Unfortunately, he had still underestimated Central Headquarters' methods by far. With their technological prowess, wiretapping a phone call was child's play—there was no need to tamper with his phone at all. They could simply tap straight into the communications network and do it effortlessly. After all, this was no encrypted line; it was just an ordinary telephone.

Dr. Glasses not only heard the two men's conversation but also forwarded the recording to Lan Xiaoru at Central Headquarters, grinding his teeth as he said, "Hmph. So the thing really is a turncoat, a mole. The business with Number One must have been cooked up by him and this Wei Zhao—all that nonsense about the Evil-Warding Sect and the blood-corpse bugs. Quite the tidy little story he spun. I nearly believed his pack of lies myself!"

"I can't say I'm surprised. Dafeng has played the model of obedience this past month, and his conduct has shown not the slightest flaw or loose end—but that is precisely what makes him suspicious," Lan Xiaoru said flatly.

"Dr. Lan, I'll have that miserable wretch dragged back here this instant and clean house for Central Headquarters!" Dr. Glasses fumed.

"Slow down!" Lan Xiaoru stopped him. "Not only must you not arrest him—you must keep him close at your side and act as though nothing has happened. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Dr. Lan, you mean to cast a long line to hook a big fish?" Dr. Glasses blinked, taken aback.

"Precisely. Our intelligence on the Antiquity Alliance is still far from adequate, and that Wei Zhao clearly knows the ins and outs of it. Keeping Dafeng as our 'inside line' will make many things more convenient. Whatever we don't know, we'll have Dafeng find out for us—I trust he'll bring us good news." Lan Xiaoru smiled faintly.

"Turn their own scheme against them. Dr. Lan, you're as brilliant as ever!" Dr. Glasses seized the moment to butter her up, but then asked, "In that case, why don't we simply follow the vine to the melon and just arrest this Wei Zhao?"

"That won't do. I've had my eye on Wei Zhao for a long time. He vanished abruptly some years ago—presumably he went to Cloud Terrace Island. But what I don't quite understand now is why he has suddenly come back. Or did he never make it there in the first place?" Lan Xiaoru said, somewhat perplexed.

"That's it!" At her words, Dr. Glasses suddenly slapped his forehead and said excitedly, "Dr. Lan, now that you mention it, I remember—a couple of years ago a letter came from the Cloud Terrace Island side. I happened to glance at it once by chance, and the sender seemed to be Wei Zhao. It must be the same man, don't you think?"

"Mm, I have a vague memory of it too. We'll know for certain once someone verifies it. But if it is the same man, then all the more reason we must not alert the snake in the grass," Lan Xiaoru said thoughtfully.

"Why?" Dr. Glasses could not help but find it odd. Even if Wei Zhao really had gone to Cloud Terrace Island, in his view the man was a nobody—why would Lan Xiaoru take such interest?

"The transfer passage between Cloud Terrace Island and the secular world is the core secret of our Center. And even our passage cannot easily send a living person back—yet this Wei Zhao has appeared alive and well in the secular world. Don't you think there must be something extraordinary behind that?" Lan Xiaoru paused, drew a deep breath, and said, "And from what I know, this man's background is not simple..."

"Not simple how?" Dr. Glasses grew all the more curious.

"Nothing much—you'll be told when the time is right." Lan Xiaoru's expression shifted. She had the mind to groom Dr. Glasses as her right-hand man, but at his present station he was not yet qualified to touch intelligence of that level, so she cut the subject short. "Never mind. I'll ask the Cloud Terrace Island side about this matter myself. You need only remember one thing: do not, under any circumstances, alert the snake."

"Yes, I understand." Dr. Glasses nodded gravely.

Three days later, Brother Dafeng returned, worn and dusty from the road. The reason it had taken him so long was purely to keep up appearances—had he simply gone out for a casual stroll and come back with intelligence, any normal person would have grown suspicious. Even as the head of the Red Conch branch, he could not possibly have been that efficient; after all, this was a matter that even Central Headquarters' intelligence network had failed to uncover.

"Well? Did you find anything?" Dr. Glasses came forward to greet him, exactly as Lan Xiaoru had instructed, putting on an air of blank ignorance.

"I tried every trick these past few days, and guess what—I actually managed to dig up a piece of news," Brother Dafeng said, deliberately drawing out the suspense.

"What news? Out with it!" Dr. Glasses already knew full well, but he kept playing along.

"I've learned that deep in the Shennongjia Mountains, inside this mountain gate, there's a teleportation array—but it doesn't lead directly to the Antiquity micro-world. It leads to a transit point. The Antiquity Alliance people are very likely gathered there!" Brother Dafeng said with feigned excitement.

"Oh? Is that so?" Dr. Glasses feigned astonishment—though not entirely feigned, for when he had first heard those words on the wiretap, he had indeed been shocked, and so had Lan Xiaoru. They had fifteen Antiquity Alliance experts under drug control; had they questioned them carefully, they might well have learned this. But it had never occurred to any of them that a transit point could exist between the Antiquity micro-world and the secular world—and since they never asked, the Antiquity experts naturally never brought it up.

"Glasses... oh no, I mean, Mysterious Man in Black, why don't we go take a look right now?" Brother Dafeng suggested, barely able to contain his impatience.

"Good. Gather Jing Taiyang and the others—we leave at once," Dr. Glasses decided on the spot.

The group immediately made their way to the mountain gate deep in the Shennongjia Mountains. As before, there was not a single soul to be seen. Guided by Jing Taiyang and the others, Brother Dafeng and Dr. Glasses soon found the teleportation array in a corner of the rear courtyard.

"How on earth... do you use this thing?" Brother Dafeng studied it for a long while, somewhat at a loss. To him, a teleportation array was a truly rare thing—not only had he never used one, he had never even laid eyes on one.

"A teleportation array requires spirit jade to activate," Jing Taiyang stepped up and said. Though he was under drug-induced mind control, he felt nothing of coercion; instead he quite naturally regarded himself as a member of the Center, seizing every opening to earn merit and climb the ranks. And he was not alone—the others were just the same. (To be continued.)