When Tang Yu arrived at the Entertainment City, Lorraine and Grey Blade, among others, were guarding the surveillance screens.
The feed captured by the cameras without rune integration wasnât very clear.
However, the powerful vision of someone at the Transcendent Tier acted like a sieve, easily filtering out all extraneous information and leaving behind only the most crucial and necessary clues.
"Itâs indeed right to let Lorraine and the others do the filtering, if someone at the Awakening Tier were doing this, important information might be missed, potentially causing a huge delay."
He thought to himself as he looked at the surveillance footage.
On the screen was an elderly man with white hair, his aged face covered with wrinkles.
He walked very slowly, leaning on a cane as if he were just an ordinary old man.
"Whatâs so special about him?"
"The old man was muttering to himself inside the âIllusion Realm Game,â which didnât seem out of the ordinary, but I was attentive and noticed some discrepancies in his behavior," Lorraine said, as if seeking credit.
"Later I found that the old man only played the game for short periods, yet he had spent hundreds of Source Crystals, simply experiencing every game once... For an old man with mobility issues who seems to be just an ordinary person, spending hundreds of Source Crystals is abnormal."
Tang Yu nodded slowly.
But this didnât prove anything; there were many abnormal individuals inside the Entertainment City.
Lorraine continued, "Afterward, I scanned the old man in the âSpirit Spaceâ and indeed discovered anomalies. To get more detailed information, I even secretly used an Intermediate Reconnaissance Crystal on him, and found out..."
She folded her arms and played coy, provoking glares from the others until she sheepishly added, "This old man is no ordinary individual, he is over a thousand years old, which indicates that he was at least... a Second Tier Transcendent!
The detection result also showed that he had suffered a very serious and irreparable injury, turning into a visage of decrepit old age."
The old man walked step by step towards the exit of the Entertainment City, soon to be out of the surveillance range.
Tang Yu immediately ordered, "Grey Blade, follow him."
...
The old man wandered the seemingly bustling streets, his heart silent.
The concept of the Illusion Realm Game was interesting; during peacetime, it could be a source of significant income through Source Crystals. Yet for the Royal Capitalâs current situation, it offered no help whatsoever.
"Old Feng."
Someone familiar called out.
The old man responded with a nod and a smile.
Feng was his assumed name, his real name having been long forgotten.
In the vast river of history, others had only one designation for him.
â "Great Sage"!
He was the most knowledgeable man in the Kingdom of Aino, versed in astronomy and geography; while most eyes were fixed on the Aino continent, he firmly believed there were worlds beyond their own.
The Dark Creatures that fell from the sky were the best proof of this.
Yet the Great Sage wasnât pleased.
His smile carried a tinge of bitterness.
He had sustained a grave injury, and his lifeâs flame was faint. If not for the fact that the Royal Capital and the whole world were in grave danger, he wouldnât have known how to go on.
"But even if I cling to life, what can I do?"
"The Kingdomâs upper echelons of Combat Power have either perished in battle or have been controlled. Now, who is left to save this world?"
"Theyâre too terrifying. The Black Tide isnât as simple as we thought. If the Kingdomâs Combat Power had remained intact, there might have been a slight chance of resistance, but now..."
The truth behind that yearâs battle had long been buried by the hidden forces.
Perhaps he was the only one in the entire Royal Capital who understood it.
Hearing that a sacrificial ceremony was to be held in a few days...
The Great Sage was almost ready to give up.
Even with all his knowledge, he couldnât devise a plan for a desperate counterattack with such a glaring disparity between enemy and ally, and with the base crystal nearly drained of its energy.
"It looks like I can only rest with the Royal Capital."
He returned to his house and let out a wry laugh.
Thud thud thudâ
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"Open up, gas billing inspection."
The Great Sage was puzzled.
His disguised identity was that of a fallen nobleman, and despite the fall, he still possessed a sum of Source Crystals, which he used for lighting and cooking.
He hadnât installed a gas pipeline.
Suddenly, he tensed, not responding to the knock.
The knocking continued.
The person outside seemed somewhat confused.
Changing tactics,
"Open the door, the community brings warmth."
...
"Open the door, itâs time for the census."
...
"Forget it, forget it, self-reliance leads to plenty of food and clothing."
Click,
Snap,
A light sound, the door opened.
He watched as several people entered the room.
He faintly sensed that his vital energy had already been locked on.
"Should I call you Old Feng or the Great Sage?"
As soon as the words were spoken, the old manâs pupils shrank imperceptibly.
And quickly returned to calm.
He made no superfluous movements.
If they were enemies, with his Origin damaged and having barely clung to life for decades, he couldnât escape even if he wanted to.
If they were not enemies...
...
"Itâs unexpected that such powerful beings have emerged from other kingdoms."
Even though the Great Sage no longer had his former strength, his ability to gauge others was still among the top in the Kingdom.
He immediately noticed that the several people who entered the room were all quite young, and from the radiance of their life forces and certain details, they were all under two hundred years old, yet already Senior Transcendents. In the era before the Black Tide arrived in the Aino Kingdom, these would have been individuals with top-notch talents, with boundless potential for the future.
The girl in black armor appeared even younger to him, yet seemed more terrifying.
He hardly dared believe it; such a young age, and theyâve touched upon the Second Tier of Transcendent?
In the history of the Aino Kingdom, this had not existed.
There was also the young man leading them, who, besides his handsome appearance, emitted no detectable aura from his body. Every move seemed like that of an ordinary person, yet it made the sageâs eyelids twitch.
Like a fog.
In all these years, he had never encountered someone completely inscrutable.
However,
The Great Sage did not realize that the method he used to judge wasnât accurate.
Achieving Senior Transcendent status before two hundred years of age indicated that their potentials were almost unspent, with the possibility to reach even higher realms in the future.
Unlike those Senior Transcendents who only formed three Source Power Cores at the age of seven or eight hundred, whose potentials were nearly exhausted, even if they could break through to the Second Tier, their prospects for further advancement were limited without chance or opportunity.
Grey Blade, Lorraine, Fani, Bamboo Rat Li, Nancy, indeed had limitless potential for the future. However, among these people, even Fani, who was the oldest, Tang Yu estimated was only in her thirties (although her mental age might be that of a teenager)âhe hadnât asked specifically, nor had he used the "Insight Eye" to scan her.
And the younger ones, like Bamboo Rat Li, had just come of age.
Nancy, according to the laws of Daxia Country, was still a minor.
Two hundred years old?
Wouldnât that make them old men and women?
The Great Sage observed them.
Tang Yu also observed the other party.
The "Insight Eye" activated, numerous data streams flitted across the bottom of his eyes, and the analysis they yielded was even more detailed than that from an Intermediate Reconnaissance Crystal.
Regarding age, the "Insight Eye" revealed a precise result.
This was an old man who had lived for 1,569 years.
A Second Tier Transcendent being.
One on the path of Energy Transformation, where neither a shattered heart nor a severed head amounted to a fatal injury for him.
However,
Perhaps due to constant Energy Transformation repairs to his own body, coupled with severe damage to his Origin, the Great Sage was reaching the end of his tether; the lifespan limit for a Second Tier Transcendent was three thousand years, yet Tang Yu could see that this old man before him did not have many years left.
Claiming to be from another Kingdom, he stated his intentions.
The Great Sage did not doubt this.
Or rather, he considered Tang Yu and his companions to be the last straw to clutch at.
At worst, they would simply rest eternally with the Royal Capital.
He had seen through it all.
He began to recount slowly.
"The history of Aino Kingdom begins with the story of a tree."