9?

That was an elderly woman,

Zhou Yun could not tell how old she was, but she had certainly reached an age that people in the Lower Hive could never live to see,

Her silver-gray hair had been meticulously coiled into a swirl, looping around the back of her head,

Her eyes lacked almost all of the cloudiness and dullness common in the elderly, instead carrying an ever-shifting liveliness,

Her figure was somewhat hunched, though it was cleverly concealed beneath a pale blue robe,

In the hand extending from beneath her robe, she clutched a cheap notebook with a stiff black cover,

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

The digits spiraled across the notebook as though they were a vortex constantly turning,

But Zhou Yun truly could not see any pattern in them.

"So this is the actuary and mathematician you mentioned?" Zhou Yun asked Lena.

Lena's gaze was somewhat unfocused,

She murmured, "Mrs. Nama is already so old. Her husband died early. I wonder how she has managed living alone."

Lena composed herself and said to Zhou Yun:

"This is Mrs. Nama Carl. Her family has a long history of serving as actuaries for a noble's factories, generation after generation."

"She has a wonderful personality, gentle and interesting to everyone. She usually studies mathematics for fun."

"Her husband died young. She never remarried and had no children, but she likes children very much and often teaches the neighborhood children mathematics."

"She is a very good person. Her only problem is that she often forgets to pray to The Emperor because she is studying mathematics."

"My mother scolded her about it many times."

Lena's words were almost a ramble, her eyes filled with undisguised nostalgia.

"That information channel you mentioned... was it you?" Zhou Yun asked, raising a brow.

Lena nodded lightly.

She looked over the district before them with unconcealed longing,

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

"Our family was Mrs. Nama's neighbor. We were devout followers of the Imperial Creed. My parents served a noble's interstellar trade operations."

"Later, I awakened psychic powers, and the Black Ships were about to visit Asford. My mother let me go, from the troops collecting the Governor's psyker tithe..."

Lena's expression grew increasingly complicated.

After a moment of silence, she suddenly raised her head and looked at Zhou Yun. "My mother was a devout follower of the Imperial Creed. Letting me go was not an act of rebellion."

".She knew I had received The Emperor's revelation. She knew my mission. She... she did it so I could fulfill The Emperor's will..."

"Are you sure it was not simply maternal love?" Zhou Yun stared at Lena and suddenly asked.

Lena froze where she stood, as though she had never considered that question before.

"Can maternal love be greater than faith?" Lena stared back at Zhou Yun. "How could faith be constrained by something so narrow?"

Her tone sharpened, as though Zhou Yun's words had insulted her—and insulted her mother.

"I don't know."

Zhou Yun shook his head and replied:

"But can a father's love be greater than his love for humanity?"

Lena blinked, seemingly not understanding what Zhou Yun meant.

Within the field of vision only Zhou Yun could see, the winged figure in the white light let out an almost bitter sigh.

"Did He love us? Did He love me and all my brothers?"

The winged figure in the white light spoke with a trace of bitterness:

"Even if He did, He was too busy loving humanity to have time to love His children."

Zhou Yun glanced at him and vaguely sensed an almost shattered humanity in his words,

But did that humanity belong to an Archangel? Zhou Yun could not tell.

He turned away and looked at the slightly angered Lena. "So, what is the plan?"

"I do not want to hurt Mrs. Nama, nor do I want to attract too much attention."

Lena looked at Zhou Yun and said:

"Since she is still in this district, that means she has not moved away."

"To be safe, we will follow her and confirm it, while observing her movements."

Lena looked toward Nama Carl, who was walking toward a building in the distance.

"We will find a time when she is not home and break into her house."

"If I remember correctly, there should be a safe in her home. The records we need are inside."

Lena looked at Zhou Yun, blinked, and asked, "You can handle that, right?"

"Easy," Zhou Yun said casually,

Breaking into an ordinary hive resident's home and taking a record from a safe could not have been easier.

But Zhou Yun's caution continued to warn him,

"387,420,489."

Zhou Yun quietly muttered the complicated number from Nama Carl's notebook,

The number really seemed to have no pattern. Did it require some complex mathematical formula to reveal its meaning?

"What?" Lena paused, then asked.

"That number—the number written on Nama Carl's notebook cover. What does it mean?" Zhou Yun asked, glancing at Lena.

Lena frowned. "I did not even remember that number. You have a good memory."

Zhou Yun shrugged. His memory was fairly good.

What truly worried Zhou Yun was whether that number carried some sort of meaning in "numerology."

It had nine digits, and its final digit was also nine,

But there were plenty of nine-digit numbers, and even more numbers ending in nine. It could not be that all such numbers were connected to the Changer of Ways, could it?

Yet even if it could not serve as evidence, vigilance still rose within Zhou Yun.

"Are you sure this woman is not a problem?" Zhou Yun asked Lena in a low voice.

If this woman truly was a follower of the Changer of Ways, Zhou Yun would not mind suddenly killing her in the street,

After all, he still had an appointment with the Governor. He would not care about something as minor as killing someone.

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

Lena shook her head firmly,

But then her tone shifted slightly:

"It is just that I am not sure whether she has been corrupted over the past few years."

"You are not planning to kill Mrs. Nama outright, are you? Based only on one string of numbers."

Lena looked at Zhou Yun with alarm:

"You seem a little too extreme. At the very least, we should find more reliable clues."

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

But if he ignored the issue and simply turned away, he might instead fall into the Changer of Ways' plan.

He decided to observe the woman first and meet the Governor before taking action,

If she truly was a problem, he could report her directly to Governor Augustus Flax,

Although the Governor neglected government affairs, he would never allow a follower of Tzeentch to exist on his doorstep and threaten his safety.

In Zhou Yun's memories, the Governor might have been a bastard and thoroughly decadent,

But he had never been corrupted by Chaos.

"387,420,489," Zhou Yun could not help muttering the number again, trying to find some pattern in it.