Yu Yuan's answer left both Jiu Feng and Mona stunned.
The Esoteric Church!
The Esoteric Church, of all places!
One of them was a Saint of the Esoteric Church, while the other had mastered many of its Sacrifice rituals.
They knew all too well how powerful and terrifying the Esoteric Church was.
And now they had suddenly learned that they were going to explore the lair of the Deity they had once worshipped.
The thought left them deeply conflicted.
It hardly felt real.
"Master, do you mean the Deity we worshipped?"
Jiu Feng asked for confirmation.
Yu Yuan nodded lightly.
"That's right. I only just learned about it myself."
"Th-then do you know what happened? Back then... what were the Wasteland catastrophe and that warning about? Why did we suddenly lose contact?"
Jiu Feng had been raised by the Esoteric Church since childhood to be a Saint. Though he was wholly loyal to Yu Yuan, the upheaval in the church still mattered deeply to him. It might even have been closely tied to the Wasteland's arrival in this world.
Yu Yuan thought for a moment, then explained:
"How should I put it? Simply put, the thing you worshipped was a consciousness born from the obsession of a great being. The Esoteric Church was that consciousness's creation.
"For reasons I don't know, the consciousness suddenly ran into trouble and collapsed. That was why the Esoteric Church lost contact with it.
"The Civilization Ruins we're about to explore were left behind by that great being. Their purpose is to find someone to inherit his legacy."
At that, Yu Yuan pointed at Jiu Feng's head.
"You've actually come into contact with him already. The Biological Modification talent you gained came from the knowledge he scattered as part of his legacy."
"The Esoteric Church