Chapter 384

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Protagonist:

Lin En

Lena

At the entrance of the Bowl-shaped Valley, the Mechanical Priest's tracked base carved two deep grooves into the snow.

All available equipment had been deployed, the sensors' red light flickering uncertainly in the white expanse of wind and snow.

Two Silent Sisters spread out on the left and right, advancing slowly along the valley walls, their gazes beneath their hoods sweeping every inch of ice, trying to tease out a trace of psychic residue from the smoothed-over traces.

Dominic leaned against a leeward ice rock, rubbing the sapphire ring on his middle finger.

Three hours had passed.

Apart from the initial vague traces of energy impact and fragmented non-human gene fragments, they had found no more valuable clues.

The ice layer had been cleaned too thoroughly.

Like an endless downpour had wiped away all evidence in the valley.

Leaving only the outermost, most inconsequential fragments—just enough to prove "something happened here," but absolutely unwilling to reveal any specifics.

"Major General Adult."

The Mechanical Priest's electronic synthesized voice was distorted by the wind; he turned around, his optical lens dimming somewhat.

"Deep ice sample detection complete; energy residue has been artificially neutralized, gene fragments too scattered to complete sequence comparison."

"With existing equipment, it is very difficult to obtain more information."

Dominic's brow tightened further.

He had traveled a thousand li to the North Pole Ice Plain not to hear "cannot find out."

But the facts lay before him; the other party was clearly an expert at erasing traces, able to wipe clean the evidence of such a vast valley—definitely not something an ordinary force could do.

He raised his eyes toward the depths of the valley.

The wind and snow grew heavier, a white expanse obscuring vision; the bowl-shaped ice valley was like a silent giant eye, coldly watching the intruders.

His intuition told him the secrets hidden here were definitely connected to Keli Feng.

The timing half a year ago was too coincidental.

So coincidental that it was exactly the node when that young man parachuted into Brevis and became famous in the Forbidden Wall battle.

But without evidence, everything was just speculation.

"Sister Kasaduo stays behind to cooperate with the Priest in continuing the investigation."

After a long silence, Dominic finally spoke, his voice rising above the howling wind.

"Leave nothing in the valley unexamined; even a bit of metal debris or a piece of abnormal crystal must be reported to me immediately."

"Yes."

The Silent Sister on the left nodded slightly, with no extra words.

Dominic glanced once more at the bottomless valley, suppressed his irritation, turned, and mounted the Six-legged Ice Plain Beast.

The starport side needed someone.

The first batch of soldier sources was still under isolation observation, the second conscription had halted due to the Purge Plague Sect matter, the Bottom City situation was turbulent, and the Saint Galus Family side was also rife with undercurrents.

As Highest Commander of the Tithe Fleet, he could not spend too much time on this desolate ice plain.

The beast strode on its sturdy six limbs, treading thick snow as it ran back the way they came.

The wind and snow soon buried the footprints behind them, as if no one had ever come to this silent valley.

When he returned to the starport, the sky had already darkened.

On the bridge of the James Tong, Deputy Officer Karen was already waiting at the elevator entrance, her face showing a rare urgency.

"Major General Adult, you're back."

"What happened?" Dominic removed his ice-crumb-covered cloak, tossed it to a nearby guard, and asked while walking.

"The Brewis Governor's Office has mobilized troops." Karen followed quickly, her tone grave.

"Governor Kerry, in the name of 'Regent Luna of Saint Galus colluding with Chaos and setting up a heretical sacrificial altar,' has mobilized thirty thousand Vanguard Army main forces."

"Plus Regent Lei Ou's private army, they are besieging Saint Galus Castle."

"Now the western part of Upper City is entirely under martial law, and the Bottom City cult cleanup operation has also been upgraded simultaneously."

Dominic's footsteps paused.

Luna?

He had an impression of that name—the Regent of the Saint Galus Family, a representative figure of Brevis's old nobility.

At the welcome banquet upon his arrival in Brevis, the other party had sent a collateral branch descendant to attend, but the person themselves had not appeared.

He and this woman had never met, had no connection whatsoever.

But for some reason, the moment he heard that name, he subconsciously thought of those two anonymous letters.

Exquisite parchment, precise intelligence, step by step guiding him to discover the Purge Plague Sect's secrets, guiding him to suspect Keli Feng.

The letter writer knew the situation in Brevis like the back of their hand and had a perfect grasp of his personality.

Why did he always feel that all of this seemed inseparably connected to this Regent?

"Understood." He continued walking toward the command room, his tone as flat as if saying something unimportant.

"Brevis's local internal affairs are for them to handle; our core mission is the Tithe—do not interfere."

"But Adult," Karen hesitated somewhat.

"Regent Luna is after all a noble ennobled by the Empire, and Governor Kerry has directly mobilized troops in the name of colluding with Chaos."

"Is it... too hasty? What if there are hidden circumstances inside?"

"Whether there are hidden circumstances or not is a matter for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Tribunal."

Dominic sat in the command chair, his gaze falling on the reclamation progress bar for Dolido Planet on the star map.

"Since Keli Feng dares to act openly, he must have evidence in hand that can substantiate the charges."

"Even if he doesn't, once he's done fighting, the charges will exist."

Struggles within the Empire have always been this way; as long as the soldier source handed over in the end has no problem, as long as Brevis's order can be stabilized, it's all the same who's in charge.

As for whether Luna truly colluded with Chaos...

Dominic's eyes dimmed slightly.

His intuition told him this woman was not simple; even if she hadn't completely defected to Chaos, her hands were not necessarily clean.

"Pass the order down, the fleet maintains Level One alert." He finally ordered.

"Tighten control of the starport entrances and exits, do not allow any faction from the castle side to approach."

"They fight theirs, we do ours, no interference with each other."

"Yes, Adult."

Karen acknowledged the order and withdrew.

The command room fell quiet again, Dominic gazed at the brightly lit Upper City District outside the porthole, sinking into contemplation.

He had a premonition that this storm would not stop at Saint Galus Castle.

The secrets on Keli Feng would absolutely not be limited to just one Purge Plague Sect.

Early the next morning, just as dawn broke, Dominic once again set foot on the road to the North Pole Ice Plain.

That bit of curiosity in his heart scratched at him like a cat's claw; if he didn't dig out some clues to the valley's secret, he would never feel at ease.

This time, he brought only one Sister, traveling light and simple, heading straight for that bowl-shaped valley.

Just as he arrived at the valley entrance, the Silent Sisters on guard duty came up to meet him; on their usually expressionless faces, there was actually a trace of gravity.

"The Priest has a discovery."

She quickly made a gesture, then turned and led the way.

Upon hearing this, Dominic's spirits lifted, and he immediately followed.

Deep in the valley, the Mechanical Priest was crouching on a patch of cleared ice surface, tank tracks retracted.

His lower mechanical limbs braced in the snow, his upper precision mechanical hands carefully fiddling with something.

Seeing Dominic approach, he raised his head, optical lenses brightening a few degrees.

"Major General Adult, there is progress."

"Speak."

"Sister Kasaduo confirmed, the precise time point of the psionic shock was seven months and twelve days ago by the Imperial Calendar, with an error margin not exceeding fifteen days."

The Mechanical Priest's electronic voice carried a trace of rigor unique to research personnel,

"I retrieved nearly ten years of meteorological data for the Brevis North Pole Icefield, calculated the area's average annual snowfall and ice accumulation rate, and reverse-deduced the depth of the ice layer surface half a year ago."

He extended a mechanical hand, pointing at the neatly cut ice cross-section beneath his feet.

The cross-section showed clear stratification, ice patterns of varying depths like tree rings marking the traces of time.

At a depth of about one meter, there was a boundary layer he had specially stained.

"This is the snow surface layer from half a year ago." The Mechanical Priest explained.

"Most residual matter would be covered by snowfall, remaining on this layer."

"The other side cleaned up biological traces, but could not change the natural law of snow coverage."

Dominic crouched down, fingers brushing over that ice layer boundary, the icy touch transmitting through his gloves.

He had to admit, the Mechanical Priest's line of thinking was correct.

No matter how thoroughly the scene was cleaned, traces would always be left on the environment at that time.

"What was found?"

"Three samples."

The Mechanical Priest carefully used tweezers to pick up three extremely small objects, placed them in a transparent sampling dish, and pushed it before Dominic.

The first piece was a gray-black gravel fragment the size of a sesame seed.

The second piece was a pale blue gemstone fragment smaller than a grain of rice, with a flat fracture surface showing obvious artificial cutting facets, refracting fine light.

The third piece was likewise a gray gravel fragment, and of the same material as the first.

"Flint." The Mechanical Priest indicated the two gravel fragments.

"And they bear traces of repeated grinding, typical characteristics of primitive stone tools, used for making spearheads, arrowheads, and such weapons."

"This fragment is Blue Crystal, cut and polished, should be a necklace, headdress, or such ornament."

Dominic looked at the items in the sampling dish, pupils contracting slightly.

Stone tools, ornaments.

Among the human groups on the ice plains, only one kind of people would use such primitive objects.

"Ice Plains Wildmen." He softly spat out four words.