If it had only been a guess before, Jiang Ying could now be almost certain. If Wangqiao Base was one of the Bizarre Tree's Eight Gates, then it was definitely within Cloud Valley's sphere of influence.
All the deductions she'd made earlier had been based on various details. The fact that Old Wang, the leader of Cloud Valley, wasn't actually in control—and that someone else was hiding behind him—fit the profile of a Bizarre Tree Agent perfectly. This person was mysterious and had concealed his strength.
Most importantly, he was extremely hostile to the authorities. He wouldn't even consider making a deal with them, and was determined to fight them to the death.
That was simply outrageous behavior for a survivor base.
No matter how many bad things they'd done, when it came to the authorities, these survivor bases always harbored some hope. They'd always leave surrender as an option.
Only those who were destined to be sworn enemies of the authorities would be so hostile. And fanatical, antisocial holdouts like this were exceedingly rare.
There was only one explanation: he'd been bewitched by the Bizarre Tree and had no option to surrender.
The Bizarre Tree would never give its agents a chance to betray it. It had clearly learned from past mistakes. Before, it had cast its net wide, trying to turn every human into an agent. With so many layers and ranks, the Bizarre Tree's control over its agents was bound to weaken.
There were too many agents to keep tabs on all of them or follow up with each one in time.
Its earlier approach to cultivating agents in Star City had essentially prioritized quantity over quality. If anything went wrong, only the key agents had any combat ability. The other so-called agents felt no sense of