Wang Jian was feeling quite excited, but he tried hard not to show it.

Shen Hao, sitting in the chair across from him, was holding a Copper Rod and studying it carefully, only putting it away after a long while.

"Looks pretty good. Tell me more about your arrangements."

"I’ve split the Black Market intelligence monetization process into three parts, the outermost called ’Little Ghost’, initial analysis is ’Ghost Gate’, and the final screening is ’Judge’. All the intel gets compiled here and then sent for your review.

And for secrecy’s sake, people from the three divisions don’t know each other, and they have no idea they’re actually working for us in the Xuanqing Guard..."

Hearing this, Shen Hao laughed, "You’ve got some interesting ideas, kid. You even remembered the things I used to tell you and copy over the names exactly."

Those names—Little Ghost, Ghost Gate, Judge—were things Shen Hao talked about back when he was just a Small Banner Officer, spinning tales for his men at the tavern. He didn’t expect Wang Jian had remembered so clearly and now used them for the new intelligence setup.

Gotta admit, it’s actually pretty fitting.

"Hehe, sir, I always thought your stories were fascinating—good gets rewarded, evil gets punished. I like that Underworld stuff, where no matter how powerful you are in life, once you die, you always pay for your crimes; there’s no loopholes to dodge."

"So you want to play the role of punisher of evil and promoter of good?"

"Yes, sir. I might not be a good man, but I’m willing to be the bug catcher."

Shen Hao didn’t comment either way. Passion? He once had it too, but it’s long gone. Are there any clean people in the Xuanqing Guard? Shen Hao’s been here for nine years, hasn’t seen a single one. Talking about being clean-handed, who here really is? If you want to count worms, folks in Xuanqing Guard aren’t exactly innocent, himself included.

Grab benefits, but absolutely never destroy the country beneath your feet for them. Anyone who loses their head or harbors ill intent, drag them out and finish them off. That’s Shen Hao’s way of seeing the Xuanqing Guard’s daily life.

But he can’t go around killing Wang Jian’s enthusiasm.

"I’m satisfied with your work this month; you basically hit my requirements. You should see by now how important these Black Market intelligence channels are to us. They can’t be made official, but they’re critical. No one did this before; we’re the pioneers. Maybe we’ll be remembered in history books, maybe we’ll end up in pieces. So secrecy needs to be further strengthened, and monetization must be more thorough and detailed.

Add manpower, detail the intelligence analysis process, add an operations unit, and make sure internal supervision is always one step ahead. Whatever you need, just tell me—I’ll do what I can."

Wang Jian shook his head; he really didn’t lack anything right now. He had money and men, the only thing missing was time. He was confident he could get things to Shen Hao’s satisfaction within a year.

Maybe then his Senior Seventh Grade rank could move up another step. (Small Banner Officers are Junior Seventh Grade by default, in Black Banner Battalion they’re half a grade higher)

"Alright, unless you’ve got something else, go think about what gaps might still need fixing. Also, you’ve been spending time with Flying Dragon, so you shouldn’t be short of Cultivation Resources, right? Squeeze in some time to raise your Cultivation—you’re too low right now."

Wang Jian was only at Qi Refining Realm Third Layer... No wonder Zhang Lie thinks he’s trash.

"Yes... I’ll make sure to intensify my training."

"I’ve looked at your files; your cultivation talent in Xuanqing Guard is decent. Try harder—don’t miss a chance because your cultivation is too low, that’d be a shame."

Wang Jian hurriedly promised again and again. He’d admittedly been a bit lax on cultivation, but now he felt motivated. With bright prospects ahead, he had to give it everything—he didn’t want to fail because of a weak cultivation base.

Wang Jian walked off, invigorated. Shen Hao picked up the Copper Rod Wang Jian had just delivered and studied it again.

Wang Jian had mentioned just now: the Copper Rod he sent over was the most "refined" content left after several rounds of screening and vetting, so the intel originally collected must have been dozens or hundreds of times more than what’s on this Copper Rod.

Black Market... Once the veil was lifted, it turned out to be far more complex than Shen Hao had anticipated. Just the transaction volume recorded on this Copper Rod Wang Jian delivered was enough to be called staggering. The daily Black Market trade across the entire Fengri City jurisdiction—how terrifying would that be?

Probably not any less than the legitimate market.

And... from the few pieces Wang Jian highlighted on this Copper Rod, there really were frequent bulk transactions. In ten days, there were six or seven big deals, including grain, pig iron, general Spirit Stones... Most were items strictly forbidden by law to trade privately. Normal merchants wouldn’t have the channels to get these, much less dare to handle them on the Black Market.

Take grain as an example. Its circulation is tightly controlled everywhere. Normally, sending grain from surplus areas to deficit areas involves complicated procedures and records—it’s not like other necessities that can just move around freely. Plus, each region sets aside a portion for the National Treasury and the Official Granary based on their yearly harvest, leaving only what’s left for the grain shops.

So every grain merchant is essentially controlled by the Dynasty. That indirectly controls prices nationwide; prevents them from being too high or too low. To privately sell grain in bulk, you’d at least need access to the local granaries, right?

Likewise, pig iron bulk smuggling is even more bizarre. Pig iron is a major restricted material. Inside the Dynasty, it circulates freely enough, but the taxes are high. There are random local taxes too, plus mining and smelting costs, so the expense adds up.

Most pig iron is supplied by official shops. Secret pig iron trading, in the end, just means you aren’t planning to monetize inside the Dynasty—you want to get it out. Word is, once pig iron’s shipped out, it’s nothing but huge profits.

So, private pig iron trading at scale always ties back to official smelters. How it gets out—there’s a whole chain behind that.

And for things like general Spirit Stones—essentially the same story. This is biting the tree to death; if the tree dies, doesn’t everyone go hungry?

Picking up his pen, Shen Hao annotated on the Copper Rod: "Dig deep, don’t scare the snakes."

This intel can’t be handed to the Black Banner Battalion yet; things aren’t sorted internally. For now, he’ll forward it to Flying Dragon, let their people step up and push forward.

As long as this intelligence eventually turns into evidence of crime, the intel network will have proved its worth. Then, whether to use those assets, and how, can be decided at will. If handled well, it’ll yield unexpected results across many fronts.

Apart from Wang Jian’s side, there was feedback from the brokerages too.

Zhu Shou really is capable; Liu Meng and the other ten are now all, overtly or covertly, planted into brokerages all over. Their official duties vary, mostly Guard, or squad leader-type jobs.

Get people inside first; then you can slowly adjust their positions once they’re in.

Both sides seem to be progressing smoothly now.