Salvador's talent was beyond dispute. Fanatical though Ryan had been back then, its upper echelons were elites whose eye for people was keen.
Over the years, Salvador had used his influence to involve himself in every aspect of the city, and many new policies had been "suggested" by him.
The city's chief magistrate also tacitly gave way to Salvador, this future Supreme Arbiter, glad to pave his path forward with flowers and applause.
Salvador was the true master of the city, and he lived up to expectations.
This border city changed with every passing year: evil creatures in the surrounding lands were wiped clean, piety reigned within the walls, the people's hearts were settled, and the economy grew steadily. Had Salvador done nothing at all, simply living out his days in peace and quiet, he could have returned to the imperial capital in a few years to enjoy a meteoric rise.
Yet he was a clever man, one who foresaw the consequences of fanaticism earlier than the other zealots.
Battle report after battle report, figure after figure, along with endless related complaints and clashes, piled up before him. Salvador felt the repercussions of fanatical faith and human supremacism.
He knew he was destined to become the Supreme Arbiter; Salvador understood perfectly well the weight of responsibility he would shoulder.
If he did nothing now, once he returned to the imperial capital separated from the frontier by thousands of li, he would find it hard to see what life at the bottom was truly like.
Salvador was an ambitious man. He wanted to seize this opportunity to change the status quo.
Anbaixiu's friend, the unjustly treated dwarf peddler, was the breakthrough.
"Father, if he wanted to exonerate your friend, wasn't that a good thing?" Melina asked, puzzled.
Anbaixiu sighed. "It would have been, but that alone wasn't enough. He needed a far more shocking breakthrough, or he wouldn't be able to display the horrific consequences of fanatical faith before the eyes of the public."
"What do you mean?"
Melina felt herself falling behind, utterly unable to fathom how a good thing could turn bad.
And Anbaixiu's explanation was simple and straightforward. "Overturning an ordinary case creates little stir—not unless the case is exceptionally cruel, heinous, and far-reaching in its impact. My friend was locked in prison; though bankrupt, he was at least alive. That outcome wasn't enough, not enough to serve as a breakthrough. Meanwhile, my friend still had family desperately running about, hoping to reduce his sentence.
"Yet a bunch of dwarves crying injustice before the people of Ryan every day became an enormous eyesore. Under those circumstances, the Ryan people already despised the sight of them. With just a slight push, those zealots would commit irrational acts."
This time Melina understood. Surprised, she said, "Those dwarves were all killed?"
Anbaixiu nodded and continued, "Not only were they killed, they were burned to death after enduring horrific torture. Their deaths could only be described as gruesome beyond words."
"Salvador did that? Someone so vicious, and yet he was a priest of the Lord of the Dawn?"
Melina was shocked. Wasn't he terrified of divine retribution?
Anbaixiu smiled and said, "Salvador was a clever man. He had long suspected something was wrong with the Lord of the Dawn, and doing this was also a drastic method to test the deity's condition. He wasn't afraid of blasphemy. In his heart, he believed that as long as the Lord of the Dawn manifested, everything would be set right—even if it meant he was punished himself, he wouldn't mind.
"Besides, the lad was shrewd. He left no flaws, no evidence whatsoever. No matter how anyone investigated, nothing could ever be traced back to him."
Melina asked curiously, "Then how did you find evidence, Father?"
"I didn't find any evidence," Anbaixiu said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Nor did I need evidence. A divination wizard's intuition is evidence enough."
Yet when Anbaixiu said these words, he felt neither pride nor smugness. Instead, it was from that moment on that he had begun to doubt the power fate bestowed upon him.
Why did he realize Salvador was lying only after the man stood before the dwarves' corpses delivering a 'grief-stricken' speech?
Had it been sooner, perhaps the tragedy could have been averted.
Yet intuition was something one could never truly explain.
Anbaixiu trusted that belated intuition and secretly reopened his investigation into the matter. But Salvador had done his work too cleanly, leaving him utterly unable to find any evidence. In the end, Anbaixiu chose the most direct method—assassination.
He made multiple attempts, but most ended in failure. Salvador was cleverer and more cautious than Anbaixiu, having long marked Anbaixiu as the most volatile variable.
Yet Salvador had always felt it was a pity, believing Anbaixiu ought to understand his difficulties.
"I recall that in the end, he received a transfer order, ending his provincial posting early so he could return to the Ryan Imperial Capital to report on his duties. Then I attempted a final assassination on the road, and that time, I succeeded."
Anbaixiu's tone carried no sense of triumph, only a wistful sigh. Melina asked again in confusion, "Father, wasn't succeeding a good thing?"
"It should have been, but it wasn't because my plan was flawless—it was because of Ryan's own internal strife. As I said earlier, Salvador was working hard to eradicate those fanatical notions. By leveraging the tragic fate of my friend's family, he did indeed awaken many Ryan people, making them realize that excessive zeal would lead them into committing atrocities.
"Yet there were always zealots who thought otherwise—such as the Ryan people who had slaughtered those dwarves under his instigation. Salvador had punished them all; some were imprisoned, others executed, all meeting grim ends. But they were not isolated individuals; they had families and clans, and fanatical faith was widespread at the time.
"Salvador was returning to the imperial capital laden with merit, and everyone knew he would become the youngest Supreme Arbiter. How could the Ryan people who staunchly championed human supremacism accept that? So on his way back to the capital, I wasn't the only one lying in ambush."
To this day, Anbaixiu still remembered the shocked expression on Salvador's face before he died. Before Anbaixiu had even launched his attack, Salvador was already ambushed—and it was his escorting guard unit that struck.
And what made it even more ironic was that Salvador had replaced that guard unit at the last moment.
Because earlier, Anbaixiu had gone to great lengths to persuade one of Salvador's bodyguards to help assassinate him. That plan was uncovered by Salvador in advance, so before heading back to the capital, he replaced all of his personal guards.
Who would have thought that while Anbaixiu had only bribed one man, the zealot faction had bought off more than half the new guard? The zealots themselves hadn't expected it: they originally had zero chance of striking, only for Salvador to suddenly act like a madman and replace everyone around him.
Just as Anbaixiu prepared to stake everything on a single throw, the zealots struck first. In an ironic twist, it was Anbaixiu who took the grievously wounded Salvador away at the final moment.
Anbaixiu watched Salvador draw his final breaths, and before the man died, he extracted the truth from him.
It truly was Salvador who had covertly instigated the brutal atrocities against the dwarf's family. Not only that, but among the dwarves who were tortured and set ablaze, one had actually survived.
When Salvador arrived in the guise of a savior, the youngest son of Anbaixiu's dwarf friend was still breathing, clinging to his last gasp. As a high-ranking priest, saving him would not have been difficult for Salvador.
Yet he did nothing, merely watching coldly as the young dwarf breathed his last.
"'Only a brutal death could awaken them. I do not regret my choice—everything was for Ryan. But I want to know how you turned my entire guard against me.'"
That was the only question Salvador had left before dying, and Anbaixiu's answer was simple: "'In their eyes, killing you was also for Ryan.'"
Upon hearing that answer, the light faded from Salvador's eyes. Even though his blood had not yet run dry, his will to live was completely gone.
Anbaixiu saw no radiance guiding the soul to the divine realm, and he knew this "friend" of his had gone to Hell.
Salvador had seen where fanaticism led, yet he failed to realize that he had already been infected by that very same fanaticism.
Everything for Ryan. In the name of faith, trampling the lives of others: Salvador had trampled the lives of that dwarven family, while the zealots trampled Salvador's life.
Perhaps having understood this in the end, Salvador never begged for forgiveness from Anbaixiu or the gods, silently accepting his fate.
"In any case, Salvador was a cleverer man than I. At least back then, my various schemes were easily foiled by him, and he was exceptionally capable in administrative affairs. I rarely admire anyone; even the high and mighty deities seem to me mostly just lucky to have acquired immense power. That Salvador could become a scribe in the second layer of Hell is no surprise at all."
Many people always assume strength is the absolute measure of a person, but in Anbaixiu's eyes, wisdom, strength, and luck were of equal importance. Back then, Salvador had merely lacked luck, while Anbaixiu happened to be favored by the Goddess of Fate.
And now, if he could enlist this old friend's help, his control over Hell would become vastly easier.
Yet, knowing full well that Anbaixiu had invited him to "reminisce," that old fellow didn't have the slightest inclination?
Anbaixiu muttered to himself, "It seems I'll have to pay this old friend a visit in person."
Melina only thought the tale was fascinating. To think someone even her father couldn't defeat had ended up in Hell this way was truly quite ironic.
Having heard the story, Melina grew even more intrigued by the other two red-named "enemies." She couldn't help asking, "What about Brunus and Paluriel? Were they also people you couldn't beat?"
"Brunus was different; his cleverness lay in a different direction. He was perhaps the most terrifying assassin I've ever encountered. Salvador possessed an exceptional grasp of the big picture, brilliant planning, and keen perceptiveness—back then, he was superior to me in virtually every aspect. Brunus, on the other hand, was a master of a single lethal craft; his talent for assassination was terrifyingly potent.
"As for Paluriel... she's ten times more horrifying than the other two combined. As I've said before, she is a genuine lunatic!"
Chapter 561