Chapter 1189
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Chapter 1189 Agents’ Gathering
“Cough cough cough…”
Jinian sat down at her desk, coughing awkwardly a couple of times.
Lin Qiye sat across from her, his expression somewhat peculiar. “So, you left me in the archives, saying you had important business to attend to, but you were actually going to a host club?”
“I had promised them before leaving [Utopia] that I would come find them for drinks when I returned. I was keeping my word and fulfilling my promise, so of course it was important business!” Jinian explained with a serious face.
Lin Qiye stared at her for a moment, then sighed deeply:
“Forget it, it’s not the first time I’ve caught you… I’ve already gotten used to it from our time in the ‘Human Circle’ in Japan.
More importantly, how’s the situation with Zhou Ping?”
Jinian coughed lightly a few times, her expression gradually becoming serious: “I came to find you specifically about this matter… Do you remember the channel for gathering information that I mentioned to you before?”
“I remember.”
“It’s about to begin.”
“‘It’?”
“It’s a gathering,” Jinian said calmly. “A special gathering that only divine agents can attend.”
Lin Qiye’s eyebrows raised slightly.
“Divine agents are indeed rare within Greater Xia’s borders, but they’re not uncommon in the Mist.
With so many divine realms in the world, there are always some deities with special needs who find it inconvenient to appear themselves, so they find humans from the ‘Human Circle’ or elsewhere, grant them power, and have them help achieve certain goals.
According to our Shangxie Association’s statistics, there are currently five or six dozen divine agents who have appeared in the Mist with traceable records.
These divine agents come from different divine realms, possess different intelligence, information, or items unique to their divine realms. Every year, some of them arrange to meet at a certain location for a secret gathering to trade with each other for mutual benefit.”
Jinian slapped the table, thinking of a particularly vivid analogy:
“Put it this way, if you compare the deities of the various divine realms to concubines in an ancient emperor’s harem, then this gathering is like a group of personal maids secretly gossiping.
Which concubine recently got pregnant, which one has fallen out of favor, which one lost her pet canary…
Here, you can hear all sorts of strange gossip from the harem, though you need to pay a price, such as treasures or information of equal value.”
Lin Qiye: …
What kind of thought process leads to such a bizarre analogy?
Lin Qiye silently criticized, then said aloud, “So, you think I can find clues about Zhou Ping there?”
“Zhou Ping is the only human-turned-deity swordsman from Greater Xia. No matter where he goes, he becomes the center of attention. Since he’s been active around Olympus recently, and there are so many divine agents from Olympus, someone is bound to know something about him.”
Lin Qiye nodded slightly. “Sounds good… but don’t divine agents represent the deities behind them? Shouldn’t there be conflicts of interest between them? Will they really gather peacefully to communicate?”
“You’re overestimating the relationship between deities and their agents,” Jinian shook her head. “The vast majority of relationships between deities and agents are merely mutually exploitative. Deities treat agents as tools to achieve their goals, while agents see deities as sources of power.
Of course, there are many exceptions, like you and Michael, where there’s no exchange of interests at all… Some deities even treat their agents purely as playthings.”
Jinian’s mind flashed to the faces of Loki and Si Xiaonan.
She paused, then continued: “There are indeed conflicts of interest between agents, but those are their private affairs, unrelated to the deities behind them. Even with conflicts, they rarely surface during gatherings, since angering other agents can easily lead to being collectively targeted.
At these gatherings, everyone’s purpose is to trade, so keeping a low profile is generally best.”
“I understand. Where is the gathering location? When should I go?”
“The gathering location changes every year, but for our Shangxie Association, finding out such things isn’t difficult… This year’s location isn’t too far from here. I’ll give you the map later. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll have He Lin go with you.”
“Is he also a divine agent?” Lin Qiye asked with surprise.
“No, but each agent can bring one attendant to the venue. The attendant doesn’t participate in discussions or trades and can only wait outside,” Jinian explained.
“This kind of gathering has many hidden rules and agreements. You have no experience, so going alone could be dangerous. He knows a lot of intelligence and can be useful in critical moments.”
“Alright,” Lin Qiye nodded.
…
The next afternoon.
Lin Qiye arrived at the central tower of [Utopia] as agreed, where He Lin had been waiting for some time.
Since only divine agents could participate in the gathering, Baili Pangpang, Cao Yuan, An Qingyu and others couldn’t go, and could only wait for his news at [Utopia].
“We meet again so soon,” Lin Qiye smiled. “How do we get there?”
“There are special ascending submarines above. I’ll operate it.”
He Lin walked to a certain floor of the central tower with practiced ease, entered commands, and opened a pixel door.
In the spacious, bright space, a circular pool appeared before Lin Qiye and He Lin.
He Lin tapped a few times on the control panel, and the pool’s surface quickly began to ripple. A few seconds later, a black pixel submarine surfaced, with a unique three-digit number sprayed on its side.
“How many of these submarines do you have?” Lin Qiye asked curiously.
“Not many, about five hundred,” He Lin said while conducting checks. “But we rarely use them under normal circumstances. For important missions, we usually take the chairman’s yacht. These small submarines were just practice pieces the chairman made before creating [Utopia].”
Lin Qiye followed He Lin into the submarine. After closing the hatch, the submarine began to sink into the deep sea.
The submarine wasn’t large, but it was more than spacious enough for two people. Through the periscope installed in the cabin, Lin Qiye could see the deep seawater rolling endlessly ahead.
Under He Lin’s control, the pixel submarine steadily ascended, then hovered briefly to allow the hull to adapt to the pressure changes before continuing upward…
After about twenty minutes, [Utopia] completely disappeared from Lin Qiye’s view as their position gradually approached the surface.
When the upper part of the submarine emerged from the water, Lin Qiye reached out to open the hatch.
He climbed out of the hatch and stood on the submarine’s surface. Misty fog surrounded them on all sides, making it impossible to see the edges in any direction.
