The sun, obscured by the heavens, sank toward the end of the western horizon, and He Ao stood atop a towering building, overlooking the city tinged with traces of Western Lands classical style. The crowded lines of vehicles on the streets had started to flow in an orderly manner. Jemis was capable, and given enough time, he might have been able to handle the evacuation of Mote City, but in the face of such a disaster, what was most lacking was time. He Ao’s team lacked the help of someone who fully understood the local situation. And the captain of the Mote City gendarmerie happened to be such a person, his knowledge of the entire Mote City even surpassed that of the Transcendents of the World Tree who worked in office buildings. He Ao had brought him to the World Tree’s Yika headquarters building, and with the help of the gendarmerie captain, the efficiency of the evacuation had significantly improved. However, the speed at which the ’Blood Sun’ in the sky revived also clearly accelerated, and ringing telephones had already begun to echo in the corners of the streets and alleys. Like a whisper from Hell, it plucked at every person’s heartstrings. And it was almost foreseeable that the velocity of the Blood Sun’s revival would increase even more rapidly. However, the good news was that the translucent globe floating in space, the fundamental source of the ’Blood Sun,’ relied on sunlight as the medium for the transfer of power. When night fell, its power cycle could likely enter a period of decline. And this night would be the optimal time for evacuation. "Minister He, we are now at the last place where the ’poster’ disappeared," At that moment, Komo walked up from behind He Ao, holding a tablet as he approached, "Looking at the map, these locations are unevenly distributed across Mote City. Following your instructions and using the data collected, I’ve made a map of their activity areas," He Ao cast his gaze downward to look at the screen on the tablet Komo was holding. The main content displayed was the map of Mote City, with ten points marked on it. These ten points were the precise locations of the disappearances of the ten ’posters’ from Mote City, which He Ao had previously obtained from Yan Yue, from the earliest thirty ’strange talk posts.’ These ten points were scattered in the northeast, southwest, and northwest directions of Mote City. Some were clustered together, while others were spread out on the periphery, seemingly without any pattern. Areas marked in different colors extended from these ten points, some long and narrow, others broad and fat, some overlapping, others completely unrelated. At first glance, there was no obvious pattern between these areas either. He Ao had visited each of these ten points, together with the point where the first missing young person had disappeared, and in total, only three points showed traces of the ’green light spots,’ which were extremely rare. But this also provided indirect confirmation of some things. He Ao reached out to take the tablet that Komo handed over, observing the map on the computer, paying particular attention to the seemingly random ’activity areas.’ He opened the map editing mode and selected ’show public transport lines.’ In an instant, a dense tangle of various colored lines filled the entire screen. Mote City, as a major city with a population of eight million and the capital of the Yika Republic, had exceedingly developed transportation, with a complex web of bus routes, subway lines, and tram lines intertwined as if weaved into a dense spiderweb. He Ao observed these lines, raised his hand, enlarged the city map, sequentially moved to the activity areas of the missing posters, and scanned the lines that passed through those areas. Finally, he zoomed out the map again, his gaze resting on the city center. He lifted his hand, entered marking mode, and lit up point after point across the map. Komo stood by, watching He Ao’s actions. He suddenly realized that the points He Ao marked were not within the activity areas of the missing posters but at a position neither too close nor too far from the activity areas. And these points were all bus stops. A bus line named 031 connected all these bus stops. In the end, He Ao only marked seven points, each near the activity area of seven missing posters, and these seven points all happened to be on that one bus line. Of the ten posters, not all necessarily had direct contact with the original spreader of the strange tales, so it was possible that three were not on this line. Komo stared blankly at the bus route, subconsciously saying, "Isn’t this the line I take to and from work?" He Ao shifted his gaze back to the center of the entire map. The 031 route would pass through the city center, near the towering World Tree Yika headquarters building, right under the watchful eyes of the entire World Tree Organization. And next to the World Tree’s building, there were some commercial and residential complexes. Sometimes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. "That guy, he wouldn’t have been living near the headquarters building all this time, would he?" Komo, watching the movement of He Ao’s eyes, said with a tremble in his voice. Throughout their journey, He Ao had already briefly discussed with him his hypotheses about the origins of the strange incidents. The thought that the secret villain behind this entire event had been living near the World Tree headquarters all along, possibly even riding the same bus as him, sent chills up his spine. The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. For the person behind the scenes, living near the World Tree headquarters wasn’t just about being ’hidden in plain sight’; it allowed him to exploit blind spots in thinking and keep an eye on the actions of the World Tree, to see if his plan was running correctly. Komo swallowed hard and looked at He Ao, "Mister He Ao, so much time has passed, is it possible that guy has already left?" Then, looking at He Ao, who did not immediately respond, he paused and continued asking, "Or is it that he’s still in Mote City? Right next to the headquarters building?" This too could be a blind spot under the light. When people assume that so much time has passed that the mastermind should have left, he might do the opposite and stay put in Mote City the entire time. Given the current situation, the opponent seemed to be a meticulous and confident planner, the type of intelligent criminal who enjoys admiring his own handiwork. And if he wanted to ’see’ his plan unfold smoothly, Mote City, at the very heart of the so-called "Blood Sun", would be the perfect ’viewing platform.’ Countless thoughts flashed through Komo’s mind, and he felt he was finally able to keep up, even slightly, with the thought process of this young ’Mister He Ao.’ He looked at He Ao, who still hadn’t responded to his speculation, took a deep breath, and spoke slowly, "Mister He Ao, should we arrange a search of the area around the headquarters building?" He Ao glanced at the Western ’sun’, now almost fully set, with a tinge of red light escaping from behind the obstruction. He turned back to Komo, "But it’s highly unlikely he’s still in the city." "So, so, so he ran away a long time ago?" Komo was completely confused now; he found that he could no longer keep up with He Ao’s train of thought. He Ao shook his head, glanced at the tablet in his hand, smiled, and handed it back to Komo, "Our finding this suggests that he’s highly likely still around." "Don’t you think it was too easy for us to find this bus route?" He Ao looked at Komo’s puzzled eyes and asked with a smile. Komo, looking at the map marked with various points, stuttered in response. Given a discussion team and a few days’ time, he might be able to find such a common thread among the dense web of lines. But this young leader had spent no more than two minutes looking at the map. "Contact Jemis, arrange for someone to search the residential areas near the World Tree Yika headquarters," He Ao smiled and patted Komo’s shoulder, then looked up at the ’sunset’ that had now completely sunk below the horizon and slowly turned to walk back towards the helicopter. "So are we heading back to the headquarters building now?" Komo was holding a tablet, feeling dizzy as he followed He Ao, and quickly asked, "You lead the way; we’re leaving the city." He Ao shook his head, continuing to speak. Komo hurried to catch up with He Ao’s pace. "Somewhere that can monitor the World Tree’s movements," He Ao climbed into the helicopter, turned around to look at Komo, "is not limited to the vicinity of the World Tree’s headquarters building." The night was spread out with the radiance of stars over the quiet garden. A somewhat frail shadow moved across the moist, moss-grown stepping stones. He stopped at the end of the garden, and began to speak slowly; his voice, like that of a decaying corpse, was hoarse and raspy, "Ignorant people are fleeing, they’re avoiding the shine of the Blood Sun, avoiding the soon-to-arrive Rong Guang." The darkness of the night fell silent, within the sound of flowing water, a lantern emerged from the dark, illuminating the frail shadow’s path ahead, the hoarse voice echoed in the pitch-black void, "Tell the blind Followers that this is the moment for them to offer their loyalty for the coming Rong Guang. The Blood Sun has descended, and all things in this world will be greatly reshaped." The frail figure gave a slight echo in response and turned to disappear into the darkness. On the outskirts of Mote City, He Ao turned on a flashlight, directing its beam toward the path ahead where a grand and imposing stone carving appeared before him. Beneath the carving were inscribed the bold words, "Sett Winery." In front of this luxurious and magnificent stone carving, there were piles upon piles of construction debris. At this moment, in the ’field of view’ influenced by the Eye of Truth that He Ao possessed, the surroundings were filled with various distorted black spots. The concentration of black spots in this area was even greater than that of the city under the shine of the Blood Sun. Komo, who followed He Ao, nodded, "This is the vineyard that Sett was still constructing. Work here continued right until the Blood Sun descended, leading to panic. Sett, fearing the workers would make trouble and smash his statues, had them dispersed, telling them to go home." He paused for a moment, shining his flashlight around and asked, "Mister He Ao, what are we doing here?" Just then, the cell phone in his arms vibrated. He took it out, glanced at it, and immediately turned to He Ao, quickly saying, "Mister He Ao, the search around the headquarters building is complete; they didn’t find any information on Transcendents." At this point, he finally began to connect the dots, looking at He Ao, he spoke softly, "Is the person behind the scenes hiding in Sett’s vineyard?" Previously, when Sett was still around, they, as Transcendents of the World Tree, were often brought to the vineyard for labor, or to use their abilities to aid Sett in building the vineyard. In a sense, one indeed could observe the condition of the entire World Tree within the Yika Republic from Sett’s vineyard. Then, Komo paused and looked at He Ao, voicing the question in his mind, "How can you be certain that the person behind the scenes hasn’t left?" "Because he tried to make us think he had already left," He Ao shook his head, stepped over the construction rubble, and walked toward the interior of the winery, "He left the clue of the number 031 bus route, with the purpose of luring investigators to search the buildings surrounding the World Tree headquarters. "This is actually a process of ’suspicion’ - ’verification’. Given his demonstrated capability for planning, investigators would usually suspect that he would use the blind spot under the lamp, to continue hiding in Mote City." "So, he deliberately leaked the clue about Bus No. 031, leading investigators to suspect that he had always been staying near the World Tree headquarters," "Then, investigators would most likely search the nearby residential points, and after a fruitless hunt, they would come to the conclusion ’the person behind the scenes still got away.’ People always like to believe the conclusions they’ve drawn themselves," He Ao lifted his flashlight, illuminating the darkness around him, "But on the other hand, since this person behind the scenes is so deliberately trying to create the illusion of ’leaving,’ it’s highly probable that he is still in Mote City. And the entire Mote City, other than the headquarters building, the only place that could monitor the World Tree Organization would be this winery." "Of course, these are just my speculations. I’m just making these guesses because the clue of the 031 bus route is way too obvious." "After all, someone who thinks about controlling the proportion of postings on the Internet is unlikely to be ’simply’ taking a single bus route and then carrying out actions nearby." "So, he actually never rode bus 031?" Komo let out a sigh of relief and continued, "Is all this actually a disguise?" It seemed that his recent guess about having been on the same bus as the person behind the scenes was overthinking it. He Ao shook his head, "He probably did take the bus to carry out his actions. The most authentic disguise is to actually do the action, covering a lie with nine parts of truth. Moreover, he probably indeed has a residence near the World Tree headquarters building. "Maybe he sat next to you while you were commuting to and from work. If he knew about your World Tree identity, it wouldn’t be unlikely for him to do such a thing." It was filthy, all these clever people were too filthy. "Of course, these are also just my speculations," He Ao added softly. He didn’t have more time to gather evidence now. Komo glanced at He Ao’s back, speechless for a moment. He felt that this was very likely the truth. The young minister before him easily identified the traps buried beneath the road and followed them to ’hunters’ who had laid the traps. The roles of hunter and prey might have just switched at this moment. They had now entered the depths of the construction site. He Ao’s flashlight illuminated the ’objects’ around them. Half-carved statues scattered around and classical buildings with scaffolding made one feel as if they had returned to the royal gardens of the Western Lands being built in ancient times. Rather than calling this a winery, it was more like Sett’s ’private palace’. The wind under the night sky whistled sharply as it passed through the gaps between buildings. Komo, facing the night breeze, quickly looked around, "Mister He Ao, where exactly is that guy hiding?" "Perhaps, he’s not hiding in the world we can see," He Ao looked up at the dense, almost tangible black blotches surrounding them and slowly took out his phone. A message popped up on the phone. It was from Yan Yue, telling him that the Transcendent tasked with evacuating and protecting the residents had been arranged to their designated positions. He Ao quickly read the message, then unlocked his phone and entered the call interface, swiftly typing in a mobile number. "Mister He Ao, who are you calling?" Komo looked at He Ao with confusion. He Ao quickly replied and then directly dialed the phone number. Beneath the pitch-black night sky, the phone was connected after a light ring.