Chapter 110 - 85: Good Things Fall from the Sky
Crowds surged from the hallways, flowing quickly toward the entrance to the Secluded Path.
Because the notice was so sudden, the Top Ten Squads didn’t have time to pull any of their usual shenanigans.
The new recruits were all eager to earn Black Tower Points, and with no one stepping up to organize things, they were spared the usual farce today.
The three of them didn’t waste time on pleasantries and merged into the crowd.
Mo Ning took a few steps, then glanced toward the edge of the crowd. His gaze sharpened.
Kanda!
The new recruit who had looked so strange in the cafeteria!
The man was striding quickly across the plaza, his pace brisk and his shoulders bobbing slightly. You could see his excitement even just from his back.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Mo Ning made a decision—to tail him.
He precisely controlled his stride, taking a different route toward the entrance to the Secluded Path.
He also remembered to send a message to Anya via Secret Technique Whisper:
"I’m going to get behind Kanda. Back me up."
The Noble Lady’s expression didn’t change, and her pace remained steady, as if she hadn’t received the message at all.
She took a few more steps, then suddenly grabbed Reina and whispered something in her ear.
The two young women linked arms and quickened their pace slightly.
「Ten seconds later.」
Through some extremely precise "positioning," Anya "boxed" Kanda in behind her.
The entire maneuver was as smooth as flowing water, so natural it looked as if they had merely "happened" to end up together.
Mo Ning, in turn, found himself perfectly positioned right behind Kanda as they crossed the Boundary Line between the small plaza and the Secluded Path.
He inwardly praised Anya for her performance.
Aside from her occasional, seemingly "intentional" attempts at seduction, he couldn’t find a single fault with the Noble Lady.
As usual, a thin mist permeated the dense woods this morning.
Wisps of milky-white fog coiled around the tree trunks, blurring the scenery on either side of the path.
Like many others, Mo Ning glanced around from time to time, his gaze holding the perfect blend of curiosity and caution. He never touched a single branch, nor did he stray even half a step from the path.
And in the process of "glancing around," his gaze frequently swept over Kanda’s back.
Once, twice, three times...
The Insightful Secret Eye hung overhead, focusing the vast majority of its attention on Kanda.
Just as they were approaching the end of the path, Mo Ning finally noticed something.
Perhaps because his hair was itchy, the man suddenly raised his right hand and casually scratched the back of his head.
It was an utterly ordinary gesture, one that nobody would give a second thought.
But in the instant he raised his hand, the sleeve of his blue robe slid down a short way, pulled by gravity.
A section of skin on the inside of his wrist was exposed.
Mo Ning’s gaze, like a falcon catching the scent of blood, instantly locked onto the man’s inner wrist.
Upon it was a faint, gray pattern.
The pattern was extremely faint with blurry edges, looking like an ordinary birthmark or bruise.
Kanda’s movements were quick. He immediately lowered his right hand, and the sleeve fell back, concealing the pattern completely once more.
The pattern had been visible for only an instant.
Any other new recruit likely wouldn’t have seen it clearly.
Even if they had, by some lucky chance, seen the gray pattern, they wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong.
But Mo Ning wasn’t relying on his naked eye.
The Insightful Secret Eye had instantly captured and magnified details an ordinary person would overlook.
The pattern now floated quietly in the depths of his consciousness, being analyzed, deconstructed, and extrapolated at incredible speed by the Eye of Truth.
This was a pixel-level analysis.
「A moment later.」
The results of the analysis emerged.
Mo Ning’s pupils contracted, an almost imperceptible movement.