---o---
Fu Zhu wandered around the streets a few times before finally picking out an elderly woman resting on a roadside bench. Her face looked kind and gentle; she seemed like someone easy to approach.
Fu Zhu walked over, flashing a smile, and spoke to the elderly woman with great politeness.
"Greetings, elder. I've come from another place and have always admired the Saintess. May I ask where Lady Saintess resides? I wish to submit a report and apply for an audience with her."
Seeing Fu Zhu's well-dressed and polite demeanor, coupled with the look of admiration in his eyes that didn't seem faked, the old woman chuckled. She raised a hand and pointed toward a towering, majestic building at the end of the street.
"Lady Saintess naturally resides within the Temple of the Three Fates. However, young man, I'm afraid the Saintess isn't so easily seen. It would be best to prepare yourself for disappointment."
"Thank you for the information. Even if I cannot see the Saintess, experiencing the local customs and culture is excellent in itself."
Fu Zhu thanked the old woman, then turned to leave. He glanced at the Temple of the Three Fates in the distance and began walking toward it.
Before long, Fu Zhu arrived at the foot of the stairs leading up to the Temple of the Three Fates. On either side of the steps, two rows of guards stood watch, holding sharp blades.
Fu Zhu did not rashly approach. Instead, he stood to the side for a while. People were coming and going on the street, but not a single person dared to go near the Temple of the Three Fates.
"Sure enough, the Saintess really isn't that easy to meet."
However, this wasn't much of an obstacle for him.
Fu Zhu turned and ducked into an unoccupied corner, switching into [Observer Mode]. In a grand and open manner, he flew directly up the stairs and entered the Temple of the Three Fates. Looking around, guards holding sharp blades could be seen patrolling everywhere inside the hall, along with quite a few scholars and priests dressed in white robes.
Fu Zhu opened the [Minimap] and took a glance. Among the people appearing before him, none had a name tag with the word "Saintess" attached. None of these were the person he was looking for.
After zooming out the [Minimap] to encompass the entire size of the Temple of the Three Fates, Fu Zhu carefully began searching it for any existence related to the Saintess.
It didn't take long for him to find a noteworthy name in a side hall on the left side of the Temple of the Three Fates, labeled as the [Library of Prophecy].
[Saintess: Tiresias]
"Found you!"
Fu Zhu's eyes lit up, and he immediately flew toward the [Library of Prophecy]. However, once he arrived at the library, he couldn't help but reveal a strange expression.
Compared to the main hall of the Temple of the Three Fates, he couldn't see any figures inside the [Library of Prophecy]. Yet, the icon marking the Saintess indicated that she was directly beneath the library!
But in Fu Zhu's eyes, there was only a solid stone floor there.
"A mechanism? But why would the dignified Saintess hide beneath a mechanism? Is it for protection? But that doesn't seem right either..."
If it were to protect the Saintess, there should at least be a few handmaidens around to attend to her, or a few guards. Yet, the entire [Library of Prophecy] contained only Tiresias alone. It didn't look like there was any war happening outside either.
Then, a Saintess situated underground became somewhat intriguing. However, these weren't the things he cared about.
Fu Zhu passed directly through the ground, heading straight for Tiresias's location.
Beneath that layer of solid stone flooring lay a spiral staircase leading underground. At the end of the staircase was a massive library.
In the dimly lit library, a red-haired woman sat gazing at the orange flame of a lamp, her hands clasped together in meditation.
Fu Zhu revealed his physical form behind Tiresias. The friction sound of his soles touching the ground startled the meditating Saintess. Tiresias's eyes snapped open; her right hand immediately grabbed a short knife placed to her side, and she spun around rapidly, holding the blade horizontally before her.
Just as she was about to speak, Fu Zhu reached out a step faster and covered her mouth. Tiresias's face was filled with horror. The short knife tightly gripped in her right hand stabbed directly into Fu Zhu's chest, yet Fu Zhu acted as if he didn't care in the slightest, holding [Yamato] against Tiresias's neck.
"Shh, don't make a sound. Next, I will ask, and you will answer. In exchange, after I am done asking, you may ask me some questions as well. If you agree, blink twice."
Tiresias's eyes were filled with confusion. She thought the black-haired man before her was an assassin sent to kill her, but his words suggested otherwise. After hesitating for a moment, she blinked twice.
Only then did Fu Zhu remove the hand covering her mouth. He was just planning to ask his questions, but Tiresias grabbed a towel from a nearby table and, with some hesitation, handed it to Fu Zhu. Then, she pointed a finger at his chest—the short knife she had just been gripping was still stuck in it.
Fu Zhu looked down, glanced at it, casually pulled it out, and tossed it back to Tiresias.
"A small injury. It won't hinder our conversation."
Tiresias's eyes still held some worry, but when she saw that the place where the wound should have been didn't have even a scratch, and the short knife wasn't stained with a single drop of blood, she finally believed Fu Zhu's words slightly.
After waiting for Tiresias to calm down, Fu Zhu finally asked the questions he had prepared long ago.
"What is this city called?"
"Janusa."
"What time is it now? I mean the year and month."
"Light Calendar, Year 3760."
"Does your world have three extremely powerful existences capable of destroying the heavens and the earth?"
"Why three?"
This rhetorical question from Tiresias made Fu Zhu instantly realize something, and he couldn't help but frown.
"You mean there aren't just three?"
Tiresias nodded, her eyes looking at Fu Zhu filled with curiosity.
"It is twelve. The Twelve Titans."
Twelve Titans? This didn't match up with the Triple Paths mentioned by Black Swan. Could it be that these Twelve Titans weren't the three possible Envoys?
Fu Zhu thought about it carefully and felt it made sense. How could a tiny Janusa possibly harbor twelve Envoys? It was more likely that these Twelve Titans were the creations of a certain Envoy.
"Then..."
Seeing that Fu Zhu was deep in thought, Tiresias hesitated for a moment before raising her hand and asking, "Can you let me ask a few questions now?"
"You may."
Fu Zhu nodded and agreed. He still needed to digest and record the information he had just obtained. Answering a few of Tiresias's questions wouldn't hurt.
Tiresias took a deep breath, her burning gaze falling on Fu Zhu's face as she asked seriously:
"You aren't a person of Janusa, are you?"
"Correct." Fu Zhu admitted it with great frankness. "I come from beyond the sky. I am a Nameless on the Astral Express. But how did you know?"
Beyond the sky... Astral Express... Nameless...
Tiresias memorized these vocabulary words in her mind, then the corners of her mouth curled up as she answered Fu Zhu's question with a smile.
"Because the Twelve Titans are something everyone in Janusa knows for certain, yet you did not know."