"Roy is right. To be safe, we should move out as soon as possible."
"That's right. We barely survived. We can't afford to take any more risks. We need to leave now!"
Everyone hurriedly packed up their things and left. Roy dawdled until the very end, waiting until all the others had gone and only Verin remained before pulling out his phone.
Verin stared at him with a mix of confusion and anger. "What are you planning to do with your phone again?"
Roy gritted his teeth. "To be honest, I actually wanted to post a message online too. I just held back because I was worried about exposing us... But now that someone else has beaten me to it, I might as well take advantage of this opportunity."
Verin was puzzled at first, then realization dawned on her. "Roy, are you trying to contact Shadow?"
"That's right. Us hiding out in the mountains isn't a solution. Of course I fucking want revenge too, and that means we need Shadow's help."
"But didn't he refuse last time?"
"Just because he refused once, I should give up?" Roy said while quickly logging into Ascendant Home. "When I first recruited you into the band, you rejected me three whole times before you finally agreed!"
Verin: "...That was me being impulsive. Shadow isn't necessarily going to be like me."
"Whether it works or not, I have to try!"
Roy quickly typed out a long message and sent it to Guan Tong via private message on Ascendant Home. Then he smashed his own phone and helped Verin out of the cave.
The Serpent Hair Society began conducting large-scale patrols throughout Bandzhen, sweeping for fringe group members.
Whenever they found any, they conducted detailed identity registrations for every individual.
This made the group situations much more manageable. As long as they sent people for follow-up visits every few days, any unregistered individuals appearing in the groups would be discovered promptly, making it much harder for spies to infiltrate easily.
Another change was that Uenoshi no longer wore her disguise, appearing completely with her true face.
She specifically gathered the Serpent Hair Society members and removed her face covering in front of everyone.
She said she was tired of disguising herself. Disguise only brought suspicion and baseless speculation, generating distrust.
So from now on, she would no longer deceive herself or hide her appearance.
When everyone saw her face completely covered in scales, it was impossible not to feel a chill of shock.
But after the initial shock passed, they quickly accepted it.
No matter what Uenoshi looked like, everyone had seen everything she had done all along.
Outsiders might not understand, but the Serpent Hair Society members would never treat her as some kind of "snake monster."
However, a very small number of members couldn't accept it and chose to leave.
These members were almost all men. Without a doubt, they might have harbored some fantasies about the mysterious Uenoshi, thinking that joining the Serpent Hair Society might one day earn them her favor.
But when they saw her scale-covered face and neck, those fantasies immediately vanished, leaving them with no motivation to stay.
Uenoshi allowed these people to leave without obstruction.
As for the reason behind the scales, she frankly told everyone that it was due to her Mind Power bloodline ability.
Though that kind of bloodline ability was rare, there were still a few others around the world.
The defining characteristic of this ability was that it would alter the host at a biological level.
And the resulting appearance would obviously never match those anthropomorphic animal girls or boys that fit human aesthetics in animation works.
"I hope everyone in the Serpent Hair Society won't dwell too much on this matter. Just keep doing what you need to do."
"Yes!"
After the meeting, everyone dispersed.
Uenoshi stepped down from the stage and saw Guan Tong and Moon Key both standing at the side of the podium, clearly having watched the entire assembly.
"Troupe Leader, Moon."
Uenoshi nodded in greeting. The simplified form of address for "Moon Key" was at the latter's own request. She felt it was as if the people of the Children of Argan tribe were still alive.
They had all called her that - Moon or Priestess Moon.
After everything that had happened, she had now emerged from her grief and was going out more frequently.
Just as Guan Tong had said before, time would dilute sorrow. As long as one pushed through the most painful moment, time would slowly heal the wounds.
But if the grief was too intense, some people would find it hard to hold on until the end. At the peak of that emotion, they might do something irrevocable...
"Uenoshi, you spoke very well." Guan Tong said.
Uenoshi let out a slight sigh, seeming somewhat regretful.
Moon Key asked, "Is it because some people left? Those people weren't worth keeping anyway."
"That's right." Guan Tong agreed. "Those people had impure intentions. Them leaving counts as removing impurities from the organization."
Uenoshi nodded. "I know."
Afterwards, Uenoshi went to handle organizational affairs, while Guan Tong spoke privately with Moon Key about the prophecy issue.
He took out the "black dots connected by lines" diagram. "Moon, this prophetic drawing you gave me - do you know what it depicts?"
Moon Key shook her head. "No. It's just a strange image I saw in the Crystal Ball."
"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a cosmic star map." Guan Tong said.
Moon Key's face showed surprise upon hearing this. "You mean, the cosmic star map mentioned in the hidden information of this rule?"
"Exactly. It might be incomplete, but it should be part of a cosmic star map."
"But... how could I have prophesied it?"
She looked at Guan Tong as she spoke, seeming deep in thought. "Troupe Leader, you really are that Awakened One, aren't you?"
Her previous prophecies weren't entirely without a theme. Although she couldn't directly prophesy Guan Tong's future, she could make indirect prophecies centered around him.
If she had seen a cosmic star map in the Crystal Ball, it meant it was likely connected to Guan Tong in some way.
"Yes, I am one of the Awakened Ones... one of them."
"One of them? There's more than one Awakened One?"
"Yeah." Guan Tong didn't elaborate, instead steering the conversation back to the cosmic star map.
"After realizing this, I spent the past two days carefully studying your prophetic drawing multiple times, and I also looked up some galaxy data... If each black dot represents a celestial body, then it doesn't match our galaxy."
Moon Key thought for a moment after hearing this, then proposed a hypothesis:
"If it's a cosmic star map, then of course it wouldn't correspond to our galaxy, because in our galaxy, only Tianshui Star has civilization... I think only planets with civilization would be marked on it."
Guan Tong nodded. "That's right. That's what I thought too. But even so, we still can't determine which position on this map our Tianshui Star occupies."
"Even if we could determine it, what would be the point?" Moon Key said. "Humans don't have the ability for interstellar navigation. Even if we knew the location of the nearest civilized planet, we couldn't go there."
"You have a point. I'm just curious myself."
Moon Key watched Guan Tong carefully put away the prophetic drawing, and a thought stirred within her.
She remembered Adam once telling her that Guan Tong wasn't the type to seek power just for the sake of becoming stronger.
He was genuinely interested in exploring the universe and the truth behind the Fire Thief. The reason he established the Trace Origin Travel Troupe was to explore these things, not to gather a group of people to dominate and rule.
This gave birth to an idea in her mind.
Perhaps only someone like Guan Tong, who had a genuine, intense curiosity about the truth of the universe, truly had hope of "clearing" the Fire Thief's trial.
After Guan Tong put away the prophetic drawing, he brought up the matter of Suroma with Moon Key.
"These next few days, I'm planning to make a trip to Suroma."
Seeing Guan Tong's serious expression, Moon Key knew that this trip was definitely not a trivial matter.
"Is it because of the recent public opinion targeting you?"
Guan Tong was somewhat surprised. "You know about the public opinion issue too? I thought you didn't go online much."
"I did stop going online before, but in order to avenge everyone, I needed to gather information. That way, I could make more accurate prophecies."
Guan Tong thought to himself that made sense.
He remembered that Moon Key had once been a textbook "internet-addicted diviner," with a period of posting on Ascendant Home with high intensity.
It was precisely because of that period that her reputation became widely known, making her the most famous prophet in the world.
But Guan Tong knew that this might not have been a good thing for her.
If she hadn't become famous, she wouldn't have been targeted by Bruce, and she wouldn't have later made promises and gone to the grasslands to escape his control.
But on the other hand, if she hadn't become famous, she wouldn't have met Adam, wouldn't have met him, and wouldn't have met the people of the Children of Argan tribe.
It could only be said that when it came to fate and destiny, human calculations could never match the whims of heaven.
"Alright." Guan Tong said. "But this trip is to take revenge on Bruce, to completely eliminate him. The public opinion stuff is a minor matter."
"It's not a minor matter." Moon Key gently shook her head. "Because you've stayed silent all this time, the public opinion environment toward you is extremely negative right now."
"I know. But I just don't want to deal with it." Guan Tong was quite stubborn on this point, maintaining the same attitude he'd had when facing Silver Fox and Zhao Ming earlier.
"I'm sick of these people's double standards. Do you understand? Bruce's evil deeds have conclusive evidence. If an ordinary person had done those things, the public would have sentenced him to death a hundred times over...
But just because he's the King of Suroma, the public condemns him intensively when the news first breaks, then turns a blind eye afterward, as if they've tacitly agreed he has privileges and can do these things."
As Guan Tong said these words, his fists unconsciously clenched, and a surge of anger rose within him.
"Infinite harshness toward ordinary people like us, yet understanding and tolerance toward those in Superior Positions. What use is this kind of manipulated public opinion!"
Moon Key hadn't expected Guan Tong to say these things. She was silent for a long moment before speaking.
"...Troupe Leader, you're right. But you might not realize it yourself - in people's minds, you're no longer an 'ordinary person.'
In people's minds, you are the 'Superior Position' of this new era, even far more important than old-era Superior Positions like Bruce. The reason this public opinion campaign against you is so intense is because there's a truth hidden behind it."
"What do you mean?"
Guan Tong didn't quite understand Moon Key's words.
Moon Key said slowly: "Even if people don't say it out loud, they know deep down that the Awakened One has the greatest hope of clearing all the rules and surviving into that new world.
People are terrified of being abandoned by this person, of not being able to reach that new world together. That's why they attack this person under the guidance of those with ulterior motives...
Can't you feel it, Troupe Leader? The reason people attack you through public opinion is precisely because of their fear born from powerlessness over you - their fear that you won't care about the fate of the masses, that you'll only pursue your own path to clearing the trial. And the more you remain silent, the more people fear that you don't care about them at all..."