Chapter 1790: The Meaning of Faith

"Are you sure?"

Fu Qian's words had clearly delivered a considerable shock.

Yuan Shan stared at him a moment before finally speaking, surprised by his absolute certainty.

"Those little stars falling from the sky—just one of them should be enough to put you in a near-death state."

Fu Qian was perfectly composed. To make it easier for Chief Yuan to understand, he had simply used her as a unit of measurement.

This was no exaggeration.

As a bystander who had witnessed the entire process, he could make a rough judgment even without facing the impact himself.

Despite its extremely harsh activation conditions, the descending Meteor of Fate clearly packed a final punch worthy of the will to live it consumed.

It might not be world-ending, but judging from his past experiences working with Chief Yuan, she would clearly struggle to withstand it.

Of course, given the name Meteor of Fate, its power might automatically adjust to suit different targets.

If it were actually used on Chief Yuan, the effect might not be quite so exaggerated.

But that didn't matter. The imprecise comparison was only meant to help her understand the devastation the poor Prison Archangel had suffered.

"And the report mentioned there were dozens of them... I see. So those feathers are the remains of a Death Tier 2?"

Yuan Shan had always trusted Fu Qian's judgment.

But recalling that holy, winged figure, she couldn't help feeling a sudden sense of absurdity and dismay.

The eerie act of eating seventeen fish in a row, its impossibly powerful concealment... Yet only a few days later, that mysterious entity—a being whose mere presence was enough to bring her despair—had thoroughly fallen.

Reflecting that worldly affairs are hard to predict, she had to sigh once again: wasn't this consultant of hers a bit too formidable?

One couldn't forget that while that absurd meteor shower was mostly the enemy bringing disaster upon themselves, the initiator—and the one who gave the final push—was the Bookstore Owner standing right in front of her.

"You could say that, though it doesn't look like anything special."

Confirming Yuan Shan's deduction, Fu Qian opened his jacket, pulled a grayish-white feather from an inner pocket, and handed it over.

"This is..."

Yuan Shan was dumbfounded again, but she subconsciously took it, confirming that it truly held no supernatural power.

...

That was right. What Chief Yuan held in her hands was a genuine remnant of the Prison Archangel.

Between the one taken from Professor Ah Kai and the one that floated down from the sky, Fu Qian had collected two in total. Returning to Shangjing this time, he had conveniently brought one along.

The reason it hadn't dissipated when passing through the Warehouse, despite lacking any supernatural properties, was simple: Fu Qian had stuffed it into his clothes before taking off his mask.

Ordinary items indeed couldn't withstand the Warehouse's scouring, but being classified as part of the administrator was another matter entirely.

If that weren't the case, wouldn't he end up stark naked every time he went to work?

Regardless, successfully bringing the feather over in this manner gave Chief Yuan a much more intuitive feel for it.

As for the resulting alternate persona crisis—would Chief Yuan grow increasingly certain of the connection between the Bookstore Owner and Apocalypse's Professor Fu, or would this even expose that he possessed some degree of spatial traversal ability?

As mentioned earlier, once Yuan Shan accepted the mission to investigate the mole, she and her consultant were truly bound to the same rope.

They were in such a precarious state that they could meet a sudden, violent end at any moment. With a partner like this, Fu Qian believed there was no harm in being a little more honest.

Just like when he had straightforwardly told her the truth about the Typhoid Terror.

Phew—

After her initial shock faded, Chief Yuan clearly received this gesture of sincerity.

Letting out a long breath, she hesitated to speak. Ultimately, she withdrew her gaze and examined the feather in her hand repeatedly.

"It really is quite ordinary. Do you have any idea what this is?"

...

"It might be related to an Angelic Faith from ancient times. Some traces of it once appeared in the Wasteland."

Feeling that trust, Yuan Shan didn't rush to point out the issue with his alternate persona, and Fu Qian naturally wasn't bored enough to out himself. Instead, he directly shared the information he had previously provided to Li Weixuan.

He even included richer details this time, such as the massive Mirror and the fact that Siren had previously explored it.

"An Angel... That does fit that one's image somewhat."

"Also, I've never seen this Emblem before, but the Night Watchers are indeed intentionally preventing the revival of certain ancient faiths, and they've maintained this stance for a very long time."

Looking at the Emblem Fu Qian casually drew, Yuan Shan shook her head to indicate she didn't recognize it, while bluntly admitting the Night Watchers' stance on faith.

"I believe you could infer a bit from the arrangements over in the Sacred Night Capital. But as for exactly why we do this, even the inner circles of the Night Watchers are vague about it. They merely state that it would nourish evil."

"I once asked my teacher about this as well. His explanation was that it's like 'that one.'"

Gesturing toward the sky, Yuan Shan still tried her best to avoid speaking the name Blazing Rainbow aloud.

"Calling out certain names that once existed might hold some special supernatural significance, but whether it can truly allow some higher entities to grow stronger or even return... my teacher isn't entirely sure."

"Because according to his own perception, the power polluting him hasn't had any believers for years, yet it has never shown any signs of decline."

This was the benefit of treating people with sincerity. Yuan Shan, who clearly already regarded Professor Fu as a staunch ally, revealed numerous secrets in one breath, confirming many of his previous speculations.

The only pity was that this master and disciple pair didn't seem to know all that much, either.

The arrangements in the Sacred Night Capital went without saying—they were those numerous religious buildings.

As expected, it was a two-pronged approach. On one hand, they blurred the lines between myth and reality to completely obscure names that had truly existed; on the other hand, they guided the creation of new faiths to monopolize the population's faith resources.

There was even what the female swordfighter Veil had mentioned in the theater: the industrial civilization, represented by the steam engine, helping people escape their backward lives...

It really felt like a comprehensive, interlocking master plan.

For a moment, Fu Qian listened with keen interest.

However, just as Yuan Shan said, there was a major question here: if Old Man Henry's words were true, and a Divine Entity without believers was perfectly fine in both power and mind, then what was the meaning of faith to a higher entity?

He had previously used the Greed Worms to break out of prison, so it was understandable that some Ancient Higher Beings who weren't completely dead would want to struggle.

But what about during the true Mythological Era?

The higher entities hadn't been trapped back then, so why gather so many believers?

"So you still think... this is related to the Needle Witch?"

Amidst his silent pondering, Chief Yuan finally couldn't hold back anymore and voiced the true conflict in her heart.