23: Chapter 23 Intelligence Gathering

The day after the drawing ceremony, Su Wanqing sent a document to Shen Ye's communicator.

It wasn't just a list of text; it was a complete intelligence file on his opponents.

On the cover was the emblem of the Su Family Chamber of Commerce—a sword leaf orchid entwined with spirit gathering grass.

Below it was a line of small text: "Nanjiang City City-level Competition · Major Competitor Analysis · Compiled by Su Wanqing."

Shen Ye clicked open the file.

The first page was a table of contents, arranged by the order of the seeded players.

First was Lu Chuan, S-rank Iron-Blooded Battlefield.

Second was Gu Changming, A-rank Lava Giant City.

Third was Zheng Chuan, A-rank Storm Canyon.

There were several other top A-rank and B-rank players following them, but the names of the top three were marked with asterisks.

He turned to Lu Chuan's page.

Name: Lu Chuan.

School: City No. 1 High School.

Awakening Rank: S-rank.

God Kingdom Attribute: Iron-Blooded Battlefield.

Talent: War Frenzy (S-rank).

Awakening Time: Last year.

God Kingdom Area: Approximately four hundred square kilometers.

Race Population: Approximately five thousand.

Main Combat Races: Undead—Skeleton Warrior, Undead Knight, Stitched Giant.

Race Traits: Reassembles shortly after being scattered; the core is hidden deep within the undead swarm, making it extremely difficult to capture with divine sense locking.

Famous Battle: School assessment three months ago, defeated a siege by five opponents of the same rank single-handedly.

Fighting Style: Frontal suppression, overwhelming opponents with numerical superiority and reassembly traits.

Weakness: The command of the undead depends on a divine sense core.

When Lu Chuan controls the undead swarm, his divine sense briefly focuses on a specific undead, which serves as the command core.

Once the Core Undead is taken out, the coordination efficiency of the undead swarm drops significantly.

The Core Undead transfers every few seconds, making it extremely difficult to capture.

Note: The terrain bonus of the Iron-Blooded Battlefield is the "Blood War Aura." The undead's combat power increases within the aura's range, but the aura itself requires Lu Chuan to continuously consume divine sense to maintain.

After high-intensity combat exceeds a certain duration, the divine sense consumption will cause the aura's range to shrink.

Three public battle recordings of Lu Chuan were attached at the end.

Shen Ye clicked on the first one.

That was the match where Lu Chuan faced five opponents alone during the school assessment.

In the video, Lu Chuan stood in the center of the battle platform, with a dense undead army formation behind him.

Skeleton Warriors held bone blades, Undead Knights rode skeletal warhorses, and the Stitched Giants were massive, their bodies covered in suture marks.

Five opponents attacked simultaneously from five directions.

Lu Chuan didn't split his forces to defend; instead, he let the undead swarm press forward frontally.

Skeleton Warriors held the front line, Undead Knights roamed the flanks, and Stitched Giants advanced through the center.

The opponents' races struck the Skeleton Warriors, causing them to fall apart, but they reassembled after a few breaths, crawling up from the ground to continue fighting.

An Undead Knight was knocked off his warhorse; the horse crumbled and then reconsolidated, and the knight vaulted back into the saddle to continue the charge.

A Stitched Giant was blasted with a large hole by concentrated fire, but the sutures at the edge of the hole automatically tightened, pulling the wound shut.

The five opponents were drained of their patience and spiritual power by these unkillable enemies, and their defensive lines collapsed one by one.

Shen Ye watched it three times repeatedly and found the pattern of Lu Chuan's divine sense focusing.

At the end of the video, just an instant before the undead swarm launched their general offensive, Lu Chuan's gaze had an extremely brief focus—not on the battlefield, but on a certain Skeleton Warrior deep within the undead swarm.

That Skeleton Warrior itself wasn't attacking; it was just standing in place, but all the surrounding undead were converging toward it.

The Core Undead.

The second recording was of Lu Chuan facing a competitor with an A-rank Fire-type God Kingdom during a city simulation match.

The area-of-effect attacks of the Fire-type races caused massive damage to the undead swarm, with Skeleton Warriors falling in swathes, but the reassembly speed was faster than the rate they fell.

Lu Chuan didn't let the Core Undead transfer in this battle—because it wasn't necessary; the opponent's firepower was frontally overwhelmed by his Undead Sea.

The third recording was the only public instance of Lu Chuan being at a disadvantage.

The opponent was an exchange student with an S-rank Ice-type God Kingdom, not from Nanjiang City.

The freezing effect of the Ice-type races caused the reassembly speed of the undead to drop significantly.

Lu Chuan's divine sense consumption increased sharply, and the Blood War Aura began to shrink in the middle of the battle.

Ultimately, Lu Chuan still won, but it wasn't an easy victory.

Shen Ye watched the three recordings many times and noted several key points on his data pad.

The transfer frequency of the Core Undead is slower in matches where he has the advantage and faster when he's at a disadvantage.

The range of the Blood War Aura is directly proportional to divine sense consumption.

Undead reassembly isn't infinite—each time they reassemble, the undead's aura weakens slightly.

After multiple consecutive reassemblies, the undead will completely dissipate.

Control-type God Kingdoms like Ice and Earth have obvious restrictive effects on the undead swarm.

Wood-type vine nets can trap the undead but cannot prevent reassembly.

Water-type impacts can scatter the undead formation but cannot cause effective lethal damage.

Metal-type single-target attacks have the best execution effect on the Core Undead.

He turned to the second page.

Gu Changming, City No. 2 High School, A-rank Lava Giant City.

Awakening time is just over a year.

God Kingdom area is over three hundred square kilometers, with a race population of over three thousand.

The main combat race is the Lava Giant, the same attribute as the Zhao Duo whom Shen Ye had defeated in the school assessment, but with significantly higher scale and quality.

Gu Changming has five Lava Giants, one of which is a mutant species, twice the size of a normal one.

The terrain bonus of the Lava Giant City is the "Lava Aura," which allows the giants to continuously recover while fighting on the ground.

The weakness is being countered by both Water and Ice elements.

Elder Quan's Spiral Water Curtain and Steam Explosion have a significant effect on Lava Giants.

The third page.

Zheng Chuan, City No. 3 High School, A-rank Storm Canyon.

Qin Shu and Gu Qinghan had already analyzed him before, and Su Wanqing's file added a few more points.

Zheng Chuan's activity on social media has increased significantly recently, suspected to be creating public opinion pressure.

His family background was listed in detail—his father, Zheng Mingyuan, is the Director of the Resource Department of the City Association, a Tier 3 True God; his mother, Fang Lin, is the Vice Principal of City No. 3 High School, a Tier 1 True God; his uncle, Fang Yan, is also on the City-level Competition list, specifically the A-rank Granite Fortress assigned to the same seventh group as Shen Ye.

Seeing this entry, Shen Ye's brow furrowed slightly.

Uncle Fang Yan, Group Seven.

Zheng Chuan was in Group Three.

If the group stages went smoothly, the two of them wouldn't meet since they weren't in the same group.

But if both advanced from their respective groups, they might clash after entering the semi-finals.

Whether the Zheng family had tampered with the drawing and grouping couldn't be determined for now.

However, Fang Yan being in the same group as Shen Ye meant that Shen Ye would have to pass the hurdle of Fang Yan first in the group stages.

At the end of the file, Su Wanqing attached a line: Fang Yan's God Kingdom attribute is Granite Fortress, a pure defensive type.

The race Rock Giant has extremely high defense, and its attack method is physical crushing.

Weakness: The internal structure is dense but lacks toughness; water penetration followed by freezing can crack the rock body; wood-type root penetration can cause internal disintegration.

Shen Ye read through the file several times, carving the weaknesses of all his opponents into his mind.

Then he sent a message back to Su Wanqing: "The file is very detailed."

Thanks.

Su Wanqing replied quickly: "I didn't compile it alone."

The City No. 1 High School library has archived recordings of past City-level Competitions; I pulled them out and watched them all.

As for the Lu Chuan part, City No. 1 High School has more complete versions of his battle recordings internally; I asked someone to copy a set for me.

I extracted the transfer patterns of the Core Undead frame by frame from seven recordings.

Shen Ye looked at the message and was silent for a while.

Su Wanqing's tone when saying this was very flat, as if she were saying the weather was nice today.

But Shen Ye knew that going through seven recordings frame by frame meant she had spent at least several nights on it.

Lu Chuan was her schoolmate; if word got out that she was helping an S-rank from another school analyze the weaknesses of her own school's top seed, people would gossip.

She didn't mention any of that.

“I've memorized the file.”

I'll treat you to dinner after the competition.

He replied.

“Deal.”

The best Spirit Plant Restaurant in Nanjiang, your treat.

Su Wanqing replied.

Shen Ye put down his communicator and clicked on Lu Chuan's battle recordings again.

The transfer frequency of the Core Undead, the duration of the divine sense focus, the aura decay curve of the undead reassembly—these data points were already clearly marked in Su Wanqing's file.

But having them marked was one thing; capturing the Core Undead in actual combat was another.

Lu Chuan's divine sense focus only lasted for an extremely short time each time, and the Core Undead's position transferred every few seconds.

In a fierce battle, an opponent's divine sense would have to simultaneously command their race to fight, maintain a defensive line, and observe the battlefield situation; they simply wouldn't have the spare capacity to capture that fleeting divine sense focus.

But Shen Ye was different.

He had the mental locking ability projected from his Succubus.

In the Simulated Rift, Qin Shu had made him fight undead-type Void Race mutants; the locking method for their Core Undead was highly similar to Lu Chuan's Iron-Blooded Battlefield.

The Succubus's mental locking could track the target's divine sense fluctuations and complete the positioning the instant it focused.

What Shen Ye needed wasn't to capture that moment during the battle, but to have the Succubus's lock already covering the entire battlefield before Lu Chuan's divine sense focused, waiting for him to reveal a flaw.

He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the Land of Gods and Demons.

Ye stood by the Twilight Spirit Spring, abyss patterns slowly flowing across her body.

“Master needs me to lock onto a specific divine sense fluctuation during battle?”

“Yes.”

An undead-type deity, whose Core Undead transfers every few seconds.

You need to lock on before it transfers, re-lock after it transfers, and track it continuously.

Ye closed her eyes, and the abyss patterns extended from her body, weaving into a perception net over the Twilight Spirit Spring.

Every node in the net was a strand of extremely fine abyss aura, capable of perceiving subtle changes in divine sense fluctuations.

“It can be done.”

But Master needs to open perception permissions to me.

When Master engages the opponent, my perception net will cover the entire battlefield.

Once the opponent's divine sense focuses, I will immediately lock onto the position.

Shen Ye opened the perception permissions.

Ye's abyss perception net expanded instantly, spreading from the Twilight Spirit Spring to the Holy Light Altar, from the Holy Light Altar to the sword stele, and from the sword stele to the entire Land of Gods and Demons.

Every strand of abyss aura was a perception node, with billions of nodes weaving into a net.

“Still not enough.”

Shen Ye said, “The battle platforms of the City-level Competition have laws of suppression; external perception will be weakened.”

You need to be able to lock onto divine sense fluctuations even under suppressed conditions.

Ye thought for a moment.

“Then before the battle begins, I will pre-contract the perception net to the range of the battle platform.”

The smaller the range, the stronger the perception.

Law suppression weakens breadth, not precision.

Shen Ye nodded.

He opened his eyes.

Outside the window, the night was already deep.

The dormitory was very quiet, with Liu Yang's snoring echoing from the upper bunk.

He clicked on Lu Chuan's battle recording again.

In the video, Lu Chuan stood in the center of the undead army formation, with the Blood War Aura blanketing the entire field.

Skeleton Warriors, Undead Knights, and Stitched Giants were layered one upon another, like an unkillable tide.

The transfer patterns of the Core Undead marked by Su Wanqing replayed repeatedly in Shen Ye's mind.

Every few seconds, Lu Chuan's divine sense would have an extremely brief focus.

That moment was the Achilles' heel of the undead army formation.

Shen Ye turned off the recording and lay down, staring at the bedboard of the upper bunk.

There was still one week until the start of the City-level Competition.

One week outside was fourteen years in the God Kingdom.

Fourteen years later, Lu Chuan's Core Undead would not have the chance to transfer a second time.

He closed his eyes.

In the Land of Gods and Demons, Ye's perception net slowly contracted in the night, shrinking from the entire God Kingdom to the size of a battle platform.

Every strand of abyss aura became more solid than before, and the perception precision increased manifold.

Chen stood beside her, her six wings folded and her holy light restrained.

The perception nets of light and darkness intertwined between them, with the twilight glow slowly flowing in the center of the net.

The first battle of the City-level Competition, Group Seven, Fang Yan.

Zheng Chuan's uncle.

A pure defensive God Kingdom, Rock Giant.

Su Wanqing's file listed the weaknesses: the internal structure is dense but lacks toughness; water penetration followed by freezing can crack the rock body; wood-type root penetration can cause internal disintegration.

Shen Ye curled his lips in the darkness.

Elder Quan's Spiral Water Curtain and Mu Sheng's Differentiation Vine Net were perfect for dealing with Rock Giants.

The Zheng family had placed Fang Yan in Group Seven probably wanting him to intercept Shen Ye.

But they didn't know that what Shen Ye feared least was the defensive type.

Jin Lin's Deflection Sword, Mu Sheng's Penetrating Roots, and Elder Quan's Steam Explosion—these were all tactics specifically designed to counter high-defense units.

He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow.

One week until the City-level Competition.

One week until he would stand before everyone for the first time, letting Zheng Chuan, Lu Chuan, and everyone who believed that "the S-rank development period doesn't offer much of an advantage" see—that the fourth S-rank of Nanjiang No. 7 High School was different from what they imagined.

One week left.

In the God Kingdom, Jin Lin sheathed his sword.

Mu Sheng retracted his vine net.

Elder Quan closed his palms.

Chen and Ye opened their eyes simultaneously on either side of the Twilight Spirit Spring.

The last day of the fourteen years had begun.