"What do you want to say?"
Andrew looked at Gill, feeling inexplicably tense. He could guess that the other party was about to bring up what Joiessen had just mentioned—"the things that have already passed."
"Let's go over there."
Gill and Andrew walked to a less crowded spot.
"Andrew, since you're the holder of the array item, you must have known the launch point coordinates had changed when you activated it, right?"
Hearing Gill indeed bring this up, Andrew showed a resistant expression.
Gill continued, "At that time, Joiessen had us observers track the Mind Power appearing near the 'Bright Moon' to determine its source coordinates. In other words..."
Andrew's heart skipped a beat as he interrupted, "Gill, what exactly are you trying to say?"
"You know what I'm trying to say."
Andrew recalled Joiessen's earlier words and glared. "...I don't know, and I don't want to know!"
Gill said calmly, "Don't get angry at me. Actually, we're the same—both deceived by certain people. Our power wasn't used to do good; it was used to commit evil."
"Evil?!"
"You might not know who the target of the high-energy laser you launched was, but I do. When I detected that Mind Power frequency, I recognized it. Last time, it was what saved the *Goddess of Fortune* submarine I was on. It also caused damage to the 'Bright Moon' and ultimately made it stop ascending... But by the time I realized this, it was too late. Its owner's coordinates had already been reported to Joiessen by other observers."
Gill's words and expression stirred an unspeakable fear in Andrew's heart.
It wasn't just for Gill—he felt a vague worry for himself too.
"Gill, don't say anymore... Don't you think what you're saying is... destroying the sacrifices of those heroes? If others find out, you'll..."
"Andrew, you must have received the 'Bright Moon stopped ascending' notification before activating the item. Whether those heroes' sacrifices were necessary or not, I think you know better than anyone."
"I... No, at that time, I..."
"And even if I don't speak, the danger still exists. Don't you understand yet? We're already trapped in danger. That's why I came to you—while we still have time, we might find a way to leave." Gill said in a low voice.
"Leave?" Andrew looked confused. "How is that possible? And where would we go..."
"The world is big enough. There's nowhere to go? Suroma's reach can't extend to every corner of the world," Gill said.
Andrew thought about everything he had now. After a moment of hesitation, he shook his head firmly. "No, Gill. I can't leave! Leaving like this would be seen as treason!"
"..."
"And you don't have to leave either," Andrew continued. "No matter what, we're heroes of this operation. You, as an Ascendant with reconnaissance abilities, are a rare talent. You'll definitely be valued by the officials. And I'm a council member now. I'm a senior official. No one would dare touch me casually. You're my friend; with my protection, you won't be in danger in Suroma. Leaving would actually be more dangerous!"
***
Chen Na finished listening and silently watched Gao Liangwei for a few seconds. A glimmer of disappointment flickered in her eyes.
"Fine then. Let him keep being a council member. I hope he can last long. You and he are the same—you can't sit here and deceive yourselves in front of the thousands of innocent Suroma Ascendants who died pointlessly."
She turned and walked away. Gao Liangwei raised his hand, wanting to call her back, but after a moment, he lowered it again.
He closed his eyes, and the figures of those people appeared before him again, asking him why he had activated the item... A wave of panic washed over him, and he dared not look at those tombstones.
***
Before Gill even reached the main gate of the National Cemetery, he sensed several frequencies approaching him.
*That fast, huh...*
He sighed inwardly, calmly pulled out his phone, quickly logged into the Ascendant Home website, and sent a paragraph of text he had already prepared through a private message.
Within seconds, several Ascendants in uniforms appeared around him, forming a circle.
The leader said coldly, "Gill, we are from the Suroma Security Investigation Bureau. You are suspected of treason. Please come with us for investigation. We advise you not to put up any unnecessary resistance."
Gill calmly accepted the arrest. He was just a reconnaissance-type Ascendant, not strong in combat. There was no way he could escape from a few elite Ascendant agents of the Investigation Bureau.
He knew this likely meant the worst for him, but he had done what he had to do. That was enough.
***
The higher-ups of the Countermeasures Research Office learned the news that Guan Tong was still alive on the third day after his disappearance.
Chen Na had told them. Her exact words to Zhang Minglu were, "Brother Guan contacted me and asked me to tell you that he's still alive."
Zhang Minglu was of course overjoyed at the news and immediately went to report it to Gao Liangwei.
However, when Gao Liangwei heard it, a hint of gravity showed on his face.
Zhang Minglu was puzzled. "Director, why do you not look happy with such good news?"
"Dr. Zhang, can't you see?" Gao Liangwei countered. "Guan Tong had Chen Na relay the message instead of contacting us directly. What does that mean?"
Zhang Minglu froze, then understood after a few seconds.
"You mean... Guan Tong no longer trusts us?"
As he spoke, he realized that was indeed the case.
If their mutual trust were still the same as before, Guan Tong would have contacted him or Li Meng directly, not asked Chen Na to deliver the message.
"Could it be that he suspects we were involved in the attack on him? That we leaked his coordinates? How is that possible!"
"Dr. Zhang, I don't blame him for this," Gao Liangwei said. "He was out of contact for several days. Even if he survived, he must have been severely injured. Under such circumstances, it's hard to trust anyone when the truth is unclear."
"That may be true, but..." Zhang Minglu gave a bitter smile. "But this means the long-term cooperation we worked so hard to build is going to have problems."
Establishing a long-term cooperative relationship based on trust between the Countermeasures Research Office and Guan Tong had taken a lot of time and several rounds of adjustment. It hadn't been easy.
Now that Guan Tong had proactively cut off direct communication and gone back to the "middleman" model of having Chen Na relay messages, it was clear that his trust in the Research Office had severely declined. This would inevitably affect their original cooperation.
"What's done is done, Dr. Zhang. Don't sigh anymore. The focus now should be on finding out the truth and reversing our nation's international public opinion."
"Yes... And what about Guan Tong?"
"For now, just communicate through Chen Na. If I'm not mistaken, he probably won't contact us directly again for the time being, and his original contact methods will be discarded."
Zhang Minglu nodded helplessly. "The director is right. He seems to have stopped using his original phone number. After I learned from Chen Na that he was still alive, I sent him a private message on Ascendant Home but got no reply... Right now, the only people he can probably still trust are those he's been close with for a long time, and his organization."
Gao Liangwei suddenly asked, "Do we have a member list of his organization?"
Zhang Minglu shook his head. "No complete list. For now, we only know that Uenoshi is a member. She used to be an official Ascendant of the Sakura Prayer Country. Later, for some unknown reason, she became one of Guan Tong's trusted subordinates. Also, the young man Guan Tong sent to learn combat techniques from Dragon Soul should also be a member of that organization."
Gao Liangwei nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "I'll have the intelligence department investigate."
"Is that... necessary? As far as I know, this organization isn't a secret one. It seems Guan Tong formed it to explore the truth about the Fire Thief and the Doomsday Rules."
"Even so, a certain degree of investigation is necessary." Gao Liangwei didn't explain further and simply told Zhang Minglu to go back.
Zhang Minglu left the director's office and saw Silver Fox waiting for him not far away.
"Doctor, judging by your expression... things aren't good?" Silver Fox walked over and said.
"Yeah. We had finally established a long-term cooperation with Guan Tong, and now he's stopped contacting us directly. It's like we've regressed back to square one."
Silver Fox shrugged. "That's normal, isn't it? He almost died. His mindset must have changed. If you ask me, the Research Office was also negligent in its protection of him."
Zhang Minglu first showed a look of shame, then cursed angrily, "Who knew Suroma could be so shameless and despicable! The array attack they prepared was meant to destroy the 'Bright Moon,' and they actually used it to attack our Ascendant! And have they forgotten? Guan Tong and several of us once saved one of their cities!"
Silver Fox squinted. "I think the person who launched the attack might not have known that the target at those coordinates was 'Shadow.' Their only target was the one who made the Bright Moon stop rising."
"Yeah... the director and I have the same thought. They probably only learned the target's identity afterward. But regardless, this is a serious provocation against our Beixing. As soon as we get the evidence..."
"Evidence?" Silver Fox's expression suddenly turned strange.
"What's wrong?"
"Doctor, I don't know how you and the director see it, but from my several joint operations with Guan Tong, based on my observation and understanding of him... he's not the kind of person who would first gather evidence before retaliating after being wronged."
Zhang Minglu was stunned speechless.