Chapter 303 — The Cultists' Technology
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Gao Yang made no superfluous movement. He simply stood where he was, watching the woman called "Selina" walk off into the distance, and a few seconds later withdrew his gaze and left the place as though nothing had happened.
That was Selina Guelphon—of that there was almost no doubt.
She wore a veil, true, but in Gao Yang Cecil's memory Selina Guelphon had appeared veiled on several occasions as well, so from the very first moment he saw "Selina" in the mind-network, a faint sense of familiarity had stirred in him. That was another man's memory, however, and the present "Selina" differed from Selina Guelphon in subtle ways—chiefly in her voice, which had changed a great deal—so he had never taken that feeling seriously, until the instant just now when she turned and walked away, some image in his mind had overlapped with the figure before him, and almost in that same instant he reached his conclusion:
The person before him was the goddess-priestess of the Church of Dreams from seven hundred years ago, Selina Guelphon.
Alive? Alive for seven hundred years? And now a high-ranking member of the Long Slumber sect?
Gao Yang walked quietly along the road back to the Crystal Plaza, his thoughts gradually settling.
Whether or not it was Selina Guelphon, his plans could not be allowed to suffer for it.
Seven centuries had turned the world upside down, and everything had changed. The Church of the Dream God had become the mad, fanatical Cult of the Long Slumber; the gentle, kindly priestess of old had become the leader of a heretical order. Perhaps every sect had its own reasons for falling, perhaps Selina Guelphon had plans of her own—but now was not the time to investigate such truths.
He could not expose his identity. Above all, he could not expose it before Selina.
His decision made, Gao Yang halted, released his connection to the mind-network, and let his spirit fall away into the void.
He opened his eyes. Amber was indeed staring fixedly at him again, her face planted less than half a meter from his own.
Gao Yang raised an eyebrow. "I say—aren't you afraid that one day you'll actually startle me, and I'll reflexively give you a leaping slash and splatter you across the wall?"
Amber was plainly not worried in the least. "Keep bragging. You don't even have your sword in hand—what are you going to leaping-slash with, a ghost?"
"With combat strength like yours—barely better than a goose's—I could splatter you across the wall with an eggplant!" Gao Yang casually shoved the half-elf's head aside and rose to stretch. "Run an errand for me—go fetch Jenny and Kamael... never mind, I'll go myself. The study here doesn't have everything I need."
Amber immediately sidled up, thrilled. "Ooh, ooh? So what did you see this time in your dream—some great enlightenment? Or was it a young lady?"
Gao Yang's foot hung suspended mid-step. He turned his head and gave Amber a deadpan look. "As a matter of fact, I did see a young lady. And picked up a beautiful grown woman along the way."
Amber froze for a moment, then jumped up. "I told you that biography of yours was documentary literature and you wouldn't admit it—and you bonked me on the head for saying so!"
At the Rune Research Institute, Jenny and Kamael were deep in discussion over the complex interference problems in mid-tier and higher magic arrays. Gao Yang's visit struck them as quite unexpected—at this hour he was usually handling official business or studying mechanical blueprints, and they seldom saw him come here.
And he had not brought Amber, that half-elf guard of his, either—ordinarily she was forever hovering at Gao Yang's side, rarely absent.