I somewhat understood what Patrol Lu meant.

  He didn’t believe in the literal existence of the Divine Seal, but he firmly believed in the existence of the power that could change everything.

  Whether its source was a person, an object, or a mere phenomenon, one thing was absolutely clear: the source of that power was heavily biased toward ordinary people.

  Even Mount Luo, even the Great Wuchang, feared the unknown.

  Before fully uncovering the truth behind that power, they dared not act rashly.

  If I were the ruler of Mount Luo, where would I think the source of that power y?

  The first suspect would naturally be the group that had benefited the most from the existence of that power—the ruling css of the secur world.

  "We once suspected that the Divine Seal might be in the hands of the official authorities," Patrol Lu said, still using the term Divine Seal to refer to the source of that mysterious power.

  From what I knew, the master of the Divine Seal was the giant residing within the Fog Dream Realm, referred to as Zero by Subject No.1.

  Could the giant be part of the official authorities?

  Was it him who, in the distant past, made a wish upon the Divine Seal that ordinary people should rule the world?

  And could his wish be directly connected to what Subject No.4 Xuan Ming mentioned about "bringing the world to the brink of destruction"?

  I was deeply curious about this topic.

  If this conversation were merely about choosing sides, I’d want to end it quickly.

  But if it delved into apocalyptic and supernatural history, I was all ears.

  "When you say ‘once suspected,’ does that mean you’ve now ruled out the official authorities as suspects?" I asked.

  "We’ve ruled out about ninety percent of the suspicion," Patrol Lu said.

  "In reality, the Divine Seal's influence wasn’t limited to us Cultivators—it affected ordinary humans as well.

  "Think about it calmly, and you’ll realize that Cultivators and ordinary people live under the same sky.

  For the two sides to remain ignorant of each other requires not only Cultivators to stay away from secur society but also ordinary people to remain uninterested in the existence of Cultivators.

  "Yet, throughout history, countless people have pursued immortality.

  Emperors and nobles seeking eternal life are too numerous to count.

  If they weren’t also restrained by that power, how could the two sides have remained so separate?

  "When that power’s influence disappeared, even the official authorities fell into great confusion.

  Although they made many efforts to cover it up, they couldn’t hide it from our eyes.

  "But as the saying goes, ‘The greatest secret hides in pin sight,’ we’ve also considered the possibility that the master of the Divine Seal might be hiding within the political ndscape itself, unbeknownst even to the authorities.

  That’s why we haven’t acted recklessly."

  "You must have conducted many tests," I said.

  "Yes. And the result of our probing is that the Divine Seal most likely isn’t in the hands of the official authorities.

  In fact, the Divine Seal itself might no longer even exist," Patrol Lu nodded.

  "This is an easy conclusion to draw.

  No matter how great an impact the Divine Seal once had on our world, its influence ultimately faded away.

  "Why did it disappear? If it wasn’t because the master of the Divine Seal changed their mind, then it must have been because the Divine Seal itself malfunctioned.

  While other possibilities exist, we believe the malfunction theory holds the most potential for investigation.

  "Suppose the Divine Seal truly is an artifact—we can even boldly specute that, due to some unforeseen incident, this artifact may have shattered."

  That bold specution was actually spot on.

  And considering that No. 4 Xuan Ming, one of the Great Wuchang, had already obtained a fragment of the Divine Seal, I suspected that the existence of the Divine Seal and its shattered state might not even be secrets among the Great Wuchang.

  "With the conversation reaching this point, I’m sure you can foresee it—conflict between Mount Luo and the official authorities will break out in the near future," Patrol Lu pushed the conversation to its next stage.

  "Zhuang Cheng, I hope you’ll join our camp."

  And there it was.

  "But isn’t there still internal disagreement within Mount Luo?

  Transcendentalism isn’t the absolute mainstream, is it?" I asked.

  "That’s true. There are voices within Mount Luo advocating that the Cultivator community should integrate into secur society.

  But you might have misunderstood something—their so-called integration doesn’t mean they want Cultivators to become mere cogs in the machinery of secur society," he said.

  "They, too, aim to become the new ruling css.

  The difference is that our Transcendentalist goal is to become ‘Gods,’ while theirs is to become ‘Monarchs.’"

  "Does Zhu Shi think the same way?" I asked.

  He smiled helplessly.

  "She probably hopes for things to remain unchanged forever.

  But even she can’t deny that the repcement of the outdated ruling css by the Cultivator community is an inevitable outcome of history.

  The mistake lies with history itself."

  "The official authorities won’t just sit back and wait.

  If war breaks out, countless ordinary people will die.

  Zhu Shi would never participate in something like that," I said.

  "It won’t escate into war, Mount Luo possesses overwhelming power—the conflict will end in a very short time."

  "Because Mount Luo has the Great Wuchang?"

  "We wouldn’t even need the Great Wuchang to take action, Mount Luo alone is more than capable of ruling this country." His calm tone carried an unshakable confidence.

  "Zhuang Cheng, what do you think of the Oddities you fought tonight? If Mount Luo stayed out of it and only the official authorities had to deal with him, how do you think things would unfold?"

  I paused to think and then realized a terrifying possibility.

  He continued, answering his own question, "Perhaps to you, that Oddities seemed like nothing more than roadside trash—not worth mentioning.

  But let me crify something for you: that Oddities actually possessed extraordinary physical enhancement abilities, even among "Existence" Cultivators.

  "His abilities are about average among Oddities: capable of moving at speeds exceeding 200 kilometers per hour, with a mana-enhanced body that can effortlessly tear through steel armor.

  He possesses dynamic vision sharp enough to track bullets in motion and reflexes quick enough to defend against them in real-time.

  He can also withstand a hailstorm of modern firearm firepower directly.

  Standard infantry weapons are essentially useless against him.

  "Combine these capabilities, and all he needs to do is employ flexible assassination and guerril tactics while fully utilizing his exceptional mobility.

  Killing or capturing him would already be an almost impossible task—and that’s before even considering his supernatural abilities.

  "That Oddities could teleport over vast distances through shadows at will and summon immensely powerful duplicates.

  The one you fought tonight even had an ability that allowed him to regenerate immediately after being killed.

  This means modern weapons relying on overwhelming firepower in ambush scenarios are completely ineffective.

  He can vanish into the shadows at any moment, appear anywhere, kill anyone he wants, and then disappear again.

  The more people he kills, the stronger he becomes, and the harder he is to deal with.

  "Someone like him, with just a little strategic thought, could single-handedly dismantle the governance of a small nation.

  Yet among us Cultivators, he’s just a "Existence" Realm Practitioner.

  If we scale up and consider a "Formation" Realm Cultivator instead, and face a major world power, I’d wager that fewer than ten of them would be needed to ensure total victory without any resistance.

  "And Mount Luo has nearly ten Great Wuchang alone, while "Formation" Realm cultivators are as numerous as clouds in the sky.

  With such an overwhelming disparity in power, how could the official authorities ever hope to compete with us?"

  Although I’m not an expert in modern military affairs, I have to admit that his argument makes sense.

  In the past, I had imagined modern armies as hypothetical enemies and even envisioned what would happen if I were bombarded by missiles and nuclear weapons. I researched this scenario seriously online.

  The reason I did so wasn’t because I actually pnned to fight against modern military forces—it was merely an imaginative exercise driven by curiosity.

  Many people will never encounter a tiger in their lives, yet they still imagine scenarios where they must fight one, even asking online how to defeat a tiger barehanded.

  This was the same kind of curiosity.

  After thorough investigation, I realized the enormous advantage a superpowered individual like me would have against a modern military force.

  It wasn’t because I could ignore physical attacks or teleport freely across the battlefield using fmes, but because modern military technology fundamentally cks effective measures against “superpowered individuals.”

  Whether it’s nuclear weapons, which I considered the pinnacle of modern destructive power, or the steel behemoths that dominate the seas—aircraft carriers—these strategic military tools were never designed to deal with highly mobile, highly resilient “superpowered individuals.”

  Instead, they were built to target stationary strongholds and rge collective forces.

  Their threat to “superpowered individuals” was far less significant than I initially believed.

  Moreover, Mount Luo Demon Hunters don’t rely solely on brute strength as “superpowered individuals.”

  Patrol Lu and that Oddities both demonstrated mysterious and unpredictable abilities.

  The former could temporarily resurrect the dead and force them to spill information, while the tter possessed tools capable of trapping opponents in “spaces beyond reality.”

  It’s likely that among the Demon Hunters, there are also experts skilled in mental manipution and curses—powers that would be devastatingly effective against modern society.

  Whether or not power shifts hands in the human world, and when that shift happens, was never really determined by the efforts of the current ruling css.

  It has always depended on Mount Luo’s will.

  Mount Luo fear of the Master of the Divine Seal is now a thing of the past.

  The reason they still haven’t made their move might simply be because they haven’t yet agreed on how to divide the spoils.

  "Additionally, when Zhu Shi spoke to that Oddities earlier, she seemed to misunderstand something."

  Patrol Lu pointed to the electronic binocurs he had used earlier, now resting on the table.

  "She believes that the current technological civilization is entirely the result of human effort. I don’t deny that point. But strictly speaking, technology isn’t ‘the power of ordinary people’—it’s ‘the power of intelligence.’

  "The power of technology has never favored any particur side.

  Ordinary people can wield it, and so can Cultivators—except Cultivators can do it better.

  To see technology as proof that ordinary people surpass Cultivators in certain areas has been a misconception from the very beginning.

  "What Cultivators can use, ordinary people may not necessarily be able to.

  That alone is enough to prove that we Cultivators, while encompassing all the strengths of ordinary people, have surpassed them entirely.

  We are truly ‘extraordinary beings.’

  "We are now standing at a turning point in history.

  It is inevitable that Cultivators will repce ordinary humans as the rulers of this world.

  "So, Zhuang Cheng, I extend this invitation to you:

  "Join us."

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