Chapter 22: Intelligence

"System, I recall that special summoning is possible. Does that include intelligence personnel as well?" Deep in the night, Wang Yu immersed himself in the system space and asked.

Whether it was to investigate the recent assassination attempt he had suffered or to plan for the future, intelligence personnel were indispensable. Thus, Wang Yu immediately thought of the system. Since the heavens had granted him a cheat, he might as well use it.

Moreover, he was particularly eager for the reward from the mission to uncover the mastermind: eight experts below the Heaven-Human level.

Wang Yu remembered clearly that as part of the novice potential benefits, the first five summons using methods other than summoning points would not yield talents below the Heaven level. This meant he still had two opportunities to utilize this perk.

If he combined the reward from this mission with those two opportunities, he could directly obtain eight Grandmaster-level experts. The appearance of these eight Grandmasters would be a force to be reckoned with, not just for Wang Yu personally, but for the entire General Zhen Dong’s residence.

"Ding! Host, special summoning for intelligence personnel is available. Would you like to begin the summoning?"

"System, since it is possible, let us begin. Use 150 summoning points for a Peerless Talent summon, focusing on intelligence." Confirming it was possible, Wang Yu was delighted and immediately ordered the system to proceed.

"Ding! Summoning initiated. Special summoning will only display the four primary attributes. Attributes are capped at 100. Due to the rarity of special-attribute talents, only three candidates will be displayed and cannot be deleted; the host must summon one of them. Please take note."

"Ding! Candidate one: Zhao Gao, Intelligence 97."

Seeing that the first person was Zhao Gao, Wang Yu was filled with confusion. Did Zhao Gao truly possess such capabilities?

However, he quickly understood. Whether the Zhao Gao from other dimensions possessed this ability was unclear, but the Zhao Gao from *The Legend of Qin* definitely did.

In that series, Zhao Gao was a high-ranking official of the Empire, serving as the Prefect of the Carriage Office. He was deeply trusted by the Eighteenth Prince, Hu Hai.

Zhao Gao was also the actual leader of the Empire’s greatest secret organization—the "Net" (Luo Wang). His strength was unfathomable, and he was constantly accompanied by the Six Sword Slaves. On the surface, he was a loyal servant of the Empire, but in reality, he was deep and treacherous. Ambitious, he was secretly plotting a grand conspiracy to overthrow the imperial rule.

With this template, it was understandable for Zhao Gao to have such intelligence capabilities. He was a pure, calculating mastermind of the Net.

"Ding! Candidate two: Mao Xiang, Intelligence 96."

The man who served as the head of the Jinyiwei for Zhu Yuanzhang surely possessed formidable abilities.

"Ding! Candidate three: Lin Chen, Intelligence 96."

Wang Yu had watched the drama *Nirvana in Fire* before transmigrating, so he was quite familiar with these famous figures.

Lin Chen was the young master of the Langya Hall and a close friend of Mei Changsu. He possessed profound insight, an incredibly sharp mind, and was well-versed in the affairs of the world. He was unrestrained, witty, both a scholar and a warrior, loyal, and a brilliant physician who jokingly called himself the "Number One Quack Doctor in the World." He appeared unfathomable and was summoned by Mei Changsu to treat Nie Feng, who suffered from the Fire-Cold Poison.

"Ding! Summoning in progress. Congratulations to the host for obtaining candidate one: Zhao Gao. Command 46, Might: Half-step Heaven-Human, Intelligence 94, Politics 81, Intelligence 97, Charisma 62."

Wang Yu was not surprised that Zhao Gao possessed Half-step Heaven-Human strength. Though one should not judge a book by its cover, appearance is often a reflection of the soul.

In the anime, Zhao Gao’s color palette was dominated by black and red—black symbolizing darkness, and red symbolizing blood. With his unconventional red hair, dark red long nails, sharp facial features, seductive yet feminine voice, mesmerizing and calm temperament, and cold, powerful aura, he was clearly a major antagonist.

Furthermore, his strength was near that of the dual heroes of Guigu. Sheng Qi, who wielded the massive heavy sword Ju Que that even the shark-tooth blade could not dent, had seen his ranking climb from outside the top two hundred to eleventh on the sword list in just three years.

Such a person would never willingly be driven by the Net, so Zhao Gao personally went to warn him. During this encounter, Sheng Qi never even sensed when Zhao Gao appeared beside him.

When Sheng Qi angrily demanded he reveal himself, Zhao Gao playfully patted Sheng Qi’s shoulder. By the time Sheng Qi reacted, Zhao Gao had already vanished. The only reason Sheng Qi could see him later was because Zhao Gao wanted to be seen.

This feat alone was enough to demonstrate Zhao Gao’s strength; a Half-step Heaven-Human ranking was appropriate.

Wang Yu was very satisfied with summoning Zhao Gao. The ruthless and cunning Zhao Gao was the perfect person to lead intelligence operations. While Lin Chen was equally capable, his emotional depth would be a liability for an intelligence officer.

Moreover, since the characters summoned in the first ten times were absolutely loyal, Zhao Gao’s minor flaws could be ignored.

However, the surprises Zhao Gao brought to Wang Yu did not end there.

"Ding! Accompanied by nine individuals: Yan Ri, Jing Ni, Xuan Jian, Zhen Gang, Duan Shui, Wang Liang, Zhuan Po, Mie Hun, and Luan Shen."

"Their implanted identity is a squad of death warriors trained by the host’s family specifically for the host. They are loyal only to the host and, upon hearing that the host was attacked, they led the team to find you. They are currently waiting outside the host’s door."

"Excellent, absolutely excellent!" Upon seeing the characters accompanying Zhao Gao, Wang Yu was overcome with joy.

The Eight Swords of Yue were all experts, and the Six Sword Slaves were particularly skilled in the art of combined strikes. Few in the world could withstand their joint assault, which excelled in one-hit kills. Their internal roles were defined as the fierce main attacker, the brutal support, the opportunistic flanker, the dual-wielding bond, and the hidden lurker.

Ge Nie had assessed them: "The Six Sword Slaves are one entity; they are indeed terrifying. A single round of their combined attack is, for most people, an instant death blow."

Wei Zhuang had remarked: "They have been honed into the perfect killing machine—six as one, each performing their duty."

Even the formidable Sheng Qi had been easily subdued by a single combined strike from the Six Sword Slaves, without even a chance to draw his sword. This showed the brilliance of their combined technique.

Although the six of them were eventually defeated by the dual masters of Zongheng, they were individually superior to many others.

While Yan Ri, Jing Ni, and Xuan Jian did not possess the supernatural combined techniques of the Six Sword Slaves, they were the strongest among the group. The strongest of them all, Yan Ri, had already reached the late stage of the Grandmaster level.

Wang Yu felt he had truly struck gold with this summon. Beyond obtaining the powerful Zhao Gao, he had practically acquired the top-tier experts of the Net.

With these people, he had effectively established the backbone of an intelligence and assassination organization, which would undoubtedly save him a great deal of effort.