Upon hearing the words spoken by Yu Sheng, Xuan Che slowly nodded, his face half heavy and half expressionless.
The expressionless part was because half of his face was still numb.
"Dark Angel, this is the only ’common interest’ that might connect these otherwise unrelated parties," Yu Sheng tried hard to ignore the occasional twitch on Xuan Che’s numb half-face, and made his tone as solemn as possible, "The Venerate Saints Monastery’s move from years of low-profile hibernation to now causing trouble outside is directly because of this."
Xuan Che nodded along: "I have also heard from my master about this. It is said that those people of the Evil Path believe that by relying on the power of the ’Angel Catalyst’, they can achieve ’healing’ of the Universe, and apart from this thing, nothing else in this world could make this group of self-proclaid ’Saints’ deign to ’collaborate’ with other forces."
When the clues suddenly linked together, the long-stuck lines of thought were instantly cleared, and Yu Sheng imdiately followed Xuan Che’s words: "On the other hand, Yun Qingzi vanished for a millennium, and the last ti he appeared before the world, it was to fiercely battle an unknown formidable enemy near Shuji!"
The two of them looked at each other simultaneously, and in each other’s eyes, they saw the sa answer.
Even Zheng Zhi, who had been quietly listening at the side, reacted: "Are you saying that the one who fought Yun Qingzi back then...was a Dark Angel?!"
"Very likely," Xuan Che said in a deep voice, "If it wasn’t for such a powerful enemy, how could soone like Yun Qingzi, an ancient power reforged by ti, be so easily defeated? After all, soone investigated that battleground back then and even found remnants of a burned-out spirit body... In ordinary circumstances, how could a top-tier expert be defeated to such an extent even if they were to lose?"
"But he didn’t die," Yu Sheng frowned, quickly following up, "And judging by the current cooperation with the Venerate Saints Monastery, he must have done more than just ’survive’ back then..."
Zheng Zhi blinked, and after realizing it, he took a sharp breath: "He has the Angel Catalyst!!"
"Is that possible?" Xuan Che expressed disbelief with half his face, "There are cases of surviving an encounter with a Dark Angel, but to not only survive a close battle but also strip away fragnts from it..."
As he spoke, his voice wavered slightly, and his gaze fell on Yu Sheng.
"Don’t look at , my case isn’t representative," Yu Sheng quickly gestured with his hands when he saw Xuan Che’s look, "And I’ve said many tis, I really didn’t fight with Anka Aela; ours was a talks therapy session, and She voluntarily chose to rest fully inford..."
"Ahem, I know," Xuan Che coughed twice quickly, "I an, since there’s an ’example’ like Mr. Yu, it seems that stripping ’Angel Catalyst’ from a Dark Angel might not be entirely impossible. If Yun Qingzi really fought a Dark Angel to a mutual destruction thousands of years ago...then he indeed has the capability to collaborate with the Hidden Monastery now, even getting their ’Great Sage’ to charge ahead for him."
"But we still don’t know what conditions the Venerate Saints Monastery have laid out," Yu Sheng said, touching his chin in thought, "Collaborating is all about benefit exchange. If Yun Qingzi could provide the ’Angel Catalyst’ to the Hidden Monastery, then what about the Monastery? What can they offer Yun Qingzi?"
The room fell silent for two or three seconds before Master Yuan Hao’s unhurried voice broke the silence: "For instance, resolving or suppressing the ’hidden threats’ left by the Dark Angel?"
Several pairs of eyes turned to the old handso man.
"It’s very plausible," Master Yuan Hao said calmly, "Based on the traces found on that battlefield from thousands of years ago, the result of Yun Qingzi’s battle must have been extrely devastating. To survive such a fierce battle couldn’t have been without a price; his millennia absence from the present world also indirectly confirms this point. As for the Hidden Monastery, having studied Dark Angels all these years, I’ve heard they even have an angel’s corpse specin; surely, they’ve made considerable achievents in this area."
"I agree with this hypothesis," Yu Sheng nodded slowly, quickly reorganizing the information gathered so far in his mind while sorting through other questions, "Then there’s another issue—it’s fairly clear how Yun Qingzi and the Venerate Saints Monastery are collaborating, but what about Yun Qingzi’s other ’target’? What exactly is the ’Emperor’s Legacy’ he’s looking for? Why is he searching for it?"
"I’m completely clueless about that," Master Yuan Hao shook his head, "Ultimately, we don’t even know what this Emperor’s Legacy is, let alone its ’uses’."
"...Could it also be for resolving the ’hidden dangers’ left by the Dark Angel?" Xuan Che pondered carefully, speaking with three-quarters of his face showing signs of intense thought, "The Monastery’s actions are deceitful and insidious, and their teachings are radical, showing no morality or integrity towards those of other faiths. Soone like Yun Qingzi, who has faced great storms, surely sees this. Their cooperation probably isn’t very ’sincere’, so Yun Qingzi definitely needs another thod to solve his own issues.
"That Emperor’s Legacy might be a spell powerful enough to split heavens and earth, a divine weapon that cleaves ti and space, or even a magic artifact that turns effects into causes; otherwise, it doesn’t deserve such a na—Yun Qingzi probably intends to use its power to completely resolve the hidden dangers left from the battle with the Dark Angel back then."
Xuan Che’s speculation was actually baseless, but the logic seed sound. Although Yu Sheng felt the situation might not be so simple, he didn’t question it directly; instead, he reminded after a mont of thought, "All our guesses so far are based on the assumption that ’Yun Qingzi fought the Dark Angel a thousand years ago and left behind significant hidden dangers’, so next we need to consider how to verify this assumption."
He paused at this point, then continued after so thought, "Ultimately, if Yun Qingzi did encounter a Dark Angel back then, which ’Angel’ did he encounter? And after all these years, where is that ’Angel’ now?"
"Isn’t there a possibility," Zheng Zhi hesitantly suggested, looking back and forth between Yu Sheng, Xuan Che, and Master Yuan Hao, "that Yun Qingzi actually won back then? Maybe he completely destroyed that Dark Angel."
No sooner had Zheng Zhi finished speaking than Xuan Che and Master Yuan Hao fixed their gaze on him, making him instinctively shrink back, "I’m just suggesting a possibility, after all, I just finished training recently and haven’t even officially started yet... I’m just thinking, Brother Yu has already caused an ’Angel Fall’, which ans the Dark Angel isn’t invincible."
"I get what you an, but honestly, the possibility... is low," Xuan Che considered for a mont before seriously stating with four-fifths of his face showing, "The Dark Angel’s strange danger aside, from the information we have, ’Angel Fall’ should be impossible to hide once it happens—
"When Anka Aela died, it was accompanied by a massive release of energy, with spectacular phenona illuminating the sky, and later leaving behind a large amount of strange remnants known as ’Ankaela Crystals’. The ’Shadowless Skeleton’ in the monastery’s possession, although already remains when found, was surrounded by a large amount of ’minerals’, and its location was marked by a ’sinkhole’ visible from space. Its descent must have been just as spectacular.
"By this reasoning, the death of a Dark Angel is likely to be accompanied by large-scale, even world-changing phenona, and will leave behind conspicuous ’remnants’. But similar things were not found on the battlefield where Yun Qingzi went missing."
"A thousand years ago..." Yu Sheng muttered with a frown, "A thousand years ago in the Shuji area, are there recorded reports of abnormal natural phenona, group ntal pollution, and the like?"
Xuan Che blinked, "You an..."
"The Special Service Bureau has a wealth of characteristic data and sighting records concerning Dark Angels. Perhaps they can analyze so clues from abnormal records a thousand years ago in Shuji and figure out which Dark Angel appeared there, if it was indeed a Dark Angel," Yu Sheng said solemnly, "The disturbances caused by a Dark Angel’s death can’t be hidden, nor can those at its descent—large-scale ntal pollution, supernatural phenona, even Exotic Realm loss of control; if a Dark Angel did appear in the area back then, it would definitely be accompanied by these events."
Xuan Che pondered in silence, slowly speaking after a mont, "Though your words make sense... but Shuji was still in the early stages of developnt a thousand years ago, and besides a few fortified posts and settlent towns on the ho planet, only simple chanical outposts were on the surrounding satellites and planet orbits. The battle between Yun Qingzi and an unknown formidable enemy took place on an uninhabited planet near Shuji, which was more of a monitoring blind spot a thousand years ago. I’m afraid no useful data is left."
"An uninhabited planet near Shuji?" Yu Sheng’s brow furrowed slightly, "How far is it from here?"
"A regular Immortal Boat can round trip in a day," Xuan Che thought aloud, "You want to go there and take a look? But to be blunt... you probably won’t find any clues now. It’s been a thousand years, even if so aura remained on the battlefield back then and hasn’t been discovered, it’s likely dissipated by now. Besides, if there really was sothing left there, Yun Qingzi and his followers surely would have cleaned it up by now and wouldn’t leave it just lying around."
"We can go have a look anyway, after all, it’s no loss to take the trip," Yu Sheng remarked casually, "If this really has to do with the Dark Angel, then we absolutely can’t miss any possible leads—intelligence gathering is the most crucial step in dealing with such mysterious threats."
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