Deception

"Oh?" Tamaxi seemed genuinely a bit surprised. "Does your country not have that? What was it called again... I can barely remember. It seemed to be called... an infant incubator?" "This might be the most widely prevalent Grey Fox legacy," he said. "The self-service shopping machines offer plenty of discounted goods, but nearly every cult inevitably buys a large stock of infant incubators. Even if they don't have any, they find ways to buy or borrow them from other cults. Although Dragon Gate Array shopping cards are hard to come by, securing one or two is relatively easy for a cult." Self-service shopping machine—Yaxiu and the others were not unfamiliar with the term. In fact, they had just passed by one earlier today. It looked like a massive, glossy black box with an operating console. One needed only to insert a shopping card or pay with credits—naturally, no one in the wasteland had credits—to purchase five million varieties of Dragon Gate Array direct-sale goods. There was no need for delivery; it manufactured them on the spot. Shopping cards and shopping machines were the most common and practical legacies in the wasteland. Cults were able to restore societal production and even repair parts of the God Era production lines by relying on shopping machines for supplies, hungrily lapping up the remnant glory of the God Eras. "As long as it acquires the genetic information of two people, an infant incubator can gestate life automatically. If enough genetic information is provided, it can match multiple possibilities and even select the most exceptional traits," Tamaxi said. "Generally speaking, the incubators run ceaselessly. While some people do choose primitive pregnancy, no one with the privilege to join the queue would opt for such an outdated method of reproduction." He paused. "That was how I was born." Yaxiu asked, "Then do you still remember your parents?" "They seemed to have died before I was old enough to understand anything. For the most part, older children raised the younger ones from generation to generation... Warrior attendants have a very high mortality rate." "As long as one lives in this wasteland, the mortality rate is high regardless." Yaxiu quietly watched the slaughter in the distance, his feelings growing somewhat complex. Faith forged the God Eras; faith ignited wars; faith rallied willpower to resist the Strangling Green; faith drove believers to march bravely toward death... Each country had its own theme, and Senluo's theme was likely 'burning faith.' Every Senluo native he had encountered along the way—the Mercury Trojan, Slay All Crows, the Silver Lantern, the Transcendent believers... Everyone was in a hurry, everyone felt that time waited for no one. The chaotic strife of the wasteland filled their hearts with an inexplicable sense of urgency; everyone was frantic to burn away all their worth before reaching the end. They were like moths in the dark: the moment they caught sight of a flame, they could not wait to ignite themselves, just to feel a fleeting warmth. Perhaps this was the foundation of the God Eras, or perhaps the root of war. Only when the blue of the sky gradually deepened and darkened, and the night breeze carried the lethal menace of the Strangling Green, did both sides retreat into a ceasefire. The attackers pitched camp to encircle the city, their bright bonfires shutting out the darkness. The faith of tens of thousands was enough to block the intrusion of the Strangling Green. "We should head over," Yaxiu said. Releasing the clutch, he twisted the right handlebar, and the steel beast beneath him emitted the whir of electromagnetic rotation. "What cult is that?" Igola suddenly asked, pointing at the attackers. "The Nature Cult," the Black Crow said. "Their ideal is to study methods of turning the physical body into nature—for instance, turning into blazing fire, radiance, ice, or earth. Their ultimate goal is to become the sun, or even to become part of the Void Realm... In a sense, they are followers of the Grand Law of the Fangyuan Cicada, pursuing a more eternal, greater immortality." "Do they hold any grudges against the Transcendent Cult?" "Hm?" Tamaxi was taken aback. "I don't know. But why would any cult have a grudge against the Transcendent Cult?" In Senluo Land, the Transcendent Cult was truly one of a kind. Regardless of their ideals, other cults all possessed a fanatical desire for expansion. Only the Transcendent Cult holed up inside their high-rise: as long as you didn't barge in, they paid you no mind. Without combat prowess on the level of the Silver Lantern, it wasn't even easy to offend the Transcendent Cult. Igola glanced at the Black Crow and said, "I have a premonition. If we reveal our connection to the Transcendent Cult, we might run into trouble." Up until now, Igola had not revealed that he possessed the Revelation sorcery spirit. With Tamaxi around, he was naturally even less inclined to mention it. While brushing his teeth today, the Revelation message had been: 'Do not reveal the Transcendent Cult.' In the peril-ridden Senluo wasteland, Igola dared not take destiny's hints lightly. "Then we conceal it," Yaxiu said crisply, bringing the Transcendent motorcycle to a stop. Igola pondered for a moment. He had always been cautious and discreet. Did concealing just the Transcendent Cult suffice? The Swindler said to Tamaxi, "We're borrowing some clothes like yours." With that, he pulled three sets of Slay All Crows outfits from a spatial card and gestured for everyone to put them on, though wearing only the face coverings rather than the masks. He then produced a bottle of unknown substance from his robes and rubbed it into his hair; the blond strands instantly turned brown. He looked at Tamaxi again and said, "Take off your mask first. Right now, anyone would recognize you as Slay All Crows." The Black Crow watched them quietly without asking why. He merely tore several strips of cloth from the hem of his clothes, turned his head, and wound them around and around until he became a bandage-wrapped face with only his eyes exposed. With preparations complete, Yaxiu scooped up Tamaxi, and the three unfolded their gold-and-silver wings to fly directly toward the camp. As soon as they reached the camp's perimeter, soldiers called out for them to halt. Soon, a blond youth with glowing pupils approached, his dazzling gaze scrutinizing them thoroughly. "Who are you people?" "Traveling merchants." "Traveling merchants from where?" "The Calamitous Fire Temple." The blond youth frowned. "Isn't the Calamitous Fire Temple a bunch of bandits? And didn't the Calamitous Fire already extinguish?" "Indeed," Igola said, a trace of sorrow surfacing on his face. "Because of the threat posed by the Four Pillar Cult, we were actually an envoy sent by the Calamitous Fire Temple to extend goodwill, hoping to join the Harp Sun Alliance. We never expected... Furthermore, since the Calamitous Fire went out, our indulgence vouchers have lost their effect as well. We hope the Nature Cult can grant us shelter for one night, or perhaps longer." Although Yaxiu's Transcendence Prison indulgence vouchers were still usable, every bit spent was a bit lost; once depleted, they would have to return to replenish them. If used overnight to resist the Strangling Green, there was no telling how much they would consume, and it wasn't a hundred percent protection either—waking up the next day, they might find some part of them had turned green. The cults of the Harp Sun Alliance were very friendly toward traveling merchants, which was why they had taken the risk of coming here to seek shelter. The blond youth picked up on the subtext in the Swindler's words—they wanted to defect to the Nature Cult. Sorcerers from a fallen cult were considered premium resources anywhere. Yet the blond youth looked them over and asked, "Are you a party of four merchants?" "No." Igola pointed at Tamaxi and said, "My companion picked him up along the way. He seems to have been abandoned due to facial disfigurement—perhaps a defective product of primitive pregnancy. We plan to take him to Black Robe Town to help him find some nighttime trade where looks don't matter... He doesn't even have void wings, so how could he belong to our merchant party?" In Senluo Land, merchants were divided into route merchants and traveling merchants. Route merchants referred to merchants who traveled only within designated route territories and sold fixed goods; the vast majority of caravans were route merchants. Traveling merchants, on the other hand, were essentially half intelligence brokers. They inherently bore the mission of gathering intelligence for their own cults, and thus needed to venture into dangerous, distant territories. Most traveling merchants were composed of official Two Wings sorcerers—for no other reason than that they flew fast. Although other modes of transport existed, flying was the most widespread. A Two Wings sorcerer's flight range over twelve hours was often defined as the maximum distance between a town and other strongholds. The blond youth finally nodded, extending a hand. "Supplicant of the Nature Cult, Nuorui Supernatural." Nuorui led them into the camp, asking as they walked, "Did you encounter any other merchant parties on the road?" Igola put on a thoughtful expression. "When we set out from Baiman Town, we seemed to run into a party of merchants riding motorcycles." "Were they not taking the same route as you?" "No, they seemed to be heading toward Clove Town." Nuorui sighed. "A pity." "Is something the matter? Perhaps we could be of service to you." "Just that I missed out on a lucrative deal," Nuorui said. "If those four people could be captured, I might have saved myself a few Dragon Gate Array shopping cards..." "A few Dragon Gate Array shopping cards!" Igola's eyes widened. "Such a massive deal?" "Of course," Nuorui chuckled softly. "It concerns nothing less than the fall of Nightfall—" *Boom!* Right at that moment, an earth-shattering roar erupted from within the city in the distance!