I! Cleaner!

"I'm..."

*I really stumbled upon something incredible...*

After composing himself slightly, Leon looked at the Taurus Director in front of him and asked somewhat incredulously,

"I just found out that humans... escaped from the Old Soil?"

*You just touched it, and you managed to uncover such a secret?*

Upon hearing Leon's words, the Taurus Director was quite surprised and then nodded,

"That's right, our human ancestors didn't live in this world but were a branch of descendants that fled from the Old Soil. The predecessor of the Star Palace was the transportation tool selected by our ancestors during their migration. Back then, they planned to continue their journey, but the Star Palace was shattered, so they had to stay in this world."

*Whoa, it's actually true!*

After smacking his lips in slight confusion, Leon continued to ask,

"Speaking of shattered... the information I touched revealed that the one who shattered the Star Palace was one of the Supreme Four Pillar Gods. They now..."

"Have all been taken care of."

"Huh?"

"The Supreme Four Pillar Gods who pursued us from the Old Soil were the Old King, Omnia Cicada, Crimson Overlord, and Azure Sleep. They were mortal enemies of humanity. Since we humans have not been destroyed yet, they certainly have perished. Although most of their divinity and authority have been inherited by other True Gods, they are no longer the same as those original Pillar Gods."

After recalling slightly, the Taurus Director spread his hands and said,

"That all happened unknown ages ago. The Supreme Four Pillar Gods, after all, were just four gods who mastered powerful laws. If you use your Leon Value, they probably were around seventy points. Perhaps slightly stronger than Olivia, but only by a little.

After many generations of peace under the protection of the Watcher's Palace, the overall strength of the Purification Bureau has declined significantly. Still, there are seven or eight members roughly at Olivia's level, and probably more than thirty who can cross the sixty-point True God threshold stably.

There are also some who haven't surpassed sixty points but can repel True Gods with the use of anomalous objects, including some elite Branch Directors and Level One Cleaners. Altogether, there are over a hundred people capable of harming True Gods, and this is after generations of stability.

The generations of predecessors who rapidly grew under the protection of the Watcher's Palace were much stronger than now. The Four Pillar Gods didn't last more than a few hundred years before being taken down. Now, the Brain of the Evil God being soaked in the Illusion Can is the brain of Azure Sleep, one of the Four Pillar Gods."

"..."

*Impressive, my heroic ancestors...*

Leon had initially thought that the ever-encircling external enemies of the Purification Bureau were actually overlooked by four formidable behind-the-scenes manipulators, ready to wipe out the world at any moment, and that he had luckily discovered this, soon to open a new heroic epic.

But little did he know that these so-called behind-the-scenes manipulators had been defeated by the Purification Bureau eight hundred years ago, and even their ashes had been repurposed as waste to be fed to dogs. All he saw was the impressive history of human predecessors, holding a script for the post-heroic era in which one could live almost peacefully, as the most troublesome enemies had long been slain by the great ancestors.

Hmm... come to think of it, in such a prosperous world, with a large crowd of True Gods, Demon Gods, Outer Gods, and Evil Gods all sharpening their wits to get in, if the predecessors of the Purification Bureau weren't formidable, how could they have settled for so long?

Even if the Purification Bureau's strength was insufficient to block all the True Gods eyeing this world, it had to be the undisputed strongest of all 'forces,' capable of holding its own against a group. Otherwise, they'd have been chased out to continue wandering eight hundred years ago.

...

"The predecessors were truly incredible (fiercely formidable)..."

After sincerely admiring the fierceness of the Purification Bureau predecessors, Leon, somewhat puzzled, said,

"Taurus His Excellency, since you know all this, why didn't you oppose when I said earlier that the Bureau seems unaware of the Star Palace?"

"Because what you mentioned is history, not the current state of the Star Palace. The Bureau indeed doesn't know much about the specific condition of the Star Palace right now."

The Taurus Director replied helplessly,

"I told you before, the actual size of the Star Palace is enormous. Bringing them back from near the Sun just once is extremely troublesome; a round trip might take over ten years and consume countless precious materials.

So, after the initial Virgo Director made a trip and delivered the eighty-eight Star Palaces, the Bureau never retrieved them for inspection again, and no one knows if they've been fully nurtured.

Besides, even if they aren't retrieved and continue to be placed near the Sun, that won't hinder people from using the abilities of the Star Palace as long as there's no world-ending crisis necessitating escape. The summoning of the Star Palace has always responded, so nobody wanted to bring them back for checks...

By the way, how's the condition of the Star Palace? Is it fully nurtured?"

"..."

*Indeed... given human nature, such a doomsday ark wouldn't be urgently dealt with until the last minute. Moreover, the high levels of the Purification Bureau are notoriously lax. If they were diligent enough to test every three years and inspect every five, that would indeed be something unusual.*

As for the state of the Star Palace...

Considering the words in the evaluation like "one of the most important trump cards of the Purification Bureau" and "the last hope of the human race," Leon confidently said,

"Although it hasn't fully recovered, with still many scars on its back, the current Star Palace is no longer 'fragments.' It should be considered fully nurtured."

"That's great news."

The Taurus Director said happily,

"Even if it might not be used, having such a thing is better than not. By the way, Leon, did you finally find a way to learn secret techniques bypassing the Star Palace?"

"Well... I'm not sure if it's found... Right! Besides those historical details, I discovered something very important!"

Suddenly recalling something, Leon furrowed his brows and reminded,

"Taurus His Excellency, my ability tells me that anyone holding the Star Palace will have their divinity continuously drained!"

"That's no problem, it's intentional."

"Huh?"

"What I mean is, during the forging of the Star Palace, this condition for usage was deliberately designed by the first Taurus Director."

The Taurus Director explained with a smile,

"The Star Palace is so valuable and so far away around the Sun. If we can't get to it in time, what if it's taken by other True Gods? So we simply designed it so that anyone who touched it would have their divinity continuously drained, ensuring that no True God would want to seize it."

"But those affected... wouldn't Cleaners with a Leon Value over sixty, touching the True God threshold, also lose their divinity?"

"Let it drain!"

The Taurus Director spread his hands and said,

"To drain the lowest-grade divinity completely would take three to four hundred years or even longer, but humans don't have eternal life. At most, we can live about a hundred and fifty years. Why concern ourselves with things so far off?"

"..."