9?

She was an old woman.

Zhou Yun couldn't guess her age, but she'd clearly lived past the age of survival in the Lower Hive.

The woman's silver-gray hair was meticulously coiled into a vortex, forming a circle at the back of her head.

Her eyes, unlike the usual cloudy dullness of the elderly, held a constantly shifting spirituality.

Her figure was somewhat hunched, but cleverly concealed beneath a light blue robe.

In the hand extending from beneath the robe, she clutched a cheap notebook with a black, hard-cover.

Written on the cover in grayish-white ink was a complex nine-digit number: 387,420,489.

The number was arranged in a spiral on the cover, as if constantly rotating like a vortex.

But Zhou Yun couldn't discern any pattern in the number.

"Is this the actuary and mathematician you were talking about?" Zhou Yun asked Lena.

Lena's gaze was somewhat distant.

She murmured, "Madam Nama is already this old. Her husband died early; I wonder how she's been living alone."

Lena composed herself and looked at Zhou Yun, saying, "This is Madam Nama Carl. Her family has a long history, serving as actuaries for a noble's factory for generations."

"She has a good personality, is kind and interesting, and enjoys studying mathematics for fun."

"Her husband died early, she didn't remarry, and she has no children, but she loves children and often teaches math to the neighbors' kids."

"She's a very good person. The only issue is that she often forgets to pray to the Emperor because she's so engrossed in her math research."

"Mother scolded her for it many times."

Lena's words were almost a stream of consciousness, her eyes filled with unconcealed nostalgia.

"Is your source of information... yourself?" Zhou Yun raised an eyebrow and asked.

Lena nodded gently.

She looked at the street block before them with unconcealed nostalgia.

"I used to live here, in District Nine of the Upper Hive."

"My family was Madam Nama's neighbor. We were devout followers of the Ecclesiarchy, and my parents worked in interstellar trade for a noble."

"Later, I awakened my psykana, and the black ships were about to visit Asphodel. My mother let me escape from the Governor's troops who collected the psykers' tithe."

Lena's gaze grew more complex.

After a moment of silence, she suddenly looked up at Zhou Yun. "My mother was a devout follower of the Ecclesiarchy; letting me go wasn't an act of rebellion."

"She knew I had received the Emperor's revelation. She knew my mission. She... she did it to let me fulfill the Emperor's will..."

"Are you sure it wasn't purely out of maternal love?" Zhou Yun stared at Lena, suddenly asking.

Lena froze, as if she had never considered this question.

"Can maternal love be greater than faith?" Lena stared back at Zhou Yun, asking, "How can faith be confined by narrow..."

Lena's tone became sharp, as if Zhou Yun's words were an insult to her, an insult to her mother.

"I don't know."

Zhou Yun shook his head and replied, "But can paternal love be greater than love for humanity?"

Lena blinked, seemingly not understanding what Zhou Yun was saying.

In Zhou Yun's vision, the winged figure in the white light let out a bitter sigh.

"Does He love us? Love me and all my brothers?"

The winged figure in the white light spoke with a hint of bitterness, "Even if He does, He's too busy loving humanity to have time to love His children."

Zhou Yun glanced at him, vaguely sensing fragmented humanity in his words.

But did this humanity belong to an Archangel? Zhou Yun couldn't be sure.

He turned his head and looked at the slightly annoyed Lena. "So, what's the plan?"

"I don't want to hurt Madam Nama, nor do I want to attract too much attention."

Lena looked at Zhou Yun and said, "Since she's still in this neighborhood, it means she hasn't moved."

"To be safe, we'll follow her to confirm, and observe her movements."

Lena looked at Madam Nama Carl, who was walking towards a building in the distance.

"When she's not there, we'll sneak into her home."

"If my memory serves me right, she should have a safe in her house, and the records we're looking for are inside."

Lena looked at Zhou Yun, blinked, and asked, "Can you handle it?"

"Easy," Zhou Yun replied casually.

Sneaking into an ordinary citizen's home in the Hive City, retrieving a record from a safe—this job couldn't be easier.

However, Zhou Yun's inner caution continued to warn him.

"387,420,489."

Zhou Yun quietly mumbled the complex string of numbers from Madam Nama Carl's notebook.

This number seemed to have no pattern at all. Did it require some complicated mathematical formula to reveal its meaning?

"What?" Lena was startled for a moment, then asked.

"This string of numbers, the one written on the cover of Madam Nama Carl's notebook, what does it mean?" Zhou Yun glanced at Lena and asked.

Lena frowned. "I didn't even remember that string of numbers. You have a good memory."

Zhou Yun shrugged; his memory was indeed quite good.

What truly worried Zhou Yun was whether this string of numbers held some kind of "numerological" meaning.

It had nine digits, and the last digit was also nine.

But there were many nine-digit numbers, and even more numbers ending in nine. It couldn't be that all these numbers were connected to the Changer of Ways, could they?

Even if it couldn't serve as evidence, a sense of vigilance still arose in Zhou Yun's heart.

"Are you sure this woman is trustworthy?" Zhou Yun asked Lena in a low voice.

If this woman was truly a follower of the Changer of Ways, Zhou Yun wouldn't hesitate to kill her in the street.

After all, he had a meeting scheduled with the Governor; killing someone was a minor matter he wouldn't dwell on.

"My family are all devout believers. If Madam Nama had a problem back then, they would have reported her long ago."

Lena shook her head firmly, but her tone shifted slightly.

"It's just that I'm not sure if she might have been corrupted in the past few years."

"You're not planning to just kill Madam Nama, are you? Based solely on a string of numbers?"

Lena looked at Zhou Yun with a hint of horror.

"You might be a bit too extreme. You should at least find more reliable clues."

Lena's words made sense, but alarms kept ringing in Zhou Yun's mind. He felt increasingly that something was wrong.

However, if he ignored the issue and left, he might fall right into the Changer of Ways' plan.

He decided to observe the woman first and meet with the Governor before taking any action.

If she truly had a problem, he would report her directly to Governor Augustus Flax.

Although the Governor neglected his official duties, he would never allow a follower of Tzeentch to exist right at his doorstep, threatening his safety.

In Zhou Yun's memory, the Governor, despite being a scoundrel and corrupt, had never been corrupted by Chaos.

"387,420,489," Zhou Yun couldn't help but mumble the string of numbers again, trying to find some pattern.