acquire the Mysterious Iron, we’ll proceed with the forging.”
The smelter responded respectfully, carefully put away the Patterned Silver Ore, then carefully selected among the Fine Iron Knives, choosing the one of the highest quality to hand to Chen Mu.
Swish swish!
Chen Mu took it and swung it twice, nodding in satisfaction. Then, he left the Refining Hall and headed straight for the Inspectorate.
…
Soon.
Chen Mu arrived at the Inspectorate.
The main building of the Inspectorate had six floors, with the topmost floor being the main hall of the Inspector Yan Jingqing. The fifth floor belonged to the head officials of the Inspectorate, and the fourth floor below housed the offices where he and two other commanders handled daily affairs, each with three different Hall Offices.
“Metropolitan Commander.”
Along the way, various officials of the Inspectorate respectfully saluted Chen Mu.
Chen Mu continued to his own Hall Office. The table was already piled with various documents containing information from all directions of Yu County, mostly concerning the movements of the disciples from the Four Great Sects, with a fewer number about the four major families of the Inner City and some regarding sightings of demonic beings.
Chen Mu habitually reviewed each document one by one, then sorted them by category: those pertaining to the Heavenly Sword Sect were grouped together, those from the Hehuan Sect another, organizing the parts that seemed more noteworthy aside, waiting to be presented to Yan Jingqing.
However.
As he was going through these various reports, one of them suddenly caught his attention.
“Yan Wansi, the Family Head of the Black Cloud Thieves?”
Looking at the description in the report, Chen Mu showed a pensive expression.
The Black Cloud Thieves, a name he had forgotten for quite a while, was suspected of hijacking a batch of the Yu Family’s salt cargo years ago. When Xu Hongyu and some Yu Family members went to investigate, they had a clash with the Black Cloud Thieves and suffered some injuries.
Furthermore, the second-in-command of the Black Cloud Thieves, once ordered by He Mingxuan to attempt to assassinate him, was instead killed by him in self-defense.
To create more chaos to obscure his own actions, he had brazenly attacked He Mingxuan’s residence at night, killing him in the courtyard; this instigated the first major disturbance in the South City District, leading to Xu Hongyu stepping down as Chief Constable…
If the second-in-command of the Black Cloud Thieves was linked to the He Family, then it was very possible that the entire Black Cloud Thieves served as the He Family’s ’black hand,’ carrying out inconvenient tasks for them, such as murder, robbery, and plundering the Yu Family’s salt transport, for instance.
And now,
This Yan Wansi, the Family Head of the Black Cloud Thieves, was suspected to be seen in Yu City.
The information from the Inspectorate couldn’t have been groundless; even the mention of a suspicion meant that on several occasions, someone resembling Yan Wansi had been spotted, but they couldn’t fully confirm his identity, hence the use of ’suspected.’
“Yan Wansi, Family Head of the Black Cloud Thieves, a formidable figure in the Bone Tempering Realm, roaming the wasteland mountains of Yu County without a clear stronghold, infamous for his ruthless and vicious nature, with a bounty of twenty-six thousand taels of Patterned Silver…”