The Truth

"The Rebirth Society! The Blood Weeping Demon Lord!" Zong Yan spoke the words the instant he saw them. He looked at Yaoguang with some astonishment. "They've already infiltrated Dayu? Why didn't the King of Yu notify us?" Immediately after, he seemed to realize something. "Right... the stance of Dayu's royal family has grown somewhat ambiguous, and they've been increasingly ignoring the rules. While they wouldn't dare openly break away and challenge the established order just yet, turning a blind eye to certain things is well within character." "Sounds like you know about them." Yaoguang leaned back. "Elaborate." Zong Yan fell silent for a moment, appearing to organize his thoughts. He had no intention of withholding anything. For one, Yaoguang had already crossed paths with the Rebirth Society and the Blood Weeping Demon Lord. For another, given Yaoguang's talent and strength, once he joined the Jishi Society, he would undoubtedly be nurtured as one of their core candidates. He was bound to learn these truths sooner or later anyway. With that in mind, Zong Yan took a gentle breath. "To speak of the Rebirth Society and the Blood Weeping Demon Lord, one must first speak of a power that stands above this world—a faction known as the Artifact Sect!" "The Artifact Sect?" Yaoguang was slightly surprised. "Hmm?" Zong Yan glanced at him. "You've heard of them?" "I heard the name from the mouths of those monsters." "Monsters..." Zong Yan glanced at the dossier Yaoguang had brought. "These are no mere monsters... they are demon soldiers." "Demon soldiers." Yaoguang recalled what he had gleaned about the origins of these "demons"—they were artificially created. In other words... "The Artifact Sect stands supreme above the world! Renowned across heaven and earth for the dao of artifact refining, they have forged countless immortal weapons and demon weapons over untold years. Those who wield immortal weapons are Immortal Lords, while those who command demon weapons are Demon Lords!" "Immortal Lords... Demon Lords..." Yaoguang muttered the two titles under his breath. Pointing at the creature in the file, Zong Yan continued, "These demon soldiers... originate from a formidable demon weapon: the Ten Thousand Demons Blood Soul Banner. Refining this demon weapon requires the blood sacrifice of ten thousand suitable offerings, refining them into the banner. A secret technique is then used to nurture those ten thousand souls into ten thousand demons. When these demons manifest, they become the demon soldiers you see before you. By devouring living beings and funneling the essence back to the Demon Lord, both the weapon and its master grow at a terrifying speed." It matched. Zong Yan's explanation lined up perfectly with the images Yaoguang had seen in the demon's memory fragments. Except... "A blood sacrifice of ten thousand people?!" Yaoguang looked up. Zong Yan shook his head. "Ten thousand *suitable* offerings." He let out a long breath. "A century ago, in order to forge a batch of demon weapons, all five continents were plunged into chaos. Wars raged between nations, leaving countless people displaced and families destroyed. Hundreds of millions died. On the Central Continent battlefield alone, the death toll exceeded sixty million. The Ten Thousand Demons Blood Soul Banner was one of the demon weapons nurtured during that era." To this day, that turbulent era was merely a passage in history textbooks. Yaoguang felt no personal attachment to it. Yet hundreds of millions of casualties... That number was still enough to shake anyone to the core. "You knew all along?" Yaoguang asked in a low voice. "I know what you want to say." Zong Yan looked at Yaoguang and opened his mouth, unsure of how to explain. In the end, he let out another long sigh. "If I told you that the era of turmoil a hundred years ago, the era of upheaval we've entered today, and even the rivalry between Xuelong and Chixing are all merely the aftershocks of an internal power struggle and succession between two factions within the Artifact Sect... would you believe me?" "Aftershocks of a power succession?!" "Yes." Zong Yan nodded heavily. "To figures of that magnitude, every move they make and every word they utter can overturn the world of ordinary mortals. During a transition of power, the factions under their command naturally descend into chaos. Both sides abandon the rules... to fish in troubled waters." "Like an ancient official who knows he's about to be demoted and reassigned, so he unscrupulously plunders everything he can before leaving?" Yaoguang asked. Zong Yan remained silent for a moment before nodding. "And now, someone is nurturing a Ten Thousand Demons Blood Soul Banner in Dayu?" Yaoguang asked. "Not just Dayu—across the entire Central Continent," Zong Yan said. "Traces of the Rebirth Society have surfaced in other countries as well." Yaoguang thought of the old and new hegemons, Xuelong and Chixing... "Is it Chixing?" "More precisely, the faction aligned with Chixing," Zong Yan said. "Which is why the royal families of each nation dare not act rashly." "Then what is the Jishi Society's stance toward these demon soldiers?" "Kill them!" Zong Yan answered without hesitation. "Kill every last one we find!" "Oh?" Yaoguang was somewhat surprised. "Didn't you just say the royal families dare not act rashly?" "They dare not act because they are too visible. Any overt move would invite retaliation and sanctions from Chixing. A starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Even if Chixing is on the decline, as a hegemon that has ruled the world for hundreds of years, it is not something an ordinary small nation can lightly provoke. But... what are we?" Zong Yan gave a cold laugh. "We are a non-governmental organization." "???" Yaoguang stared at him. What happened to having the full backing of royal courts and aristocratic families? How had they suddenly turned into a humble non-governmental organization? Yet Yaoguang quickly caught his meaning. The royal families and the prominent aristocratic families couldn't afford to offend Chixing, but that didn't mean they were content to sit idly by while Chixing raised a Ten Thousand Demons Blood Soul Banner within their borders. Just because they couldn't act in the open didn't mean they couldn't make subtle moves in the shadows. Such as funding the Jishi Society. Moreover, this sort of affair could never be brought out into the open anyway. According to Zong Yan, the backing behind Xuelong and Chixing involved an internal power struggle within the Artifact Sect. In this situation, Chixing—as the losing party—wouldn't dare act with complete impunity either. If their operatives were eradicated by a non-governmental organization like the Jishi Society, Chixing would simply have to swallow the bitter pill. If they blew the matter up and handed a disaster over to the Snow Dragon Federation, they would be even less pleased. In the end, it was merely a fig leaf that everyone tacitly acknowledged. "Even though they know full well that Chixing's people are stirring up storms across our Central Continent, not a single royal family dares to stand up and openly oppose them. This is just one of the ways Chixing bullies our Central Continent," Zong Yan said heavily. "Beyond that, what is even more intolerable is Chixing's monopolization of the recommendation quotas from the nations of the Central Continent." "Recommendation quotas?" Yaoguang pondered for a moment before quickly making the connection. "Quotas to go to the Artifact Sect?" "Precisely. Do you know why there's a saying that kingdoms and aristocratic families share the world?" Without waiting for an answer, Zong Yan explained, "In essence, there is no difference between a kingdom and an aristocratic family." He continued briskly, "Every ten years, an emissary from the Artifact Sect descends to lead the most outstanding Martial Saints from each nation back to the sect! If someone from that batch of Martial Saints manages to distinguish themselves, the others will rally behind the faction that Martial Saint represents, forming a nation centered around a royal family or aristocratic clan. If none of them manage to make a name for themselves in the Artifact Sect, the faction they establish usually takes the form of a federation." "Martial Saints, the Artifact Sect, demon weapons, Demon Lords..." Yaoguang pieced the threads together one by one. The truth of the world—something ordinary people could never hope to touch—gradually surfaced. "So..." Yaoguang looked at Zong Yan. "Does the Artifact Sect... possess immortals?" "Immortals?" Zong Yan repeated the word, savoring the profound meaning it carried. After a long while, he let out a wistful sigh. "Whether there are immortals, I do not know. But... the Artifact Sect represents status, authority, advanced civilization, superiority, boundless power, and longevity... It is for this very reason that outstanding martial experts from across the world have thrown themselves forward generation after generation, heading to the Artifact Sect to fight for a glorious future." *A story of ascending from a mortal world into a cultivation realm,* Yaoguang thought to himself. The difference was that their mortal world appeared to be set against a modern backdrop. Wait... It seemed this technology had been introduced and vigorously developed by Chixing. So... Whether the world of the Artifact Sect represented a cultivation world or a science-fiction civilization remained an open question. "At the Artifact Sect, one can reach realms far beyond that of a Martial Saint, right? What lies beyond Martial Saint? Martial God? Golden Body?" Yaoguang asked. "Naturally." Zong Yan nodded. After a brief pause, he said, "In truth, the martial arts methods we cultivate originally trickled down from the Artifact Sect. In the Artifact Sect, this system is known as Fiendgod Body Refining." He paused for a beat. "However, Fiendgod Body Refining is merely a system used by the Artifact Sect to train 'strongmen'—much like how our Jishi Society uses secret medicines to stimulate physical potential and train field operatives like Zhang Tianji. The Artifact Sect's true core system is called Fiendgod Qi Refining, spanning nine whole realms!" "Nine ranks..." Yaoguang nodded. It made sense. The methods commanded by that "Demon Lord" in his memories were certainly not something a fifth-rank spirit intent or even a sixth-rank Flawless Realm could ever possess. "Counting all nineteen nations of the Central Continent, there must be at least eighty to a hundred Martial Saints. For Chixing to suppress so many of your Martial Saints to the point where you can barely breathe, where you don't even have the courage to confront them directly... they must have fifth-tier Fiendgod cultivators, perhaps even sixth-tier?" As Yaoguang spoke, he recalled the descriptions of the Flawless Realm from his memories. Although experts of that realm possessed boundless stamina and could fight against ten thousand men, claiming they could terrify eighty to a hundred Martial Saints out of even attempting resistance still fell a bit short. In that case... "A seventh-tier Fiendgod Body Refiner?" "You're mistaken," Zong Yan said. "It's not just the Central Continent; it includes the East Continent as well! Every country across the Central and Eastern regions must dance to Chixing's tune! And the power standing behind Chixing... is far from the seventh-tier Fiendgod Body Refining you imagine!" Here, he paused for a long while before finding the words. "The nine realms of Qi Refining are not the limit of cultivation. Above the ninth realm lies yet another realm... known as Foundation Establishment! Forging the Dao foundation, or even the immortal foundation!" A profound helplessness settled over his brow. "Though I've only learned of such beings through ancient texts, the written descriptions alone are enough to make anyone realize that an entity capable of supersonic flight, capable of leveling an entire mountain range with a single sword, is a monster that no human strength or modern technological creation can ever overcome!" "Supersonic flight! Leveling an entire mountain range with a single sword?!" Yaoguang's eyes lit up! *This* was the realm he sought—one that could offer a baseline guarantee of his personal safety. "Standing behind Chixing... is precisely such a terrifying existence." As Zong Yan spoke, he seemed suffocated by the very thought. "By the standards of the Artifact Sect... with a single sword and lone person, such an expert can suppress an entire world!"