Help! I Do Not Want to Guide a Disaster

Chapter 146: The Sovereign (3)

Days passed, and there was still no sign of Jiang Zhaohe.

Eventually, the general consensus in the headquarters was that she had simply figured out her game was up. She knew they were onto her double-dealing, realized she’d lost her leverage, and cut her losses to vanish into the wind.

Wenzhi, however, found the whole thing incredibly odd. If Zhaohe knew she was cornered, her typical MO would have been to pick a scorched-earth fight with Chenxi or attempt to destroy the underground city on her way out.

But then again, she wanted Sovereign for herself. She’d exposed that raw, ugly desire the exact moment she drove a blade into him. Leaving it entirely intact didn’t sit right with him.

Throughout the week, the boardroom had been a war room. With the combined networks of spies, eyes, and informants everyone brought to the table, they had been meticulously mapping out an assault on the Capital to prevent any more catastrophic backlashes or surprise execution squads.

On the surface, it was going flawlessly. But behind closed doors, Wenzhi was quietly constructing his own backdoor escape route. If everything went south, his ultimate contingency plan was brutally simple. Let Xinyuan level the entire Capital all at once with no drama, no hesitation.

Wenzhi wasn’t naive. He knew everyone in this base looked to him for decisions. They called him the boss, they followed his lead, but at the end of the day, their true loyalty was to each other. The web of personal relationships in the Faction completely overshadowed any grand political allegiance to a title. They wanted to survive, and they wanted to protect their own, just like Xinyuan said.

To ensure that survival, they had spent the last few days running tests on every single soul in the base. After the nightmare with Jingxin, they needed to be absolutely certain no one was a hidden copy or a shape-shifting spy in disguise. Thankfully, the perimeter was clean. Everyone was exactly who they claimed to be.

Now, the group was gathered around the massive boardroom table, the air thick with tension as holographic blueprints of the Capital’s architecture, troop numbers, and heavy war machines hummed in the center of the room.

"Yuzhen and Xinyuan will lead the frontline vanguard," Kaiwen directed, tapping a glowing sector on the map.

Yuzhen immediately grimaced, crossing his arms. "I do not want to lead a vanguard with Xinyuan. Put me on backup. I need prolonged, steady guiding before I can even think about stepping into a hot zone with a Disaster-class."

Kaiwen rolled his eyes hard at the complaint, while Zhiyao just let out a quiet, amused smirk from the corner.

Chenxi let out a weary sigh, turning his head toward the head of the table. "What do you think, boss?"

Wenzhi stayed low in his chair, idly rolling it back and forth a few inches as he stared unblinkingly at the floating holographic structure of the Capital. It was a massive, sprawling fortress. It had survived rift attacks in the past, but it always managed to rebuild fast.

"Useless," Wenzhi muttered under his breath.

For a split second, the chatter died down.

"What?" Hanmei asked, leaning forward.

Wenzhi looked up, his grey eyes deadpan and completely serious. "I mean, all of this tactical layout is useless. We need to change the direction offorce."

Su Zheng, sitting across the table, gave a slow, thoughtful nod, liking the chaos of it.

"And what happens if it backfires?" Gu Luhan asked suddenly, his voice laced with immediate distaste and skepticism.

Wenzhi turned his gaze sharply to him. "Anything can backfire, Luhan. But these drawn-out siege plans? They are useless against the Capital."

"I think the organized plans keep our forces structured and make the retaliation personal," Gu Luhan countered, holding his ground.

Wenzhi shook his head. "There are bastards in the top brass who will survive a standard siege. If they aren’t physically in the Capital when we attack, they will just scatter, hide, and rise up again. Those are the ones that need to go first. People like the President of the CEA, Shao Guying, the heads of the High Families... each and every single one of them."

Chenxi’s eyes sharpened as the pieces clicked. "An assassination strike?"

"Exactly." Wenzhi snapped his fingers loudly, the sound echoing in the quiet boardroom. "A massive siege is noisy. This type of force is silent and lethal. We aren’t going to march an army to their front gates to let them escape out the back. We will divide into synchronized strike groups. We go in the dark and we take each and every one of those roaches down in their beds."

"You are remarkably good at this. Were you perhaps in the military?" Fu Muhan asked suddenly, his sharp eyes examining Wenzhi. "I do not recall seeing anything of that sort listed in your official file."

Xinyuan immediately cut his eyes toward the Esper, a heavy, deeply judgmental look settling on his face at the casual mention of Fu Muhan digging through Wenzhi’s personal history.

Wenzhi, on the other hand, just kept his expression carefully blank. He certainly wasn’t about to disclose the reality of his past life. That he had spent most of it operating as an elite assassin, systematically trained by some of the most ruthless military men and women alive.

"I agree with this direction," Pei Luo interjected smoothly, breaking the brief tension. A deeply thoughtful expression pulled at his features. "The High Families and the CEA top brass... they are the absolute root of the rot. They are the ones who need to drop first."

"The non-combat Guides will stay back. And those who do not possess discreet, stealth-capable abilities will remain at the base as well," Xinyuan commanded firmly, his deep voice leaving zero room for negotiation.

"To be fair, I think we are all technically combat-oriented Guides here, except for Ru Yi and Zhiyao," Duan Ze noted with a small, reassuring smile.

"I’ll stay back," Ru Yi agreed instantly, nodding.

"Me too," Hanmei added, crossing her arms. "My ability isn’t discreet by any stretch of the imagination."

"Mine either," Fu Muhan echoed.

"Well, I am absolutely not staying behind. Yuzhen will protect me, just like he always does," Zhiyao announced matter-of-factly, casually raising his hand like a student sitting in a classroom.

Yuzhen practically swooned on the spot, his posture softening instantly. "Of course I will protect you."

Wenzhi tapped his fingers on the table, drawing their attention back to the holographic display. "We need a completely detailed file on the High Families. Everything down to their immediate lineages and their children."

"Well, the thing about the High Families is that they don’t actually ’keep’ their children in the traditional sense," Su Zheng said, her expression turning dead certain and cynical. "Their kids are either failed Disaster-class experiments, already dead, or buried away in some black site somewhere. But don’t worry, I will pull up whatever data exists."

"Well, then," Wenzhi said, leaning back into his chair and letting out a heavy, exhausted breath. "Meeting dismissed. I’m starving."

"Me too, honestly. I’m starting to see in the fifth dimension," Kaiwen groaned loudly. He was the first to bolt for the exit, with Duan Ze hot on his heels.

The rest of the room began to filter out in pairs. As they moved toward the doors, Wenzhi’s eyes found Chenxi, who was actively trying to bring up a conversation with Gu Luhan.

Gu Luhan, however, was clearly furious. He stormed right past him, his jaw clenched, completely ignoring Chenxi’s existence as he disappeared down the corridor.