Sakura Prayer Country, Bandzhen.
Guan Tong looked toward the second floor of the shelter, a faint sense of restlessness stirring within him.
He had assumed Shi Jingyi's secluded meditation would only take a few days, maybe a week at most. She had made the same speculation herself.
But now more than half a month had passed, and she was still in a state of deep meditation, showing no signs of coming out anytime soon.
Guan Tong's restlessness wasn't because Shi Jingyi's continued seclusion meant his main body couldn't leave to handle other matters, forcing his Shadow to run around everywhere instead.
He was worried that prolonged seclusion might cause problems with her body, like falling into a state of cultivation deviation or demonic possession.
And more dangerous still was the time factor.
If Shi Jingyi remained in seclusion until the current rule ended, dragging things into the next rule...
Guan Tong thought to himself, "If she really hasn't finished by then, I'll have no choice but to forcefully interrupt her."
Compared to the danger of unknown rules, Guan Tong would rather bear the risk of disrupting her seclusion.
"Troupe Leader."
At that moment, Uenoshi arrived, bringing him a new piece of news.
"The Human Consortium has announced an online meeting the day after tomorrow. Committee members from all countries must attend, including Sakura Prayer."
"Human Consortium meeting?"
Guan Tong had been sitting on a bench in front of the shelter's entrance. Upon hearing this, he stood up, surprise showing on his face.
"I thought that organization had become a shell of its former self by now."
He wasn't the only one who thought this way. Ever since Bruce had committed all sorts of reactionary acts while ignoring the Human Consortium's warnings and restraints, many people had stopped taking the organization seriously.
In truth, the organization had played a significant role in its early days, including the period that followed. It had genuinely coordinated the actions of various nations, greatly benefiting humanity as a whole.
But as the number of member states dwindled, its credibility had steadily declined.
Now there were only seven countries left in the entire world, four of which had average populations of less than five million... With such a national and demographic structure, a large international coordination organization indeed seemed cumbersome.
With only seven countries in total, if there was truly a problem that needed negotiation, a small meeting or direct bilateral communication between two nations would suffice.
There was no need for the hassle of all committee members taking turns traveling to a specific country for meetings like in the early days.
Moreover, under the influence of ideologies and events such as the "quota list theory," "memory transfer," and "Ascendant cyborgs," the great banner of human unity had become increasingly difficult to keep aloft.
"I wonder if Bruce will send someone to attend," Uenoshi said. "That committee member Mary from Suroma was absent from the last meeting."
"Probably not," Guan Tong speculated. "This meeting is clearly aimed at Suroma. That woman named Mary wouldn't want to walk into a barrage of criticism."
Uenoshi nodded, then told Guan Tong another piece of news.
"Over the past couple of days, the Serpent Hair Society has caught a few guests who were secretly persuading some Sakura Prayer citizens to immigrate to Suroma. They were offering a down payment of Ascension Coins and promising that larger final payments would be delivered once they arrived."
Guan Tong let out a cold laugh upon hearing this. "Calling Suroma a den of devils right now wouldn't be an exaggeration. Forget collecting any final payment once you get there - you'd be lucky to not become a test subject for all sorts of rules."
"That den of devils should be destroyed as soon as possible." Uenoshi spoke each word with heavy emphasis.
Guan Tong looked at her, knowing that her mother had been captured by Yuzawa Jun back then and turned into an experiment subject.
Even though that mother had abandoned her own child, she still harbored deep-seated hatred toward Yuzawa Jun and this kind of forced human experimentation.
Over in Suroma now, the forced experiments with actual evidence alone included Ascendant cyborgs. Guan Tong had personally witnessed them forcing Ascendants to sign modification consent forms. That couldn't be faked.
And who knew what other unseemly experiments were happening in the shadows? Given Bruce's deranged nature, such experiments were certainly plentiful.
But this time, Suroma's astronomical purchase of anchor items, coupled with their unscrupulous methods of both contacting other nations' officials to buy people and hiring large numbers of guests to privately recruit... this was unusual.
Could Suroma's research department have discovered some new value in anchor items?
Guan Tong thought it was possible.
Even though he could see hidden rules, that didn't include all information about rules and rule products.
Just like back in the [World Number One] rule, the hidden rule had stated that one could seize another's number one ranking, but it hadn't warned that doing so would result in a "Mind Lock" restriction afterward.
Since the hidden function of the "Coordinate Resonance Anchor" was worth Bruce going to such great lengths, it meant this function was definitely significant.
This brought back a thought Guan Tong had previously abandoned.
Why not just try using my [Wordless Book] to see if I can create one... Even if what gets created is a bound item that can't be traded, I could still use it myself.
"Troupe Leader, regarding the academy matter, has the Beixing government contacted you?" Uenoshi asked.
She had wanted to ask since learning about that incident from Guan Tong the day before yesterday, feeling that there might be more trouble to come.
"No. To be honest, I'm a bit puzzled myself."
Guan Tong had killed Zhou Qinfeng in front of Silver Fox and others, and had also declared that he would continue to pursue Duanmu Feng's accountability.
He had assumed the Countermeasures Research Office would fly into a rage upon learning of this and contact him to demand answers. Yet two days had passed with no news at all, and Zhang Minglu and the others hadn't even sent him any private messages.
"Looking on the bright side, maybe they've come around and realized there's nothing wrong with what I did."
"With all due respect, that's unlikely." Uenoshi said bluntly.
"Perhaps. But even if I had a hundred chances to do it again, I'd kill that old bastard on the spot every single time. Shi Jingyi once saved him from Duanmu Feng's fists, and what did that old bastard do in return?"
Guan Tong's eyes turned icy cold. In his view, Zhou Qinfeng's betrayal of Shi Jingyi was already a death sentence. But the old bastard had also repaid kindness with enmity, which made his crime even worse.
"He deserved to die. It's just that... I thought you would capture him alive, Troupe Leader, interrogate him to find the mastermind behind this, or keep him alive until Shi Jingyi comes out of seclusion so she could personally execute the traitor." Uenoshi said.
"There's nothing to interrogate. The mastermind behind this is obviously Bruce, or perhaps add that Beixing native Han Qiu who likes to stir things up from the middle. They were already my enemies to begin with. As for keeping Zhou Qinfeng alive until Shi Jingyi comes out of seclusion..."
Guan Tong paused, then shook his head and said, "She's different from us. She doesn't have that many lives on her hands... And besides, Shangyuan, to be honest, if we kept Zhou Qinfeng until then, and that old bastard started crying and begging for mercy when he saw Shi Jingyi, I'm afraid she might soften and spare his life."
Guan Tong understood Shi Jingyi. He knew that despite her stern exterior, she was actually prone to softening, and sometimes she couldn't bring herself to be ruthless.
Keeping Zhou Qinfeng alive until she came out of seclusion would actually be worse. He'd end up having to do the killing anyway, so why add to Shi Jingyi's misery?
"But speaking of this matter, the only one I'm worried about is Chen Na," Guan Tong said. "I had her hide my presence at the time, but I didn't think about the fact that if the Countermeasures Research Office does a review afterward, they might very well notice this loophole."
Uenoshi was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.
Indeed, with Chen Na's special perception marking ability, she should normally have been able to detect Guan Tong's Mind Power in the vicinity ahead of time.
"Then will she be punished?" Uenoshi asked.
"I don't know. But I've already sent Silver Fox a message, asking her to help."
"Xiao Na has always said she wants to act together with me, but I always thought it was too dangerous and never agreed..." Guan Tong said thoughtfully. "Maybe in the future, I can agree to it. Is staying in the Countermeasures Research Office really safe?"
Even Zhou Qinfeng could betray them, so what about everyone else? Back when Guan Tong was speculating about who the mole was, he had guessed every teacher possible, never once suspecting that the mole would turn out to be the Dean himself.
He had made the same mistake as most people. Subconsciously, he had assumed that someone with all the benefits and guarantees of the Dean's position could never betray anyone.
Yet reality didn't conform to common sense.
This made Guan Tong begin to think that perhaps a large collective could provide comprehensive and complete safeguards, but because such a collective had too many people, trust would always be an incredibly difficult problem to solve.
In contrast, Guan Tong's Trace Origin Travel Troupe, as a small organization, had few members and only average safeguards, but there was no trust issue whatsoever.
"Maybe in the future, letting Chen Na come here would be a better place for her."