Chapter 182
Chapter 182: Groom Selection (1)
"You are… an Evil God, my lord!"
Feeling that squirming sensation in his chest, the Joker dropped to one knee, head bowed low.
"Please forgive my earlier transgression!"
"When you bestowed your grace upon me, the power I sensed was precisely this great force!"
"Heh. Not entirely dim-witted, I suppose."
The Sage let out a cold laugh and retied the blindfold over his eyes.
"My true body is currently constrained by the fundamental laws of this world and cannot directly descend into the Savage Realm."
"However, the vessel that Void found for me is not bad at all."
"This old man had, during his lifetime, touched the threshold of godhood and achieved a Demigod Body."
"And the path he walked shares the same origin as we of the great Filth."
The Sage reached up to touch the position of his blindfold. "It is a pity, however… a good pair of eyes is what's missing."
Upon hearing this, the Joker immediately raised his head with a fawning expression. "My lord, if you are in need!"
"Once the matter at Soul-Return Town is concluded, I will find them for you!"
"No need."
The Sage waved a hand, declining his offer.
"This body still has other important uses."
"Moreover, your identity has already been exposed. It would be unwise to stir up further trouble."
"Fortunately, I have a backup plan in place. The task of obtaining the Painting of Mortal Hearth-Fire and the River-and-Mountain Brush, I have already handed off to someone else."
"As for you…"
The Sage reached into his chest pocket and produced a glass orb, tossing it to the Joker without ceremony.
The Joker caught it with both hands.
At first glance, it appeared to be an ordinary glass ball—but when he looked closely!
Inside the orb, countless wailing transparent phantoms were crammed together!
They crashed frantically against the inner walls, letting out mournful cries.
And at the very center of those ten thousand resentful souls—
A figure unmistakably familiar to the Joker floated there— Tang Sirui!
However, Tang Sirui had not lost consciousness. His soul was cursing furiously inside the glass orb.
"Screw you! White-haired old geezer!"
"And you, you purple-and-yellow color-scheme freak! Let me out right now!"
"When my teammates get here, they'll scatter your ashes to the wind!"
The Joker asked in puzzlement. "My lord, this is…"
"The Ten-Thousand-Soul Orb."
The Sage said flatly. "It can strip the souls of the dead from their bodies and imprison them within."
"What you must do now is find Yue Tian by any means necessary, extract his soul, and lock it inside."
The Sage's tone suddenly turned ice-cold. "This is the fuel required to activate the Final Ritual."
"You have only one chance. You must move fast!"
"If that stubborn woman, the Phoenix Sovereign, has time to react, our plan will fall apart at the final step."
"It must be flawless. Understood?"
"Understood! This subordinate will see to it at once!"
The Joker gave a respectful nod.
However, before rising to his feet, he hesitated a moment, then spoke up anyway.
"Evil God, my lord, there is one matter concerning No Words Needed that this subordinate must report…"
"I already know."
The Sage cut him off with a cold snort.
"Based on my deductions, that young man should be a remnant of the Claws of the Dragon God."
"But…"
The Joker recalled the scene of Jiang Nan obliterating Dusk in an instant and felt uncertain.
"The Heavenly Blade Dragon King, as one of the Dragon God's former subordinates, should not have been that powerful?"
"Otherwise, the 3rd Seat, Dusk, would not have been so easily reduced to a vegetable by him."
The Sage heard this and let out a scornful laugh.
"The Heavenly Blade Dragon King? Nothing more than a slightly sturdier ant."
"How could a cluster of stars rival the brilliance of the full moon?"
The Joker suddenly raised his head. "My lord, you mean…"
"No Words Needed—he is the Dragon God?! He reincarnated and started cultivating anew?!"
"Impossible!"
The Sage rejected this without a moment's thought.
"Back then, several of us personally watched his divine aspect shatter!"
"Unless the Dragon God abandoned his divine throne to cling to existence—but that is simply impossible!"
"Because a soul has only one opportunity to ascend to godhood."
"Reincarnating is tantamount to surrendering, and given that proud nature of his, it is absolutely out of the question!"
"As for No Words Needed, he is most likely a trump card the Dragon God secretly left behind!"
"Or perhaps… he is a child the Dragon God secretly fathered in this world!"
The Sage was supremely confident in this deduction of his.
The Joker listened and felt as though a fog had been lifted from his mind.
He pressed his palms together and looked up at the Sage with reverent eyes.
"Truly worthy of being an Evil God, my lord!"
"This subordinate's vision is not even a ten-thousandth of yours!"
The Sage received this with evident satisfaction, though his lips still pressed on with urging. "Enough with the flattery. Go and complete your task."
"Yue Tian has been struck by my technique. He won't last much longer. Strike while he's weak!"
"On this operation, take the opportunity to eliminate No Words Needed as well."
"I have no desire to see a new Dragon God appear and upset the board."
"As you command!"
The Joker tucked the Ten-Thousand-Soul Orb into his chest and vanished into the night.
The Sage stood alone by the window, turning to face the world beyond Soul-Return Town.
"The time has nearly come…"
"Traitors of the human race, heh heh heh…"
……
Outside Soul-Return Town, above a solitary grave, the sound of suona drew closer from afar.
Two escort processions that had completed their tasks were making their way back toward Soul-Return Town's gates one after the other.
Leading the way was the procession that had journeyed to the Prayer Deep Pool.
A great red bridal sedan bobbed on the shoulders of paper-figure bearers.
Inside the sedan sat a man wearing a kimono and sporting a thin mustache beneath his nose.
He sat rigidly upright, eyes fixed on the solitary graves slipping past beyond the window.
Muraguchi Kazusu—Sakura Nation's representative on Eerie Island.
At that moment, from the shadows at the bottom of the sedan, a faint voice drifted out.
"Muraguchi Kazusu… sir…"
The adjutant lurking in the shadows, Corporal Morishita, asked in confusion.
"Didn't you say we were going to use the information gap to lure those Eagle Nation squads to their deaths inside Soul-Return Town…"
"So that our great Sakura Empire could monopolize Eerie Island?"
"But…"
"Why are we now returning to this godforsaken town to participate in the selection?"
Muraguchi Kazusu produced a white cloth and began wiping down the katana in his hand.
"Morishita, your vision is still far too narrow. You need to study more."
"Getting those despicable Eagle Nation people killed is, of course, so that we can enjoy Eerie Island's resources all to ourselves!"
"But before that, we need to use them as the cost of trial and error—let them probe Soul-Return Town for us!"
Muraguchi Kazusu inspected the katana.
"Our great Sakura Empire has endured for years, doing the hard labor, all for the sake of this perfect opportunity!"
"Those Eagle Nation people treat us like tail-wagging dogs and haven't the slightest suspicion of the information we provide."
"But what they absolutely do not know is—"
"I have long since secretly attached myself to a great tree they could never even imagine!"
"Once I obtain the Painting of Mortal Hearth-Fire and the River-and-Mountain Brush at the grand finale…"
"I will make those Eagle Nation people taste what it's like to be the dog!"
"But your family, sir…"
Corporal Morishita's voice was hesitant. "I heard…"
"Eagle Nation's upper echelons have detected something. Your family has already fallen into their hands."
Muraguchi Kazusu, upon hearing this, showed not grief but erupted in a furious shout.
"Baka! A man of great ambitions does not sweat the small things!"
"So-called family bonds are nothing but a burden on the path to strength for warriors like us!"
"For the glory of the empire, this sacrifice is worthwhile!"
He struck a posture of lofty righteousness.
"I believe the spirits of my parents and wife and daughters in heaven will surely understand my conviction!"
However, in the very next moment, Corporal Morishita's words smashed his resolve to pieces.
"No, Lord Muraguchi…"
"What I mean is, your family did not die."
Corporal Morishita swallowed hard and gave his report with great difficulty.
"Eagle Nation's upper echelons, to vent their fury, chose not to kill them."
"Instead… instead, your wife was offered to the troops as a reward."
"And they forced her to film an adult video."
"Reportedly…"
"Even your father was made to participate…"
"At present, rumor has it… you may have a new younger sibling."
"Pfft!"
Upon hearing this, Muraguchi Kazusu's eyes bulged outward. He clutched his chest and spat a mouthful of blood.
"Sir! Are you alright?!"
Corporal Morishita cried out in alarm from the shadows.
"I… I'm fine!"
Muraguchi Kazusu bit down hard, his entire body trembling, gripping the hilt of his katana with a death grip.
"It's… merely the fatigue of many days of travel!"
"These petty setbacks are not enough to break this warrior's heart!"
"Right… what about my daughter? What did they do to my daughter?!"
Corporal Morishita hemmed and hawed, not daring to make a sound for a long moment.
"Speak! Whatever tragic fate it may be, Muraguchi Kazusu can bear it!"
"Ah…"
Corporal Morishita let out a helpless sigh. "Actually, your daughter is fine."
"Fine? Those Eagle Nation animals would be so kind?"
Muraguchi Kazusu froze.
"It's not that…"
Corporal Morishita's voice grew smaller and smaller. "The truth is… they used your genetics to run a paternity test on your daughter."
"The results showed… your daughter is simply not your biological child."
"So, out of humanitarian consideration, they left her alone."
"Also, by the way…"
Corporal Morishita added one final crushing blow. "Your wife, during the filming of the adult video, expressed profound dissatisfaction with your performance."
"She said on camera that, in her experience, your size and stamina could only rank dead last."
"She said she had actually wanted to film something like this for a long time, and she thanks Eagle Nation for helping her fulfill her dream…"
"……"
The sedan fell into a silence lasting a full half minute.
Muraguchi Kazusu sat there, utterly expressionless.
Corporal Morishita, watching from the shadows, was moved to hot tears, profoundly shaken to his core.
‘Not worthy of being called Lord Muraguchi! This is incredible!’
‘Even being cuckolded to this unbearable, humiliating degree and still being able to keep his composure without a change in expression!’
‘So this is the spirit of bushido!’
However, in the very next moment, Corporal Morishita noticed something was wrong.
Muraguchi Kazusu's eyes had rolled completely white, and foam was trickling from the corners of his mouth.
It was clear he had been hit by the successive NTR bombshells and the revelation of raising another man's child, and had been struck into unconsciousness on the spot.
What was even more absurd was that, under the blood pressure spike driven by rage—
Muraguchi Kazusu had also suffered an undignified fracture down there.
Though viewed through his kimono, it looked as if nothing had happened at all.
"Sir! Sir, wake up!"
Corporal Morishita frantically reached a hand out from the shadows to shake him, but wary of the ghost constables' eyes outside—
He could only helplessly retract it into the shadows and watch helplessly as Muraguchi Kazusu was carried into Soul-Return Town.
About 10 minutes later…
Following close behind was the 3rd escort procession returning from the Deep Pool Fortress.
The bridal sedan landed steadily on the ground.
Zhao Yan and Shadow, who had been shouldering the sedan poles the entire time, now stood to the side with utterly black expressions.
Well—to be precise, their faces were covered in water weeds.
Both of their clothes were dripping wet, their bodies caked in silt.
"Ptui, ptui, ptui!"
Zhao Yan wiped a handful of water weeds from his face and unleashed a torrent of curses.
"Damn it! Who the hell would have expected that the road to the Deep Pool Fortress would be a water route?!"
"And we had to walk across the bottom of the lake on foot!"
"Swallowed a bellyful of muddy lake water at the bottom, and didn't find a single useful clue!"
Shadow stood to the side, hands braced on her knees, gasping for breath, her face pale enough to frighten.
"Captain… stop complaining! You have Unyielding protecting your body. Drowning doesn't threaten you."
"I'm just a normal human being. I walked the lake bottom twice with the group and blacked out from oxygen deprivation twice!"
"If my willpower weren't strong enough, I would have died already."
Zhao Yan scratched the back of his head with a slightly awkward laugh.
"Ahem, that's not exactly my fault, is it?"
"Who knew they'd take such an unorthodox route."
"But…"
Zhao Yan lowered his voice and jutted his chin toward the great red bridal sedan.
"This trip of ours, though we nearly drowned, was absolutely a windfall."
"Take a look at who's sitting inside that sedan."
Both of them looked at the same time.
Inside the sedan, a man clad in silver armor sat upright.
He had a head of long silver hair.
And on that face full of authority, a pair of gray vertical pupils radiated Dragon Might!
Even more striking were the dragon horns growing from both sides of his temples!
A legend long since deemed missing among the Claws of the Dragon God.
The Heavenly Blade Dragon King!
Bunny