The deal location agreed by Han Xiao and Oathkeeper was a certain transit station planet in the Flickering Worldâs Dawn Star Cluster.
Feidin was appointed as the deal emissary, representing the army to wait and meet with the Holy Accord organizationâs emissary there. The entire process would be monitored by Han Xiao from the headquarters.
Oathkeeper had also used spiritual projection long ago to meet with Han Xiao. The two of them both maintained communication to ensure that this deal would be carried out smoothly, clearly showing sincerity. Inside the office, a virtual screen hovered on the table and played the footage from the surveillance camera. Inside the footage was a prosperous area with a lot of people. Feidin stood beside the wall of a building wearing a mask, looking at the pedestrians passing by. The Holy Accord emissary had yet to arrive at the designated location.
âWhen will your man arrive? Weâve been waiting for almost two hours.â Han Xiao leaned back in his seat and looked at the screen with boredom.
âSoon.â
âYouâve said that seven times already.â
â... Really soon this time.â A while after, a man also in disguise finally appeared on the screen carrying a silver alloy suitcase. He walked right toward Feidin. The two of them met, but neither carried on to the next step.
âIs he the emissary?â Han Xiao asked.
âThatâs right. What you wantâs in the suitcase.â Han Xiao nodded, contacted Feidin, and told him to exchange the item. Oathkeeper also used his ability to give the same order. The two people on the screen received the order and exchanged the items right away, then backed off a few steps to check them. An armor suddenly appeared on Feidinâs body, shrouding both him and the suitcase. The next moment, with a flash of light, he disappeared right on the spot and suddenly appeared in Han Xiaoâs office.
âHereâs the stuff.â
The armor opened up, and Feidin placed the suitcase on Han Xiaoâs table. This was the King mechanical suit Han Xiao had temporarily lent to Feidin. The Throne was in his hands to ensure he would take the item right after the deal was completed.
Han Xiao opened the suitcase, and cold air flew out. Inside were two cylindrical containers that contained two clusters of Primal Esper Ability Entities. One was green, and the other was blue. There was also a data storage device beside the two containers. Han Xiao turned it on and looked at it. It stored the data for two Gold blueprints. Everything Oathkeeper had promised in the deal was there. This time, a notification also popped up on the interface.
Primal Esper Ability Entities Acquired: 4/4
[Primal Esper Ability Collector] Milestone requirements met.
Effects: When you fight Espers, all your attributes will increase slightly. -12% to 20% damage received from Espers. You have received 1 (The Third Sanctum) Ability Fragment.
The mission is completed, which means these two were real.
Han Xiao was relieved. He waved at Feidin.
âGo back.â
The three-minute duration had yet to end. He activated the King again and sent Feidin back to the location of the deal.
Oathkeeper turned and looked over. âBlack Star, how is it?â
âHmm, there are no problems. What about you?â
âWhat you gave me was indeed part of the Holy Light Particle.â
Han Xiao raised his brows and extended his hand.
âSo... nice deal?â Although Oathkeeperâs spiritual projection had no physical form, he still made the gesture to shake Han Xiaoâs hands and said, âNice deal.â
The next moment, the Holy Accord emissary on the screen seemed to have activated some device and disappeared all of a sudden. âOh? Your man fled really quick. Are you that worried about me?â Han Xiao asked with a joking tone. âCaution is a necessity.â Oathkeeper did not deny it.
Seeing that his emissary had followed the plan strictly and left the scene, Oathkeeper finally heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed his tense nerves.
This deal was extremely important for the Holy Accord, and he was worried about a lot of things. Most importantly, he was worried about Black Star not fulfilling their agreement and attempting to chase the Holy Accord emissary by any means necessary. Now it looked like Black Star had no such plan, and the deal was carried out smoothly. With the Holy Light Particle, the success rate of opening the Third Sanctum would basically reach their expected percentage. Oathkeeper suppressed his excitement and said, âI will remember Your Excellency Black Starâs generosity. Since the deal is complete, itâs time for me to leave.â
Every time he made contact with people like Black Star, it was a risk. The more he spoke, the more information he might leak.
Luckily, there was no need to ever make contact with Black Star anymore in the future. All Oathkeeper wanted to do now was immediately turn off the spiritual projection and never meet Han Xiao ever again.
Since Oathkeeper had always contacted Han Xiao using the method of spiritual projection, this meant that only he could contact Black Star while Black Star could not contact him. As long as he never contacted Black Star ever again, Black Star would never have the chance to see him in the future. At this time, Han Xiao suddenly smiled and said, âDonât be in such a rush. Who knows when we will meet again? Letâs chat for a while. Also, I have some questions Iâd like to ask you before you leave.â Oathkeeperâs heart skipped a beat. Oh, come on, why do you have questions again? You asking questions make me panic, every time! Oathkeeper tried to be patient and said with a cautious tone, â... Ask on then. Iâll answer as much as possible.â Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and smiled faintly.
Just like Oathkeeper, he had nothing to worry about now that he already had what he wanted from the deal.
After he acted like he was pondering for a few seconds, he decided to start from the questions that would probably shock Oathkeeper the least. âDo you... know about Destinyâs Child?â Oathkeeperâs eyes turned around, and his entire body became stiff.
Animal! What have you discovered again? He started into Han Xiaoâs eyes, hoping to figure out what he was thinking. However, Black Starâs clear eyes were filled with sincerity, as if he was really just asking casually. Unable to calm his emotions down, Oathkeeper suppressed his shock and asked, âWhy are you suddenly asking me? Did something happen?â
âWell, thereâs no need to hide it really. I once met a special individual who called himself Destinyâs Child. Sadly, he died in a nuclear explosion. Then, not long ago, I came across a similar individual. After some investigations, I discovered that there seems to be a Primal Esper Ability called Destinyâs Child that exists in the universe. It seems to be able to transform some life forms into special sub-bodies. You guys happen to be the experts in studying Primal Esper Abilities, so I came to consult you.â
âThatâs it?â
âWhat else? But from the way you reacted, your Holy Accord organization seems to know quite a lot of things.â Han Xiao sized Oathkeeper up and wondered, âCould it be that Destinyâs Child is in your hands? The way your emissary disappeared earlier does seem similar to Information Form-related technology. That was invented by you guys too, wasnât it?â
Oathkeeper was having a headache. He regretted his overreaction earlier. It was like he was infected with Black Star PTSD.
âItâs not, nonsense.â
âReally?â
âNope.â Oathkeeper denied it completely. âAlright then, I donât really care if itâs in your hands I just want to know some information. You guys specialize in studying Primal Esper Ability Entities, so you guys definitely know something, or you wouldnât have asked me back earlier.â Han Xiao tapped on the table, his tone casual. He looked like he believed what Oathkeeper said, but actually, he was about sixty percent sure that Destinyâs Child was in the Holy Accordâs hands from Oathkeeperâs reaction. Nonetheless, Oathkeeper would certainly not admit to it, so the Great Mechanic Han decided to not continue asking. The most important thing was to ask about the mechanisms of Destinyâs Child.
Oathkeeper pondered with resignation, selected some information, and said, âDestinyâs Child is a very ancient Primal Esper Ability. We donât know much about it either. Most of what we know came from the other Primal Esper Ability Entities. Itâs said that Destinyâs Childâs ability is related to the changes of Information Form and strings of fate, and it has an unbelievably powerful foresight ability. âStrings of fate are also called âcause and effectâ in some cultures. Like a huge net, if you touch one of the strings, the vibrations will certainly pass onto more strings. Therefore, every time it uses its ability, Destinyâs Child will have to read a lot of information and carry out an analyzing process similar to computing large groups of data. It is able to calculate the various possibilities and results that a certain event can produce, then use that to foresee the future.
âIn this process, in order to read the so-called strings of fate, it will release special Information Form particles to collect information, and these particles will often cause information state disturbances. They will produce partial projections of themselves in random information bodies, take over part of their information, and that is how the sub-bodies are born. The targets are mostly life forms.
âSome Primal Esper Ability Entities say that Destinyâs Child can turn into a High Dimensional Information Form. If it doesnât want to be discovered, no one can discover it. That is why no one had been able to capture it even till now... Therefore, you having met two sub-bodies is purely because you were lucky.â Han Xiaoâs eyes sparkled, and his thoughts spun quickly. The information of Destinyâs Child Oathkeeper provided was almost identical to the mechanisms he had speculated it would have. However, he felt that Destinyâs Childâs ability did not stop there. Just foresight? Probably not! Since Destinyâs Child could produce sub-bodies, could it produce something else? Or even change the direction the strings of fate would take? There were many forms of the so-called âinformation state disturbanceâ, even physical mirages. Han Xiao did not forget how the Domino Virus that caused the Intelligent Plague appeared. In Version 1.0, the information he obtained from the Germinal Organization said that the ability of their Destinyâs Child was âinfluenceâ over the future, not just âforeseeingâ the future. Han Xiao once thought it was only because the natives were not knowledgeable enough, but now that he thought about it, that might not have been a misunderstanding. Han Xiao asked a few more questions, to which Oathkeeper said he did not know, clearly not willing to expose more information.
Seeing this, Han Xiao had no choice but to change the topic. He narrowed his eyes and casually said, âBy the way, last time you told me about how your spiritual projection ability works. After that, I did some research. There seems to be a Primal Esper Ability called Soul Flame that fits what you said.â
Hearing this, it seemed like this was no secret. Oathkeeper surprisingly nodded and said directly, âThatâs right. Iâm the master of Soul Flame.â
âHmm, I did some further research following this information, and it seems like the last Soul Flame master in the universe was a Beyond Grade A Esper nicknamed Soul Emperor. His name was Rovell Sissock... Do you happen to know him?â
Then, Han Xiao stared closely at Oathkeeper, wanting to see every slight reaction he had. However, Oathkeeper did not look surprised at all this time and said, âIâve heard about him too, but I donât know him.â
Han Xiao frowned in his mind. Unlike the question about Destinyâs Child, Oathkeeper did not have any strange reaction to this question. He did not know if this was because Oathkeeper was completely mentally prepared about it, or Oathkeeper did not care about his identity being exposed, or he guessed wrong and Oathkeeper was not that Soul Emperor who might have faked his own death. Han Xiao then asked, âSince Soul Flame once spent time with this master, it must know more. Help me ask it then...â
Han Xiao felt weird as soon as he asked this. It sounded like asking a man to ask his current girlfriend about how her ex-boyfriend was.
âAbout what?â Oathkeeper did not agree nor disagree. âHmm, Iâm very curious about after Soul Emperor died, who took Soul Flame, and how did you obtain it?â
Oathkeeperâs tone became slightly more serious, and he said, âDonât you think these questions are too personal?â
âAs a man of science, is it wrong for me to be curious?â Han Xiao used a very justifiable excuse. Oathkeeper shook his head with resignation and said, âAlright, I know youâre curious about who I am, and you think Iâm Soul Emperor or one of the Beyond Grade As who killed Soul Emperor back then and took Soul Flame. But youâve guessed wrong. Iâm none of them. I did not rob Soul Flame from anyone. When I met it, it was already free, and it took me some effort to acquire it.â
âThen can you help me to ask it, what did it experience after Soul Emperor died?â Han Xiao then asked.
â...Itâs not willing to say.â Oathkeeper shook his head. He suddenly paused for a moment before saying, âHowever, it told me that Soul Emperor did not die in battle. Since youâve already looked at information about him, I wonât go into detail. Anyway, during Soul Emperorâs last battle, his body was indeed destroyed. However, due to the specialty of his Esper Ability, his soul did not die and escaped. As for where he went, Soul Flame has no idea either.â
Han Xiao pondered. He did not know if what Oathkeeper was true, but from his tone and the content, it did not seem like a
lie.
In Han Xiaoâs previous life, Soul Emperor did not revive, which meant that there was a very high possibility he was still alive. If Oathkeeper was not Soul Emperor, then who was? Could it be that he had run into the secondary dimensions and was never able to come back?
âDo you have any other questions? If not, I shall leave.â
Oathkeeper was getting impatient.
He did not want to continue chatting with Han Xiao. He had more important things to do now. All his mind was focused on the awakening ceremony. The promise of many years was finally going to be fulfilled, so he did not want to wait another second.
To him, chatting with Han Xiao for a while was already very respectful, or he would have directly deactivated the projection and left right after the deal was complete. He would never come into contact with him again in the future anyway, so he did not mind being rude. âAlright, you do indeed have more important things to do. I wonât delay you.â Han Xiao stood up, did a farewell gesture, and deliberately sighed. âSigh, buddy, I have quite a good impression of you. After you leave this time, god knows when youâll contact me again. I wonât say much. When you revive the Primordial Ones, remember to send my regards to them.â
Oathkeeperâs movement to deactivate the spiritual projection stiffened in an instant.
The entire spiritual projection suddenly trembled like radio noise, which represented the extreme emotional turbulence Oathkeeper was going through. The sudden shock made Oathkeeperâs spiritual frequency lose balance, so much so that he suddenly lost full control of his ability! He opened his eyes wide with disbelief.
How can you possibly know about our top secret?
I have already investigated all the upper echelons. There are no spies at all!
When this thought appeared, Oathkeeper was suddenly stunned. Wait, Iâve fallen into a thinking blind spot. Thereâs actually one upper echelon left who has not been investigated! Someone once said, when you have eliminated all possibilities, no matter how unbelievable and impossible the last possibility is, thatâs the truth.
Therefore...
Am I the spy?
Oathkeeperâs brain exploded.