The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

This person was none other than Hai Dafu, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Horse Stables.

The Imperial Horse Administration was nominally in charge of the imperial horses, but in reality, it controlled the allocation of military equipment and provisions for the imperial guards in the capital. It was one of the most powerful government offices in the inner court, and together with the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Imperial Guards, it was known as one of the three most powerful institutions in the inner court.

Hai Dafu, a seventh-rank cultivator, was one of the top martial arts experts in the inner court. He was upright and hated sycophants, but he happened to have a fondness for Zheng He, a quiet and honest man who only worked and never spoke.

The cause of the matter was simple: the Imperial Horse Stables had a batch of old military equipment that needed to be moved to a blacksmith shop outside the city for remelting. There wasn't enough manpower, so a few odd jobs were temporarily borrowed from the Imperial Household Department.

Zheng He was among them.

During the transport, a cart loaded with swords went out of control on the slope and was about to crash into the gunpowder depot next to it. Zheng He single-handedly used his shoulder to stop the cart from sliding down, and his shoulder was scraped raw and bleeding all over the ground, but he didn't utter a sound.

Hai Dafu witnessed this scene and immediately asked him his name.

Three days later, the transfer order came down, and Zheng He was transferred to the Imperial Horse Administration, where he was appointed as the warehouse manager, an eighth-rank official, in charge of the registration of the entry and exit of the armory and its daily maintenance.

Although this position is not of high rank, it wields real power, and all weapons, armor, and firearms entering and leaving the armory must pass through his hands.

The four hidden pieces have each risen significantly in the past six months.

Their layout within the inner court had evolved from scattered points into an interwoven network structure. Zhao Gao was in charge of the central government office, Wei Zhongxian was in charge of personnel files, Gao Lishi was rooted in the Imperial Kitchen, and Zheng He controlled the Imperial Horse Administration and the armory.

The four individuals have overlapping power spheres, share information, and maintain a subtle competitive tacit understanding.

Every so often, the four of them would send a "performance report" to the side hall through their respective channels.

The content covers the latest developments in their respective departments, the promotions and demotions of key figures, and any information that might be useful to their superiors.

After Zhou Xing finished reading these reports, he destroyed them all, and as usual, poured the ashes into the pot of evergreen plant.

During these past six months, Zhou Xing himself has also been quite busy.

On the third day after he established his foundation, he officially began cultivating the "Qi Cultivation Technique".

A month later, he confidently stepped into the top tier.

This pace was neither fast nor slow, far inferior to Zhao Gao's extraordinary achievement of entering the first rank in ten days, but it was still considered above average among the seventeen princes.

The Empress had routinely inquired about his cultivation progress once, and he answered respectfully. The Empress simply gave a faint "hmm" and said nothing more.

However, when Grand Tutor Kong Yan was teaching the princes, he glanced at him a few more times and said, "Your Highness Ninth Prince has a calm demeanor and a solid foundation," which was a rare compliment.

After reaching the first rank, Zhou Xing took the initiative to ask the Empress for permission to learn the basics of light-body skills from Zhan Zhao, the instructor of the Imperial Guard.

The reason given was that "my constitution is weak, and practicing light-body skills can strengthen my body."

The Empress found nothing wrong with this statement and granted her permission.

From then on, Zhou Xing could legitimately learn light-body skills from Zhan Zhao. Each class was held in the open space of the Imperial Garden, with Chunlan watching from the side. All the palace servants coming and going could see that the Ninth Prince was learning light-body skills, and the instructor was Zhan Zhao, the chief instructor of the Imperial Guard. It was all aboveboard, with nothing to hide.

As for Xu Chu and Dian Wei, Zhou Xing would occasionally "bump into" them in the Imperial Garden or on the palace road.

Xu Chu is now the deputy commander. Occasionally, when he is on patrol and passes by the side hall, he will stop for a moment while Zhou Xing practices martial arts. Under the guise of the deputy commander instructing the prince in his cultivation, he will give him some pointers on the basics of fist and foot techniques.

While on duty at the palace gate, Dian Wei took the opportunity of Zhou Xing entering and leaving the palace to teach him some basic breathing and power techniques.

All these contacts had legitimate reasons, and no one would suspect anything. Isn't it normal for an unfavored prince to ask a master from the Imperial Guard to guide his cultivation?

Outside the palace, Lu Changfeng's Beggars' Gang intelligence network has covered 80 percent of the streets and alleys in the capital.

His core members are still the same nineteen old brothers, but his network of informants has grown to nearly two hundred, spread throughout teahouses, taverns, docks, carriage shops, and major businesses.

Any disturbance in the capital would reach the dilapidated temple in the western city within three days.

After Lu Changfeng selected and organized these messages, they were continuously sent into the palace through Wang Mazi's pancake shop.

Under Zhou Xing's instructions, He Shengyuan's intelligence network began to share information with the Beggars' Sect's intelligence network.

The Beggars' Sect provides insider information, while Sheng Yuan provides business intelligence; the two complement each other, and their reach is becoming increasingly broad.

More importantly, Heshengyuan's business operations also provided the Beggars' Gang with reliable cover for their identities. In situations where it was inconvenient for some Beggars' Gang members to enter and exit as beggars, they would switch to the identity of Heshengyuan's employees, thus legitimately entering and exiting various businesses and government offices.

Several networks are intertwining and merging at a speed visible to the naked eye, and one plus one is far greater than two.

Another important clue provided by Zhou Xing, the investigation into his mother Shen's family, has also yielded results.

Based on the fragmented memories he provided, Lu Changfeng sent people to investigate around Beijing, and finally found a clue in a place called Shenjia Village, thirty miles east of Beijing.

Shenjia Village is small, with only a few dozen households, most of whom are surnamed Shen.

The village elders confirmed that thirty years ago, there was indeed a family surnamed Shen who had a daughter who was selected to enter the palace.

But that family moved away more than ten years ago, saying that their hometown had suffered a drought and they came to the capital to stay with relatives, and then they were never heard from again.

Before leaving, he entrusted a few acres of poor land to a cousin in the same village, asking him to pass on any news from the palace.

According to the villagers, the head of that household was named Shen Wangshan. If he were still alive, he would be in his early sixties now, and according to seniority, he would be the maternal grandfather of the Ninth Prince.

Besides him, there was another son, the Ninth Prince's maternal uncle, named Shen Ping, who was fourteen or fifteen years old at the time and should be over thirty now.

As for where they moved to, the villagers were unsure. Some said they thought they had seen Shen Ping in the southern part of the capital, but they were not sure.

The trail ends here.

Lu Changfeng wrote cautiously in his report: "Shenjia Village does exist, and the whereabouts of Shen Wangshan and Shen Ping are yet to be determined. We have arranged for people to search all the neighborhoods in the southern part of the city, but there has been no progress so far."

Zhou Xing remained silent for a long time after reading the report.

He was an orphan in his previous life and had no personal experience of family affection.

But deep within the original owner's memory, that gentle voice singing southern folk songs always surfaced faintly, like a tiny thorn pricking the softest part of her heart.

He wasn't trying to find relatives for the original owner to satisfy any emotional needs. He was the Ninth Prince, Zhou Xing, and his ambitions were never limited to this palace.

But a prince cannot be without roots. In this world that values ​​lineage and birth, no matter how humble his maternal family may be, it is the only external force he can legitimately rely on.

He held the slip of paper with the address of Shenjia Village to the candlelight and lit it, watching it turn to ashes. Then he pulled out the homemade booklet from under his pillow, opened to the latest page, and added three lines under the "Maternal Clan" section:

"Shen Wangshan, maternal grandfather, approximately sixty years old, whereabouts unknown."

"Shen Ping, my maternal uncle, is about thirty years old and probably lives in the southern part of the capital."

"Expand the search area in the south of the city; search every inch of the south to find the person."

After writing these three lines, he put down his pen and blew out the candle.

In the darkness, he sat cross-legged on the bed, circulating his qi. The vortex of qi in his dantian was several times larger than it had been half a year ago, and it was slowly rotating at a steady speed.

After more than half a year, he is now only one step away from the peak of the first rank and could break through to the second rank at any time, but he is deliberately suppressing the speed of his breakthrough.

He couldn't let his cultivation level rise too quickly, nor could he let too many people notice this corner of his house.

His net is wide enough, and all the pieces are in their places.

What needs to be done now is not to rush to make a move, but to wait, to wait for the right opportunity, to wait for his pieces to climb a little higher, and to wait for the attention of his father and the important figures in the court to be drawn to more important matters.

He closed his eyes, letting himself sink into that warm vortex.

Outside the side hall, the moonlight was like water, and the palace lanterns swayed gently in the night breeze.

In the distance, the faint sound of footsteps of guards changing shifts could be heard from the direction of the Imperial Horse Stables. The sound was uniform and rhythmic, a result of Zheng He's reorganization of the night watch at the armory.

Further away, the lights of the Imperial Kitchen were still on, as Gao Lishi prepared the emperor's breakfast for the next morning.

Meanwhile, in the direction of the Imperial Household Department to the east, the lights in Zhao Gao's duty room were still on, and the fourteen-year-old assistant steward was still reviewing the official documents submitted by various departments.