The strongest intermediary in all realms

The next morning, Zhou Ming woke up feeling refreshed.

Perhaps yesterday's ordeal completely exhausted his body, because he fell into a deep sleep less than three minutes after lying down last night, without even having a dream.

When I opened my eyes in the morning, the seven o'clock sunlight was streaming obliquely into the office through the window glass, casting a warm band of light on the floor.

He washed his face, wrapped the extra snow lotus roots he had acquired yesterday in plastic bags, and put them in the drawer—maybe they would come in handy later.

"Today we're going to the Azure Sky Realm," he said, tying his shoelaces. "Wearing a disguise talisman, we'll officially enter the core area. I need to get a firsthand understanding of the current power distribution around the Divine Sky Sect, and also see if there's any way to find clues about the missing personnel from that 'Azure Sky Mission' years ago."

Xiaoqi floated out of the system. Today she was wearing a light blue dress and her hair was tied into two buns, looking just like a New Year's picture doll.

Zhou Ming glanced at it a couple more times, then she immediately put her hands on her hips: "What are you looking at? The system is updating skins, you have a problem with that?"

"No, no, no, she's quite cute."

"snort."

A silver-gray corridor split open in the center of the office. Zhou Ming took a deep breath and stepped in.

This time, the feeling of traversing was quite different from the previous times—the moment he stepped from the rift zone into the Azure Sky Realm, a layer of pale blue light covered his entire body, like a thin film of water, and then quickly melted into his skin.

The disguise symbol has been activated.

"The simulated fluctuations of the seventh level of Qi Refining have been covered," Xiao Qi's voice came. "From now on, all Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators will perceive you as 'an ordinary Qi Refining rogue cultivator.' Those above the Golden Core stage might notice something amiss, but as long as you don't crash into someone's cave entrance, you'll basically never encounter anyone at that level."

Zhou Ming looked down at himself. His appearance hadn't changed much, but he did feel a faint sense of airflow enveloping his body, as if he were standing next to a slowly rotating fan.

He was standing in a hilly area of ​​the Azure Sky Realm. Beneath his feet was soft, brown soil, covered with a short grass he didn't recognize, its leaves gleaming with a silvery-gray sheen. The distant sky was a deep blue-green, aligned with the direction of the ruins in his memory. He determined his bearings and walked towards the ruins of the Divine Firmament.

This time, he didn't take a detour, but instead climbed directly up the steps from the foot of the mountain. The camouflage talisman gave him confidence, making his steps much more relaxed than before. The stone steps were covered with moss, and occasionally, lively birds would flutter up from the bushes on both sides, their feathers gleaming faintly.

After walking for about half an hour, he encountered a group of people.

Three cultivators dressed in gray-blue Taoist robes descended from the mountain. The young man in the lead was fair-skinned and beardless, with a token hanging from his waist. His steps were steady, and he exuded a faint aura of early Foundation Establishment. Behind him were two disciples in the late Qi Refining stage, one carrying a medicine basket and the other a compass.

Zhou Ming stepped aside to make way, bowing respectfully and saying, "Fellow Daoists, please."

The leader paused, sizing Zhou Ming up. The simulated fluctuations of the seventh level of Qi Refining were natural, and although his clothing was odd—a T-shirt and jeans were certainly conspicuous in the Azure Sky Realm—he exuded no hostile or suspicious aura. The cultivation world was vast, and strangely dressed rogue cultivators were as numerous as hairs on a cow.

"Are you from the Ruins of Shenxiao?" the man asked, though his tone wasn't particularly fierce.

"I was just passing by and heard there's an ancient sect's ruins here. I thought I'd come and learn something new," Zhou Ming replied with a smile. "May I ask your name, friend?"

"Mo Han, a disciple of the Green Wood Sect." The man stated a name, then glanced at Zhou Ming. "The Divine Firmament Ruins have been turbulent lately, with outsiders frequently entering and leaving. We are ordered to patrol this area, and we advise you to leave immediately."

Zhou Ming's heart skipped a beat. The frequent comings and goings of outsiders—most likely referring to those black market transmigrators—had already alerted the local sects of the Azure Sky Realm.

"Thank you for the reminder, Fellow Daoist Mo." He cupped his hands in greeting again. "I'm just taking a look around and then leaving; I won't cause any trouble."

Mo Han nodded slightly and continued down the mountain with his two disciples. As they passed each other, Zhou Ming heard him whisper to the disciple behind him, "Go back and report to the elders that more people dressed in 'strange clothing' have been spotted around the ruins. Their characteristics are similar to those of the group from three days ago; they are suspected to be accomplices."

Zhou Ming continued walking up the mountain without changing his expression, but his heart skipped a beat. He was being mistaken for an accomplice of the black market transmigrators. The patrolling disciples of the Qingmu Sect had begun marking "outsiders in disguise," which meant that his future actions would have to be even more covert.

He walked around the ruins and indeed found several new runic markings—small warning arrays carved into the stone walls with spiritual energy, leaving a record of their presence whenever someone touched them. Three hundred years after the Shenxiao Sect was wiped out, surrounding sects began to divide up the remaining value of these ruins. From a cultural relic preservation perspective, this was understandable, but it posed a substantial obstacle to his investigation.

"What do we do?" Xiao Qi asked. "There are five warning posts on the front of the ruins, three on the sides, and no posts below the cliff behind, but climbing up by hand is almost impossible."

Zhou Ming stood behind an ancient tree and observed for ten minutes before finally focusing his gaze on the gravel path leading to the back of the mountain.

Is there a path at the bottom of the cliff behind the mountain?

"System scans show a dried-up ancient riverbed at the bottom of the cliff, which can bypass the main mountain and lead directly to the lower level of the ruins' main hall," Xiao Qi said, pulling up a 3D terrain map. "However, there may be demonic beasts active in the riverbed; the system detected a weak mid-level spiritual energy reaction."

Zhou Ming weighed his options. Going head-on would risk being tracked by the Green Wood Sect's surveillance array, while taking the river route would theoretically be more discreet, but he'd have to bear the risk of encountering demonic beasts himself. He touched the protective jade pendant he'd acquired from the Rift Zone in the side pocket of his backpack—it could block one attack from a Qi Refining stage cultivator. Better than nothing.

"Let's take the river route."

He slid down the side of the hillside, using both hands and feet to traverse a dense forest, taking nearly twenty minutes to find the dried-up ancient riverbed. The riverbed was covered with pebbles, its two sides towering and casting heavy shadows. The air was damp, carrying a somber smell of moss and humus.

After walking about a hundred meters, a low gurgling sound came from the darkness ahead.

Zhou Ming's steps faltered. He slowly took out the protective jade pendant and held it in his palm, leaning against the river wall, inching his gaze toward the source of the sound. Crouching in the shadows was a creature about half a person's height, with gray-black fur, resembling a badger but much larger, its small eyes gleaming with an eerie green light.

"A low-level demonic beast, a rock badger," Xiao Qi quickly provided the information. "Around the sixth level of Qi Refining. It's not fast, but its bite force is astonishing. It seems to be sleeping; tiptoe around it."

Zhou Ming held his breath and moved slowly, hugging the furthest part of the riverbank. Each step was extremely light, the soles of his boots making a soft scraping sound as they ground against the pebbles. The badger's ears twitched, but it didn't raise its head. By the time he had completely rounded the bend, the back of his clothes was soaked with cold sweat.

After walking for more than half an hour, the river gradually narrowed, and an arched opening hidden by vines appeared ahead. Pushing aside the vines, the interior suddenly opened up—it led directly to the back door of the main hall at the bottom of the Shenxiao Ruins.

He crouched down and slipped through the back door, dusting himself off.

"They're in."

The interior of the main hall was more spacious than the one he had entered from the front hall last time, with a dome at least three stories high, and the remaining murals were more complete. The most striking feature was a huge circular stone disc in the center of the floor, engraved with intricate map patterns. The patterns were connected by countless fine lines to dozens of nodes, each marked with an unfamiliar character.

"A boundary coordinate map." Xiao Qi's voice was filled with amazement. "The interdimensional teleportation array that the Shenxiao Sect was building back then—judging by its scale, it connected at least thirty or more planes. They were trying to construct an interdimensional teleportation network."

Zhou Ming crouched down to examine the characters closely. Each node represented an anchor point in a world, and the intersections between the lines were marked with estimated distances and energy consumption values.

These are extremely precise engineering drawings; on Earth, they would be equivalent to a complete interstellar navigation design.

He was most interested in one of the nodes. On the edge of the stone disc, a number next to a character was extremely similar to the "Blue Star" plane code stored in his system.

"Blue Star was also included in their plans," Zhou Ming said in a low voice. "The Divine Firmament Sect originally wanted to build a teleportation array connecting to Blue Star. Then the Purifiers came."

Xiao Qi was silent for a moment: "So the Purifiers destroyed the Divine Firmament Sect because they were about to establish a stable connection with Blue Star. Blue Star is the 'core of the problem' in the Purifiers' eyes, and they absolutely cannot allow the most active world in the myriad realms to establish a stable connection with other planes."

Zhou Ming stood up, took out his phone from his pocket, and took pictures of each pattern on the stone slab to save them.

This was his most important find on this trip—a three-hundred-year-old design blueprint for a transdimensional teleportation array.

Although he has no resources or technical skills to build it now, the blueprints themselves are a powerful "information asset".

As he was taking pictures, footsteps suddenly came from the direction of the front door of the main hall.

Someone has come in.

Zhou Ming quickly turned sideways and hid behind a thick stone pillar, locked his phone, and suppressed his breathing to a minimum.

The footsteps drew closer; both of them walked with steady steps.

Then a deep male voice rang out, carrying an unsettling arrogance: "Those useless Qingmu Sect members think they can stop us by drawing a few warning talismans outside the ruins? The High Priest already took what he wanted."

Another voice chimed in: "Captain, the fragments of divine consciousness we copied last time have been passed on to the High Priest. He said that a portion of the 'coordinate core' was intercepted beforehand, and someone activated the Green Wave Sword's imprint before us."

The deep male voice paused for two seconds, then sneered, "Who intercepted it isn't important. Following the remaining threads of the coordinate core, we'll find the person who activated the mark sooner or later. The High Priest suspects that person is on Blue Star, and connected to the remnants of the Azure Sky Mission."

Zhou Ming's fingers gripped the edge of the stone pillar tightly.

"Wasn't everything cleaned up during the Azure Sky Mission?" The second voice hesitated.

"Clean it up?" A deep male voice chuckled. "Seven transmigrators. Five died on the spot, and two fell into the spacetime turbulence and their whereabouts are unknown. The High Priest said those two might not be completely dead and drifted to other planes with the turbulence. Since the Green Wave Sword's mark has been activated, it means those two's descendants are still alive. Finding the person who activated the mark will allow us to follow the clues and wipe out the remaining remnants."

The footsteps stopped in the center of the hall, as if they were checking something.

"Let's go, we've almost moved everything here. Report to the High Priest that we need to send more people to Blue Star to infiltrate as 'black market travelers' and conduct a thorough search for clues related to the Green Wave Sword."

The footsteps began to move outwards.

Zhou Ming hid behind the stone pillar, even holding his breath. He waited until the footsteps completely disappeared and the hall returned to deathly silence before slowly emerging from behind the pillar.

The back of my T-shirt was soaked.

He stood beside the huge boundary coordinate map, looking down at the dense lines and nodes on the stone disc.

The location of Blue Star was clearly marked—even after three hundred years, the Purgers still regarded Blue Star as their primary target.

The disappearance of Lin Xiaowan's parents, the annihilation of the Shenxiao Sect, and even the increasingly active black market transmigrators in the Rift Zone all point to the same direction.

The liquidators are playing a long game.

He was just a newly opened real estate agent, clutching a tattered coordinate map, a Green Wave Sword containing a secret of inheritance, and a thank you from a six-year-old girl.

Resources were scarce, but he now knew the most crucial information—the Reapers were infiltrating Earth, posing as black market travelers.

This was enough for him to make arrangements in advance.

Zhou Ming took a deep breath, reviewed every detail of the stone map in his mind, and then crouched down and crawled through the archway he had entered through, returning along the ancient riverbed.

The return journey was much faster than the way there. The rock badger was still dozing in its usual spot. This time, Zhou Ming didn't deliberately slow his pace and rushed across its territory.

The beast woke up and chased after him for a few steps, but it wasn't fast enough and stopped after Zhou Ming left it some distance behind.

When I emerged from the silver-gray corridor and returned to the office, the midday sun outside was blazing hot.

The roar of hover motorcycles on the street, the shouts of steamed bun vendors, and the low, slow chimes coming from the direction of the Transit Administration Bureau in the distance intertwine to form the most ordinary daily life in the Yuecheng District of Blue Star.

Zhou Ming threw his backpack on the table, sat down in the chair, leaned back against the chair, and looked up at the ceiling.

"Boss," Xiao Qi's voice drifted in, "you don't look too good."

"Normal." Zhou Ming closed his eyes. "I just found out I've been listed as a 'search target' by a cross-dimensional terrorist organization; it's no wonder I'm upset."

Xiaoqi was quiet for a moment, then asked, "Are you going to run away?"

"Run?" Zhou Ming opened his eyes, looking at her with a puzzled expression. "Run for what? The entire planet is their target. Where can I run to? Hide in some remote mountain forest to cultivate immortality? That would be even worse."

He sat up straight, connected his phone to the data cable, and began backing up the photos of the stone discs.

"Information is a weapon. What I have now—the Divine Firmament Teleportation Array Diagram, the Green Wave Sword Inheritance Fragment, and the Purifier's infiltration methods—takes together a card, albeit a small one, but at least it lets me know what moves they're making."

He imported the first photo into the computer, and the screen displayed a dense array of coordinate lines. The lines crisscrossed, like a net waiting to be untangled.

"The next steps are clear," Zhou Ming tapped the screen.

"Gather information. See to what extent the liquidators, disguised as black market travelers, have infiltrated Earth. Who have they contacted, and through what channels? Then, block their paths in advance, weave a tight network of intermediaries, and ensure their search efforts always hit a wall on my end."

Xiao Qi tilted her head and looked at him for a while, then suddenly smiled, her twin ponytails swaying: "Your 'knowing there are tigers in the mountains but still heading towards them' personality would usually not survive past the third chapter in a novel."

"But I've survived to Chapter Nine," Zhou Ming replied without looking up, "which means I have the protagonist's halo."

He opened the system panel and added a few items to the to-do list. The midday sun shone brightly outside the window, people came and went on the street, steam rose from the rooftops, and the sword cultivator left a trail of afterimages as he passed overhead.

Everything was normal.

But Zhou Ming knew that from today onwards, he had to be on high alert.