The object in the "Great Oracle's" hands looked, at first glance, like a purple-gold insect cocoon, but it gave off a metallic, icy sheen. It was rather like some kind of avant-garde occult art piece.
Though Yu Lian had already focused almost all his attention on the "Hunter" in front of him, as a man with "cosmic perception," he could still catch a glimpse of the Tillek woman out of the corner of his eye. He immediately noticed that she was holding an Enlightener artifact known as the "Leviathan's Nest," and felt an instant sense of kinship.
He wasn't particularly clear on what the thing did, but he could be sure that it was very important to Shally, too.
In his previous life, the first time he met Shally—and the battle that broke out between them—had happened during an expedition into an Enlightener ruin. He'd run into Shally, who had brought several combat-oriented Lord Bugs with her. He'd simply been looking for something to help make ends meet, while she had come solely for that Enlightener relic.
But Shally, with her carapace-covered body and several combat bugs in tow, had hardly looked like one of the good guys. Naturally, when she ran into him, a big fight had followed.
Back then, he'd been just a little stronger than Shally, but she had those Lord Bugs to help her, each one wielding a kind of spiritual talent, and that made her just a little stronger than him. Of course, he'd had other companions with him, so they'd ended up in a draw that satisfied no one.
In the end, the fighting had caused structural damage to the ruin, and the classic treasure-hunting tale of the collapsing site had played out. He and his companions had gone through untold hardships before finally