Under Su Ze’s watchful eye, Bai Guishou unlocked his phone.
Su Ze scrolled through the phone’s call history and text messages but found nothing of value. He opened the Filth Earth Organization’s internal chat software. The group chat’s message history was cleared regularly, and the chat itself was silent. No one was talking.
It wasn’t that he expected to find any valuable clues on Bai Guishou’s phone. However, with Bai Guishou captured, he knew that if the stronghold noticed he was missing, their first move would be to try and contact him by phone.
This way, Su Ze could react to the situation accordingly. After all, he didn’t want the Filth Earth Organization to discover Bai Guishou’s disappearance and alert the enemy.
He opened the Filth Earth Organization’s group chat information and saw that there were only a little over three hundred members. He scrolled through the list but couldn’t find Pulamon’s name.
"Is this group chat just for members in the Lin Hua Continent region?"
"Of course. And only those at the Cocoon Stage or above can join, which is why there are only about three hundred members."
"Do you have contact with the Defilers from the other two continents?"
"Almost none. Any contact happens between the higher-ups," Bai Guishou answered honestly. "An elder like me, with little potential, might seem like a high-ranking member to outsiders, but within the organization, I’m really just middle management."
Su Ze nodded. While continuing to scroll through Bai Guishou’s phone, he asked, "Do you know Pulamon?"
"Grand Elder Pulumon? Of course, I know him. But I’ve only seen him a few times at headquarters. We’ve barely exchanged a couple of words."
"Where is he usually? The Flame Emperor Continent?"
Bai Guishou found it strange that Su Ze was so interested in Pulamon, but he answered anyway:
"Grand Elder Pulumon was indeed stationed in the Flame Emperor Continent in the early days, but he was transferred to headquarters over a decade ago. He has a special status. It’s said he’s only one step away from his sixth evolution and will likely become the organization’s next legendary powerhouse, so the leader values him immensely."
’It seems this Pulamon isn’t just some ordinary supreme-level expert.’ Su Ze didn’t think he would lose to him, though. He continued his questioning, "If the Filth Earth Organization members in Ancient An Country were being purged by Lin Hua Country, do you think that Grand Elder Pulumon would come to help?"
Bai Guishou trembled all over. After a moment, he said shakily, "That... I’m not sure. It’s possible he would come. But the organization definitely wouldn’t give up on Ancient An Country so easily. After all, we’ve operated here for many years to finally achieve the situation we have today."
Su Ze nodded slightly and asked another question, "Where is your headquarters located?"
"I don’t know either..."
Seeing Su Ze’s expression darken, Bai Guishou quickly explained, "It’s true, I’m not lying! Every time, before I enter the headquarters, all my senses are blocked. Then I just follow some kind of guidance and inexplicably find myself inside."
"And the entry point is different every time. Sometimes the two locations can be hundreds of thousands of miles apart. It feels... it feels like the headquarters isn’t in a fixed location. It seems like it can move."
’A mobile headquarters?’
Su Ze wasn’t surprised. It was entirely possible.
The spaceship on the Mother Tree, for example, could serve as a mobile base.
The only problem was that this made finding the Filth Earth Organization Headquarters much more difficult. He could only hope that Pulamon would show himself willingly.
Seeing Su Ze remain silent for a long moment, Bai Guishou couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. Afraid Su Ze didn’t believe him, he quickly added, "I can tell you the locations of the branch headquarters on the Flame Emperor Continent and the Snowfield Continent!"
Su Ze was noncommittal. He casually opened Bai Guishou’s contact list and found that this time, only one number was saved. "Vegetable" was gone, replaced by a single entry: "Kang the Idiot."
"You really don’t learn your lesson, do you? You already paid the price for this once, and you still dare to do it again?" Su Ze said, amused.
Bai Guishou’s face went pale, terrified that Su Ze would take a screenshot and post it in the group chat again, just like last time.
It wasn’t that Bai Guishou hadn’t learned his lesson at all. After being resurrected, he hadn’t dared to casually change Mr. Kang’s contact name. But then he got a new phone with a mental-recognition unlock feature, which made him bold again. On top of that, Mr. Kang had been making things difficult for him, so in a fit of anger, he changed Mr. Kang’s contact name back to "Kang the Idiot."
"Why did you delete Feng Bqing’s number? You don’t have to contact him anymore?" Su Ze asked.
Bai Guishou shook his head. "Feng Bqing has been out of contact for months. We don’t know if he lost his old phone, but he’s unreachable. He also hasn’t tried to contact the organization. And because I lost my Storage Ring before, the device inside used to locate Feng Bqing was lost with it. As a result, we can no longer track his location."
That tracking device was currently lying in Su Ze’s Storage Ring. He had kept it all this time and hadn’t thrown it away.
’So that means I’m the only person who can locate Feng Bqing now... He’s out of contact. Don’t tell me he’s gone completely crazy again?’
Feng Bqing had clearly been showing signs of improvement before, with moments of lucidity. But now, he had likely gone completely mad again. Otherwise, even if he were lucid for just a minute, he would have tried to find a way to contact the Filth Earth Organization.
After all, the Filth Earth Organization was the only group in the world that would help him.
Su Ze couldn’t shake the feeling that Feng Bqing’s worsening condition had something to do with him. He recalled the last time he saw Feng Bqing, when he had brought him the Pope’s contamination.
He had to admit, a tiny bit of guilt welled up inside him.
Feng Bqing had, after all, saved him several times, yet all Su Ze had given him in return was madness and a condition that only grew steadily worse.