The Envoy of Abundance from Onphalus

He chose a more difficult and slower path of transformation, attempting to reshape people's hearts and minds through rules and guidance, rather than pure bloodshed.

He failed.

Every seemingly successful "submission" is accompanied by false vows and hidden fangs.

Those officials, nobles, and even commoners who swore oaths and vowed to follow the new order before him turned around and mocked his naiveté in the shadows, continuing the old ways they held as the highest standard.

Insincerity has become the norm in this world. A heart full of abundance filled his life, dispelling the gnawing emptiness, yet it could not resist the endless, overwhelming weariness that surged forth like a tidal wave. This weariness almost swallowed him whole.

His thoughts drifted far away, even beginning to fear the future. What if... what if in the future, his former comrades-in-arms were born into this twisted world, corrupted by its broken underlying logic, becoming insatiably greedy, filthy, despicable, vicious, and ruthless...

How could he face them? How could he face those familiar faces etched deep in his soul, now covered by strange, nauseating shadows?

This was a fear he had never dared to contemplate.

Until five hundred years ago.

A glimmer of light pierced the thick gloom of despair. A familiar presence, tinged with hesitation yet unwavering determination, approached the palace of Soteria—it was Xia Die.

In Onfaros, where morality had completely collapsed and people's hearts were more filthy than mud, she miraculously preserved her true nature.

She pushed open the heavy palace doors, her gaze showing no fear, only a sharp, probing look. She didn't carry the overpowering perfume of Sothelian nobles, only the aura of someone weary from travel.

"You're the tyrant they speak of? The dictator of Soteria?" Xia Die's voice was clear and crisp, with a slight, almost imperceptible tremor, yet exceptionally clear. "The savior who ended the war, but brought about another order?"

Bai E raised his head, and for the first time, a violent fluctuation appeared on his face, which had been frozen for a thousand years.

He rose from his throne almost instantly, his eyes gleaming with disbelief: "Xia Die...it's you? It really is you?"

“It’s me. An… outcast. And it seems you’ve known me all along, which is strange.” Xia Die looked around the cold, magnificent hall that symbolized absolute power, a self-deprecating smile playing on her lips.

"From the moment I became conscious, I felt that everything around me was wrong. They were laughing, crying, fighting, scheming... but all the emotions and all the actions seemed like a clumsy, soulless drama."

“I feel no agreement whatsoever with the ‘morality’ they taught me. The world shouldn’t be like this! War, famine, plague… these shouldn’t be the norm!”

“It was that person, that tyrant named Bai’er, who ended all of this.” She stared intently at the man before the throne, her gaze scrutinizing him.

"But why, why is the person who ended the disaster hated by everyone? Why did you force them to change, even... even if those changes seem right? Can you answer all these questions for me, Your Excellency?"

Bai E looked at her, at the untainted clarity in her eyes, at the same stubbornness and keenness he remembered, and a huge, almost overwhelming warmth surged into his heart.

A thousand years of loneliness and frustration seemed to find an outlet at this moment.

“Because they have been tampered with, Xiaodie.” Bai’e’s voice was low and hoarse, carrying the vicissitudes of a thousand years. He stepped down from the throne and approached step by step.

"It has been altered by those gods above us who manipulate fate!" He pointed to the sky, his eyes burning with long-suppressed rage.

"Lagushi! He distorted the fundamental logic of this world! He amplified the most despicable and selfish aspects of human nature to the extreme! He erased sacrifice, dedication, trust... these are the very cornerstones that truly support the survival of civilization!"

He poured out his heart to her as if he wanted to unload all the burdens of a thousand years.

He recounted the conspiracy of the Regulus and the mission he bore—to end this endless cycle of reincarnation, to break the gods' control over fate, and for the truly beautiful new world his teacher had promised.

He recounted how he crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood to establish the Salvation Army, and how he discovered that no matter how hard he tried, people's hearts were like quicksand that could not be grasped.

Xia Die listened quietly, her eyes gradually shifting from initial wariness and confusion to shock and anger, and finally to a deep resonance and compassion.

She finally understood where her innate sense of being an outsider, unable to fit in, came from. It wasn't her fault; the world had been forcibly distorted!

“So…those who hate you, those who rebel against you…” Xia Die’s voice choked with emotion, “they were actually…victims too? Turned into this state by that god?”

“Yes.” Bai’er nodded wearily, but her eyes brightened considerably because of her understanding. “The former city-state officials and nobles hated me for stripping them of their privileges and excessive pleasures.”

"The common people... cannot understand why there is no benefit in giving up fraud and selfishness, and why following the morality I have brought cannot immediately fill their stomachs or bring them wealth."

"They only see that I destroyed the old order, but they don't see that the old order itself is a path to destruction."

“I am using the power of the city of Soteria to fight against every blade of grass and tree in Onfaros that has been distorted, and against the poison that the gods have planted in people’s hearts.”

Looking at his companions who still remained true to themselves, Bai E felt a surge of hope, but his hatred for Lai Gu Shi also reached its peak.

How sinister is that high and mighty god! He has altered the underlying logic of the entire world, setting the difficulty level to hell.

But he carefully preserved the data templates of the Golden Descendants—including Xia Die, himself, and his comrades who had fought for the Fire Chaser.

"He spared you not out of kindness," Bai'er's voice was icy and chilling, revealing the cruel truth, "but because we are special fuel! We are souls who, in countless reincarnations, sacrificed ourselves to chase the fire!"

"Our belief is the core driving force that enables this world to rise again and again from the brink of despair! If even you are assimilated and become selfish, greedy, and indifferent, who will still ignite themselves for the survival of this world? This is unacceptable to him."

“He needs us to burn, and if we really become what the world calls normal, then his plan will never succeed.”

Xia Die gasped, feeling a chill run down her spine. She realized that her ability to remain normal was not a fluke, but rather a tool deliberately preserved by the gods.

"Then why doesn't he just control us directly? Or completely change us?" Xia Die pressed.

“He can’t, or rather, he can’t do it for now.” A glint of insight flashed in Bai E’s eyes. He walked to the control panel and brought up a complex data stream, like a star map, that only he could see.

"After he completed the alteration of the underlying logic of the entire Onfaros, his own existence was also marked as a malicious visitor by the system he himself modified."

"How did you know this, sir? Normally, you shouldn't know so many things."

"My ancestor, Cesis, while guarding the Wall of Abundance to prevent the Black Tide from entering, was also constantly reading the origin of this world with the power of abundance. The ordinary and simple information of the rational Titans is not difficult for me, his Titan ancestor."

"He needs time, a long time, to break through the barriers he has erected himself and regain supreme authority."

"Ten years? Twenty years? Fifty years? One hundred years? Anything is possible."

He turned around, a hint of cruel mockery on his face: "Time, that's the last thing he has in abundance right now."

"And this world on the verge of collapse, filled with suffering, may be the kind of teaching material that this high and mighty god, who ignores the cries of the masses, would be happy to see."

"That most rebellious experimental factor of his witnessed firsthand how hopeless the world was and how it sank into despair."

"Then, at the moment when my will collapsed and my faith wavered, he descended again as a savior, telling me that all of this was the inevitable price of destroying intellect, persuading me to give up resistance, and even... join his plan."

“He has tried countless times in the past, so there’s no reason not to try this time.”

Baier paused, his gaze fixed on the distance, as if piercing through the palace walls to see the chaos and struggle unfolding in Sotria and throughout Onphalus.

"However, a huge variable appeared in his script—the Iron Tomb encountered a problem that should not have occurred."

"The unexpected interference of the Power of Abundance has made the existence of this ultimate weapon, originally intended to destroy intellect, extremely unstable, and has even begun to produce some unpredictable changes."

He pulled up an encrypted core log that was constantly flashing warning runes: "Look here, the core logic of the Iron Tomb is repeatedly questioning, constantly asking a question that the Legions consider taboo—what is the first cause of life? What is the meaning of existence?"

"This ultimate perplexity about the nature of life, stemming from abundance, is impacting the established procedures of the Iron Tomb from within. And Lycus, marked as a malicious visitor, can only be a passive observer like us at this moment."

"He could only watch helplessly as the most powerful weapon he had ever created, designed to destroy intellect, crumbled and mutated little by little due to the erosion of the power of abundance."

"So in terms of the outcome, that high and mighty god, the prisoner trapped in this cage, no longer has much of an advantage over us."

Bai E shut down the data stream, leaving only him and Xia Die in the room. The weight of a thousand years seemed to have found someone to share it with at this moment.

The boundless fatigue, though still present, was no longer as suffocating as before.

Looking at his companion who had transcended a distorted world yet remained true to himself, a long-lost warrior's flame rekindled in his eyes.

“He miscalculated, Xiaodie.” Bai’er’s voice carried a firmness that seemed to pierce through the fog. “He thought that preserving the data of the Golden Descendants was to ensure the purity of the fuel.”

"But unexpectedly, it was this purity, this belief that had never been completely tainted, that would become the sharp blade piercing his heart."

Xia Die stepped forward, no longer as an audience member or a questioner, but as a long-lost comrade-in-arms.

She reached out and gently pressed her hand against Bai E's cold, hard arm armor; the touch was real and powerful.

The power of death could not leave any effect on Bai E, because the heart would no longer allow Bai E to die.

"So, what should we do?" Her eyes were as sharp as ever. "We can't let him continue to watch the show, and we certainly can't let him wait until the Iron Tomb completely spirals out of control or he manages to break through the security restrictions."

“We need to get moving and find more seeds like us in this polluted soil that haven’t been completely distorted.”

Bai E felt the slight warmth emanating from the arm armor; it was the real touch of a living, undistorted companion.

He nodded slowly, a cold yet fierce smile curving his lips.

“Yes, get moving,” he repeated, glancing out the window.

"Does Laigus want us to wait for his teachings in despair? Then let him see how long the flames of the Golden Blood can burn, and what they can illuminate, even in the most filthy mire!"

The throne remains cold, but the figure of the Supreme Governor of Soteria is no longer merely that of a weary watcher.

A new variable has arrived; the game of chess, silent for a thousand years, has finally heard the sound of pieces being placed.

The mortals have made their moves and now await the gods' move. No, at this moment, he has already lost his chance to make a move and can only watch as an observer.

……

I'm practically dying; this is all I can muster. As for the problems, I'll fix them tomorrow; I'm feeling dizzy and lightheaded right now.

The Golden Branches Endure Through the Ages: Chapter 160 The Tumultuous Rise of Luofu

With the full assistance of the three train crew members, Luofu Dihengsi finally unveiled the mystery surrounding the secrets of the Medicine King.

Those lackeys who openly proclaim the compassion of the Medicine King are nothing more than insignificant pawns.

“These guys are useless, arresting them is pointless,” March 7th said, hands on his hips, looking at a group of dejected members of the Medicine King’s Secret Disciples who had just been escorted away by the Cloud Cavalry. “They’re good for nothing but wasting prison food.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Walter analyzed calmly. “It at least proves that they are well-organized, with a clear separation between the periphery and the core. And…” He glanced at Xing, who was organizing the evidence, “Thanks to what Xing extracted while undercover, all the clues point to Dan Ding Si.”

Xing nodded, recalling the fragmented information: "They mentioned that the Dan Ding Division had 'quite a few' inside agents, but when asked who they were or how many, the peripheral members really didn't know anything, only saying that there were many."

Her tone carried a hint of helplessness; her undercover work, though short, had been thrilling enough. Could she now tell her mother that she had become a qualified undercover agent?

Seeing that it would be difficult to uncover any deeper intelligence, the Earth Balance Division decisively ended this undercover operation.

The mountain of evidence, whether direct or indirect, pointed precisely at the Dan Ding Si (丹鼎司).

This organization, which controls the lifeline of Luofu Medicine, is now rife with undercurrents and numerous problems.

The more crucial discovery concerned the rampant and potent demonic possession. Although the Earth Balance Division and the accompanying Dan Ding Division physicians were unable to thoroughly analyze the specific ingredients of the demonic possession-suppressing medicine distributed to the Cloud Cavalry under the rudimentary conditions, a simple and brutal test revealed the truth: once the medicine was discontinued, the terrifying symptoms of the potent demonic possession subsided rapidly like a receding tide, becoming treatable.

However, those who have taken too much of this elixir are still beyond cure, though it is said that the Cloud Cavalry has already distributed new elixirs to some areas.

This elixir can cure this poisoning disease. Judging by the time, it should arrive here soon.

“It’s ironic,” an official from the Earth Balance Bureau said, his face ashen as he looked at the latest report. “The medicine that was once considered a lifeline has become a deadly poison! Who would have thought that the root of the poison was planted in the pills supplied to the Cloud Cavalry? Who could have imagined that?”

The truth is now clear, and the henchmen of the Medicine King's secret teachings have no reason to escape justice.

A series of swift and decisive raids were launched across Luofu.

"Action!" With the order from the Cloud Cavalry squad leader, the soldiers burst forth like tigers released from their cages. In the street corners and alleys, the secret members of the Medicine King's lineage were still furtively distributing leaflets.

Before the fervent smiles on their faces had faded, their wrists were locked by cold shackles.

"We're innocent! We were just handing out flyers!"

"By the compassionate Medicine King, the Cloud Cavalry are randomly arresting people!"

The cries of injustice echoed at the arrest scene, but could not change the established facts.

The members on the list of peripheral members of the Medicine King's Secret Disciples were swept away in an instant, like fallen leaves swept by the autumn wind.

Meanwhile, the tedious approval process of the Taibu Si was finally completed. Taibu Fuxuan personally issued the permit, granting the three members of the train crew permission to board the Taibu Si to participate in the interrogation of the Star Core Hunter Kafka and share any valuable intelligence they might obtain.

Before leaving, March 7th looked at the busy Earth Balance Bureau and Cloud Cavalry and couldn't help but complain to his companions: "See, I told you I can't stay idle! After the matter of the Grand Divination Bureau is finished, who knows how many documents are waiting for us to stamp and put our fingerprints on."

Walter simply nodded silently, while Xing returned a look that said, "I'm used to it."

Deep within the Dan Ding Si, the atmosphere was completely different from the apparent victory at Luofu.

As news spread that the peripheral members of the Medicine King's Secret Teachings had been wiped out, the alchemists belonging to the Dan Shu faction were like ants on a hot pan, gathering outside the Dan Shu alchemy room, anxious and uneasy.

"Lord Dan Shu! Luo Fu has already set his sights on us! The Di Heng Division is moving so fast, their next target will definitely be the Dan Ding Division!" A young alchemist's voice trembled.

"Yes, the Cloud Cavalry used the pretext of the Medicine King's secret transmission to cause chaos and sealed off all the entrances and exits of the Immortal Ship! There are spies everywhere outside, and we feel like we're locked in a cage!"

"If we continue to hide, what will become of the great achievements of the Compassionate Medicine King? When will the power of the Jianmu tree benefit all living beings in Luofu?"

"By the time they find out, it will be too late!"

Despite the panicked chatter of his subordinates, Dan Shu remained unusually calm.

She didn't even look up, but focused on gently fanning a floating, rune-engraved bronze alchemy furnace in front of her with an exquisite jade-bone fan.

The fire in the stove remained a steady bluish-green under her control, and the aroma of medicine filled the somewhat stagnant air.

"What's the panic?" Dan Shu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a peculiar penetrating power, instantly suppressing the noise.

"The Medicine King's Secret Teachings are the Medicine King's Secret Teachings, and the Pill Cauldron Division is the Pill Cauldron Division. Which of you has any overt dealings with those saboteurs who were captured by the Earth Balance Division?" She tilted her head slightly, her nostrils flaring as she carefully savored the changes in the medicinal fragrance, and then calmly added two pieces of specially made fire essence charcoal.

"But sir, all the evidence points to problems within our Pill Refining Division! Not only are those pills untraceable, but those poisoning incidents—if he's willing to investigate, he'll always find a connection to us."

The older alchemist said worriedly, "How much longer do we have to wait? Are we just going to wait for the Cloud Cavalry to rush in and arrest us?"

Dan Shu finally turned around slowly, his eyes, hidden by an eyepatch, seemed to see right through people as he swept over them: "If you rush out now, they won't arrest you?"