Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 2420: Chapter 2415: The Prophet Is Dead (26)

At this moment, things were finally starting to look a bit clearer.

No matter how abstract and bizarre it all looked on the surface, no matter how insane the power behind it was, in the end it still boiled down to a super-criminal conspiracy.

If both the Words and the Door were the handiwork of the Black Doctor, then the trolling malice behind it felt like it was about to overflow.

Fu Qian, however, had no intention of passing moral judgment; instead he started asking after another old friend of his, Ah Wei.

According to the usual setup, the biggest perk of super-criminals was that they had great intel and connections in every shady circle.

That old friend who, in theory, should have visited this place long ago but had completely vanished—His Excellency the Black Doctor was maybe a bit more likely to know something about him than Crystal?

”I’m one of the outsiders.”

Seeing the two listeners both questioning their life choices over this question, Fu Qian immediately doubled down on his persona, stressing that there was no need to treat him like a normal person.

”Wei?”

Unfortunately, the Black Doctor actually looked just as lost as Crystal had been back then, looking like he’d never heard the name before.

”Or maybe you know him as the Death God’s Apostle.”

Fu Qian was never one to give up easily, and casually added another possible title.

”...Death Angel? You actually know him?”

That’s what they meant by ”ninety miles into a hundred-mile journey”—this last little add-on instantly triggered a huge reaction.

...

So anything that comes in here automatically turns chuunibyou? Ah Wei, you’re this bold now, does your oath partner know?

Feeling pleased and relieved, Fu Qian also had a lot of thoughts about the title the Black Doctor had just dropped.

Showing up in this esteemed domain and not daring to give his real name, instead making up an extra nickname—Brother Ah Wei’s choice was actually very reasonable.

And judging from the Black Doctor’s reaction when he said that name, the person in question was clearly no ordinary figure.

Putting it all together, the odds that ”Death Angel” was his old friend were not low.

The only problem was: wasn’t this nickname a bit too flashy?

Did Brother Ah Wei just let himself go completely after converting to the Deep? Or was there more to it?

”Yeah, I know him. From the moment I got in here I’ve been wanting to find him and catch up.”

Returning the favor, Fu Qian didn’t keep the Black Doctor waiting and admitted outright that he had come here for the Death Angel.

And this wasn’t even a lie—Ah Wei himself might not be that important, but to Fu Qian, the question of ”Why hasn’t Ah Wei appeared on the Unseen Hillock” was a big one; it had been nagging at him from earlier.

Back then it was mainly that Ah Wei was relatively hard to kill, and it just so happened he could test out a new reward, so he’d ultimately sent him on to this place to stir things up a little.

Also, considering the special oath-state of a Death God’s Apostle, Fu Qian really was curious what form His Excellency Ah Wei would take when he entered the Unseen Hillock again.

If this could provide some supporting data for researching this ”oath” power system, that would be ideal.

Though given that there was a Demigod like Ji Feng holding down the fort, and Ah Wei was in a corrupted-by-the-Deep state, by Fu Qian’s estimates he shouldn’t be able to stir up too much trouble and might need to be carefully searched for.

Now the problem was that there was way too little trouble.

From when he came in to just now, there hadn’t been a single trace of that old friend, which felt a bit off to Fu Qian—just like the Unseen Hillock itself.

That’s right, Ah Wei wasn’t the only thing that was off.

One question he’d had from the very beginning was why there was a containment action at all, when everything seemed perfectly normal on the surface.

So could Ah Wei’s abnormality be connected to Brother Ji Feng’s abnormality?

Once he sharply picked up on the common thread, Fu Qian suddenly had higher expectations for this move that had originally been kind of a casual afterthought.

Luckily, His Excellency the Black Doctor was very cooperative.

”Death Angel... How come I’ve never heard that title? Is he a new Demigod?”

And it turned out Amber really did know nothing; facing the two who were exchanging intel, she couldn’t help voicing her confusion.

”There’s a lot you people don’t know.”

When it came to her, the Black Doctor’s psychological advantage came out in full; he shot her a sideways look, and even his cold smile had regained the flavor from earlier.

”Ever consider that you’ve been overly worshipping that so-called Prophet all this time?”

...

”Makes sense. A lot of times shortcuts end up becoming obstacles instead.”

Fu Qian didn’t mind the way the Black Doctor got distracted mid-conversation to throw shade, and even agreed with him.

Use it or lose it—Yuan Fang’s special existence essentially gave the entire Unseen Hillock a dedicated information network.

When you have tighter control over everything and can even predict the future, the Demigods enjoying that convenience have, in a sense, put limits on themselves and given up deeper exploration.

So to be fair, the Black Doctor actually had a point.

”Especially when the Prophet might also be one of the outsiders.”

Not only that, the next moment Fu Qian even added another stab, tying it back to earlier discussion.

Even though he himself was one of the outsiders, he still made a point of reminding them: feel free to use the worst possible malice to speculate about his group.

Mm...

The Prophet’s origins really were a suspicious point they’d discussed earlier; Amber, who’d been about to say something, ended up opening her mouth and saying nothing.

”...What I can tell you is that the Death Angel is definitely not one of the outsiders, though he did only show up recently.”

With his target of mockery not responding, the Black Doctor could only give up and return to the topic at hand.

After a brief pause for thought, the first thing he emphasized was that the Death Angel definitely wasn’t an outsider.

”Why do you say that? Have you met him?”

Even though the Ashen Ring’s description did suggest that was the case, Fu Qian was still curious what the Black Doctor was basing that judgment on.

”Haven’t met him, but I just know... I even know that if you manage to get out of here, you’ll definitely meet him.”

The Black Doctor snorted, his tone very firm, and hinted that attention should now be focused on his grand achievements.

”So this is all a whole series of operations then? The Death Angel is active on the other side of the Door, and there’s more planned after this? You guys are pretty organized, huh.”

But Fu Qian was always optimistic; he immediately sensed the flavor of organized crime from that.

Which made sense—super-criminals sometimes found it easier to set aside differences, join forces, and stir things up.

So the Gate of Freedom was just the first step of the plan, and a whole lot more chaos would follow right after? This was the real ”darkest night”?

Let’s just say the story, which had been getting more and more abstract, suddenly felt classic again.

”I’m not his lackey. What I do has never been his will.”

Unfortunately the Black Doctor clearly didn’t want to be anyone’s underling, and immediately denied it.

”Got it. In that case I’d better hurry up and get out. Since this really is your handiwork, you must know a way out, right?”

In this line of work it’s all about face, so Fu Qian didn’t push it too far and finally focused on the question of how to get back.

”Too bad. There’s no way.”

The Black Doctor answered almost instantly, as if he’d been waiting for that question.