Chapter 1730: Seeing Qingyan Again

Two figures, one black and one red, were silent in the Gray World.

Chen Ling looked at the Liu Qingyan before his eyes, complexity flashing through his eyes... To him, the last time he saw Liu Qingyan seemed to be yesterday, but to Liu Qingyan, they hadn't seen each other for more than three hundred years.

The current Liu Qingyan was no longer that somewhat green young girl. Her posture was taller than before, and her features were also more mature. Her gaze revealed a calmness and profoundness polished by time. In a trance, there unexpectedly was a bit of the previous generation Grey King's shadow.

In the more than three hundred years of time, she seemed to have changed a lot, but what remained unchanged from beginning to end was only that star yarn-like black dress, and the figure of Chen Ling reflected in her eyes.

Chen Ling knew that from the moment he stepped out of the Red Dust Prison, Liu Qingyan had arrived.

But she didn't show herself immediately, instead silently following behind. She hid herself in nothingness, looking at the back of the theatrical robe that appeared again after more than three hundred years, her face covered in tears...

She originally wanted to wait for her mood to calm down a bit more, at least not cry anymore, before appearing in front of Chen Ling... Not having seen him for more than three hundred years, she didn't want to still be weeping when she saw Chen Ling again.

She was now the Grey King of the Dusk Society after all, she couldn't be so childish anymore.

But who knew... Chen Ling still called out her name.

Chen Ling looked at the black-dressed woman whose face was covered in tears, softly opening his mouth, "These years... you've worked hard."

Chen Ling could imagine that from rebooting the world until now, Liu Qingyan must have been waiting for him the whole time, just like the other Eight Monarchs.

With his absence, the heavy burden of the entire Dusk Society entirely fell on Liu Qingyan alone. It was hard to imagine how this young girl with shallow qualifications and strength walked through the more than three hundred years of time all alone when he wasn't here...

And when he returned again after more than three hundred years, the first one to appear before him was still Liu Qingyan.

Liu Qingyan's eyes were reddened. She shook her head without hesitation:

"It wasn't hard..."

"This is all what I ought to do."

Chen Ling helped her up from the ground. The latter looked up, once again meeting Chen Ling's gaze. A trace of hesitation flashed through her gaze... But after hesitating for a long time, she still asked probingly:

"Red King, My Lord... Will you... still leave?"

Chen Ling was startled for a moment.

"I won't." He answered firmly. "These more than three hundred years were an accident... Since I've already returned, I won't leave again."

Liu Qingyan breathed a sigh of relief as if relieved of a heavy burden.

"These years, did everything go smoothly?"

"...It was okay." Liu Qingyan calmed her mood and said methodically,

"At the current point in time, most of the original Dusk Society members haven't grown up yet, so the formal member recruitment hasn't started... But these more than three hundred years, I have always been planting informants and setting up hidden intelligence strongholds within the major prisons. Currently, there are about three hundred unofficial personnel. Purely in terms of intelligence penetration, we have already far exceeded the Chengtian Domain's control over the major prisons."

"However, there is still some gap from the intelligence network of the Dusk Society in the 5th generation world..."

Liu Qingyan's lips pursed slightly, lowering her head somewhat guiltily:

"After Ying Fu controlled the major domains, he began to vigorously push the 'Fixed Household Checked Name System' system. Every person in every prison of every domain needs to make regular identity records, and he strictly controls the domain trains. Every person riding the train also has to be checked in detail... Therefore, the expansion of the intelligence network is extremely difficult."

"If I hadn't already spread the intelligence network and set up hidden pieces in the major bases more than three hundred years ago, staying one step ahead of him, I'm afraid we wouldn't even be able to achieve one-tenth of the current scale..."

"In short, the intelligence network we currently have is already the limit of what I can achieve accumulated over so many years."

The gaze Chen Ling looked at Liu Qingyan with was somewhat surprised.

Chen Ling had long anticipated Ying Fu's methods. After all, he was that rumored Emperor of the ages, this aspect was precisely his strong suit... But he didn't expect that Liu Qingyan could actually abruptly spread such a massive intelligence network right under Ying Fu's nose.

Even if the current intelligence network wasn't as good as the 5th generation world, but one must know, this time was a hellish difficulty opening.

To be able to achieve this step, Liu Qingyan was already considerably formidable.

"According to Ying Fu's methods, aren't those Dusk Society members of ours who haven't grown up yet already under the supervision of the Chengtian Domain?" Chen Ling frowned tightly. "If that's the case, wanting to absorb them into the Dusk Society in the future, I'm afraid it will be considerably difficult..."

"Red King, My Lord, set your mind at ease. I've already made preparations in advance." Liu Qingyan answered with a smile,

"Aside from a few individual members, a few years ago I already used the intelligence network to locate the home locations of the other members in advance. Since before they were born, there has been an intelligence squad of at least five people secretly serving them..."

"For every single one of them, starting from birth, the intelligence registered on the Chengtian Domain's side was secretly tampered with by us. As long as we want to, we can make them disappear from the Chengtian Domain's field of vision at any time."

This early layout by Liu Qingyan made Chen Ling look at her with even more newfound respect. One must know that with so many Dusk Society members, wanting to trace back to the source and find out their locations before they were born was absolutely not an easy task...

Not to mention, she also had to ensure she could deceive the Chengtian Domain at all times. Liu Qingyan's layout could be said to have laid the foundation for the future development of the Dusk Society.

"Aside from a few individual members... what does that mean?"

Liu Qingyan was silent for a moment, answering truthfully, "The development trajectory of the world this time has some differences from the previous world. A portion of the members in this world... perhaps won't even be born at all."

Chen Ling was startled for a moment, subsequently nodding slightly.

The changes in the world line would inevitably trigger a series of chain reactions. Some people from the previous world fundamentally wouldn't be born here, and in this world, there would also be many more people who didn't exist in the previous world.

"Right, since you set up an intelligence network in the major bases in advance... then regarding the Red Dust Base encountering a nuclear strike back then, how much do you know?" Chen Ling seemed to have remembered something.

Liu Qingyan's expression instantly became serious.

"This matter... I indeed know."

"Moreover, in the 5th generation world, Master and I actually also investigated the events of that year. Once we thought the one who launched the nuclear strike on the Red Dust Base was the Lord of Wuji Lou Yu, but through my investigation this time, I found the facts are not so..."

"The ones who attacked the Red Dust Base was an organization of the Path of the Witch God that existed since before the Great Cataclysm. They came from overseas. Back then when the Gray World intersected and Calamities attacked Earth, they also followed the overseas refugees and infiltrated our bases..."

"They, called themselves the [Alchemist Association]."