Chapter 390 The Truth About Soraya
Zara's long-lost father had been waiting for her at the base.
During her extended absence, Owen had settled into a leisurely role as an informal consultant, helping the scientists study Ember.
He could not contribute too much, however. If he revealed too much about the Divine World, people would begin questioning his identity, so he spent most of his time with very little to do.
Every now and then, he would also visit the collection of younger sisters his newly acquired daughter had somehow picked up.
When he heard that Zara and Lucian had returned, he waited for her at the base. He did not seem remotely surprised that they had made it back safely.
Lucian's identity made it inconvenient for him to enter the facility. Knowing about the Divine World was one thing, but his public identity attracted far too much attention. He could not openly involve himself in such highly classified matters.
Zara went to the base alone with Allen.
When Owen saw her, a faint smile appeared on his face. "You're back?"
Zara nodded.
Owen had cut his unruly hair and cleaned himself up. He wore a white lab coat now. It did little to hide his rugged appearance, but at least he looked surprisingly presentable.
The two of them sat in the lounge, drinking coffee at an unhurried pace.
"So you went back and met Valerius?" Owen asked.
"Oh, you mean your younger brother?" This time, Zara did not bother calling Valerius Uncle. She nodded indifferently. "Yeah, I saw him. But something strange happened while we were there."
Owen immediately looked at her. "What happened? Did it involve you?"
"Not really." Zara took a sip of coffee.
Damn it. There was no sugar.
The bitterness made her entire face twist.
"When I crossed over, I happened to land in some sealed underground world. There was a city beneath the sea, somewhere called the Moonveil Sea, I think. Then I broke the seal, the city rose to the surface, and a forbidden-zone ruler showed up. I didn't know him, though."
Owen fell silent.
His hand paused around his cup. "Moonveil?"
Zara looked at him curiously. "You know about it?"
After a moment of thought, Owen nodded. "A little."
He let out a slow sigh. "Moonveil's secret was never meant to be revealed. But now that you've broken the seal, it can't remain hidden much longer."
Zara's curiosity immediately sharpened. "What happened there? Keeping it from me would be pretty unfair, wouldn't it? Just tell me. It can't be that serious."
Owen glanced at her. "The story itself isn't particularly important, but the Upper Realm did not play an honorable role in it. If I were still the Holy Sovereign, I wouldn't tell you, even if you were my daughter."
He took another leisurely sip of coffee. "But I'm no longer the one who would be held accountable, so I suppose it doesn't matter if I tell you. You should still keep it to yourself."
Zara immediately perked up. "Go on. Tell me. I promise I won't say a word."
She only wanted to confirm whether Soraya truly was the wife of that forbidden-zone ruler.
"More than a thousand years ago, Moonveil was the first city to advocate peaceful coexistence with mystic beasts," Owen began. "Its ruler at the time was a female general, one of the greatest prodigies ever born among the humans of the Lower Realm."
"She shared a fated connection with a former High Priest of the Imperial Clan.
He accepted her as his disciple and taught her the power of prophecy.
That allowed her to travel freely through the world, move between the Upper and Lower Realms, and even venture deep into mystic beast territory to communicate with them. "
"At the time, the Upper Realm was too preoccupied with conflicts against mystic beasts to pay much attention to the Lower Realm. The Lower Realm itself was plagued by constant warfare. Moonveil was only able to develop in peace because it remained under her protection."
"She was extraordinarily gifted and remarkably fortunate. Once, she accidentally entered a forbidden zone and emerged completely unharmed. But..."
Owen slowly set down his coffee cup.
"Forbidden zones are not places one simply walks into and out of. She was one of only a handful of people in over a thousand years to escape without so much as a scratch. Rumors later spread that she began traveling in and out of that forbidden zone regularly. No outsider ever learned why."
"Some claimed she had obtained tremendous power there, which was how she managed to protect Moonveil. The mystic beasts respected her as well, and even during times of war, they never allowed Moonveil to be drawn into the conflict. But later..."
"What happened later?" Zara interrupted impatiently. "Stop cutting off the story right at the important part. You're driving me crazy!"
She could not stand people who told stories like this, and Owen had done it more than once.
Owen took another sip of coffee. "Why are you in such a hurry? This isn't a television drama. Talking makes me thirsty. Are you worried someone is going to interrupt before you hear the ending?"
Zara fell silent.
If the man in front of her had not been her father, he might already have been dead.
This was outrageous.
After finishing his coffee, Owen handed Zara the empty cup. "Get me another one."
Zara fell silent.
She wanted to hear the rest of the story, so she endured it.
Fortunately, Owen knew her patience was running thin and continued. "Later, someone set their sights on her. They coveted her power."
After thinking for a moment, he added, "Then again, this happened over a thousand years ago, so the rumors may not be entirely accurate. Whether her power was truly the reason, no one knows."
"All I know is that the Upper Realm played a disgraceful role. They joined forces with a mystic beast clan and ambushed her. They slaughtered countless lives in Moonveil, tore out her soul, and used it to forge a sacred artifact."
"Afterward, they sank Moonveil beneath the sea to cover up what they had done. Countless lives were buried with the city, and no news of Moonveil ever surfaced again."
Owen added, "This is knowledge passed down only through the line of Holy Sovereigns. To everyone else, it's nothing more than a legend. Even if you told people, no one would believe you."
Zara clicked her tongue. "Was the general's name Soraya?"
Owen immediately turned toward her. "How did you know?"
Zara suddenly smiled. "Didn't I pick up a little girl named Soraya?"
Owen fell silent.
He accepted the fresh cup of coffee Zara had poured for him and said, "Everything I just told you was made up. Don't believe any of it."
Zara clicked her tongue twice. "This isn't about whether I believe you anymore. It's obviously true. I saw pieces of the past through Soraya."
Owen's hand froze. "What did you see?"
"Pretty much what you just described. I also have a good idea which mystic beast clan was involved."
Zara continued, "The truth is, Soraya was the wife of that forbidden-zone ruler. He clearly had no idea what happened to her. The rest of the truth was probably buried along with Moonveil."
She added, "I've already released Moonveil from the bottom of the sea, and now the forbidden-zone ruler knows about it. Once he puts everything together, the Upper Realm is going to have a massive problem on its hands."
Zara raised an eyebrow. "At least then they won't have time to worry about Earth."
Owen looked genuinely stunned. "She was the wife of a forbidden-zone ruler?"
The matter had been far too secret for many people to know.
No one had even dared to speculate about it.
A forbidden-zone ruler could have a wife?
Most people did not even know whether forbidden-zone rulers truly existed, much less what form they took.
Owen asked the question that had clearly been troubling him most. "Can humans and mystic beasts actually be together?"
Zara stared at him. "You were the Holy Sovereign, and even you don't know?"
Owen coughed awkwardly. "Stories like that occasionally appeared in gossip publications, but we always assumed they were... well, you know. They are different species."
Especially in places where humans and mystic beasts lived peacefully together, most humans treated mystic beasts as pets.
Zara gave him a disapproving look. "How backward of you."
Owen fell silent.
After a moment, he lowered his voice. "But the Soraya you're talking about... that seems unlikely. If she really was the general, how could a human reincarnate after a thousand years and somehow end up on Earth? Perhaps she's only a descendant."
"I don't know whether she's a descendant or not. Finding her was strange enough, and I still have no idea how she got here."
With that, Zara stood up. "Now that I know what happened, I'm going home to check on everyone."