Testing

"Your Majesty, do you intend to use this method to test the Azure Hand?"

Iliyas asked. The mission she was carrying out was called "Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Sea," a strategic deception operation meant to probe the Azure Hand Guild's true purpose in searching for Self Connectors.

"Correct. I do not know whether the explanation you have always believed—that the Azure Hand Guild dispatched elite forces like yourselves across the world to painstakingly search for Self Connectors merely to offer them a better platform for growth, more opportunities, and great importance—is actually true. I dare not make a rash judgment, because I have never believed in such good fortune as pies falling from the sky."

"What will the fate of Self Connectors truly be after joining the Azure Hand Guild? I will not join this guild myself and gamble with my own life."

"I have prepared a 'Self Connector' myself, one convincing enough to pass for the real thing. You will take him and report back."

"Iliyas, perhaps from what this Self Connector experiences next, we can glimpse the Azure Hand's true attitude toward Self Connectors."

Zhou Ming said.

He had two main purposes in devising the "Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Sea" plan.

First, to provide bait—a fake "Self Connector"—to divert the Azure Hand Guild Master's attention from the Orunian Empire.

Second, to let Shut and the others see what the Azure Hand's upper ranks were truly seeking by so actively searching for Self Connectors.

So who would serve as that bait?

Conan Cecil.

This young man, only twenty years old, had been selected by Zhou Ming. After a little training, he became the chosen bait.

Zhou Ming had several considerations in choosing him. For one, the boy was very young, highly gifted, quick-minded, and exceptionally