Chapter 407

Chapter 407: Gloomy Shadows

The moment Yu Sheng said those words, Xuan Che nodded slowly. Half his face was grim, and the other half was blank.

Blank, because that half was still numb.

“Dark Angels. That’s the only shared interest that could tie two unrelated sides together,” Yu Sheng said, doing his best to ignore how Xuan Che’s twitching cheek kept betraying him and forcing his tone to stay serious. “Holy Revere Hermitage lay low for years, then suddenly stirred up trouble. The most direct reason is this.”

Xuan Che nodded again. “I heard about it from Master too. Those people of the evil path believe that by using the power of angel catalyst, they can ‘heal’ the universe. And aside from that thing, there’s probably nothing else in this world that could make those who call themselves saints lower themselves to cooperate with other forces.”

Once the clues clicked together, the blocked path of thought snapped open. Yu Sheng immediately built on it. “On the other hand, Yun Qing Zi vanished for a thousand years. Before he disappeared, the last time he showed himself to the world was near Shu Ji, fighting some unknown, terrifying enemy.”

He and Xuan Che looked at each other. In each other’s eyes, they saw the same answer.

Even Zheng Zhi, who’d been listening quietly, reacted. “You mean… the thing Yun Qing Zi fought back then was a Dark Angel?!”

“That’s very possible,” Xuan Che said heavily. “If it weren’t an enemy of that level, how could an ancient powerhouse like Yun Qing Zi—someone who lived through the era of Reforged Ages—fall so easily?

“After all, someone investigated that battlefield. They found fragments of remains after the spirit had been burned out… Under normal circumstances, even if a top expert loses, how could he lose like that?”

“But he didn’t die,” Yu Sheng said, brow tight. “And from the way Holy Revere Hermitage is cooperating with him now, back then he probably didn’t just ‘survive’…”

Zheng Zhi’s eyes went wide. He sucked in a sharp breath. “He has angel catalyst!”

“Is that possible?” Xuan Che’s numb half-face twisted with disbelief. “There are cases of surviving an encounter with Dark Angels, but after fighting one up close, surviving, and still being able to peel off fragments from it…”

His voice wavered. His gaze slid toward Yu Sheng.

“Don’t look at me.” Yu Sheng waved both hands at once. “My case isn’t a useful reference. And I’ve said it a hundred times—I didn’t actually fight Anka Aila. We had therapeutic dialogue. They chose to sleep, fully informed and completely willing…”

“Ahem.” Xuan Che coughed twice. “I know. I mean, since Mr. Yu exists as a ‘case,’ then peeling off angel catalyst from a Dark Angel isn’t completely impossible. If Yun Qing Zi from a thousand years ago truly fought a Dark Angel to mutual ruin… then he would have the ability now to cooperate with the Hermitage Order, and even send their great sage charging ahead for him.”

“It’s just that we don’t know what conditions Holy Revere Hermitage offered,” Yu Sheng said, rubbing his chin. “Cooperation means exchanging benefits. If what Yun Qing Zi can provide is angel catalyst, then what about the Hermitage Order? What can they give him?”

The room went quiet for a few seconds, until Immortal Yuan Hao spoke in an even tone. “For example, solving—or suppressing—the ‘hidden trouble’ left by a Dark Angel.”

Several gazes turned to Old Hunk at once.

“It’s an easy conclusion,” Immortal Yuan Hao continued calmly. “Based on the traces people found on that battlefield a thousand years ago, Yun Qing Zi’s battle must have been extremely brutal. Surviving a fight like that cannot come without a price. The fact that he did not return to the real world for a thousand years supports this.

“And the Hermitage Order has spent these years specifically studying Dark Angels. I’ve heard they even have an angel corpse as a sample. They must have achieved something in that area.”

“I agree with that guess,” Yu Sheng said slowly. He reorganized everything they knew, even as new questions crowded in. “So Yun Qing Zi and Holy Revere Hermitage’s cooperation is mostly clear. But what about Yun Qing Zi’s other target?

“What is the emperor lord relic he’s looking for? And why is he looking for it?”

“I have no clue.” Immortal Yuan Hao shook his head. “In the end, we don’t even know what the emperor lord relic is, let alone what it can do.”

“…What if it’s also to solve the hidden trouble left by a Dark Angel?” Xuan Che said after thinking it through, his expression grim. “The Hermitage Order acts in sinister ways. Their doctrine is extreme, and they have no morality or honesty toward outsiders. Someone as seasoned as Yun Qing Zi can’t fail to see that. Their cooperation probably isn’t very ‘sincere,’ so Yun Qing Zi must still be looking for another way to fix his own problem.

“That emperor lord relic might be a spell that can split heaven and earth, a divine armament peak that cuts time and space, or even an artifact that can reverse cause and effect. Otherwise it wouldn’t deserve such a name. Yun Qing Zi likely wants to use its power to completely remove the hidden trouble left from his battle with a Dark Angel.”

Xuan Che’s guess had no hard evidence, but the logic held. Yu Sheng felt it might not be that simple, yet he didn’t challenge it. After a moment, he said, “Everything we’ve guessed so far depends on one premise—that Yun Qing Zi fought a Dark Angel a thousand years ago and suffered major aftereffects. So what we need next is a way to confirm that premise.”

He paused, then continued, voice steady. “If Yun Qing Zi really encountered a Dark Angel back then, which ‘angel’ was it? And after all these years… where is that ‘angel’ now?”

“Is there another possibility,” Zheng Zhi said hesitantly, glancing between them, “that Yun Qing Zi won? Maybe that Dark Angel was completely destroyed.”

The moment he finished, both Xuan Che and Immortal Yuan Hao turned their eyes on him. Zheng Zhi shrank back on instinct. “I’m just suggesting it, okay? I only finished training recently. I’m not even officially hired yet… I’m just thinking, Brother Yu already triggered an ‘angel fall’ once, so Dark Angels aren’t invincible, right?”

“I understand what you mean, but honestly, the chance is low,” Xuan Che said after thinking, his voice heavy. “I won’t even talk about how strange and dangerous Dark Angels are. Just based on what we know now, once an angel fall happens, it should be impossible to hide.

“When Anka Aila died, there was a massive energy release. The sky lit up with an incredible spectacle. Afterward, it left behind huge amounts of strange remnants called Anka Aila crystals. The Shadowless Remains in the Hermitage Order’s possession was already a wreck when it was discovered, but there were also massive deposits of ‘minerals’ around it, and the site had a crater so big you could see it from space. Its fall must have been dramatic too.

“From that, we can infer that the death of a Dark Angel likely comes with enormous, even world-changing anomalies, and it will leave behind obvious remains. But on the battlefield where Yun Qing Zi disappeared, people didn’t find anything like that.”

“A thousand years ago…” Yu Sheng murmured, frowning. “Are there any records around Shu Ji from a thousand years ago—abnormal natural phenomena, mass mental contamination, that kind of thing?”

Xuan Che blinked. “You mean…?”

“The Special Operations Bureau has a lot of data and witness material on Dark Angels,” Yu Sheng said. “Maybe they can analyze old records of anomalies around Shu Ji and figure out which Dark Angel showed up here—if it really was one. When Dark Angels die, you can’t hide it. And when they descend, you can’t hide that either. Large-scale mental contamination, supernatural events, even the otherworld losing control… If a Dark Angel really appeared around here back then, those things would have come with it.”

Xuan Che pondered for a while, then spoke slowly. “That makes sense… but a thousand years ago, Shu Ji was still in the early stages of development. Aside from a few garrisons and settlements on the main planet, the surrounding moons and orbital platforms only had simple mechanical outposts at best. And the place where Yun Qing Zi fought that unknown enemy was an uninhabited planet near Shu Ji. Back then, it would have been a blind spot in surveillance. There probably aren’t any useful records.”

“An uninhabited planet near Shu Ji?” Yu Sheng frowned. “How far is it from here?”

“With an ordinary celestial ship, you can go there and back in a day,” Xuan Che said after thinking. “Do you want to go take a look?”

He hesitated, then added bluntly, “But forgive me for saying it… if you go now, you probably won’t find anything. That was a thousand years ago. Even if there was lingering aura on the battlefield and nobody noticed it at the time, after so long it should have dissipated. And if anything truly was left behind there, Yun Qing Zi and his allies would have cleaned it up. They wouldn’t leave it out in the open.”

“We can still go,” Yu Sheng said lightly. “It costs us nothing to make the trip. If this really involves Dark Angels, we can’t ignore any possible clue. Gathering intel is the most important step when dealing with a mechanics monster like that.”