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Chapter 405 The Sealed Past [Part Two]

"In that case, please come with me. The test terminals are all set up."

Upon hearing Tiandao's words, the owl keeper immediately pushed up his round-framed glasses that had slipped down to the tip of his nose, tucked the register under his wing, and turned to leave.

After all, those who can pass the game with the raccoon can never be judged by common sense. It has no need and is too lazy to verify whether the Heavenly Dao has truly mastered all the knowledge.

Half an hour later, the owl keeper pushed in a silver terminal cart, the metal wheels making a soft 'gurgling' sound as they rolled on the floor.

With a flap of its wings, it placed the register on the table.

"Come and register when you're ready. Each person will have their own terminal. The test will consist of a mix of multiple choice and true/false questions. It's out of 100 points, and 60 points is the passing score. Don't even think about cheating. The terminal will upload your answers in real time."

Tiandao was the first to step forward, and he signed the four characters 'Tiandao Siming' on the register with a pen, his handwriting neat and powerful.

As he took the terminal, the cool metal body pressed against his palm. He tapped the screen with his fingertips, and a blue notification popped up immediately saying "Exam Started".

With a touch of curiosity, he quickly swiped his finger across the screen, and questions began to appear one by one.

Which of the following is NOT a type of Star Beast cub that is prohibited from being brought into the New Federation?

What level of occupied zone can a Star-level Explorer enter independently?

Faced with these problems, the fingertips of the Heavenly Dao hardly paused.

After all, his photographic memory is no joke; the few minutes he spent flipping through the documents were enough for him to memorize all the terms.

Caroline next to her quickly got into the zone; she answered questions a little slower, but each one was answered exceptionally well.

"Submission successful, score 100."

Not long after, Tiandao and Caroline submitted their work at the same time, and unsurprisingly, both passed with perfect scores.

Upon hearing the terminal notification tone, the Owl Administrator adjusted his glasses and said calmly, "You've passed."

As soon as he finished speaking, the owl keeper took out a velvet box from his pocket. When the box was opened, two gray badges lay quietly inside.

Contrary to expectations of a shimmering gold badge, the Explorer's Badge is made of very ordinary material, with only the star pattern on the front and the word "Starlight" on the edge being somewhat exquisite.

"Here, this is your explorer's badge."

The owl handler handed the badges to Tendou and Caroline.

"You are currently at the lowest level, Starshine. Once you complete three D-level Occupied Zone missions or one C-level mission, you will be upgraded to Moonshine."

"As for the Sun-level, you don't need to worry about it too much in the short term."

Tiandao took the badge and examined it carefully.

The back of the badge is engraved with a small number, which is a unique identification code for each explorer.

He stroked the number, then suddenly looked up at the owl keeper and asked curiously, "With this badge, I should be able to form my own team of explorers now, right?"

The owl keeper paused for a moment, then instinctively folded its wings.

"Theoretically it's possible, but are you sure you want to do it?"

It frowned, and its tone became serious.

"To form a team, you need to meet three conditions: at least three members with Explorer qualifications, complete one team collaboration task, and pay a registration fee of 5000 Tianwu Coins."

"Furthermore, at your current level, you can only accept D-rank missions. While those missions are low-risk, you might still encounter sudden star beast tides. Forming a team rashly might not be a good thing, and besides..."

Before the owl administrator could finish speaking, Tiandao interrupted with a smile.

"If I remember correctly, besides the normal team formation process, there should be other ways to form an explorer team, right?"

The owl keeper froze instantly, his movement of pushing up his glasses halting in mid-air.

It paused for a few seconds before slowly nodding: "There is indeed such a special case, but it is more difficult than building it from scratch."

"Because the other method is to inherit the existing team of explorers."

"Such teams are either 'empty shell teams' where all members have retired and there are no successors, or 'meritorious teams' that have made significant contributions but are facing disbandment."

"The former requires you to find the original team members to sign their consent, while the latter requires approval from the federal government. Neither of these can be done in a short time."

"Besides, you're not the only ones who think this way."

"I guess you'd say that because you already have a suitable 'target,' right?"

In response to the owl administrator's question, Tiandao smiled but remained silent.

As the owl administrator said, Heavenly Dao does indeed have a goal of seizing the 'team'.

And this 'team' is none other than the explorer team called 'Dawn' that Ennet had once assembled.

Due to the successive retirements of its members, the team has been in a state of 'awaiting succession'.

But the team's leader, Ennet, is still alive.

As a result, although the 'Dawn' explorer team was no longer in existence, it still maintained a fairly high staff within the 'Occupied Zone Exploration and Countermeasures Bureau'.

It is one of the few 'Sunday-level teams'.

If Tiandao can directly obtain the right to use this 'team', he will not only be able to skip the cumbersome registration process, but also directly obtain many of the benefits of a 'Sun-level team'.

It's only because the team's leader is Enite that no one, except for the Heavenly Dao, dares to set their sights on the 'Dawn Team'.

After all, Ennett was a living legend in the hearts of many people, a true household name and superstar in the New Federation.

This is why the owl administrator doesn't know the true thoughts of Heaven, otherwise he would definitely say that he's gone mad.

This is 'Ennet', even though he hasn't been out and about for many years.

However, the prestige he left behind in the New Federation is still beyond what ordinary people can imagine.

After carefully observing the Heavenly Dao for a moment, the owl administrator ultimately did not ask any further questions.

After all, everyone has their own ideas, and its significance at the talent training base is to provide 'answers' for some people.

What the 'decision' is after receiving the 'answer' is, it has no right to, nor will it, 'interfere' in any sense.

"Alright, now that you've gotten what you wanted, what happens next is none of my business."

Perhaps it was because it realized that the Heavenly Dao was an innately troublesome sacred body.

Therefore, the cat-headed administrator did not want to have much contact with him and started a "keep away" work mode.

Tiandao didn't care about this and simply led Caroline outside.

The owl keeper stared at his back for a full half minute, his eyes behind his round-framed glasses filled with complex emotions.

This batch of trainees is likely to disrupt the peace of the Tianwu Training Base.

It shook its head, stopped thinking about these things, and instead lowered its head to continue organizing the information at hand.

Just then, the office door was slammed open by someone. "Old Ye! Do you have anything to eat? I'm starving after that fight!"

The raccoon caretaker burst in, clutching his belly, his furry paws rummaging through the desk. He immediately spotted the bear-shaped cookies in the glass jar, grabbed them, and stuffed them into his mouth, leaving crumbs all over his chest.

Seeing the raccoon caretaker push open the door and enter, the owl caretaker, Owl Feather, helplessly pushed up his glasses and pushed the milk on the table toward it.

"I told you not to call me Old Ye, my name is Owl Feather."

The raccoon, its mouth full of cookies, nodded indistinctly: "So, isn't Tiandao Siming something else? That guy's strength is truly top-notch, even more frightening than when I first met Ennet."

"You talked to him for so long, what's your impression of him?"

Upon hearing this, Owl Administrator Owl Feather put down "Star Beast Behavior".

This book is a whole size bigger than its body, and the cover is all frayed.

It looked in the direction Tiandao had left, its fingertips unconsciously tapping the table, and sighed, "It's not a matter of whether I have a good or bad impression of him, just a guy destined to be extraordinary."

Although the owl administrator's words were quite cryptic, the raccoon administrator still discerned an unusual meaning in them.

"For someone like you to take notice of him, it seems that guy really does have some connections."

The raccoon finished chewing the last cookie and wiped its mouth.

“That old man Ennet specifically instructed us to keep a close eye on this batch of trainees, saying that many of them possess extraordinary potential, and that we should pay close attention to them.”

"And that's exactly the case. Not only that guy named Tiandao Siming, but also the catwoman next to him, and some other students, all possess amazing potential."

The raccoon keeper leaned back on the sofa, and suddenly his tail drooped down.

"What's a bit strange is that so many promising talents suddenly appeared all at once, without any warning."

"No warning signs?"

Owlkeeper Owl Feather suddenly smiled, his glasses reflecting the light.

"Didn't you smell anything familiar on them?"

Upon hearing this, the raccoon sat bolt upright, a flicker of wariness in its eyes: "You mean Dragon?"

Dragon Cybercross, that's Dr. Ember's name in the New Commonwealth.

This name may not be particularly well-known in the New Federation, but it is quite different among the Star Beasts.

Owl Keeper Owl Feather recalled the 'trajectories of fate' he had seen in these Star Children of the Heavenly Dao, and then thought of Dragon, an anomaly completely different from them, and couldn't help but sigh, "Yes, that's what I'm talking about."

"You know, it was a calamity-level star beast just like us back then, and it was also the first madman who, after being defeated by Ennet, deliberately smashed its own star core and switched to the human camp."

"Is he crazy?"

Recalling what Dragon did, the raccoon keeper felt that such an assessment was reasonable.

Because if it were them, they would never rashly give up everything they had worked so hard to achieve just for some vague and illusory higher realm.

Thinking about this, the raccoon keeper couldn't help but say, "But as it turns out, that guy really did win the bet, didn't he?"

The raccoon keeper lowered his voice, his paws rubbing the golden bell on his chest, his envy barely concealed.

"He now has a human identity, his own laboratory, and the freedom that we could only dream of."

Ennet gave them a choice: to reshape the star core like Dragon, or to remain as administrators while wearing the seal.

After much hesitation, it finally chose stability, but looking at Dragon's current state, it couldn't help but regret its decision.

As one of its few 'good friends,' the owl keeper, Owl Feather, immediately poured cold water on it.

"Although I don't want to say it, I don't think you, Nightmare, can do the same things as that guy, Dragon."

"And do you still remember Bai Ling from thirteen years ago?"

"Bai Ling?"

The raccoon's expression instantly turned serious, and the black mist around it seemed to emanate a chill.

"That guy who can seal other people's star cores and star sources, and who has the ability to 'return all things to nothingness'? Didn't she say she died in an accident?"

"Accident?"

Owl Manager Owl Feather chuckled, pulled a yellowed document from a drawer, and pushed it in front of the raccoon.

"See for yourself. What happened thirteen years ago was not an accident at all; it was a setup."

“Even her encounter with ‘Chenguang’ twenty years ago was the result of someone’s deliberate arrangement.”

"What! Who's so bold as to dare to mess with even Ennet's men!"

The raccoon keeper stood up in shock.

Looking at the shocked raccoon administrator, Owl Administrator Owl Feather tapped the file lightly with his wing and said meaningfully, "Nightmare, the human heart is much more complicated than ours."

"Bai Ling trusted humans too much, which is why she was betrayed by her own people."

"The reason Dragon survived is because he understood the wickedness of human nature better than anyone else. But what about you?"

The owl keeper looked at the raccoon with eyes full of intellectual disdain.

"You get upset even if the cafeteria lady gives you one less piece of meat. If you really went out into human society on your own, you'd be sold within three days."

Faced with this 'humiliation,' the raccoon keeper blushed but couldn't refute it at all.

Fortunately, it was just talk, so it immediately changed the subject, saying, "Old Ye, do you think those guys from the Heavenly Dao will get dragged into this mess too?"

"Hard to say."

As Owlkeeper Owlfeather spoke, he picked up the book in front of him again and said calmly, "But Dragon must have had his reasons for sending them here."

"All we can do is follow Ennett's advice and keep a close eye on things. We need to prevent Bai Ling's tragedy from happening again."

Although the conversation between the raccoon and owl caretakers wasn't long, it provided many anime viewers with a lot of crucial information.

Besides the name 'Dust Light', which seems off at first glance, the dates 'twenty years ago' and 'thirteen years ago' also have a lot to do with it.

If they remembered correctly, thirteen years ago was the time when Tiandao and Chenkong's city encountered the beast tide.

'So, this is the story of Prisoner and Star?'

'A mysterious father, and a mother who appears to be a catastrophic star beast—Liao Kong and Xing Xing's backgrounds are far from simple.'

'What about Lao Tian? Lao Tian's background doesn't seem like that of an ordinary person either.'

'Who knows? Right now, the only background information for "Prison Sky" is about her grandmother; the production team hasn't revealed anything else.'

(End of this chapter)