519: Chapter 519: Mysterious Shadow’s Sche (Extra Long Chapter, Seeking Monthly Passes) 519: Chapter 519: Mysterious Shadow’s Sche (Extra Long Chapter, Seeking Monthly Passes) Misty clouds concealed the moon and stars, while dazzling lights illuminated the spacious hall.
Busy staff bustled to and fro, filling the round tables with an abundance of food.
Among them were many local delicacies from Rodan, as well as famous dishes from the Tia Empire and Central Earth cuisine.
A silver-haired man sat before a dining table, lifting his hand to look at his chanical arm embedded with gems.
Then he turned his head to glance at the moon outside, now veiled by clouds.
Ti ticked away in the rotation of the hands on the clock, second by second.
The staff continued busily serving dishes at a steady pace, silent and synchronized in their movent; their footsteps were so light as to be almost invisible, and no one uttered a word.
A bizarre silence enveloped this brightly lit hall, broken only by the ticking of the clock.
Ti itself seed to blur in this quietude.
Woo—
This silence persisted an indeterminate length until a harsh train whistle enveloped the entire hall.
A vintage train abruptly entered the spacious hall, causing the surrounding employees to scatter.
Then the door to the locomotive opened, and a young man with black-rimd glasses leaped out from behind it.
The train behind him made no pause and plunged into the chaotic void once more.
He Ao straightened his clothes and walked over to the bounteous dining table.
“Mr.
Hao Yi, you’re here,”
The silver-haired man raised his head, looking at He Ao with a smile, and said in the Central Earth language, “Allow to introduce myself.
My na is Rhodes, the chief in charge of Moonlight in Rodan, codenad ‘Mysterious Explorer’.”
“Mr.
Rhodes, it seems you’ve done quite a bit of howork,”
He Ao scanned the table and the classic Central Earth dishes, chuckling softly.
Many from the Western Lands and the Tia Empire cannot acclimate to authentic Central Earth cuisine, as many dishes have undergone localized alterations.
This has caused many Central Earth dishes that are famous in the Western Lands to be unheard of in Central Earth itself.
However, the dishes Rhodes had placed on the table were genuine Central Earth cuisine, without the strange variations popular only in the Western Lands.
Naturally, He Ao was indicating not just the Central Earth dishes but also the space overhead.
Moonlight’s Rodan headquarters was a castle-like spire, and at this mont, all space above the first floor appeared to be sealed off, presumably as a preemptive asure against any breach by the Velora.
“Since Mr.
Hao Yi chose to appear in the guise of a Central Earth native, he must hold so special affection for Central Earth.
These are just so small tokens of consideration, of course, facilitated by so inconsequential Transcendent Props,”
Rhodes said with a smile, then glanced at the staff who were still thodically serving dishes, “It’s still early, so so dishes haven’t been served yet.
If Mr.
Hao Yi doesn’t mind, we can eat and chat.
I’ve heard that in Central Earth, deals are struck at the dining table.”
Props capable of sealing space are hardly trivial items.
Moonlight’s ‘search notice’ specified nine o’clock, yet it was not even eight.
He Ao’s early arrival seed to have caught Rhodes off guard.
“So, Mr.
Rhodes, what is it that you wish to collaborate on with ?”
He Ao didn’t take a seat; instead, he leaned on the chair’s backrest, smiling at Rhodes.
“I presu you already know,” Rhodes maintained his smile, “the relic passage is set to open in Eren City soon, which is very important to all major organizations in the world.
I assu you’re here for this reason as well.”
He paused, then continued, “Ordinarily, relic passages belong to local powers, but Rodan is located in a border area, closer to the World Tree headquarters than to Moonlight’s, and it’s not a peaceful place; we lack the strength to fully control the passage.”
He chuckled, “And as you know, Moonlight had a bit of a conflict with the Research Institute, resulting in damage to our frontline forces.
Our headquarters doesn’t have the resources to spare us right now,”
He fixed his gaze on He Ao, “Therefore, we now need the ‘support’ of a powerful individual.
As collaborators, we’re willing to let you manage one third of the final entry spots to the relic.”
“What Mr.
Hao Yi needs to do,” Daybreak said, “is to assist us in the event of a B-level outco.
“Of course, we have also considered your personal preferences, Mr.
Hao Yi, and you don’t need to worry about clashing with the Research Institute.
According to their long-standing strategy, they do not intervene in matters too distant from Central Earth, so it’s very unlikely that we will encounter their B-levels.”
“Of course, this is the offer we are making,” Rhodes smiled as he spoke, “If Mr.
Hao Yi has any other requests, you may also bring them up.
I believe we will ultimately co to an agreent that satisfies both parties.”
The conditions proposed by Rhodes were actually extrely generous.
With two B-levels from the World Tree, Rudel severely injured and likely still recuperating, as long as He Ao made an appearance to support Moonlight, it was highly probable that the World Tree wouldn’t send a B-level to directly confront them.
As long as Moonlight did not completely fall out with the World Tree, and their superficial alliance remained intact, Daybreak wouldn’t dare act rashly and would easily be caught between the World Tree and He Ao.
From Moonlight’s perspective, setting aside past grievances and collaborating with He Ao was a harmless move.
After all, the Moonlight headquarters had just lost a B-level and now completely lacked the ability to cross the ocean to provide support to Rodan.
When a B-level appeared in this dispute, Moonlight, which had a dominant position in Rodan, actually beca the weakest link.
Moonlight’s original plan was most likely to depend on a superficial peace with the World Tree; without deploying B-levels, both sides would share this artifact passage.
But the advent of He Ao, bringing a B-level directly into play, changed the situation.
What Rhodes ntioned about giving a third of the share to He Ao probably ant splitting the passage share into three: one for Moonlight, one for the World Tree, and one for He Ao.
This was the best way to unite everyone and form a community of vested interests, as well as to ensure Moonlight wasn’t forced out of the ga.
Of course, if He Ao truly got involved, the World Tree might not be able to claim a third of the share.
With a B-level involved and control over Rodan, Moonlight had a clear advantage and could thus afford to care less about the World Tree.
Moreover, from Moonlight’s perspective, Rhodes was likely considering the relationship between ‘Hao Yi’ and the Research Institute; drawing He Ao in was also a way to alleviate relations with the Research Institute to so extent.
Yielding so benefits in order to ensure their own ‘slice of the cake’ position was indeed a clever sche for Moonlight.
If the one proposing the collaboration were truly Moonlight,
“I have only one question, the one collaborating with , is it Moonlight, or”
He Ao looked at Rhodes, his hand resting on the back of the chair, a smile on his face, and his tone paused for a mont, “the Mysterious Shadow?”
Rhodes’s expression changed slightly as he looked at He Ao and chuckled softly, “Mr.
Hao Yi, what do you an by that?”
“In fact, until last night, I had always thought that the Puppeteer was the leader of the Primitive Sect’s Mysterious Shadow, and his actions seed to support that hypothesis.”
He Ao lowered his head and glanced at the wine glass on the table, “The Puppeteer’s right-hand woman, Miss Rose, beca the main force spreading the contamination; the entire World Tree’s Rodan branch beca a hotbed for contamination.
This easily led people to believe that the World Tree’s Rodan branch was the location of the Primitive Sect’s Mysterious Shadow and that the Puppeteer was the leader of this sect.”
The attendant holding a decanter ca over and poured half a glass of red wine into his cup.
Just then, his hand trembled, and so of the red wine spilled onto the table.
The attendant took out a towel wanting to clean up the spill, but was stopped by He Ao,
“No need.”
He Ao blocked the attendant and then continued to gaze at Rhodes,
“However, I found a footprint at the World Tree’s Rodan branch.
It was extrely faint, hidden within the shadows of darkness.
Had I not observed a bit more closely, I might have missed that footprint entirely.”
He Ao dipped his finger into the scattered crimson liquid on the table,
“This footprint ca from a powerful C-level, whose control over his strength was nearly perfect.
Clearly, he was there to ‘challenge’ or ‘show off’ to the World Tree.
That footprint aroused my curiosity at the ti.
Who would co to make a show of force at the World Tree’s branch, especially in recent tis?”
He Ao’s finger began to move across the table, tracing lines in the red wine that left marks on the pristine surface,
“The most critical aspect is that this footprint was fresh.
I’m unsure if it appeared before or after the World Tree’s Rodan branch was contaminated.
“However, at that ti, so doubts began to surface in my mind.
These doubts reached their peak during my battle with the Puppeteer when I didn’t see any trace of an ‘old acquaintance’ in the Puppeteer’s actions.
“Given the capabilities of my ‘acquaintance,’ it was inconceivable for him to be unable to locate the World Tree’s Rodan branch or identify the leader of the Primitive Sect.
I expected an ambush, but there was nothing.
“At that mont, I realized that there might be sothing amiss in my analysis.”
He Ao finished drawing a triangle on the table and looked up at Rhodes, continuing, “After that, I thought of sothing interesting, ‘Gade’.”
“When I killed Rose, the puppeteer, in order to save himself, abandoned the puppet body of Gade, which fell into the hands of ‘Moonlight.’ Then, later on, he retrieved this body completely intact.”
“All this may seem logical at first glance, but how did the puppeteer know that Moonlight was about to arrive?
You need to know, he abandoned the body at the start of the fight, and at that ti, your people hadn’t even appeared in my field of vision.”
“And why was he so confident that Moonlight wouldn’t damage Gade’s body, that they wouldn’t dissect Gade and then be able to retrieve the body smoothly?”
“Of course,” He Ao said with a smile, “you gave a perfect explanation, ‘There was a traitor within Moonlight,’ and then you used the traitor’s na to lock down the Rodan headquarters of Moonlight.”
“With the help of a traitor, the puppeteer managing all this would be logical, everything would make perfect sense, with no apparent flaws,”
He Ao lowered his head, his fingers once again touching a bit of red wine, continuing to paint on the pristine table,
“But just this morning, I revisited those places where the ‘murders’ had occurred and found that at so cri scenes, there were still polluted servant monsters active, and their behavior was very orderly, as if they were perfecting so sort of ritual.”
“In this world, Transcendents don’t really have a concept of the actual Divine Being, so they don’t know that Divine Beings generally do not manipulate the polluted servants.
The only ones who can control these servants are the ssengers of the Divine Beings on Earth, that is, the leaders of the Primitive Church.”
“And there’s a little-known fact in mysticism: the baseline strength required to fully receive an Oracle is usually ‘B-level.’ The puppeteer, although he has gained the power to control B-level strength, has not truly advanced to B-level, and the strength of his soul is not high enough either.
“That is to say, he is not yet capable of bearing the Oracle of the Mysterious Shadow.”
“Therefore, on the night when the power of the Mysterious Shadow descended and the Rodan division of the World Tree was polluted, there was another Transcendent present, the most powerful being there at the ti, who also received the most ‘Grace’ from the Mysterious Shadow, enabling him to successfully advance to B-level and thus be able to receive the Oracle.”
He Ao put the final touch with his finger, and a symbol with a triangle above and a cross below ca into being on the table, with an invisible force gathering within the air, making the symbol emit a faint glow.
He Ao looked up, smiling at Rhodes,
“Although the Rodan division of the World Tree is well hidden, finding it is not difficult for a Transcendent with the ability to explore the unknown, am I right?
Mr.
Mysterious Explorer, or should I say,”
he paused slightly in his tone, “Pope, sir?”
Rhodes’s face stiffened slightly.
In fact, it wasn’t just the above points that had led He Ao to confirm Rhodes’s identity.
He had also shown Rhodes’s portrait to the two thieves rescued from the World Tree division, which eventually confird Rhodes’s identity.
Of course, he was able to save the two thieves because he took the puppeteer by surprise; otherwise, the puppeteer certainly would not have left him a living witness.
The special symbol in front of He Ao shimred faintly, the sa emblem that had once been etched on the forehead of Leanna.
He Ao surmised that it was the mystical symbol pointing towards the Mysterious Shadow, which is why he drew it here.
The glowing symbol ant that the surrounding area was filled with a very strong Divine power, so much so that anything directed at the Divine would receive feedback.
At the sa ti, twisted, insane whispers flooded into He Ao’s mind.
For an ordinary Transcendent, in such a place, this symbol should not be drawn recklessly, as it is easy to beco contaminated.
But as for ntal resistance, He Ao had so, so he wasn’t worried about that.
“I’m sorry, Mr.
Hao Yi, I don’t really understand what you’re talking about, all this Mysterious Shadow, World Tree division, and mystical knowledge,”
After a very brief silence, Rhodes laughed in surprise, as though he were shocked by He Ao’s words and completely unable to grasp what He Ao was saying.
“So, destroying the ritual you built on the top floor doesn’t matter anymore?”
He Ao smiled and asked.
For the first ti, a significant change appeared on Rhodes’s face as he slowly stood up and said with a smile, “As the ‘Boss’ said, you really are a formidable opponent, and possess knowledge far beyond anyone else in this world.”
In that instant, his body crumbled into pitch-black shadows, and a cold voice echoed throughout the hall, “So, please do stay here forever.”
The staff who had been standing around now simultaneously turned their gaze to He Ao, their looks cold, like chanical puppets.
Rhodes summoned the mbers of Moonlight back to the headquarters not to search for a traitor but to assimilate all the Transcendents of Moonlight.
These people might have been implanted with the seed of corruption by Rhodes long ago to let it take root and grow within them.
It’s just that Rhodes had temporarily allowed them to retain their individual rationality, to behave like normal people, not attracting any suspicion of strangeness.
As the person in charge of Moonlight, Rhodes was the biggest traitor himself.
In retrospect, when Rhodes sent two other C-level mbers of Moonlight to attack He Ao’s main body, it was probably to use his hand, a man from the Research Institute, to weaken the combat capabilities of these two C-levels for better contamination.
It’s just that he didn’t expect both of the C-levels to be completely eliminated.
And the two new C-level mbers that Moonlight had just sent over might be too strong, and as there was too little ti, he could only contaminate one of them.
Therefore, he sent the other one out to investigate the World Tree.
When the Mysterious Shadow descends, that C-level would likely be on a path to certain death.
It must be said, the timing chosen by the Mysterious Shadow was very good, it contaminated the city’s top Transcendents in one fell swoop.
The three major Transcendent organizations in Eren City, Moonlight, World Tree, and Daybreak, or rather, the faction of the ‘Boss’ within Daybreak.
Moonlight and World Tree had been contaminated, and the ‘Boss’ didn’t care about the life and death of this city at all.
And this place was too far from Central Earth, the Research Institute couldn’t reach out here.
This was originally an unobstructed, dead-end situation.
The Mysterious Shadow would descend on top of the countless corpses in this city.
He Ao raised his hand, trying to summon the Velora, but the space around remained unresponsive.
A powerful force sealed the space, preventing the Velora from breaking through the space and entering this building.
However, this situation was also within He Ao’s expectations.
If Rhodes had a way to seal the space on the upper floors, he naturally had a way to seal this level as well.
Of course, what he was relying on was probably not so Transcendent Prop, but rather the power of the Mysterious Shadow.
In fact, He Ao didn’t know where the core location of Rhodes’s ritual was set up.
His last statent was, for the most part, a ‘bluff’ at Rhodes.
His basis for making inferences was that Rhodes had sealed the space in the upper floors, so the core location of the ritual would likely be on an upper floor, with a very high chance of being on the top floor, which was the furthest from the ground level.
So he directly voiced his guess and ‘bluffed’ Rhodes.
Of course, Rhodes’s big reaction was built upon the ticulous groundwork He Ao had laid earlier.
All his recent analysis, of how he had step by step discovered clues and ultimately confird Rhodes’s identity, had already built an image in Rhodes’s mind of soone who could see everything.
So when He Ao stated that Rhodes’s main body was on the top floor conducting the ritual, and he actually guessed correctly, that’s why Rhodes lost his composure and proceeded to take imdiate action.
If he were to really spend ti investigating the exact location of Rhodes’s ritual, it would likely take a lot of ti, and it might even alert Rhodes.
And now, He Ao didn’t have that much ti anymore.
So he had to take the risk and enter this building, using so verbal tricks along with observation and analysis to ferret out the real location.
Unfortunately, Rhodes’s presence here was just a transformation of a shadow; otherwise, He Ao would have just marked Rhodes directly.
Next, he had to find Rhodes’s main body performing the ritual on the top floor.
But to get to the top floor, he had to break through sothing first.
The dazzling lights shattered in an instant; those standing in the hall twisted into unspeakably terrifying shadows at that mont.
An eerie blackness enveloped everything, and chaotic whispers exploded in He Ao’s mind.
To quickly gain information, one must pay a price.
For example, by stepping into the trap that Rhodes had set for him.
A horrifying and chilling aura perated the entire hall, as if the earth itself was writhing.
He Ao slowly drew the Shadowless Sword belted at his waist.
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