After midnight

Zhao Yunqi, Shangguan Can, Song Yu and Zhang Dong gathered together to discuss and decided not to move. They couldn't just speculate and alarm Song Hongtian, because this was just a sideline in the game, and they weren't that useless after all.

They don't know that this auxiliary line is the only clear line in the chess game at present. It stands outside the two opposing camps, quietly but ostentatiously becoming the pulling line that drives the unpredictable situation of the chess game in the future.

Zhao Yunqi stood on the lakeside and calculated the time. It took them four days to move their target to this area, and An Yan and his men had been on the run for exactly one week.

That is to say, if they seize the opportunity and choose the right tracking route, then it is very likely that they will catch up with them on the next island. There are now three islands in front of him from east to southwest.

Zhao Yunqi spread out the map, which was clearly marked.

The island in the east was the closest, and the one in the middle was in the same direction as the Sand City, but it was a bit far away. The southwest was moderately far away, but the geographical location of this island was not very good. Because if they landed on this island, it meant that they could only go southwest, so when they reached the land, they would not go to the Sand City, but to the West Capital.

Zhao Yunqi looked left and right and felt that the road to the east was more suitable, the shortest distance, and more options for the next stop. But the question was, faced with the same three choices, which one would An Yan choose?

"Song Yu, tell me what you think about the current situation."

"Okay, if it's really as you said, Yunqi. Then the first point I want to make is that An Yan has a complete grasp of the general situation of these three islands. Although An Yan deliberately took a zigzag route to confuse us, his direction was very clear, so he must know the road conditions in this unknown area."

"Secondly, I've been to the scene that Shangguan Can found. It's very real and hard to fake. There's no point in faking it. It will only expose your true identity. So, it must have really happened. If it happened, why didn't An Yan clean up those traces? You have to know that his ability is water, and water can erase too many traces."

"So my reasonable assumption is that the situation was critical at the time and he forgot or simply didn't have time to deal with it. Because even though he bears the title of 'Son of God', he is just an ordinary person like us. I don't believe he missed everything. But the final decision is up to you, Yunqi."

Zhao Yunqi savored these words carefully, his eyes dark and unclear. Song Yu seemed to have said a lot, but in fact he said nothing. His scheming was unfathomable, so he had to be more careful when dealing with him in the future.

"There are still too many changing factors, Song Yu, if you were An Yan, which direction would you choose?" Zhao Yunqi no longer hid the answer and asked directly.

Song Yu smiled humbly and said, "Yunqi, please forgive me. Shangguan Can and Zhang Dong would have given the same answer to the question just now. Yunqi also said that there are too many variables. I really don't know."

Hearing this, Zhao Yunqi stopped talking. He continued to follow Song Yu's analysis, "Then the islands on the east side and the middle are very likely, one is the closest and the other is the farthest. As for the one in the southwest, he will definitely not choose it, because once they land, they will go from being active to passive. Of the remaining two..."

Zhao Yunqi paused and continued, "If there really is a wounded person, the most recent one is more likely. Shangguan Can, Zhang Dong, what do you think?"

"I'll follow your instructions." Zhang Dong answered in a proper manner.

“That’s it. No matter what choice you make, they can’t escape.” Shangguan Can was determined to win and seemed to be in the mood for hunting.

"Then let's get started."

Upon hearing this, Song Yu also took action. However, does the southwest direction really mean a dead end?

But this was Zhao Yunqi's choice and had nothing to do with him.

Song Yu pondered in his heart that it seemed that he usually behaved too gently.

Su Ziling felt a little strange. Not to mention that An Yan had changed his walking style, he was also very surprised that he had not planned to come to see her since 10 am. When he was thinking about whether he should go and ask what was going on, he saw Yin walk past him to find An Yan.

Yin said something to Anyan, and Anyan followed Yin away.

"Why don't you set off? And why didn't you tell Su Ziling about the strange things on this island?" Yin said, with doubt in his voice. "If he gets into trouble again..."

"Nothing will happen to him." An Yan shook his head firmly and then he said, "I'm curious, why don't you go and tell him yourself if you are worried about him."

"He is the person you want to protect. Besides, shouldn't the one who discovered it be the one to tell?" Yin's reasons seemed very sufficient, but he just blinked guiltily, and this subtle movement happened to be captured by An Yan.

"Yin." This was the first time An Yan called Yin's name, but his tone was a little tough. "I don't care what you told him or how much you told him, but you have to remember that he is not from this world. And I will not tell him about this matter. It is none of his business."

An Yan paused and said, "It's none of your business."

"Do you know something?" Yin was surprised by Anyan's sudden tough attitude and compromised unconsciously.

"I said, it's none of your business." An Yan was still stubborn.

"Do I need to remind you? We have already formed an alliance." Yin's attitude turned cold after hearing this. He was a little annoyed, because he thought he and An Yan were already on the same boat.

An Yan glanced at Yin calmly, seemingly not noticing the change in Yin's expression. Then, he said something that was irrefutable.

"Alliance is only about the 'Guardian'."

"Then why did you tell me that there were strange things happening on the island?" Yin seemed a little aggressive for some reason.

"I regret it, you'd better forget it." An Yan blurted out without any hesitation.

"...Okay, then we will just follow the orders of Lord Son of God as to when and where to go." After saying this, Yin went back without looking back.

When Yin returned to Su Ziling, Su Ziling was daydreaming and looked dazed. Yin felt helpless towards him but still walked towards him, "What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking how time flies. I have been in this world for more than ten days."

"Yes, we have been on the run together for eight or nine days now. Don't worry, it will be over soon."

"Yeah." Su Ziling glanced behind Yin, "Brother Yin, where is An Yan?"

"He... is probably thinking about what to do next." Yin made up an excuse but didn't want to guess.

Su Ziling nodded and stopped talking, so Yin teased him, "Why don't you ask what we just talked about?"

"So what did you talk about just now?" Su Ziling looked at Kan Yin with his sparkling eyes and asked him really.

Yin laughed a little. "Nothing. By the way, the road is not easy to walk on. Be careful."

"I understand." Su Ziling assured.

"Yeah." Yin nodded and moved away.

Yin was alone thinking, he felt that An Yan's attitude changed so suddenly that he must have discovered something strange. This strange thing must be something that An Yan had not thought of when he revealed to him that there was something strange about the island. So, what did he remember?

Yin laughed at himself. As the head of intelligence, he couldn't even think of any clues. He said that Su Ziling would never get into trouble again. It seemed that this weirdness was not just weirdness in the ordinary sense.

After fruitless thinking, Yin had no choice but to write a letter to Ye, asking him to check anything that had happened in this unknown area in recent years, even if it was a joke, a story or a rumor.

Yin's intuition told him that what Anyan wanted to hide must be extremely important.

After Yin came back, he sat aside again with a worried look on his face. It was hard for Su Ziling not to think too much. Yin came back, but An Yan didn't. Did the two of them fail to reach an agreement? Yin's perfunctory attitude just now was too obvious, but Su Ziling didn't dare to ask again. He just felt that time passed so slowly.

When Su Ziling opened his eyes again, it was already dark. He was stunned for the whole afternoon, and was so bored that he took a nap, but An Yan still didn't come back.

Su Ziling slowly walked to Yin's side and sat down without saying anything.

"Are you awake? Are you hungry?" Yin asked him, and he shook his head.

"Why are you so listless?"

Su Ziling shook his head again. After shaking his head, he seemed to feel something was wrong, so he said, "Maybe I slept too long."

Yin nodded and said nothing more. He looked at Su Ziling, but after a moment he lost his concentration, as he was also waiting for An Yan to come back.

After a while, he finally came to his senses and seemed to say something casually to Su Ziling.

"Why don't we have a chat?"

"What to talk about?" Su Ziling was not in a good mood.

"How about... just talk about An Yan?" He said deliberately, looking at the look in Su Ziling's eyes when he suddenly turned his head to look at him, and smiled playfully and cunningly.

"What's there to talk about An Yan?" Yin's expression made Su Ziling a little annoyed, as if he had poked something, and Su Ziling muttered this deliberately.

"I think you are most curious about An Yan." Yin ignored him and continued. "Who do you think Dark Night wants to focus on collecting information about?"

"An Yan?" What's there to guess, since we are talking about An Yan.

"No, it's 'Son of God' An Yan." Yin corrected him.

"You would never guess that the information we collected includes everything from what time he gets up every morning, what he eats every day, and even what time he spends daydreaming."

"Is that an exaggeration?"

"That's not an exaggeration. If you classify the core objects according to the degree of association, you will find that no data center has ever been able to implicate such a huge intelligence network like An Yan. It's as if the whole world revolves around him."

"Lin Nuan, Lin Xuanfeng and Song Hongtian, I think you don't understand what the names of these three people represent. This is just part of it." Yin's smile was complicated. Su Ziling couldn't understand or imagine what the meaning behind it was.

Yin laughed softly again, "Intelligence is a very useful but more interesting thing. Do you know why An Yan is the strongest 'Son of God'?"

"Because... of his ability?"

Yin smiled and shook his head, not fully agreeing.

"Throughout history, there have been many 'sons of God' who were defeated and pulled down from the altar. We say that 'sons of God' are the strongest because of the unique ability of water. Just like soil can only be soil, it needs water to become another medium, such as a swamp. But water can change its own form by itself, and can become ice, snow, rain, and fog, so water is very powerful."

"But you must understand one thing. That is, all abilities, as long as they are developed to the extreme, can become the strongest. An Yan's strength lies in the fact that he has developed it to the extreme. Therefore, among all the 'Sons of God', he is also the strongest."

Su Ziling was stunned, completely dumbfounded.

When Yin said this, his expression turned serious. "A large and crucial part of An Yan's intelligence is missing."

"When An Yan was in his thirties, his family suffered a major tragedy and both his parents died. After he was taken in by the government, there was no news of him until he was thirteen years old, when he reappeared in front of everyone and became a topic of conversation after dinner. And these ten years were like being completely covered by a black cloth. I have collected very little information through various channels. I think almost no one except Song Hongtian knows what happened to him."

"Do you understand what I mean? Almost no one knows." Yin paused and asked Su Ziling.

"Are you saying that everyone who knew about it was murdered?" Su Ziling's shrill voice made him shudder with fear and his whole body turned cold.

"That's not the case. Maybe they just disappeared. But maybe... they were never exposed to the sunlight." Yin's voice became lower and lower.

After hearing what Yin said, Su Ziling felt terrified. This was simply a huge conspiracy. Su Ziling felt that he had come into contact with something important for the first time, but it was like a fog that Su Ziling could not grasp, making him feel uneasy.

"So, I don't know what he has been through." Yin let out a breath. He didn't know what kind of hardships could have trained An Yan to be the strongest he is now, and what kind of determination An Yan had to break through the ground.

Su Ziling tried to calm himself down and asked calmly, "Why are you telling me this?"

There were things in Yin's eyes that he couldn't understand. "Nothing, it's just that I need to make a decision now, and I want you to understand how important and dangerous my decision is. So, I want to ask you, what kind of person is An Yan, worthy of me..."

Yin didn't finish the rest of his words, but Su Ziling already understood what he meant.

"Since it's dangerous and important, you must have made a decision in your mind. Why are you asking me?" Su Ziling stood up, trying to suppress the storm in his heart.

"If strangers find An Yan trustworthy, then it will naturally increase his importance in my heart. Maybe if you add one percent, it will become one hundred percent."

Su Ziling was stunned for a moment, then turned his back on Yin and left. He never thought that there would be any problems between Yin and Anyan.

He didn't know what happened, but the situation that happened one after another in the past few days made Su Ziling feel suffocated. He was neither angry nor depressed, but just irritated, inexplicably irritated. Because of others and more because of himself.

He couldn't imagine what kind of burden An Yan would bear because of his past, nor could he imagine what Yin's decision would mean to him. So he couldn't make a decision and felt confused.

At this time, a cool breeze with moisture blew over, which instantly sobered him up. Su Ziling suddenly realized, why should he bother about these things? He didn't need to pay attention to these, he just needed to know what kind of person An Yan was.

He thought a lot, and finally said to Yin firmly: "Brother Yin, I don't know what your decision is, I don't know how you view An Yan, and I don't know what position you put him in. But if it were me, I believe it would be worth it, 100% worth it."

Yin smiled, a smile that was affirmative yet complicated.

"Okay, I understand. Go and have a rest."

After Yin turned and left, the two of them didn't talk again until they went to bed at night, and An Yan hadn't come back yet.

Su Ziling lay in the tent, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Everything was strange today, whether it was An Yan or Yin.

Where did An Yan go? Why hasn't he come back yet? What on earth could he be doing?

Yin is even more strange. Why did he suddenly say all this today? He seemed to have everything to say to you, but he only said a little bit of everything, and then let you guess and think. In this process, he observed you, seduced you, and easily saw through you, but you knew nothing in the end.

Su Ziling sat up, sighed, and then lay back down. He felt that they were hiding something from him, so he was really annoyed.

Yin was not far away, listening to the noise in Su Ziling's tent. He felt that Su Ziling was really sensitive and smart. After a while, when everything was quiet, Yin took out Ye's letter and tossed it back and forth in his hands. Yin did not open it again, because the few words on it were all memorized by Yin when he read it for the first time, and he could not see any tricks when he read it again.

Suddenly, Yin stopped tossing the letter back and forth and squeezed it hard in his hand, squeezing it until it was deformed.

Anyan, I have made my choice. So, what about you?