Chapter 665: King Of Fallen

After hanging up the one-way video call, Annan frowned and huddled in the chair, thinking.

No matter how I think about it, something feels off.

If their goal is just to get a lot of Gold Rank Transcenders, then they dont need to go through all this trouble.

There was a high probability that they had already started on the curse shaft.

Then this also meant that they had obtained curse energy.

All they needed to do was to ma.s.s produce and then kill dozens of Bronze Rank transcenders to get the foundation for creating nightmares.

They could simply use curse energy to multiply the rewards of clearing a nightmare dozens or hundreds of times. After clearing the nightmare once, the user would be promoted to Bronze. Clearing another nightmare for the second time would guarantee Silver Rank, and clearing it again would push the user to the peak of Silver Rank. Then, they could get ready to advance to Gold Rank.

The curse shaft provided curse energy that could quickly achieve the above feat It would guarantee many loyal subordinates to enter the Silver Ranks peak.

There was no danger.

It was a sure-win situation.

However, the Northern Brotherhoods goal seemed to be obtaining something with a purity that was beyond pure gold.

Annan simply found it unreasonable.

Those stupid n.o.bles, desperate to cling to and consolidate their power, werent the brightest bulbs. They would surely be willing to cross any forbidden line, especially when they were about to kick the bucket if they didnt act.

It didnt seem logical to a.n.a.lyze them by the taboos and IQ of ordinary people.

Their indirect approach seemed too troublesome to gather any timely benefits.

The process was neither safe and controllable, nor labor-saving and fast enough.

Why would those cowardly, short-sighted fools take such a path?

After eliminating all the impossibilities, the only possibility remains Annan murmured.

Then, there was only one outcome left.

There was at least one traitor within the circle of the Northern Brotherhood. At least he had the absolute right to speak that could overwhelm other n.o.ble advisors.

However, putting it as a traitor didnt seem accurate either because he didnt care what would happen to Austere-Winter Dukedom. So he was surely not on Annans side either.

As a matter of fact, even if those n.o.bles were idiots, the brains behind them were smart people.

Based on the bits and pieces Longjing Tea gathered from the Saltpeter Ranch, he immediately realized something was off Those advisers must have also seen that the plan wasnt quite right.

However, the plan was still being implemented steadily.

That meant the person who proposed this plan might hold a much higher status than the others. This would explain why, even though others sensed something was off, they couldnt openly object.

The Saltpeter Ranchs production of the demons blood hinted at the broader plan. This implied the plan was so refined that there was no harm in sharing it with partners.

That set off some major red flags.

Moreover, it wasnt realistic to a.s.sa.s.sinate Annan using just any random person.

If they had already obtained the Satiated Gold, it wouldnt be as simple as sending a few Silver Rank Fallen to a.s.sa.s.sinate Annan. They would surely send a group of 25 Gold Rank troops to overrun the Frostwhisper Province directly.

Gold Rank Transcender and Gold Rank Fallen were not at the same level.

Kafni once said to Annan that the essence of Transcenders power was to use curses to transform the soul, while the essence of Fallens power was to use curses to transform the body.

Setting aside the destruction caused by the unstable nature of the Fallen.

The fundamental shortcoming of the Fallen Path was that their souls remained at the gaseous stage of a Bronze Rank transcender.

One of the hallmarks of Fallen was that their souls were like a black smoke, while Gold Rank transcenders souls were bright like a diamond or rainbow. This implied that the demonized Fallen could hardly harness much elemental power.

It was even more impossible for them to sublimate into deities either because in the ascendancy ritual, only the soul could take the Divine Transporter to enter the Light Realm.

All of this was because the quality of their souls was not up to par.

Annan had slightly more detailed information than Kafni.

For example Annan discovered that the elemental power wasnt the innate ability of this world. It flooded the world after Father Flint ignited the Sages Stone.

The Sages Stone was the Worlds Blood in the immaterial world, and its status was equivalent to the solidified curse energy.

In other words, Father Flint most likely stole the real Sages Stone from the immaterial world.

Before that, the soul that reached the [Dyed] rank was only n.o.ble.

If no one could use the elemental power, then the Ascension Path would be inferior to the Fallen Path until the ascendancy ritual was completed.

This reminded Annan of the battle between immortals and demons.

The Fallen Path was the beast way that used curses to transform the body for a world full of curses, this might be the right path.

Only if the Fallen Path were more effective and powerful than the Transcendence Path, then the Fallen Path would have the value of being handed down.

Otherwise, it would have been eliminated long ago in the thousands or even tens of thousands of years of civilization history.

The Enigma of Fate and Dice: A Discourse mentioned that going up is a leap while going down is one step at a time. This subtly highlighted the difference between the Ascension Path and the Fallen Path.

That was why the ascendancy ritual was called the ascendancy ritual.

It represented the unique difference exclusive to the Ascension Path.

Since those who learned about the Ascendancy Ritual often a.s.sociated it with the Ascension Path, the high-ranking transcendents changed the ancient term Ascension Path to Transcendence Path to better safeguard this secret.

No matter how Father Flint got the Sages Stone, the world was filled with elemental power. Only the Ascension Path could fully harness this ability This was an epic patch that buffed the Ascension Paths Dyed Rank.

Annan immediately realized that the upright deities hoped to increase the number of deities through this new patch.

He was all too familiar with this approach Using buffs and nerfs to influence the players behavior was a basic skill for game designers.

Was it reasonable? No

Introducing the elemental power concept made the strong, pure soul a tangible and accessible force.

Even if there were more than a dozen demons, only two or three Gold Rank Transcenders with sufficient soul reserves could easily kill them all.

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The two brothers from the Saltpeter Ranch would have been taken out in two swift moves by the Saint, one move for each, if they hadnt possessed the secret of creation. Of course, the Saint was at the Truth Rank.

However, it was evident that the Northern Brotherhood didnt have multiple Gold Rank transcenders.

Because in the entire Austere-Winter Dukedom, there were no wild Gold Rank transcenders at all Winters Hand was confined to Silver Rank. Any unauthorized Silver Rank transcenders trying to further advance in the Austere-Winter Dukedom would be captured, monitored, imprisoned, and expelled by Winters Hand.

The current Howling White Tower had not yet elected a new tower master.

So apart from the Daughter of the Storm, Maria, and the Beauty of Imbalance, Vasika, who could resist the Gold Rank under special circ.u.mstances, the only Gold Rank in Austere-Winters was Old Grandmothers pope, and the Melvin familys the Divine of the World. The latter two were not affiliated with the Austere-Winter family.

This was the weakest period of the Austere-Winter Dukedom if the ancestor summoner ritual wasnt counted.

The only reason the Northern Brotherhood didnt come for Austere-Winter Dukedom was because they were rookies.

If the Northern Alliance had two Gold Ranks, they would initiate a war to redistribute the territory. If they had more than three Gold Ranks, they could march into the Frostwhisper Province, detain Annan and Ivan, and then hold the emperor hostage to command the subordinates.

Therefore, they had not completed the Satiated Gold experiment.

Instead, it was the person who proposed this experiment that restricted them. Otherwise, they might have started ma.s.s-producing a Silver Rank army with their curse shaft already in place.

Annan narrowed his eyes slightly.

He thought of another matter.

The Northern Brotherhood, as the feudal lord of the northernmost part of the map, didnt have much money.

So, how did they persuade the Fallen forces of Saltpeter Ranch and Nata County to be loyal to them? Given the nature of these Fallens, theyd probably have turned on their partners and tried to sell them out to the Grand Duke for a reward.

Unless the Fallen wanted something else from the Northern Brotherhood.

From this point of view

Could it be that a shadow ruler has already appeared in the circles of Fallens? Annan whispered worriedly.

A Fallen who is able to cross borders and control all Fallen.

The Northern Brotherhood was just a p.a.w.n at their disposal a p.a.w.n for the Satiated Gold production.

Their ultimate goal of getting [Satiated Gold] was to break free from the Fallen Path.

Who could possibly have the power to cross borders and remotely control the Fallens from the Noah Kingdom, the underground world, and Austere-Winter?

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