When Guan Tong had Shi Jingyi go into secluded meditation in his Wordless Book shelter, he still left Shadow at her house because he was worried about exactly this kind of situation happening.
Ever since that conversation with Silver Fox, he had suspected that someone within Beixing's official ranks might collude with Bruce for a chance to obtain memory-transfer technology, and he had remained vigilant ever since.
Now it seemed he had been right.
He looked at the five figures in gleaming silver armor on the opposite side through the vision Shadow shared with him.
Although these men hadn't shown their faces, their accents made it clear from their earlier speech that they were Suromans.
Guan Tong thought to himself that when Shi Jingyi took leave, the students only knew her reason was "personal matters," not that she was going into secluded meditation.
The only people who knew she was doing so were her colleagues, the academy teachers.
Had one of the teachers sold her out, or had someone deliberately leaked the information to others, becoming a knowing or unknowing accomplice?
With insufficient information, Guan Tong couldn't make a judgment for the moment.
But this incident undoubtedly set his rage ablaze.
Because it was far more vicious and far more despicable than the Duanmu Feng incident.
Duanmu Feng at least made a frontal move. But this traitor knew that Shi Jingyi's secluded meditation might put her into a deep trance state, cutting off her perception of external information, and therefore tried to use this opportunity to strike, avoiding a confrontation with her at full strength.
"Could it be Shadow?"
The squad guessed at the origin of the shadow at this moment, each of them tensing into a defensive stance.
Captain Chadock ordered the squad to spread out into formation.
From within the shadow came Guan Tong's chilling voice: "Not talking? That's fine. I'll find out. And when I do, I'll slaughter every last one of you."
Even though Guan Tong wasn't physically present, the killing intent emanating from his shadow already pressed down on the five men.
The mass of shadow rapidly split apart, transforming into countless hair-thin shadow lines that surged toward the five.
"Don't panic, it can't break through our defenses." Chadock said, taking the lead to dash toward the hole in the wall, "The mission is canceled, don't get entangled here!"
Chadock didn't want to fight Guan Tong here. If the commotion grew too loud, it would inevitably alert Beixing's official personnel and bring down a large force.
By then, his squad would have no chance to escape.
The other four squad members obeyed the order and charged out together. How could Guan Tong let them go? He immediately directed Shadow to intercept.
However, when the shadow lines touched the five bodies, they were repelled by a powerful elastic force.
This made Guan Tong, who was controlling Shadow from a distance, furrow his brows. He commanded Shadow to attack from different directions in its intangible form, but the result was the same, repelled every time.
He quickly realized that it wasn't that each of the five possessed barrier-type items defending against Mind Power intrusion, but rather the airtight gleaming silver armor they wore.
"Armor capable of resisting intangible shadow intrusion... it seems it was specially developed to counter me."
After Guan Tong's two attacks failed, the squad had already reached the courtyard. Captain Chadock once again produced a teleportation-type item.
This time, the teleportation item he used was clearly more advanced. The moment it was activated, the five vanished simultaneously, appearing to be an instant-use teleportation item that didn't require activating a teleportation array.
Guan Tong had intended to use Body Swap to get over there and stop them, but seeing the five teleport away, he let it go for now.
He released the vision sharing and returned to the present.
Turning to glance at the shelter behind him, he felt a brief sense of relief.
Good thing he hadn't gone along with Shi Jingyi's idea of meditating at home. Otherwise, even if he could still provide timely protection, the fighting happening around her might have disrupted her trance state.
"Who could it be..."
Guan Tong forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and made himself think calmly.
He sorted through the situation.
After Bruce issued the Level Five Warrant against him, everyone closely connected to him would become targets.
Perhaps no one knew about his romantic relationship with Shi Jingyi, but there were many who knew they were close, at least good friends.
Among these people, those who knew Shi Jingyi had taken leave for secluded meditation, the innermost circle was her colleagues at the academy.
Thanks to his experience substituting as a teacher for a few months, Guan Tong still remembered who the teachers at the academy were.
Faces flashed through his mind one by one. Was the traitor among them?
Could it be Duan Weifeng, whose arm she had broken? Was he selling her out to Suroma out of spite for revenge?
...No, Jingyi told me that she announced her leave for secluded meditation after driving Duanmu Feng away.
If it were another teacher, what would their motive be for selling her out?
Only for the high bounty?
As academy teachers, they enjoyed high-standard welfare and protection from Beixing's officials. All things considered, wasn't that far superior to the Ascension Coins offered as bounty?
Beixing was now showing every sign of becoming the world's number one power. The high-standard protection from such a formidable collective was far more useful than Ascension Coins that others could forcibly seize through strength.
Besides, there were so many cautionary tales, like the prince of Andai State, or the powerful figures of small nations. Which of them hadn't once held a fortune in Ascension Coins?
Yet when they encountered terrifying Rules, or powerful enemies closing in that led to the fall of their nations and families, no matter how many Ascension Coins these people held, they couldn't buy a way to survive.
With these brutal cases right before their eyes, Guan Tong didn't believe the academy teachers would be so muddle-headed.
"Looking at it this way, the one who sold her out must have done it for something more important than a bounty. Could it be the memory-related technology in Suroma's possession..."
Guan Tong pondered for a moment, then took out his tablet.
Opening the private messages interface on Ascendant Home, he looked at several official personnel accounts, hesitating over whether to send them a message.
Shi Jingyi had an official identity. With something like this happening, even if she wasn't present and hadn't been harmed, the officials would still need to investigate seriously.
An assassination attempt on one of the academy's main lecturers by a professional Suroman squad was, at a serious level, a spark more than enough to ignite the flames of war between two nations.
But if he notified the officials, what if there was a problem within their ranks, and the traitor received the information at the same time?
Just like "Big Sister" Jiang Lanying back then, she held a high position within the officials, and could learn of any intelligence at the first moment.
After weighing it repeatedly, Guan Tong still closed the private messages.
He would solve this himself. Unless the officials discovered the problem on their own, he wouldn't take the initiative to request cooperation.
Just as he was about to put away his tablet, his finger brushed across the Casual Chat section. As the interface switched over, a post on the front page caught his attention.
"Stop Cowering! Calling on All Suromans to Unite and Overthrow the Mad King Bruce!"
Guan Tong clicked into the post, which had been made by a Suroman.
The content exposed the large-scale coercion events currently happening in Suroma.
The official departments under Bruce's command were forcibly requiring ordinary people in every district to participate in door-opening experiments, for the purpose of obtaining Coordinate Resonance Anchors.
This forced requirement had already claimed the lives of a large number of Suromans. As for those who refused to comply, the officials would send modified Ascendants and war weapons to suppress them by force, and would severely punish anyone who dared to make this public.
The poster concluded with a passionate call: "I've posted this knowing I may be killed for it, but I have to say it anyway.
King Bruce doesn't care about the lives of us ordinary Suromans at all. If we don't fight back, we'll all be killed by him. Wake up, Suromans!"
"To the officials of the Human Consortium nations: if you can see my post, I beg you to consider the survival of humanity as a whole and unite to stop Bruce.
This Mad King is a complete anti-humanist. After he's done ruining Suroma, his next step will inevitably be to ruin the whole world. If he isn't stopped, human civilization itself may be destroyed by a man like him!"