Chapter 803 — The Old Friend Is Gone
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Just as Gao Yang had guessed, this "Lantern-Bearing Saint," the spirit lady who had been charged with sheltering the entire expedition team seven hundred years ago, possessed far more intelligence than the ordinary members of that party had.
Gao Yang's brows drew together. Very seriously, he asked, "What did he tell you?"
He was not worried about whether she would refuse to answer—since Selina had already raised these subjects of her own accord, it meant the contents could be spoken aloud, and had perhaps long since been earmarked for telling this "Outland Wanderer."
Sure enough, Selina nodded shortly. "He told me that on a tower forever wreathed in starlight he had come into contact with an ancient legacy of knowledge, and learned the weaknesses and the truth of the gods.
"He could not speak those things directly in the mortal world, because that would make the gods notice at once.
"He said he would die in his prime, his soul taken as part of the bargain, but that he would wake again, and that when he did, a mighty being would descend upon this world by borrowing his shell.
"That is the whole of what he told me."
"No wonder..." Gao Yang was enlightened at last, and let out a soft sigh. "No wonder you knew the details of that 'bargain' and knew that I would appear, even though you never followed Gao Yang Cecil into the depths of the continent to find that great tower."
Then, unable quite to suppress his doubt, he looked at Selina. "But if you knew long ago that I would take this shell and descend upon the world, if you knew my true 'identity' all along, why did you choose to stay silent until now? You neither told your own people nor came to make contact with me..."
"I did not trust you," Selina said, very directly. "Or to put it precisely, I was full of suspicion and wariness toward a being from beyond the borders of civilization, one whom mortals could not understand—especially after I saw those fragments of imagery connected to you. I had to spend a longer time observing your actions and judging whether you were in fact harmful."
Gao Yang was rather at a loss for words. After a moment he shook his head helplessly. "Even though my descent was something Gao Yang Cecil himself brought about, even though there is a very good chance I came to help your world?"
"That is right." Selina's gaze rested on Gao Yang, level and calm. Her face still wore its mild, tranquil expression, but those eyes were so deep they seemed bottomless. In that fleeting moment Gao Yang found that calm, profound gaze oddly familiar; a little recollection and he remembered—Verodai's eyes had once given him a similar feeling.
He understood.
Selina Gelfern was no longer the pure white Lantern-Bearing Saint she had been seven hundred years ago.
The Selina of seven hundred years past—even in her soul state after death—had held immense trust in Gao Yang Cecil, had been full of hope and expectation for human nature and the future. Even if an "Outland Wanderer" had suddenly descended upon the world, so long as Gao Yang Cecil vouched for him, she would have kept at least a baseline of goodwill and trust. But there are no ifs—by the time Gao Yang descended upon this world and revived through Gao Yang Cecil's body, seven hundred years had already passed.
The Selina of this time had long since lost her blind optimism about the future, and lost every shred of expectation for goodwill from strangers. She had grown up alongside the dark cults, contending against powers that stood above mortals. She was full of vigilance and suspicion toward those nameless, indescribable beings that drifted outside the world and descended upon it without warning. She doubted the "Outland Wanderer"—and she even doubted Gao Yang Cecil, who had struck a bargain with the Outland Wanderer.
That she could maintain years of cautious observation under such circumstances was already the combined product of reason and human feeling.