Inside the hall.

Niu Baidao returned. With a smile, he said, "It's Old Hu. His teleportation technique is truly exquisite. If Lan Tian learns something like that, even Invincibles will find it hard to capture him."

Hearing that, Zhu Tiandao said, "Interesting. The Super Sensory Jade judges that he's a Sunmoon. In that case, perhaps we can let him handle a Sunmoon in the event of an attack. That should be fine, right?"

"Yeah." Niu Baidao laughed, "He will be fine."

The others laughed as well. Combat strength of a Sunmoon. That was quite surprising. As a seventh-stage Mountainsea, he was as strong as a Sunmoon. Old Hu sure was good at acting. Then again, he was a member of the multiple character faction. That wasn't too surprising.

Zhu Tiandao said, "Alright. Enough about him. Apart from these people, we have 13 Mountainsea elders. Old Niu, take a look. How many Mountainseas are there in this mirror?"

Blue dots. These were the Mountainseas. Niu Baidao looked surprised as there were quite a lot of them. Of their thirteen Mountainsea elders, two were in the military while one was out on a tour. That should leave them with ten.

There were two in the hall with them. Thus, there should be eight more out there, excluding Hu Xiansheng. But there were fifteen dots on the mirror. There were seven extra Mountainseas.

"Those three are the three beasts..." Niu Baidao said. He pointed at the lake around the Heart Paradise Island and said, "These are old turtle and his first wife. That old turtle's blue is so deep it's nearly turning purple. His first wife is actually a seventh-stage Mountainsea. I never noticed that..."

Five of these blue dots were beasts. As for the other two dots...Niu Baidao took a look and noted that one was in the Multiple Character Faculty.

He did not notice it previously, so he was quite surprised as he said, "This mirror is able to penetrate even the defenses of the Source Soul Research Center? Did they notice us?"

"I doubt so." The old woman explained, "That is a Sunmoon defensive formation. I don't think it can detect us."

"This blue is very dim. It's probably Wen Zhong."

Zhu Tiandao nodded, "It should be him, but I'm not too sure..."

He pointed at the other dot and said, "Look, there's an azure dot in the Source Soul Research Center that is very deep in color. This is a ninth-stage Cloudbreach?"

"Oh, there are three more azure dots nearby..."

Zhu Tiandao's eyes flickered as he asked, "One Mountainsea and four Cloudbreaches. Where did the four Cloudbreaches come from?"

"The water elemental and shadow are Cloudbreaches. Wen Zhong can be considered a weak Mountainsea. As for the other two Cloudbreaches..."

Suddenly, Niu Baidao said, "The little furball..."

Zhu Tiandao nodded, "Yes, he entered the Cloudbreach Realm recently. But of these two dots, one is a ninth-stage Cloudbreach and the other is a seventh-stage Cloudbreach. Which of them is the little furball?"

Niu Baidao hesitated and said, "The ninth-stage Cloudbreach? That furball is a unique existence. His strength is quite hard to judge. The Super Sensory Jade might judge that he's a ninth-stage Cloudbreach."

"Who's the seventh-stage Cloudbreach, then?"

The two exchanged gazes. That couldn't be Su Yu, right?

The other members of the Source Soul Research Center had been displayed on the mirror as Skysoars. Even the Mental Tempering Stage Wu Lan was shown. The suanni and mountaindrill bull who were in charge of guarding the door could be seen as well. The only additional dot was a Cloudbreach dot. Was that Su Yu?

Combat strength of seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm? That was the Super Sensory Jade's judgment? Why? Based on what? They would believe that Su Yu had the strength of a fourth or fifth-stage Cloudbreach. But the seventh stage...

The old woman said, "Prefect, Principal, stop talking about that. There is a bigger issue. The area around him looks quite abnormal as well."

The old woman pointed at Su Yu's dot and said, "If this is Su Yu, then I have no idea what he's doing. For some reason, he is generating the threat level of a Mountainsea..."

That entire area was slowly turning from azure to blue.

Zhu Tiandao asked, "What does this mean?"

The old woman explained, "This means that a Cloudbreach is supposed to be breaking through to the Mountainsea there. Or there is ongoing research that has suddenly erupted with enough strength to generate a threat level that is slowly climbing toward the Mountainsea Realm."

"What is he researching? Don't tell me he's extracting the blood essence of the Sunmoon divine corpse?"

Zhu Tiandao was unsure, but he knew that Su Yu had received a Sunmoon divine corpse from the Xia Family. Was the kid extracting the blood essence from the corpse? After a while, he moved his gaze away. He was curious. Did Su Yu really have the combat strength of a seventh-stage Cloudbreach?

That wasn't possible, right? Or was the kid using blood essence to unleash such a level of strength? His gaze landed on the final blue dot. That was the last unaccounted Mountainsea.

Who was that?

He looked at Niu Baidao questioningly. Niu Baidao frowned and said, "This place...shouldn't have any Mountainsea elders. Why is there a Mountainsea here?"

The two exchanged gazes in surprise. Did they capture a big fish on the test run itself? Yes. A Mountainsea was most certainly worthy of being called a big fish.

"Are you sure?"

"No. Shall we take a look together?"

Niu Baidao stroked his beard and said, "I really can't remember any Mountainsea that's supposed to be there. Perhaps it's a beast that has recently broken through? Since it's a beast that has been staying in the academy, I might have missed the breakthrough process."

"How did you miss a breakthrough into the Mountainsea Realm?"

"I was away for a bit, right?"

The two vanished at the same time.

***

A short while later, they appeared at one of the residential areas in the academy.

A young student was seriously reading a book nearby. When he sensed some movement nearby, he looked over. His heart skipped a beat as he hurriedly stood up and said, "Greetings, Prefect and Principal."

Niu Baidao looked at the young student from head to toe while rubbing his chin. After a while, he frowned and said, "I can't see anything. Prefect, when did our eyes get this bad?"

Zhu Tiandao ignored the question. He scanned the young student before saying, "You need to look really close or you'll miss it. I thought only those from the transformation faction could hide from my eyes, but...I guess I was wrong. This fellow is probably using a unique character to achieve this..."

The moment those words were said, the young student's expression changed. He hastily said, "Lord Prefect, I—"

Zhu Tiandao waved his hand, "Silence. I'm not Xia Longwu. I don't kill indiscriminately. How amazing. As a Mountainsea, you were able to hide from Old Niu and me. Sure, we’ve never interacted with each other, but it's still impressive."

The young student's expression changed drastically.

"Don't be so nervous. Did I say that I'm going to kill you? You have quite a useful ability."

Zhu Tiandao said, "Tell me. Where are you from? The cult?"

After a while, the young student gloomily said, "Don't misunderstand me, Lord. I don't harbor any evil designs toward anyone. This lowly one is not a cultist. I'm...from the Travelling Merchants Association."

Zhu Tiandao was hit by a realization. "It's you! Hundred Arm Thief, Xu Bin! Travelling Merchants Association...you sure are brazen."

"You're quite capable, aren't you? You actually managed to sneak into the academy. The academy lost three important research results a while ago. That must be your work, right? The cult was made your scapegoat. As a Mountainsea, you actually make a living through thievery. I don't know what to say."

The young student laughed awkwardly.

Zhu Tiandao's face turned cold as he asked, "Since you're still here, are you aiming to steal something else? Or do you have other plans?"

"No..." Xu Bin was about to deny it when he sensed a massive pressure descending upon him. He hurriedly changed his tune, "Erm...I accepted a mission to steal the Source Soul Acupoint Opening Art Su Yu is going to release or any other arts. I'm telling the truth. I didn't even have the chance to do anything yet. I only accepted this mission because it has a high reward of 200,000 merit points. It was jointly issued by the major sects in the Myriad Race Cult...

"Prefect, I surrender. I am only a thief. I never killed anyone. I am willing to pay for my freedom. I can pay a million merit points..."

Seeing that Zhu Tiandao still had an ugly expression, he changed the figure, "Three million! That's everything I have! I will also serve Great Ming from now on! Lord, there is no place I can't sneak into! Cough, cough. I mean, I can be very useful for Great Ming! And the Travelling Merchants Association is merely a black market middleman, not a traitor of humanity. We are only in charge of selling some illegal items that can't be purchased through other channels."

Zhu Tiandao couldn't be bothered to say much. He reached out to capture Xu Bin. As a ninth-stage Sunmoon, he could easily accomplish the feat of capturing an early Mountainsea.

Xu Bin did not try to run. He helplessly said, "Lord! I'm sincere! I'm really surrendering to you! Do you need anything stolen? No, I mean, do you need anything? I am an expert in this field. Even if you want Great XIa's Sky Sundering Sable or Great Zhou's Civilized Sword, I can get them for you. If not..."

Zhu Tiandao didn't even deign to say anything. He knocked Xu Bin out before looking at Niu Baidao, "There is no Lan Tian, but we caught Xu Bin instead. This is quite a surprise. What do you think? Is Lan Tian here or not?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's still in Great Xia." Niu Baidao said, "The Super Sensory Jade sure is useful. It can even detect someone like Xu Bin. Even if this fellow isn't as good as Lan Tian in hiding, he won't be that far off."

They were very pleased. The countless resources they spent and the time of several Sunmoons and earth-grade weaponsmiths had not been for nothing.

Xu Bin was a very famous name. As he said, he never killed. He was a professional thief. A Mountainsea professionnal thief. Naturally, only things of significant value would catch his attention.

Zhu Tiandao said, "This fellow is very useful. He knows a lot of secrets. About a dozen years ago, he managed to steal something from even the Knowledge Seeking Realm. This is a great gain for us."

Both of them were laughing happily. This fellow had stolen a lot of things before, so he was extremely rich. More important, he knew a lot of things.

Zhu Tiandao said, "The Super Sensory Jade sure is useful. We need to quickly expand the coverage to cover the entire city. I'm more curious about Su Yu. Is he really as strong as a seventh-stage Cloudbreach?"

Niu Baidao said, "I'm not sure. He reached the 49th level during his pagoda challenge. It is possible that he is as strong as a weak seventh-stage Cloudbreach. But we still don't know the standards of the Super Sensory Jade."

"Let's take a look when we have the time." Zhu Tiandao narrowed his eyes and said, "For now, we have something else to focus on. After spreading the coverage to the entire city, a bunch of unwanted elements will definitely be exposed. Old Niu, we might get busy soon. Perhaps we can use this chance to capture some big fish."

With this thing, the defenses of Great Ming were brought to a brand new level.

Zhu Tiandao said, "We lack an opportunity to lure all of those people out. Su Yu is going to start forging his body soon, right? Maybe we can discuss it with him. This might be a good chance to catch some big fish."

"This won't be easy in the academy."

Zhu Tiandao said, "I know. But Su Yu can leave the academy. If we talk to him, it should be fine. We're doing this for his safety, right? We can clean the city with this chance. It would be even better if we could catch Lan Tian as well. That is one troublesome fellow."

Niu Baidao nodded. He was in a good mood as well. With the perfection of Tiandu's defensive and supervisory systems, it was time for them to clean the capital.

Zhu Tiandao smiled. After removing those unwanted elements from the city, things would be much easier for them. And this might also be Su Yu's chance to earn what he needed for his coming body forging.