Chapter 824: Chapter 824

"This is my father, this is Uncle Endir, and this is Uncle Jeko,"

Vili stood amidst the towering stacks of books, looking at the photo frames placed between the books, and explained to He Ao in a gentle voice, "The one taking notes is Vincent."

Then she turned her head, squinted her eyes, and looked at He Ao with a smile in her eyes, "Guess who took this photo?"

By this time, they had returned to Vili’s villa, staying in the study left by her father.

"There was no photographer,"

He Ao glanced at the photo frame and said slowly, "This is a printed electronic painting."

"This is actually... huh?"

Vili, who had been feeling smug, paused midsentence, her eyes widening in surprise as she stared at He Ao. She looked from side to side at He Ao’s cheeks, then examined the people in the painting carefully, "How did you know?"

He Ao replied calmly, "The people in this ’photo’ are all too ’vivid.’"

His gaze lingered on the four individuals in the photo; each of their expressions was lifelike, appearing even more ’real’ than in a photo.

In the Federation, the electronic painting sector popularized a style called ’realism,’ where artists were keen to use electronic painting techniques to create works that resembled ’photos,’ taking pride in deceiving the eye.

However, most of these artists didn’t genuinely strive to make paintings identical to photos; instead, they integrated their understanding of the artwork and the emotions they wished to convey about the characters into their realistic-looking paintings.

They aimed to restore the image while preserving as much ’emotion’ and ’meaning’ as possible.

In their paintings, they often used special techniques to embellish the movements and expressions of the characters, making the people in these paintings seem more ’animated’ and charged with energy than those in photos.

Of course, some artists with a wicked sense of humor would intentionally leave ’flaws’ that could never appear in real photos to show that the image was actually a painting.

In a way, this served as a kind of easter egg.

This was content that Vian had stumbled upon while learning painting and, coincidentally, art appreciation.

The painting in front of He Ao contained such an ’easter egg.’

In the picture, the stitching on Endir’s clothes had an unusual flow that didn’t quite align with the trajectory of normal sewing lines.

But the painting was so well executed that He Ao couldn’t be sure whether it was a photo or a painting.

So he straightforwardly admitted it was a guess.

Of course, by specifically asking him this question, Vili had implicitly indicated that there was ’something off’ about the painting.

"You can guess that? Is there really anything in this world that could stump you?"

Vili pouted and then looked back at the photo, explaining softly, "This was ’recreated’ by a realism style electronic painter who was passing by at the time, based on descriptions from my father and the others. United Industries had just been established then, and Father really liked this painting, so he printed it out and placed it in this library."

"Do all four of them have this painting?"

He Ao looked at the four individuals in the portrait and asked quietly.

Vili shook her head, "It seems only Father printed this painting out?"

She paused for a moment and continued,

"However, Father told me that all four of them really liked this painting, and it just so happened to be the time when their relationships were at their best.

"At that time, my father was the chairman of the board of United Industries, Uncle Endir was the Mayor, Vincent was the CEO of the mining business division, and Uncle Jeko was the CEO of the industrial division."

Her tone faltered slightly, as if she was recalling something,

"When Father was alive, he often reminisced about these things with me. He told me that Vincent was very capable but too focused on ’efficiency,’ and he often argued with Uncle Jeko over the costs of constructing the industrial division."

"The mining business sector represents the core mining interests of United Industries, and most of its shareholders are also former mining company bosses,"

He Ao said slowly, "The power of this position in United Industries is probably second only to your father’s. Your father placing him in such a role shows he truly trusted him."

In the normal hierarchical structure, Vincent’s position might even be seen as Skone’s designated successor.

In that sense, when Vincent overthrew Skone, it was kind of like a ’court coup’.

The crown prince united with the senate to overthrow the emperor and thus ascend to the throne.

Vili nodded, "Father often told me that he thought Vincent would understand him. Vincent used to be his most fervent supporter and follower, even risking his life multiple times during the foundation of United Industries to deliver messages for him."

"He may not misunderstand your father,"

He Ao looked at the figure in the photo frame, speaking in an even tone, "But for him, his power comes from the original mining force sector, the achievements he made, and the dividends. He can’t betray his source of power."

Hearing this, Vili nodded gently.

She tilted her head to look at He Ao’s youthful profile and suddenly laughed, "You really sound like a little teacher."

"Drop the ’little,’ thank you,"

He Ao raised his head and glanced at her, "Miss Boss Lady."

Vili’s smile paused for a second.

"Old Jeko is the head of the industrial sector, meaning he once had significant exposure in Novite District?

He Ao brought the conversation back, casually asking, "He’s highly esteemed among the common folk?"

Vili came back to her senses and pondered, "The older generation seems to quite recognize Uncle Jeko. But after my father died, he completely gave up all his positions and stopped involving himself in these affairs."

He Ao nodded lightly, then looked at Vili, "Has the Mayor not replied to you yet?"

It had been a long time since they contacted Endir in the car.

"Oh, right. Uncle Endir usually responds to my messages quickly,"

Vili slapped her forehead as she remembered, raising her wrist device, "Wait, I’ll call and ask someone from the City Government."

As she lifted the phone, He Ao turned his head back to take another glance at the photo frame.

This frame was unremarkable, nestled between bookshelves.

In this frame, time was forever frozen in those passionate years.

Back then, all four of them were young.

He Ao’s gaze drifted up from the photo frame, settling on the most conspicuous place in the entire ’library’.

He looked at the glass frosted cabinet holding the painting named "Baptism."

The painting still displayed its twisted peculiarity, and with his Spiritual Vision, He Ao could still see through the frosted cabinet to the old man kneeling on the ground, receiving the ’painting’ of light.

He Ao lowered his head and opened his wrist device, a file summary report appearing in his field of view.

This was the collated report generated from their journey of attacking various churches, planting Eve’s program in their computers, and then having Eve gather and summarize the information.

Though the Eternal Secret Teachings utilized a partitioned system to isolate intelligence between different regions, as long as enough regions were breached, He Ao could still roughly piece together a complete intelligence structure.

After processing by Eve, an ’introduction’ to the basic operations of the Eternal Secret Teachings in the Storm Zone was summarized.

Behind him, Vili’s persistent phone calls echoed.

He Ao then opened the report in his hands and studied it carefully.

This report essentially listed the operational structure of the Eternal Secret Teachings, and through various snippets of information collected, He Ao had roughly reconstructed the entire ’power structure’ of the Eternal Secret Teachings.

At the very top of the Eternal Secret Teachings was a religious leader known as the ’Holy See.’

The command of the Holy See was absolute, and no one could defy the Holy See.

Beneath the Holy See were the Bishops.

The Bishop that He Ao had encountered in the Inner Church was the one from the Storm Zone, who possessed immense authority and could decide on anything within the diocese.

In the Storm Zone, apart from one Bishop, there were also two Vice Bishops.

One Vice Bishop was Lockway, who had been killed by He Ao in the Inner Church after having once sent someone to ’push’ Yiluo off the rockery.

The other Vice Bishop was confronting people from the Eternal Ancient Teachings outside on the evening before He Ao entered the Inner Church and hence had not encountered He Ao.

After He Ao had eliminated the Bishop and the Vice Bishop inside the church, the only remaining Vice Bishop succeeded in the hierarchy and became the new Bishop of the Storm Zone.

According to some information from the churches, this ’new Bishop’ seemed to have sustained serious injuries.

Holy See—Bishop—Divisional churches.

This is the standard power structure.

However, aside from this structure, Eve actually noticed some ’additional’ structures.

In some encrypted files from various churches and the main cathedral, Eve discovered that the encryption ’sign-off’ at the end of some files differed from that of the Storm Zone main cathedral.

The source of these files also did not come from the usual channels of the main cathedral.

But once decrypted by the Eternal Secret Teachings’ decryption system, these files were directly recognized as instructions from the ’main cathedral.’

This meant that there might exist another power system within the Eternal Secret Teachings, or another ’position’ of someone equal to or greater than a ’Bishop,’ whose commands could bypass the Bishop and directly reach the grassroots churches.

Through the analysis of files from different sources than the main cathedral, Eve deduced that the instructions might very possibly come from the same person.

Following the Eternal Secret Teachings’ logic that strength determines hierarchy, this ’person’ capable of issuing commands over the Storm Zone Bishop was likely not weaker than the Storm Zone Bishop.

The Bishop of the Storm Zone that He Ao had previously encountered had a strength around B-level, so this ’hidden Bishop’ should also be at B-level.

The Vice Bishop who succeeded as the new Bishop of the Storm Zone probably wasn’t weak either, also likely to be B-level.

Last night, He Ao had used a diversion to lure away the ’pursuit’ of the Eternal Secret Teachings; this lure might have been used on this ’new Bishop.’

But after this new Bishop was lured away, Lena’s direction saw no new B-level pursuing.

This was inconsistent with the Eternal Secret Teachings’ previous policy of thorough elimination.

After all, a diversion only works on one tiger; if there were two tigers, they could split up and pursue independently.

Therefore, at least last night, in Wint City, the Eternal Secret Teachings might have had only one freely deployable B-level.

Was this ’hidden Bishop’ not B-level? Or had they other tasks preventing their intervention?

He Ao personally leaned towards the latter.

That being said, the Eternal Secret Teachings might very likely have two B-levels of differing strengths.

And those mercenaries secretly transported into the city by United Industries also had a B-level among them; otherwise, United Industries wouldn’t count on them.

Therefore, this city now had at least three suspected B-levels.

And that was after He Ao had gone through a round of eliminations.

If we count the Sky Behemoth, Levins, and those two Bishops and Vice Bishops who got killed, as well as Cult Leader Bright.

This city’s B-level characters were almost numbering two hands’ worth.

Although among those people He Ao killed, only Bright and the original Bishop of the Storm Zone were true B-levels, the others only managed to cling to that rank through sacrifice exploits.

But this level was still extremely terrifying.

Besides these B-levels, there was also the Eternal Divine Nation, a creation possibly of a Divine Being, and the ’Holy See’ that stood high above everyone’s heads.

The intricate web of Wint City even surpassed Dawn City to some extent.

Of course, this might also be related to the attribute of Wint City being similar to a ’religious holy land’.

If the headquarters of the Eternal Secret Teachings were not here, then the Eternal Divine Nation would not be here either, nor would the people of the Eternal Ancient Teachings be attracted here.

In fact, the Eternal Secret Teachings and the Eternal Ancient Teachings were not merely two cult organizations limited to Wint City, but large secret organizations that had spread across various cities within the Federation.

And the energy mines of Wint City drew in the ancient Leviathan like Rockville Energy Group, allowing United Industries that could leverage the power of Rockville Energy Group to attract B-level strength.

With both joined here, Wint City had in fact become the ’stage’ for confrontations of different regional large organizations, the very center of the storm.

Of course, the intersection of these forces here also had its intrinsic connections.

He Ao flipped through the information in his hands page by page.

The remaining three B-levels probably wouldn’t strike rashly, and among the people currently around He Ao, the strongest was Lena, who had just been promoted.

Once he got tied down by one B-level, the other B-levels perhaps wouldn’t hesitate to deal with the rest.

Moreover, behind these B-levels, there might still be an even more powerful Leviathan lurking.

And then there was the Eternal Divine Nation, whose location was still unknown.

Even though he had already done so much, the storm was still unbearably immense.

But time was not on his side.

He was almost there...

The young man’s gaze briefly paused, resting on a photograph in the documents.

It was a gentle-looking man in a white robe, a man in a white robe whose memory was deeply etched in He Ao’s mind.

The man in the white robe who had summoned monsters in the Storm Sea, and then was killed by He Ao.

This man in white was likely sent by Kate to search for ’Yiluo’s’ corpse, but He Ao had not found any information about this white-robed man in Kate’s files.

Now, he saw his information in a coastal church.

This man was a Priest of the coastal church of the Eternal Secret Teachings, his mission was to go to sea with the church’s exploration vessels and to a certain extent, protect the church’s ships.

The mechanical man, chainsaw man, Big Beard, whom He Ao had once encountered, were all ’contracted’ security personnel from this church, who often acted alongside the man in white.

He Ao took a deep breath and reviewed all the information about the white-robed man.

Before this incident, the white-robed man had always been exploring new mining areas nearby, even venturing deep into the Storm Sea.

In that instant, countless scattered fragments reassembled in He Ao’s mind.

He looked up at the frosted glass above him.

With a loud shout, he leaped out, grabbed hold of the glass display, and opened the cabinet.

Inside, it was completely empty.