When Li Yao spread out his brainwaves to dozens of kilometers away with his vitality field that was beyond the Divinity Transformation Stage and started a storm of brainwaves, everything that he "saw" was different from just now.
The illusion of hustle and bustle in the market was peeled off layer by layer. Countless "big fish" that had been lurking in the deep water surfaced one after another. In front of Li Yao's "Heaven Watching Earth Listening", they revealed their features that were different from those of ordinary people, such as their breathing, heartbeat, secretion of bodily fluids, changes of body temperature, and even the frequency of brainwaves.
From that point of view, the Seven Seas Grand Market, especially around the Commodity Market, was almost like a storm that was about to come. Fatal traps were everywhere, and fatal traps were everywhere.
After a casual scan, Li Yao detected at least seven groups of people … who were not normal.
First of all, it was a group of people wearing the uniform of the common guards of the Seven Seas Grand Market. Those people were essentially the "police" in this place, and they were there to maintain order and safety openly.
By logic, the combat ability of the common police couldn't have been high. They could only deal with the situation perfunctorily until the real experts arrived. Also, the seven police officers were trying to pretend that they were nothing special. However, Li Yao could still keenly sense their toughness from their pace, posture, breathing, and the constriction of their pores. The intense smell of blood leaking out of their pores, in particular, couldn't have belonged to butchers who had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and oceans of blood.
Those people were either elite killers who had quit their careers or kings of mercenaries who had survived hundreds of battles. They would've been dominators on any planet they were on. Why would they be willing to work as insignificant patrol officers in this place?
Also …
Li Yao sensed the hard, ring-shaped objects on the fingers of a few of the police officers.
Although they had covered those objects with flesh-colored bionic skin and did not seem to be anything at first glance, how could they escape Li Yao's eyes?
Even if the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is truly wealthy, how can they be so extravagant that even the minor police officers on the street can carry Cosmos Rings with them?
Li Yao sneered in his heart and marked the seven plain-looking policemen.
He recorded the heartbeat, breathing, stride frequency, and body characteristics of the seven police officers and condensed them into a series of complicated information streams. No matter where the seven police officers fled to, as long as he thought about it, he would be able to lock onto them instantly.
Not far away from the area where the seven policemen were patrolling, there were more than ten businessmen in colorful clothes who were talking loudly as if they had just closed a few big deals. They were all fat and had greasy faces. They seemed to be everywhere and did not attract much attention.
However, those people's acting skills were a bit too much. A great war was coming, and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was not certain of victory. One moment of carelessness, and their lives might be lost. At this moment, most of the merchants were rather worried. Even if they did reach a great deal, they were still holding back their joy.
These people deliberately pretended to be relaxed to hide the anxiety and nervousness in their hearts, but they gave the game away.
One block away from them, the third batch of abnormal people was the customers and the boss of a comprehensive magical equipment store who were quarreling with each other.
The disguises of those people were flawless, and they were very devoted to their quarrel, as if they were really about to burst into fury and fight.
It was a pity that Li Yao and Li Jialing had already seen that somebody was arguing in the store when they were roaming on the street a moment ago. After such a long quarrel, it was not over yet, and nobody was coming to deal with it?
It was too unreal.
As for the fourth batch of people, Li Yao was not even sure if they were real "people".
It was an open truck that was parked in a shabby alley. The cabin was filled with the remnants of battle puppets and artificial bodies that were rusted. At first glance, they seemed to have been recycled from the magical equipment stores along the way.
The ragged, rusted, and dusty artificial bodies were lifeless, like cold iron corpses.
However, were they really nothing but iron corpses?
Li Yao remembered "Life Claimer", one of the four major assassin groups. The assassins of Life Claimer were all ghosts, and "Hanged Man", their leader, was a strong competitor for the title of "strongest ghost in the Imperium". What if the open truck was not loaded with wasted artificial bodies but full of ghost assassins, and even Hanged Man himself was hiding among them?
The other three groups were almost in the same situation. They were lurking around the "Commodity Market" under different disguises.
They were certainly not the only death dancers on the stage. They were just the weakest among them, which was why Li Yao recognized them after a quick glance.
Li Yao believed that there were more dreadful, clandestine, and fatal assassins lurking in places that he could not see, holding their breath, stopping their heartbeats, sealing the release of their brainwaves, and turning themselves into cold stones, waiting in silence …
It could be seen from the swirls caused by the collisions of the wireless Spiritual Nexus and the brainwaves in the air. The telepathic thoughts that were scattered in the air were too dense, as if at least hundreds of experts were releasing their telepathic thoughts to observe the surroundings at the same time.
With Li Yao's capability right now, if he boosted his brainwaves to the maximum, it was possible for him to track down all the assassins who were hiding in the darkness.
However, as a result, Li Yao's brain would become the most brilliant lighthouse, and everybody in the ten square kilometers nearby would sense his existence.
Naturally, it would not be a worthwhile action.
Therefore, after locking onto the seven most eye-catching targets preliminarily and scanning the structures of the markets, tubes, and buildings nearby, Li Yao abandoned the idea of strengthening the frequency of his brainwaves and further locking onto them.
He retreated 90% of his senses and only spread 10% of his telepathic thoughts around as an extension of his facial organs as the first alert.
"Pfff!"
Although he had retreated most of his telepathic thoughts in time, his brain cells were still seriously exhausted. Li Yao felt dizzy and vomited a mouthful of dark gold blood.
"Brother Yao —"
Li Jialing asked in a hurry, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I've just increased my metabolism by ten times and consumed countless cells. I'm just spitting out the dead cells in my blood to make room for the newborn cells to grow."
Li Yao said, "Bring me two vials of growth hormone to stimulate the growth of the new cells."
After swallowing three vials of growth hormone that were specially designed for the experts above Jin Dan's level, and melting the effects that would take seven days to be released with his spiritual energy so that they flowed throughout his body and nourished his burning brain in only ten minutes, Li Yao took a long breath in relief and was finally back to himself for the second round of investigation.
This time, he didn't do a wide-area scan but used a more refined method.
With a telepathic thought, dozens of his telepathic thoughts crawled into the Cosmos Rings that he had just abandoned in a corner of the market. Shua! Shua!
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Shua! The Cosmos Rings emitted feeble vibrations, and super-tiny spiritual puppets that were even smaller than mosquitoes crawled out of them.
Those "mosquitoes of spiritual energy" had been created based on Li Yao's super-precise refining techniques and Xiaoming and Wenwen's new designs. They were definitely as good as, if not better than, the cutting-edge products of the same type in the Imperium.
Thirty-six "mosquitoes of spiritual energy" invaded the Commodity Market without a sound. The special alloys and the anti-scanning coatings made them unstoppable and did not trigger the alarm system of the market itself.
Six of the "spiritual energy mosquitoes" floated above the seething crowd, while the other thirty "spiritual energy mosquitoes" crawled into the ventilation ducts, maintenance ducts, and cable ducts around them.
At this moment, Li Yao completely put himself in the shoes of an assassin and analyzed where he should attack if he were an assassin.
Very soon, Li Yao made a shocking discovery.
One … Two … Three!
He found three assassins who were carrying guns and cannons in the ventilation tubes of the Commodity Market!
Although the three assassins were all wearing stealth camouflage cloaks, and they had lowered their breath, heartbeat, and body temperature to the minimum through techniques similar to "Turtle Breathing", they were still seen through by Li Yao after only one glance.
"What's wrong with the ventilation tubes these days? Have they turned into a vegetable market? Why are there so many people?"
Li Yao mumbled to himself, but he vaguely felt that something was wrong. The assassination angle that the three assassins chose was too perfect. In other words, the defense of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was too lax. How could somebody have occupied such a commanding height so easily?
Li Yao recalled the "Godly Might Prison", which was known as the best prison of the Imperium. The ventilation tubes there were so thick and long that horses could almost run on them. A jailor was stationed every twenty meters inside.
Even if the security of the Seven Seas Grand Market was not as good as that of the Godly Might Prison, it shouldn't be so bad that somebody could break into the place so easily, right?
When he thought of this, he became vigilant and scanned his surroundings even more cautiously. As expected, in a place where he could not tell the distance and angle in the darkness, there were a few wisps of vague killing intent that locked onto the three ignorant assassins.
"That explains a lot. The three assassins have been discovered by the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors a long time ago, but they were intentionally not caught. Are they trying to bait the bigger fish?"
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, "Speaking of which, according to Li Wuji's intelligence, the four families have selected at least a hundred people to accomplish the shocking assassination. Almost forty experts have been mobilized from the Li family, but there are only three silly rookie assassins here. They are obviously here to be killed. Then, where are the other assassins?"
The situation right now was rather complicated.
The defenders of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had obviously seen through the assassination plan of the four families and locked onto the three rookie assassins who had surfaced, but they intentionally allowed them to carry out their operation, hoping to bait the bigger fish.
However, the carefully planned assassination operation of the four families couldn't have been so simple. Therefore, the three rookies were probably baits that were intentionally thrown out to cover the real assassins' operation.
Even the "real assassins" might be a smokescreen. The trump card of the four families was that they had bought over a certain defender of paramount importance, if not one of the "four gods of death".
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