236: Chapter 236 The Commissioner Arrives, Burn Scars Meet

The next morning — just after the hour of the Dragon (Chenshi). Special Commissioner Wei Yuan's boat approached the Blue Moon Island Pier from the direction of the North Corner Berth.

This boat was smaller than the one he had taken two days ago, which belonged to the Inspectorate — it was a ferry sampan from the Blue Moon Island Inner Harbor. Special Commissioner Wei Yuan stood at the prow of the sampan, followed by two people. Both were wearing the official Inspectorate uniform with badges on their chests — they were accompanying subordinates he had selected from the real investigators. One held a briefcase sealed with a Spirit Stone Formation lock, and the other held a stack of blank inspection forms. The header of the forms already had the date and the inspector's name pre-filled — Special Commissioner Wei Yuan.

Lu Changyuan was waiting for him at the Pier. Leng Feng stood on Lu Changyuan's right — his sword hung at his waist, the clasp of the scabbard undone. The sampan docked, and Special Commissioner Wei Yuan stepped onto the stone embankment from the prow. He was also wearing his official uniform today — the gray-blue uniform of the Inspectorate, with the rank badge of the Foreign Archives Office director pinned to his chest. He wore an extremely thin black leather glove on his left hand — the material was sea snake skin, fitting so snugly that the contours of his finger joints were clearly visible. The leather glove covered the web of his hand — the burn scar could not be seen from the outside.

"Lord Lu." Special Commissioner Wei Yuan stood still on the stone embankment — his right hand pulled an inspection order stamped with the Inspectorate's official seal and the joint seal of the Logistics Inspection Group from his briefcase. "Royal Capital Fleet Inspectorate — in accordance with Article 7 of the Wartime Defense Audit Regulations — is conducting a comprehensive defense inspection of the Grade D stronghold, Blue Moon Island. The scope of the inspection includes: Spirit Stone consumption of the Formation bases, sign-off records for material entering and leaving the warehouse, and the establishment and casualty roster of the garrison troops. Please cooperate."

Lu Changyuan took the inspection order and read through it. The seal was real — the gold powder ink of the Inspectorate's official seal reflected a very fine metallic luster in the morning light. The joint seal was in the blue ink of the Logistics Inspection Group — exactly the same as the joint seal on the defense handover documents brought by the fleet commander earlier.

"Please." Lu Changyuan stepped aside, clearing the stone path on the Pier leading to the Inner Harbor.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan put the inspection order back into his briefcase and walked onto the stone path. As he passed Lu Changyuan, he turned his head to glance in the direction of the Geng Metal Sword Intent Killing Array on the face of the Ring Reef. The Spirit Stone slots of the sixteen Formation eyes on the outer ring were blurry in the morning light — the distance was too great. But after that one glance, his pace slowed by nearly half a beat. A person who was not a Formation Master, upon seeing the positions of the Killing Array's eyes, would have their first reaction be to count the number of eyes. Special Commissioner Wei Yuan was counting. He counted very quickly — it took him less than five breaths to count the sixteen Formation eyes. After five breaths, his attention shifted from the Formation eyes to the direction of the Formation path connections between them. He was judging the coverage range of the Killing Array and the blind spots in its firepower.

Lu Changyuan walked about half a step behind and to the side of Special Commissioner Wei Yuan, and he saw this look. A clerical director in charge of archives would not subconsciously count Formation eyes and calculate firepower coverage within ten breaths of getting off a boat. This habit belonged to someone with a background in field operations.

First stop — Formation Affairs Room.

Su Qingli had already placed the "outside" Spirit Stone consumption ledger on the archive shelf at the entrance of the Formation Affairs Room. The ledger was bound in the gray-blue covers of the standard Blue Moon Island specification — exactly consistent with the standard ledger format of all Grade D strongholds. Special Commissioner Wei Yuan picked up the ledger and started flipping from the first page. He did not flip quickly — he paused for about ten breaths on each page. His right hand turned the pages, while his left index finger traced the numbers on the ledger line by line. His left hand. The leather glove covered the burn scar, but it could not cover his finger-moving habit. When his index finger reached the end of a number, it would pause on the last digit, then skip down a line. This rhythm of skipping lines was extremely regular — it was muscle memory formed by someone who had checked ledgers for many years.

He was checking the time distribution of the Spirit Stone consumption. The daily test consumption of the Killing Array had been spread across three different dates by Su Qingli — with slightly different consumption amounts each time. The third time, a real daily consumption was mixed in — the consumption amount was nearly fifteen percent different from the first two times. Uniformity mixed with non-uniformity — it looked like a normal Formation record.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan paused for three more breaths on the number for the third test consumption. His index finger drew an extremely small circle on that number, then he continued flipping down. After finishing the last page, he closed the ledger and put it back on the archive shelf. "Next item — sign-off records for material entering and leaving the warehouse."

Second stop — Inner Harbor warehouse.

Commander Cai stood at the warehouse entrance, his pipe in his mouth, unlit. The material racks in the warehouse had been reorganized — all records involving hemostatic powder, trauma medication, and female cultivator clothing had been replaced with entry and exit slips for regular reef-guarding supplies. The medicine Shen Qinghan had used — hemostatic powder, burn ointment, soft cloth for changing dressings — were all recorded under the regular trauma medication column for the reef-guarding sentries. The frontline sentries of the Sin Battalion had abrasions and cuts from bone armor fragments every day — the usage of trauma medication was naturally high — so a few extra portions did not look abnormal.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan squatted down and flipped through the bottom-most material sign-off slips. The sign-off slips were arranged by date — from three days ago to today. Three days ago — the night Shen Qinghan climbed through the window — the flank of Blue Moon Island had just finished a battle. The consumption of hemostatic powder that day was nearly three times the usual amount — all recorded under "Trauma treatment for reef-guarding sentries on the flank defense line." Commander Cai had used the ash from his pipe to press a confirmation mark next to each item of hemostatic powder consumption — the time intervals of the marks were uniform — it looked like they had been uniformly cleared the day after the battle.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan picked up that sign-off slip and looked at it against the cold light stone lamp on the ceiling of the warehouse. He was looking at the ink on the sign-off slip — at the column for the quantity of hemostatic powder. There were no traces of alteration in the ink. There were no scratches on the paper. The quantity and date — everything matched. He put the sign-off slip back in its original place, stood up, and glanced at Commander Cai. "Warehouse management — just you alone?"

"Just this old man. I've been managing it for almost two years — never made a mistake."

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan did not ask further. He walked out of the warehouse and glanced in the direction of the shed area. The shed area was south of the Pier, about half a mile from the Inner Harbor warehouse. He looked in the exact direction — it was the shed where Shen Qinghan was hiding. "Formation base consumption and material entry and exit — finished checking. Next — personnel establishment and casualty roster."

Third stop — Sin Battalion garrison registration office.

The registration office was in the wing on the first floor of the Lords Mansion — a small office partitioned with reef brick. Inside the office, there was only an old wooden table, a chair, and a wooden grid rack nailed to the wall — on the rack, the personal registration tags of the 2,700 people of the Sin Battalion were arranged according to the establishment page numbers. Each registration tag had the name, number, date of joining the battalion, and current status written on it. The casualty column — a separate rack. Only eight registration tags hung on the rack — all were soldiers from the first page of the Sin Battalion who had died on the front defense line three days ago. On each tag, the time of death and cause of death were marked with vermilion charcoal pencil. "Bone spear penetration — 3:00 PM." "Abyssal Beast bite — 3:45 PM." "Shattered shield impact — 5:00 PM."

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan took down the eight registration tags one by one and checked them one by one against the master establishment book on the table. Name — matched. Number — matched. Date of joining — matched. Time of death — consistent with the time period when the front defense line was engaged three days ago — from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, which was exactly the time period when the Haiyuan Clan elite withdrew from the flank and transferred to the front.

After finishing the check of the eight, he flipped the master establishment book forward by a dozen pages, turning to the second page of the Sin Battalion. His finger scanned line by line through the roster on the second page — it paused for about a breath when it scanned one of the names. Feng Laosan — number 237 — the status column was written as "On Duty." Feng Laosan had died underwater two days ago — but Leng Feng had not reported it to the fortress. Reporting a death to the fortress required going through the battle report process — the battle report process took at least three days. Before the battle report was filed, the registration tag would not be removed.

Lu Changyuan stood behind and to the side of Special Commissioner Wei Yuan, and he saw this pause. But he did not explain. Special Commissioner Wei Yuan did not ask either. He closed the master establishment book, put it back on the wooden table, then pulled an inspection record form from his briefcase and wrote less than two lines on it. After writing, he handed the record form to the subordinate next to him — the subordinate clipped the form into a file folder.

The inspection was over. Time taken — from the hour of the Dragon (Chenshi) to the hour of the Horse (Wushi) — exactly half a day.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan stood at the entrance of the Lords Mansion and looked directly at Lu Changyuan for the only time that morning. At close range — there were less than three steps between the two. The morning light shone down from overhead, illuminating the details on his face very clearly. A man in his forties — his skin was maintained to look nearly five years younger than his actual age. There was an extremely fine vertical line between his eyebrows — left by someone who frowned at documents all year round. But his gaze was focused — his pupils contracted to less than half their normal size in the morning light — when looking at someone, his gaze was fixed on a single point and did not drift. This kind of gaze — Lu Changyuan had seen it on the face of the Royal Capital Fleet commander. A soldier's gaze.

"Lord Lu's Formation defense and material management — are considered very standardized among Grade D strongholds." Special Commissioner Wei Yuan closed his briefcase — the sound of the buckle snapping shut echoed on the stone path for nearly a breath. "However — there is one thing I don't quite understand. Your Killing Array pushed out five miles on the flank the day before yesterday — the Spirit Stone consumption of the Formation base was at least twenty percent lower than I expected. With the same Formation — on the fortress front defense line, the single-time consumption for pushing out five miles is nearly double yours. Blue Moon Island's Killing Array — is it that efficient?"

The difference in Spirit Stone consumption — had already been allocated on Su Qingli's fake ledger. What Special Commissioner Wei Yuan was asking about was not the numbers on the ledger — he was asking about the Formation itself. He was testing the actual performance of the Blue Moon Island Killing Array.

"The Formation base of the Blue Moon Island Killing Array — was adaptively modified by our Array Master based on the fortress standard Formation base. The Formation path routing was adjusted for the concentration of water spiritual power in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench — and local reef powder was mixed into the Spirit Stone slot filler. After mixing in reef powder, the Formation path conducts heat slowly — and the spiritual power loss is nearly fifteen percent less than the standard Formation base. As for the remaining difference —" Lu Changyuan glanced in the direction of the reef wall. "The rest — may be because the artillery Formation statistical caliber on the commander's side is different from Blue Moon Island's."

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan looked at him for about two breaths — then nodded. He did not pursue the question. He turned and walked towards the Pier — after walking five steps — his left hand lifted to adjust the badge on his collar. When adjusting the badge, the cuff of the leather glove was pushed up by nearly half an inch. Half an inch — it just happened to reveal the edge of that burn scar above the web of his hand. The edge of the scar had extremely fine radial tearing patterns — spreading nearly two fen from the center of the scar to the surroundings. It was formed by the skin tissue instantly carbonizing and then healing after being pressed by a red-hot metal object. A scar left by a direct flame burn would not have radial tearing patterns — only pressure-type burns would form such fine, irregular tearing at the edge of the scar.

At close range — within three steps — the morning light shone directly on it. The details of the scar were all clearly visible.

The soul-searching fragments in the memory orb — the images of the first and fourth fragments completely overlapped with this scar in front of him at this moment. The same position — above the web of the left hand. The same type of scar — pressure-type burn plus radial tearing pattern. The same finger — the ring callus on the second joint was covered by the leather glove, but the contour of the joint was slightly more raised than the other fingers.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan lowered his hand — the leather glove covered the burn scar again. He boarded the ferry sampan — the two subordinates followed behind. The sampan sailed towards the North Corner Berth — the spray at the stern dragged a water trail flipping outward on the white foam line. The water trail drifted towards the Dragon Burial Trench in the ebbing tide — and dissipated in less than half an incense stick of time.

Lu Changyuan stood on the Pier — until the sampan docked beside the large ship at the North Corner Berth. Then he turned and returned to the Lords Mansion.

Inside the Chart Room. Shen Qinghan came out of the small storage room next door — she had been locked inside for nearly three hours. She sat beside the chart table — her fingers pressed on the edge of the table. The position she pressed was exactly the same as the position she pressed on the night she climbed through the window three days ago. "How long did he investigate?"

"Half a day. From the Formation Affairs Room to the warehouse to the registration office — he went through everything."

"Couldn't find anything?"

"Couldn't find anything." Lu Changyuan took out a copy of the material sign-off slip that Special Commissioner Wei Yuan had flipped through during the inspection from his sleeve and placed it on the chart table. "But he paused for a breath on Feng Laosan's name. Sin Battalion roster — Feng Laosan's status is still 'On Duty.' Leng Feng hasn't reported the death yet — the battle report process takes at least three days. Special Commissioner Wei Yuan saw that there was a person on the roster who was not actually present but was registered — but he did not pursue it. It's not that he couldn't find anything — it's that he didn't pursue it."

"An incumbent full-time investigator — finds a suspicious point and doesn't ask — it can only mean he doesn't want to reveal the suspicious point on the spot on Blue Moon Island's territory. He wants to take it back — and pursue it slowly on his own territory."

Lu Changyuan gave a hum. Then he called Su Qingli into the Chart Room.

When Su Qingli came in, the cushion of the rattan stool had already completely collapsed by nearly half. She had hardly left the Formation Affairs Room these past few days — two rattan strips on the stool had been broken from sitting — and the broken ends were temporarily tied with Formation thread. Lu Changyuan took the abyssal vein investigation ledger out from the inner pocket of his sleeve — and flipped to the first page. The seal on the first page, whose format was consistent with the seal marking the Formation Platform sealing two thousand years ago — in the noon sunlight, the vermilion ink gave off a very faint metallic reflection.

"Make a copy of this page. Just the first page." Lu Changyuan placed the ledger on the chart table. "After making the rubbing — put the original ledger back in the restricted item cabinet."

Su Qingli carefully opened the first page — and covered it with extremely thin rubbing paper. Then she used the side of a charcoal pencil to gently rub on the rubbing paper — the outline of the seal and the patterns of the seal impression slowly emerged from under the paper. The rubbing took less than half an incense stick of time — every line of the seal was clear enough to see the direction of the knife edge when the seal was carved.

"It's done."

Lu Changyuan folded the rubbing copy — and put it into the inner pocket of his sleeve. Then he turned his head to look at Leng Feng. "Go find Adjutant Tie and pass on a message — Blue Moon Island has defense intelligence regarding the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench, which needs to be reported in person. Don't mention Special Commissioner Wei Yuan — don't mention the ledger — just the four words 'defense intelligence.' Once Adjutant Tie hears it — he will arrange the time."

Leng Feng responded — turned and walked out.

Outside the window of the Chart Room — the noon sunlight illuminated the water line on the face of the Ring Reef extremely brightly. The ebb tide was in progress — the water line had receded nearly three zhang from its highest point. After the water line receded, the base of the outer ring Formation eyes of the Geng Metal Sword Intent Killing Array on the reef wall was exposed. The Spirit Stone slots of the sixteen Formation eyes reflected a very faint silvery-gray luster in the sunlight — the Spirit Stone slots were all filled with Spirit Stones. The Killing Array was in standby mode — not lit — but it was there.

The main force of the Haiyuan Clan was maintaining a rhythm of shifting slowly towards the east side at a distance of more than fifty miles — the shifting speed was nearly half slower than yesterday. On Su Qingli's Receiving Formation — the new position of the main force's fluctuation source was about fifty-five miles from the reef wall. The assembly depth remained unchanged — two hundred zhang underwater. What was the Haiyuan Clan waiting for — it wasn't waiting for the fleet to leave. The fleet was still there. It was waiting for orders — or waiting for a new signal.

Lu Changyuan took the memory orb out from the inner pocket of his sleeve — and glanced at it against the noon sunlight outside the window. The image of the soul-searching fragment in the orb flashed in the sunlight — the left-hand burn scar, the ring callus, the dark gray cloak — and the scar he had seen three steps away on the Pier this morning — all matched up.

He put the memory orb away — walked to the chart table — and wrote two words on the paper.

Central Army.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan could not find what he wanted on Blue Moon Island. But he would continue to look elsewhere. The next round — would not be on Blue Moon Island. It would be in Commander Tie Zhan's Central Army camp.