Chapter 824: The final clue (please vote for this big chapter)
"This is my father, this is Uncle Endir, and this is Uncle Jacko,"
Standing in the middle of the tower of overlapping books, Willie looked at the photo frames placed among the books and explained to He Ao slowly, "The person taking notes is Vincent."
Then she turned her head, squinted her eyes, and looked at He Ao with a smile, "Guess who took this photo?"
At this moment, they have returned to Weili's villa and are staying in the library like a tower of books left by Weili's father.
"There was no cameraman,"
He Ao glanced at the photo frame and said slowly, "This is a photocopied electronic painting."
"This is actually... ah?"
The proud Weili paused, widened her eyes, and stared at He Ao in surprise. She looked left and right at He Ao's cheeks, and then carefully looked at the characters in the painting, "How do you know?"
"Guess,"
He Ao replied calmly, "The people in this 'photo' are too 'vivid'."
His eyes stopped on the four people in the photo. Their expressions were all lifelike, and they looked even more 'real' than the photo.
A "realistic" painting method is popular in the electronic painting circles of the Federation. They are keen to use electronic painting technology to paint paintings that are similar to "photographs" and are proud of "making the fake look real".
However, most of these painters are not really pursuing paintings that are exactly the same as the photos. Instead, they integrate their own understanding of the paintings and the emotions of the characters they want to express into paintings that look realistic.
While restoring the image, restore the 'emotion' and 'meaning' as much as possible.
They often use special techniques in their paintings to modify the characters' movements and expressions, making the characters in these paintings often look more "smart" and full of tension than in photos.
Of course, some artists with bad taste will deliberately leave some "flaws" that are completely impossible to appear in the real photos to show that this is actually a painting.
In a sense, this is also an Easter egg.
This is the content of art appreciation that Wei An learned by the way when he was learning painting.
And in the painting in front of He Ao, there is such an "Easter egg".
On the corners of Endil's clothes in the photo, some of the clothing's seams have strange patterns, which do not quite match the pattern of normal clothing seams.
But this painting is so beautiful that He Ao is not sure whether it is a photo or a painting.
So he bluntly said that he was guessing.
Of course, Willy just deliberately asked him this question, which actually meant that there was something wrong with the painting.
"Can you guess this? Is there really anything in this world that can stun you?"
Willie pouted, then looked at the photo and explained softly, "This is a 'scene' that was 'reproduced' by a passing realist electronic painter based on my father's description. At that time, United Industries had just been established.
, my father liked this painting very much, so he made a photocopy of this painting and put it in this library,"
"Do all four of them have this painting?"
He Ao looked at the four people in the portrait and asked softly.
"no?"
Willie shook her head, "It seems that only my father printed this painting?"
Then she paused and continued,
"But my father told me that all four of them liked this painting very much, and that time happened to be the time when the relationship between the four of them was at its best.
"At that time, my father was the chairman of the board of directors of United Industries, uncle Endir was the mayor, Vincent was the CEO of the mining business, and uncle Jacko was the CEO of the industrial sector. That's when the Novi District was built.
of"
She paused for a moment, seeming to recall something,
"When my father was still alive, he often recalled these things with me. He told me that Vincent was very capable, but pursued 'efficiency' too much, and often quarreled with Uncle Jacko over the construction costs of the industrial sector."
"The mining business segment represents the interests of the most basic mining part of United Industries. Most of the shareholders of United Industries are former owners of small mining companies in Winter City,"
He Ao slowly answered, "The power of this position in United Industries is probably second only to your father's. Your father seems to really trust him by putting him in such a position."
Judging from the normal power structure, Vincent in this position may even be Skone's designated heir.
So in a sense, when Vincent overthrew Scone, it was actually a kind of 'palace coup'.
The prince united with the Senate, overthrew the emperor, and succeeded to the throne.
"Yes,"
Willie nodded, "Father often told me that he thought Vincent would understand him. Vincent used to be his most fervent supporter and follower. During the establishment of United Industries, he even risked his life and death several times.
Crisis helps him get his message across."
"Vincent may not understand your father,"
He Ao looked at the note-taking figure in the photo frame and said calmly, "But for him, the source of his power is the original mining power sector, the performance and dividends he created, and it is impossible for him to betray the source of his power.
"
"Um."
Hearing this, Wei Li nodded slightly as if she had some understanding.
Then she tilted her head, looked at He Ao's childish profile, and suddenly smiled, "You look like a little teacher."
"Remove the 'small', thank you,"
He Ao raised his head and glanced at her, "Miss Boss Wife."
Willie's smile faltered.
"Old Jecko is the head of the industrial sector. In other words, he once had a lot of exposure in the Novit District?
Seeing the blond girl with twin ponytails looking like she was about to blow up, He Ao put the topic back and asked casually, "He has a high reputation among the people?"
"Uncle Jacko?"
Willy came back to her senses and thought, "The older generation seems to recognize Uncle Jacko, but after my father died, he completely gave up all his positions, opened a funeral parlor, and stopped caring about these things."
"Um,"
He Ao nodded slightly, then he looked at Willy, "Hasn't the mayor gotten back to you yet?"
It's been a long time since they just contacted Endil in the car.
"Yes, Uncle Endil used to reply to my messages very quickly,"
Willy slapped her head, reacted, raised her bracelet, "Wait a minute, I'll call someone from the city government."
When she picked up the phone, He Aoze turned around and glanced at the photo frame again.
This photo frame is inconspicuous and placed between the bookshelves.
In this photo frame, time is forever frozen in that impassioned period.
At that time, the four of us were very young.
He Ao's eyes pulled away from the photo frame and looked up to the most conspicuous place in the entire 'library'.
Looking at the frosted glass cabinet that holds the oil painting titled "Baptism".
This painting still showed a twisted peculiarity, and He Ao's spiritual vision could still see through the frosted cabinet the 'scene' of the old man kneeling on the ground receiving the light.
He Ao lowered his head, opened his bracelet, and a document summary report appeared in his field of vision.
This is a summary of the information he and Lena collected from various cathedrals when they 'visited' them along the way.
Although the Eternal Secret Cult uses a partition system to isolate information from different parishes, as long as there are enough parishes that are breached, He Ao can still roughly piece together a complete information framework.
After Eve’s calculations, an ‘introduction’ to the basic operation of the Eternal Secret Cult in the Storm Zone was summarized.
Behind him, Willy's voice kept calling.
He Ao opened the report in his hand and read it carefully.
This report basically lists out the operating structure of the Eternal Esoteric Cult. Through a few words collected from various materials, He Ao also roughly restored the entire 'power structure' of the Eternal Esoteric Cult.
At the top of the Eternal Esoteric Cult is a religious leader known as the 'Apostolic See'.
The Pope's orders are absolute and no one can resist the Pope.
Under the Pope are the bishops.
The person He Ao met in the inner church before was the bishop of the Storm District. The bishop had extremely high authority and could decide any matter in the diocese.
In the storm area, in addition to one bishop, there are two deputy bishops.
An auxiliary bishop was killed by Howe in the inner church, and Rockaway once sent someone to 'push' Ilo off the rockery.
The other deputy bishop, when Ho Ao entered the inner church the night before yesterday, was confronting the people of the Eternal Old Church outside, so he did not meet Ho Ao.
After Howo killed the bishop and auxiliary bishop in the church, the remaining auxiliary bishop succeeded and became the bishop of the Storm District.
Judging from information from some churches, it seems that the 'new bishop' was seriously injured.
Apostolic-Episcopal-District Church.
This is the normal power structure.
In addition to this structure, Eve actually noticed some "other" structures.
In the encrypted files of some churches and the main church, Eve found the encrypted 'signature' at the end of some encrypted files, which was different from the main church in the storm area.
Its source also does not come from the usual sources of the main church.
However, after these encrypted files were decrypted by the Eternal Esoteric Cult's decryption system, they were directly identified as instructions from the 'Main Church'.
In other words, there may be another power system in the Eternal Esoteric Cult, or another kind of 'position' of people. This position is equal to or higher than the 'bishop', and its orders can also directly bypass the bishop and issue orders in the name of the bishop.
The grassroots church issued the order.
Through the analysis of these documents with different sources from the main church, Eve found that these document instructions were likely to come from the same person.
According to the logic of the Eternal Secret Cult, strength is the most important thing. This 'person' who can issue orders beyond the Bishop of the Storm District will most likely be no weaker than the Bishop of the Storm District.
The strength of the storm district bishop that He Ao came into contact with before was around B level, so the strength of this 'hidden bishop' should also be at B level.
The deputy bishop who succeeded the Bishop of the Storm District should not be weak in strength, and he might also be a person who can cheat and display B-level strength.
Last night, He Ao lured away the "pursuit" of the Eternal Secret Cult by inducing the tiger to leave the mountain. The person who was lured away by He Ao may be the "new bishop".
But after the new bishop was lured away, there was no new B-class to hunt down in Lena's direction.
This is not in line with the concept of eradicating the roots of the Eternal Tantra.
After all, diverting a tiger away from the mountain is only effective for one tiger. If there are two tigers, they can chase them separately.
So at least last night, the Eternal Secret Cult was in Winter City, and maybe there was only one Class B that could be called upon at will.
That 'hidden bishop' isn't level B? Or does he have other tasks that are inconvenient to take action on?
He Ao personally prefers the latter.
In this way, it is very likely that the Eternal Secret Cult still has two ‘B-level’ ones, one strong and one weak.
The mercenaries that United Industries smuggled into the city should also have a B-level, otherwise United Industries would not be able to rely on them.
So there are at least three suspected Class Bs in this city now.
This is still the number of people left after He Ao killed a circle.
If you include the behemoth in the sky, Levins, the two killed bishops and vice-presidents, and the leader of the old church, Bright.
The city's B-level is approaching two hands.
Although among those killed by He Ao, only Bright and the original Bishop of the Storm District were truly B-level. The others relied on sacrifices and cheating to barely obtain B-level strength.
But this level is also extremely terrifying.
In addition to these B-levels, there is also an eternal divine kingdom that is suspected to be a creation of the gods, and the 'Song' that stands above everyone's heads.
Winter City is so complex that it even surpasses Chenxi City to a certain extent.
Of course, this may also be related to Winter City’s attributes similar to a ‘religious holy land’.
If the headquarters of the Eternal Secret Cult were not here, then there is a high probability that the Eternal Divine Kingdom would not be here, and the people of the Eternal Old Cult would not be attracted here.
In fact, the Eternal Secret Cult and the Eternal Old Cult are not two cult organizations limited to Winter City, but large-scale secret organizations in cities that have spread across the Federation.
The energy mines in Winter City have attracted an ancient behemoth like the Rockville Energy Group, allowing United Industries, which can rely on the power of the Rockville Energy Group, to also recruit B-class power.
With the two phases brought together, Winter City has actually become the 'stage' for the confrontation between several large regional organizations and has become the center of the storm.
Of course, the intersection of these forces here also has its inherent connection.
He Ao flipped through the information in his hands page by page.
The remaining three B-levels should not attack rashly. With He Ao's "record", they may even join together. It may be difficult to defeat them separately like before.
Among the people around He Ao now, the strongest one is the newly promoted Lena.
Once he is held back by a certain B-class, other B-classes may not be able to deal with the people around him.
And behind these B-levels, there is very likely a stronger 'sect' behind them.
There is also the eternal kingdom of God hidden somewhere.
Even though he has done so much, the curtain covering the entire Winter City is still so powerful and suffocating.
However, there was not much time left for him.
Not even close...
The young man's eyes paused slightly and rested on a photo in the file.
It was a man in white robe who looked very gentle, a man in white robe that He Ao remembered deeply.
This is the man in white robe who summoned monsters in the Sea of Storms at the beginning of the dungeon and was then killed by He Ao.
This man in white robe should have been sent by Kate to find the body of 'Iroh', but He Ao did not find any information about this man in white robe and his men in Kate's previous information.
So when he asked Eve to screen the intelligence materials in the church, he also asked Eve to help search for information on these people.
Eventually, Eve found their message in a remote coastal church.
This man in white robe is a priest of the Eternal Esoteric Coastal Church. His task is to go out to sea with the church's mineral exploration ships and protect the church's ships to a certain extent.
The mechanical men, chainsaw men, etc. that He Ao had seen on the stormy sea were all "outsourced" security personnel of this church, and they often followed the men in white robes.
He Ao took a deep breath and read all the information about the man in white robe.
Before this incident, the men in white robes had been exploring new mineral areas nearby, even going deep into the Storm Sea.
At this moment, countless broken pieces were reorganized in He Ao's mind.
Not even close.
He raised his head and looked at the frosted glass cabinet above his head.
"Close your eyes!"
With a loud shout, he jumped out and landed on the glass cabinet.
He held the bookshelf with one hand and pressed the edge of the glass cabinet with the other. With a sudden force, he pulled open the lock of the glass cabinet and opened the "Baptism" that had been sealed for many years.
