The Magician of Clow

Chapter 1507 What Was Hidden Behind That Night (Part 2)
Upon hearing Ling's last word of doubt, Fang Ran stared blankly at New York City for a moment.
After that night, he truly felt too much: the limitations of reality, the vibrancy of night combat, the difference between having or not having abilities, the overwhelming glory of the world's top echelons and the insignificance of his own abilities.
My mind was almost completely occupied by a jumble of thoughts, so much so that even after the crisis was resolved, I couldn't quite grasp the motives behind the society's plan that night.

He really never thought about it deeply.

Yes, why did the society launch this financial war?

After Ling's reminder, he began to think about this, imagining where the 650 billion US dollars would have been used if the society had won that night.

An answer subconsciously popped into Fang Ran's mind, and she tentatively spoke it aloud:

"The Divine Descent Project?"

"It's hard to say,"

As a Night Angel, having witnessed numerous incidents orchestrated by the society over the long past, Ling spoke with a cool and rational expression:

"The Society has always operated with multiple objectives running in parallel. As the undisputed ruler of night battles, it also has many other deeply hidden plans, such as the Faceless Men and dark energy experiments,"

But then she abruptly changed the subject, her pale golden eyes like a cold, sharp blade, piercing through the surface of the miniature New York projection.

"But the events in Europe have only just ended, and they've already pulled off such a major move. The most likely explanation is that Divine Descent Project,"

"They urgently need a large amount of funding to complete a key step."

Divine Descent Project
I never imagined that everything I experienced in North America, that financial war involving healthcare, energy, and the stock market, would point to what I had initially been searching for.

Fang Ran was somewhat surprised.

However, given the failure of their plan to form a society, their true intentions can no longer be confirmed.

"Speaking of Project Divine Descent, that night in New York, you used arcane magic to infiltrate the Society's 'Noah,' and in the final report about Project Divine Descent,"

At this moment, Ling raised her hand, folded up the miniature city projection, and turned to Fang Ran beside her to ask about something else.

That was the deepest, most hidden core of the entire North American affair that he had glimpsed.

"You said you saw the name 'Night Will Burn'?"

When this question was posed, the air seemed to freeze for a moment. Hearing Ling ask this, asking about his decision to investigate the matter he was pursuing after returning,...
Fang Ran nodded, still able to recall the utterly unbelievable shock he felt at the time.

"Yes, the previous core executor of the Divine Descent Project and a candidate for the Ninth Pillar of the Society."

The information was incredibly simple, yet it contained a wealth of profound meaning.

If both identities truly belong to Ye Jiangran, it not only means that the official Night War leader of China has secretly joined the society, but also that the previous Night Bureau had already intervened in the mysterious and dangerous Divine Descent Project. This fact undoubtedly involves an enormous secret.
Even Ling was learning about this for the first time.

"The ninth pillar of the society...it really exists, and it's him!"

I had heard about the existence of the Ninth Pillar from Trinity a long time ago, but even with Rin's seniority, she had never seen the so-called Ninth Pillar appear in all these years.
At this moment, Ling was also quite surprised by this astonishing fact. In an instant, countless things from the past that might be related to it came to mind.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, her light gold eyes lit up with a hint of realization, and her tone became enigmatic:
"That's understandable."

Hearing her tone as if she had suddenly figured something out, he became curious and recalled Ling's questions to Ye Jiangran during the day when she was in a state of 'amnesia'.
Realizing that the girl before him truly lived in the same era as her, and now that Ling has recovered,
Fang Ran finally managed to get the answer to what he had been very curious about all day:
"By the way, Your Majesty, you must have met Ye Jiangran before, right? Are you very familiar with him?"

The figure of a girl in a black and white gothic dress floated into the air, sitting suspended on an invisible psychic chair. Her slender legs, clad in black stockings, were crossed and raised beneath the hem of her dress.
Ling didn't answer his question immediately, but looked at him and asked:

"How much did you know about this name before this? Did you ask the prophet?"

"All I know is that he's Sister Ye Sheng's father and the founder of Night Bureau,"

Upon hearing Ling's question, Fang Ran was initially taken aback before answering, then, after a moment's thought, sheepishly replied:

"As for asking, I just feel it's not a good idea. After coming back, I only asked my older brother. I heard that the previous Night Bureau, led by him, was very powerful, and the reason for its downfall remains a mystery to this day."

"Some say it was because of a particular scene, others say it was a setup by someone, and still others say they got lost in the dark world."

Then he recounted what Meng Lang had told him during that drive home at sunset.

This includes various speculations such as the impact of the previous Night Bureau on the night battle landscape, the rise of a new generation of A-level leaders, the complete invincibility of China under Midnight, and the resulting fear among others.

After listening to all his understanding of Ye Jiangran and the previous Night Bureau chief, the exquisite-looking man remained silent and offered no comment.
"Let me tell you something first. Although there's been a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories circulating, at least one thing is certain,"

Beneath the Night Bureau's basement, in the massive 'Night Wanderer' hangar, the constant hum of machinery, like a deep-sea current, echoed the voices of the Night Wanderer Angels who had previously interfered with the Night Network's control over a vast amount of intelligence.
At that moment, Ling raised her eyes and slowly revealed the true reason for the destruction of the previous Night Bureau.
The calm voice suppressed the echoes throughout the entire mechanical miniature city.

"The previous generation of Nightfall was indeed destroyed by a single scenario."

What.?

Previously unsolved mysteries were suddenly revealed to be true through Ling's words.

Upon hearing this information, Fang Ran was utterly shocked, finding it unbelievable that the reason was actually a scene.

"For the past thirty years, because I've always been in a data-driven state, my control over Nightnet hasn't been that strong, and I'm not particularly clear about the destruction of Nightnet,"

At this moment, the girl with light blonde hair spoke again, her voice pulling him back from his shock.

The Night Bureau's downfall occurred precisely during Ling's period of weakness; otherwise, as a Night Angel, she might have known more of the truth.

"However, after this news spread,"

At this point, she changed the subject, her voice taking on a deep and sharp quality befitting an A-level leader.

“I found a record of them entering a certain scene at the bottom of the Nightnet,”

"The timing is exactly the same as the period when Ye Jiangran and the others disappeared." Fang Ran believed Ling's investigation through the Night Network couldn't be wrong, but hearing this irrefutable evidence, the question Meng Lang had raised last time resurfaced in his mind.
The sheer power of the previous generation of Night Bureau was enough to wipe them out.
"What was that scene? What were they facing at that time?"

Hearing Fang Ran's perfectly reasonable surprise, Ling Qian's golden eyes darkened slightly, and she let out a very soft hum:

"It's strange that there are absolutely no related records on the Nightnet about this."

No records?

Upon hearing this answer, Fang Ran's face showed a complex expression of surprise and regret.
Just now, when he heard Ling confirm that "it was indeed because of a scene," he thought he would finally learn the truth about the destruction of the previous Night Bureau.
But now it seems that apart from the conclusive conclusions, other truths remain shrouded in mystery.

"Because there are no clues whatsoever, the destruction of the previous Night Bureau is one of the biggest mysteries of the Night Wars over the past century,"

Seeing the change in Fang Ran's expression, Ling calmly drew a conclusion with her delicate features. With a flick of her finger, she retrieved projected intelligence from the database related to him from twenty years ago.

But after saying that, a bright smile suddenly appeared on her lips:
"But after hearing this information you discovered from the society, I can roughly guess what it is."

Ok?
At this moment, he was looking at the various projected interfaces in front of him, displaying intelligence data about the mystery of the Night Bureau's downfall. Upon hearing Ling's words,

Fang Ran was stunned for a second, looking at her in surprise and exclaiming: How did she guess that?

"Your Majesty, you've already guessed it??"

In response to Fang Ran's surprise, Ling simply sat calmly to the side and, from the unique perspective of an A-rank superior, explained the past events to him:
"Even now, Midnight possesses overwhelming strength in the Night Battle world, let alone more than twenty years ago,"

"By then, the new generation, led by Ye Jiangran, had fully risen to prominence, and the Night Bureau had solidified its position through several 'national wars.' At that time, the Night Bureau's dominance in China was a crushing force with a clear advantage."

"With such an unshakeable absolute position in night battles, no one dared to tamper with the situation at that time."

With a cool and rational voice, Ling slowly recounted the strength of China's night warfare under the circumstances of the time, objectively analyzing and ruling out the conjectures that Fang Ran had heard before.
"Moreover, there is a rumored newly promoted A-level, and four A-levels from Midnight are not ordinary. To completely shut them down and kill them, we would need at least three A-levels, which is simply impossible."

Leaving aside who has the power to mobilize three top-tier Night Battle figures, there are only a handful of A-level high-ranking individuals in the entire Night Battle world, so this kind of thing cannot be kept secret.

"Even if we assume, hypothetically, that someone actually did it and successfully hid it, Ziye would absolutely not remain indifferent,"

At this moment, the cool voice suddenly lowered, calmly assuming a non-existent possibility, and narrating the expected outcome of this unfolding.

Then Ling narrowed her light golden eyes and revealed the true story of what happened back then.

"But the fact is that Ziye did not settle any accounts afterward."

Having listened to Ling's words all along, he finally understood why he had felt so surprised and confused when he heard from Meng Lang that Ziye hadn't taken any action.

Fang Ran paused for a moment, then, after understanding Ling's meaning, he seemed to realize something and continued:

"So, this means that the downfall of the previous Night Bureau was not the work of any single force in reality?"

At that moment, her light gold eyes glanced at him, thinking that this idiot wasn't completely stupid after all. Ling continued to slowly state another condition of reasoning.
"If we rule out real-world forces using simulated scenarios and scenario fragments to set traps, then only the possibility of hunting scenario-specific and numbered monsters remains,"

"But there's a generally accepted fact among the top-tier A-level individuals—those born at midnight possess a certain ability to enter and exit scenes,"

"No one has ever seen the Night's Watch in the scene."

Since their first appearance, they have always been ranked A-level or higher, leading many to speculate that the Night Watchers possess a way to freely enter scenes and become stronger.
When Fang Ran heard Ling mention this, he was momentarily lost in thought and remembered that he seemed to have heard Li Ze mention something similar at midnight.

"Although the new generation led by Ye Jiangran occasionally appears in the scene, they most likely possess the same abilities, and A-rank superiors inherently have a certain degree of power to break through the scene,"

Excluding 'certain' cheaters who rose to power through cheating, although this would cause system anomalies and various restrictions, genuine A-level players do indeed possess this ability.

The moment Ling uttered those words, her eyes and voice both sharpened:
"So I don't believe that if it were really a hunting scenario, not even one of them would be able to escape."

As she said, as the new generation of Midnight's successors, it's hard to imagine that if they really encountered such a desperate situation, they wouldn't have any trump cards to save their lives, and that the Night Watchers would be cold-blooded and ruthless and just sit by and do nothing.

"It couldn't be a real-world force, nor did it resemble a numbered monster from the underworld. I wonder what other entity besides these two could have destroyed the Night Bureau back then,"

The massive 'Night Tour', nearly a hundred meters tall, stands silently in this underground miniature city after midnight, recounting and summarizing past events buried deep within the night.
Ling turned her gaze, her light golden pupils looking at Fang Ran beside her:

"This is the mystery that puzzled everyone the most back then."

After listening to Ling's analysis of the events of that year, he was momentarily at a loss. The conclusion was neither based on real-world forces nor on numbered monsters; he couldn't understand what the other side was.
What extraordinary beings in the world could possibly cause the annihilation of one A-level superior and four A-level individuals within a single scene?
Fang Ran looked at Ling with a dazed expression and asked:
"So, Your Majesty, what did you guess?"

"Haven't you thought of that yet?"

In response, Ling merely curled the corners of her lips, her long black and white sleeves clasped in front of her chest.

"The fall of so many powerful participants must be related to some extraordinary event. What is this event that is connected to Night Burning?"

Upon hearing this reminder, Fang Ran was momentarily stunned. Then, as the clues connected back to the beginning, his pupils contracted slightly as he thought of the event most relevant to him now.

Project Divine Descent!

“That’s right, he was the previous executor of the Divine Descent Project,”

Seeing the shock on his face, Ling spoke in a deep voice, as if lifting the last corner of a curtain.

"And in the Divine Descent Project, there just happened to be an entity powerful enough to annihilate their entire army,"

"The 'man-made number' at the end of that European event."

There are some things I really don't want to say, because saying them would always make things heavy. So I've been talking about lighthearted, irrelevant topics, hoping to create a cheerful atmosphere while reading this chapter. Saying too much is pointless. Like I said, if I can easily write a satisfying story, who would complain about having too much money? Sigh, I haven't made much money, but I've taken a lot of blame (laughs and cries with a sense of melancholy).