"The Black-Clad Mystery Man?" Brother Dafeng was taken aback. He figured the fellow was simply worried about exposing his true identity and had no wish to show his real face, which was why he had cooked up such an outlandish code name.

Little did he know, the real reason Dr. Glasses had done so was chiefly to imitate, on purpose, the black-clad figures of Cloud Terrace Island. These days every move the secular world's Central Headquarters made was modeled on Cloud Terrace Island—not only the technology, but even the staffing and the methods of operation followed the same fashion. Of course, Dr. Glasses had another, even more important motive for this: showing off.

Yet it was not entirely about indulging his vanity. To put it plainly, Dr. Glasses meant to use this chance to reinvent himself. He had, true enough, proposed the Antiquity Project, but if he went on forever under the name of Dr. Glasses, people would inevitably keep pigeonholing him as a researcher. He lacked a background like Lan Xiaoru's, after all; a handful of research achievements alone could never truly get him into the upper circles. So the reinvention was imperative—and this was the perfect opportunity.

"Remember, whatever you do, don't call me by the wrong name again," Dr. Glasses reminded him, patient as ever.

"Yes, yes, Dr. Glasses—oh no, I mean, Black-Clad Mystery Man. So what do we do next?" Brother Dafeng asked for instructions. He was merely the front man, the decoy in charge; every specific step had to be cleared with Dr. Glasses. If he acted on his own and aroused suspicion, the consequences would be unthinkable.

"We'll camp on the outskirts of Shennongjia first. Then send Jing Taiyang inside to scout the situation—get a clear picture of what's real and what's not before we decide the next move," Dr. Glasses said after a moment's thought.

Among these fifteen Foundation Establishment experts, Jing Taiyang was not the strongest, but he was the most reliable. He had been the first to be captured and had spent the longest under drug-induced brainwashing; over the past month his monitoring responses had been the steadiest, the drug's side effects had been reduced to a minimum, and even if he were sent out to act alone, there was little chance of an accident. With any of the others, without someone watching over them, it was hard to say.

"Understood." Brother Dafeng nodded and went at once to make the arrangements.

A day later, Jing Taiyang returned from deep within Shennongjia. The news he brought shocked them all: the mountain gate that served as the gathering point for the Antiquity Alliance's trial disciples had been abandoned—not a soul in sight. Jing Taiyang had wandered all around and, try as he might, had not found a single living person.

"How can this be?" Dr. Glasses was utterly baffled.

"Could the intelligence these people provided be wrong?" Brother Dafeng could not help speculating. He meant, of course, the Antiquity Alliance Foundation Establishment experts who had been brainwashed by the drug. After all, the Shennongjia gathering point had been learned from their own mouths.

"Impossible," Dr. Glasses said with a decisive shake of his head. It was true that drug-induced brainwashing was bound to have side effects, especially irreversible damage to the brain. Even with Central Headquarters' technology, they could only minimize those side effects—never eliminate them completely.

Take Jing Taiyang, the most stable of them all. At present he looked almost exactly as he had before being controlled, but anyone who spent much time with those familiar with him would notice: Jing Taiyang was long since no longer the original Jing Taiyang. There were too many tells.

Ultimately, drugs really could brainwash a man—but that was only a crude, low-grade means of controlling the mind.

Still, every coin has two sides. Drug control might carry side effects and leave flaws, but it had one advantage no other method could match: a person brainwashed by drugs could not lie. This was the deepest, highest-grade hypnosis of all. Under such conditions, if a man could still lie, he would have to be some kind of immortal.

"Why?" Brother Dafeng, though bearing the title of peripheral researcher, understood none of this.

Dr. Glasses glanced at him, too lazy to explain in detail, and said offhandedly, "The intelligence about this Shennongjia gathering point was obtained separately from the mouths of all fifteen of them. Even if one of them were lying, could all fifteen be lying together?"

"Then how do you explain this?" Brother Dafeng still looked bewildered.

"My guess is that something must have happened recently among the Antiquity Alliance's people, which is why the place was suddenly deserted. And Jing Taiyang and the others have been operating independently outside all along, never contacting this place, so it's hardly surprising they wouldn't know about it," Dr. Glasses analyzed.

"Doctor—oh no, Black-Clad Mystery Man—so what do you say we should do?" Brother Dafeng had no choice but to ask.

"The next step is your chance to make your mark. You know the situation in the country better than I do, and you can call on the Red Conch's connections. I expect this matter will have caused no small stir; if you go out and make inquiries, it shouldn't be hard to get wind of it. As for Jing Taiyang and the rest, they'll camp here for now—I'll watch over them personally," Dr. Glasses said.

Brother Dafeng's eyes lit up at these words. This was exactly the opportunity he had been longing for. He nodded again and again. "Right, just leave it to me."

Once out of the campsite and well clear of the Shennongjia area, having made sure that Dr. Glasses and Jing Taiyang and the others were not following him, Brother Dafeng hurriedly dialed Wei Zhao's number.

After a tense wait, the call finally connected, and Wei Zhao's voice came from the other end. "Hello? Who is this?"

The tone was flat, but it was all an act. He knew perfectly well that this was Brother Dafeng's number; he was simply guarding against Central Headquarters, deliberately pretending not to know, so that even if Central Headquarters' people got hold of Brother Dafeng's phone and tried to probe, they would find no flaw in him.

At the same time, Wei Zhao could not help secretly counting his blessings. Thank goodness he had realized these past days that he could not keep falling into the habit of tucking his phone into the jade pendant's space; he would rather expend a little extra spiritual sense energy and carry it on his person. Otherwise, with no signal inside the jade pendant's space, Brother Dafeng could never have reached him.

"Leader Wei Zhao, it's me, Dafeng," Brother Dafeng said quickly.

"You're finally out! How are things? Is everything going smoothly?" Wei Zhao asked at once. No wonder he was overjoyed—for a whole month there had been no word at all, and he had even begun to think Brother Dafeng had been exposed and killed, clinging only to a last shred of hope to keep lingering in the outside world.

"There were some twists and turns, but overall it's gone fairly smoothly. I've picked up some intelligence on Central Headquarters—I'm sure it'll be useful to you, leader. Shall we meet somewhere to talk it over, or shall I say it over the phone?" Brother Dafeng could barely contain his excitement.

"What's your situation right now?" Wei Zhao asked.

"I'm at the Shennongjia exit. They sent me out to gather information, so I'm alone—reasonably safe," Brother Dafeng said with a chuckle. (To be continued.)