Now that his aims and direction were clear, the immediate problem was that Wei Zhao had no choice but to halt his original plan. The Center was guarding itself too carefully; there was no way to keep turning its people, and he could only wait and watch how matters unfolded.

What Wei Zhao did not expect was that at the very moment he suspended his subversion campaign, Dr. Glasses's own campaign at the Center ground to a halt as well, as if by tacit agreement. For quite some time he had failed to win over a single new disciple of the Primordial Alliance.

On one hand, this was chiefly because the Primordial Alliance disciples they truly knew and had real ties with were few and far between. Even Xue Jianming, who appeared to have connections everywhere, had dawdled so long over the business and developed only one man, Qin Yuanming—and even he had been secretly turned back by Wei Zhao. Of the rest, there was even less to be said.

No one dared breathe a word of such a thing to anyone they did not truly know and trust; if word leaked out, everything would be ruined. Besides, Bing Wushuang and the others had already been quietly won over by Wei Zhao, so it stood to reason that they would go through the motions without putting their hearts into it.

On the other hand, even Dr. Glasses himself was having doubts. Though he had planted listening devices and found no sign that Bing Wushuang and the others were secretly betraying him, the fact that the several of them had gone to the Cangwu Sect on North Island one after another had still sounded a warning bell in his heart. This business of secret subversion had to be like boiling a frog in warm water—one could not take too big a step, or one was liable to trip oneself up.

Yet dragging on in stalemate forever was no solution either. Caution was all well and good, but if he made no progress at all, he would have no answer to give when Lan Xiaoru came asking. The Primordial Plan was the ladder to advancement he had been plotting toward for so long; he absolutely could not abandon it halfway.

Just as Dr. Glasses was at his wit's end, a special envoy from the Center's headquarters in the mundane world arrived without warning, giving him quite a start. In the past it had always been he who regularly reported to Lan Xiaoru on his own initiative; never had anything like this happened. The Center's headquarters had actually sent a special envoy—surely Lan Xiaoru had not sent someone to punish him?

"Might I ask what urgent business brings the envoy here this time?" Dr. Glasses asked cautiously.

The envoy did not answer directly. Instead he cast a somewhat wary glance at Brother Dafeng beside them. The meaning was plain enough.

"Oh, right—Dafeng, why don't you go make a round of the perimeter and see if anything looks out of the ordinary," Dr. Glasses said, catching on at once and sending Brother Dafeng away.

"Yes, sir." Much as Brother Dafeng would have liked to stay and hear what was going on, doing so would have given himself away too obviously. He could only nod and agree, telling himself that if there was some secret operation afoot, he would surely be able to pick up a few clues in future even if he was not directly involved.

Only after Brother Dafeng had gone did the envoy draw two letters from his breast and hand them to Dr. Glasses. "This is a secret letter from Dr. Lan. She commends and affirms the results you have achieved of late, and hopes you will redouble your efforts, carry the Primordial Plan to an even higher level, and lay the best possible groundwork and preparation for what is to come."

"Good, good. Please convey my thanks to Dr. Lan for her praise, and thank you for your trouble, envoy." Dr. Glasses breathed a sigh of relief—but once the letters were in his hand, he blinked in surprise. "Why are there two?"

"Besides the secret letter from Dr. Lan, there is another that was sent from Cloud Terrace Island. Dr. Lan specially instructed that you are to deliver it into Wei Zhao's hands under the name of Center Express," the envoy said.

"A letter for Wei Zhao? But—hasn't Center Express suspended that service long ago? Why has it started up again?" Dr. Glasses asked in astonishment. He took the letter and glanced carefully at the envelope, casually about to tear it open and see what was inside.

But the envoy stopped him, saying with a solemn expression, "Before I came, Dr. Lan gave me special instructions. Anything concerning Wei Zhao is top-level classified—herself included. No one at the Center's headquarters in the mundane world may examine it. Those are the orders from above."

"This..." Dr. Glasses was momentarily struck dumb. Recalling how Lan Xiaoru had once specially warned him that he must never provoke Wei Zhao, his curiosity only grew. Just what was Wei Zhao's background, that those above should regard him with such importance?!

At that moment his feelings were like a hundred claws scratching at his heart. The more those above behaved this way, the more curious he could not help but be. Yet he knew full well that curiosity killed the cat. In the end he did not dare sneak a look at Wei Zhao's letter; if he accidentally set eyes on some earth-shaking secret, that would be the end of him. After all, the more one knew, the sooner one died.

"But how am I supposed to get this letter into Wei Zhao's hands? Am I to just send a man to deliver it to his door? Wouldn't that expose us in front of everyone?" Dr. Glasses said, nursing a headache.

"Dr. Lan said that is your problem. If you cannot even manage such a trifling matter, what is the point of talking about the Primordial Plan?" the envoy relayed.

Dr. Glasses's mouth twitched. Had this fellow not been Lan Xiaoru's envoy, that tone alone would have earned him fourteen thousand slaps across the face. In the end, though, he restrained himself and said in a low voice, "Very well. I will arrange it."

After turning it over and over in his mind, he concluded that he could not possibly send a man to deliver the letter straight to Wei Zhao—that would be to expose himself of his own accord before the Primordial Alliance, and he could forget about ever carrying out the Primordial Plan again.

But Lan Xiaoru had issued a strict order, and not delivering the letter was not an option either. Dr. Glasses cast an unobtrusive glance at Brother Dafeng in the distance, and a notion came to him: if he used this turncoat who fed on both sides to secretly leak the letter's contents into Wei Zhao's hands, that might not be such a bad idea.

Yet on second thought he rejected the notion. After all, this was a letter requiring a reply; Wei Zhao would have to send an answer back, and surely Wei Zhao could not again have Brother Dafeng smuggle his reply back to him—that would be far too absurd.

"No good. Center Express can under no circumstances appear in the Transfer Isles. At most this letter can be sent as far as the mundane world, and then it would be perfectly reasonable for their own people to bring it in," Dr. Glasses muttered to himself for a long while. Suddenly he smacked his forehead. "That's it—the Mystery Investigation Bureau!"

Though no one was left guarding Wei Zhao's villa, the Mystery Investigation Bureau could not possibly have followed him in. It was the essential prop by which he influenced and controlled every cultivation force in the mundane world. Once the letter was delivered to the Mystery Investigation Bureau, it would naturally end up in Wei Zhao's hands in due course.

And indeed, things went just as Dr. Glasses had expected. To ensure the stability of the forces in the mundane world, Wei Zhao came out every so often to confer with Feng Tianlong of the Mystery Investigation Bureau, and the letter was soon passed on to him.