Dafeng-ge had not said these things aloud, yet Wei Zhao understood them perfectly, and the two of them shared an unspoken accord.

As they were talking, a fishing boat suddenly appeared in the distance. Unexpectedly, it headed straight for them. Seeing Wei Zhao's look of surprise, Dafeng-ge laughed and explained, "No need to wonder, Leader. A fishing boat is the best cover on the sea. Everyone here who goes out on missions comes and goes by fishing boat. From the look of it, that should be Mute and the others back."

"Mute?" Wei Zhao was taken aback.

"That's right, a mute of Chinese descent. I fished him out of the sea half a year ago. He used to be special forces abroad. Does things clean and neat—sometimes more useful than Meng Gaohai and those others." Dafeng-ge nodded.

"Half a year ago?" Wei Zhao's expression shifted slightly at that. The timing was far too coincidental, and he could not help warning, "Aren't you afraid he's an undercover agent sent by the Center's headquarters?"

"No chance, Leader, rest easy. I was very careful about this. The mute is just an ordinary man. He ran into a tsunami and that's what did it. When I pulled him out he wasn't breathing. I treated a dead horse like a live one and literally shocked him back to life with electricity. If he were really an undercover sent by the Center's headquarters, there's no way they'd use a method like that to get close to me, would they? And afterward I had someone look into his background. Everything checked out." Dafeng-ge said confidently.

"Better safe than sorry." Wei Zhao nodded. By now a ladder had been laid between the fishing boat and the cruise ship, and a young man with a buzz cut and dark skin strode over quickly, looking indeed like he had something of the special forces about him—even his walk carried a decisiveness and efficiency few ordinary people possessed.

Mute walked up and nodded to Dafeng-ge, then handed over a document folder, though his eyes came to rest on Wei Zhao with a measure of scrutiny.

"Good, good. You really are something, kid. This file will save our branch no end of trouble. Go collect your reward yourself." Dafeng-ge opened the folder and flipped through it, his face full of admiration.

"Mm-hm!" Mute gave a sound of assent, cast Wei Zhao a deep look, then turned to leave.

At that moment Wei Zhao suddenly spoke up: "You said he's an ordinary man?"

"That's right. He may have been special forces, but compared to cultivators, isn't he just an ordinary man?" Dafeng-ge nodded, somewhat puzzled.

"Then you've really misjudged him. This is a genuine early-stage Foundation Establishment expert—what the secular world calls a Heaven Dao expert. His aura is well concealed; fooling Heaven-ranked experts like you is no problem at all, but trying to slip past my perception is a bit unrealistic. If I'm not mistaken, you must be an undercover sent by the Center's headquarters, aren't you?" Wei Zhao fixed the mute with a calm stare.

"What?!" Dafeng-ge was instantly stricken with alarm.

Mute halted, turned around, and watched Wei Zhao warily. At last he spoke: "You're Wei Zhao?"

"Oh? You know me?" Wei Zhao's eyebrows lifted slightly.

"This one has gone to great lengths to dig into the Center's headquarters—all to work for you?" Mute glanced at the stunned, speechless Dafeng-ge and went on questioning on his own.

"Correct. Just to investigate one Heaven-rank peak cultivator, you were willing to send out an early-stage Foundation Establishment expert, and undercover for a full half year at that—cautious to such a degree. The Center really is one of a kind, second to none." Wei Zhao smiled faintly.

"Very good. Looks like my mission can end here." Mute suddenly laughed. For half a year, to win Dafeng-ge's trust, a fine early-stage Foundation Establishment expert like him had been running errands and playing lackey for another man. If not for the need to complete his mission, he would have torn off the mask and quit long ago.

"Is that so? Then can you answer a question for me? Don't worry, it's not a secret matter of your Center's headquarters—it's just to satisfy my curiosity." Seeing the other man had not attacked outright, Wei Zhao asked, "If I hadn't appeared, how long would you have stayed undercover here?"

"A year. If a year of investigation turned up no substantive evidence, then he's clean. Of course, that's no longer necessary now. Once evidence is found, the undercover plan automatically converts to a purge plan." Mute grinned. He was in excellent spirits at the moment and did not mind answering such an inconsequential question. Besides, in his eyes everyone on this cruise ship branch—Wei Zhao and Dafeng-ge included—was already a pile of corpses. What need was there to hide anything from the dead?

At that, Wei Zhao and Dafeng-ge exchanged a glance, and Wei Zhao suddenly shook his head with some regret: "What a pity."

"A pity about what? A pity you're about to be buried at sea?" A hint of amusement showed on Mute's face. He was a fine early-stage Foundation Establishment expert, an invincible existence in this secular world, and he did not for a moment believe anyone here could escape his grasp.

"A pity I don't know soul-searching techniques. Otherwise I could probably learn quite a few useful things from you. Isn't that a pity?" Wei Zhao smiled as though it were nothing.

"You don't seriously think you can deal with me?" Mute was delighted at that, and sneered, "I don't know how you saw through my cultivation level, but that doesn't mean anything. There has never existed an expert in the secular world who could stand against Foundation Establishment—never before, and never again."

"Tsk tsk. There ought to be a limit to ignorance. These days the Primordial Alliance has burst onto the scene, and Foundation Establishment experts are everywhere—there are even Golden Core experts. You don't even know about something this big? Do you not read books or newspapers ordinarily? Ignorance kills, you know." Wei Zhao's face was full of earnest sincerity.

"That... how is that possible?!" Mute was instantly shocked. For the past half year he had done nothing but focus on his undercover work at Dafeng-ge's side; he had not done anything else at all, and as for the Primordial Alliance, he had never even heard of it.

"Anything is possible. In your next life, pay a little more attention." As Wei Zhao spoke, he suddenly swung a palm strike at him.

A dragon's roar rang out of thin air. Mute, greatly alarmed, hastily tried to leap off the ship and flee. In his eyes Wei Zhao was now unfathomable, and before he had figured out the man's true strength he dared not strike rashly. Even if Wei Zhao was stronger than him, it did not matter—so long as he escaped and carried word back to the Center's headquarters, the headquarters' own experts would come to deal with it. He only needed to save his own skin.

Unfortunately for him, from the moment Wei Zhao saw through him, all of it had been a fool's dream. With Wei Zhao's current strength, dealing with a Golden Core expert might be a stretch, but handling a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator of his own tier was no trouble at all. As for a mere early-stage Foundation Establishment expert like him—that really was just a matter of one palm strike. (To be continued.)