The Forbidden Faction's Spokesman

"No, it's nothing." Chen Xuan coughed and looked away. "It sounds convincing, but you can't fool me. Don't people from the Angel Alliance regularly cut flesh from Lucy? If no one can come back out after going in, how did her flesh spread across the world?"

The Mind Ring and the Flawless Crystal were both inseparable from Mother Body Lucy. He had already learned that secret from the future.

Liu Li looked up in mild surprise and pushed aside the white veil before her face, revealing part of one eye. As she studied Chen Xuan, he saw her purple eye too. Its pupil was nothing a human could possess. It looked more like an intricate system: a shifting prismatic gem at the center, countless points of starlight orbiting it, their paths forming an impossibly complex flower.

It reminded him of Earth and its satellites. If someone took a time-lapse photograph from a space station of Earth and every artificial satellite orbiting it, this was probably what it would look like.

"I didn't expect you to know so much." Liu Li gave a soft snort. "But I wasn't trying to scare you. There are conditions for approaching Lucy. Even the Angels she favors most wouldn't dare enter when her Stability Level is at nine. You do have an Angel among you, but that only meets half the conditions."

"Mother Body Lucy... favors Angels?" Elorie asked doubtfully.

"I told you, didn't I? All humans originated from her. Angels are simply the luckier ones among humanity. The bloodline that carries your power is a gift from the Mother Body."

"What nonsense," she muttered, plainly unconvinced.

Chen Xuan, however, heard something else in her words.

When he traded with Elorie, he had discovered that she possessed an ability called "Affinity Blood," described as Forbidden.