The opening scene reveals the story of Yao Lao, alarming the Soul Emperor.

The carriage traveled above the clouds for two hours.

As the turbulence gradually subsided, the Inkhorn found a stable high-altitude airflow. Its six legs stepped alternately on the solid air duct, moving at an extremely fast speed, while only a low-frequency buzzing vibration could be heard inside the carriage.

Hun Yu opened his eyes.

The calming incense had burned down to almost nothing, leaving only a short piece of incense stick in the bronze cauldron, and the smoke was already very faint.

He propped himself up on the soft couch and reached out to pull open a hidden compartment beneath the table. Inside was a purple clay teapot, still warm—it had been stuffed in by Wu Ying before they set off, its temperature locked in by a spirit-gathering array.

The tea, poured into the cup, was a deep red color; it was a unique type of jujube tea from the Northwest Branch Hall.

He took a sip, put down the cup, and looked down at the empty table.

Time to get down to business.

The max-level wisdom template of Zhuge Liang was operating on its own deep within his consciousness, extracting massive amounts of fragmented information in a categorized manner.

Over the past seventeen years, every word of gossip he heard at the bottom of the Soul Hall, every low-level document he handled, and every unintentional leak of high-level movements—all these scraps that ordinary people would consider waste paper—are now being rewoven into a net with the help of the template.

The first layer of the network: the power structure of the Soul Palace.

The Soul Emperor sits atop the throne, detached from trivial matters, focusing solely on three things: the Strange Flame, Emperor-grade pills, and all variables that might threaten his ascension to the Dou Di realm.

There are two pillars below him.

The Heavenly Gang Hall is the main force for war.

The Palace Master, Soul Extinction, is a Five-Star Dou Sheng in his early stage and the strongest expert in the Soul Clan besides the clan leader.

This person holds military power, manages foreign affairs, and commands all military operations of the Soul Palace.

He has a violent temper and acts roughly, but for someone who can sit in this position, roughness is just a facade.

The Earthly Fiends Hall is in charge of internal affairs.

The Palace Master, Soul Zhenyuan, has an unknown cultivation level and rarely appears in public.

This person is in charge of alchemy, soul refining, resource allocation, and... intelligence.

Hunyu dipped his right index finger in the tea and made two dots on the table.

On the left, Tiangang.

On the right, the Earthly Fiend.

Below the two halls, there is one Great Heavenly Venerable and nine Nine Heavenly Venerables.

The Grand Celestial Venerable is at the level of a deputy temple master, and the Nine Celestial Venerables each manage a specific area.

He drew a horizontal line below the dot on the left, and then drew nine short vertical lines.

The Great Celestial Venerable of the Heavenly Gang Palace is called Hunhai, a Four-Star Dou Sheng.

The cultivation levels of the Nine Heavens Venerables range from the peak of Dou Zun to a one-star Dou Sheng.

These people each commanded their own armies, occupied their own territories, and had their own selfish motives.

Soul Extinction and Life's ability to suppress them didn't rely on winning over the masses, but on sheer force.

"A system maintained by fists." Soul Feather muttered to himself, his voice completely drowned out by the wind noise.

He took another sip of tea.

A system that relies on force to maintain itself is most vulnerable to two things.

First, when your fist isn't strong enough.

Second, when the fists of those below become increasingly hard.

At the Heavenly Gang Palace, both things are happening right now.

He used the tea to create a second layer of netting on the table.

He had no right to access the fragments of high-level battle reports from the past three years—these were things he, as a member of a lower-level collateral branch, was not qualified to handle. However, the Northwest Branch Hall's document room was poorly managed, and Protector Wu only cared about capturing people and gaining merit, never caring what was thrown into the wastepaper basket.

Seventeen years is enough time for a dedicated person to piece together half a map from a pile of waste paper.

The facts are as follows: In the past two years, the Heavenly Gang Palace has carried out a total of seven encirclement and suppression operations against the ancient clans.

Seven times, all to no avail.

It wasn't that they lost the battle, it was that they came up empty-handed. Every time a large army pressed in, the core figures of the ancient clan would relocate beforehand, leaving behind only empty strongholds and a few insignificant abandoned corpses.

One failed attempt is due to delayed intelligence. Two failed attempts are due to the opponent's shrewdness.

Seven failed attempts?

Hunyu slowly wrote a character on the table with his index finger.

Inside.

Someone in the Heavenly Gang Hall was tipping off the ancient clan.

Moreover, this person's rank is not low. Anyone with access to the full picture of military deployments must be at least a Ninth Heavenly Venerable.

He picked up the teacup, held the rim to his lips, but didn't drink.

Golden Bagua patterns emerged from the depths of his pupils, slowly rotating. The Divine Calculator Golden Eyes began to calculate in reverse.

The timelines of the seven encirclement campaigns, the personnel involved, the approval process for the marching routes, and the targets of accountability afterward... these scattered pieces of information are strung together one by one by golden lines.

Elimination method.

Of the seven operations, only four of the Nine Heavenly Venerables participated in the entire deployment process.

Of the four, two have jurisdictions that do not border the ancient clan's territory at all, making the cost of transmitting intelligence too high and the efficiency too low, which is unreasonable and therefore they are excluded.

There are two left.

Hunyu spilled the tea on the table and quickly traced lines with his index finger. Two names were circled and connected by a line.

At the end of the line, he added a question mark.

Insufficient intelligence. The existing fragments can only narrow down the area, not pinpoint the exact location.

But it is not important.

The important thing is that Hun Miesheng must have also found out about this step.

A palace master at the early stage of a five-star Dou Sheng, who manages the entire intelligence system of the Tian Gang Palace, couldn't possibly be completely unaware of the seven missed attempts in two years.

The fact that he didn't take action means that he also didn't find the final name.

Or rather, he found out, but couldn't do anything about it.

Hunyu finished the last sip of tea in his cup.

In either case, this is an excellent ticket to the game.

He didn't need to actually find the traitor. He only needed to demonstrate to Hun Miesheng that "I have the ability to find the traitor."

A problem that has been troubling the temple master for two years—if someone could solve it for him—

This person is no longer a dispensable crony, but a weapon that must be kept in the core circle.

Who would throw away their own knife?

Hunyu picked up the clean white cloth on the table and wiped away the tea stains one by one.

The strokes disappeared, the name disappeared, and the character "内" was finally erased.

The cloth was folded and put back in the hidden compartment. The table was restored to its spotless state, as if nothing had happened.

A dull pain came from my chest.

coming.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out; a metallic, sweet taste rose in his throat. He turned his head and coughed into his sleeve, leaving a dark red stain on the white edge of the sleeve.

The backlash from his physical body was becoming more and more frequent. The legal burden of the second level of the Heavenly Dao Eight Trigrams Formation far exceeded the limits of this body's capacity. Every time he used the Divine Calculation Golden Eye for in-depth deduction, it accelerated the depletion of his already dwindling life force.

He leaned back on the soft couch, closed his eyes, and regulated his breathing.

It's okay.

This body cannot collapse before reaching the Central Continent. And it cannot collapse after reaching the Central Continent either. At least not before meeting the Soul Emperor.

A proposal from a dying person carries different weight than a proposal from a lively, energetic person.

The former is called a legacy plan.

The latter is called a pledge of allegiance.

He needs the latter.

His consciousness began to blur, and drowsiness washed over him like a tide. He did not resist, letting himself slip into a light sleep. The white feather fan rested on his lap, its tassels dangling down, swaying gently with the slight vibrations of the carriage.

I don't know how much time passed.

The train carriage suddenly stopped.

Hunyu's eyes snapped open.

The second tremor followed immediately, much more violent than the first. The purple clay teapot on the table slid to the edge, and he reached out to catch it, but the lid still hit the corner of the table and shattered in two.

The howl of the Inkhorn came from outside the vehicle.

It wasn't a normal hiss. It was a desperate scream, the kind of scream one makes when encountering a predator.

A violent energy surge, so intense it distorted the air, pierced through the carriage wall and crashed down head-on. The bronze calming cauldron inside the carriage was jolted awake, overturned, and scattered charcoal ash all over the floor.

Hunyu steadied himself by holding onto the side of the carriage.

Outside the curtain, the sky changed dramatically. The once azure sky suddenly darkened, and thick, dark clouds rolled in from the front, with irregular arcs of purple lightning striking down from within them.

The sound of a crow came from the carriage shaft.

His voice was hoarse and tense, carrying the alertness that only a six-star Dou Zong would have when facing an unknown threat.

"Someone is blocking the way."