Chapter 561 — The Man of Many Secrets

Ever since returning from the impact crater on the southern slopes of the Dark Mountains, Gao Yang had been gathering, investigating, and re-sorting every known piece of intelligence concerning the Mithril Vault.

This mysterious organization might have dragons behind it, and the dragons in turn seemed bound up with the state of the entire continent, with the demonic tide, with the mysterious "Black Pit" phenomenon. On the other hand, the original owner of this body of his—Gao Yang Cecil—was also connected to the Mithril Vault in some way. Thread after thread of such clues, strung together, left him with no choice but to raise his guard against this mysterious organization.

During the investigation, Gao Yang discovered that there was far more material on the Mithril Vault than he had imagined—in fact, the sheer volume of it could only be described as vast as the open sea.

The Mithril Vault was ancient and mysterious, true enough, but it had never been an organization cut off from the world. Quite the opposite: it was active in nearly every land known to humankind, even in the domains of the elemental races and high-order monsters. It collected, kept, and lent; it traded with any nation and any race. So long as a transaction met the Mithril Vault's "trading standards," an agent of the Vault would appear before you. In that sense, the Mithril Vault could be called "open."

It even maintained fixed liaison offices and fixed liaison personnel in the major cities, establishing effective and stable official channels with local powers—even in Mingyuan City, in Horseman City, in the old quarter of Peibo, there were altogether seven "storefronts" opened by the Mithril Vault, with more than a dozen low-level agents running them, and they were still operating normally to this day.

Every one of them a century-old establishment.

They did a business akin to paid vault-keeping and money-lending, operating lawfully with complete documentation. Once the Southern Region was unified, they had registered with the administrative hall at the first opportunity; one of the storefronts had even been named one of Horseman's Outstanding Businesses of the Year, and a photograph of its agent on the award stage had made it into the local Horseman newspaper...

Beyond such surface-level information, however, the deeper records of the Mithril Vault were not so easily investigated.

The Vault's grassroots storefronts seemed to hold no secrets; their low-level agents were merely ordinary people. Gao Yang had looked into the files of some of these low-level agents and confirmed that they were locals of clean background and unimpeachable identity. These low-level agents and storefronts answered to a higher tier of "regional agents," whose identities also appeared to be without problem—at least, Cecil's administrative hall could find nothing wrong with them.

So at which tier, then, did the Mithril Vault come into contact with the dragons?

Gao Yang still had no answer, but from the structure of the Mithril Vault he was reminded of Cecil's commercial intelligence network—an intelligence system built upon commercial organizations at every level, with Military Intelligence Bureau operatives as its key nodes, and a very high degree of secrecy. He suspected that the Mithril Vault's so-called agent system was probably something of the same kind.

The silvery-white ring gave off a faint warmth; as mana was channeled into it, the spell fixed within began to turn, and a slightly hoarse, mature voice sounded at Gao Yang's ear, interrupting his thoughts: "Greetings to you, Duke Gao Yang Cecil—do you require assistance with a transaction?"

"Miss Mylittlepony," Gao Yang said, steadying himself and speaking with composure, "I have some questions about the Mithril Vault that I would like to ask in person."

After investigating from many angles, he had finally decided on a direct contact and a probing test. Since Miss Meiheng was already a "senior agent," Gao Yang had reason to believe she at least held some higher-level secrets. If the probe succeeded, he would gain valuable intelligence; if it failed, he lost nothing.

The voice on the other side of the ring paused noticeably, and only after a moment came the reply: "In person... a very important question?"

"Very important," Gao Yang said unhurriedly. "Is there some difficulty?"

"...No, no difficulty. The Mithril Vault has always faithfully honored its contracts," came the voice of Meiheng Pernia. "Then I shall pay a visit shortly—it happens that I am near Xuanyao City."

The faint warmth of the Mithril Ring gradually faded, but Gao Yang's brow furrowed slightly.

The senior agent happened to be near Xuanyao City? Was that coincidence, or deliberate? And what deeper meaning lay in her volunteering that information to him?

In theory, there could not be many "clients" able to speak directly with a senior agent of the Mithril Vault; on Cecil's lands, there was likely no one but himself. Meiheng Pernia could not possibly have been lingering nearby for any other client... So did that mean she had in fact been waiting all along for him to make contact?

Gao Yang shook his head. Perhaps he was being oversensitive, but...

Considering the existence of dragons, it was better to be a little sensitive about this matter.

There was nothing else on his schedule for the day, so Gao Yang waited patiently in the lord's residence for the senior agent's visit—and he did not have long to wait.

Just as the great sun began to tilt westward, Betty came running into the study, and the little maid bowed low: "Master!! Someone's here to see you! She says her name is..."

"Show her in," Gao Yang said, cutting Betty off. "And prepare some tea and refreshments and bring them to the study."

"Oh! Right away!"

Gao Yang tidied the papers on his desk, and a few minutes later he heard footsteps coming from the corridor.

The study door opened, and a young lady in a purple gauze gown, her face veiled in pale violet, graceful of figure and full of mystery, entered the room led by the maid Betty—none other than the senior agent of the Mithril Vault.

Betty withdrew for the moment after bringing the guest to the study. Gao Yang glanced at Meiheng; he betrayed no unusual expression, merely nodding plainly: "It has been a long time, Agent."

"It has been a long time, Duke Cecil," Meiheng nodded slightly in return, and then... with somewhat unsteady steps, came to the front of Gao Yang's desk. "Xuanyao City truly changes by the day. Astonishing."

Gao Yang: "..."

Though Miss Mylittlepony had done her best to maintain a poised and dignified bearing, Gao Yang could tell at a glance that her leg seemed to be injured!

"What happened to your leg?!"

"...Life is full of accidents," the agent said calmly and mildly, but—perhaps it was only his imagination—Gao Yang glimpsed a faint flicker of irritation deep in her eyes. "Just a little injury... it does not affect my work in the slightest."

Gao Yang was of course quite curious as to how a senior agent of the Mithril Vault had come to be injured—and this agent was in all likelihood a high-tier transcendent besides—but he was not in the habit of prying into others' private affairs, so he merely gestured to the chair beside him: "Then sit down and tell me—had I known you were injured, I would not have summoned you here today."

"The Mithril Vault puts reputation first; we have never shaved the slightest margin off client service—so it has been for a thousand years," the agent said as she took her seat, and then, before Gao Yang could open the topic, she continued as if casually, "Besides... our conversation today is going to be very necessary, is it not?"

Gao Yang's brow contracted almost imperceptibly: "Oh?"

"Let us speak frankly, Duke Cecil," Meiheng Pernia sighed. "Not long ago... you took some people to the southern part of the Dark Mountains. Is that so?"