Outside the Dark Room, Liu Sishan leaned against the wall, clutching her badge as she nervously waited for the result.
She waited for a full hour.
Suddenly, the pearl on the badge glowed faintly, followed by the old man's voice. "Sisi?"
"Captain, I'm here," Liu Sishan immediately replied.
The old man said, "From now on, Sisi, you and Manny will be responsible for secretly protecting Zhang Ping. The intelligence he provided is extremely crucial. As for whether he can be trusted, you will judge that for yourself. Bingbing will monitor your mental state. If anything goes wrong with your mental state, I will order Jin Bo to forcibly take you out of Mingzhu City.
"Also... work with Zhang Ping and identify the identity of every Heavenly Fox as thoroughly as possible."
"Captain, what status does Zhang Ping have now?" Liu Sishan asked.
The old man replied, "The situation in Mingzhu City is still unclear. Although Zhang Ping provided vital intelligence, we cannot guarantee this is not a trap set by the enemy. For now, he will serve as an important informant. If this matter is resolved smoothly, we will arrange a reward afterward."
"Understood." Liu Sishan nodded.
After ending the communication, Liu Sishan put away her badge and returned to the Dark Room.
The restraints on Zhang Ping instantly came undone. He stretched his limbs and asked, "You've verified it?"
"Yes, but we can't be certain that your discovery of the Heavenly Foxes isn't a trap deliberately arranged by them. So sorry, but you can only serve as an informant. Aside from providing the Heavenly Foxes' locations, we won't have any further contact for now," Liu Sishan said with a nod.
Zhang Ping was not dissatisfied with this result.
He had never intended to gain anything from Liu Sishan or the organization behind her. As long as the Heavenly Foxes in the city were dealt with, with his abilities, he would eventually have everything he wanted. Why bother seeking help elsewhere when what he needed was close at hand?
He asked for nothing, so he did not care.
"For the next while, I will protect you from the shadows. If you discover anything, contact me at night," Liu Sishan added.
Zhang Ping smiled. "Protection and surveillance? I understand. Don't worry, I'll cooperate with you. As long as we can eliminate the Heavenly Foxes, everything is negotiable."
"Thank you for understanding." Liu Sishan relaxed slightly.
She had thought Zhang Ping would be angry about it. After all, most young people would be unhappy to learn they were being watched, perhaps even fly into a rage.
Zhang Ping's reasonableness gave her a much better impression of him.
"However, I have a question. I hope you can answer it," Zhang Ping said.
Liu Sishan pondered for a moment before agreeing. "If I can answer it, I will tell you everything I know."
"Why can't the High-Level Awakened in the city see through the disguises of low-level Heavenly Foxes?" Zhang Ping asked directly.
This was something he had never been able to understand.
High-Level Awakened possessed a certain degree of resistance to the abilities of lower-level Awakened and Mutated Beasts. Therefore, opponents of each rank generally only matched opponents of the corresponding rank.
Generally speaking, the rival of a High-Level Awakened had to be another High-Level Awakened. It could not be an Intermediate Awakened or a Top-Tier Awakened.
The former was too weak to qualify as an opponent, while the latter was too strong for one to qualify as its opponent.
"We actually discovered this long ago. According to the captain's speculation, there may be a King Tier Mutated Beast lurking within Mingzhu City," Liu Sishan answered.
Zhang Ping's eyes widened. "King-Level? You're not joking, are you?"
As far as he knew, humanity did not have any King Tier Awakened. If a King-level Mutated Beast with intelligence no less than a human's had invaded Mingzhu City, what could humanity possibly use to stop it?
"I knew you would doubt it, but King-level truly exists. After becoming a Top-Tier Awakened..." Liu Sishan thought Zhang Ping was surprised that King-level was not merely a legend, so she began to explain.
But before she could finish, Zhang Ping interrupted, "No, there's no issue with King-level existing. I just want to know whether we humans have any King-Level Awakened."
"No. Even the captain is only a Top-Tier Awakened." Liu Sishan froze for a moment before answering.
Zhang Ping frowned. "Soldiers fight soldiers, generals fight generals. So even if I find the King-Level Heavenly Fox hiding in Mingzhu City, what can you use to fight it?"
"That's not something you need to consider. What you need to consider is how to find every Heavenly Fox, while we will be responsible for eliminating them." Liu Sishan frowned. In truth, she was not sure either. The captain had not told her what they would do once they found it.
However, out of her usual trust in the captain, she would not question his decision.
Zhang Ping fell silent for a moment, then spoke again. "So High-Level Awakened can't detect low-level Mutated Beasts because a King-level Mutated Beast has influenced them?"
"The greatest difference between Mutated Beasts and human Awakened is that Mutated Beasts possess innate racial abilities. Once a King-Level Mutated Beast appears, all Mutated Beasts of the same race within a certain range, centered around that King-Level Mutated Beast, will have their innate racial abilities enhanced by it.
"Generally speaking, this enhancement can raise them by only one level at most. But the mental type is an exception. Unless one's Mental Strength exceeds that of the King-Level Mutated Beast, it is difficult to see through the illusions, distorted consciousness, and distorted common sense created by mental-type abilities," Liu Sishan explained.
Zhang Ping frowned. "Then wouldn't mental-type Mutated Beasts become invincible once a King-Level one appears?"
The appearance of one King-Level Mutated Beast would be equivalent to the appearance of a whole group of them. That was far too unreasonable.
"Not exactly. The reason mental types work this way is that their abilities themselves do not harm their targets. Once they actively attack an Awakened of a higher level than themselves, their abilities may be seen through," Liu Sishan said, shaking her head.
Zhang Ping said thoughtfully, "So powerful people are less likely to be attacked by Heavenly Foxes."
"Not necessarily. If the Patrol Team has truly been completely replaced by Heavenly Foxes, then Lin Kedi, the chief captain of the Patrol Team, must have already fallen victim to them. And Lin Kedi is a Top-Tier Awakened," Liu Sishan said.
Zhang Ping drew a deep breath and stood up. "All right, I don't have any more questions for now. If I have any, I'll ask you later. How do I get out of here?"
"All right. I will contact you tonight." Liu Sishan nodded.
The next moment, Zhang Ping felt a force pulling him forward. In an instant, his entire body shot upward from the ground, and he passed through a pitch-black passage before returning to the small park.
He blinked, then lowered his head to look at the ground. The ground was still just the ground, with nothing unusual visible at all.
A superpower?
Zhang Ping thought about it and came to a guess.
The Dark Room itself was probably a space created by a superpower, while the entire small park contained special passages leading into it.
He returned to Iron Soul. After climbing through the window into his room, he sat on his bed and considered what he had gained tonight.
First, his safety was somewhat more secure.
Although Liu Sishan's protection also involved an element of surveillance, he had done nothing wrong, so naturally he had no fear of being watched.
Second, he could use Liu Sishan to pass intelligence to the organization behind her and have that organization hunt down the Heavenly Foxes.
Finally, he had at last figured out the enemy's rough outline.
"King-Level."
Zhang Ping sighed softly. The organization behind Liu Sishan probably had Top-Tier Awakened as its strongest members.
Although he did not know what trump cards they possessed, he still felt it was unreliable.
Not enough firepower.
Since their side had no King-Level Awakened, it would be best to gather several hundred or several thousand Top-Tier Awakened to surround and kill the enemy's King-Level Mutated Beast.
The next day.
Zhang Ping got up as usual and continued practicing the Dough-Kneading Forging Technique under Liu Tiefeng's supervision.
For any craft, unless one had a corresponding superpower to assist, the only way was to practice again and again until the skill reached a level comparable to a superpower.
That was not an easy thing to do.
Zhang Ping discovered that the dough-kneading practice of the Dough-Kneading Forging Technique had many benefits. His hands became more sensitive to materials, and because the kneading movements required him to exert force through his entire body, the training effect was no less than doing push-ups.
He could learn a skill and train his body at the same time. Why not?
Moreover, while kneading dough, he could multitask and continue deepening his control over the Fire Element within his body. It was simply killing three birds with one stone.
Once the dough-kneading practice ended.
Zhang Ping continued learning how to distinguish various materials and understand their uses.
The materials room on the third floor was piled with all kinds of strange materials. Some were ores, some were plants, and the largest number were body parts from Mutated Beasts.
This time, Liu Tiefeng took out a dog-paw-shaped material and said, "This material comes from a Mutated Beast known as a Corpse-Eating Hound. Mingzhu City practices cremation, so there are no Corpse-Eating Hounds nearby. But there are many villages outside Mingzhu City. Some still follow ancient traditions and use burials, and Corpse-Eating Hounds may be lurking in those places."
"There are villages outside Mingzhu City?" Zhang Ping asked in surprise.
He had always thought Mingzhu City was a lone city surrounded by countless miles of uninhabited land.
"Heh, of course there are. Those villages tend to be closed-off, backward, and hostile to outsiders. Many even worship Mutated Beasts as gods. If you come across a village while traveling in the wilderness someday, you'd best go around it. Don't let them catch you and turn you into a slave or a sacrifice," Liu Tiefeng said slowly as he smoked.
Zhang Ping pondered this and analyzed, "So the people living in most villages can be regarded as enemies?"
"Heh, they can't even be considered human. Adventurers like to call them savages. Sometimes, in the wilderness, the most dangerous things aren't Mutated Beasts but these savages. If you become an adventurer, the older hands will generally tell you these things." A trace of mockery appeared on Liu Tiefeng's wrinkled face.
There had once been naive Awakened who tried to communicate with the savages in those villages. The result was that they became sacrifices, while even the companions who attempted to rescue them died at the savages' hands.
The savages' customs and habits were completely different from those of the civilized people in Mingzhu City.
They had their own logic for how they behaved. In their eyes, outsiders did not count as people.
"All right, enough of that tangent. Let's continue with the Corpse-Eating Hound. A Corpse-Eating Hound's claws naturally possess the attribute of 'Earth-Bane.' This attribute cannot be smelted, so it must be ground into powder. When the weapon is cooling, pour it into the mold together with fire oil. That way, you can make a weapon with a certain restraining effect against earth-element energy." Liu Tiefeng tossed the Corpse-Eating Hound's claw to Zhang Ping as he spoke.
With that, he tossed the Corpse-Eating Hound's claw to Zhang Ping.