Chapter 78: Chapter 72: Price
There were three techniques, a prayer, and a ritual in the information they had received. The prayer was the same as the one they had recited during the ritual. The ritual allowed them to conduct the ceremony and convert more people into believers even without Zeke’s presence.
The first technique was named Asuran Neo-Nephilim Primogenitor Visualization. It was a visualization technique to consolidate and strengthen their souls. The second technique was unnamed. It was a basic cultivation technique similar to the Three Origins Technique except that it wasn’t as slow. But as a price, the internal qi that it gathered wasn’t as pure. Still, it was good enough to be a basic technique for any Orthodox Sect. The final technique was named Neo-Nephilim Totemic Ascension. It was a strange accompanying technique that had only one goal: incorporating the Neo-Nephilim Totem in the internal qi circulation.
Zeke had started creating this technique as soon as he had created OFSO. He had created this technique for two reasons. The first one being secrecy. If the believers had to draw the Totem every time they had to pray, it was only a matter of time before someone noticed something. And that was something that Zeke needed to avoid at all costs. Secrecy was key for this plan. The second was that the Totem would subtly influence the internal qi, making the believer’s faith stronger as time passed. It also acted as a failsafe, since he could detonate the Totem of any betrayer using Faith. Although it was an unlikely situation, considering the effects of Faith, he was a meticulous person.
(Wow dude, you really got no chill. You created a technique to low-key brainwash people into believing in you. I knew it. You are a born Cult Leader.)
[I really am, aren’t I? But it is what it is. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. There are few lines that I wouldn’t cross to achieve my goals.]
While the villagers were examining the information that had suddenly appeared inside their brains, Zeke was also lost in thought. The trio was worried because they could see that he was shaking in anger. Unbeknownst to them, he wasn’t shaking in anger but in excitement.
This ceremony and the Faith generated by the villagers had strengthened the connection of the Murim World and Aurevion to the point that he could now access a considerably greater amount of Faith. And as a cherry on top, the Totem could once again be used to convert more believers without being drawn in his blood. That meant that the ritual that he had passed on to the villagers could be put to use.
His train of thought was broken by the villagers as they thanked him by kneeling down. He looked at the kneeling villagers and said, "You do remember that I said that you will have to pay for this?"
The village chief said, "For this grace, we are willing to pay any price, My Lord."
Zeke nodded and said, "Then listen to me carefully. Your first mission is to cultivate all three techniques diligently, especially the Asuran Neo-Nephilim Primogenitor Visualization. Second, you must pray devoutly at dawn to your Lord and Savior, the Asuran Star of the Gemini Primogenitors.
Third, this village needs to disappear. You all need to move. The kids will join various Orthodox Sects in a year and infiltrate them. The men will join the Empire’s army. The women will join the Hao Sect. Remember, you only have one purpose: to rise to the highest position that you can and wait for my signal. The signal may not come even after 10 years, but you must not get impatient. Fourth, you cannot contact or try to contact anyone here unless you’re in the same organization.
The fifth mission is only for the kids. Whenever you receive missions where you have to eliminate bandits, pirates, etc., and save villages just like I saved yours, conduct the ceremony for them. Bring them into the benevolent arms of your Lord. But only do so if you are alone or with a comrade who also follows the Lord.
The sixth mission is only for the men and women. Whenever you find someone who has lost all hope, give them hope by conducting the ceremony for them. Seventh, after conducting the ceremony for anybody, you must recite these missions to them.
Finally, the elderly. The elderly will travel and spread rumors. Rumors about a spear-wielding man in dark blue robes with a headband with three white peonies on it. To the world, he will be the one who saved you all. If someone asks about his name, just say that he only said that he was a wandering warrior. Give him the title, the Righteous Spearman. Spread rumors about him far and wide. No one must know that you were saved by us.
Do you all understand?"
The villagers took some time to process it all. Zeke repeated everything thrice to ensure that the villagers remembered. Then, he sent them away. A day later, the village was empty. The village was near the edge of the Cult’s territory, so it would be very easy for them to enter the Righteous Alliance’s territory. Now that the village was empty, he could proceed to his second goal for this mission: awakening Sasin.
He had thought of many possible ways to do this, but his heart was set on one. It would have the greatest effect but it was also the riskiest. Zeke thought, ’Fuck it. I risk my life on a regular basis, so it doesn’t matter if I do so one more time.’
If Cass, Leonel, or Dean were here, they would definitely smack his head, but fortunately or unfortunately, they weren’t here. So nobody could stop Zeke.
He held Sasin in his hand. The black represented the vengeful spirits of everyone ever slain by the blade in his hands. Even though he had absorbed a lot of them when they had attacked him, he could tell that a majority still resided inside the blade. The red represented the corrupted blood essence of everyone that had been slain by Sasin. Sasin was a demonic weapon. A vampiric weapon to be precise. But it didn’t just absorb any blood. It absorbed the blood essence, which was then corrupted due to the influence of the vengeful spirits.
So, if he wanted to awaken Sasin, he needed to first purify it. Or else the new soul that would be born would also be corrupted and he didn’t want that. The purification would have been very easy if he was on Earth as he could have just used Divine Synthesis to merge Soul, Stellar Fire, and Solar Light to create a soul purifying fire. Hell, he could have then merged Life and Soul to create and grow an even more perfect soul but he couldn’t do that now, so he had to get creative.
First, he had to take care of the vengeful souls. But that was easy. He simply probed the blade with his spirit and the vengeful souls rushed into his mental realm as if they had smelled a delicious meal. He even opened a one-way door in his mental wards so that they could get in. Unfortunately for the vengeful souls, they were greeted by hordes of their brethren, all stuck inside the mind of a madman. But it was getting too crowded and soon there was no place for more vengeful souls. So he did the only thing that he could to make more space. He ordered them to devour each other. That’s how vengeful souls grew. By devouring souls.
While the vengeful feast was going on, Zeke started thinking. Honestly, he kinda understood the reasoning behind the title of Heavenly Demon. All of these souls belonged to people that the third Heavenly Demon had personally killed. And who knows when he had gotten Sasin, so his actual kill count must have been much higher.
Soon, the Sasin lost all of its black color. The number of vengeful souls inside his mental realm also came down to manageable levels so he used the visualization to stop the feast. The remaining vengeful souls looked a lot more solid compared to their previous gaseous state. He then summoned them to visualization’s wings. It was something that he wanted to try. Each vengeful soul entered one scale on his wings.
When the final vengeful soul had entered one of the scales on his wings, his wings were set ablaze in a golden fire with a hint of purple in it. The vengeful souls started screeching as they were being refined and tried escaping the scales but were unable to. The fire had trapped them inside. Dense black smoke started coming out of wings and started gathering and condensing on his forehead in the shape of two horns. Even after absorbing all of the smoke, the horns remained illusory.
He assumed that it was because he hadn’t achieved EX Grade Will yet. The fire on his wings disappeared and he could feel that his wings were filled with extremely pure...soul substances? He couldn’t come up with a name for whatever it was so he just called it soul substance for the moment.
