On the eve of the Gilded O'Kelo Cup.
While plotting something, Barbosa either accidentally or deliberately ran into Helena, who had once been his friend.
At Helena's side, he saw the product of God's Alchemy—the Little Sun God.
Xu Nan deduced that Barbosa had probably begun calculating how to use this child to achieve his unspeakable goal from the moment he saw the Little Sun God.
Using their former relationship, Barbosa persuaded Helena to bring the Little Sun God into the Gilded O'Kelo Cup competition.
Given the methods he had displayed, even if Helena had not originally intended to do so, she would have been easily persuaded.
This basically matched the information Xu Nan had gotten from Helena.
The only question was this: had Helena acted willingly, or had she been unknowingly persuaded?
Since Helena was already dead, there was no way to verify that.
But none of that mattered.
What mattered was that the appearance of the Little Sun God had successfully caused a massive uproar in the alchemy world.
The alchemists from both camps argued themselves hoarse.
With the Anonymous One fanning the flames, someone had thought of the Pen of Judgment in Halse Palace—this had been almost inevitable.
Thus, there had been strong calls for the Legendary Council to open Halse Palace and bring out the Pen of Judgment to settle the alchemists' dispute.
Unfortunately, Ansu Li had vetoed it all.
As a legendary wizard, Barbosa could certainly have anticipated that outcome.
So he had a backup plan.
The Aurora Celebration.
Barbosa had contacted Magic Goddess Anlun through some secret means—this was questionable, purely Xu Nan's own speculation.
Although the location of each Aurora Celebration was more or less fixed, without someone else's help, it would have been unlikely for Anlun's avatar to slip past Stephenson's