The Hidden Night Web moved silently through Heavenly Gate City.

They were not assassins first, though many could kill.

They were listeners, trackers, servants, merchants, guards, scribes, carriage drivers, street vendors, inn workers, and nameless faces in crowded places. Gu Tianhe had built them over decades. Qin Wanshan had funded them through channels no outsider could easily trace.

Now they hunted dream-script tokens.

The false "elite future assessment" scheme had used three routes:

A fake education foundation.

A minor merchant courier network.

A rented training hall registered under a dead instructor’s name.

Lin Xian’er’s network found the money trail.

Hidden Night Web found the people trail.

Yu Qingmei used academy authority to freeze the training hall.

The result was ugly.

The hall contained dream couches, child talent observation arrays, false mentor scripts, and several low-grade memory-softening incense burners.

No children had been taken yet.

That was the only mercy.

Qin Mo inspected the arrays and looked physically sick.

"This is not for one-time kidnapping. It is for gradual shaping."

Dream scripts could make children trust certain symbols, respond to certain words, or feel drawn toward future "opportunities." They were subtle. Hard to detect later.

The Child Path Protection Bell from Floor 82 became the key to cleansing the detected markers.

Yu Qingmei closed the hall permanently.

Publicly, it was called an illegal training scam.

Privately, Blood Sun-linked methods were confirmed.

Mo Cangyan had crossed a line that made many forces angry, not just Qin family.

Central Academy requested samples.

Jiang Clan sent a harshly worded inquiry through official channels.

The Military Youth Division classified child dream-script marking as strategic corruption.

Mo Cangyan had gained some data but also created wider hostility.

Was it a mistake?

Qin Yuheng was not sure.

Sometimes enemies accepted short-term exposure to test defense.

But this time, the response was stronger than before.

Gu Tianhe captured one living intermediary.

For once, not dead.

The man had no high-level knowledge, but he revealed the phrase used by his handler:

"Children are roads before they choose direction."

Qin Yuheng’s eyes turned cold.

That phrase was added to the enemy doctrine board.

Enemy Doctrine Fragment:

Children are roads before they choose direction.

Implication:

Blood Sun / related faction may target young talents before awakening, before class, or during early training to shape future choices.

This confirmed the importance of protecting Qin Yuze and Qin Xue’er.

It also expanded Qin Yuheng’s priorities.

Not every child in the city was his family.

But he could not protect everyone personally.

Living Values Compass helped.

What could he do?

Build systems.

He proposed an academy-wide child path protection protocol using sanitized versions of his rewards and academy tools.

Yu Qingmei approved.

The protocol included:

Dream-script detection during preparatory program registration.

Gift screening.

Talent observation privacy reinforcement.

Mentor identity verification.

Parent warning notices.

Emergency memory cleansing access.

Qin Yuheng did not publicly take credit.

He did not need to.

Yu Qingmei implemented it under academy authority.

This was how to protect more without personally carrying every burden.

Qin Wanshan approved.

"You are learning to build roads others can walk."

The Tower climb resumed.

Floor 84: Silent Child Starfield.

A haunting floor where lost child spirits followed false stars. Qin Yuheng guided them to true constellations without claiming guardianship over all. Reward: True Star Childhood Guidance Crystal.

Floor 85: Ashen Mentor Hall.

A floor of corrupted teachers shaping students into tools. Qin Yuheng restored the principle of teaching choice. Reward: Mentor Integrity Seal.

Floor 86: Black Chain Scholarship Court.

A false scholarship floor where students received resources in exchange for future obedience. Qin Yuheng broke the contracts and gained Debt-Free Education Foundation Crystal.

The connection was obvious.

The Tower was giving tools for the very real-world system he was building.

Qin Mo noticed.

"The Tower saw the child-script issue."

"Or the issue shaped our path," Qin Yuheng said.

"Both is worse."

The academy child protection protocol became stronger with each floor.

Mo Cangyan watched from afar.

The child dream-script plan had failed to capture roads.

Worse, it made Qin Yuheng build a road-protection system.

Another pressure turned into foundation.

Mo Cangyan did not rage.

But he changed tactics again.

If Qin Yuheng built systems to protect children, then the next target would be something systems struggled with.

Adults who chose wrongly.

Voluntary betrayal.