Early morning, before the sun had risen.
Guan Tong erged from the dormitory assigned to him by the academy, locked the door, and hung the key on the doorknob.
He hadn't stayed in this dormitory many tis over the past few months. Most of the ti, he used Body Swap to return to his own shelter, so the interior was almost unchanged, requiring no extra tidying.
After leaving the dormitory building, he walked along the road in the quiet of the early morning to the academy's main gate. The person from the Security Departnt standing guard saw him and said, "Teacher Guan, leaving today?"
After Shi Jingyi returned, the news that Guan Tong would leave the academy had long since spread, and the people in the Security Departnt naturally knew about it too.
Moreover, they felt sowhat embarrassed facing Guan Tong. This soldier apologized, "Sorry, Teacher Guan. You're about to leave, and yet we still haven't caught the culprit."
The "culprit" he referred to was the Xisiya assassin who had thrown a bear's head into Guan Tong's dormitory.
After that incident, the Security Departnt had been investigating. But because Guan Tong himself had dealt with those three assassins, the Security Departnt naturally couldn't find them again, only assuming they had escaped.
"It's nothing," Guan Tong said. "I'm still perfectly fine, which shows those people were just trying to scare ."
The soldier nodded. "That's for the best. Then, Teacher Guan, have a safe trip."
"Thank you, goodbye."
Guan Tong walked out of the academy, turned his head, and took a look at this place where he had stayed for over three months.
He certainly had no personal attachnt to the academy itself, and his relationships with the other teachers and the Dean were rely superficial. However, he was quite satisfied with most of the students.
Before having contact with them, he thought academy students might all harbor so arrogance. They might think that being able to et the requirents and enter the academy made them the most valuable group, that people outside couldn't compare to them.
But after actual contact, he believed most students were still relatively humble, rarely having a sense of superiority.
Including the previously occurred "Shen Yun case," the students who participated in the protest were only a minority. Most stood from a neutral perspective, believing that Shen Yun killing multiple people was indeed a wrongdoing, and being sentenced and punished was not excessive.
"The students from Xiaotian's class have already been assigned to various official departnts for work. Once next year's class graduates and gets assigned, there should be even more 'academy faction' mbers within the official departnts..."
Guan Tong didn't know if this was good or bad, but that wasn't a problem he needed to consider now.
Withdrawing his gaze, he stepped forward.
Not long after, he disappeared into the streets.
...
Outside Pinglu City, beneath the gorge.
Guan Tong silently appeared inside the shelter and took out so daily necessities stored in his Storage Ring.
He sat on the bed and let out a long sigh. "Now I don't have to run back and forth anymore."
Before, he still had to stay overnight in the academy dormitory every few days. Although he had the Body Swap ability and running back and forth wasn't a big physical effort, psychologically, it still felt troubleso.
Now that he had officially left the academy, he could stay in the shelter peacefully afterwards.
"ow."
Coal Ball, hearing movent inside the room, ran in from outside and ca close to Guan Tong, owing.
As its body changed, its ow was no longer as cute as before but had beco deep and resonant, sounding powerful and formidable.
Guan Tong looked at Coal Ball, whose height now reached his thigh, and rubbed its face. "Coal Ball, if I told people now that you're a cat, they'd definitely think I'm crazy, right?"
Current Coal Ball resembled a mutated leopard more than a cat, and its temperant was fiercer too. It only acted obediently in front of him.
Guan Tong played with it for a while, then let it go play by itself. He needed to plan his subsequent actions.
"Who should I go collect debts from first?"
What Guan Tong had said to Shi Jingyi earlier wasn't false. After leaving the academy, he would go find his enemies one by one to collect debts, thereby restoring himself to that "unburdened mind" state he had back on Mingdao Mountain.
But regarding who to go after first and who later, he didn't have a clear target.
Guan Tong turned on the computer and first read the small hard drive Shi Jingyi had given him. It contained so text docunts.
He skimd through them roughly. They were all Shi Jingyi's latest cultivation insights, things not ntioned in the previous online course videos.
"I'll study these carefully later..."
Guan Tong didn't dedicate himself to learning right now, first saving all the docunts.
Then he logged into the Ascendant Ho website.
Currently, this website of his was on track, with each section relatively mature. Clicking on any section at random, whether the Intelligence or Commissions section, he could see many Ascendants posting and accepting tasks on their own.
And in the Casual Chat section, it had almost beco the largest online communication area for Ascendants globally.
Whenever various pieces of news leaked out, soone would post them here imdiately, keeping the number of visitors consistently high.
Guan Tong opened the backend, selected an account, and checked its recent activity records.
He found this account was active periodically, with most content related to intelligence and commissions.
The most recent activity was two days ago. The account posted a commission thread, the gist being an urgent need for Ascension Coins, so they wanted to quickly sell several high-value items at a low price.
Why was Guan Tong paying attention to this account? Because this account was the one that originally posted that "Shadow attacks Prince Lado's convoy" exposé thread.
He hadn't dealt with this account back then because he wanted to wait until he had ti later, trace the device location based on the account, and settle the score afterwards.
Perhaps precisely because he didn't take action, the user of this account thought it was fine, didn't change accounts afterwards, and was still using this account actively on the website.
Guan Tong checked each post made by this account and quickly discovered a pattern.
That was, most of the commissions posted by this account had keywords like "selling at low price," and the threads usually lacked follow-up communication.
It looked like fishing.
Guan Tong checked the login device location of this account. It was south of the Beixing Country border, which was the original Andai State region.
However, due to the dissolution of the Andai State, before the earthquake rule, this land had been allocated to the Sakura Prayer Country by a Human Consortium committee eting. The Sakura Prayer people who had been relocated from the islands now all lived there.
Guan Tong currently had two guesses.
First, the person, or group, behind this account had been in Andai State all along. And they likely knew the truth about the Prince Lado convoy attack, or they were the ones who did it, throwing mud at Shadow's head to evade international investigation.
Now that the Sakura Prayer Country had moved there, this group hadn't left. Perhaps they had already established a base locally.
The second guess was related to those "selling at low price" threads.
These threads were likely fishing posts, aiming to obtain Ascension Coins through deception or intimidation—maybe they did have high-value items on hand, but they definitely wouldn't sell them cheaply, and those items might not even belong to them in the first place.
"Lado, this prince of a fallen country, has been missing, his fate unknown. If this group attacked Lado, then the Ascension Coins and items in Lado's possession should have all fallen into their hands..."
Guan Tong pondered for a mont, his gaze sharpening.
He decided. He would start by taking down the people behind this account.
The reason was simple—they were close by.
In comparison, whether he went to Xisiya to find Yelanka's brother or went to the Tulip Federation to find Lucifer, the journey was quite distant.
Especially that birdman Lucifer—it was completely uncertain whether he had even returned to the Tulip Federation. If Guan Tong rashly went over, he might very well make a wasted trip and not find the person, which would be a waste of ti.
But starting by collecting debts from the people in the Sakura Prayer Country area might kill three birds with one stone.
First, solve the problem of the user behind this account.
Second, deal with the Sakura Prayer faction that sent people to bomb him back then.
Third...
Thinking this, Guan Tong clicked on the "baqizi" account.
This account's last active date was a month ago, which was already a long ti. He didn't know if sothing had happened.
Last ti she sent Guan Tong a ssage, saying she had been placed under house arrest by Sakura Prayer officials and hoped Guan Tong could help her find the parents who abandoned her years ago.
At that ti, Guan Tong, considering that she had directly given him the Kimos Star fragnt on Rieming Island, saving him a lot of trouble, agreed to help.
But the reply he gave her back then wasn't about finding people, but that he would rescue her and then let her find her parents herself.
So, rescuing the house-arrested Yamata no Orochi was the "third" in this plan to kill three birds with one stone.
However, this matter wasn't that simple and required investigation first.
Including identifying which Sakura Prayer faction previously sent people to bomb him was also a troubleso and sowhat dangerous task.
Therefore, Guan Tong believed this planned trip to the Sakura Prayer Country would probably take a considerable amount of ti... he might spend 1-2 Doomsday Rules within Sakura Prayer territory.
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