Since the night Guan Tong assassinated the Divine Child, Sakura Prayer Country had been under a state of martial law.

The patrols on the streets, which had previously been Peace Officer vehicles from the Peace Office, were now uniformly replaced with military armed vehicles, accompanied by drones equipped with thermal sensors conducting 24-hour aerial patrols.

According to some internal sources online, the Sakura Prayer higher-ups had purchased a batch of advanced weaponry and equipment from the Suroma Empire and imported a significant number of intelligent robots.

The Sakura Prayer authorities claimed this was to deal with the threat posed by Ascendants like the Shadow, but anyone with eyes could see it was an excuse.

If they really wanted to deal with the Shadow, hiring a group of individually powerful Ascendants would probably be more useful than all this military hardware.

But then again, other countries couldn't easily criticize. Currently, the Sakura Prayer authorities were declaring the Divine Child had been assassinated and were vigorously pushing the Human Consortium for a comprehensive warrant against the Shadow. All nations were still hesitating on this matter, making it inconvenient to comment on the arms imports.

No one had expected, however, that the Shadow would still be within Sakura Prayer territory at this moment.

He was currently manipulating shadow lines, secretly heading towards the Falling Sakura Official Residence of the Divine Child, Yuzawa Jun, for reconnaissance. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

This official residence had been sealed off since the night of the assassination, and the other members of the Yuzawa Family had already relocated to new residences.

Judging by this, there shouldn't be any important materials left behind here.

But adhering to the principle of doing the opposite, Guan Tong still wanted to investigate.

The barrier tools originally used to protect the official residence had been removed, allowing the Shadow to infiltrate smoothly.

Through the shared Five Senses, Guan Tong only felt a deathly silence inside, as if no living things were present.

He manipulated the Shadow to investigate each room, all of which were empty. In what looked like a study, there were no written materials or information storage devices either.

"It seems this official residence has really been cleared out."

After checking once and finding no gains, Guan Tong wanted to withdraw the Shadow.

But when one of the shadow lines slid over a section of the floor, a faint "vibration sensation" was transmitted to Guan Tong through the shared connection.

The sensation was extremely subtle, but he still caught it.

"Why would there be a vibration sensation for no reason?"

If it was a minor earthquake or other factor, there was no reason only one shadow line would detect it.

Could it be...

Guan Tong immediately gathered multiple shadow lines, concentrating them on the area from which the vibration sensation had just come.

Could it be underneath?

The rooms inside the official residence had all been checked, and they were fine.

But that was only the rooms above ground.

What about underground? Were there facilities like basements that could only be opened through mechanisms?

With this thought, Guan Tong immediately manipulated the Shadow to become incorporeal, diving into the ground layer below where the vibration came from.

About three meters down, the soil disappeared, replaced by a dimly lit room.

There really was a basement!

This discovery thrilled Guan Tong.

Fortunately, he had been cautious enough and released enough shadow lines for reconnaissance, otherwise he would have truly missed this major clue.

Guan Tong thought to himself, "Perhaps this is also the reason the Divine Child chose to convert this temple into an official residence."

Many temples in Andai State had served as prisons in ancient times, so having underground dungeons wasn't strange.

The room the Shadow had probed into now had three walls and one wooden bar, undoubtedly the style of an ancient prison cell.

And the source of that subtle vibration on the floor...

Through the Shadow, Guan Tong saw a person crouched in a corner, banging their head against the wall with a thudding sound!

Was this the source of the vibration?

Guan Tong initially didn't quite believe it, thinking a human head couldn't be that hard.

But when he looked carefully at the person lying on the ground, hitting their head against the wall, a chill instantly ran down his spine.

That sinuous figure was not a normal human at all, but clearly a monster with a human head and a serpent's body.

"A Serpent Servant?"

This creature was undoubtedly a Serpent Servant created using Uenoshi's ability, but why was it locked in an underground prison cell?

And why was this thing banging its head against the wall... Was it currently free from Uenoshi's control? Did he need to contact Uenoshi to ask?

Guan Tong didn't understand, but he chose to stay calm for now, manipulating the Shadow to continue exploring.

He discovered the space beneath the official residence was vast, not just a single cell or a few, but an entire medium-to-large-sized prison complex.

Many cells held prisoners, some even containing not just one person, but a whole group.

Among them were many non-Sakura Prayer people; their appearances looked more like former Andai State people.

After Sakura Prayer Country relocated here, the Human Consortium's resolution regarding the few remaining Andai State people was for them to join Sakura Prayer. But now it seemed Sakura Prayer's handling of these people was not treating them as citizens at all.

Through the shared vision, Guan Tong saw more and more, and it was increasingly horrifying.

The situation in the prison beneath this official residence reminded him of that prison at the Yongzhou base.

Even if the surface appearance was different, their core was the same.

These people imprisoned in the cells, if a certain rule required it, a high-level figure like the Divine Child would definitely use these people as tools.

The Shadow moved from the back to the front, sticking close to the walls all the way.

Almost none of these densely packed cells were empty. Many of the detainees were covered in wounds, having suffered torture. Guan Tong even spotted someone he had interrogated not long ago.

Wasn't this the Peace Officer named "Suzuki" who possessed the [Profiling] ability?

When Guan Tong saw a disheveled, scar-faced woman in a cell, he barely recognized her.

Back then, Uenoshi had advocated letting her go, and Guan Tong had agreed. Now, judging from the scars on her face, it was clear she had undergone severe interrogation upon her return, exactly as he had told Uenoshi—letting her go wouldn't lead to a good outcome.

Suzuki now had a dazed expression, her eyes vacant as she stared at the wall, lost in thought about who knows what.

Guan Tong had no time to continue observing her; he had a more pressing question now.

Where were the guards?

The Shadow moved rapidly. Guan Tong urgently wanted to find the manager of this place.

His original intention was to come to the official residence to find evidence, but he never expected to accidentally discover this underground prison... What could be more proof of the anti-human behavior of some people in Sakura Prayer than the very existence of this prison itself?

"...Found it."

After traveling some distance, the Shadow discovered the prison's entrance and exit. It was a stone staircase more than three people wide, with several stone chambers at both ends, inside which were some people dressed in very retro clothing.

Looking at those people wearing tight-fitting clothes, Guan Tong remembered the guard who could use [invisibility] when he assassinated the Divine Child.

"Looking at that guard, and these prison guards all dressed like ninjas, not in Peace Officer uniforms or military attire. Probably these people are the Divine Child's, or the Yuzawa Family's, private soldiers and personal guard."

Guan Tong determined these people were the true trusted subordinates of the Divine Child's faction. But now, after the Divine Child's death, he didn't know whose orders they were following?

Or was it possible the Divine Child wasn't actually dead?

This point Guan Tong couldn't be sure of yet.

But since he had discovered this prison, he couldn't just leave it alone.

"It wouldn't be difficult for me to kill these guards now, but they're just small fry. Killing them would only alert the bigger fish."

After pondering for a moment, Guan Tong decided to hold his position for now.

He would have the Shadow lie in wait here, wait for the superiors of these ninja guards to arrive, and then seize the opportunity to act for greater gains.