Chapter 1 Zhao Qi…Something’s Not Right

“Zhao Qi…something’s not right.”

Gu Shen frowned, watching the departing figure of the Young Master Zhao.

“How so?” Song Ci asked in a low voice, inspecting the guests as he spoke. “What did you see?”

When Zhao Qi entered, a wisp of blazing fire had flashed across the space between Gu Shen’s eyebrows. It was so faint, however, that it didn't attract anyone else’s attention… The moment the Blazing Fire Vision activated, Gu Shen carefully examined Zhao Qi from head to toe.

First of all, he could confirm one thing.

This young master clearly hadn’t found the mastermind behind the attack in the old city alleyway. Otherwise, his reaction upon seeing them wouldn’t have been like this.

“Ever since I beat him up last time, he’s started to get smarter… He’s wearing several extraordinary sealed items at this banquet, all of them defensive gear.” Gu Shen said in a low voice, “But there’s one accessory he’s wearing… it's a little strange.”

“It's…a necklace.”

In that brief moment covered by the Blazing Fire.

Gu Shen used his mental power to scan Zhao Qi… The young master’s earrings and rings were all sealed items. But inside his suit jacket, there was also a small gift box. The result of the mental power scan was that a necklace was coiled inside that small gift box.

Why would a man like Zhao Qi wear a necklace?

It must be a gift for someone…

“Is that necklace also a sealed item? Could it be dangerous?” Song Ci quickly realized that such a necklace was obviously meant to be given as a gift. Besides the Madam, who else would be worthy of a gift prepared by Zhao Qi?

The last time he was marked with mental power still bothered Song Ci.

He narrowed his eyes, staring at Zhao Qi’s back. “If you think there’s a problem, I’ll stop him and check him again.”

“What would we accomplish by stopping him and checking… It’s just a necklace, not evidence.” Gu Shen shook his head. “Besides… there are too many people here, it’s not convenient to deal with it.”

Song Ci silently clenched his fist, his expression blank.

“What kind of evidence do we need? I’ll stop him, and if you find anything wrong with that sealed item, I’ll let him taste my fist right then and there.”

“Don't be impulsive.”

“This is a time when the Madam is under close scrutiny, every move will have a huge impact on her. If you beat up Zhao Qi here… that would be terrible.”

Gu Shen said seriously, “Wait until the banquet begins, keep a close eye on Zhao Qi… and strike when he takes action. Then we’ll catch him red-handed.”

“…Alright.”

Song Ci took a deep breath and said, “I’ll remind the Madam.”

Half an hour later, the invited guests for the banquet had mostly arrived.

After the basic security check was completed, the doors of the hall slowly closed. Gu Shen left through the door and entered the narrow back door of the hall’s emergency exit. He stood silently against the wall, in the dark shadows. Through the crack in the door, he could see the brightly lit hall reception area. Groups of people and waiters were in the reception area, sampling the wine. The soothing music passed through the thick door, becoming dim and noisy in Gu Shen’s ears…

He silently connected to his earpiece. There were only three people on the channel.

Himself, his teacher, and his senior sister.

“How is it going, Dance Hunter? How is the security work coming along?”

Mr. Shu’s laughter rang out.

“The Dance Hunter just checked one hundred and twenty-nine guests, and now he’s half dead… The capital issued so many invitations, yet there isn’t a single S-rank from the Tribunal. It's truly disheartening.”

Gu Shen replied softly to himself.

His Blazing Fire appeared between his eyebrows. He closed his eyes, but his vision expanded even further. His mental power spread in an extremely concealed manner. The invisible firelight gathered at the chandelier above the reception hall, seeming to form an even larger eye.

His Blazing Fire trait was very special.

Several “big shots” in the hall raised their heads, glancing slightly in the direction of the chandelier… From the way Zhou Jiren had attended the free dance party with such fanfare, he could sense that the Tribunal was preparing to hunt tonight.

The special investigation team in the capital, responsible for Project Falconry, had attracted the attention of many people within the council recently.

Of course… It was related to the video of Chen Mei joining the special investigation team.

“There are thirty-one waiters in the reception hall. I need further access to the Deep Sea, to retrieve the detailed information of these waiters for comparison…” Gu Shen missed Chu Ling a little. If she were here, she would handle this work faster and more efficiently.

The next moment.

Information popped up on his glasses. The Deep Sea database had opened up twelfth-level privileges for the special investigation team. This was the level of privilege that Zhou Jiren enjoyed within the council… After opening everything, Gu Shen felt an unprecedented sense of exhilaration.

The computing power of the Deep Sea zone was provided by the transcendent trials.

Correspondingly.

The higher the level reached in the Deep Sea trial, the more advanced permissions and the greater computing power one could obtain from the mainframe. This was a positive feedback loop, or rather… a compensation.

“Comparison complete.”

In just three seconds, the information of all thirty-one waiters was compared.

“The files of these waiters are very clean, no records and no suspicious points. After the Deep Sea analysis, the overlap between the images of these thirty-one waiters and the 'Long-lasting Foundation Believers' is less than 1% for twenty-nine of them. The other two are 4% and 9% respectively.” Gu Shen said softly, “A little interlude, the one with the highest overlap is a rookie intern who just entered the Chemistry Department. Not long ago, he made a mistake during an experiment, causing a small fire explosion, which was put out in less than ten minutes with a dry powder fire extinguisher.”

“It seems that the Deep Sea has defaulted to ‘explosion’ as the keyword for Long-lasting Foundation Believers…” Zhou Jiren chuckled softly, “To this… I express my strong agreement.”

“Seconded.”

Lu Nanjin twirled a wine glass in one hand, hiding in a corner where the light barely touched, like a shadow.

Like Gu Shen, she was also a “hunter” at tonight’s dance party, but one was in the open and the other was in the dark. At this moment, all the guests were enjoying the prelude to the dance party, talking to each other, chatting and laughing.

Only Lu Nanjin was quietly isolated, where she could see the entire reception hall and who everyone was talking to.

“The cocktail party lasts for forty minutes, after which everyone will move from the reception hall to the main hall to enjoy the symphony orchestra…” Gu Shen stood in the dark emergency exit and said softly, “Honestly, I’ve heard a symphony orchestra once and almost fell asleep.”

“I don’t like that stuff either, too high-end.”

Zhou Jiren, with a cigar in his mouth, ended a conversation. He smiled and patted the shoulders of several younger members he didn’t remember the names of, said some symbolic words of encouragement, and left the reception hall alone, heading towards the main hall.

“Those young people told me earlier that the symphony orchestra invited tonight is very famous…”

The old guy narrowed his eyes, “It seems to have been specially invited from Central Continent, called the Lucerne Philharmonic Orchestra, and the chief conductor in charge is a gifted young man.”

“Pierre Heitinger… became the chief conductor of the Lucerne Orchestra at the age of 17.”

Gu Shen pulled up the file and clicked his tongue in admiration.

“Sounds like he’s very impressive… but unfortunately, even a genius can’t save my musical aesthetics.” He yawned, “Now, the moment I hear the word symphony, I get sleepy and want to sleep.”

But the next second, he perked up.

“Oh ho…”

Gu Shen felt that a good show was about to begin. “Senior Sister, there’s someone coming from your three o’clock direction, that guy looks a little familiar…”

He compared the file.

Blond hair and blue eyes.

Pierre Heitinger.