Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The group traveled across the North Valley with incredibly heavy hearts. Somehow, the sky did not feel as vast as it used to be. They were having difficulty breathing from the pressure it was putting on them.

Zhao Manyan recalled Mo Fan's words, which had stirred up great emotions in him along the journey.

If they did not try their best, they would only live with enormous regrets after everything happened. The pain would leave a lasting mark deep in their hearts, leaving them in endless torture.

But they had already done everything they could. The only problem was... how could just the few of them possibly stop the Black Vatican?

The Black Vatican was the public enemy of the whole world. The seven Red Cardinals were wanted criminals with the highest bounties; everyone in the world wanted to get rid of them, yet how many in the world actually stood a chance against them? The Magic Associations of the five continents? The Parthenon Temple? The Holy Judgment Court? The Hunter Union?

The seven Red Cardinals were still at large. They had become the idols of criminals and the wicked. Many strong Mages were willing to submit themselves to them.

They had overestimated their capabilities. In the end, there was nothing they could do. It was just the few of them, a useless Preventive Committee, and some stubborn members of the Enforcement Union… how ridiculous...

The country did not even care, yet they were still wasting their time and efforts trying to uncover the Black Vatican's conspiracy. They had ended up discovering an enormous glacier crashing down upon them. They might feel better if they had not uncovered it, if they had just continued to live in ignorance!

"We are meeting up in Guli Village," Zhang Xiaohou told Zhao Manyan.

Apart from Lingling and Zhao Manyan, Ye Hong and Bin Wei had tagged along too. Even though they believed in Lingling, they wanted to see the truth with their own eyes.

If they did not witness it personally, they would not be able to convince the commanders of northern military to give the order to retreat. The commanders of the Northern Fortress would not want their men to sacrifice their lives for nothing!

"I know where Guli Village is. It's a lot faster this way, but there's a very deep canyon," Ye Hong said.

The group followed Ye Hong's guidance to Guli Village. If it was somewhere Mo Fan had planned to meet them, it would be fairly close to the Black Vatican's location. They had to be extremely cautious.

Luckily, the overall strength of the group was quite high. Bin Wei was a Super Mage with the Earth Element and the Plant Element. They would have no problem retreating if they found themselves in any danger.

------

Commander Ye Hong immediately frowned when they arrived in Guli Village.

There were still a lot of people in Guli Village who had yet to be evacuate. Was it because they did not receive the evacuation order, or they were unwilling to obey it?

They went to a memorial hall in the village, but the person waiting for them was not Mo Fan. It was a man in a gray-white robe whose face was covered.

Zhao Manyan and Lingling were confused and alert, as they did not know who the person was, but Zhang Xiaohou approached the man and chatted with him. It seemed like Zhang Xiaohou had recognized him.

"I believe you two are the commanders of Northguard Fortress?" the mysterious man asked, looking at General Bin Wei and Commander Ye Hong.

"We are, may I ask who you are?..." Ye Hong was even more confused about the identity of the mysterious man.

"I don't have a name, or a codename. I'm only a phantom that doesn't exist," the mysterious man replied.

Nobody lowered their guard after hearing his words. Zhang Xiaohou proceeded to explain, "He is the Prophet of the Sacred City. He was the one that figured out Salan was among the authorities during the Calamity of the Ancient Capital, and proposed the plan to execute them all."

The Northguard Fortress was not too far from the Ancient Capital. General Bin Wei knew about the plan to execute the authorities, but she was still quite shocked after hearing the words.

She had not heard about any Prophet of the Sacred City before, but the execution plan was quite well known among the generals. If it wasn't for the plan, the Ancient Capital would not have been able to survive the calamity. In other words, the man had played an important role in finding out who Salan was!

On top of that, General Bin Wei was very impressed with the man's decisiveness, ready to sacrifice ten powerful figures just to get their revenge on the Red Cardinal of the Black Vatican. It clearly took the Black Vatican by surprise. Even Salan never thought she would end up in such a trap.

The plan had brought the Ancient Capital hope and given it the chance to survive the calamity. The mysterious man's contribution certainly could not be overlooked, but their superiors had never mentioned anything about him. It was just as the man had said himself, he was only a phantom!

"What prophet, if I really had the power to foresee the future, things would not end up like this," the mysterious man said self-mockingly. "Lingling, Zhang Xiaohou has already told me about your speculation." He sighed. "To think that our great nation has taken the calm and peace so for granted that they couldn't even see through the Black Vatican's conspiracy better than a little girl. If anyone is the prophet, you clearly did a better job than me."

"It's all thanks to my sister and Mo Fan. They strongly believe that the Black Vatican is up to something!" Lingling replied.

"Since the Prophet of the Sacred City is here, does that mean there's still a way to fix it?" General Bin Wei asked, hoping.

"No, I'm afraid we don't really have a plan to turn the tables around. All we have is an ill-advised plan, but let's wait for Mo Fan first. We'll need the information he has gathered from the Black Vatican. Otherwise, everything we decide won't mean anything..." the mysterious man replied.

The mysterious man faced the altar inside the memorial hall, leaving a lonely back to the others.

It was obvious that he had just made it there too. His eyes were lackluster.

"Did something serious happen in the East?" General Bin Wei asked.

"Mmm, I just came from there. You will know what happened soon. Let's focus on the North Valley for now. Hopefully, you won't blame our country for being too harsh on you..." the mysterious man answered.

General Bin Wei and Commander Ye Hong exchanged glances with one another. Their expressions turned grimmer.

Something serious must have happened!

"Zhang Xiaohou, how is Mo Fan doing?" Zhang Xiaohou asked.

"I'm not sure, he only asked someone to deliver a message to me..." Zhang Xiaohou said.

"It's quite worrying to let him infiltrate the Black Vatican on his own," Zhao Manyan sighed.

The mysterious man turned around. He looked at Zhao Manyan and said, "He reminds me of someone."

"Who?" Zhao Manyan asked.

"Zhan Kong! Before the Calamity of the Ancient Capital, Zhan Kong had found out there was more to the Black Vatican's plan when he took out the Darkwing Wolf. He found me and asked me to help him infiltrate the Black Vatican. I happened to have a codename available, so I told him that once he took over the codename, he would have to disappear from this world. He did not hesitate, he did not even have to think about it..." the mysterious man said.

Zhang Xiaohou opened his mouth. He stared at the mysterious man in disbelief.

Zhang Xiaohou still did not understand why their Chief Military Instructor showed up at the Dark Abyss out of nowhere. It turned out that he had long given up his identity to infiltrate the Black Vatican...

Zhang Xiaohou took a deep breath. He was not feeling good...

"I was only able to lock down Salan with the clues that Zhan Kong had provided… when the country is in trouble, some people will only tremble in fear, but some chose to sacrifice themselves. I'm relieved that we have people like them among us." He sighed again. "I really wished that more people knew what he had done," the mysterious man said.

Zhang Xiaohou finally understood why Mo Fan had made the decision to infiltrate the Black Vatican.

The place fell silent for some time, until they heard heavy footsteps approaching slowly.

They followed the sound of the footsteps and saw a man covered in a loose black robe. Zhao Manyan, Lingling, and Zhang Xiaohou were too familiar with Mo Fan. They immediately recognized him without seeing his face, even though his aura was a little cold.

"Are these the only people we have?" Mo Fan asked when he arrived.

"Some are not here, but the people here are more or less all we have," the mysterious man said.

"Why do I feel like we are more like the bad guys hiding in the dark?" Mo Fan asked sarcastically.

"..."

Lingling ran up to Mo Fan, who picked her up and patted on her head while comforting her. "Don't worry, I'm fine."

"Liar!" Lingling saw through Mo Fan's lie right away. She pulled Mo Fan's mask away, revealing his scarred face.

Zhang Xiaohou and Zhao Manyan gasped as soon as Mo Fan's face was revealed. Did he seriously call that fine!?

"Let's go, right now, we are leaving now, my heavens!" Zhao Manyan yelled.

Zhang Xiaohou was feeling uneasy, especially after hearing what the mysterious man said previously about Zhan Kong. Mo Fan's attempt must be as dangerous as the situation their Chief Military Instructor was in, yet they were completely unaware of what he was going through.

"It's not as bad as you all think. There are pretty ladies in the Black Vatican, she's been taking care of me the whole time!" Mo Fan smiled to ease the atmosphere.

It was General Bin Wei and General Ye Hong's first time meeting Mo Fan. They could not help but think how optimistic he was after hearing his words.

"Taking care my ass; if we don't go now, we are all going to die here! Do you know what pyramid they are bringing here? You can ask Lingling yourself!" Zhao Manyan raised his voice.

Mo Fan looked at Lingling. The little girl told him about the speculation.

Mo Fan was stunned for some time. The answer was both within and beyond his expectations!

When the Black Vatican continued to open the Underworld Gates, Mo Fan already knew they were planning to bring a huge pyramid here, but he did not expect it to be the scariest one of them all: the Great Pyramid of Giza!

"Let's go, since you've left the Black Vatican, we'll decide where to go after we escape to the East," Zhao Manyan said.

Mo Fan was able to calm down pretty quickly, since he was sort of prepared for it. He looked at the mysterious man and said, "I thought the authorities had already given up on us."

"Well, you aren't completely wrong about that; they did decide to give up on this land, whether the Great Pyramid of Giza is going to show up or not," the mysterious man replied.

Mo Fan did not lose his cool, nor was he furious. He was only overwhelmed by sorrow. He said after a prolonged silence, "They can give up on us if they want. What plan do you have? I can't believe you're only here as a messenger and telling us we are completely on our own here..."