Light Fortress
Chapter 162 - 150: Blood Fire Revisited

Chapter 162: Chapter 150: Blood Fire Revisited

"I have a piece of good news to tell you—"

"Just now, the stolen closed-circuit host information from South Bay Building... has been decrypted."

Leaving the auditorium.

Chu Ling’s voice immediately rang out.

"I found this file, take a look."

A self-extracting data packet popped up in Gu Shen’s glasses interface, a series of data streaming down, one of the files was opened.

"This is..." Gu Shen was stunned.

"The introducers of the members joining the Sincere Heart South Hall... they are all listed here."

A series of names, archives, linked to another series of names, archives.

An immense sea of information.

Gu Shen felt somewhat dizzy looking at it.

This was one of the most important data sets of the Sincere Heart South Hall for nearly a decade.

At last, there was a clue!

The introducer for Shi Li was a vital link to rooting out Xiao.

In another part of Deep Sea, a fast information search was underway, and soon two profiles popped up in front of Gu Shen...

"Shi Li, male, 27 years old, joined the fifth group of the Sincere Heart South Hall... Introducer, Zhu He."

The second file was Zhu He’s—

"Zhu He, male, died in the year 628 of the new calendar... Introducer, none."

What?

What kind of joke was this... Gu Shen felt like he was being mocked by the person entering the information through the screen.

"Shi Li joined the Sincere Heart Association in the year 628, Zhu He suddenly died of a heart condition that year, although the probability is very small... even Transcendents can die from sudden diseases," Chu Ling said slowly, "Of course, I don’t think that was the real cause of Zhu He’s death."

"Obviously, while this closed-circuit host holds important information about the Sincere Heart Association, it is clearly not meticulous enough when it comes to verifying key information. As the association grew larger and needed to audit more and more people, the South Hall couldn’t possibly verify the background of each one. Therefore, after Shi Li entered the association, Zhu He’s death was naturally seen just as an accident, a coincidence. No one would suspect anything wrong about it."

"The introducer for Zhu He is none?"

"The introducer for Chen Mei is also none," Chu Ling said, "Normally, joining the Sincere Heart Association requires an introducer... unless you appear out of nowhere and are directly accepted for being exceptionally capable. Zhu He was such a person. He had extremely strong offensive talents and was once arrested by the prison authorities. After his release, he was directly absorbed by the South Hall of the Sincere Heart Association, with the nickname ’Red Lightning’."

"The information has been cut off..." Gu Shen knew that this couldn’t be a coincidence.

The only explanation was that Xiao anticipated this day when she was bringing Shi Li on board.

Even the information entered into the closed-circuit host could be exposed.

So, everything had to be perfect.

"No... the information hasn’t been cut off..." Chu Ling’s tone became grave, "I have pulled up Zhu He’s detailed profile from the archives, do you know how he was arrested by the prison authorities back then?"

Gu Shen quietly listened.

"Thanks to ’Zhou Yu’," said Chu Ling, "Red Lightning encountered the genius Judge of Yinghai District, and thus his career came to a gloomy end. He didn’t commit any serious crimes, though, and was released after three years..."

"Zhou Yu?"

The previously disconnected clues suddenly seemed to connect at this moment.

Gu Shen recalled Chen Mei’s reaction upon seeing Zhou Yu’s photograph... If Zhou Yu was the missing link in the search for Xiao, then by adding this link, the information and logic became sufficiently complete.

"I am merely offering a conjecture..." said Chu Ling, "Zhou Yu is not dead. He’s still alive. Of course, currently there is no evidence to prove all of this... and given Deep Sea’s assessment of Zhou Yu’s character, he had no reason to do any of these things. However, if Zhou Yu is still alive, then many things that can’t be explained by common sense suddenly make sense."

"Assuming he is still alive, then he’s the one who taught Chen Mei body techniques... and everything about the Blood Fire explosion has an explanation."

No matter how the envoys from the Judgement Institute inspected the scene, they didn’t detect the disturbance of Extraordinary Elements.

Because... no battle of Transcendents had actually occurred.

All of it had been staged by Zhou Yu, who disappeared in that fire, subsequently changing his identity. As "the hidden," he erased the memories related to Zhou Yexin, which is also why Zhou Yu’s face was missing in the Dream.

This conjecture... could perfectly fill in all the inconsistencies.

"But I always feel... that something is not quite right."

Gu Shen murmured, "Can you access Zhou Yu’s profile? I would like to know, what was his ability?"

"Zhou Yu’s profile..."

Chu Ling’s voice slowly said, "I’ll give it a try."

When he had visited Zhou Yexin with the Grand Judge Tang Qingquan before, Gu Shen wanted to see Zhou Yu’s profile... At that time, his curiosity was about what kind of power this genius Judge possessed, one that warranted an almost "S" level rating.

Only by knowing the specific Extraordinary Ability could he guess what kind of battle had taken place at the Blood Fire explosion site.

And the Grand Judge’s response was quite surprising.

Tang Qingquan said his authority was insufficient to view it.

"The authority required is very high... it’s on the same level as Han Dang..." Chu Ling initially suppressed then uplifted her tone with a hint of playfulness, "However, this time I am confident I can unlock the permissions."

"...Huh?"

Previously, when all key profiles related to Han Dang were locked down, Chu Ling was powerless.

"Has Deep Sea system been upgraded, so you’ve also become stronger?" Gu Shen asked with a smile.

"You can think of it that way... but I don’t guarantee I can unlock everything; however, just to view Zhou Yu’s ’Extraordinary Ability’ should be feasible," Chu Ling spoke softly, "This guy’s profile is strange. Deep Sea has completely locked it down, and even the most basic information can’t be accessed. This is not the treatment a normal deceased should receive."