The conversation with the two elders was more of a gesture from the Church to the Three Major Academies, showing their willingness to share information. In fact, they couldn’t provide much valuable information to Saint Byrons themselves. However, some of the ancient texts they donated to the Church contained interesting information, which was the most important source of information.

Therefore, Miss Danester and her party’s conversation with the believers of the Twin Gods did not last long, and they politely ended the meeting and got up to leave.

Shard followed behind Miss Danester, pondering whether Grace and Helen would be interested in meeting these two. The Red Butterfly Maidens had a rather complicated view on the Twin Gods. It was indeed this deity who gave them the power to be together forever, but it was also this deity that led them to the fate of suppressing the seal on Sicarl Mountain.

The conversation on Saint Byrons’ side ended relatively quickly, while the conversation between the professors from Xerxes Higher Medical Academy and another group of Old God’s believers had not yet concluded, so Miss Danester and her party had to wait for a while.

The professors from Zaras Literary Academy also knew that the two elderly ladies weren’t of great value, so they weren’t in a rush to visit them and instead engaged in conversation with the professors from Saint Byrons. They had already learned that among the people who sealed Green Lake Central Island in ancient times, there were believers of the Old God "Blazar Gate," so interacting with the Old God believers present might reveal important information.

"Miss Danester, I need to go to the washroom."

After informing the red-haired female sorcerer, Shard temporarily left the reception room. To show respect, the Church hadn’t arranged too many people in the nearby corridors. Therefore, when Shard saw the pair of twin elderly women in the corridor in front of the washroom, he thought they were lost there.

He approached to greet them, but the two elders seemed to be waiting there specifically for him. Their aged faces smiled in the thin sunlight coming through the window. They seemed like the embodiment of a once-prosperous but now declining sect. Looking at them, one could see an organization that had once thrived but now had come to its very end:

"Have the Saints chosen you?"

"What?"

Shard looked back behind him and confirmed no one was around, and the elders were indeed speaking to him. The word "saint" (shengzi) they used didn’t carry a gender connotation, akin to "saint" in English.

"Sorry, are you talking to me?"

Shard was puzzled, or at least appeared to be. The elder on the left squinted her eyes and put a thick, short finger to her lips in a silencing gesture while the one on the right smiled kindly and shakily took a small box from her pocket, handing it to Shard:

"They have been caring for the sect in the shadows for millennia, yet we have burdened them with such heavy responsibilities. It is the sect that has wronged them. The storms of a thousand years are not something our generation can explain. Now the Red Butterfly has finally gained freedom, freed from that drunken Duke. This truly is a miracle, but it’s also so wonderful."

She motioned for Shard to open the red jewelry box. Shard glanced around again, confirmed no one else was nearby, and then hesitantly opened the lid, revealing a deep red bead that showed no elemental reaction but was clearly not an ordinary object.

The bead was crystal clear, and its surface was incredibly smooth. If it weren’t known that "Source of Chaos" doesn’t have a silver and red version, Shard might have thought this bead was related to the Sage-Level Relic he’d held.

"What is this?"

The two elders remained silent, but when Shard held the warm, smooth red bead up to the sun outside, besides seeing a mist-like red swirl inside, he unexpectedly noticed a pattern of a red butterfly. Without the light, the bead’s interior revealed nothing.

"What is this?"

He softly asked in his mind, and "she" gently replied:

[A specific gift for a specific being, this is not yours.]

Shard somewhat understood, putting away the red bead. He wanted to ask the two ordinary elderly women in front of him what else they knew, but they only shook their heads.

Footsteps sounded from the corner of the corridor, so Shard went into the washroom. Not long after, Circle Sorcerers sent by the Church to care for the two elders found them and left together.

He was very puzzled but didn’t disclose the recent event to anyone, and soon returned to the waiting room to rejoin Miss Danester and her party. By then, the professors from Zaras Literary Academy had already set out to visit the twin elderly women, while the meeting between Xerxes Higher Medical Academy and the other Old God believers was still ongoing.

Considering not wasting the professors’ time, the Peace Church had temporarily arranged for others to meet with the party from Saint Byrons.

The door to the waiting room was opened, and Mr. Wood, the Eleven-Ring Sorcerer from the local Peace Church assigned to host the group, entered with the Furen Brothers, introducing them to the professors as "Descendants of Edwards."

Behind the obviously nervous Furen Brothers, Iluna followed, looking rather bored. Collaboration between Saint Byrons and the Church of the Five Gods was nothing new, so Miss Danester was certainly acquainted with this early Chosen One.

Iluna exchanged a few pleasantries with Miss Danester before looking towards Shard behind her.

To prevent exposure of Shard’s identity, not only was his face concealed by his own Illusion Technique, but Miss Danester had also cast a protective illusion on him. However, despite this, Iluna immediately recognized him.

Thus, her sense of boredom about the meeting quickly dissipated, and she appeared much more alert.

The Furen Brothers’ intelligence largely originated from Shard or Megan, so Shard wasn’t very interested in them, only glancing briefly when they produced a finished key.

Iluna was persistently signaling him with her eyes, so Shard once again used the excuse of going to the washroom to leave the room. Miss Danester knew Shard was acquainted with Iluna, providing a cover for him, thus preventing him from being suspected of "having a physical ailment" due to frequent washroom visits.

"I also only heard about the Old God ’Blazar Gate’ believers last night."

In a secluded corridor, Iluna explained the situation quickly:

"The Church used some special means—well, some unmentionable relics—to investigate who exactly originally sealed Green Lake Central Island. It was an event from a very ancient time, and the results of the investigation were vague. The only certainty was that there were followers of the Old God ’Blazar Gate.’ But it was uncertain, and probably, there was also the sect of the Ancient God ’Primordial Rift.’

Although the thirteen Ancient Gods gradually departed towards the end of the First Era and the beginning of the Second Era, their sects largely persisted in various forms. For example, the origin of the Church of the Five Gods has ambiguous ties with the Ancient God sects. The ’Prophet’s Society’ is essentially just the ’Fate’ sect under a new name. Believers of the ’Father of the Infinite Tree’ still exist among ancient elf populations, while the sect of the Ancient God ’Ancient God of Death’ fractured, with parts forming what is now the ’Spiritual Practice Order.’"

However, Shard couldn’t fathom where the followers of this ancient deity, which symbolized the authority over ’space,’ might be hidden today.

Iluna noticed Shard’s confusion, which mirrored her own when she heard the news last night:

"The investigation into the Ancient God sects isn’t going smoothly. This matter traces back to the early Second Era, and even the current True God Church can’t provide answers. But what can be confirmed is that the problem on the island has existed since that ancient period and became uncontrollable during the mid-to-late Third Era, leading to the collaboration of unknown individuals back then who sealed ’another island,’ maintaining spatial balance with two overlapping islands."

"Has your Sun Church already conversed with those Old God believers?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Iluna nodded:

"I remember you once sought the trail and information about the Old God ’Blazar Gate,’ so you should know that this deity’s following isn’t large. Although the Church has found one now who possesses some information, it is quite limited. For instance, he knows ’fire’ is crucial to maintaining the seal, knows that Green Lake’s occasional transformation into green isn’t due to algae bloom but due to the power of another island intermittently affecting reality. However, the most crucial pieces of information he holds are..."

Iluna lowered her voice:

"Firstly, even if you find a way to reach another island, you must use some kind of special vehicle to do so. Otherwise, even if you see the ’entrance,’ you won’t be able to interact, which is the wonder of space. Secondly, under no circumstances should the spatial anomalies in the Green Lake Region reach the final step. Otherwise, the problems will be severe."

"What does ’final step’ refer to?"

Iluna frowned in response:

"Green Lake folding north and south, turning Green Lake City and Mikaela Ironworks City into one entity."

She paused, meeting Shard’s eyes:

"Due to the national boundary, the industrial cities on the south and north banks and the impoverished ancient city seem close but are ’the most distant neighbors’ in a literal sense. If they indeed fold into one entity, what might be destroyed wouldn’t just be these two cities. The entire world might slowly yet inexorably begin to fold into the Green Lake region.

The Church even believes that now, in the Sixth Era, the material world’s size isn’t as vast as recorded in the Fourth Era and Fifth Era data because something similar might have occurred before. This time, though, it may entail more than a mere reduction of the world’s size."