Ren slept for two days, a deep, dreamless slumber that was more like a coma than rest. His body, pushed to its absolute breaking point, worked furiously to repair itself, knitting together the frayed edges of his mind and replenishing the vast, empty reservoir of his will. When he finally awoke, it was to a world that felt different. The quiet solitude of the Elder's Pavilion was gone, replaced by a tense, thrumming energy, the feeling of a coiled spring.
He found Elder Tian in the map room, but the schematic of the Von Hess estate was gone. In its place, the obsidian table displayed a complex web of logistical charts, shipping manifests, and personnel files—all data extracted from the Baron's ledger. The Elder was not just a cultivator; he was a spymaster, and he had been using the past two days to dismantle the Baron's network piece by piece.
"The ledger was more valuable than I anticipated," the Elder said as Ren entered, his voice holding the crisp, efficient tone of a general planning a campaign. "Beyond the financial records, it contained component manifests and delivery schedules for a number of the Pagoda's clandestine projects. Including Project 'Aegis'."
He tapped the table, and a new image appeared: a small, isolated facility nestled in the rugged, forest-covered mountains a day's journey from the city. It was marked on the map as a "Geological Survey Outpost."
"This is a lie," the Elder stated flatly. "According to the shipping manifests, this outpost has been receiving regular deliveries of refined resonance crystals, power conduits, and processor cores—the key components for the 'Aegis' prototype. They are not surveying the earth. They are building their trap."
He looked at Ren, his eyes sharp and hard. "GAMA's political maneuvering to deal with the Baron and the information from this ledger will take weeks to unfold. By then, the prototype will be complete and likely deployed. We cannot wait for the slow gears of bureaucracy to turn. We must act now, before the net is cast."
This was it. The shift from defense to offense.
"Your mission is not one of retrieval," the Elder's voice was cold as steel. "It is one of destruction. You will infiltrate this outpost. You will locate the 'Aegis' prototype. And you will sabotage it so completely, so catastrophically, that the entire project is set back by months. You will do this without leaving any evidence that could be traced back to GAMA or this academy. The official story must be that of a tragic, unforeseen system cascade failure—a consequence of the Pagoda's own hubris."
He zoomed in on the facility's schematic, revealing layers of security far more advanced than the Baron's manor. "This is a dedicated research facility, staffed by Pagoda Artificers and guarded by their latest generation of combat automatons. Your chameleon's cloak will get you past the outer sensors, but the automatons are a different matter. They do not rely solely on Aetheric senses. They have optical, thermal, and acoustic sensors. They are machines. They will see you."
This was a new, seemingly insurmountable problem. Ren's greatest defense was useless against a simple camera.
"You cannot hide from them," the Elder confirmed Ren's thoughts. "Therefore, you must learn to command them."
From his robes, the Elder produced a small, silver-white object and placed it on the table. It was the wrecked head of the Pagoda drone Ren had seen in the academy—its multifaceted lens now dark and cracked.
"After your encounter, I had this... specimen... retrieved," the Elder explained. "I have spent the last two days studying its internal architecture. Pagoda automatons are not truly intelligent. They are sophisticated puppets, slaved to a central command server via a constant stream of high-frequency Aetheric pulses. They are given orders, not thoughts."
He pointed a finger at Ren. "You have learned to create a kinetic blade that can resonate with stone. You will now learn to project a thread of your will that can resonate with their command frequency. You will not overpower their server. You will whisper to the puppet when the master isn't looking. You will learn to insert a single, false command into their data stream: the command to ignore a single, human-shaped object. You will learn to edit their perception of reality."
It was the most complex and audacious application of his abilities yet. It was hacking, not with a computer, but with the focused power of his own soul.
"This mission is an order of magnitude more dangerous than the last," the Elder's voice was a grave warning. "Failure will not result in your expulsion, but in your capture and dissection. The choice to accept is still yours."
Ren looked from the image of the hostile research facility to the broken drone head on the table. He thought of the cold, clinical text on the requisition form—of a project designed specifically to hunt him down and erase him. This was not just a mission. This was self-defense.
"I accept," Ren said, his voice quiet but unshakable.
"Good," the Elder replied, a flicker of grim satisfaction in his eyes. "Then your training begins now. For you leave at dusk tomorrow."