The noon sun was scorching hot. Xu Le's current mood was like the bright sunlight on the street. On the surface, it looked as clear as yesterday, but on the inside, the temperature was extremely high. It was scorching hot, and the fire in his chest could burn everything around him at any time.
Zhong Huoyan didn't see the note, but she could feel the change in the mood of the man beside her, especially the sense of danger. So she didn't ask, but obediently followed his footsteps, walking quickly on the streets of the slums.
When they arrived at the Great Master Fan Mansion, Xu Le took her in and handed her over to the Great Master. He didn't explain anything, just whispered a few words to her, then turned around and left. He believed that even if someone was following him, they wouldn't have the ability to break into the white courtyard and cause trouble.
The next thing he had to do was to get rid of those who might be hiding in the shadow of the locust tree. Those who disguised themselves as street vendors, or beggars who were street vendors in the first place, had to get rid of them.
Although he wasn't Cao Qiudao or Shi Qinghai, it wasn't difficult to get rid of those who were following him. Because of his rich experience, the people he learned from in the past were too fierce. Whether it was the Empire or the Federation, whether it was the Imperial Intelligence Agency or the secret department called Small Eyes, they could only watch as he turned into a ghost in the night and disappeared mysteriously, let alone these guys.
Xu Le, wearing a casual hat that covered most of his face, walked back and forth through the busiest streets of the slums three times. After circling under the locust tree and willow tree, he was sure that no one could follow him. He silently left the smelly streets, followed a diagonal path into the lakeside park in the distance, and walked along the willow embankment towards the imposing Imperial Palace.
He didn't walk into the palace when he was close to the black and blue palace wall. Instead, he walked along the wall to the west, passed through the spacious square, stepped on the automatic path, and slowly sank into the underground passage.
The buildings near the square gave off an air of sternness and indifference, because these buildings belonged to the Imperial Military Newspaper, the Special Operations Department, the Ministry of Finance, and other important departments. Probably because of the pervasive sense of oppression in the air, there were very few pedestrians in the square and underground passageways. There were not even many nobles, and most of them were soldiers in dark imperial military uniforms, walking with stern expressions.
Xu Le, who was wearing ordinary civilian clothes and had a hat covering his face, was naturally very eye-catching among these soldiers. Dozens of vigilant and suspicious gazes fell on him, but he seemed to be unaware of them as he slightly lowered his head. He silently looked at the constantly moving road under his feet, thinking about what he thought was important.
He wasn't sure who the idiots were, but he was sure that some of the idiots were trying to threaten him by kidnapping Aunt Susan. They wanted to get some benefits from him.
The question was, what exactly did those people want to obtain? Philip's secret or the secret of the star chart? If it was those people he suspected, with their ability, it was impossible for them to obtain this information, then what did they want to do?
Well, there was no need to think about this question anymore, Xu Le said to himself. Then he slowly raised his head and looked at the Imperial Military Headquarters building across the underground passage that was full of murderous aura. He silently thought, what I need to think about now is how to kill those idiots and bring Aunt Susan back to the small courtyard.
Behind the solemn and solemn Imperial Military Headquarters building, there was a very inconspicuous, grey and plain building hidden behind a few rows of gloomy trees. The shape of this building was square, and from the outside, one could not find the slightest trace of an arc. Because of its age, it looked like an iron box that had been buried in the desert for hundreds of years. Although it was mottled, it was exceptionally stiff.
This was the most gloomy agency of the Empire, the Intelligence Department, and also Xu Le's destination.
At the entrance of the Intelligence Department building, he was not surprised to be stopped.
A certain staff member, who was wearing a black uniform and looked like a murderous demon on a rainy night, stared at the guy who looked like a tourist with deathly white eyes and asked gloomily, "What do you want to do?"
Xu Le didn't have time to explain anything. He took out the identity chip that Huai Caoshi gave to him on the Liban Star and handed it over. The staff member frowned and picked up the scanning stick to scan it. He casually glanced at the display on the light screen, and his face suddenly changed dramatically. Because of the sharp contraction of his pupils, the color of death quickly occupied a larger part of his eyeballs.
"Sir … Sir … Sir."
The staff member bowed with a trembling voice, guessing the identity of Xu Le, wondering if he should kneel down to show respect.
Xu Le didn't have the time or interest to enjoy this kind of pleasure. Expressionlessly, he walked into the gloomy building.
The staff member hurriedly dialed the number of his superior, then quickly ran behind him and followed him step by step. His voice was still trembling, "Sir … Sir, on behalf of all the staff of the Intelligence Department, I warmly welcome your inspection. Director Cisco is rushing down, but I'm very sorry, the three deputy directors are not in the department today. Deputy Director Bim is assisting His Highness in the battle on Mo Hua Planet, Deputy Director Kempaide is handling the military supply in L9, and Deputy Director Yakee is on the orders of His Majesty to investigate a murder case in the archdiocese."
After confirming the terrifying authority of the other party and guessing that the other party was secretly working in the Intelligence Department, this staff member of the Intelligence Department told him everything he knew. In just a short distance of a dozen meters, he clearly explained the current personnel situation in the department.
When they reached the stairs, Colonel Cisco, the director of the Intelligence Department's General Affairs Department, rushed down, sweating profusely. Behind him were two directors. When the three directors saw Xu Le, their gazes subconsciously swept past his hair and eyes, revealing a hint of hesitation, but they immediately hid it. With unusual respect, they stood at attention and saluted, saying respectfully, "It's a great honor to have you here to inspect our work."
As the highest-ranking officials of the Imperial Intelligence Department, they had the right to access some secret files and could directly receive the orders of His Highness. Therefore, they could vaguely guess the identity of this ordinary-looking young man. However, since it involved the secrets of the royal family, no one dared to mention it. They just tried their best to stand as straight as possible, pressing their palms and thighs together a little tighter, and their attitudes a little more serious.
"Keep my arrival a secret." Xu Le looked at these officers of the Intelligence Department and said, "Give me a room with a good workbench."
"This way, please."
Walking into the room, Xu Le extended his finger and adjusted the metal piece in his ear. After a brief pause, he immediately said, "Bring up the data on all the resistance organizations."
The workbench made a light beep, and a pleasing stream of data began to flow on the thin screen. Xu Le quietly watched for a few seconds, and after confirming that the computing core was quite fast, he nodded in satisfaction.
None of the officers of the Intelligence Department present dared to ignore his request. Director Cisco quickly rushed out of the door, and just as he was about to call for his subordinates to prepare the relevant data, he suddenly thought of something and turned to Xu Le. Wiping the cold sweat on his forehead, he said in a trembling voice, "Milord, in the past ten years, a total of 3412 rebel organizations have appeared in the Empire. Although the data index is complete, the database is simply too large. Which star field would you like to see the data from first?"
Xu Le was stunned. Although he had wandered the star field of the Empire for more than two years and had seen many bitter struggles, he still did not expect that the class conflict in the Empire had intensified to such an extent that so many rebel organizations had appeared in just ten years.
"The biggest one."
He gave a very clear direction, and after a brief pause, he narrowed his eyes and said.
"Qi Dabing's one."
…
…
The underground resistance organizations in the Empire were officially recognized as rebel organizations. There were countless of them, and they had all kinds of strange names, such as the Li Ban Youth Army, the Mu Xi Land Cleaners Movement, and the Cangsong National Salvation Group. In the past few decades, there was only one organization called the Underground Resistance Organization, and everyone knew what this organization was.
The reason why there was no need for a prefix was because this underground resistance organization was the biggest, most powerful, and most fiercely competitive with the Empire's royal family. Under the leadership of Old Voss and the hidden influence of that guy, this organization lurked at the bottom of the Empire and gradually grew, leading thousands of poor people and slaves at the bottom of the Empire to launch one riot after another.
A few years ago, after being brutally suppressed by the Butcher King Kardun, and then being cruelly harvested by the Empire's military, the underground resistance organization suffered a great loss in strength. Following the invasion of the Federal forces, this organization and the Federation secretly reached some kind of agreement, but the Empire's propaganda agency publicized it, forcing them to become somewhat silent.
The Information Bureau used the fastest speed to input a huge amount of information about the underground resistance organization into the workbench in front of Xu Le. Xu Le immediately made a second request, requesting that the Information Bureau fully open the access to the workbench's database and use a high-power wave tracking signal to continuously transmit to a certain space outside of Tianjing's atmosphere.
"This is the space coordinate."
Director Cisco continued to wipe the sweat on his forehead that had not stopped, and answered with great pain, "Sir, although you have extremely high access, the Information Bureau's database cannot be opened like this, especially since the fixed-point wave tracking signal transmission is too unsafe. It is very likely that a dangerous situation of signal leakage will occur."
"Right now, I really need this data to find a person." Xu Le looked at him and said, "I know that there are people in the Information Bureau keeping an eye on that small courtyard, but in the end, this incident still happened, so I don't trust your abilities. I can only find him myself."
The mistrust of an officer was the greatest humiliation to a subordinate, especially as the most professional officers in the Information Bureau. Hearing Xu Le's words, the three directors started to wipe their sweat at the same time, but still, no one dared to do as he requested. Opening access to the Information Bureau's database was too dangerous.
Xu Le was silent for a moment, then said, "Ask the palace, just say … just say that I owe him one."
…
…
Twenty minutes later, Xu Le silently left the grey building of the Information Bureau. Having made all the preparations, he came to the agreed location on the piece of paper. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at the dilapidated garage that was filled with the smell of engine oil. It was as if he had returned to the garage of the past, except that Mu En was no longer here, and the seriously ill leader Voss had long left.
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