Jinshan Villa District.
Villa 66. Su Yuan sat on the living room sofa.
On the wall nearby, a projection showed the scene at 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.
Would this kind of intrusion leave behind any risks?
First of all, Su Yuan's hacking skills ranked 186th in Magic City, making him a top hacker by global standards.
How difficult would it be to uncover information about a hacker of that caliber?
Second, Su Yuan's method of breaking into the surveillance system came from the Grey Mirror. It might have been weak on offense, but when it came to defense, even the combined might of Xia Kingdom probably couldn't track down Su Yuan's location.
The Grey Mirror had told Su Yuan this explicitly.
If hacking defenses were ranked, Su Yuan would undoubtedly be the undisputed number one.
After all, strictly speaking, Su Yuan hadn't learned his hacking skills on Blue Star.
He had learned them from terrifying civilizations deep in the universe that spanned the sea of stars. Even the tiniest fragment of their knowledge was beyond anything information technology on Blue Star could match.
Su Yuan watched the projection of Dingxing Coffee Shop nearby.
An old man in shorts and slippers ambled up to the coffee shop.
Then he beckoned to the people outside, and a large group rushed into the shop and escorted Chizuru Kami and the other three out.
"Ruan Qingcheng?"
Su Yuan watched the old man in shorts and slippers through the surveillance feed.
Ruan Qingcheng was a Grandmaster of Baodan, and the one they were relying on to capture Chizuru Kami and the other three.
Only a Level 1 Lifeform like him could subdue four experts comparable to Huajin Grandmasters with a casual wave of his hand.
"A Grandmaster of Baodan..."
Su Yuan sighed as he gazed at the screen. This was a qualitative transformation of life itself. Whether in modern times or ancient times, Grandmasters of Baodan were practically godlike figures.
In an international metropolis like Magic City, with its population of tens of millions, there were only six such powerful experts. Two of them were hidden from public view, unknown even to the Xia Kingdom authorities.
Su Yuan turned off the projection.
He looked at the spoils from his operation—
A jade-green stone box.
He slowly opened the box.
Inside lay a pure white snow lotus.
With the jade box no longer blocking it, a chill swept over him.
"So this is a Tianshan Snow Lotus, and it's five hundred years old?"
Su Yuan examined it carefully. He could vaguely sense an illusory power and an immense vitality contained within the lotus.
"Soul power and life force?"
Su Yuan's eyes lit up.
The information the Grey Mirror had provided about the snow lotus stated that it contained soul power and life force, and could drive the evolution of the body, soul, and potential.
"One of the best auxiliary items on Blue Star for evolving into a Level 1 Lifeform..."
Su Yuan was delighted. According to the Grey Mirror's explanation of life evolution, the better the auxiliary item used during the breakthrough, the greater the improvement and the stronger the foundation.
"I'll use it when I evolve into a Level 1 Lifeform."
Su Yuan closed the jade-green stone box.
According to his cultivation plan, he would reach a level infinitely close to that of a Level 1 Lifeform in seven days, at which point he would evolve into one.
The jade box could isolate the Tianshan Snow Lotus from the outside and slow the loss of its medicinal potency. It would have no trouble preserving it until then.
The outskirts of Magic City.
A special detention facility.
Deputy Director Lu Huai studied the interrogation report in front of him, sinking into thought.
The four members of the Chizuru Family had special identities. After their capture, they had been sent straight to this special detention facility for questioning.
The interrogation had gone surprisingly smoothly. It wasn't that Chizuru Kami and the other three had broken under pressure; they simply had no reason to hide anything.
The precious Tianshan Snow Lotus was already gone, so there was no point in holding out. By honestly sharing what they knew, they could at least spare themselves further hardship.
"Lu Huai, what do you think?"
A middle-aged man looked at Lu Huai and asked.
"Director, based on their statements, the trouble seems to have started within the Chizuru Family. Someone colluded with outside forces, and the snow lotus was intercepted..."
Lu Huai had reached much the same conclusion.
In fact, any reasonable person who learned the full story would come to the same conclusion.
If no one on the inside had caused the problem, how could an outsider have known the meeting details so well? Even the code words?
"Mm."
The middle-aged director nodded, clearly in agreement.
"By the way, we need to thoroughly investigate the person who called you to report this..."
The middle-aged director said.
"Understood."
Lu Huai nodded.
At that moment, he too realized there was something suspicious about the call.
According to the caller, he had overheard several people from Fusang talking about the Tianshan Snow Lotus and sending it back to their family.
But in fact, neither Chizuru Qi nor Chizuru Kami and the other two admitted to discussing it in front of outsiders.
And Chizuru Qi had managed to flee alone from Northern Heavenly Mountain all the way to Magic City. He was extremely cautious. How could he have been so careless?
So the person who made that call was very likely the mastermind who had led the four members of the Chizuru Family in circles.
"I've already sent people to trace the phone that made the call. We should have results soon."
Lu Huai said.
Villa 66.
Su Yuan went over everything once more, and after confirming he hadn't left behind any clues,
he looked at the Grey Mirror and asked, "What will the parties involved in this operation do in the end?"
The surface of the Grey Mirror rippled with a hazy light, and one question after another soon appeared.
[The Chizuru Family's Great Onmyoji, Chizuru Ichiyo, was furious. Convinced that a traitor among the family's senior members had colluded with outside forces and caused the plan to return the snow lotus to fail, he purged the upper ranks over the next two months. Of the eight elders, only three remained.] [The Xia Kingdom authorities ultimately classified the incident as an internal matter within the Chizuru Family. Although they failed to recover the Tianshan Snow Lotus, at least Chizuru Ichiyo didn't get it. Otherwise, Fusang would have gained a Great Onmyoji at the peak of his power...]
One line after another appeared on the Grey Mirror. Every faction involved believed that the interception had been carried out by an enemy of the Chizuru Family.
None had any idea that Su Yuan was the real mastermind.
"Back to studying."
Su Yuan gathered his thoughts and resumed studying computer information technology.
Of course, what he was learning now was mostly knowledge from the Grey Mirror, originating from civilizations beyond Blue Star.
This operation had made Su Yuan even more aware of how important hacking skills were.
As powerful as a Grandmaster of Baodan might be, he could only keep track of everything within a few hundred meters.
But a top hacker could make an entire city, an entire country, or even the whole world his eyes.
In the information age, personal strength mattered, but hacking skills were just as essential for controlling the situation.
Time passed.
Six days slipped by in the blink of an eye.
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