Chapter 534 — Provision Against the Rain
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Soon Hedy and Rebecca arrived at Gaosong's study, followed closely by Camille and Piyun—aside from Hedy, who had come from the government hall, the other three had all been summoned out of their laboratories at the Institute of Magical Technology by Amber.
The moment she stepped inside, Hedy noticed the gravity that hung about Gaoyang, so thick that even Amber standing beside him could not dilute it; she asked at once, "Ancestor, what has happened?"
"Before we get to the matter at hand, there is something I think it is time you were told," Gaocen said, his gaze sweeping the room. Everyone here was among those he trusted most. "You are aware, I take it, that I once devoured a Never-Sleeper's soul."
Hedy nodded. "Yes. That was last year."
"From that Never-Sleeper's memories, I cracked the secret of their psychic network," Gaoche said in a firm voice. "All along I have been connecting to their network through a link at the psychic level—much of the classified material about them, and their technology, has actually come to me by that route."
As his words fell, the people in the room exchanged glances, each wearing a different expression: Piyun looked as though he had long expected it; Hedy, after a flicker of surprise, fell into a thoughtful silence; Amber eyed Gaoyang up and down with a look that plainly said, *you old rascal, rotten to the core*; and Camille flashed a four-four beat as a gesture of courtesy—Gaoyang had no idea what his expression was supposed to mean.
Rebecca could not help blurting out, "Whoa!"
Clearly, everyone present had at one time or another entertained some inkling or suspicion on this point—everyone, that is, except Rebecca, the silly doe, who truly had not worked out until today where all that knowledge and expertise of unknown origin in the Xuanyuan lineage had been coming from.
"I did suspect you were investigating the Never-Sleepers through some secret channel, but I never imagined you had… connected to their network," Hedy said with a touch of wonder. "Then the reason you never told us any of this before—was it fear of a leak?"
"A Never-Sleeper's power to pry into memories and weave illusions is nasty work. I did not want them to learn that their network had been infiltrated, so I had to keep it from those close to me as well," Gaoyan said, nodding in confirmation of Hedy's guess. "But it no longer matters. I have already seized a portion of the high-level permissions on their network, and with them I have cleared the Long-Night cultists out of the Cecil capital region."
Thereupon Gaoyang gave a concise account of the Never-Sleepers' psychic network and the rough course of his own entry into it—concealing his peculiar power as a "satellite spirit" and instead explaining his abilities as a mutation of psychic energy brought on by death and revival.
Since sooner or later he would have to expand his power within the Never-Sleepers' network, Gaoyou had long ago planned to tell a few trustworthy people about his connection to it; he had simply never found the occasion—and the intelligence Daniel had just sent made him realize that he could waste no more time.
After Gaodai disclosed this much of the truth, Camille, who had all along been working with Never-Sleeper technology, swiftly pieced together his own long-standing research; the two points of arcane fire at his head grew especially bright, and he fixed his gaze on Gaosong's eyes. "Since you can already connect to the Never-Sleepers' psychic network by your own power… then the equipment you had the Institute of Magical Technology build is meant for—"
"To press our advantage. The psychic network is a fine thing, and we mean to use it too," Gaoyan said with a nod, then looked at Piyun standing beside Camille. "So—how goes the testing on the non-implant neural cord?"