Chapter 48: Sincere Words

They were created! To be precise, they were refined.

These daemons were less like living beings and more like biological tools. From the moment they were born, they already possessed a detailed genetic evolution sequence. As long as they continually devoured the brains of intelligent beings, refining their own consciousness and nourishing their psyche, they would dig deeper into their genetic power and obtain stronger forms. This was how Yaoguang understood them.

In the cognition of this daemon, eating humans awakened intelligence, and absorbing their souls led to metamorphosis. That was their method of survival and growth, no different from how humans would drink formula as infants and eat proper meals once they grew up.

The difference was that humanity consisted of countless unique individuals. Instead an entire batch of daemons originated from a single life form, grew independently, and at an unknown time in the future would return to that origin and merge into it once more. And that lifeform...

"The Blood-Weeping Fiend Lord," Yaoguang said quietly.

No wonder every daemon he had slain shared the same common name: Horned Fiend. The only difference lay in their tiers.

These Horned Fiends were individuals, separate and autonomous. Yet they were also fragments of a whole, destined one day to reunite.

What is this? Clones? An alien assimilation?

Yaoguang felt a tremor in his heart.

From the scientific perspective, it was an alien incursion. From a more mystical angle... It resembled the Blood Spawns of the Nether Blood Fiend.[1]

He exhaled slowly. The complexity of this daemon invasion far exceeded what he had imagined. It was practically equivalent to an alien invasion. Only, instead of cosmic warships and planet-destroying cannons, their method of invasion involved penetrating human society with Horned Fiends.

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The existence of such a fiend lord strengthened his resolve to one day ascend and complete the path of the human immortal.

"Immortal," he said the word softly.

Being a human immortal meant being able to stride through the void and ride the wind, to pass freely between heavens, to wander the seas by dawn and the peaks by dusk, and to feast on wind and drink dew, detached from the mortal world and carefree in longevity. That was humanity's ultimate romance.

If he truly reached that realm one day, flying through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds like an immortal, he could witness the rainforest panorama of the Southern Continent at dawn, roam the great mountain ranges of the Eastern Continent at noon, admire the endless snowy scenery of the Northern Continent by afternoon, and listen quietly to the vast deserts of the Western Continent by night. How unrestrained would that be?

Yaoguang's gaze returned to the ancient tree in his mental world. He had originally intended to channel this influx of energy into the Refiner profession to make better use of the Soul-Capturing Bead and uncover the truth behind the daemons.

But after the last revelation, he only wanted to strengthen his Martial Dao realm and take a peek at the scenery beyond tier five.

"I wonder how many tiers it takes to be able to fly. And how many more before one can truly be like an immortal, break the sound barrier, step into the edge of space, ride above the astral winds, and traverse thousands of miles in a heartbeat." Yaoguang longed for that day.[2]

Digesting the new insights from the Martial Dao branch, he returned to Baisheng Chemical Plant. By now, Xia Wuyuan and Yue Xingzhou had completely purged the facility. More than ten people had been captured alive. Most of the others lay dead, and a few had escaped. The Yue family driver, who had brought the three of them, stood guard with a gun, watching over the captives.

Yaoguang did not linger and entered the main building. Soon, he found Xia Wuyuan, who was frantically gathering documents. In another room, he spotted Yue Xingzhou.

The Yue family's grandmaster looked unsettled. Six containers sat before him, each with an advanced technological design. Two had already been opened, revealing built-in temperature regulation.

Yaoguang stepped forward. Each temperature-controlled crate contained one vial of bright crimson-gold liquid.

"Is this...?" He immediately realized what it was. "Divine blood?"

Yue Xingzhou nodded. Yaoguang raised his gun without hesitation, and a gunshot rang out. The vial shattered instantly.

"Wait!" Yue Xingzhou jolted and shouted. "What are you doing!?"

"Exactly what you see." Yaoguang fired again, destroying another vial.

"Do you know how expensive this is!?" Yue Xingzhou cried. "600 million! One vial is 600 million! There are six here. That's 3,6 billion!"

3,6 billion! The number made Yaoguang pause for a brief moment. But once he recalled how this substance had been refined, he stopped hesitating and continued firing.

"This thing should not exist," Yaoguang said.

With each shot fired, a

vial of divine blood was destroyed. The sight made Yue Xingzhou's brow twitch violently. But in the end, he didn't say anything more.

Yaoguang's shots had startled Xia Wuyuan, who soon walked over. When he saw Yaoguang preparing to destroy the last vial of divine blood, he spoke. "Leave that one. Take it up as evidence."

Yaoguang paused and looked at him. "Are you certain it will actually be used as evidence?"

"I..." Xia Wuyuan recalled the list recorded in the data he had just gathered. He took a deep breath. "I will personally bring this container and all relevant information to the royal capital. I will present them directly to His Majesty!"

Hearing this, Yaoguang lowered his gun.

"Present it to His Majesty..." Yue Xingzhou let out a bitter chuckle.

He had long known the forces behind Yulong International were powerful, but he had never expected things to escalate to this extent.

It was clear Xia Wuyuan no longer trusted a single person within Tiannan Province's chain of command, including his own superiors Zhou Tianqiao and Lu Zhenhai. He intended to use a rarely exercised prosecutorial privilege to bypass six levels of authority and report directly to the king.

If such a move were mishandled, it could offend the entire Prosecutor's Office system.

"You do not intend to notify the local authorities?" Yue Xingzhou asked.

Xia Wuyuan shook his head. There was no way the Prosecutor's Office had no clues about this matter, yet they had taken no action. Worse still, thinking of what Zhou Tianqiao had told him not long ago, Xia Wuyuan even suspected that the deputy chief prosecutor had known about this all along, just like Yue Xingzhou. Only, the stakes were so high that he chose to pretend ignorance.

After all, although the list Xia Wuyuan now possessed did not include all of Tiannan's elites, it certainly contained more than half. Therefore...

"I will take these documents and head to the royal capital tonight." Xia Wuyuan understood that speed was essential.

Yue Xingzhou said nothing. The Yue family was also entangled in this matter as well, and his actions tonight amounted to nothing more than making amends. Whether the Yue family could truly clear its name remained uncertain.

"Be very careful until you see a reaction from the higher-ups." Xia Wuyuan gave this solemn reminder to Yaoguang.

Yaoguang nodded but did not reply.

Xia Wuyuan recalled the scene of the two of them joining forces to slay the daemon martial paragon...

Fine. With Yaoguang's strength, very few in Tiannan can truly threaten him. Perhaps none at all, unless a formal military unit with overwhelming firepower is mobilized.

Xia Wuyuan said no more. After quickly organizing the documents, he hurried away.

"Let's go. I'll have people notify the police bureau to come here and wrap up things," Yue Xingzhou said once he saw Xia Wuyuan depart.

Yaoguang nodded. The two left the main building and headed toward the vehicles parked outside the factory.

As they walked out, Yue Xingzhou turned toward Yaoguang and said, "Tonight has been far too thrilling. Would you like to find a place to talk for a bit, maybe relax?"

Yaoguang gave him a strange look.

Relax with this old man?

Yue Xingzhou seemed to immediately notice what that look meant and became embarrassed. "I... have a granddaughter. She looks decent. I could call her over..."

"Let's go back to the city," Yaoguang said.

Yue Xingzhou could only sigh helplessly.

He genuinely wanted to befriend Yaoguang. Anyone could see the potential hidden within a nineteen-year-old grandmaster. But as a grandmaster himself and a member of the Yue family, he had always been the one others tried to curry favor with, not the other way around.

He truly did not know how to proactively show goodwill, and the age gap between them made things worse. He could never ask Yaoguang to sit in his teahouse and drink tea. However...

"Do you really plan to work with Xia Wuyuan to uncover everything?" Yue Xingzhou asked. "On the surface, the culprit is Governor Zhao, but if you think about it... Do you really believe this network is limited to Tiannan alone?"

"You are not about to tell me the royal family is involved, are you?" Yaoguang asked.

"This world is not as simple as black and white. As for the royal family... they are not necessarily righteous or majestic," Yue Xingzhou said. He gave a faint smile. "The nature of the royal family is simply that of the most powerful aristocratic family. It is only because the royal family has been strong in recent generations that the prestige of the aristocratic families has declined. They seem like subordinates of the royal family. But a hundred years ago... The saying that the royal family and aristocratic families ruled the country together was not without basis."

"What are you trying to say?" Yaoguang asked.

"If you are not in a position to do so, you should not meddle in its affairs. You have investigated enough. From this point on, withdraw wisely. Let the professionals handle professional matters." Yue Xingzhou's voice carried a rare sincerity.

Yaoguang glanced at him. He knew that if he had not saved Yue Xingzhou's life earlier when facing the daemon martial paragon, the man might never have said these words to him, expressing concern despite barely knowing him.

"If Xia Wuyuan doesn't produce results, I don't intend to continue investigating," Yaoguang said.

"That's good." Yue Xingzhou exhaled in relief.

Suddenly, something seemed to occur to him. After a short pause, he added, "Regarding the World-Saving Society... If you can, I recommend joining it."

"Looks like your understanding of that organization is not as superficial as you claimed," Yaoguang said.

"I can only tell you one thing. If you truly have the chance to enter it, do not miss that opportunity. That place is where you can soar like a bird. Once you seize that chance... Whether it's monsters, aristocratic families, or even the Dayu royal family, none of them will be a problem for you." Yue Xingzhou said no more after that.

The two got into the car. After a moment, the driver also got back, turned the engine on, and quickly drove them back toward the provincial capital.

1. Both the Blood Spawns and the Nether Blood Fiend are beings from Chinese myths. Blood Spawns are born from the Nether Blood Fiend, suggesting a "clone" relationship. ☜

2. Astral wind is a Daoist term to describe the wind at the highest level of the sky. ☜