Immortal Kingdoms



Sivan still felt a little guilty; she knew that although Tier 1 cultivators were much stronger than ordinary humans, their pain tolerance was about the same. 

Furthermore, this young attendant was someone sheltered from the wind and rain, his talent didn't lay in his strength but in his head. Thus, she thought that Leonardo was putting on a brave front to keep her from feeling bad, which touched her heart. 

Leonardo didn't think that deeply about it though. 

He truly didn't feel any pain from something as simple as a dislocated wrist, not to mention that he did it to himself intentionally. If he didn't, it would draw suspicion from the Military Advisor; what kind of a Tier 1 cultivator could shrug off the strong grip of a Tier 3 cultivator? As expected, the spiritual sense that focused on Leonardo and Sivan suddenly vanished into thin air. 

"Sister Si—…" 

"Just call me Sivan from now on! Don't be so polite with me." Sivan interrupted Leonardo with a polite yet embarrassed smile, still feeling a little guilty. 

Leonardo blinked. "Alright. Sivan, where should I start reading?" 

"Oh right… This way, Attendant Ye," hearing the question, Sivan immediately remembered the task passed down by the Military Advisor. Thus, with a turn of her heels, she skipped away with light steps into the front gate of the first floor's sub-dimension. 

Leonardo calmly followed inside. 

A vast stretch of clouds, reminiscent of the folklore versions of what heaven would have looked like if it existed. Clever white doves flew in neat formations all around, and looking closely, each dove had a multicolored chip attached to its tiny talons. 

"These birds are a species of magical beasts with mediocre intelligence. However, they are incredibly sensitive to the heart and mental fluctuations, and anyone who enters the library with ill intentions or an ill conscience; say they were trespassing without permission and are quite anxious to leave, won't be capable of drawing these birds to them." 

As Sivan spoke, she extended her fair hand with a gentle smile, slowly stretching out her spiritual sense to communicate with the flocks of birds all around. 

Miraculously, she only needed to supplement her mental interference with the names of a few articles of interest. For example, she mentioned various subjects from history, troop allocations, warfare diplomacy, ancient families, and similar subjects that couldn't be considered too high level or too low level of clearance. 

Then, tens of birds came flying over from a distance. 

Sensing the environment carefully, Leonardo noticed that these birds were emitting faint spiritual fluctuations to communicate with one another and casting a wide, far-reaching net to spread Sivan's message all across the sub-dimension. From hundreds of thousands of avians far and near, only a handful of them responded and flocked over, resting on Sivan's hand, arm, and shoulders. 

Those that didn't find a suitable spot on her body simply circled her body with their pure black eyes looking this way. 

"You can't detach the chips from these magical beasts lest they send a distress signal to their companions. They have a weird connection between them, like a delicate net. Thus, even if you tried to kill one before the others get a notice, they'll immediately feel it; consider it like a huge formation where an insignificant node suddenly went dim, they will definitely notice it and scatter in alarm." 

Sivan explained as she gestured for Leonardo to step forward and reach with his spiritual sense into the chip in order to read the contents. Anyone with a poor concealment technique wouldn't have been able to disguise their spiritual sense from its original power, but Leonardo's martial intent was inherited from a mystical power that transcended the laws of a plane, let alone a sub-dimension and a few magical beasts. 

A tendril of his spiritual sense reached into the chip. 

Sivan nodded when she saw how the birds didn't react negatively to Leonardo's spiritual sense. At least, this proved that he had no ill intentions in mind. 

This ability had Leonardo think back to his adopted daughter, Leona. Then, he also thought back to Kieran and that Eternus fellow, wondering where he went and what plans he had in mind for the future. 

The chip Leonardo inspected had the introduction phrase Millennium Records of Warfare. It explained the recent developments and general movements of the Seven Sectors, especially in relation to the Qing Sector. 

There was no mention of the Commanding General or the Military Advisor for the past one thousand years. As it seems, the decision-making was left to the Left Wing Advisor and the Right Wing Advisor. 

Surprisingly, the Qing Sector had the least territory in the province out of the Seven Sectors. Although the territory kept expanding, by the same margin, it would also contract. 

For the past one thousand years, the core territory didn't change much at all; only the other six sectors had undergone some noticeable changes in ownership of lands and fields. 

Although disguised, Leonardo's spiritual sense was still on the level of Tier 6. In moments, he managed to organize the critical events across one thousand years and neatly frame an image of the big picture in his mind, calculating gains and losses. 

"Very clever!" Leonardo praised. 

"I know," smiled Sivan. "Like this, outsiders can forget about collecting vital intelligence from our Qing Sector, this is all the arrangement of our Commanding General!" 

Leonardo chuckled, not bothering to explain. However, what he admired was that this so-called vital intelligence Sivan spoke of was actually stored away on this first floor, it only needed someone powerful enough to carefully analyze the encrypted information. 

However, if someone that powerful truly did invade, they wouldn't have the time to search the first and second floors; they would strike like lightning and rattle the third floor of the library while pressured for time, leaving behind the valuable intelligence. 

As for the spies of little power, they would be anxious in attempting to reach the higher floors through merits and overlook the bottom floors. 

They would even work harder than the loyalists in the sector, but their contributions and anxiety would simply mark them out as suspicious infiltrators. 

This is quite a brilliant fishing net!