Du Wenzhen smiled, "Handle your own matters. Xiao Zhang, just a reminder, this person is my brother, and I can't afford to mess with him, so you deal with the rest."

"If you gamble, you must accept the loss. Don't blame me for being rude if you try to cheat."

Xiao Mu spoke with a threatening tone.

"Forget it, it's my bad luck. I'll take the three hundred and fifty Energy Fruit Vouchers as a lesson."

Seeing that begging was useless, Xiao Zhang gritted his teeth, took out all the vouchers for three hundred and fifty energy fruits, handed them to Xiao Mu, and then turned to leave.

"This is yours, take it!"

Xiao Mu smiled as he accepted the vouchers and casually handed three to the honest man next to him who was dumbfounded.

"Ah, this... no need, no need." The honest man, overwhelmed by the favor, quickly waved his hands in refusal.

"Take it!" Xiao Mu directly stuffed the vouchers into the man's hands and pulled Du Wenzhen along as they left.

"Old Xiao, what's going on? We haven't seen each other for two years, and your first move on your brother's turf is a show of strength?" Du Wenzhen turned to gaze at Xiao Mu. Now that there were no outsiders around, he spoke without reservation.

"You still have the nerve to say that, Old Du. Aren't you the director of all the errands at the Great Tang ruins? Doesn't the Archives fall under your jurisdiction too? You've turned the Archives into such a mess, don't you have any responsibility? Aren't you afraid Headquarters will investigate you if this continues?" Xiao Mu chided Du Wenzhen with irritation.

This was only possible because of their good relationship; otherwise, he wouldn't say such things casually to anyone.

"Haha, I knew you'd bring this up, Old Xiao," Du Wenzhen chuckled and glanced at Xiao Mu playfully. "Old Xiao, you didn't think I was the only one in charge of the Archives, did you? The matters of the Archives aren't my responsibility. No, I can't even intervene in the specific affairs."

"No way?"

Xiao Mu was stunned by this but soon looked at Du Wenzhen incredulously. "You're the head of all errands, and you can't intervene in the Archives' matters?"

"It's a long story!"

Du Wenzhen sighed helplessly, "You know about the Grand Elders, right?"

"Old acquaintances," Xiao Mu smiled slightly.

Seeing through Xiao Mu's attitude toward the Grand Elders, Du Wenzhen laughed, "Besides me, there's a deputy director in the errands department. This deputy director is a relative of Yan Ming, one of the Grand Elders."

"Now, this deputy director handles almost all the errands. I've been sidelined as the director."

A glint of coldness flashed inadvertent in Xiao Mu's eyes. The Grand Elders are always stirring things up everywhere, and even a random relative dares to abuse their power at the Great Tang ruins.

Du Wenzhen continued, "The tickets for the Archives entrance were set by this deputy director."

"Not only that, the deputy director also exploits his authority by releasing the tickets early to scalpers, who sell them at higher prices."

"You heard what that person said just now, right? He said he could only keep five percent of the ticket sales, while twenty-five percent went to the Archives' workers, twenty percent to himself, and the largest share of fifty percent went to that deputy director."

"That's too greedy!"

Xiao Mu was somewhat surprised, and also shocked.

Du Wenzhen, the head, only gets twenty percent, while the deputy director takes fifty percent all to himself.

It seemed that Du Wenzhen's degree of being sidelined was far more severe than he had imagined.

Du Wenzhen sighed again, "Actually, it's not just the Archives. The Miscellaneous Affairs Department, the Treasure Pavilion, and even the True Realm Affairs Office are being covertly manipulated by this deputy director to control resources and seize benefits."

"True Realm Affairs Office? That also falls under your errands department's jurisdiction?"

Xiao Mu was a bit surprised. In recent days, he had heard about several matters related to the True Realm Affairs Office.

"Oh come on, Old Xiao, you've been away from the Great Tang ruins too long and are really out of touch. If our errands don't manage the True Realm Affairs Office, who does? Do you really think that transitioning from the Mortal Realm to the True Realm is that significant to the higher-ups?" Du Wenzhen laughed as he spoke.

Xiao Mu was silent. In the past, transitioning from the Mortal Realm to the True Realm was indeed significant. However, with the abundant resources now, the difficulty of such transitions had greatly decreased. For Headquarters, the True Realm Mutated Beings were evidently no longer as valued as they used to be.

"Didn't the True Realm Affairs Office recently hold an exam to qualify the transition from the Mortal Realm to the True Realm?"

Xiao Mu remembered some news he had heard from Qi Rong.

"Ha, you know about that too?" Du Wenzhen looked at Xiao Mu with some surprise, "But the True Realm selection is also not managed by me; it's handled by that same relative of Yan Ming."

"As the head of errands, I still have a few spots in my hand. Old Xiao, do you have any relatives? If you have relatives who want to transition to the True Realm, let me know early and I'll save spots for you. Given our brotherly relationship, just say the word, and getting ten or eight spots is no trouble."

"Thanks, but there's no need."

Xiao Mu shook his head; he didn't need any spots and didn't have any relatives wanting to transition to the True Realm.

At the same time, he couldn't help but ponder,

Qi Rong had to bankrupt herself for a single True Realm spot, forced to play a decorative role in someone else's home, while Du Wenzhen could casually promise ten or eight spots.

And this is even with Du Wenzhen being sidelined. If he weren't, or considering the deputy director's clout, how many spots could be covertly allocated?

As they spoke, they reached the office hall, and Du Wenzhen gestured for Xiao Mu to enter first.

Just as Xiao Mu was about to step into the office hall, his gaze inadvertently swept past Du Wenzhen's face, noticing a slightly mischievous look, like someone anticipating a show.

Xiao Mu felt a twitch in his heart.

Knowing Du Wenzhen well, Xiao Mu was fully aware that this guy was never up to any good. Now, this sudden expression left no doubt that he was up to mischief.

So, intrigued, Xiao Mu scrutinized Du Wenzhen.

With this scrutiny, he acutely observed that Du Wenzhen had extended all his authority beyond himself.

Du Wenzhen had created a protective bubble of authority around his body.

"Old Du, you... ah, ugh, this smell, this stench, Old Du, you're messing with me? Ugh!"

As Xiao Mu noticed Du Wenzhen's tactic, he began to step into the office hall while questioning Du Wenzhen directly.

But just halfway through his question, his nose was suddenly assaulted by an exceedingly foul smell, a mix of dead fish, smelly feet, and bug stench.

Xiao Mu was overcome by the stench and vomited on the spot.

"Haha! Old Xiao, is it pleasant? Does it smell good?"

Feeling his prank had succeeded, Du Wenzhen couldn't help but laugh heartily at Xiao Mu.

"Are you looking for trouble? Old Du, did you dare to use the Blackwood Bottle against me?"

Xiao Mu cursed Du Wenzhen angrily, while urgently summoning his authority to form a protective cover, cutting off the smell from the Blackwood Bottle.

"Calm down, calm down, Old Xiao, breathe it in, it's nothing to do with me."

Du Wenzhen hastily distanced himself from the blame.

"Ugh!"

Once again retching, Xiao Mu swiftly used his divine sense to erase memory associated with the smell of the Blackwood Bottle.

With the smell and memory simultaneously cut off, Xiao Mu finally felt a bit better.

Then, he noticed the smell was indeed unrelated to Du Wenzhen; it was emanating from a large office across the distance.

Xiao Mu specifically used his divine sense to observe that office.

The office was huge, undoubtedly the largest one here, but unfortunately, at that moment, it was empty.

"Hello, Director Du!"

A young female worker in her twenties wearing a light blue uniform smiled gracefully, greeting Du Wenzhen, and walked past the two men.

When Xiao Mu's gaze fell on the young female worker, his face turned a shade of green, and his eyes instinctively drifted to her chest.

This female worker in the light blue uniform had a black wooden bottle hanging from her chest, with the bottle cap still open.

Blackwood Bottle?

Xiao Mu's stomach churned.

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