In the washroom, Brandon, who had drunk the entire cup of pale red liquid, placed the cup on the sink and leaned on the mirror, beginning to pant heavily.
As the medicine he took gradually took effect, Brandon's breathing became smoother and smoother, eventually returning to normal.
Gradually raising his head, Brandon looked at himself in the mirror, the distortion in his expression had faded, and everything was the same as before.
"Praise the Blood Cup..."
He murmured softly, then stood properly in front of the sink and began to tidy up the traces on it.
After finishing, he wiped his soaked cuffs, then took out the test tube containing the red powder and examined it carefully.
On the test tube, subtle inscriptions and crescent symbols were faintly carved.
Although extremely faint, it could be seen that this test tube possessed a certain hidden effect from the "Shadow".
'Phew... if the number of Hui Jian Lamps keeps increasing like this, this thing won't be enough.
By then, it will be impossible to avoid them.
Increasing the number of Lights so recklessly... James seems to have noticed something.
I need to go back and report tonight...'
Thinking this, Brandon put the test tube with the powder back and twisted the door open, walking out of the washroom.
Afterward, he slowly returned to his workstation, deliberately bypassing areas with abundant Hui Jian Lamp light along the way.
Soon after, Brandon returned to his seat.
'Now I just need to wait for work to end...'
As time passed bit by bit, the An Yin Bureau finally reached closing time.
Except for the Hunter team members who still had tasks in the city, most administrative staff could leave work at this time, including Brandon.
After locking his desk, Brandon stood up and chose one of the many hidden exits to enter.
After climbing a flight of stairs, Brandon arrived in front of a closed door.
Opening the door, he emerged from a secluded storage room on the first floor of a building next to the Cypress Fir Building.
Like many people leaving work to go home, Brandon, dressed in plain clothes, walked out of the building and headed forward on the street as night fell, preparing to find a place to hail a carriage home.
Brandon hadn't walked two steps on the sidewalk when, amidst the crowd, a scruffy stray Black Dog emerged.
He sniffed the ground all the way, approaching Brandon, eventually sniffing at Brandon's trouser leg, and then sniffing upward along his trouser leg.
Feeling the movement at his feet, Brandon frowned and looked down, just in time to see the stray dog at his feet also looking up at him.
For a moment, man and dog stared at each other.
"Where did this dog come from?
Get lost!"
Seeing the dirty Black Dog at his feet, Brandon directly kicked at him.
However, the Black Dog nimbly dodged Brandon's kick with a flash, then darted away and disappeared into the crowd.
Seeing the fleeing stray dog, Brandon didn't pay it much mind.
Instead, he walked to the roadside as usual, waited for about ten minutes, then waved down a carriage and got in.
Riding the carriage, Brandon began to travel along the streets of Igwinte, and above the carriage he was riding, a crow was standing at that moment.
...
Tens of meters behind the carriage Brandon was riding, another carriage was also moving forward.
The coachman was a man wearing a top hat with a gloomy, pale face, and inside the carriage, the white-haired girl in a black dress sat steadily, a slight smile on her lips.
"Finally found him...
the 'Cup' addict..."
Sitting on the carriage seat, Dorothy said with a smile.
Now, the Holy Communion Society's mole within the Iggwente Secret Agency had finally been located by her.
In fact, for a long time, Dorothy had been thinking about a question: How did the Holy Communion Society manage to plant moles within the An Yin Bureau?
Logically speaking, an organization like the An Yin Bureau couldn't possibly have strict vetting measures when recruiting people, and they would absolutely not recruit publicly.
It was more likely that they conducted internal selections within the mundane police system.
It was very difficult for the Holy Communion Society to plant spies through the An Yin Bureau's recruitment methods.
Firstly, the other party did not recruit publicly, making the channel for planting difficult to find, and secondly, the review was strict.
Another point was that through contact over the past period, Dorothy felt that these "Cup" society members were somewhat crazy, not quite right in the head, unlike people who could handle the delicate task of training spies.
Furthermore, spies planted through the opponent's recruitment methods were usually small fry and could not access valuable important intelligence.
However, during the Burton case, the spy's reaction speed was very fast, immediately sending a message to the Holy Communion Society, which proved that the spy's position would not be too low.
Based on the above deductions, Dorothy roughly ruled out the possibility that the Holy Communion Society meticulously trained a spy from scratch and planted them into the An Yin Bureau through corresponding recruitment methods.
After excluding this possibility, there was only one way left for the Holy Communion Society to plant spies in the An Yin Bureau.
That was what they were better at and more adept at... corruption...
That's right, in Dorothy's mind, the Holy Communion Society should have known the identity of an original An Yin Bureau member through some opportunity, and then corrupted him through various means.
Dorothy had already witnessed their methods with Clifford, using Spirit Sight and "Cup" medicine together, making it easy to fall victim without any defense, leaving people defenseless.
After being corrupted, that An Yin Bureau member would be completely controlled by the Holy Communion Society.
As long as the Holy Communion Society threatened to cut off the supply of "Cup" medicine, the corrupted member would have no choice but to obediently work for the Holy Communion Society, becoming the Holy Communion Society's eyes and ears within the An Yin Bureau.
Dorothy understood that the Holy Communion Society wanted to corrupt her in order to corrupt Grego.
Since the Holy Communion Society was willing to spend a lot of energy and resources on this plan, they must be clear about the benefits once this plan succeeded.
And why they could clearly define this plan and understand the benefits was very likely because they had successful cases before.
After figuring this out, Dorothy's thinking on how to catch the mole became much clearer, and she had a corresponding plan.
The first step in implementing her plan was to obtain "Cup" medicine.
Dorothy first obtained "Cup" medicine from Clifford by pretending to be corrupted, and then, relying on the "Stone" medicine for detoxification, Dorothy determined the approximate strength of "Cup"'s addictiveness through self-experimentation.
The result of the experiment was that with her body, after taking "Cup" medicine for the first time, a strong and unbearable hunger and thirst had developed after three hours.
If Dorothy's first dose only lasted for three hours before she couldn't bear it, then the dependency for someone who takes it long-term would only be stronger, and this cycle would only be shorter.
And a workday is far longer than three hours...
This means that the corrupted mole in the An Yin Bureau must have drug cravings during work hours, so he must carry "Cup" medicine with him to secretly take it to suppress the addiction that could flare up at any time.
Now that she knew the mole carried the medicine with him, the rest was simple.
Dorothy had already spent several days investigating the hidden entrances and exits of the An Yin Bureau beforehand.
She only needed to set up canine Corpse Puppets on the streets near the gathering point and use the dogs' strong sense of smell to search for the smell of "Cup" medicine during the An Yin Bureau's work hours.
The "Cup" medicine given by Clifford happened to serve as a scent sample at this time.
It can be said that Dorothy's mole-catching operation was entirely based on the premise of obtaining "Cup" medicine from Clifford.
Dorothy risked acting with Clifford not just for the secret transmission.
The transcendent senses of animal Corpse Puppets belong to the category of precise control.
Dorothy could fully enable them after using the Spirituality of "enlightenment"; before that, she could only use them partially.
And Dorothy had previously used the Knower's powerful memory to remember the appearance of almost all An Yin Bureau members; she wouldn't miss a single person.
Thus, Dorothy used various methods to find the spy and mole planted by the Red Communion Society in the Iggwente Secret Agency.
Now, she needed to use this as a breakthrough to obtain more intelligence.