Just as Yu Yuan was celebrating Hogg's rise in combat strength—
"Master, something's wrong!"
Zhizhi suddenly appeared on Yu Yuan's shoulder.
"Hm?"
"What happened?"
"Two days ago, I sensed people plotting against you and discussing you with malicious intent. So I placed Hidden Rat Burrows on them to dig deeper into their secrets..."
As Zhizhi explained, Yu Yuan immediately understood.
Of course. After evolving, all of Zhizhi's abilities had improved enormously.
One of the new abilities under [Secret! Don't Even Think About Learning My Secrets] was:
Anyone who maliciously spied on, plotted against, or discussed the person it protected would trigger a Hidden Rat Burrow, allowing Hidden Rat to sense and track them.
"Oh? What have you found?"
"There are five of them in total. I've confirmed only two identities so far: Duke Night Ancient and the Vice President of the Commercial Divine Alliance. I'm still investigating the other three. They believe your rapid advancement poses a major threat to them, so they've decided to eliminate you."
Yu Yuan frowned.
"Wait. I can understand Duke Night Ancient, and let's set the Vice President of the Commercial Divine Alliance aside for now. Why do they think I'm a threat?"
Yu Yuan genuinely couldn't make sense of it. But Zhizhi's next words made his pupils contract.
"Because they've all betrayed the Civilization Ladder. Your rapid advancement has made them feel deeply threatened. They think they must kill you before you fully come into your power."
"Traitors? Explain."
Zhizhi knew how serious this was. Holding nothing back, Zhizhi recounted everything uncovered over the past two days:
"They were all corrupted by the Blood Grand Duke while they were still weak. Through him, they established a connection with an entity in the New World, one whose power runs deep.
That entity took control of