'Have my reconnaissance actions been detected?'
In a secluded seat in the library, Dorothy tossed a gold coin, then quickly covered it with her hand. After feeling the decrease in Spirituality, Dorothy slowly moved her palm away. Lying on the back of her other hand was the gold coin, which had lost its luster and showed heads.
'As expected... my reconnaissance was detected...'
Seeing the divination result on her hand, Dorothy thought with understanding. Regarding Ci Rong's various abnormal behaviors earlier, Dorothy could only think of one possibility: he had detected her reconnaissance, so he immediately changed the subject, kept silent about confidential information, and quickly entered the Stone door in an attempt to block the reconnaissance.
And the reason why she was discovered was most likely those spider silks.
Those spider silks... only existed after the corridor. Ci Rong had specifically entered that corridor to talk about secrets. Ci Rong's sudden change of topic seemed to happen after her Corpse Puppet gecko touched the spider silk...
'It seems that those dense spider silks should be some kind of extraordinary sensor. As long as any other abnormal object touches the spider silk, Ci Rong will sense it. He relied on this to sense the existence of my gecko Corpse Puppet.
'Hiss... I was careless. I didn't expect the Eight Point Nest to have such anti-reconnaissance measures in place at all... I didn't anticipate it...' Dorothy thought this. When dealing with the Holy Communion Society before, the anti-reconnaissance of their strongholds was almost zero. Her small Corpse Puppets could go wherever they wanted, stealing all the key information without the other party noticing. But now, this Eight-Pointed Nest clearly has anti-reconnaissance measures, which is obviously a level higher than the Holy Communion Society.
Knowing that her reconnaissance had been detected, Dorothy wasn't very flustered. Instead, she was a little surprised and confused. She was confused as to why, since the other party had naturally detected her Corpse Puppet gecko, they didn't take action?
'The Corpse Puppet gecko has clearly been discovered, but they didn't try to shoot it down to make me lose a reconnaissance puppet. Instead, they just entered the Stone door to block the reconnaissance and waited for my Corpse Puppet to return. This doesn't feel right.
'Also, when that Ci Rong changed the subject, he clearly wanted to pretend he didn't know about my Corpse Puppet. Why would he do that?'
Discovering new doubts, Dorothy's brows furrowed slightly, feeling a hint of something amiss. As someone who often acted, she felt that this time Ci Rong was deliberately acting, pretending not to know. He must be up to something. She put herself in Ci Rong's shoes and thought about it from his perspective, and immediately an insidious idea came to her.
'That guy wouldn't... be pulling this trick... No, I have to verify it.'
Saying that, Dorothy began to change the return path of the gecko Corpse Puppet that was currently climbing towards her in the school, preparing to be retrieved. She made it climb in another direction first, then she herself stood up from her seat and went all the way to the library's washroom.
Next, Dorothy took out the magic box, released the crow Corpse Puppet from it, and then made it fly out of the small ventilation window of the washroom, flying into the sky outside.
Controlling the crow Corpse Puppet, Dorothy made it fly in the direction of the gecko Corpse Puppet, then fly into the building and land on a stone beam in a corridor.
Just like that, Dorothy made the crow Corpse Puppet wait there, waiting for the gecko Corpse Puppet climbing over from afar. After a while, the gecko Corpse Puppet controlled by Dorothy climbed over the wall.
The gecko Corpse Puppet climbed past below the crow Corpse Puppet under its surveillance. Not long after the gecko Corpse Puppet climbed past, Dorothy used the crow Corpse Puppet's vision to see that behind the gecko Corpse Puppet, two small black spiders were also climbing the wall, following closely behind.
'As expected, the reason for pretending not to discover me and acting is to keep me from being alerted and to track me back...'
Looking at the small black spiders behind the gecko Corpse Puppet, Dorothy thought this and felt a wave of relief that she had thought of this layer in time and hadn't just let the gecko Corpse Puppet return without thinking. Otherwise, she would have been completely exposed.
The confrontation with the Eight Point Nest has just begun. If her true self were to be exposed like this, what good would it do afterwards!
Having narrowly avoided a crisis, Dorothy let out a long sigh and began to think about how to deal with it.
'Phew... So what should I do now... It's easy to get rid of the tracking, just stop controlling the gecko Corpse Puppet, or control the crow Corpse Puppet to eat the spiders. But doing so would be equivalent to telling the other party that I've also detected them.
'It's easy to get rid of these tracking spiders, but is there any way to use them in reverse?'
Dorothy pondered in the washroom. After a while, she had an idea.
'I've got it... Maybe I can do this...'
Dorothy thought, then prepared to take something out of the magic box again. At this moment, there was an impatient knock on the washroom door. Dorothy then realized that she seemed to have been in the washroom for a bit too long, and quickly pushed open the door to go out, letting another hurried girl go inside.
After leaving the washroom, Dorothy immediately left the library and quickly came to an unmanned stairwell. Here, Dorothy temporarily had the crow Corpse Puppet find a place to hibernate, and then paid an extra 1 point of "enlightenment" to expand the Corpse Puppet quantity limit.
Next, Dorothy took out the magic box, widened the opening, and controlled two human Corpse Puppets to crawl out from it, then stand in front of her.
One of them was Mr. Brandon, and the other was Edrick. They were Dorothy's commonly used Corpse Puppets. Looking at the two Corpse Puppets in front of her, Dorothy said with a smile.
"Mr. Brandon, Mr. Edrick, the next performance is up to you."
"Of course, Miss."
"We won't fail."
After briefly responding to Dorothy, Mr. Brandon and Edrick left, leaving Dorothy standing there alone with a smile.
'You're acting against me? Good... I'm quite good at acting too...'
...
Crown University, King's Campus, west side.
On the wall of the spiral staircase inside a clock tower, a gecko was climbing upwards along the spiral stairs with great effort. Not far behind the gecko, two small black spiders were following closely, constantly tracking the gecko's figure.
Finally, after a long climb that lasted for an unknown amount of time, the gecko arrived in a storage room in the clock tower. At this moment, two figures were already waiting there.
Both were men. One was wearing a trench coat and a top hat, with a thin face, a high nose, and deep-set eyes, looking travel-worn. The other was wearing a suit, young and handsome, with his hair neatly combed.
The moment the gecko climbed into this room, the man in the trench coat shifted his gaze to it, then stretched out his hand and placed it on the ground, saying softly with a smile.
"Oh... you're back, little darling. Tell me, what did you see and hear?"
Hearing the man's words, the gecko quickly climbed towards him, climbing into his palm. After that, the man closed his eyes and stroked the gecko, as if sensing something.
And all of this was being watched by the spiders that had secretly followed.