I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

That night.

Li Wu lay beside the stone pillar with her eyes closed.

He was constantly processing the data transmitted back from the network.

There were no abnormalities during the day.

Everyone's fluctuations in the laws were within the normal range, including the Iron-Blooded Emperor.

But at night...

It was around 3 a.m., according to the agreed time.

The eavesdropping network detected it.

A slight fluctuation of law emanated from the sleeping body of the Iron-Blooded Emperor.

It has an extremely low frequency, very low energy, and lasts for no more than half a second.

But the direction is clear: it's outwards.

Towards the moon.

The communication frequency is highly consistent with that of the Starbreakers.

Li Wu extracted the "outer shell structure" of the information from the faint fluctuations and discovered that what was wrapped inside were the words he had said in the meeting during the day.

His mental strength has only recovered to 30%, and it will take seven days to fully recover.

The bait information was sent out.

Li Wu's heart skipped a beat.

If the Iron-Blooded Emperor is innocent, and if the transponder on his body is merely a passive monitoring device implanted unilaterally by the Starbreaker.

What was transmitted should have been all the information that the Iron-Blooded Emperor "perceived," not just the most crucial piece of information.

But now, only the message "Li Wu only has 30% of his combat strength" is being selectively transmitted.

What does this tell us?

This indicates that it was not a passive forwarding.

It is a conscious, proactive, and selective transmission of intelligence.

Li Wu took a deep breath and restrained the urge to act immediately.

He then did a second thing: he reduced the power of his perception of the laws to an extremely low level, allowing it to slowly permeate the patterns and structures within the Iron-Blooded Emperor's body.

This time he looked at it more carefully.

Those black lines that appear to be fading have not disappeared at all.

They simply delved into a deeper level of the soul.

Deep within the soul, those patterns form an intricate structure.

Rule forwarder.

A complete, mature, and smoothly functioning repeater.

Moreover, this structure is not new.

Judging from the stability of the law threads, it has existed for at least... more than half a year.

Long before today.

Long before they even stepped onto this platform.

When the Iron-Blooded Emperor arrived here, this thing was already inside his body.

Li Wu withdrew his perception of the laws.

He looked at the starry sky above, his mind racing.

Half a year.

The Iron-Blooded Emperor arrived at this platform half a year ago; no, he had been trapped in the Tower of Despair for a year and a half.

When did he come into contact with the Starbreakers?

"Hua Zitong".

Hua Zitong walked over silently and squatted down next to him.

"It's confirmed." Li Wu's voice was almost breathless. "The repeater was set up in advance, at least six months ago. He wasn't infected passively."

Hua Zitong's fingers clenched her sleeves tightly.

"So he completed the Tower of Despair and chose to remove the panel..."

"It could all be part of the Starbreakers' plan," Li Wu said.

Hua Zitong remained silent for a long time.

"What will we do tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, I'll expose him," Li Wu said, "but before that, I need to make some preparations."

"What preparations?"

Li Wu did not answer immediately.

He opened his palm, and a wisp of extremely fine golden law thread condensed in his palm.

That was the lingering echo of the "Light of Purification," and also his purest power of law at present.

"If he's being controlled, I need to be able to suppress him while exposing him. If he's defected voluntarily..."

Li Wu clenched his fist, and the silk threads dissipated.

"I need to be able to strike and defeat him before he can retaliate."

Hua Zitong nodded: "I'll cooperate with you."

"Um."

The two sat in silence for a while.

Then Hua Zitong suddenly said, "There's one more question."

"explain."

"Gu Yuan." Hua Zitong's voice was even lower. "The information he provided... such as the attack patterns of the Starbreakers and the location of the Border Rift."

"If the Iron-Blooded Emperor was already one of the Starbreakers, then did Gu Yuan know that he sent the Iron-Blooded Emperor to explore the lunar frontier?"

Li Wu paused for a moment.

He had thought about this problem as well.

But we can't suspect two people at the same time. That would break the whole team.

"Let's take it one step at a time," Li Wu said. "Let's deal with Tie Xue and Gu Yuan's issues first... we'll talk about that later."

Hua Zitong hummed in agreement and got up to leave.

Li Wu closed her eyes again.

Tomorrow, he will give everyone an "answer".

early morning.

Li Wu's mental strength has recovered to 50%.

enough.

He stood in the center of the platform early, waiting for everyone to gather around.

"Today's training content has been changed at the last minute." His tone was normal, even a little relaxed. "We'll conduct a Law Resonance Test."

Chasing the Wind scratched his head: "A resonance test?"

"We're testing the purity of each person's Law power," Li Wu explained. "Hua Zitong was previously infected by the Star Shatterer's Law poison. Although it's been purified, who knows if there are any residues?"

"Furthermore, yesterday's vortex released a large amount of the Star Shatterer's distorted aura. What if someone was unknowingly slightly contaminated?"

This reason is perfectly reasonable.

After all, Hua Zitong's experience was right before their eyes, and no one wanted to follow in her footsteps.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The Iron-Blooded Emperor stood casually at the back of the crowd, arms crossed.

"Come on, those markings on my body have long since disappeared. Let's check them out, so no one will gossip about them later."

Li Wu hummed in agreement, not giving him much of a look.

"One at a time."

Test begins.

Li Wu released a gentle light of law in front of everyone. It was a simplified version of the light of purification, with only detection function and no purification ability.

When light comes into contact with a human body, it will automatically provide a reading of "purity of law".

Chasing the wind, we passed.

Hua Zitong passed.

Shadow, through.

The night breeze passed by.

Gu Yuan, approved.

One after another, all normal.

It's the Iron-Blooded Emperor's turn.

He strode forward, patted his chest, and said, "Come on, let me see."

Li Wu raised his hand, and golden light of law spread from his palm.

But just before the light touched the Iron-Blooded Emperor, something appeared on Li Wu's fingertips.

An extremely faint signal, simulating the communication frequency of the Starbreakers.

It was sent out along with the detection light.

The moment the golden light touched the body of the Iron-Blooded Emperor.

An unexpected event occurred.

Beneath the Iron-Blooded Emperor's skin, countless black law patterns suddenly surged forth!

Those patterns that seemed to have faded the day before automatically responded the moment they received the communication frequency from the Starbreaker.

Like a dormant machine being awakened, the patterns emerged, spread, and connected at an astonishing speed, forming an "antenna"-like pattern on his chest.

The Iron-Blooded Emperor looked down at his chest.

The entire room fell silent.

"This..." Zhui Feng's mouth dropped open.

Po Jun and Xing Gui took three steps back almost simultaneously.

Shadow's hand was already on the broken dagger at his waist.

Hua Zitong stood expressionless behind Li Wu, without saying a word.

The Iron-Blooded Emperor stared at the patterns on his chest for three seconds.

His expression went through several stages of change, first surprise, then anger, and then an eerie calm.

He raised his head and looked at Li Wu.

The corners of his mouth turned up.

It was exactly the same smile he had when he was unconscious.

"When did you find out?"

His tone was neither questioning nor fearful.

It's curiosity.

It's like a chess player asking their opponent, "At what move did you see through my strategy?"

The first one to explode was Zhui Feng:

"Iron Blood! You're a traitor?! Your act of shielding Li Wu yesterday was fake?! You deliberately created that vortex?!"

The Iron-Blooded Emperor glanced at Chasing Wind and gently shook his head: "Not entirely."

He turned to Li Wu: "It's true that I took that blow for you. But it's also true that I created the vortex and transmitted data."

The platform exploded.

"You two-faced bastard!" Po Jun drew his weapon.

"He knows all of our trump cards! The Starbreaker knows all of our trump cards!" Star Orbit's voice was shrill.

Both Chasing Wind and Shadow were filled with murderous intent.

Li Wu raised his hand. "Quiet down."

The platform went silent instantly.

Li Wu walked towards the Iron-Blooded Emperor, each step steady and deliberate.

He stopped in front of the Iron-Blooded Emperor, the two of them less than two meters apart.

"When were you contacted by the Starbreakers?"

The Iron-Blooded Emperor remained silent for a long time.

The people around held their breath.

He finally spoke.

"Six months ago." His voice was much lower than before, and that carefree attitude was gone.

He paused for a moment, then continued:

"It gave me a choice: to die or live and see just how far these transcendents could go."

A deep-seated pain surfaced in his eyes.

"I chose to live."