Undercurrents

In an inconspicuous valley somewhere in Northern Europe, a shepherd slowly walked in. After looking around to confirm he was alone, he quickly crouched down and crawled to a large boulder. He fumbled around and pressed a hidden button. The stone opened, revealing an elevator inside. The man slowly stepped in.

As the elevator descended, the deepest parts of the underground were gradually revealed.

Deep underground lay a vast complex of military bases. Countless fighter jets, large and small, were neatly parked along the runways. Personnel of all types bustled around the hangars, completing the final loading procedures.

Four gray-black floating warships stood silently at the edge of the platform. Unlike Hyperion's rounded design, these four warships had sharp angles, with triangular and quadrilateral shapes forming their surrounding armor plates.

"Did you get the intel?" a woman with waist-length golden curly hair, dressed in a Russian military uniform, asked as she saw the shepherd approaching.

"Yes, Lady Cocolia," the shepherd replied, kneeling on one knee. He took out an envelope and respectfully presented it. "All the detailed information is in here."

"Excellent, you did well," the woman said with a smile, taking the envelope. "The Xuanyuan Sword will be ours..."

"Hurry, hurry, we have to get to the airport, why are you so slow!" Kiana stood with her hands on her hips in front of Sheng Jiu, who had arrived late.

"What the— forget it, just open your eyes and see what I was doing!" Sheng Jiu swept aside his bangs on the left side of his face, revealing thick bandages.

"...I... you..." Kiana's face flushed and paled instantly. She quickly snatched the suitcase from Sheng Jiu's hand to hide her embarrassment. "Let's... let's go!"

Everyone boarded the bus the academy had prepared for them to go to the airport. Along the way, Sheng Jiu clutched a small blue crystal pendant, muttering something under his breath.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Kiana asked curiously, watching the muttering Sheng Jiu.

"Praying for us," Sheng Jiu said earnestly. "Blessing our journey to be safe."

"Tch, charlatan..." Kiana pouted and turned to look out the window. Suddenly, she noticed a small object flying towards her out of the corner of her eye.

"Ah!" Kiana caught the flying pendant. "What is this?"

Sheng Jiu turned his head towards the window and casually scratched the bandage on his head. "It's a charm, I'm lending it to you. Remember to return it when we get back." He then muttered to himself in a very small voice, "Come back alive..."

Unexpectedly, Kiana heard his quiet words. Her face flushed slightly, and she carefully put the pendant around her neck.

The bus was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. Sheng Jiu was discussing legends of Nine Nether with Fu Hua, while Himeko and Kiana were playing cards. No one mentioned the difficulty of the mission again, treating it as just another ordinary suppression mission...

"So, the Xuanyuan Sword, rumored to be a Divine Key, was also buried with Ji Lin as a burial item beneath Nine Nether?" Sheng Jiu asked Fu Hua, flipping through a scroll in his hand.

Fu Hua adjusted his glasses and stated with certainty, "That's right. I strongly agree with your point of view, student Sheng Jiu. Furthermore, the Xuanyuan Sword is highly likely to be an ancestral Divine Key. Based on the information we have, the Xuanyuan Sword seems to have appeared out of nowhere. It might have formed completely autonomously, which is extremely rare among the known Divine Keys."