Katharine's Frame-Up
"Why did you let Sabina go?" Su Ming pointed to the departing figure, his voice filled with confusion.
"This was Lady Katharine's arrangement," Stanton explained. "We erased her memories of this period and rewrote a new one—this is something Yuya excels at."
Such profound memory alteration must be a cruel and painful process. Sabina's cerebral cortex has likely suffered irreversible damage, and she may now only possess childlike intelligence and some survival instincts.
While it is unpleasant to let such sin live on, Katharine is likely using Sabina to carry out a plan to mislead the Council of Cardinals of the Temple of Light.
"What specific memories did you implant in her?" Su Ming asked with great interest.
"The new memories written into Yuya are from the Cold Mountain Royal Family, the Northern Lands Church Star Sand, and the Final Bone Mad Machines, who joined forces to attack Divine Might Prison and Sea of Divine Grace," Stanton replied.
Su Ming was taken aback at first, then carefully considered it before confirming that he hadn't misunderstood. "But isn't this process just the truth?"
"Lady Katharine specifically instructed me to do this," Stanton explained.
****
Not long ago, a similar conversation took place when Katharine was assigning tasks to these two Feather Race.
"My lord, is there any special significance to doing this?" Yuya asked, puzzled. "Why are we going to such lengths to rewrite a memory that is completely consistent with the facts?"
"Sabina has been brainwashed into a state of idiocy; the Divine Covenant Faction will definitely send experts in this field to examine her. They'll deduce that her memories have been erased and rewritten," Katharine explained. "If you were in their shoes, how would you feel in this situation?"
Yuya thought for a moment and began to understand, "The Divine Covenant Faction will definitely think that this is a clumsy trick to frame someone?"
"That's exactly right." Katharine nodded and continued, "When the investigation team sent by the Radiant Holy City arrives at the Dome Mountains, they will find weapons and equipment we deliberately left behind, bearing our identification marks. But they won't find any trace of the Plundering Clock —what conclusions do you think such a discovery will lead them to?"
It should be noted that the Pope and the Council of Cardinals received "reliable" intelligence beforehand, confirming that the Plundering Clock was about to bring misfortune to the Sacred Mountain. Therefore, the "overly clean" appearance at the scene would instead become evidence that the Plundering Clock was trying to conceal something.
"That's a brilliant move, going against the grain!" Stanton exclaimed.
Katharine didn't actually finish her story; this was merely the most ingenious part of the strategy. What truly sealed everything was another, more "orthodox" plan.
She has already sent people to deal with those "potato" suppliers, silencing them all and meticulously fabricating perfect "Plundering Clock" member identities for them.
When the Divine Covenant Faction's intelligence agents traced Sabina and the school principal Javier's long-term involvement in the trafficking of young girls, they discovered that the suppliers they traded with were actually members of the Plundering Clock!
In this way, the Council of Cardinals the Divine Covenant Faction would naturally come to a reasonable conclusion: the tragedy on Sacred Mountain was entirely the result of these two fools letting the wolf into the house!
Perfectly, this story of trafficking young girls did exist in Sabina's mind; it was still a pure, untainted memory!
These contrasting facts form irrefutable evidence!
In short, regardless of the process, the Sacred Mountain prison break operation, on the surface, finally returned to the original plan of the Plundering Clock —all except the necromancers were in Su Ming's hands.
"The Divine Covenant Faction has suffered such a devastating blow, with its younger generation almost entirely wiped out. They will surely unleash their boundless rage upon the Plundering Clock." Yuya finally understood the plan's intent, her eyes gleaming with excitement. "We should be able to have some peace and quiet for a long time!"
"Of course." Katharine nodded slightly, a dangerous smile curving her red lips. "By the time they finally break free from this mindset through other intelligence channels, it will be at least three or four months from now."
A cold, sharp glint flashed in her eyes. "Then, it will be time for them to receive an even more special 'gift' that we've prepared!"
****
"People who play tactics are all cunning," Su Ming remarked, shaking his head with a sigh, completely unconcerned that he was the mastermind behind this "gift."
Stanton bowed. "President Su, please allow me to take my leave for lunch."
"No need for such formalities," Su Ming returned the greeting earnestly, his expression sincere. "I've truly been fortunate to receive so much help from you during this time!"
Looking back, Stanton truly deserves immense credit. From the very beginning of the escape from the Cui'an Sea Cliff, this Archbishop of the Feather Race repeatedly risked his life to deliver crucial intelligence, even going so far as to hold back on the battlefield. Since arriving in this strange new world, he has arguably been the person who has helped Su Ming and Zijin the most.
"This is our duty." Stanton's expression turned solemn, his tone firm. "Lord Li has helped our Feather Race immensely, and is our only hope for migrating out of this frigid land! For this, we will go through fire and water without hesitation!"
"It seems that Zijin's reputation among the Feather Race has definitely reached the 'revered' level," Su Ming thought to himself.
****
In the afternoon, a large number of collected or dismantled supplies, like a long dragon, were continuously transported through the tunnel to the Sheltered Valley base.
For the next few hours, the tunnel was clearly converted to one-way traffic. The quantity and variety of supplies were particularly large, such as the "Everwatching Obelisk" components dismantled by Newman, the alchemical materials collected by Zijin, and the Red No missile materials found by the recycling team.
In addition, there were all sorts of metal products. For example, the gun emplacements of Sea of Divine Grace were not destroyed, and all those weapons were made of valuable metals, so they were cut into pieces, stacked on transport vehicles, and brought back.
Of course, it doesn't matter if something like the Divine Might Prison Turret is blown to pieces; Su Ming never cares about the appearance of the materials.
Incidentally, those frost wolves were once again relegated to pulling carts as mules. Having done this work multiple times, their load-bearing capacity had noticeably improved. Some of their previously thin parts had even developed muscle bulges, which greatly tempted Su Ming.
He examined them carefully, looking for one that had suffered from heatstroke due to hard work.
Significant progress has also been made in the energy sector, completely resolving the needs for the next phase.
The search team discovered a stockpile of thousands of tons of high-quality coal at a washing and processing plant near the coal mine. Necromancers directed skeleton laborers to frantically load the coal onto trucks, a scene resembling a swarm of hungry ants carrying winter food.
Many of these were unprocessed raw coals, which Su Ming arranged for people to screen and clean. With the upgraded carrying capacity of the Youth Civilization, plus the downhill advantage on the return trip, it was fully capable of handling this batch of energy reserves.