"By the way, Lord Zilong, when will the Temple of Light arrive? Have the specific meeting locations and times been finalized?" Ye Cangtian asked.
"No."
Zilong slowly shook his head.
The Temple of Light was very secretive about such matters, only stating that once they were settled in China, they would proactively invite the Dark Association.
Zilong found this peculiar.
...
Ye Cangtian didn't get any useful information from Zilong.
Helpless, Ye Cangtian returned home to await Zilong's message.
This also worked out, as he hadn't seen Tang Xinwan for a while and could use this opportunity to spend time with her.
Of course, while accompanying Tang Xinwan, he couldn't neglect everything else. He also contacted Rose.
He wanted to use the internet to investigate the Temple of Light's purpose and prepare in advance.
However, seven days passed with no progress from Viper, but Ye Cangtian received news from Zilong.
The message stated that the Temple of Light had finalized the time and location.
The time was the following night, and the location was the Nightlife Bar in Kyoto.
Time flew by, and the next day, after dusk, Ye Cangtian put on the Dawn mask and returned to the Seiden Hotel to meet Zilong.
Soon, the two of them left the hotel together.
...
Nightlife Bar.
The bar was wild at night, with all sorts of young people dancing on the disco floor, and all the private booths were occupied.
Ye Cangtian followed Zilong to a private room on the second floor.
As soon as he entered the room, Ye Cangtian saw a familiar figure. This person was none other than Nancy, the purple-robed bishop of the Temple of Light.
What puzzled Ye Cangtian was that, given Nancy's status and strength within the Temple of Light, she didn't even have a seat in the private room.
She seemed to have transformed into a waitress, serving tea and water to the man sitting in front of her, her eyes flashing with humiliation.
As for this man, Ye Cangtian was very unfamiliar with him, but he knew that he was at least a red-robed bishop, if not higher, otherwise, Nancy wouldn't have had such a look of humiliation in her eyes.
Besides the two of them, there were two other unfamiliar men in the room.
Ye Cangtian had seen one of them.
He was an old man in his sixties or seventies, the head of SkyNet, and SkyNet's only God of Slaughter—Xiye.
The other was quite unfamiliar. Ye Cangtian searched his memory but couldn't match him with any identity.
"Qiao, long time no see, how have you been lately?"
Just as Ye Cangtian was guessing the stranger's identity, Zilong greeted the person from the Temple of Light first.
With the single word "Qiao," Ye Cangtian instantly understood the other person's identity.
Qiao, whose full name was unknown, was someone mentioned in the Death Squad's recent intelligence database.
More than twenty years ago, Qiao was a prodigy of the Temple of Light's generation, with a status similar to Nancy's at the time.
However, unlike Nancy, Qiao's information was scarce, making him appear very mysterious. But in his known operations, Qiao was undoubtedly ruthless, leaving no survivors.
Perhaps it was this ruthlessness, killing all those who knew, that allowed him to maintain his mystery today.
"Very good, very good, thank you for your concern."
Qiao smiled slightly at Zilong, his smile devoid of any sincerity, and then he began to introduce them.
He first introduced Xiye, the master of SkyNet, and then turned to the stranger.
"This is the representative of Tingfeng Tower, named Feng Ze."
With a simple introduction, Zilong and Ye Cangtian exchanged glances, noticing the confusion in each other's eyes, clearly having never heard of Tingfeng Tower's existence.
Not only the two of them, but even Xiye, the master of SkyNet, looked puzzled.
"Qiao, none of us have heard of Tingfeng Tower. Are you sure they are reliable?"
The next moment, Xiye spoke first, actually wanting to ask if Tingfeng Tower was qualified to participate in such cooperation.
After all, an existence unknown to both the Dark Association and SkyNet, how much combat power could it have!
Upon hearing this, Qiao smiled and said, "Don't worry, I guarantee with my personal character that Tingfeng Tower is absolutely reliable."
As he spoke, Qiao signaled Nancy to pour tea for Dawn and Zilong, and then changed the subject.
"Everyone, you must be curious about the specific purpose of the Temple of Light's operation, right?"
"I will discuss this matter later. Before we cooperate, I want to ask for everyone's opinion on something!"
Listening to Qiao's words, everyone present cast doubtful glances.
Sensing their gazes, Qiao's smile turned serious, and he said, "Everyone, last time we joined forces to come to China to kill Ye Cangtian, but the operation ultimately failed."
"I wonder if everyone has reflected on why we failed?"
Could it be that the Temple of Light was being so secretive because they were still targeting him?
Listening to Qiao's words, Ye Cangtian muttered to himself.
If that were the case, the Temple of Light was truly insatiable!
It seemed that the lesson learned from eliminating Bedra last time was not enough to alert them. This time, the lesson they received would have to be even more profound.
As Ye Cangtian pondered, Xiye and Zilong exchanged glances. Perhaps they had an idea, but they remained silent, waiting for Qiao to take the initiative.
"Since no one is speaking, I will proactively share my thoughts."
Qiao smiled slightly and continued, "Actually, the reason for our failure is very simple: mutual suspicion, opposition, and acting independently, which led to our failure..."
Qiao stated that with the forces gathered last time, it was difficult to destroy China's forces, but eliminating Ye Cangtian alone, even with China's forces protecting him, would have been a certain death.
The main reason was that they underestimated the difficulty of the mission and, through mutual opposition, wore down each other's strength, ultimately leading to their disarray.
Hearing this, everyone fell into thought.
It made sense. If the Dark Association, Shinobu, Temple of Light, and SkyNet, the four major powers, hadn't fought amongst themselves, how could Ye Cangtian have survived?
"Qiao, we all know these things in our hearts. I think you should stop lecturing us here!"
"Besides, even if what you're saying is not wrong, this is a common phenomenon and cannot be completely eliminated!"
"Because we don't have enough trust among ourselves."
At this moment, Ye Cangtian broke the silence.
Although he was not sure if their target was him.
But mentioning the previous operation, he could confirm that their target was definitely aimed at China's forces.
And their purpose in saying all this was most likely to emphasize the importance of sincere cooperation.
Since he had guessed this, Ye Cangtian naturally would not let them succeed. If all four parties united, it would only be more troublesome for China's forces.
After his words, Zilong frowned slightly and glanced at Dawn.
After all, they were discussing cooperation with Qiao, and the other party hadn't even stated the purpose of the operation yet, and he was already showing such disrespect. He felt it was somewhat inappropriate.
But he didn't say anything, as Dawn was sent by Xing Yuan to assist him. He believed that Dawn's words must have a reason.
Xiye, who also heard Dawn's words, shifted his gaze and finally nodded slowly in agreement.
Regardless of anything else, in the previous operation, the Dark Association and SkyNet were hostile to each other.
Not long after, the two sides were about to turn their hostility into cooperation. Even if the Dark Association trusted them, they would not trust the Dark Association.
In fact, he had even considered using this operation to scheme against the Dark Association!
"Dawn, you are right. We indeed lacked sufficient trust before."
"However, all trust begins from zero. I think we can try to trust each other in this operation."
"At the same time, I believe that only through sincere cooperation can we penetrate the defenses of China's forces and achieve our goals with minimal cost..."
On the other side, seeing that Xiye was somewhat persuaded, Qiao quickly said.
Before the operation, such negative thoughts absolutely could not exist. Otherwise, if they continued to suspect and engage in internal strife, failure would be their only outcome.