Chapter 226 Potential Leads

Inside the carriage, Yang Qing was given a few more talismans by Song Guozhi. They contained other relevant details that Yang Qing may need for his upcoming ceremony. Of course, the relevant part was only relative to Song Guozhi. In Yang Qing's case, he found all of it to be too tedious and cumbersome. He had doubts if he would even be able to use a third of what was stored in there.

Even though he felt it would be useless, he still gave it a read as the information stored there could be considered a good pass time read. If Mao Yunru had those talismans, the inner gossip hunter in her would have had a field day with it.

Yang Qing's pupils had a sudden flash of insight as he was going through the information.

"Maybe I could use this to cut on the list of suspects. The amount of details stored in here could be used as reference points." Thought Yang Qing as he pulled out the first talisman he was given that had the guest list and their background.

The more he read it, the more his eyes lit up.

"Administrator Guozhi, thank you very much for all this information," Yang Qing suddenly said in excitement.

"I'm only doing my job," Song Guozhi curtly said showing no ripples in his emotion but Yang Qing being as intuitive as he was, detected a mild glint of pride flash in his eyes.

"This will definitely help cut down the time needed to search for Ma Yuan's wife and daughter," thought Yang Qing as he increasingly admired the never-ending pile of information stored in the white jade talisman.

A few minutes ago it was a torturous object, but now, it was a priceless treasure. Yang Qing didn't waste any time as he began closely analyzing the information stored in it, unlike the cursory glance he had taken earlier.

The more he read, the wider his smile grew. Song Guozhi who was seated next to him had a small smile tug on his lips once he saw the enthusiastic and excited appearance Yang Qing had when he read the information from the talisman.

"He's not one of the youngest palace realm judges for nothing. His slovenly look sure can be misleading. I thought he was just another Lazy employee mooching off the Order's graces but I'm glad I was wrong.

Maybe I can enlist his support in one of my campaign reforms of increasing efficiency within the Order by increasing the range of duties of the judges that are stationed within the main headquarters. They can conduct investigations on existing cases whenever they are doing their evaluations thus freeing up the inquisitors to handle more cases, and when they are not in the field they can double up as instructors in the institute thus enabling the Institute to increase their intake capacity whilst also ensuring the quality of training is maintained.

All these will go a long way to helping the Order combat its manpower issues. I already have enough support but adding an up-and-coming palace court judge wouldn't hurt. But all that will have to wait till later. For now, I need to do my job as meticulously as I  can," thought Song Guozhi.

Yang Qing who had been joyously swallowing the information in the white jade talisman, froze suddenly. He felt a faint shiver in his spine almost as if some looming threat was upon him. He paused what he was doing and quickly deployed his palace sense around the carriage as he extended its range outwards. When he didn't spot anything off, he opted to use his eyes as he stretched his head outside the carriage windows.

"Is old man Lei close by?" Yang Qing wondered. Usually, whenever he got that feeling, the old geezer was never far behind. He looked around for a minute and when he didn't spot him, he decided to push the matter to the back of his mind.

"Maybe the ceremony is getting me paranoid?" thought Yang Qing as he dryly chucked.

"Judge Yang Qing is something wrong?" asked Song Guozhi with a slightly raised brow.

"No, it's nothing. I thought I detected something but it must be my imagination. I've had a few tense days when I was out, I think my body is still in a heightened state," said Yang Qing as he politely smiled in apology for his sudden reaction.

"Mmmh." Song Guozhi merely nodded in response as a look of determination and affirmation flashed in his eyes briefly.

Yang Qing didn't seem to have noticed Song Guozhi's strange look as he quickly went back to reviewing the information he was given. In that list, among the information stored on the background of the different organizations was a description of the cultivation art they practiced in addition to their geographical locations.

When it came to cultivation arts, the information was a bit vague only containing the briefest of explanations but when it came to the geographical information, it was a bit more in-depth. If an organization moved, it listed all the places they had settled at and among the likes and dislikes listed on some of their members, personal relationships were one of them.

Using the information he had gotten from Ma Yuan about the places they lived at, he could use that information and correlate it with the list he had on hand and see if there were organizations that had alliances or bad relationships with the organizations that ruled the places Ma Yuan's wife chose to live in. The list was pretty long along with the huge level of details, it would take him some time, but if he found anything, it would be a massive boost to the case.

…

"Judge Yang Qing, Judge Yang Qing? We are already here."

Song Guozhi called Yang Qing a few times to alert him of their arrival at the courtroom grounds. It took them ten minutes to arrive, and by that time, Yang Qing was too deeply engrossed in the information to spare any thoughts on anything else including his surroundings. He had even forgotten he was in a carriage or where he was even headed at.

"Oh?"  Yang Qing hazily acknowledged Song Guozhi's call as he reluctantly put the talisman away.

They then proceeded to the internal logistics department. Its hall was just as massive as the one from the administration department. However, unlike the administration department, the internal logistics department was calmer and much more silent since the area was restricted to Order employees only.

There were employees from different departments walking around to different sections of the internal logistics department. There were no guides or even guards in the area. Even though the floor's security seemed lax, Yang Qing knew for a fact there was a purple-grade killing array in the hall that would kill 10 soul formation experts within a second of each other.

The reason for such an exaggerated and heightened security was simple; the area could be considered the Order's treasury vault. All sorts of materials and artifacts across different grades were stored in the internal logistics department from spirit stones of all grades to spiritual herbs, metals, and other materials that ranged from the mortal rank up to the saint grade.

The sheer quantity and quality of what was stored in there were enough to fund over a dozen rank 1 organizations several times over. The area could be considered one of the main hubs that contributed to the operation of the Order.

Song Guozhi led Yang Qing to one of the sections named the 'ceremonial apparel section'. This was the location Yang Qing would be picking his robe. Inside was a gentle-looking lady who had black hair rolled into a bun with a few grey and white strands mixed in. She had a few wrinkles here and there but it did not take away from her beauty and rather added some wizened maturity to it.