Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely Chapter 1280 - 421:

Great Xia's ninth year, February 19th.

As the sky began to brighten, the swirling snowflakes intensified their dance.

The piercing cold winds grew fiercer too, sweeping across the earth with alarming speed.

Even with the sun climbing higher and its rays burning brighter, no warmth reached the frozen ground; instead, the bone-chilling air turned even icier.

Hongmen City lay mostly hushed, save for faint lights flickering at the Ministry Building and the city gates.

On the fourth floor of the Ministry Building, in the Prison Department's morgue.

"Hail Lord Guardian!"

Lin Kai, fresh back from beyond the city walls, still wore his torn white robes without changing, his headdress askew. Clutching a grass-stuffed doll tightly in his left hand, he fixed a grave look on the guard and asked in a heavy tone, "Is Lord Li here?"

"Lord Li, Lord Zhao, and Lord Tong are all here!"

Hearing they were all inside, Lin Kai shoved the door open without delay and stepped in.

"Greetings, Guardian Lin!"

Within the morgue, Li Longkai, Zhao Bao, and Vice Chief of Punishment Tong Xingsheng huddled over a body. Spotting Lin Kai's entrance, they bowed at once in salute.

"No need for ceremonies."

The trio straightened up, and Li Longkai, noting Lin Kai's grim face, swiftly surmised the situation and whispered, "Sir, did you fail to catch that fugitive?"

Lin Kai shook his head, passing the grass-stuffed doll from his grasp to Zhao Bao first, then declared gravely, "This grass-stuffed man fooled both Liu Yuan and me..."

He had chased relentlessly from Fengyang Village in the Peak Mountain Realm, steering the target deliberately toward Hongmen. Despite a few detours, he finally trapped the quarry some ten miles east of the city, together with Liu Yuan and the crack scouts from town.

Yet right when he and Liu Yuan poised to strike down the prey they'd hounded for so long, the figure right before them morphed abruptly into a mere grass-stuffed doll.

After Lin Kai's account, Li Longkai and Tong Xingsheng both eyed the doll now in Zhao Bao's hold, worry creasing their foreheads.

Zhao Bao, examining the grass-stuffed figure, knitted his brows and remarked, "From Chen Cang after all—truly some crafty tricks up his sleeve!"

Lin Kai froze for a split second at those words, then grasped the implication. Joy flashing across his face, he pressed, "So the dead man's identity is confirmed?"

This chase involved two interceptors; he'd slain one earlier at Fengyang Village and had Li Longkai rush the remains back ahead. Without pinning down the corpse's origins, how could Zhao Bao claim both hailed from Chen Cang?

True enough, Zhao Bao nodded right away and explained, "I summoned five Vice Chiefs of Punishment the moment the body arrived for inspection. He wore a paper-thin mask over his face. Once peeled off to reveal the real features underneath, Xiang Liang and Bai Shanning identified him instantly..."

Xiang Liang and Bai Shanning had just arrived in Hongmen as Vice Chiefs of Punishment last month. Back in October, they joined Hou Ming on the North Fifth District operation to seize Chu Yan’er and her seven accomplices.

Though that effort fell short of nabbing Chu Yan’er and the rest, Minister Xia Chuan later ousted them en masse, briefing Hou Ming on Chu Yan’er’s background, the Chen Cang Little Princess’s identity, her distinctive painting talents, and more.

The 23 Silver Order Prison Wardens from that North Fifth District raid all got the full scoop later via Hou Ming.

Beyond that, Xiang Liang and Bai Shanning had crossed paths with Chu Yan’er’s crew before, last September while escorting Mu Longhe to Xia City through Qinghepu Station. Leading that escort was none other than Chu Dongning.

"Xiang Liang and Bai Shanning say this one's Chu Dongning. Last September, he guided six others from Hongmen, pretending to visit north of Xing River toward Xia City, staying over half a month in the North Fifth District. Then Chu Yan’er slipped into the Inner City, where the Lord and Minister caught them..."

"I know that story—Director Yuan brought it up earlier this year!"

Lin Kai cut Zhao Bao off sharply; he'd even pored over the travel logs himself. That permit for Chu Dongning’s seven-person party bore his own signature, a fact that chilled him still. Luckily, they hadn't wreaked havoc in Xia City, sparing him a heavy reckoning.

What's more, three of his own boys—Lin Shou, Lin Lie, and Lin Meng—were among the 28 kids nearly victimized at Yuan Mansion back then. Had the Lord not spotted it in time, Lin Kai would've been the father who doomed his sons. Ever since, he'd grown far stricter with travel permits.

As these memories surfaced, Lin Kai's face betrayed lingering dread. He approached the table, lifted the flimsy mask from Chu Dongning’s face, and intoned somberly, "Paper mask... which means the other one's looks were probably fake too. Catching him now that he's slipped away will be tough..."

Lin Kai halted, then a spark hit him, and he looked up sharply. "Wait—last year Chu Dongning traveled with seven total. Is the escapee one of the remaining six?"

Zhao Bao cupped his hands at once and assured, "Don't worry, Sir. I've dispatched Xiang Liang and Bai Shanning to fetch an Artisan Department painter. Together, restoring the other five's faces won't be hard. Plus, I've got men heading back to Xia City—the Prison headquarters there holds the authentic portrait of the Chen Cang Little Princess. We can quietly check around town first; if no luck..."

"Then we blast it all public, make those six notorious across the Nine Towns!"

Lin Kai finished Zhao Bao's thought, fury twisting his features as he pressed on, "Loves skulking in shadows, does he? Fine—force them to mask up forever just to slink through the Nine Towns Territory!"