"I have good news for you—"

"Just now, the closed-circuit mainframe information stolen from South Bay Plaza... has been deciphered."

Leaving the auditorium.

Chu Ling's voice immediately rang out.

"I've searched for this file. Take a look."

An automatically decompressing data packet popped up on Gu Shen's glasses operating interface. A series of data streamed down, and one of the files was opened.

"This is..." Gu Shen was stunned.

"The introducers of the Chengxin Society's Nantang entrants... are all here."

A series of names and files, connected to another series of names and files.

Vast amounts of information.

Gu Shen felt a little dizzy looking at it.

This was one of the most important pieces of data from the Chengxin Society's Nantang in the past decade.

Finally, there was a lead!

Shi Li's introducer was a crucial link to finding Xiao.

On the other side of the Deep Sea, information retrieval was proceeding rapidly. Soon, two files popped up in front of Gu Shen...

"Shi Li, male, 27 years old, joined the Chengxin Society's Nantang Fifth Group... Introducer: Zhu He."

The second file was Zhu He's—

"Zhu He, male, died in the New Calendar year 628... Introducer: None."

What?

What a joke… Gu Shen felt as if he was being mocked by the person who entered the information across the screen.

"Shi Li joined the Chengxin Society in 628. His introducer, Zhu He, died suddenly of heart disease in 628. Although the probability is small... Transcendents can also die from sudden illnesses," Chu Ling said slowly. "Of course, I don't think this is the real cause of Zhu He's death."

"Obviously, although this closed-circuit mainframe records important information about the Chengxin Society, it is clearly not thorough enough when it comes to verifying key information. As the Chengxin Society grows stronger, more and more people need to be audited, and Nantang cannot review backgrounds one by one. So after Shi Li entered the Chengxin Society, Zhu He's death naturally became just an accident, a coincidence. No one would suspect anything was wrong."

"Zhu He's introducer is 'None'?"

"Chen Mei's introducer is also 'None'," Chu Ling said. "Generally, joining the Chengxin Society requires an introducer... unless they are a sudden emergence, a powerful figure who is directly accepted. Zhu He is such a powerful figure. He has a very strong offensive-type talent and was once arrested by the Prison Bureau. After being released from prison, he was directly absorbed by the Chengxin Society's Nantang. His nickname is 'Red Lightning.'"

"The information is interrupted..." Gu Shen knew that this could not be a coincidence.

The only explanation was that Xiao had thought of this day when introducing Shi Li.

Even the information entered into the closed-circuit mainframe might be exposed.

So, he made everything perfect.

"No... the information is not interrupted..." Chu Ling said solemnly, "I have retrieved Zhu He's detailed file from the Third Bureau. Do you know how he was arrested by the Prison Bureau back then?"

Gu Shen listened quietly.

"Thanks to 'Zhou Yu'," Chu Ling said. "Red Lightning encountered the genius adjudicator from Yinghai District, and his career ended黯然落幕. However, he did not commit any major crimes and was released after three years..."

"Zhou Yu?"

The clues that could not be connected before suddenly connected at this moment.

Gu Shen recalled Chen Mei's reaction when he saw Zhou Yu's photo… If Zhou Yu was a missing link in the clues to finding Xiao, then filling in this link would make the information and logic complete enough.

"I'm just offering a guess..." Chu Ling said, "Zhou Yu is not dead. He is still alive. Of course, there is currently no evidence to prove this... and based on Deep Sea's assessment of Zhou Yu's personality, he has no reason to do these things. But, if Zhou Yu is still alive, then many things that cannot be explained by common sense will all have an explanation."

"Assuming he is still alive, then he is the one who taught Chen Mei his martial arts... and everything about the Bloodfire Explosion is also explained."

No matter how the adjudicator envoys checked, they did not detect any violent surges of transcendent elements at the scene.

Because... there was no transcendent battle at all.

All of this was Zhou Yu's own performance. He disappeared in that fire and changed his identity. As a 'concealment', he erased Zhou Yexin's memory, which is why Zhou Yu's face was lost in the dream.

This guess… perfectly fills in all the inconsistencies.

"But I always feel... there are still some things that are not right."

Gu Shen murmured, "Zhou Yu's file, can you check it? I want to know, what is his ability?"

"Zhou Yu's file..."

Chu Ling's voice slowly said, "I'll give it a try."

When he went to visit Zhou Yexin with Judge Tang Qingquan, Gu Shen wanted to see Zhou Yu's file... At that time, what he was curious about was what kind of power this genius adjudicator possessed to be evaluated as quasi "S" level.

Knowing the specific transcendent ability would allow him to guess what kind of battle took place at the scene of the Bloodfire Explosion.

And the judge's reply was very surprising.

Tang Qingquan said that he did not have enough authority to view it.

"The authority is very high... at the same level as Han Dang..." Chu Ling first suppressed and then raised her voice, with a hint of playfulness, "But this time I am confident in unlocking the authority."

"...Eh?"

Previously, all of Han Dang's key files were locked, and Chu Ling was helpless.

"After the Deep Sea system upgrade, you have also become stronger?" Gu Shen asked with a smile.

"You can understand it that way... but I don't guarantee that I can unlock everything. If it's just to view Zhou Yu's 'transcendent ability', it shouldn't be a problem," Chu Ling whispered. "This guy's file is very strange. Deep Sea has completely blocked it, and even the most basic information cannot be查阅. This is not the treatment a normal dead person should receive."

Gu Shen turned into a small alley.

He smiled, just about to say something.

On the other side of the alley, a woman suddenly appeared walking very quickly. She was a middle-aged woman, dressed plainly, with her hands hanging down, seemingly carrying a heavy object. From her clothes, it could be seen that she was not a permanent resident near the Grand Capital Freedom Auditorium.

Gu Shen frowned slightly and stepped aside to make way.

"Thank you..."

The middle-aged woman did not accelerate after approaching Gu Shen, but walked very slowly. She kept her head lowered the whole time, until the last moment of passing by did she slowly raise it, revealing a friendly and terrifying smiling expression.

What she was carrying was…

Gu Shen's pupils contracted.

"Boom!"

A violent explosion sounded from the alley. The two narrow stone walls were instantly destroyed by the fire, and a majestic blazing wave rose into the air, actually condensing into a small mushroom cloud.

In this extremely short moment, the area around the alley was swept by the impact. A visible ripple swept past, and small and medium-sized vehicles were lifted up in place, then fell heavily.

…

…

Gu Shen's ears were filled with noise. Countless sounds poured into his ears: the ear-piercing honking of vehicles rising and falling, the sizzling sound of burning flames, Chu Ling's concerned shouts, and that sentence that still lingered in his ears, from the passing woman.

"Thank you..."

It was actually just a brief moment, but it felt like a long, long time.

The enormous power of the explosives bloomed at extremely close range.

Gu Shen's reaction speed could not have been faster.

The Ruler of Truth was activated instantly, and telekinesis turned into a barrier. But there was no time to wrap up all the crazed believers of the Everlasting Foundation like last time... The only thing he could do was to prop up a shield and resist the explosion as much as possible, so that he would not bear the full frontal impact.

But in 0.01 seconds, he was pushed out by the enormous impact, as if there were hands of a god.

These hands should have torn his body apart, but now they were blocked by the Truth Barrier, leaving only one percent of the residual power. Perhaps not even one percent, but when it landed on Gu Shen, it felt like a hammer weighing ten thousand jun.

He smashed through an entire section of the alley's stone wall. His ribs should be broken... but fortunately, his mind could still function clearly, and the Ruler of Truth was still in the activated state.

Gu Shen stared intently at the alley after the explosion. In the rubble and ruins, the middle-aged woman who had given him a "sincere" smile had been炸得连骨灰都不剩下了... The Truth Barrier resisted the damage from one direction, and under the激荡 of the reaction force, she should have been炸成了齑粉 in an instant.

Transcendents are powerful, and transcendents are also fragile... No matter how strong their abilities are, this is still a mortal body after all.

"Is it a coincidence... or premeditated... When did they start盯上 me..."

Gu Shen wiped the blood from the corner of his lips.

No one else knew about his meeting with Tsuk鬼, so this explosion attack could not have been premeditated.

The compass in his arms trembled slightly.

Gu Shen resisted the urge to crush the compass and slowly took it out. The dirty compass slowly became as clear as a mirror. The other end of the mirror reflected the current world of the alley, the collapsed stones, and the burning Bloodfire.

"Gu Shen... You're lucky. It looks like you only broke a few unimportant bones."

The Bloodfire Master's laughter slowly sounded.

"Two ribs are broken, no big deal..."

Gu Shen was expressionless. He slowly pressed on the wound with force, and the Ruler of Truth幻化 a gentle light, flowing over the wound, reducing the pain a lot. "You seem to be just a fool hiding behind the scenes, only knowing how to故弄玄虚... Because transcendents are monitored by Deep Sea, you choose to mentally manipulate ordinary people. On the surface, you are praising the old era, but in reality, your technical level can only manufacture weapons from the old era. Your funds shouldn't be very充裕, or rather, the funds you can动用 are limited."

"Do you know that if that just now had been a red-silver bomb, would I have been炸成几瓣?" Gu Shen sneered. "Anyway, it wouldn't have been as simple as just breaking two ribs... You should have a base dedicated to manufacturing TNT dynamite... Let me think, it can only be in the old city. The woman just now also started from the old city."

"What's funny is... your information channels are very widespread, but also very limited. If you had known I would come to the Freedom Auditorium, you wouldn't have waited until now to arrange the assassination, and there wouldn't have been just a mere explosion." Gu Shen murmured. "A madman like you wouldn't be able to do something like blowing up the entire Freedom Auditorium."

"So, I guess you borrowed some of Deep Sea's permissions. This part of the permission can give you a lot of freedom, but unfortunately, it is not always effective. The system is still constantly upgrading. I think the permissions you borrowed should be getting less and less, right?"

Gu Shen smiled and said, "Since you like the old era, you should滾回 the old era. Why do you still want to learn from young people to go online?"

The Bloodfire Master's laughter disappeared little by little.

"Not talking anymore? Did I戳中 your weak spot?"

Gu Shen smiled and said, "Okay, I confess, actually everything just now was just my瞎猜的... I thought borrowing permissions was something only the protagonist could do. I didn't expect a guy like you, who has no morals and no bottom line, to be able to enjoy this kind of privilege..."

"Gu Shen."

The Bloodfire Master opened his mouth very softly and said, "I will make you pay the price for your words today."

"Still the same old-fashioned high explosives?"

Gu Shen stared at the compass and said, "You don't think... I'll obediently play this turn-based game with you until the end of the game, right?"

The Bloodfire Master fell silent.

And this silence made Gu Shen even more confident in his heart.

The monitoring video of the Special Operations Team has already spread, but Xiao has not received the news... This guy's information channels are very strange, sometimes well-informed and sometimes not.

"Fool... You're dying, but you don't even know it."

Gu Shen said softly in the end.

He stood up, raised one foot, and stepped on the face of the Bloodfire Master in the compass mirror.

He用力碾了碾.

The compass was very sturdy, making咔嚓咔嚓 sounds, but it did not receive any damage. No matter how much he碾, he was just venting the anger in his heart.

Sirens sounded in the distance.

The explosion near the Freedom Auditorium attracted the attention of many people.

Gu Shen saw several familiar faces in the crowd rushing over... Teacher, Senior Sister, and Crow.

Seeing these people, he felt a sense of peace in his heart for some reason.

Gu Shen covered his waist, gently sucked in a cold breath, and咬牙 said.

"Damn it... It really hurts."