The founding celebration reached a red-hot peak. At Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal’s loud declaration in the northern square, a 118-gun salute was fired into the air along the outer wall of the square.

　　118 was a Heavenly Dao lucky number. Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal had specially asked Cheat Diviner Reed to do a divination before the founding ceremony.

　　Cheat Diviner Reed had never been wrong. Last time, he had worked out that Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal was going to die, and the latter indeed was in the end killed by Evil Sword God.

　　If it wasn’t for the Soul Suppression Ring that Wang Ling gave him, there would have been far less than bones left of him – even his soul would have been completely crushed.

　　Mm, so there was indeed nothing wrong with Cheat Diviner Reed’s divination… It was just that it never took Wang Ling into account.

　　After all, this player was a Heavenly Dao white list client, a darling whom even the Heavenly Dao had to give way to. How could he be so easily divined?

　　So after the incident with Evil Sword God, upon learning that Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal was still alive, Cheat Diviner Reed thought that his divination skills weren’t working properly, and went into seclusion for a long time…

　　It was only when Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal personally paid him a visit before the sect’s founding that Cheat Diviner Reed did a divination for the gun salute. He also became the leader of the Office of Strategic Deception’s divination team.

　　It could be said that the sect’s founding celebration had a truly significant lineup. All the major sects and the media offered congratulations, and news of the Office of Strategic Deception’s founding spread like fire online and offline.

　　After the appearance of the Ten Generals in particular, all the light force sects instantly changed their tune. Many sects which hadn’t thought much of the Office of Strategic Deception, had chosen to wait and see, or that didn’t choose sides easily, actually took the initiative to reach out in goodwill.

　　As some famous fried rice master once said: in the end, nothing could escape being so delicious…

　　Among them, it was Immortal Palm Tree Sect whose attitude changed the most dramatically.

　　Immortal Palm Tree Sect had received the Office of Strategic Deception’s invitation with the highest level of VIP treatment. After all, Immortal Palm Tree Sect was the only Sky-level first-class sect at present.

　　Immortal Palm Tree Sect’s attitude toward this new power, the Office of Strategic Deception, was already predetermined; it was a grand Sky-level first-class sect, how could it lower itself to cosy up to a third-class sect?

　　The Office of Strategic Deception had only just been set up, and had yet to deal with a lot of sect matters –”the higher they rise, the harder they fall”!

　　Therefore, Immortal Palm Tree Sect’s attitude in the beginning was to ignore it.

　　But like all the other sects, the sect leader of Immortal Palm Tree Sect never expected that it would be the Ten Generals who stood behind the Office of Strategic Deception…

　　Thus, after receiving this news, the whole of Immortal Palm Tree Sect was greatly shaken.

　　Its current sect leader was Sun Zhuolin, who had been hired by Huaguo Water Curtain Group for the role. Just like professional managers in many companies, he was in charge of the sect’s normal business operations.

　　Actually, Sun Zhuolin wasn’t related by blood to the Sun family of Huaguo Water Curtain Group. It was just that when he signed the agreement back then, it stipulated that he had to use the Sun surname. Hence, Zhuo Lin added the “Sun” in front of his original name.

　　Zhuo Lin was his real name. But this “Zhuo” was also unrelated to Odd Zhuo’s Zhuo family.

　　The indifferent approach which they had adopted toward the Office of Strategic Deception had been signed off by Sun Zhuolin himself. As a result, after the Ten Generals appeared, Sun Zhuolin was the first to panic when he heard the news… This was a clear error in decision-making!

　　How could they afford to offend a sect which had the Ten Generals behind it?

　　In Immortal Palm Tree Sect’s sect leader conference room, Sun Zhuolin was on tenterhooks until he saw his male secretary push open the door and enter. Sun Zhuolin hurriedly asked, “Have the congratulations been sent…”

　　“The operations department has taken care of it.” The male secretary looked at his watch. “They should have all been sent out by now on our Immortal Palm Tree Sect’s Weibo and WeChat official accounts… congratulatory posts have been released on all our media platforms.”

　　“That’s good…” Sun Zhuolin let out a breath and felt very relieved.

　　If he didn’t properly deal with this major lapse in decision-making, and the Huaguo Water Curtain Group higher-ups held him accountable… He wouldn’t be able to explain at all.

　　Immortal Palm Tree Sect was a noble Sky-level first-class sect. If all its achievements today were undone by his conceit, he wouldn’t be able to atone for it, even if he killed himself!

　　“And the gifts? Have they been sent?” Sun Zhuolin was still a little worried, and regretted declining to attend the ceremony. At the very least, he should have sent a deputy head to find out about the real situation!

　　“I’ve already asked Shun Feng God Express to speed up with the delivery. It might be another half an hour… However, Professor Yang of the Office of Strategic Deception’s patrol and guide team has indicated that the sect has already received Sect Leader’s regards, and is sorry that Sect Leader was unable to be there. As Sect Leader instructed earlier, I issued a statement to say that your legs are injured…”

　　“I had no other choice.”

　　Sun Zhuolin gave a wry smile. “I can’t say I didn’t have any intention of going… I had to find an excuse.”

　　“Mm.”

　　The male secretary nodded. “However…”

　　“However what?”

　　“However, the Office of Strategic Deception said… they would interact with Sect Leader on site via a live stream later, so that the Ten Generals can inquire after the state of Sect Leader’s injury.”

　　“…”

　　Sun Zhuolin was alarmed.

　　The Ten Generals personally inquiring after his condition…

　　Sun Zhuolin grit his teeth and immediately took out a mace from his storage bag, which he handed to his male secretary.

　　“Sect Leader, you…”

　　“No way! This absolutely cannot be exposed!” Sun Zhuolin sat on the ground and pointed at his legs. “You… break all my legs.”

　　The male secretary: “All…”

　　“Correct! Including the one in the middle!”

　　The male secretary was shocked. “Is that necessary, Sect Leader…”

　　What a fierce man!

　　Sun Zhuolin: “Since we’re putting on this act, we have to go all the way. In any case, given my realm, they can be reattached… You just need to do it cleanly; it’ll be fine as long as you don’t break them into pieces.”

　　“But the middle one is too…”

　　“It doesn’t matter. A mere one or two inches off is nothing.”

　　“…”

　　…

　　While Immortal Palm Tree Sect was displaying its formidable will to survive, Night Chief’s President Bai also received the latest news.

　　It was intelligence from Long Ming. “Lord Venerable Bai… Based on what the insects saw, the crystals which Lu Youming’s group put down have been removed. Furthermore, Lu Youming and the others have officially made clear that from now on, they won’t set themselves against the Office of Strategic Deception.”

　　“No matter.” President Bai smiled slightly. “I knew this was going to happen, so the crystals I gave them were just a cover… I already sent in the person ranked first in the Dark Network. Using the eyes and ears of Lu Youming and the others, he has successfully snuck into the celebration.”

　　“Ranked first in the Dark Network?” Long Ming thought of one person. “Could it be…”

　　“That’s right… It’s that person who shook the world back then, Ultimate King of Killers…”