Chapter 59: The headquarters

Heaven and earth served as the great furnace, while the human body acted as the crucible. After hammering and refining it thousands of times, one's body could be forged into steel. To be forged by Heaven itself—that's what it meant to be a heavenly being.

Once a martial artist had perfected a Flawless True Body, they could fully lock in their own essence and qi, further nurturing and refining their psychic will. In the end, the psychic will would transform, allowing one to replace heaven's heart with one's own heart, to guide heavenly will with human will, and ultimately borrow the power of heaven and earth to temper oneself.

It resembled striking an iron ingot with a hammer, again and again. Repeated forging and quenching raised one's strength until the body truly became steel, a realm beyond that of mere humans.

After completing this great realm of cultivation, a martial artist would truly possess the ability to ignore blades, bullets, and artillery. Even under close-range machine-gun fire, they could stand tall and remain unharmed, shouldering the kinetic force of the bullets as they strode forward.

In my original world, a grandmaster could face a hundred enemies alone and shatter entire armies, and a martial paragon could move freely through ten thousand troops. After obtaining psychic will, one would remain unharmed even under a storm of arrows. And after reaching the unified martial paragon tier, one would obtain endless stamina and be able to destroy a nation alone,

Yaoguang thought.

Yet, whether it was a grandmaster, a martial paragon, or even a unified martial paragon, ancient people still had ways to kill them. Ordinary arrows could not pierce a martial paragon's flesh, but weapons of greater power, such as heavy ballistae, war hammers, or massive axes, could still kill a unified martial paragon. Of course, that represented the most extreme scenario.

If a unified martial paragon had truly lived in the ancient world of his former life, so long as they did not go as far as to start wantonly slaughtering people, their terrifying strength and deterrence alone would have allowed them to easily gather countless followers and establish an empire. As long as they lived, that empire would never decline.

But if a heavenly being appeared instead, even just a seventh-tier heavenly being who had only just forged the heaven-and-earth furnace, they would be able to bring endless despair to the entire world. Such a being could not be killed!

If pitted against ancient technology and production means, their bone density, muscle toughness, detoxification ability, and digestive capacity would allow them to achieve true invincibility.

They would be a true immortal and a Buddha, both a god-king and a fiend sovereign. Even if they acted entirely at will, the countless living beings of the world would be utterly incapable of resisting them in the slightest. [1]

Any resistance would be futile when facing the natural disasters unleashed by their every gesture. Thus, many records describing such lifeforms had used a single phrase...

"A heavenly being descends upon the world," Yaoguang murmured softly.

Zong Yan, who had just finished a conversation, heard him and slightly raised his head, smiling as he spoke. "Heavenly being. That is how many places refer to experts above the seventh tier of God-Fiend Body Refinement. A single heavenly being possesses the power to destroy or overturn any country in our world, except for the Snowdragon and Crimson Star Empires."

"Mhmm," Yaoguang responded.

No matter how powerful a weapon was, it still required a person to wield it. After a unified martial paragon cultivated a Flawless True Body, they completely locked in their essence and qi, further nurturing their mind, refining psychic will, and reaching the state where their own will could replace heaven's will.

Even psychic will that had been refined but had not yet reached that level could still easily manipulate the thoughts of dozens of ordinary beings. A dozen people, or a few dozen, already represented nearly the entire upper echelon of a nation. By controlling a country's leadership, one could control the entire country, forcing it to fight another nation to the death if they so wished.

And when that conflict ended, it did not matter. One could simply move on to controlling another country. Thus, Zong Yan's statement that a single heavenly being could destroy any nation other than the Snowdragon Empire or the Crimson Star Empire was actually rather conservative. Even a unified martial paragon at the peak of the sixth tier would suffice.

Of course, considering that every royal family had martial paragons on guard, with some even possessing psychic-will martial paragons, they could try aim for mutual destruction. As long as the martial paragons affiliated with the royal family were willing to fight to the death to hold down the unified martial paragon, and the army carpet-bombed the area regardless of casualties... In that scenario, they would have a chance to drag that unified martial paragon to the grave with them.

Yaoguang did not dwell on it further. Instead, he focused his psychic mind on the fifth tier's Dao Fruit that had already formed.

Following Perception, Formless, Star Ignition, and the Great Solar Psyche-Suppressing Diagram, this was the fifth Dao Fruit, or rather, the fifth secret technique.

"Psychic Descent." Yaoguang calmly perceived this secret art. It was a form of self-hypnosis that targeted psychic will.

Through powerful mental will, it deceived the body into ignoring pain and weakness, hypnotizing oneself so that even with extremely severe injuries or extreme exhaustion, one could briefly erupt with strength comparable to one's peak state.

It resembled adrenaline but with an even stronger explosive effect.

A technique meant for overturning a desperate situation...

***

Time passed quickly. As a developed nation, Dayu's transportation conditions were quite good. Although the highways were not newly built, their quality remained solid, and with no speed limits imposed, the journey progressed smoothly.

The business vehicle covered over six hundred kilometers in under five hours. Soon, it arrived at a large resort located on the outskirts of Xihe.

The environment throughout the resort was beautiful, with pavilion-style buildings in a distinctly Dayu style, carrying an ancient charm, rising amid green lawns and blooming flowers. Two small rivers intersected within the resort grounds. As Yaoguang arrived, he even saw people drifting along the river on wooden boats.

"These are the family members of Dayu's potential martial paragons," Zong Yan explained after noticing Yaoguang's gaze. "To allow the candidates to cultivate with peace of mind and reach the martial paragon tier as soon as possible, the World-Saving Society hopes that everyone will bring their relatives here. Even distant relatives are fine. Food, clothing, housing, and transportation are all provided free of charge by the World-Saving Society."

"Cultivate with peace of mind..." Yaoguang understood Zong Yan's implication.

Zong Yan had mentioned that the Stellar Sanctum would try recruit those who had the talent and potential to become martial paragons. If recruitment failed, they would be eliminated.

If those potential martial paragons truly brought all their relatives here, all underhanded methods would fail, whether it was forcing them to join by threatening their families or assassinating them.

The business vehicle stopped in front of a four-story pavilion. In the parking area by the entrance, a middle-aged man was already waiting, accompanied by two younger assistants.

When the group got out of the car, the middle-aged man hurried forward to greet them. "Elder Yan."

Zong Yan nodded, then said to Yaoguang, "This is Liu Tong. He is responsible for handling all matters related to daily life at headquarters."

After that, he glanced at the man again. "Has Fang Lu arrived?"

"Director Fang and several department heads are already waiting inside," Liu Tong replied, taking the lead.

Zhang Tianji was left outside while Zong Yan led Yaoguang into the pavilion.

The entire resort looked ancient and elegant on the surface, yet in reality, every corner was saturated with technology. Inside the pavilion Yaoguang had just entered, for instance, a large screen hung in the entrance hall, displaying rows of floating names. However, these names were not proper names. They looked more like codenames.

"That's the ranking list." Noticing Yaoguang's gaze, Zong Yan smiled and explained, "The World-Saving Society has more than thirty national headquarters, over four hundred branch offices, and more than four thousand observation posts. Every year, dozens of members are recruited from Dayu alone. This current intake already exceeds three hundred people. Every one of them has at least reached the martial master tier. They can all be considered young prodigies of the martial world. Setting up a ranking helps stimulate competition and reminds them that there is always someone stronger."

He did not specify the exact number of headquarters or branches, clearly maintaining a degree of confidentiality.

"Once your information is entered, you will appear on this list as well, naturally under a codename," Zong Yan continued. Then he reiterated, "It's not that the World-Saving Society fears the Stellar Sanctum. No matter how arrogant Stellar Sanctum may be, what they do never truly stands in the open. Whenever they want someone to do something, it can only be done in secret. But if they were to obtain the list and start recruiting one by one based on the rankings, it would be extremely detrimental to our development."

"I understand," Yaoguang replied.

While talking with Zong Yan along the way, he had already gained a clear understanding of the nature of the World-Saving Society.

The nations of the Eastern and Central Continents defined the World-Saving Society as a civilian organization; despite that, the level of funding and frontline combat support it received was no less than that of formal military units.

When it came to resources, they provided money when money was needed and manpower when manpower was needed.

Under such circumstances, unless the Crimson Star Empire directly deployed military force, having its Stellar Sanctum clash head-on with the World-Saving Society placed it at a serious disadvantage. And once military force was deployed, the nature of the situation changed entirely, as the Snowdragon Empire would not stand idly by.

As a result, over the past decade or so, the World-Saving Society and the Stellar Sanctum had fought back and forth with neither side gaining a decisive advantage. These achievements had further encouraged dozens of nations to increase their financial and manpower support for the World-Saving Society.

However, after failing to secure an overwhelming advantage for such a long time, the Stellar Sanctum had grown shrewder. They created the Rebirth Society. Although its short history meant it had not yet grown to a large scale, without the official label of "Crimson Star citizens," its actions became far more unrestrained.

Coupled with the Rebirth Society's promotion of divine blood to corrupt middle- and high-level officials across various countries, and under the mindset that the benefits belonged to the royal family while one's body belonged to oneself, the Rebirth Society expanded rapidly.

Especially within the Eastern Continent, which bordered the Crimson Star Empire, the World-Saving Society had found itself in an increasingly difficult position over the past one or two years, due to the relentless pressure of both the Rebirth Society and the Stellar Sanctum.

This was precisely why Zong Yan showed no hesitation in ordering the execution of those fiendish soldiers from the Rebirth Society.

While these thoughts passed through his mind, Yaoguang followed Zong Yan to a sealed conference room. Yaoguang glanced at the people standing guard outside the room and discovered that, without exception, they were all grandmasters like Zhang Tianji, individuals whose power had been artificially cultivated at the cost of forcibly stimulating their life potential.

The sight stirred something in his heart. If the Rebirth Society possessed the Ten-Thousand-Fiend Blood Soul Banner to manufacture daemons, then what did the World-Saving Society possess? What kind of immortal weapons or fiendish artifacts did it control?

Soon, the door to the sealed conference room opened. As Zong Yan and Yaoguang entered and Liu Tong closed the door behind them, a middle-aged woman seated to the side of the room lifted her gaze toward them.

"Very young indeed," the woman remarked.

"And his strength is quite impressive. You can tell just from the fact that he has slain fiends more than once," Zong Yan said, then quietly introduced her to Yaoguang.

Fang Lu, like him, was one of the three people in charge of the headquarters in Dayu.

"The records show that he has killed a total of sixteen fiends from the Ten-Thousand-Fiend Blood Soul Banner, including three fourth-tier fiends," Fang Lu said. "Little Zhou lost to him fairly."[2]

"Which is precisely why, Director Fang, grooming Yaoguang as the next-generation Harbinger is absolutely the most suitable choice."

1. Both the god-king and fiend sovereign are mythological figures. God-king is the king of gods, and fiend sovereign is the ruler of the fiendish world. ☜

2. It is common to add "little" in front of one's name to show closeness. ☜