Xu Wuyi thought about it. Twelve thousand years, one of the foremost figures at the Tier Three Apex, one of the people closest to Tier Four. Sending someone like that to serve as his bodyguard for a hundred years—the Council had indeed moved much faster this time than last time.
"Are your protective measures limited to Zhou Xuan alone?"
"Not at all," Qing said. "Zhou Xuan is the overt, public deployment. He will establish a permanent node beyond the outskirts of your territory, and that information will be relayed to all factions through Star Alliance internal channels. At the same time, the Council has added concealed warning nodes to the two spatial passages outside the Second Astral Battlefield. Those nodes will not appear on ordinary star maps. Only the Council's core members have permission to view them."
"Also." Qing tilted her head slightly, her gaze settling on him. "Your intranet access privileges were upgraded thirty minutes ago. You can now access the combat records and rule-analysis materials for most Tier Three lord-level entities in the Star Alliance's internal archives—the materials that were previously restricted to Council elder-level authority and above. The Council has determined that your cultivation path requires a great deal of high-level rule material to support the growth of the Inner Landscape Tree. Opening up this access is a direct response to your performance after your clash with Sasha."
Xu Wuyi stood on the grass and listened to her finish without responding immediately.
He took several breaths to digest the information: Zhou Xuan's permanent presence, the covert addition of warning nodes, the upgrade to his intranet privileges. None of those things seemed particularly significant on their own, but together, they formed a fairly complete protective net. The Council was not merely sending someone to protect him. It was