He said, "No need, Mentor Qing Ya. I just came to tell you something."
As he spoke, Fang Ze suddenly paused.
Because he suddenly remembered, Mentor Qing Ya had once told him, it was best not to reveal one's Martial Dao Realm.
After all, there were too many people in this world jealous of others' talents. Fang Ze had also provoked the Jiang Family, and if they knew about his rapid progress, they might act against him even sooner.
As for the Awakening Ability, that was not a problem. Since both the Tendon Tempering and Marrow Tempering stages could possibly be reached with the same high-level ability, the variability was too great to distinguish one's talent.
So, with this in mind, Fang Ze changed his story.
He said, "I have completed the task you gave me."
"Can we proceed to the next step now?"
Hearing Fang Ze's words, Qing Ya was momentarily stunned, her beautiful eyes blinked.
After a moment, she understood the meaning behind Fang Ze's words and said with a bit of surprise, "So soon?"
After speaking, she seemed to realize her lapse.
Her face turned slightly red, and she quickly composed herself and said, "Okay. I understand."
"I'll get ready in a bit. I'll find you tonight. Let's meet at our usual place."
After receiving Qing Ya's affirmative response, Fang Ze smiled and nodded, then he said his polite goodbyes to the other mentors and left the small conference room...
At that moment, in the conference room, the other female mentors who had listened to the entire conversation exchanged glances, then looked perplexed...
Having confirmed with Qing Ya about the training that evening, Fang Ze left the training center to go and talk to Bai Zhi about the case.
As he was on his way out, he happened to run into a familiar girl: Nan Yi's sister, Zhixi.
The girl still had an out-of-place look, her face expressionless, carrying a sense of world-weariness.
Upon seeing Fang Ze, she slightly bowed to him.
Fang Ze nodded in return, a gesture of reciprocation, and then they went their separate ways.
However, what Fang Ze did not see was that, after he walked past, Zhixi paused, turned her head to look at his retreating figure, her face thoughtful...
When he arrived at Bai Zhi's office, Bai Zhi seemed to have been waiting for Fang Ze.
As soon as she saw Fang Ze, she pulled him inside.
Then, she locked the door and went behind her desk.
Fang Ze was startled, thinking she was planning some misdeed against him. He was about to take out his "Bleeding Bottle" to scare her by hurting himself first.
Just then, Bai Zhi pulled out a box from behind the desk and with a "bang," placed it on the desk.
Seeing the box, Fang Ze stopped what he was doing and blinked, asking, "What is this...?"
Bai Zhi said indifferently, "Yes. This is the remaining 900,000 worth of materials I promised you."
As she spoke, Bai Zhi opened the box, which was filled with various precious metals and some rare items.
All items that Fang Ze had casually written on a piece of paper.
Just by looking, one could tell she had gone through a lot of effort to obtain them.
Fang Ze was somewhat touched as he looked at Bai Zhi, then said, "I didn't expect you to actually go through the trouble of getting these things..."
Bai Zhi said, "It's nothing."
"As long as you use these resources to break through to a high-tier Awakener soon, that would be great."
As she spoke, her expression grew serious.
She said, "I called the director and my father yesterday."
"The director is a bit displeased with your unilateral decision to keep Qianfeng and Qiu Yue. However, considering that you ultimately preserved the Security Bureau's dignity, he did not punish you."
"Moreover, he retained your promotion: Level One Commissioner."
"This is his way of internally affirming what you did."
"As for... my father..."
With that, she became even happier, "My father agreed immediately. He said he would talk to Jiang Cheng about this matter, asking him not to touch you."
Honestly, although he had no hopes for the Security Bureau or the Bai Family to begin with, Fang Ze really didn't expect such a cursory response from them.
Probably only Bai Zhi, with her cerebral yet simple-minded nature, would believe what the director and her father said.
Seriously, if the Bai Family had shown some difficulty or tried to persuade Bai Zhi before agreeing, Fang Ze might have believed them more.
But they agreed right away. That was just too fake.
This indicated that they didn't even want to pretend, using Bai Zhi as a means to send a message to him: Bai Zhi is naive and might not understand these words, but you are smart and should understand. The Bai Family can't manage this issue; they won't bother the Jiang Family for the sake of a mere pawn like you.
How would they explain this to Bai Zhi?
If Jiang Cheng did not succeed, then they could tell Bai Zhi: Look, it's all thanks to us.
If Jiang Cheng succeeded, they could claim they had warned Jiang Cheng, but he did not listen.
By then, Bai Zhi wouldn't likely confront Jiang Cheng.
Even if she did confront him, it would be futile.
Jiang Cheng would also tacitly conceal the matter.
They had clearly calculated everything.
If he understood this subtext, then they had also effectively warned him.
If he didn't understand and truly believed them, then it was his death alone.
As for whether they were worried that he would tell Bai Zhi after knowing this...