The Invisible Hand

Jinshan Villa District.

Villa 66, Su Yuan sat on the living room sofa.

The projection on the wall not far away displayed the scene inside Dingxing Coffee Shop.

After returning to the villa, Su Yuan had hacked into the surveillance system of the milk tea shop across from Dingxing Coffee Shop, allowing him to watch everything happening there in real time.

As for whether such an intrusion would leave behind any hidden risks?

First of all, Su Yuan's hacking skills ranked 186th in Magic City, making him a top-tier hacker even on a global scale.

Trying to track down the information of a hacker at this level? How difficult would that be?

Secondly, the method Su Yuan used to hack the surveillance came from the Grey Mirror. While it might be slightly weaker in terms of offensive capabilities, in terms of defense, even if the entire Xia Kingdom were to pool its resources, they would likely be unable to trace Su Yuan's location.

This was something the Grey Mirror had explicitly told Su Yuan.

If one were to rank defensive capabilities in hacking, Su Yuan was undoubtedly the undisputed number one.

After all, strictly speaking, Su Yuan's hacking skills were not learned on Blue Star.

They were learned from those terrifying civilizations deep in the universe that spanned across star seas; even the most insignificant scraps of their knowledge were incomparable to the information technology found on Blue Star.

Su Yuan watched the projection of Dingxing Coffee Shop.

He saw an old man wearing shorts and slippers strolling slowly to the entrance of the coffee shop.

Immediately after, the man waved his hand, and a large group of people rushed into the shop, dragging Chizuru Kami and the other three out.

"Ruan Qingcheng?"

Through the surveillance, Su Yuan observed the old man in shorts and slippers.

Ruan Qingcheng was a Grandmaster of the Baodan stage, and he was the trump card for this operation to capture Chizuru Kami and his three companions.

Only a Level 1 lifeform of this caliber could suppress four experts comparable to Huajin Grandmasters with such ease.

"A Baodan Grandmaster..."

Su Yuan's gaze was filled with emotion. This was a qualitative change in life; whether in modern or ancient times, a Baodan Grandmaster could be considered a god-like figure.

In an international metropolis like Magic City with tens of millions of people, there were only six such powerhouses, and two of them remained hidden in the shadows, unknown to outsiders—even the official authorities of the Xia Kingdom were unaware of them.

He turned off the projection.

Su Yuan looked at the spoils of his operation—

A jade-green stone box.

He slowly opened the box.

Inside lay a snow-white lotus.

With the jade box no longer blocking it, a wave of icy air rushed toward him.

"So this is the Tianshan Snow Lotus, and a five-hundred-year-old one at that?"

Su Yuan observed it carefully, faintly sensing that the snow lotus contained a phantom power and immense vitality.

"Soul power and life force?"

Su Yuan's eyes brightened.

The information provided by the Grey Mirror regarding this snow lotus mentioned that it contained both soul power and life force, capable of promoting evolution in the three dimensions of the physical body, soul, and potential.

"One of the best auxiliary items for transforming into a Level 1 lifeform on Blue Star..."

Su Yuan felt a surge of joy. According to the Grey Mirror's explanation of life transformation and evolution, the better the auxiliary items used during the breakthrough, the greater the improvement one would receive, and the more profound one's foundation would be.

"I will use it when I transform into a Level 1 lifeform."

Su Yuan closed the jade-green stone box.

According to his cultivation plan, he would reach the level of being infinitely close to a Level 1 lifeform in seven days, at which point he would undergo the transformation.

With the jade box isolating the interior from the exterior, the Tianshan Snow Lotus would have no problem being preserved for seven days without losing its medicinal potency.

Suburbs of Magic City.

A certain special detention facility.

Deputy Director Lu Huai looked at the interrogation report in front of him, falling into deep thought.

The four members of the Chizuru Family had special identities; after being captured, they were sent directly to this special facility for questioning.

The interrogation process had been unusually smooth. It wasn't that Chizuru Kami and the others couldn't hold out, but rather that there was no need to hide anything.

The most precious Tianshan Snow Lotus was already gone, so they had no reason to persist. By honestly telling what they knew, they could at least suffer less.

"Huai, what do you think?"

A middle-aged man looked at Lu Huai and asked.

"Director, according to their statements, there must have been an internal issue within the Chizuru Family, with someone colluding with external forces to intercept the Tianshan Snow Lotus..."

Lu Huai had reached much the same conclusion.

In fact, any normal person who learned the full sequence of events would arrive at this same deduction.

If there hadn't been an inside job, how could an outsider have known the details of the meeting so thoroughly? Even the secret codes and passwords?

"Mm."

The middle-aged director nodded, clearly in agreement.

"By the way, that tip-off call you received needs to be investigated thoroughly..."

The middle-aged director said.

"Understood."

Lu Huai nodded.

At this very moment, he also realized the problem with that tip-off call.

According to the caller, they had overheard several people from the Fusang Kingdom talking about the Tianshan Snow Lotus and the plan to transport it back to their family.

However, in reality, neither Chizuru Qi nor the other three, including Chizuru Kami, denied having ever spoken of this matter in front of outsiders.

Moreover, Chizuru Qi had managed to flee alone from the Northern Heavenly Mountain all the way to the Magic City; he was extremely cautious by nature, so how could he have been so careless?

Therefore, the person who made that tip-off call was highly likely the mastermind who had been playing the four members of the Chizuru Family like puppets.

"I have already sent people to track the phone used to make that call; I expect we will have results soon."

Lu Huai said.

Villa 66.

After Su Yuan reviewed everything once more to ensure no clues had been left behind, he looked at the Gray Mirror and asked, "How will the various parties involved in this operation ultimately react?"

The surface of the Gray Mirror surged with a hazy mist, and soon, lines of text appeared.

[Chizuru Ichiyo, the Great Onmyoji of the Chizuru Family, is furious. He is convinced that there is a traitor among the family's high-ranking members who colluded with external forces, causing the plan to transport the Snow Lotus to fail. Over the next two months, he will carry out a bloody purge of the upper echelons, leaving only three of the eight elders remaining.]

[The Xia Kingdom's authorities will ultimately classify this incident as an internal affair of the Chizuru Family. Although they failed to recover the Tianshan Snow Lotus, at least they prevented Chizuru Ichiyo from obtaining it; otherwise, the Fusang Kingdom would have gained another Great Onmyoji in his prime...]

The Gray Mirror displayed line after line of text. Every faction involved was convinced that this interception was the work of the Chizuru Family's rivals.

They had no idea that the true mastermind was Su Yuan.

"Continue studying."

Su Yuan reined in his thoughts and resumed his study of computer information technology.

Of course, what Su Yuan was currently learning was primarily the knowledge provided by the Gray Mirror, which originated from a civilization beyond Blue Star.

Through this operation, Su Yuan became even more aware of the importance of hacking skills.

Even a Grandmaster at the Baodan stage could, at most, control everything within a few hundred meters of themselves.

But a top-tier hacker could make an entire city, an entire country, or even the whole world their eyes.

In the information age, while individual martial prowess was important, the hacking skills required to control the situation were equally indispensable.

Time passed.

In the blink of an eye, six days went by.