Chapter 56: The Truth

"Rebirth Society... Blood-Weeping Fiend Lord..." Zong Yan said at once before looking at Yaoguang with clear surprise. "They have already infiltrated Dayu? Why didn't the king notify us?"

Then he seemed to realize something. "Right. The stance of Dayu's royal family has become... increasingly unclear. Their conduct has become less and less restrained. Even though they still don't dare to openly turn hostile or challenge the established order, turning a blind eye to certain matters is well within their limits."

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"It looks like you already know," Yaoguang said as he leaned back slightly. "Explain it in detail."

Zong Yan pondered for a moment, as if organizing his thoughts. He had no intention of hiding anything.

On one hand, Yaoguang had already come into contact with the Rebirth Society and the Blood-Weeping Fiend Lord. On the other hand, with Yaoguang's talent and strength, once he entered the World-Saving Society, he would undoubtedly be cultivated as one of the core candidates. These matters would eventually become known to him anyway.

With that thought, Zong Yan took a breath. "To talk about the Rebirth Society and the Blood-Weeping Fiend Lord, we first need to talk about a power that stands above the world itself. This power is the Artifact Sect."

"The Artifact Sect?" Yaoguang showed a hint of surprise.

"Hmm?" Zong Yan glanced at him. "Do you know of it?"

"I have heard it mentioned by those monsters," Yaoguang said.

"Monsters..." Zong Yan looked at the materials Yaoguang had brought. "These are not monsters. They are fiendish soldiers."

"Fiendish soldiers." Yaoguang immediately connected this with the origins of the daemons he had seen. They had been manufactured, which meant...

Zong Yan continued, "The Artifact Sect stands above the world. It is renowned across the world for the path of artifact refinement. Over countless years, it's become impossible to know the number of immortal weapons and fiendish artifacts forged by the Artifact Sect. Those who wield immortal weapons are known as immortal lords, while those who wield fiendish artifacts are known as fiend lords."

"Immortal lords and fiend lords," Yaoguang slowly repeated the two titles.

Pointing at the fiendish entities in the documents, Zong Yan said, "These fiendish soldiers originate from a powerful fiendish artifact known as Ten-Thousand-Fiend Blood Soul Banner. Refining this artifact requires a blood sacrifice of ten thousand suitable offerings. Their blood and souls are refined into the banner, and through a secret art, the souls of the masses are nurtured into ten thousand fiends. When those fiends manifest, they become the fiendish soldiers you saw, devouring all living beings and feeding back into the fiend lord, allowing both the artifact and the fiend lord to grow rapidly."

It all matched. Zong Yan's explanation perfectly aligned with the fragmented memories Yaoguang had seen within that daemon. But still...

"A blood sacrifice of ten thousand people?!" Yaoguang looked up.

Zong Yan shook his head. "Ten thousand suitable offerings."

He let out a long exhale. "A hundred years ago, just to allow the Artifact Sect to refine a batch of fiendish artifacts, the five continents fell into an era of turmoil. Nations went to war, countless people were displaced, families were destroyed, and the dead numbered in the hundreds of millions. In the Central Continent alone, more than sixty million people died on the battlefield. The Ten-Thousand-Fiend Blood Soul Banner was one of the fiendish artifacts nurtured during that time."

The era of turmoil had long since become nothing more than a few lines in history books. Yaoguang felt little personal connection to it. But hundreds of millions of dead... The number alone was enough to shock the soul.

"You all knew about this?" Yaoguang asked in a low voice.

"I know what you want to say," Zong Yan replied.

He looked at Yaoguang, opened his mouth, then closed it again, unsure how to explain. In the end, he still let out a long sigh. "If I told you that the turmoil a hundred years ago, as well as the era of upheaval we have already entered, including the conflict between the Snowdragon Empire and the Crimson Star Empire, are nothing more than aftershocks caused by an internal power struggle and succession between two factions within the Artifact Sect, would you believe it?"

"Aftershocks from a power transition?!" Yaoguang was shocked.

"Yes," Zong Yan said, nodding heavily. "To figures of that level, every action and every word can bring earth-shaking consequences to ordinary people. During a transition of power, the forces under them inevitably fall into chaos. People on both sides stop following the rules and take advantage during the chaos."

"Like an official in ancient times who knows he is about to be demoted, so he squeezes everything he can before leaving?" Yaoguang said.

Zong Yan fell silent for a moment, then nodded.

"So someone is nurturing a Ten-Thousand-Fiend Blood Soul Banner in Dayu?" Yaoguang asked.

"Not just Dayu. The entire Central Continent," Zong Yan replied. "The Rebirth Society has traces in other countries as well."

Yaoguang immediately thought of the Snowdragon Empire and Crimson Star Empire, the new and the old hegemons.

"The Crimson Star Empire?" he asked.

"To be precise, the Crimson Star faction," Zong Yan said. "That is why the royal families of various nations don't dare to act rashly."

"Then what is the World-Saving Society's stance toward these fiendish soldiers?" Yaoguang asked.

"Kill!" Zong Yan answered without hesitation. "We kill every single one that we find!"

"Hmm?" Yaoguang was surprised. "Aren't the royal families scared to act rashly?"

"They don't dare because their targets are too large," Zong Yan said. "Once they move, it will draw retaliation and sanctions from the Crimson Star Empire. Even a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Even if the Crimson Star Empire has declined, as a hegemon that ruled the world for centuries, it is not an entity small nations can easily provoke. But what are we?"

Zong Yan let out a cold laugh. "We are a civilian organization."

Yaoguang stared at him in confusion. Had they not said that powerful royal families and aristocratic families stood behind them? How did it suddenly become a civilian organization? But Yaoguang quickly understood what Zong Yan meant.

Even if royal families and major aristocratic families didn't dare to offend the Crimson Star Empire, that did not mean they would remain indifferent while the Crimson Star nurtured a Ten-Thousand-Fiend Blood Soul Banner within their borders.

They could not act openly, but they could act in the shadows. For example, by funding the World-Saving Society. Such matters were never meant to see the light of day in the first place.

According to Zong Yan's explanation, the Snowdragon and Crimson Star Empires were entangled in an internal power struggle within the Artifact Sect. Under such circumstances, even the Crimson Star Empire, as the losing side, didn't dare act without restraint.

If their people were eliminated by a civilian organization like the World-Saving Society, they would have to swallow the loss. Escalating the matter and leaving the Snowdragon Federation to clean up the mess would be the last thing they wanted.

In the end, it was nothing more than a fig leaf hiding something everyone knew about, but that no one tore away.

"Everyone knows that the people of Crimson Star Empire have been stirring up trouble across the Central Continent, yet not a single royal family has dared to stand up and oppose them openly. This is one of the ways the Crimson Star Empire shows its control over the Central Continent."

Zong Yan continued speaking in a low voice, "Beyond that, what is even more unacceptable is the Crimson Star Empire's monopoly over the recommendation quotas allotted to the nations of the Central Continent."

"Recommendation quotas?" Yaoguang thought about it briefly and quickly made the connection. "Recommendation quotas to join the Artifact Sect?"

"That is right. Do you know why there is a saying that royals and aristocratic families rule the world together?" As he spoke, Zong Yan answered his own question, "In essence, there is no real difference between royals and aristocratic families."

He continued quickly, "Every ten years, envoys from the Artifact Sect descend and lead the most outstanding martial paragons from each nation to the Artifact Sect. If someone among that group of martial paragons manages to stand out, the others will gather behind the faction that the martial paragon represents, forming a nation centered on a royal house or an aristocratic family. If none of them manage to make a name for themselves within the Artifact Sect, then the forces they establish tend to take the form of federations instead."

Martial paragons, the Artifact Sect, fiendish artifacts, fiend lords...

Yaoguang quietly sorted through these threads one by one as a truth about the world gradually surfaced, a truth far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

"So..." He looked at Zong Yan. "Does the Artifact Sect... have immortals?"

"Immortals?" Zong Yan repeated the word softly, savoring the meaning it carried.

After a long while, he sighed faintly. "I do not know whether immortals truly exist, but the Artifact Sect represents status, authority, advancement, higher levels, strength, and longevity. That is precisely why one Martial Dao powerhouse after another, each outstanding on a global scale, has rushed to join the Artifact Sect in pursuit of a glorious future."

A story of crossing from an ordinary world into an immortal cultivation world.

Yaoguang thought.

The difference was that their ordinary world appeared to be set in a modern era.

Wait... Much of this technology seems to have been spread and vigorously developed by the Crimson Star Empire. So whether the world where the Artifact Sect resides represents an immortal cultivation world or a technological one remains an open question.

Yaoguang thought.

"In the Artifact Sect, one can reach realms stronger than martial paragons, right? What comes after the martial paragon tier? A martial god? A flawless body?" Yaoguang asked.

"Of course," Zong Yan replied with a nod. After thinking briefly, he said, "In fact, the Martial Dao methods we cultivate were originally transmitted from the Artifact Sect. Within the Artifact Sect, this system is known as the God-Fiend Body Refinement."

He paused for a moment. "But the God-Fiend Body Refinement is merely a system used by the Artifact Sect to cultivate 'strongmen.' It is much like how our World-Saving Society uses secret medicines to stimulate physical potential and allow us to cultivate field personnel like Zhang Tianji. The true core system of Artifact Sect is called the God-Fiend Qi Refinement, and it contains a full nine realms."

"Nine tiers," Yaoguang said with a nod.

That was only reasonable. From what he remembered of the fiend lord, those methods were far beyond what a fifth- or even a sixth-tier cultivator could possess.

"The nineteen nations of the Central Continent together have no fewer than eighty or a hundred martial paragons. For the Crimson Star Empire to suppress so many martial paragons until they can barely breathe, to the point that none even dare face them head-on, there must at least be someone at the fifth realm of the God-Fiend Body Refinement system. What about the sixth?" As Yaoguang spoke, he recalled the descriptions of the Flawless Realm he had seen thanks to the ancient tree's search engine.

That realm might grant endless stamina and the ability to fight ten thousand alone, but it still fell short of stripping eighty or a hundred martial paragons of even the courage to resist. Then...

"A seventh-realm cultivator?"

"You are wrong," Zong Yan said. "It is not only the Central Continent, but also the Eastern Continent. All nations across the Central and Eastern Continents must act according to the Crimson Star Empire's wishes. And the power behind Crimson Star Empire... is not a seventh-realm cultivator like you thought!"

At this point, he paused for a long time before reorganizing his words. "Qi refinement has nine realms, but that is not the limit of cultivation. Above the ninth realm, there is another realm known as Foundation Building, the building of the Dao Foundation, the foundation of immortality."

A deep sense of powerlessness showed on his face as wrinkles formed on his forehead. "I have only learned of such beings through ancient texts, but even mere written descriptions are enough to make one understand that entities capable of supersonic flight and of leveling an entire mountain range with a single sword strike are not monsters that human strength or modern technology can defeat."

"Supersonic flight? A single sword leveling a mountain range?!" Yaoguang's eyes lit up. This was exactly the realm he sought, one that could provide some guarantee of personal safety.

"Behind the Crimson Star Empire... stands precisely such a terrifying existence," Zong Yan said, as if the weight of the thought itself made it hard for him to breathe, "By the standards of the Artifact Sect... A powerhouse of that level, with one person and one sword, can suppress an entire world!"