Su Li fell silent for a moment, his sigh somewhat feeble.

"Brother Qing is right, he definitely came to kill me."

Cece sorted out some relics and walked over with a Token.

"Young master, this guy is from the Seventh Floor, and he's one of their high-ranking officials."

Yu Ziqing looked at Su Li, who had a complex expression on his face. He thought of many things at once.

He had received an order and had to report back immediately, and in a thousand miles around this area, this was the only base left.

From that moment on, his whereabouts were essentially exposed.

"Brother Qing, this time it was me who dragged you into this. Thank you for saving my life. This matter won't end here; I will definitely explain things to Brother Qing in the future." Su Li said earnestly, bowing deeply.

Yu Ziqing smiled and stepped forward, patting Su Li on the shoulder.

"If you talk like that, it feels like you're making us strangers. If he wanted to kill me, I would have just killed him. Whether it was your fault or not, the result would have been the same. Besides, talking about dragging each other down at this point, you underestimate me."

At this point, Yu Ziqing changed the direction of the conversation.

"Brother Su, you are a spy from the Shadow Department, and this guy is a high-ranking official from the Seventh Floor. You definitely know more about what the Seventh Floor is all about than I do.

I can guess as much that there may be a traitor within your Shadow Department. Surely you understand, don't you?

Moreover, you had just sent back a load of information, and someone is already trying to kill you. What are they afraid of?"

Su Li was at a loss for words, unable to muster a rebuttal.

As a spy of the Shadow Department, when dispatched on a solo mission, at most a few top officials of the Shadow Department know the general area they are going to. The specific details of their whereabouts are known only to themselves, maintaining confidentiality throughout and even not needing to report back.

Only when they finish their mission and return to report does anyone become aware of their exact whereabouts, and even then, only a few top officials of the Shadow Department know.

The quick response time now meant there was only one possibility: it was not just a matter of a traitor within the Shadow Department.

And the traitor's position might be very high.

The Seventh Floor, although always dealing in espionage and having many enemies, has never been wiped out, because these guys, like groundhogs, hide very deeply and aren't very strong.

Where would they get the ability to infiltrate the Shadow Department?

With the annual inspections of the Shadow Department, how could a traitor continuously fool them?

He felt that it might not be that someone betrayed the Shadow Department, but rather that the real controller of the Seventh Floor might be someone high up in the Shadow Department.

And this person might feel that he knew more than just the information that had been submitted.

To be safe, they naturally wanted to kill him to silence him.

Although he could undertake missions alone as a Shadow spy, his status within the Shadow Department wasn't very high.

Even if he died outside or in another country, the top officials of the Shadow Department had plenty of ways to cover it up legitimately.

Yet he didn't understand why they wanted to silence him.

Was it because of the data he had submitted? If they silenced him, wouldn't that confirm the truth of the data, showing that someone was driven to desperate actions?

Or was it...

...to confirm the information, that they had to kill him?

If he died, could they then opportunistically claim that someone was driven to desperate actions?

In Su Li's mind, numerous thoughts emerged. He had seen many of the Shadow Department's schemes and could think of many possibilities, yet at this moment, he couldn't determine what it really was.

"Brother Su, it seems returning to report might be difficult for you." Yu Ziqing came over and patted his shoulder.

He could see that Su Li's situation was now quite difficult. His staying alive was a big problem for some people.

From the moment that the Refining God Cultivator from the Seventh Floor tried to ambush him here, it was improbable that Su Li would survive.

Unfortunately, there were three of them following Su Li on his journey.

Seeing Su Li's dispirited appearance, Yu Ziqing could somewhat sense that the internal affairs of Dali were also intricately complex. Everyone knew that the Shadow Department, which was least likely to have problems, now had issues.

Their internal strife might be no less intense than Dazhen's real battles, and perhaps even more dangerous.

Just like Su Li, who might have been treated like a pawn, disposed of at will.

He had changed his mind now, not wanting to recruit anymore; he just wanted to make a friend, a good friend.

That meant finding a way to keep Su Li alive and gradually push him to a high position within the Shadow Department.

Being ambushed unexpectedly, of course, could not end like this.

Su Li probably wouldn't let it end like this either. He would definitely use every means to uncover that person and then kill him.