"So, tell me about it." Cicia adjusted to a comfortable sitting position, crossing her legs and resting her chin in one hand, looking ready to listen.
Angel: "I just heard Miss Cicia talk so much about the Noah ancestors, it seems the Noah Clan and Miss Cicia share quite a connection."
Cicia frowned slightly, not immediately refuting Angel’s words: "And then? What do you want to say?"
Angel: "Doesn’t Miss Cicia find it strange to suddenly meet two descendants of the Noah Clan today? Among them, the Black Earl, whose true body is one of the top Wizards currently in the Southern Domain, yet he joined my team to explore the Underground Aqueduct, already recognized as an abandoned ruin?"
Cicia understood the meaning behind Angel’s words, but she still didn’t comprehend what Angel was trying to convey or what his purpose was.
"Rather than the strange encounter with two descendants of the Noah Clan, I find it stranger to meet someone carrying the Primeval Flame who can also let me reunite with my fellow Baiyuanians." Cicia raised an eyebrow and looked at Angel.
Angel: "...It was really just a coincidence on my end."
Cicia: "Coincidence? Then your two Noah teammates make more sense compared to your coincidence."
Angel: On second thought, he really couldn’t argue against that.
Cicia snorted coldly: "If you have something to say, just say it directly, don’t beat around the bush. The thing I hate the most is going in circles, spinning so much that you tie yourself up, is it fun?"
"Okay, I’ll just say it directly." Angel gave up on playing the coincidence card to tempt Cicia, realizing it was easy to trap himself in the process.
"Actually, when we first planned this ruin exploration and the team was formed, there weren’t any Noah members." Angel: "The Black Earl and Vay only suddenly joined my team the day before we set out."
Cicia: "And then, what’s the strange part?"
Angel: "Miss Cicia has seen Vay’s black crystal and should be able to sense that Vay’s personality is quite unusual. He stays in his little shop year-round and hardly ever steps out of the safe zone."
Cicia: "Academy Faction Wizards, one is more reclusive than the next, what’s unusual about that?"
Angel: "It’s different. Vay doesn’t stay because he doesn’t want to leave, but because he is wary of the Black Earl. Just like I told you before, the Black Earl has divided his organs into countless parts, staying with his descendants, making them all apprehensive, afraid of getting played by the Black Earl."
"To us, Vay might seem a bit overly paranoid, but being in the game, he finds it hard to view the whole board. Like other descendants, he wouldn’t go out unless there was something important."
Cicia silently agreed, that was indeed true.
"This time, Vay was invited by his friend Dox to our then location at the Wizard Market, where Dox attempted to assess the danger of the ruin exploration using Death Sense."
"Dox? That Bloodline Wizard? Such a coward." Cicia sneered.
"Maybe it’s just being overly cautious. Anyway, the final result was like this, whether Dox was satisfied with the answer is another story. However, the Black Earl strongly insisted on joining our team along with Vay."
"With the Black Earl’s status, I couldn’t refuse."
Cicia: "And then, why did they strongly join?"
"Initially when they joined, I was merely puzzled but didn’t think much of it." Angel maintained a calm facade, knowing only by deceiving himself could he deceive others: "However, when we reached the ground ruins of Naraku City to find the entrance to the Underground Aqueduct, we encountered an unexpected event."
Angel then detailed how they discovered the Underground Church, how they solved its mysteries, found the remaining information inside, and the Uisu language engraved on the table holding the sacred texts.
Cicia: "Uisu language? It indeed relates to the Noah Clan, it seems to have been passed down from them, once highly popular but later gradually declined."
Angel: "Does Miss Cicia understand the Uisu language?"
Cicia: "Naturally, back then Noah used Uisu language to write love poems to my friend."
"Since Miss Cicia understands, why not take a look and see what’s written here?" Angel used an Illusion Technique to recreate the Uisu language they had discovered in the church: "In our team, only the Black Earl understands Uisu language, he mentioned some of the information."
Angel briefly recounted what the Black Earl had said, then added: "But he admitted to hiding some information."
Cicia: "So, you want me to see what information he concealed?"
Angel nodded.
Cicia, showing a rare semblance of interest, agreed, since these events likely occurred while she was unconscious after transforming into a box; she was curious about what had transpired in Naraku City during that time.
Cicia gazed at the lines of Uisu language simulated in the illusion and began reading them softly.
However, after uttering a few words, Cicia stopped.
Nearly all of it was composed of unrelated words, many serving as flattery, or you could say sycophantic? In any case, it was difficult for Cicia to find complete sentences, and the nauseating flattery made her reluctant to continue.
"Almost all of it consists of shallow praise, with words lacking connection, leaving it unclear why they were engraved together." Cicia frowned.
Angel: "These were engraved on the table where the sacred texts were placed, perhaps as cues secretly left by the preacher."
Cicia: "Even praise requires cues, these Mirror Demon God’s followers weren’t so devout, after all."
After her brief ridicule, Cicia continued to read.
About one or two minutes later, Cicia looked up, a puzzled expression on her face, silently forming guesses in her mind.
Angel: "Did Miss Cicia seem to uncover something?"
Cicia: "I roughly understand what information the Black Earl concealed. A name is recorded here, a name belonging to an ancestor of the Noah."
Angel: "Is it that dear friend of Miss Cicia?"
Cicia hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Yes. I never expected that after millennia, I would see his name again in such a way."
"Besides this, the Black Earl didn’t conceal other information. However, there were translation errors, probably not intentional. Some words are unique to the early Uisu language, and they changed after Uisu language lost its Extraordinary Power, leading to such discrepancies."
Cicia: "For example, the Black Earl translated ’someone,’ whom you believed to be the mastermind directing these Demon God cult followers. In fact, translating it as ’someone’ is incorrect; it should be ’a certain presence among them.’
"A certain presence among them? That sounds even stranger."
Cicia: "You find it strange because it lacks context. If you associate it with the Mirror Demon God mentioned incessantly above as a prefix, its true meaning becomes apparent: the Image in the Mirror."
"Is the Image in the Mirror a representation of the Mirror Demon God?"