Chapter 772: 769, Intelligence Minister Xi Weng’s Judgement_1
Hidden among the birds, Zhong Feng was safe for the moment.
Yet, within the flock, he was deeply worried about his future circumstances.
Given the current situation, the high-ranking Skuru powerhouses in the Royal Palace couldn’t find him.
Blending in with the diverse mix of the avian crowd offered him a good cover; even a seventh-level powerhouse would have a hard time spotting him.
Furthermore, the Raging Sun Palace covered a vast area; unless the Skuru were ruthless enough to kill all of the pets and wild animals in the back garden, it would be very difficult to find him.
At least he was safe for the next four hours.
However, what worried Zhong Feng the most was the question of what to do after these four hours were over?
After four hours, Manina III and Pu Langte would return to their homeworld.
The pair possessed godly peak-level power. Their psychic scanning range and sensitivity vastly exceeded that of any ordinary seventh-level being; even if twenty or thirty of them teamed up, they might still not be a match for the duo.
Once these two had joined in and begun searching the entire area like a carpet bombing strategy, Zhong Feng would have nowhere to hide!
Therefore, Zhong Feng reasoned in his mind, “No matter what, I must find a way to leave the Royal Palace within these four hours!
But… how should I do it?”
Zhong Feng was lost in thought.
After more than three minutes of deliberation, he came up with a solid idea — to make use of the avian flock.
The flurry of chirping blue and white birds surrounding him would make a perfect pawns for this plan.
As a sixth-ranked Great Druid, he could use the Heart of Nature spell to communicate with the birds, embedding a mental suggestion on the flock.
Through this mental suggestion, he could indirectly manipulate the flock’s actions, guiding them towards the periphery of the Royal Palace’s psychic protection shield.
He could hide amongst the flocks without being discovered by the Skuru.
Once they reached the designated spot, he could again use the Mirror Moonstone, thereby successfully escaping this web!
Around and around, Zhong Feng concluded that this was indeed a viable plan.
Hence, he immediately set this plan into motion, using the Heart of Nature spell to implant a mental suggestion within the birds surrounding him.
However, in order to prevent any potential leakage of magical fluctuations of the Heart of Nature spell, which could alert the Skuru, Zhong Feng dared not be too reckless in his use of this spell.
He was hopping back and forth among the tree branches, releasing a bit of his spell only after getting close to the blue and white birds, then moving on to the next one after successfully controlling a bird, proceeding with extreme caution.
So, to take control of the entire flock, he ended up spending nearly an entire half hour.
What Zhong Feng didn’t know, however, was that just fifteen minutes ago, Emperor Manina suddenly changed his pursuit strategy.
But, this needs to be explained from twenty minutes ago.
Twenty minutes before, Manina returned gloomily to his study.
He himself did not participate in the massive hunt for Zhong Feng.
Although his participation would have likely expedited the search, he was, after all, the Emperor, and an emperor must maintain his regality.
Such a lowly task as searching for a petty thief was better left to his subordinates.
So, he returned to his study, intending to rest for a while.
Upon entering the study, everything was as usual.
The only difference was that Xi Weng, the Minister of Intelligence, was in the study, kneeling.
“Stand up,” Manina ordered Xi Weng.
He was going to sit on his seat.
But the thought of an insect rummaging around here for several hours not too long ago churned his stomach.
“My Lord, I am here.”
With a ‘hmm’ sound, a shining golden 3D projection appeared on the study’s empty ground.
This 3D projection looked like a dazzlingly beautiful Skuru woman in a gold and white attire, a human avatar projection of AI Sunlight.
“Notify the servants to clean the study inside and out; don’t miss any corners,” Manina ordered.
“My Lord, the servants have already cleaned the room during your absence.” AI Sunlight understood Manina’s obsessive-compulsive disorder and had already arranged the cleaning.
“Clean it once more!” Manina glared at her.
“Very well.” Having answered, AI Sunlight disappeared from the study’s open floor.
Xi Weng, the minister of intelligence standing on the side, felt a bit at a loss.
He asked softly, “Your Majesty, what exactly happened?”
Xi Weng had just arrived at the palace and was not aware of the incident.
“An insect sneaked in… forget it, you tell him, Sunlight. Tell Xi Weng what happened here,” Manina said grumpily, preferring that his AI assistant handle it.
“Understood!” A crisp and pleasant Skuru woman’s voice echoed in the study.
As her voice fell, a streak of golden light suddenly appeared and disappeared into Xi Weng’s brain.
A small piece of memory was forcefully implanted in Xi Weng’s memory area, immediately making him aware of the incident that had occurred earlier.
After spending two minutes digesting this new piece of information, Xi Weng gradually realized the seriousness of the situation.
In the last fifty years, there had not been a single successful infiltration by enemy spies in Raging Sun Palace.
Moreover, to find a comparable incident, one would have to go back as far as 360 years ago when a genius from the White-Headed Eagle Clan had infiltrated the palace pretending to be an ordinary bird.
What disgraced the emperor the most was the fact that almost half an hour had passed since the infiltrator had been discovered and yet they had not been able to locate the intruder.
This was a disgrace to everyone involved.
But Xi Weng, being a professional in intelligence, immediately began to use his expertise to help the emperor analyze the issue and find a solution.
“Sunlight, can you send me the surveillance footage from the study?” Xi Weng began.
Another golden light was projected into Xi Weng’s brain and he closed his eyes to analyze the newly acquired information.
About two minutes later, he suddenly opened his eyes and spoke, “Your Majesty, there is something strange in the surveillance footage that might be the key in tracking down the infiltrator!”
“Oh? Speak on, speak on!” Manina exclaimed eagerly, evidently relieved to have a professional on his side.
“Your Majesty, it’s ,” Xi Weng began explaining, “I studied the surveillance footage from the study in detail and noticed this insect has a bias in the documents it’s interested in.
“For internal affairs documents of our Raging Sun Country, he seemed uninterested and glossed over them;
“On the other hand, there are some types of documents to which he pays special attention!”
“Which type of documents?!” Manina, too, noticed something significant. In his rage earlier, he had overlooked this detail.
“Documents related to Blue Star,” replied Xi Weng gravely. “The insect spent considerably more time on documents relating to the Blue Star.
“Hence, I can confidently deduce that this bug came for information on Blue Star.
“Even more boldly, I suggest that the infiltrator might be a human magician from Blue Star itself!”