NOVPUB500 meters above Donghua City, inside the command center of the intelligence agency, Night Army.
The Night Army was established to master and better control the affairs of all cultivators and civilians within human civilization, and to combat malicious organizations led by the Sky Flipping Sect, directly governed by the Heavenly Court, and composed of elite cultivators as an internal intelligence institution.
At this moment, Fang Mo, the deputy head of the Night Army in Donghua City, a young man dressed in a black uniform, sat at his desk, his gaze fixated on a pile of intelligence reports concerning Li Xiuzhu.
"Chief," said another man, burly and with a menacing face, standing in front of the desk, "here’s the intelligence concerning Li Xiuzhu. It contains all the records since he entered Donghua City."
"Li Xiuzhu, huh." The young man flipped through the records, his frown deepening by the minute, "What exactly did you come here to do? Have you really been hiding your identity for two months just to apprehend criminals?"
He was constantly recalling the development of the entire Heavenly Demon incident in his mind, from the initial abnormal behavior of a few students to the eventual involvement of the entire Celestial Star Formation’s attack incident.
Li Xiuzhu seemed to have always been playing the role of a good cop.
"Li Xiuzhu… the Sky Flipping Sect… Xing Jun… Heavenly Demon…" Fang Mo rubbed his forehead, pondering incessantly, "The conflict between them, the outbreak of battle, that is to say, their goals clash."
He picked up the testimonies of Zhou Bai and others, "Was it for that scripture? What exactly is that thing?"
Right then, a soldier from the Night Army walked in and reported to Fang Mo, "Chief, the upper echelons have summoned you to the archives, saying your request has been approved."
Fang Mo’s eyes flashed slightly, "Finally, it’s been approved?"
He hurried to the archives, only to find a massive bronze door standing there, with a man in a suit already waiting in front of the door.
If Zhou Bai had been there, he would have recognized the man in the suit as the exact same one who distributed supplies before the mysterious treasure event at the Dao School.
The man in the suit looked at Fang Mo and said, "Chief Fang, the Heavenly Court has approved your application. However, the intelligence related to Li Xiuzhu is classified as Level 7 secrecy. You can only view it within the archives and are not allowed to take it outside."
Fang Mo’s resolve hardened; because of the distortion of the Heavenly Dao, the danger of intelligence was not limited to the various impacts it might have, but the intelligence itself could be forbidden knowledge, diagrams, or rituals—meaning that the intelligence could itself be inherently dangerous.
Consequently, under the auspices of the Heavenly Court, intelligence was classified into levels 0 to 10, requiring certain levels of access and even cultivation to peruse this intelligence.
"The Sky Flipping Sect Leader’s intelligence is Level 7? I had originally thought the Sky Flipping Sect was just a minor nuisance," Fang Mo thought to himself, "It seems this matter is deeper than I imagined."
Fang Mo nodded, "I understand."
The next moment, following the low chuckle of the man in the suit, the bronze door behind him slowly opened to reveal utter and impenetrable darkness.
But Fang Mo was well acquainted with the structure of the archives, so he walked towards the archives with a calm expression. The next moment, countless tendrils suddenly shot out, dragging him into the darkness.
With a loud bang, the bronze door slowly closed and the man in the suit, watching Fang Mo’s disappearing figure, chuckled lightly, "Heavenly Dao… how wondrous."
Darkness, dampness, and a stifling atmosphere.
Fang Mo felt the presence of some terrifying creature crawling around in the archive room. However, the structure of the archives was itself a Level 10 secret, which even he did not know now.
But he was not nervous; instead, he released the power of his Primordial Spirit, and as he had done before, he called out into the surrounding darkness, "Tell me, all the intelligence about the Sky Flipping Sect Leader."
The next moment, lines of text began to appear on the retina of his eyes—the intelligence he needed.
...
Thirty years ago.
On the western side of the continent.
The sounds of battle roared to the heavens, a vast stretch of black clouds covered the sky, with thunderous lightning striking intermittently, reducing everything on the land to ashes.
The dark clouds were legions of Heavenly Demons, rampantly slaughtering humans upon the earth.
One by one, buildings slowly collapsed, various flying vehicles and cars turned into flaming chunks of metal, overturned upon the land.
The cries of the people, the sound of burning corpses, the excited shrieks of the Heavenly Demons.
Everything resembled a scene straight out of hell.
Amid these piles of bodies, a soldier looked up at the Heavenly Demons flying through the sky with panic in his eyes, desperately covering his mouth, daring not to make a sound.
...
Li Xiuzhu suddenly opened his eyes, holding his forehead with one hand, panting heavily.
Beside him, a blonde-haired woman approached, cradling his head and gently consoling him, "It’s okay, it’s okay, it has all passed."
Seeing Li Xiuzhu calming down bit by bit, the blonde woman asked with concern, "Was it that dream again? Do you want to try sealing the memory? With this Heart Demon, the next breakthrough is too dangerous."
"I can’t forget, nor dare I forget," said Li Xiuzhu flatly. "Thirty years, and I still remember the moment when the Heavenly Dao Palace fell.
Two billion people retreated to the east, slaughtered by hundreds of millions of Heavenly Demons along the way. We, a hundred thousand cultivators, covered the rear, resisted the Heavenly Demons to the death, blood staining the skies, and in the end, barely one in ten survived."
"And the Heavenly Court..." Li Xiuzhu laughed coldly. "I still remember hiding among the corpses, eating grass, eating dirt, eating anything edible just to survive."
Li Xiuzhu slowly stood up, his Primordial Spirit power surging forth like mountains and seas.
"From the moment the Heavenly Demons retreated, I made a vow to myself that it was time for a change in this world."
"Humanity will no longer fight for the Heavenly Court but live for themselves."
"I will exterminate both the Heavenly Court and the Heavenly Demons; Earth will belong only to humankind."
Speaking, he walked slowly towards the outside, "Let’s start, Annie. Release all the trigrams we’ve found. I’m going to cast the divination."
...
Outside the bronze door, when Fang Mo awoke, he found himself standing outside of it, not even knowing when he had come out.
He turned to look around, and the man in the suit from before had disappeared.
He exhaled deeply, still a look of surprise in his eyes: "Li Xiuzhu...The Sky Flipping Sect Leader, turns out to be the commander from the great retreat at Heavenly Dao thirty years ago—Li Dao."
Fang Mo knew that thirty years prior, the fall of the Heavenly Dao Palace had led humanity to retreat en masse to the east, suffering countless losses along the way, ultimately holding only the last third of the Eastern Continent’s land—the current five major cities.
"Sky Flipping Sect, Sky Flipping Sect," Fang Mo mused to himself. "Seems like it aims to overturn not just the sky of the Heavenly Court but also the sky of the Heavenly Demons."
Contemplating the information he had obtained, Zhou Bai’s figure flashed through his mind.
"Xing Jun is so interested in this Zhou Bai, and Li Xiuzhu also seemed to protect him incidentally."
"This Zhou Bai, worth a deeper investigation."
But the thought of investigating Zhou Bai made Fang Mo sigh: "Other powerhouses from the Dao School of Donghua have all gone to support the front lines, and the remaining vice principal, Zhao Shouyi, is a tough nut to crack."
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A new week begins, seeking a wave of recommendation votes, very important.
