The Taoist had just finished and was preparing to leave, when over at the Scorching Sun Department, someone monitoring the surveillance feeds had already noticed something unusual.
Other places were easier to deal with; in the middle of the wilderness, you're not likely to see much surveillance anyway—budget can't just be burned at this rate. Even now, coverage within various population clusters isn't yet fully complete.
Upgrades, replacements for damaged units, and so on—all of it costs money every year.
The budget's already being stretched to the last penny; there's no way it can be wasted like this.
But ever since that Water Ghost surrendered to the Scorching Sun Department and mentioned the Water Monarch's resurgence, this was no longer some deserted and neglected corner.
Along the upper and lower stretches of the Huai River basin, at every critical point, there were already monitoring stations—even before a whole new batch of cameras and detection points got added in.
