Sarlayan didn't know much about the timeline of the Shadowlands.
At this current point in time, the Blighted Realm of Zlos and the Hell Abyss are far from being born. The death subplane that has long been subordinate to Sharlayan has been temporarily banned, and there is no other way to find it for a while. Towards the Shadow Realm.
However, Sarlayan had no intention of going to the Shadow Realm in the ancient times tens of thousands of years ago. He only needed to deal with the guy who stole souls in Azeroth.
There is one thing to say, although Sarlayan and Valeela suspected that Denathrius was behind it, they did not have any evidence in their hands, and they just subconsciously put the blame on the troublemaker who loved to cause trouble.
After calming down and thinking further, Sarlayan told Valeera another counter-intuitive guess.
"Is there a possibility that in this era, Zoval has not been exiled to the Abyss, and the one who sneaked into Azeroth to cause trouble is not the troublemaker Denathrius, but the Arbiter Zoval who is in a period of confusion?"
"Zoval..." Valila said thoughtfully, "Why do you think it's him?"
The next stop for the Sharlayan duo will be venturing into C'Thun's territory.
Different from the water elemental territory and the relatively peaceful central area that is between the forces of the two ancient gods, C'Thun is trying his best to fight against the army of Titan creations led by Odin and other guardians. You can guess where it is with your butt. There will be no peace.
"It's just a whim. To be honest, this possibility is indeed possible, but the probability is low."
On the way south, Sarlayan analyzed to Valeela: "Zovar was not born with a traitorous nature. Before he was defeated by other Eternals and thrown into the Abyss, he was the arbiter in charge of the eternal city of Oribos. Officer, responsible for reviewing all souls entering the Shadow Realm."
"In other words, Zoval must have struggled and hesitated for a period of time before he decided to go dark. Maybe he would go to Azeroth to find inspiration."
Valeela nodded and said: "It's not impossible. I heard the Queen of Winter said that Zoval, who is still the arbiter, foresaw some kind of threat and entered a... how should I say? Hysterical state?"
"He believed that the rules created by the Firstborn were flawed. After convincing his colleagues to no avail, he radically tried to seize the marks of other Eternals and entered the Tomb of the Firstborn to rewrite the rules. However, in the end, they failed and were defeated by the four Eternals. Banished to the Maw and imprisoned.”
After Valeela finished telling the story she saw from the perspective of the Winter Queen, she asked Sarlayan very curiously: "So what is the threat that Zoval saw? I always feel that...his depraved mode seems to be... Where have I heard of it?”
"Ha~" Sarlayan shrugged with a half-smile: "Of course you have heard of it. Is Zovar's experience very similar to Sargeras?"
"Foreseeing the threat, trying to unite the compatriots, and then going dark and fighting after being rejected. This is almost exactly the same as Sargeras's degeneration process."
Valeela was stunned for a moment, then shook her head and laughed: "But the results were different. Sargeras successfully destroyed the Pantheon, but Zovar was defeated and imprisoned."
Sarlayan smiled meaningfully: "Since their experiences are so similar, but the endings are different, then... can I make a bold guess that the so-called threats foreseen by the warden are also the same ones that Sargeras is wary of? Is it related to the Lord of the Void?"
"Hmm..." Valeera frowned and considered for a moment: "Maybe, but unfortunately we don't have any evidence. Moreover, with our current strength and vision, it is too early to consider the threat of the Lord of the Void."
"Indeed." Sarlayan sighed helplessly: "Don't talk about the Lord of the Void, we can't even defeat her lackey the Ancient God. There is no point in thinking so far, it will only increase troubles."
"The road to a bright future must be down-to-earth and forward step by step. No matter what the big shots think, we can only do what we can first."
…
As soon as they left the territory of the water element, Sarlayan and Valeela, who had been traveling smoothly, were immediately attacked by a wave of Qiraji.
With the current strength of the two of them, it is difficult for these insects, which are generally only at the elite level, to pose a threat to them. It is meaningless no matter how large the number is.
In order to save time and prevent the battle from dragging on too long and attracting more subsequent enemies, Sarlayan directly transformed back into his dragon prototype and cleared the battlefield instantly with a sip of charged three-color salt soda.
When the Qiraji in other areas realized something was wrong through the sudden disappearance of a large number of link signals in the hive network, and rushed to the scene from their own defense areas, what they saw was only a huge black pit, and nothing else. No clues were left.
In today's war era, it is normal for the enemy and ourselves to encounter each other in the wild.
The cellular network is indeed very convenient in transmitting information. The accidents that occurred in the border areas were quickly learned by the high-level Qiraji in the center.
However, this loss of troops did not attract much attention from the decision-makers under C'Thun. Most people thought that this hundred-man team was just unfortunate enough to encounter a Titan Guardian-level enemy, and most likely they bumped into Odin.
Before he was awarded the title of chief administrator, Odin had already made a name for himself on the battlefield.
This brave warrior with a flaming beard wields a powerful force of light.
Different from the holy light used by Naaru, Odin's power of light is more blazing in form, like a blazing sun, burning those who dare to oppose him into black ashes.
Judging from the scorched marks on the scene, most of the Qiraji's top brass agreed with this speculation.
Sharlayan and Valeera know nothing about the speculation about C'Thun's forces.
After dealing with the unexpected encounter with the scout team, the two changed from their previous high-speed pace, slowed down and began to investigate the reasons behind the disappearance of souls in C'Thun's territory in a low-key manner.
As he went deeper along the way, under the pressure of the environment, Sarlayan learned the transformation spell without any teacher, and adjusted the appearance of himself and Valeera.
In the eyes of outsiders, they are just two shorter faceless men.
In fact, it is not accurate to say that he is self-taught. Stellagosa had crammed him into a large number of practical tips as early as a few years ago after Malygos activated the blue dragon bloodline. Spells.
You can not learn it for now, but at least prepare it first, maybe you will use it in the future.
Stellagosa's foresight proved to be correct.
Using the cover of the transformation spell, Sarlayan and Valeela passed through several villages and towns under the name of the Dark Empire without any hindrance.
The local residents felt a little weird about the two faceless men speaking Qiraji, but considering that Qiraji was also one of the official languages of the Dark Empire, the people of the Dark Empire did not take this small problem to heart.
As the two gradually penetrated into the rear of C'Thun's forces, they finally got some useful information.
"Is this the village that the high-level insect man mentioned?"
Based on the intelligence obtained in the nearest city, the two came to the outside of a long-abandoned small village. Valeera immediately began to investigate carefully.
As a Backlight Blade elite responsible for tasks such as intelligence transmission and secret investigations, this kind of work of tracking down clues is Valeela's strength.
With the help of Sarlayan, who has strong energy flow perception ability, Valeera quickly found some strange traces that should not belong to the Dark Empire.
"This is……"
Valeela, wearing special gloves, carefully picked up a small cloud of dust from a backlit ground.
"Salayan, come and take a look too."
"Huh? Did you find anything?"
Sarlayan, who was relaxing outside, quickly came over and saw the long-dried green soil on Valeera's hands at a glance.
"If I'm not mistaken, what's on this... seems to be preservative?"
After questioning and investigating along the way, the two obtained a lot of information related to the missing soul case.
For some victims, only their souls disappeared, leaving their bodies intact, but in some places, like this small village, both people and souls disappeared without a trace in just a few days.
Valeela discovered a pattern based on the results of the survey and sampling. Those who left their bodies and lost their souls were Qiraji, while those who disappeared with their bodies were faceless men.
After analysis, Valeera came to a conclusion.
The person behind this was probably concerned about the Qiraji's hive mind network and didn't want to be caught by them, so they just stole their souls without anyone noticing.
The Faceless Men do not have such a convenient function that can connect the entire clan mentally. Communication between villages and towns still needs to be achieved through relatively primitive physical contact.
When the surrounding neighbors discovered the anomaly in this small village, no one was left in the village, as if everyone had evaporated overnight.
"Ha~ The fox's tail is finally exposed."
After checking the degree of dryness of the preservative, Sarlayan said thoughtfully: "At least one month has passed. After such a long incident, it is difficult for this small village to find more useful clues. We are still continuing. Investigate in depth.”
"I have a hunch that we are not far away from the guy hiding behind the scenes."
