Chapter 255: Chapter 17: The Major Mysterious Organizations

[Dead Tutor · Shepherd of Spirits’s Evil Soul]

[Forged by a Secret Ceremony gathering Celestial God Power, it has been transformed into the inhuman Evil Soul.]

[The soul of an Evil Ghost, still wreathed in countless Curses.]

[Consume directly to increase all-around soul resistance, Soul Strength, and Affinity for Dead Souls.]

[Refine with Spiritual Energy to create a ’Nightmare Suppressing Shepherd Spirit’ Attaching Spirit, which can be applied to any equipment or item.]

[Forge using a special technique to create the ’Nightmare Soul-Manipulating Spirit Line’ Soul Weapon.]

[The love of the Silent Lord is so vast and endless. Whether faced with faith or blasphemy, with covenants kept or broken, or even with His power being used to defy His teachings, He cares not, taking it all in stride.]

[What manner of evil could possibly make Him so much as glance sideways? Clutching this mad thought, the Demon who sought to destroy all Order never found the answer, even in death.]

"A boring Evil Soul, a boring Monster."

As Su Zhou landed on the surface of the sea and took the Evil Soul, this was his only comment. "The thought that six more beings like this one are breathing the same air on Earth as I am... it makes me sick."

[This was already a great success. The seven Leaders of the Spirit Summoning Association almost never appear in person where they can be witnessed by others. Even if they do, they always have countless escape routes prepared.]

The Artifice Sage, just now recovering from its shock at the Shepherd of Spirits’s demise, remarked with some emotion: [The Shepherd of Spirits was an old rival of the former Security Bureau in the Southeast Asia region. They aren’t usually active, but when a specific opportunity arises, they are certain to make a major move.]

[But even we never imagined they would take advantage of the Spiritual Qi Burst to commit such atrocities in major regions all over the world.]

Su Zhou recalled the various scenes of chaos he had seen on the screen and couldn’t help but nod.

Attacking all the major global powers at once... say what you will about the Spirit Summoning Association, but their ability to make enemies was truly first-class. With this move, their peripheral organizations would be completely wiped out. No matter how deeply they were hidden, the enraged multinational forces would join together and dig three feet deep to find them.

"This is their advancement ritual. Their method of advancement requires the Extraordinary elements from those Mutants. If they don’t want to spend time arduously tempering themselves, they have to create these disturbances again and again, using human lives as the foundation for their progress. It’s just like the demonization of Demon Fiends—they use a similar method to transform into more powerful Extraordinary Creatures."

After some thought, Su Zhou decided to say it aloud. "I’ve killed the Shepherd of Spirits, but their other six Leaders have probably already advanced to the Extraordinary Tier... If that’s the case, conventional military force probably won’t be very effective against them. Just as the Shepherd of Spirits could temporarily ignore an artillery barrage, they surely all have their own ways to stay alive and evade a joint international search."

[How do you know that?]

Su Zhou’s deduction was actually quite ordinary; the Artifice Sage had already thought of it before he even spoke. However, the true abilities of the Spirit Summoning Association’s Leaders were a mystery to all the major global powers, and their method of advancement was an enigma wrapped in a riddle. No one knew the process involved.

Some even speculated that their inheritance wasn’t from this world, but from an Otherworld.

"It’s my bloodline inheritance! There’s information in my bloodline inheritance!"

Su Zhou replied with a serious expression. He knew the Zhengguo government had probably already guessed that he had his own inheritance, so he might as well be direct and use it as an excuse.

’Don’t ask. If you have to ask, the answer is bloodline inheritance. Believe it or not, I’m sticking to it.’

[Is that so... a bloodline inheritance from the Demon Race... I understand.]

The Artifice Sage didn’t press the issue, simply stating calmly: [The Thunder Technique you just used, is that also from your bloodline inheritance? It seems you must be at least an Immortal God Level True Dragon King, possessing the Divine Techniques to Call Wind and Summon Thunder... In that case, everything is easily explained.]

[Your helicopter is arriving soon, Professor Su. If you head back now, you might still make it to the press conference. While the entire world is suffering from the chaos caused by the Spirit Summoning Association, we were the only ones to quickly stabilize the situation and eliminate one of their leaders... This is truly big news.]

"Yes, I understand."

Su Zhou also smiled and nodded slightly. The reason he had fought so fiercely was precisely for this moment.

Afterward, Su Zhou called over the nearby Sea Beasts and commended them for a job well done. If it hadn’t been for the numerous Sea Beasts conducting a carpet search of all suspicious cargo ships in the area, he really might not have found his target so quickly.

"So, how should I reward them?" Su Zhou patted the head of the petrified great white shark that had discovered the Shepherd of Spirits, making it wag its tail happily. He felt a little embarrassed as he mentally asked Yara, ’I don’t mind giving them some of my blood, but having to bite myself open every time... it kind of hurts.’

"You didn’t cry ’pain’ once when you and the National Preceptor Demon Emperor were tearing each other’s hearts out," the little red snake coiled up. Yara really didn’t want to answer such a low-effort question and replied perfunctorily, "If you really must, just pull out one of your hairs and give it to them. It’s all the same. They’re only drawn to you because of the scent of your Undying Blood anyway."

"Who says! I cried ’it hurts’ lots of times!" Su Zhou retorted indignantly. "Besides, a battle is a battle, and normal life is normal life. It’s like... you don’t mind eating ginger slices or drinking ginger soup, but nobody likes to bite into a slice or shred of ginger when they’re eating braised pork or noodles!"

"What a classic Zhengguo people’s analogy... Fine. I’ll teach you a simple ritual that can imbue these Sea Beasts with your aura."

Yara could see that Su Zhou was quite serious about this. On second thought, he was indeed the type of person who felt he had to repay any help he received. She shook her head and chuckled. "After receiving your aura, the corresponding Sea Beast’s intelligence will slowly increase. It will become closer to you and also be nourished by your aura, leaning more toward the Dragon and Snake Dao."

"This is a ritual for actively cultivating Beloved. So it’s best not to use it carelessly."

With that said, she sent the detailed process of the ritual to Su Zhou. He did ponder it for a moment; it seemed the phrase "cultivating Beloved" gave him some pause.

’Ah, who cares! I’m already the Sea King. What’s a king without his Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals!’

But soon, whether out of self-abandonment or not, Su Zhou stopped thinking and began to channel his aura, planting it on the petrified great white shark that had performed so meritoriously. "You did a great job this time. Keep it up! And remember, don’t attack humans or tour boats from now on... unless I tell you to!"

"ROAR!"

A small, cyan-purple ball of Spiritual Light could be seen entering the great white shark’s body under Su Zhou’s control. The creature let out a comfortable roar and began to happily thrash about in the water.

It was clear that its Spiritual Energy and intelligence had indeed grown much stronger. At the very least, it could now react effectively to Su Zhou’s words.

WHIR... Just then, the sound of a helicopter appeared in the distance.

There was no need for them to lower a rope ladder; Su Zhou flew up on his own and returned to the cabin, met with the almost worshipful gazes of the special response team members.

During the flight back to the city, Su Zhou also learned the general distribution of the major Extraordinary Influences on Earth, as well as some basic intelligence on the various Mysterious Organizations.

The current international situation was relatively calm. Since the Spiritual Energy Revival was detected, the major powers of the world had essentially ceased all conflict with one another. Instead, they had completely drawn in their influence to prepare for potential future shocks. The result of this contraction was the formation of three central hubs where Transcendents gathered.

The first hub was the southeastern region of the World Island, centered on Zhengguo. The second was the northwestern region of the World Island, centered on the European Union. The third was the North America region, centered on the American Federation.

In these three regions, official Extraordinary Influences could effectively govern civilian Transcendents and maintain social stability. They also had sufficient resources to support ’cultivation for all.’ Not only were they unaffected by the Spiritual Energy Revival, but they could also leverage its power for vigorous development.

Outside of these three regions, however, the official powers couldn’t really control civilian Transcendents, and cultivation was a matter of individual ability, making it essentially impossible to popularize. For them, the Spiritual Energy Revival did more harm than good. All sorts of Demon Fiends, ghosts, monsters, and folk heroes emerged in an endless stream, greatly disrupting the normal order and productivity of society.

The headquarters of the major Mysterious Organizations might be established on the peripheries of these central hubs, but they were definitely outside the hubs themselves. The fertile soil for their clandestine growth was the uncontrolled civilian Transcendents and the regions thrown into chaos by the Spiritual Energy Revival.

[The Spirit Summoning Association is, on the surface, the largest, most active, and most dangerous global Mysterious Organization. Its seven Leaders all possess strange and powerful abilities. Some even suspect that in the public world, they have legitimate industries that serve as the organization’s economic backbone. Many national leaders are also suspected of secretly supporting them in exchange for access to Extraordinary Power. Their goal is simple: to build a shadow state, secretly controlled by them from the ground up, to carry out their currently unknown plans. That’s why they often develop their influence in small, impoverished, war-torn countries or in extremely remote areas, making them very difficult to encircle and suppress.]

[As for the Continuous Prayer Meeting, although it is also a global-level power, its methods lean toward seducing and corrupting high-ranking officials with promises of ’immortality’ and ’power.’ They hold various rituals to acquire wealth and knowledge from Otherworlds. They are extremely secretive, even more so than the Spirit Summoning Association, because a large portion of their members live normal lives, gathering only when needed.]

[Although they may not sound very harmful, in reality, every time the Continuous Prayer Meeting makes a move, it creates a world-class disaster. The mysterious kidnapping case you were involved in in the Shan Country was their doing. The ritual they performed nearly triggered the global Spiritual Energy Revival ahead of schedule. No one knows what kind of impact it would have had on the world if they had succeeded.]

The intelligence provided by the Artifice Sage was essentially the information Zhengguo had gathered over the years. Though brief, it was extremely valuable. In addition to what was explicitly stated, a series of wanted posters and lists were printed out and handed to Su Zhou as a file.

[As for the New Dawn Association, it wasn’t even a Mysterious Organization at first. It was just a small-town interest group for mystical astrology, whose usual activities consisted of stargazing and fortune-telling. But forty-three years ago, in the American Federation, the society’s leader at the time somehow managed to summon an ’Alien Monster’... The result was that the town of ’Twilight’ was destroyed by the Federation Military with a nuclear bomb. To this day, that area remains under the highest level of martial law.]

[Logically speaking, in an era before the Spiritual Energy Revival, it should have been impossible for any Transcendent to escape a nuclear blast, and the same goes for the Alien Monster. However, the leader from that time is rumored to have survived and is still active worldwide. He has sporadically summoned numerous mysterious monsters that we are completely unable to categorize by any method, causing many difficult-to-handle mystical incidents. And he is the current number one on the Global Dangerous Extraordinary Wanted List, code-named the ’Deep Space Caller.’]