Chapter 704 - 148: Black Fog (4)

"Don’t worry, Senior Brother. I chose this after careful consideration, not on a whim," Zhang Deming said.

"Then it’s settled. We’ll release it later. The conference is the day after tomorrow, and we can’t just wait to release it during the opening ceremony!" Yuee Mengsheng declared.

Gan Zili’s lips twitched. He stared at the Array Card in his hand, utterly speechless. ’If I’d known this would be the result, I would have just asked Zhang Deming to swap the recording in private. The whole reason I brought this up for discussion was so the two of them would help me change his mind!’

But since the three of them had decided to release it, he had to accept it, no matter how much of a headache it was. After all, Yuee Mengsheng—the one calling the shots—and Zhang Deming himself were in complete agreement. What else could he say?

After a long moment, he took a deep breath, put away the Array Card with a flip of his hand, and said, "Fine. I just hope you don’t come to regret this in the centuries to come, Junior Brother."

Zhang Deming smiled. "Senior Brother, you should look at it from another perspective. When Jian Cheng fought his way across Hongmeng, wasn’t he also unpopular? Yet now, he’s the reason we have the tradition of the Traveler of the World. Aren’t there storybooks about him everywhere?"

"Ha, quite ambitious, aren’t you? Let’s hope it turns out that way!" Gan Zili shook his head. He dropped the subject and said, "This third matter is our main topic for today: the issue of your identity."

As Gan Zili spoke, he looked over at Yuee Mengsheng.

Upon hearing this, Yuee Mengsheng flipped his hand, produced an Array Card, and placed it before them. He then reached out and tapped the card, causing a Light Screen to appear.

Zhang Deming froze as he looked at the information on the Light Screen.

What appeared on it was, shockingly, information on his entire life. The level of detail was terrifyingly complete—everything except his connection to the Alliance, the true situation with Elder Huang, and the entanglements between its members.

In any case, everything not related to the Alliance—including Zhang Wu from Celestial Spirit City and Lu Ze, the man he had killed—was laid out in crystal-clear detail.

Only at this moment did he truly understand what an Upper Sect was, what a Sect’s intelligence Secret Group was capable of. ’This is countless times more over-the-top than the spy thrillers I saw in my past life!’

’Seeing all this information about myself is enough to make my hair stand on end!’

Seeing Zhang Deming’s face drain of color and his body go rigid, Yuee Mengsheng said, "Don’t be like that. Everyone in the Sect has a file like this."

"For any disciple with a certain degree of talent and potential, their file will gradually become more detailed. For people like you and me, the files are truly exhaustive."

"If they weren’t afraid of antagonizing us, they’d probably even record what time we use the privy. But it’s also because of this that the security level of our files becomes increasingly high."

"The three of us old guys are at the Peak Master Level, which means very few people in the entire Sect can view our files. Even the other Peak Masters can only access parts of them; only those few Supreme Elders have full access."

"The reason I’m showing you this is because a promotion to Peak Master involves just such an information archiving process."

Zhang Deming asked doubtfully, "Information archiving?"

Yuee Mengsheng nodded. "Normally, archiving a Peak Master’s information would mean elevating its security clearance, making it so only a few people in the Sect’s information system can view it, like ours."

"But... Junior Brother, because of your background, and because you’re a Law-Level Spirit Nurturer, you are, to some extent, already on par with the Sect’s Supreme Elders."

"So, after consideration by Master Dang and a few other senior masters, they decided, just to be safe, to elevate your information directly to the Supreme Elder level of secrecy."

Zhang Deming looked at the Light Screen in confusion. ’They’re raising the secrecy level, yet they’re displaying it like this?’

As if reading his mind, Yuee Mengsheng said, "There are now only two copies of this information Array Card in the entire Sect. One is here, and the other is in the Secret Group’s archives in the forbidden area."

"In the Sect’s main records, your file has been completely scrubbed. Aside from the public-facing information, any mention of Zhang Wu, your reincarnation, and all that is completely gone."

"Now, as far as the Sect records are concerned, you’re just an ’ordinary’ cultivator who worked his way up from Little Qing Mountain, with nothing special about you."

"Physical storage for classified information?" Zhang Deming asked, surprised.

Yuee Mengsheng paused for a moment, then said, "Yes, that’s more or less the idea. The files on the Sect’s Supreme Elders are never stored in the information Array Heart of the Sect Protection Array. They are always kept as two physical copies: one for the elder to keep, and one in the Secret Group’s forbidden archives."

"Barring some heaven-shaking event, like you betraying the Sect, this file will never be accessed again. Not even the other Supreme Elders have the authority to view it, because you are now considered their peer."

"Furthermore, your information within the Sect Protection Array’s database will no longer be updated in real-time."

"The Secret Group will filter out and refrain from recording most information related to you. The only things they’ll log will be your daily activities, gossip, and things like that."

"After all, even though our Sect Protection Array is a Six-Star Ancient Array, it isn’t running at full power at all times. Besides, the Sect only has Three Talents Array Practitioners, who can’t fully control it or utilize its full potential anyway."

"Factor in the possibility of leaks from anyone with clearance, and consider how far-reaching your affairs are... that’s why you’re being given this Supreme Elder-level physical security measure."

Hearing this, Zhang Deming pointed at the Array Card before him and asked, "So, this is mine now?"

Yuee Mengsheng nodded. "Yes."

As Yuee Mengsheng finished speaking, vines suddenly shot out before Zhang Deming. They instantly shredded the rather exquisite Array Card, reducing it to a cloud of tiny fragments.

Yuee Mengsheng paused, then shook his head. "There was no need for that. We gave you this information because you won’t be able to look up your own detailed file in the future. We wanted you to have a copy, so you would have a clear understanding of your own past."