Yue Yan walked to Ye Feng's side, "Little brat, you don't actually think that Ares fellow fancied Bing's beauty and wanted to marry her by force, do you?"
"You're around my age, why are you calling me a little brat... Ling Xi also called me a little guy and stuff before..." Ye Feng muttered somewhat dejectedly.
"Oh? Ling Xi?"
Yue Yan raised an eyebrow, not prying into the matter of Ling Xi. She continued, "For Ares to want Bing, it's definitely not because he likes her, but for another purpose. And this purpose is very important to him, so important that he'd do such a thing in his name... It's just that I don't know what it is exactly..."
"You don't seem to be afraid of the gods at all..."
Ye Feng was quite surprised. Everyone he knew before was very wary of the gods... but Yue Yan was...
"Hmph, what God of War? Just some guy who got knocked down by the God of Martial Arts with a single punch~"
Yue Yan snorted lightly, her face filled with pride and excitement, as if she were the one who had knocked Ares down with a punch...
"God of Martial Arts... Is Ragnarok real?"
Hearing that name again, Ye Feng couldn't help but recall what he had heard before about the God of Martial Arts and Ragnarok.
"Of course it's real!"
Yue Yan looked at Ye Feng with a serious expression, "Without the God of Martial Arts, humanity would probably have perished long ago!"
"Oh, this is probably something I shouldn't say... Just pretend you didn't hear it..."
After a pause, Yue Yan spoke again, as if she had just realized something.
Ye Feng: "..."
"Big Brother, why is there an altar of the Dark Holy Cult there? It seems to be called the God Conferment Platform or something?"
Just then, a curious voice from Xiao Xiao sounded.
Upon hearing this, Ye Feng immediately looked to Yue Yan with a questioning gaze.
"It's for my research on Bing!"
As she spoke, Yue Yan got up and walked to the altar covered in strange red patterns. "Before Ares, I had already discovered that for some unknown reason, the Dark Holy Cult was also targeting Bing, seemingly wanting to capture her for the God Stone radiation experiment..."
"So I built this identical altar and had Bing cooperate to verify some things... It's a shame I still don't know why the Dark Holy Cult is targeting Bing... I previously suspected..."
At this point, Yue Yan stopped, as if she had some reservations.
"It's alright, speak your mind, they can be trusted!"
Ye Feng frowned and gestured to Xiao Xiao and Qiao Ying, then picked up the conversation.
"I previously suspected..."
Yue Yan pondered for a moment and slowly said, "I previously suspected it was because of Bing's identity as a survivor... but after several tests... I found that it wasn't at all... The Dark Holy Cult targeting Bing is simply to capture her for the God Stone radiation experiment, it has nothing to do with her identity as a survivor..."
"God Stone radiation experiment?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly. A flash of light appeared in his hand, and a somewhat yellowed photograph instantly materialized. It was the photograph of Bing he had accidentally found in the God Stone radiation experiment base earlier.
"This is... Bing's photograph?"
Yue Yan looked surprised when she saw the person in the photo. "From the look of the photograph... it's Bing from many years ago..."
"I found this in a God Stone radiation experiment base... There's also a sentence on the back of the photo. I suspect this might be the reason why the Dark Holy Cult wants to capture Bing for the God Stone radiation experiment..."
Saying this, Ye Feng flipped the photo over.
"Dry branches react, optimal experimental subject for God Stone..."
"The optimal experimental subject for God Stone refers to me... What does the preceding sentence 'dry branches react' mean?"
Bing muttered in confusion upon seeing the text on the back of the photo.
"I don't know either... Dry branches react... This might be the Dark Holy Cult's standard for judging God Stone radiation experimental subjects..."
Ye Feng frowned slightly.
"Dry branches? Dark Holy Cult... God Stone... Optimal experimental subject? Dry branches... reaction?"
Yue Yan looked at the line of text behind Bing's photograph and fell into deep thought.
"By the way, Yue Yan, you mentioned earlier that the second item in the assessment for the young talents of the City of Arcane Arts was a clue to the treasure left by the Flame Ranger. What's the situation with the treasure left by the Flame Ranger?"
After a long while, when their discussion about the text behind Bing's photograph yielded no results, Ye Feng put away Bing's photo and asked.
"It's two divine artifacts!"
Yue Yan sighed softly, "To be precise, they are two sealed divine artifacts... They are Ares's Counterattack Divine Armor and Artemis's Breath of Wind Bow and Arrows..."
As she spoke, Yue Yan looked up at the sky, as if recalling something. "Back then... the Flame Ranger and I accidentally discovered these two divine artifacts..."
"To prevent these two divine artifacts from being obtained by the gods again... the Flame Ranger left with the artifacts..."
"And the clues to the divine artifacts are within the two golden medals left by the Flame Ranger... Twenty years ago, many changes occurred... The golden medals left by the Flame Ranger were lost..."
There was evident regret in Yue Yan's voice.
"So this is the truth behind the Flame Ranger's so-called defection... What he said in the golden medal was true~"
After Yue Yan's explanation, Ye Feng muttered.
"No... wait a moment..."
As soon as Yue Yan finished speaking, she stopped. She frowned and looked at Ye Feng, "Golden medals? Ye Feng, are the golden medals lost by the Flame Ranger with you?"
"Yes!"
Ye Feng did not conceal it and nodded.
To Ye Feng's surprise, Yue Yan did not ask about the location of the golden medals or the divine artifacts. Instead, she brought up another matter, "The Flame Ranger's 'defection' back then, in addition to hiding divine artifacts... actually had another very important purpose, or rather, the most important purpose... that was to search for the last 'lingering fire'..."
As she spoke the last words, Yue Yan looked at Ye Feng with a meaningful gaze.
"As for the embroidery in the third assessment earlier, it was to find the person who could embroider the final pattern of the Heavenly Ladder..."
In just a breath, Yue Yan changed her expression. She sighed slightly, "Ye Feng, since you were able to embroider the Heavenly Ladder, you must have seen the shimmering gate at the very top of the Heavenly Ladder, right? Beyond the shimmering gate are divine patterns... divine patterns that can unlock the seals of divine artifacts..."
"Divine artifacts... are Ares's Counterattack Armor and Cynthia's Breath of Wind Arrows?"
Ye Feng picked up the conversation, his expression quite surprised.
"Yes!"
Yue Yan nodded and looked at Ye Feng with a solemn expression, "Ye Feng, all signs indicate that that fellow Ares might have truly awakened..."
"Awakened? Was he hibernating or something before?"
Ye Feng frowned and continued.
...