They've already fought their way through the Holy Grail War, and you still call them dragons?

"I've almost found a suspect," Ange said, his tone becoming heavier. "Frost has contacted me again. There's definitely something fishy about the Gattuso family!"

"Hiss!" Finkel and the Night Watch master and his apprentice gasped at the same time.

Frost, as a member of the Gattuso faction on the board of directors, has been fighting with the Angers faction for a long time. Unexpectedly, the leaders of the two factions, who have been hostile to each other for many years, actually colluded with each other and shook hands in peace, and began to unite internally without anyone noticing.

When did the principal develop Frost, the acting head of the family, into a hidden agent for Gattuso... or was Frost Angers' from the beginning...?

This is outrageous! Principal Ange, you are like a god!

Ange stared at the two men, their gazes growing with awe, bewildered. "Did you misunderstand something? Frost is simply dissatisfied with not being able to fully control Gattuso's authority and with the traitor hidden within his family, so he's temporarily reached an agreement with me."

"In short, apart from Frost, the Yan family still needs to be wary of Gattuso."

"That's not right," the night watchman wondered. "The Chaldea project was mentioned by the Gattuso family, and you don't object?"

Ange shook his head. "Strictly speaking, it was Pompey who came up with this plan. According to Frost, he also obtained the 'intelligence' inside Gattuso with Pompey's help, which allowed Frost to gain the initiative within the family."

"I see……"

The night watchman sorted out the logic. If Pompey helped, it meant that this playboy and the mastermind behind the Gattuso family were not of the same kind.

With the help of Pompey, Frost managed to save the situation, so in return, he helped to raise funds for Pompey's Chaldea, which would also allow him to naturally seize power from the mastermind within the clan and redistribute resources... Besides, Pompey was the real head of the family, which made it impossible to object openly.

"...Even so, Chaldea is not reassuring," Ange said gravely. "According to Pompey's plan, he's even going so far as to recruit technical personnel from various countries outside the Secret Party... This means that the forces involved are bound to be mixed."

As for the secret party’s own scientific researchers, they will naturally send some of them into battle.

Kassel Academy has its own Alchemy Department responsible for cutting-edge research, which is a perfect fit for Chaldea...

As for the Armaments Department, those bomb-crazed individuals who researched weapons and equipment were, in fact, not experts in the field, and their work at the Observatory would be of little use. According to the plan submitted by Pompeii, Chaldea had no need for armaments or armed facilities at all.

"I see. A mere researcher might not be suitable as a 'nail'. We need a more elite specialist to infiltrate Chaldea and investigate."

After the night watchman finished speaking, he and Angers turned their heads in sync and looked at Fingel at the same time.

Fingel: "..."

So, it's him again, right?

Finger sighed and began to wipe away tears. It seemed as if his journey to the Cuban branch was over. The heartbroken man quietly raised his head and secretly met EVA's gaze, begging for comfort.

However, EVA smiled and gave Finger an indifferent look, letting him figure it out for himself: Did he really want her to help him arrange a backdoor for him to go to Cuba and play with girls? No way!

"Ah!" Fingle, who was sandwiched between two pieces of cheese, cried out in pain, feeling deeply the injustice of fate towards him.

Fortunately, Ange reminded him, "In Chaldea, there will also be an Alchemy Department researching cutting-edge computing machine technology in the future, including computer research that can realize 'data entities'."

"Don't worry, we will also arrange for other secret party members lurking in there to provide support. If any trouble arises, we will do our best to cover it for you."

Let Fingle suffer, and they will bear the blame!

Hearing this, Finger finally stopped crying out in pain and accepted his fate. He gritted his teeth and finally decided to close his eyes and agree to the request, jumping into the abyss that his leader had dug for him. "...Okay! I agree!"

----

After Emiya and others reached an agreement in Shenzhou, Wazhu was not in a hurry to use the power of attorney from Atlas Academy. Instead, Old Tang was eager to "draw a clear line" with Norton.

Norton seemed to raise his hands and feet in agreement. The two of them had long since stopped getting along.

After Old Tang's consciousness was separated from his body, he easily became one of the people with the power to control the thought pattern on the thought disk...

It is actually very dangerous to access the core area with a single thought. Only a natural dragon king would dare to do this. If it were an ordinary human being, he would be turned into an idiot in minutes by the thousands of thoughts operating in the disk.

Afterwards, Old Tang began to try to use magic energy to build his own body within his thought disk, otherwise he would have to stay in this "green mountains and clear waters" for the rest of his life.

Creating an energy body similar to a servant still requires thinking, unlike BB, the superior AI, who can accomplish it with just a wave of the hand.

In fact, Norton could also help Old Tang with his body...but the problem was that he originally wanted to use the thought disk to get rid of Old Tang and save himself the trouble.

Before he saw the Thought Disk, he had to take care of Old Tang. After seeing the Thought Disk, he still had to take care of Old Tang. Wouldn't this trip be in vain?!

So, Norton dealt with everything and left. Anyway, Old Tang was used to being lazy, so he was willing to give him a hard time since he finally had the chance. He would also bear the consequences if Old Tang scolded him behind his back.

Chapter 296 Chu Zihang: I want to become your disciple sincerely!

When Wa saw Norton throwing away the burden named Old Tang as if he was throwing away garbage, she felt quite surprised.

She nudged Emiya's arm with her elbow. "Is this how they get along? Is it really okay?"

Isn't it said that two people are one, one body, with one mind? Are they really one person?

In fact, Emiya was not particularly clear about how Old Tang and Norton got along on a daily basis. After all, there were only Old Tang's one-sided complaints... But just looking at the almost opposite personalities of the two, I'm afraid they don't get along well with each other.

However, the fact that he and his relationship was bad was nothing new to Emiya. He could cite various examples from Type-Moon of "peers disliking each other and even becoming enemies."

"...It's okay. This must be their unique way of getting along. Speaking of which, with your mind keymark privileges here, you should be able to access a lot of immortal arts that can help Old Tang create a body, right?"

Based on Lord Wa's previous introduction, Emiya could tell that the Mind Disk was in its infancy, and the Mind Key Pattern, as the "account password" or "membership card" of the Mind Disk's "users", was essentially divided into different levels of authority. Old Tang had a senior membership, while Lord Wa had a super administrator level that ordinary people could not get.

After hearing Emiya's doubts, Wazhu put her finger to her chin and answered thoughtfully, "To create a body... yes, there are, such as the Yangshen magic in the "Comprehensive Record of True Immortals in the Past Dynasties"..."

The so-called Yang God is the "incarnation outside the body" obtained through Taoist practice. This Yang God has a shadow and a shape, and is no different from the original body when traveling. The opposite concept is the "Yin God". The Yin God is invisible. When traveling outside, he can see things but cannot bring them back. Simply put, he is isolated from physical interference.

After a little thought, Emiya could imagine that this was similar to the Throne of Heroes and Servants.

The materialized Servant is equivalent to the "Yang God" of the Heroic Spirit. When the Servant becomes a spirit, it becomes the "Yin God".

Of course, the servant needs to be passively summoned, and Yang Shen is obviously his own active skill.

Norton himself is an expert in the Holy Grail system, so as another side of Norton, it should not be difficult for Old Tang to learn similar skills... as long as Old Tang does not slack off.

While Lord Wa and Emiya were talking nonsense, Dean Norton had already said goodbye in a swift and decisive manner and left the place at a brisk pace.

As he left, he also took the recruitment materials and resumes from Old Tang, ready to go talk to the crazy people in the equipment department...

Norton will be careful not to let Kassel College find out anything unusual about this. In fact, the operation is not difficult. The Atlas College's spiritual computer is several generations ahead of Kassel's Norma. With the ability of the secret party, they can't detect his little movements at all.

As for the question of the mental health of those in the Equipment Department… Norton waved his hand, dismissing the question as insignificant. Doing research these days, who wouldn't go crazy? Norton himself was a complete brother-con and a lab geek, though he wouldn't admit the former easily.

Wei Gong and Lord Wa also gradually left the underground of the Wa Palace and walked away, leaving Old Tang alone in the thought disk field to ponder the method of Yang Shen - after all, Old Tang was such a grown-up, he would not feel unbearable loneliness when being alone.

If he can't stand loneliness, then it's just right for Old Tang to work hard and learn the secret method of Yang Shen to fight for a chance of survival. If he can't learn it in a short time, that's also good, because it can teach Old Tang how to better endure loneliness.

As a philosopher once said, only when you experience the seven levels of loneliness can you become a truly strong person.

I believe that Old Tang will be madly grateful to Norton for his kindness afterwards.

"Since the Thought Disk still needs to absorb more consciousness, I'll return this Dragon Severing Platform to you."

When Emiya and his companions walked out of the underground area and returned to the mountains where the Queen Nuwa Palace was located, he suddenly remembered this incident.

Now that the contract has been signed, Emiya began to think about how to effectively strengthen his side. For example, the original Dragon Severing Platform is useless if it remains in Emiya's hands. He can project an identical one himself, and it will not be used during the battle.

Originally, it could have served as a token of the Zhou family's reputation, helping Emiya to intimidate the Shenzhou clan. However, with Emiya's current strength, this weapon is now a permanent collection kept in the warehouse. It can only be said that its actual combat value is not high, and its only commendable value is its collection value.

"...Hmm, then let's return it to its original owner. If you calculate carefully, it's only been loaned out for a few months... I'll have Zhou Yuxuan and the others move out."

Queen Wa waved her hand, and several members of the Zhou family who seemed to have integrated into the staff of the Wa Palace tourist attraction ran over. They were still wearing the uniforms of the tourist attraction staff when they came. After they took over and moved the Broken Dragon Platform away, the sporadic tourists passing by thought it was a prop of the scenic spot.

Lord Wa understood that Emiya no longer valued the weapon of the Dragon-Breaking Platform, so it would be better to dedicate this treasure to a greater cause and let it contribute to the prosperity of Shenzhou's thought magic.

Originally, this treasure had the horrific side effect of eating up the soul consciousness of unqualified users. Now, the Dragon-Breaking Platform was hit by a wave of gold coins, and it spat out what it had eaten.

Wa then discussed with Emiya the details of the recent negotiations with the Shenzhou family. Since both parties were so close both personally and in power, there was no reason not to mention it:

"I was planning to build a large-scale academy and research institute in Xiangyang, the Zhou family's old turf, to rival those Clock Tower and Kassel... But, I finally threw out the idea of ​​immortality through the Thought Plate, and these aristocratic families reluctantly agreed... Humph, they're not willing to give up until they see the rabbit. They're really annoying."

Emiya stopped in his tracks at this, "What are you going to do, give them access to the Thought Disk?"

"No, the academy I plan to establish requires the use of the Thought Disk system, but that doesn't mean they will be in charge of the Thought Disk... How could it be so easy for them?"

Wazhu was very cunning. "I plan to separate the 'body' and 'function'. The 'body' of the thought disk - the underlying logic maintenance - is accessible only to true immortals. As for ordinary high-level people, the most they can do is 'function' - using the thought keymark authority to call upon a limited number of magic methods."

"That makes sense," Emiya agreed. "With the future success of the Thought Disk connecting to the mainland and even more users, the core area of ​​the Thought Disk's consciousness stream will become even more massive. I'm afraid it will be impossible for anyone other than an Immortal to intervene."

So, the two of them headed deep into the mountains, continuing to discuss various details, such as the user grading system for thought keyprints, how to prevent counterfeiting and combat pirated keyprints, how many subjects the academy headquarters should have, and how to divide them into different "buildings" according to research directions. Students would need to pass a strict grading system to advance...

"Oh, right, Shirou..." Wazhu turned around and glanced at the distant Wa Palace. "There's one important thing we missed. Tell me, I've separated the areas for managing the Thought Disk and using it. What should this place be called?"

The name of the organization is a very important issue.

For example, the "Kassel" in Kassel Academy is the family name of Meinecke Kassel.

And "Secret Party"... simply expresses the principle of action of keeping dragon events secret from the outside world through organization. Moreover, this is not a fixed name. The Secret Party also has an ancient name "Abraham Blood Covenant Society", which probably originated from the confidentiality agreement "Abraham Bloodline Covenant" that they all signed when they joined the society.

Not to mention Christian organizations like the Holy Church.

Relatively speaking, the clock tower is much simpler and is named directly after the place name.

Wei Gong looked around at the surrounding mountains. Wahuang Palace, a renowned tourist attraction, was located on Zhonghuang Mountain. Zhonghuang Mountain, also known as "Nuwa Mountain" and "Phoenix Mountain," is part of the Taihang Mountains.

At a glance, endless waves of green swayed violently between the undulating mountains. A cool breeze blew away the girl's silky skirt, and a sticky fragrance drifted along her smooth skin to Emiya's nose...

Since it is located in the mountains, it is also the core location of the thought disk...

"Why not call it 'Mountain Court'?"

Emiya said a name without thinking.

Wazhu continued to ask, "What about the academy?"

This time, Shirou was stuck. He had never seen the academy institution built by the order of Lord Wa, so he had no idea what the environment there was like. Even if it was named in the same way, he had no idea.

"...Well, I don't know the architectural style of your place, Master Wa, so it's hard to just name it casually."

But who knew that Wazhu smiled cunningly, stretched out her hands to hold Emiya's, and then revealed her true intentions, "That's perfect! Shirou, why don't you stay in Shenzhou for a while, and come back to Xiangyang with me to see the style of the academy before making a decision?"

"I knew it..." Emiya felt his phone vibrate again. After turning on the screen, he found that it was BB making a disdainful face. Then lines of subtitles appeared in the blank space above the screen. Emiya didn't look closely, but he guessed that they were probably mocking Wa, saying that she was a shameless female demon.

Wazhu seemed oblivious and continued, "Oh right, I and the first generation of academy leaders will be participating in the founding ceremony. Shirou, please do us the honor of joining us."

----

Chu Zihang felt that the two-month summer vacation had passed in a flash. The hot outer layer of midsummer was quickly shed under the continuous rainy environment, revealing the moist inner layer of the cool and wet early autumn season.

Chu Zihang held a black umbrella and glanced at the sky with a lifeless gaze. According to the meteorological station, due to the influence of an unknown abnormal typhoon belt, this long period of rain will continue for at least two months. And the rain belt is all concentrated in the southeast coast...

This super rainy season, which has never been seen in previous years, actually appeared in the monsoon area, which once caused heated discussions among domestic experts... but in the end it came to nothing.

He turned on his cell phone again. His mother Su Xiaoyan was still out having fun with a few aunts, as if the fierce and torrential rain from the sky could not shake their determination to enjoy themselves.

The text messages Su Xiaoyan sent to her son were mostly about "Mom was shopping with Auntie in the supermarket today...", "I drank a little too much at Auntie's house..." and all kinds of daily trivial matters. As for caring about her son studying hard and making progress in school... such content did not exist. Chu Zihang's grades had always been good, and Su Xiaoyan was probably very proud of the success of her "free-range education".

"Today, our class is having a party to celebrate those who have moved up to the next grade. We're going to a restaurant, so I'll be home a little late."

Chu Zihang typed a text message and sent it to his mother. Then he quickly left the school gate, reached out, and hailed a taxi.

The students next to them left the high school department of Shilan Middle School in twos and threes, and enthusiastically discussed the "hot topics" within the school.

Chu Zihang heard sporadically that several pretty girls appeared this year. A little beauty won a prize in the city piano competition. A little goddess named Su in the junior high school suddenly transferred to another school abroad. There was also a boy named Lu who joined an e-sports club and was making his way across the country. Some people secretly called him "Legendary Brother Lu".

He took a taxi in the opposite direction of his classmates.

Chu Zihang lied. He did not attend the class reunion. The taxi took him to several gray construction factories.

Media Asia Group.

After getting off the car, he held an umbrella and looked around. This was the man... Chu Tianjiao's working environment, or accommodation.

The reason why Chu Zihang found this place was because he hadn't contacted Chu Tianjiao for several months. He didn't answer his calls at all, as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth.

Chu Tianjiao wouldn't reveal who his boss was or where he worked, so he couldn't figure out where to look for him. It wouldn't be easy to trouble his "new father," Lu Tianming, with this kind of thing.

Fortunately, Chu Zihang had a strong memory. He remembered a lot of snippets of Chu Tianjiao's bragging and gossip when they were chatting, saying that he had driven that expensive Maybach to such and such places. So Chu Zihang tried hard to recall the content and started a city-wide search during the summer vacation. Finally, he got the address information from the owner of a braised large intestine shop that Chu Tianjiao often visited.

Chu Zihang walked into a small gray-white building at the front of Media Asia Group. The offices lined up in the building looked as lifeless as the faces of dead people.

He knocked on the only half-open office door and asked a middle-aged man who was dozing off about his father directly.

"Are you Old Chu's son!?" The middle-aged man was indeed Chu Tianjiao's colleague, and he looked shocked. He obviously thought that Chu Tianjiao was lazy all day long and was a bachelor, or that he was a bachelor who had left the house with nothing after the divorce, and there would be no original family looking for him.

But when asked about Chu Tianjiao's whereabouts, the middle-aged man spread his hands and said that he didn't know. However, Chu Tianjiao had a small single room in the basement of the company, which was an employee dormitory arranged by the boss because Chu Tianjiao had no place to live.

Chu Zihang must have wanted to investigate, so the two of them went to the second underground floor together and opened the narrow door at the end of the corridor filled with the smell of iron. There was nothing inside except some small furniture such as beds, tables and chairs.

Obviously, there was nothing to search in such an empty place, not to mention that even if there was a hidden space here, it was impossible for Chu Tianjiao to hide here for several months without coming out.

When Chu Zihang asked for clues again, the middle-aged man shook his head.

The investigation reached a stalemate for a while.

He thought carefully about the suspicious words Chu Tianjiao had said before he disappeared.

Boom!

Outside the window, thunder flashed in the wind and rain.