<h4>Chapter 1386: The Mysterious yer</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    The secrets regarding the demon hunters or Ancients, those super-humans created by the mage emperors of Holletta were not what Hao Ren had expected. He initially thought that these super life forms were just experimental beings who stole the authority of the goddess at best. Whoever they were, it would not go beyond theary system of Holletta. The truth that these demon hunters were involved directly in the deicidal war was shocking. Even though they knew nothing about the war, their souls, flesh, and existence were inextricably linked to it. They were imnted in themunicationwork of the goddess of creation as a Trojan virus without them realizing. Through the divine signature code that the demon hunters carried, the “virus” sessfully deceived the recognition mechanism of thework and secretly reced all the ascending nodes. When the deicidal war broke out, on the eve of the goddess’ death, the connection between the Star of Creation and the mortal world was wholly cut off. No one ever thought that the root cause of thework failure came from a barbaric in the remote region of the universe.


    “The mastermind seems to know the goddess of creation well—incredibly well.” A chill ran up Hao Ren’s spine. The guy who could plot against a true god was a considerable threat. This “third force” was more dangerous than all the opponents he had seen before. The god killers were mighty and ambitious, but they were mere tools to be discarded once the job was done. Lockmarton was powerful and strange, but he was just a mad demigod. Even the Mad Lord, the powerful primordial creature, was just an irrational phenomenon. Those without a thinking mind could not have conspired. It was not difficult to deal with an opponent that did not know how to plot. But this mysterious mastermind almost had everything under its control. It could even manipte the true God, understand the goddess of creation well, and carry out various sabotage ns before the goddess could even react. The fact that this mysterious enemy still remained in the dark was disturbing.


    Raven 12345 slowly nodded. “That guy knew the goddess of creation well. Let us summarize what we have known so far. First of all, it knew all the details of the deicidal war, and maybe, was one of the conspirators. So it could carry out the ns wlessly, especially it had obtained the runic skills of the deicide. Secondly, the mastermind was not a member of the deicide because its actions had exceeded what the deicide could do in terms of intelligence gathering. At least it could obtain the divine power sample of the goddess of creation, which the killer could not. Thirdly, the mastermind knew the goddess of creation extremely well, even more than the guardians could. It knew in advance that the goddess of creation would contact her people in the universe, so it had the demon hunters blocking themunicationwork. From this, we know that this mastermind also knew well about thework—the architecture and how it worked—so that it could rece the critical nodes of thework. Finally, the mastermind had never revealed itself during the deicidal war. At least you would not find its activity in the records of the war survivors. There are only two exnations to this: it either hide so well that no one was aware of the existence of a behind-the-scenes ‘yer,’ or it had been standing in front of everyone from the beginning. The guardians and the goddess of creation knew the existence of it, but no one knew its true colors and suspected it.”


    Hao Ren frowned when Raven 12345 mentioned thest point. “You mean...”


    “I guess this ‘third force’ was someone close to the goddess of creation. It had been on the Star of Creation all the while.”


    While speaking, Raven 12345 wrote words and drew lines in the air. She listed all the clues and categorized them into a well-organized grid. All the lines pointed to her conclusion.


    Below the conclusion, she drew a few more lines for more notes:


    “The First Born was the signal ry station for themunication between the goddess of creation and her people. Every with a god-made ecosphere had at least one First Born. This First Born was themunication antenna, and also the physical node of themunicationwork.”


    “The recement of thework node with the Trojan virus essentially overrode the rights of transmission and reception of the signal of the First Born. The primordial demon hunters were imnted into the informationwork like a virus. This imntation required higher ess permission.”


    “The pollution happened in the mentalwork between the First Borns. The mentalwork between the First Borns and themunicationwork used by the goddess to contact the lower nodes were physically the same.”


    “After the end of the deicidal war, all First Borns showed a tendency of insanity, which was also a kind of pollution.”


    “The mastermind was quite familiar with the mentalwork of the First Borns. It might even have a very high degree of authority in thework—enough to allow the fake nodes formed by the primordial demon hunters to be imported into the normalmunication sequence.”


    “The modifications made to thework by the mastermind had evaded the eyes of the goddess of creation, and even the detection of the guardians and the First Borns who were thework nodes. This is the most difficult part to exin.”


    Raven 12345 listed all the conclusions, conjectures, preconditions, and contradictions. She then stopped and turned her head around slightly. “Hao Ren, look. The mastermind has done many things, most of which could only bepleted on the Star of Creation. Besides, it also needed to be in constant contact with the guardians and the goddess to do so. So we can conclude that—”


    “That guy is hiding in in sight.” After reading the analysis, Hao Ren already had his own conclusion.


    “Yup, that guy was around the goddess of creation. The guardians surely knew it.” Light shed in Raven 12345’s eyes. “The behavior of the goddess of creation suggested that she had no idea what this guy was doing. Otherwise, her distress call at thest moment would not have been sabotaged. So the mastermind had enough time to fiddle thework of the First Borns, collude with the deicide, steal the Tablet of Commandments, and contact the Holletta civilization behind the back of the goddess and guardians. It must have a very high degree of freedom on the Star of Creation and been in frequent contact with the control center of the First Bornwork. I think Muru should be able to provide you with some intelligence in this respect.”


    “That is enough.” Hao Ren felt his brain was pulsating. The short conversation was even more tiring than arguing with Raven 12345 for three hours. “I want to know where the mastermind is now. Since it is such a capable character, how could it simply be blown up in the explosion at the end of the deicidal war?”


    “That depends on whether the falling of the Kingdom of God into the Umbral Realm was part of its n.” Raven 12345’s eyebrows twitched. “The big bang of the divine realm could be the only thing in the deicidal war that no one had foreseen. If the mastermind could foresee it, then it must be still lurking in the ne of Dreams. Otherwise, it must have fallen into the Umbral Realm together with the Star of Creation.”


    Hao Ren scratched his chin in thought. He then looked up. “I think the second scenario is more probable. Since the death of the goddess of creation, this mastermind has never been active again. I have been conducting arge-scale investigation in the ne of Dreams, but this mysterious guy has never shown up. Most likely it has fallen into the Umbral Realm with the Star of Creation.”


    “Most likely it is still alive.” Raven 12345 sighed.


    “Yeah, most likely, and probably the most troubling too.”


    Hao Ren was sure that the Star of Creation and the surrounding divine realm did not vanish after falling into the Umbral Realm. He came to this conclusion after examining the data he had collected in the Gate of Solenne. The Star of Creation and the divine realm still existed but in a distorted state. They could return to the real world when the right conditions were present. If the mastermind had also fallen into the Umbral Realm, it was most likely alive, which must be taken into consideration.


    “You have to be prepared because we are not sure about the situation in the Umbral Realm. All the more so when we are not sure if the mysterious enemy has changed in the past 10,000 years. So we should expect the worst.” Raven 12345 reminded. When Hao Ren nodded in acknowledgment, she continued. “That is all about it for now. The examination ispleted. Those volunteers will be restored to their original state soon. But before this, I am interested in the ‘divine burstwork’ that you have found in the ne of Dreams.”


    “Oh, I havepiled the information.”


    Hao Ren had expected it. So he hadpiled the data of the divine burstwork into a report while on the return journey. He took out the MDT and uploaded the data directly to Raven 12345’s mental link.


    “Is this all?” Raven 12345 brought up a virtual screen, showing the image of the divine burstwork. “It doesn’t lookplete.”


    “Thework may have covered the entire observable universe of the ne of Dreams. My drone cluster is still unable to determine its boundaries—”


    “No.” Raven 12345 interrupted him. “What I mean by iplete is not of the physical structure, but the ‘software’ of thiswork. The process of proliferation and transmission of information is not quite right.”


    “Should I pretend that I understand this time?” Hao Ren said after thinking for a moment.


    “You seem to have inherited my shameless attitude.” Raven 12345 squinted at Hao Ren. “Don’t interrupt, I’m serious. Something is wrong with the datawork although I can’t tell what it is. My intuition tells me that part of its operating system has been hidden or stripped off. And it was a deliberate action.”