One of the great secrets of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice.
The White Sun Holy Mothers throughout history were not actually women.
They were men with feminine features.
This secret was known only to the true core members, and only those who had personally welcomed the White Sun Holy Mother's descent could know it.
All along, the selection of a vessel was important, but it was merely a pretense for the final sacrifice.
Selecting a vessel for the White Sun Holy Mother's descent had never been easy.
Only when they had developed to a certain extent in secret, and when natural disasters and man-made calamities struck, would they emerge. Only then could they rapidly expand their number of believers, and through that vast number, screen them layer by layer, to finally find a vessel suitable for the Holy Mother's descent.
This time, with the arrival of natural disasters, they had originally planned to go to Great Li.
It was more populous and closer to the Wasteland where the red sun had appeared in the sky, making it far more suitable than the alternative, Great Zhen.
However, this time, the Eastern Palace of Great Li lost its mind and began to take in disaster victims regardless of the cost. High-ranking officials in the court had also made military pledges and personally came to provide disaster relief.
Liu Xin was so angry that his face turned pale, and he cursed the Eastern Palace of Great Li for being sick for several days. Their painstaking plan had been ruined just like that.
Great Li didn't even know that they had inadvertently destroyed decades of effort by the White Sun Evil Sacrifice.
They had no choice but to choose the backup plan and came to Great Zhen.
Using the momentum of the natural disaster, they activated the methods they had previously laid down, sowing discord and fanning the flames, causing Great Zhen, which was already like a powder keg ready to explode, to descend into civil war. They, on the other hand, swept through dozens of cities at lightning speed on the border of Great Zhen.
There were already disaster victims here, and coupled with the continuous influx of disaster victims from the north due to weather and war, they were all intercepted. The number might not be less than originally planned.
Grand Priest Liu Xin personally traveled through various cities, fearing that the backup plan would not be sufficient to screen for a suitable vessel.
Fortunately, their luck was quite good, and they found a family that perfectly met their requirements.
That young man named White Dog, if he were cleaned up, his messy hair and beard trimmed, and his rough, cracked skin restored, would have been a natural man with feminine features.
And that Sister-in-law Li was even more suitable. She had personally strangled her own husband just so her children could have something to eat. After reciting scriptures, such a person would only become more devout, making them the most suitable final sacrifice for the descent.
Finally, suitable candidates were selected, and after they were brought back and subtly guided and coerced, everything was smoothly completed.
Liu Xin even felt that it was smoother and more perfect than the last time.
When the Holy Mother descended, there were auspicious signs of blood turning into clothes and thorns turning into jade.
This time, the Holy Mother might truly be able to impact the Tenth Order, or even higher.
This was already the most perfect occurrence in nearly a thousand years.
White Dog slowly opened his eyes, his dilated pupils gradually contracting. Countless demonic runes floated continuously, then slowly dissipated, returning to the natural color of the iris.
The White Sun Holy Mother had descended.
He looked at Liu Xin, who was kneeling on the ground, and furrowed his brow slightly.
"You are... Liu Xin?"
The Grand Priest raised his head, his face filled with joy, and nodded repeatedly.
"Holy Mother, it is I. I am the Grand Priest of this generation. Fifty-eight years, four months, and six days have passed since your last descent.
Your subordinate has not dared to slack off for a single day, planning day and night, waiting for the opportune moment to welcome your descent.
Now is the time, and it is an unprecedented great opportunity."
A moment later, the White Sun Holy Mother, dressed in white robes, with the crown of thorns on his head also disappearing, his long hair loose, leaned on a low couch, exuding a divine aura, a mixture of majesty and melancholy. The feeling of wanting to get close yet not daring to offend, had grown stronger in just this short moment.
Liu Xin stood below, bowing slightly, and recounted the events of the past few decades. This was not something that could be explained in a short while, so Liu Xin began with the most recent important matters.
"Since the disaster of the red sun appearing in the sky in the Wasteland, your subordinate decisively understood that this was the beginning of the great prosperity of our White Sun Holy Cult and immediately began to utilize the arrangements made previously.
Coincidentally, in the north of Great Zhen, and at the junction of east and west, there were snow disasters and freezing disasters this year, with abnormal weather and increasing cold. Calamities descended, and Great Zhen faced many internal and external troubles. Coupled with some matters that your subordinate had arranged and laid out over the past few decades.
With a mixture of true and false intelligence, and secret fanning of the flames, Great Zhen finally descended into civil war.
The Xiang King's Department in the north of Great Zhen and the Imperial Capital Zhen Emperor could no longer avoid tearing their faces apart, because the situation below had already begun. These two, uncle and nephew, were already wary of each other, and now there was no turning back.
Coupled with the Holy Mother's descent this time, accompanied by auspicious signs, it is the time for our Holy Cult to rise."
The White Sun Holy Mother's expression was calm, as if he didn't pay much attention. He held a scripture in his hand and flipped to the pages concerning hungry ghosts, seeming to be very interested.
"This scripture, you modified it, didn't you?"
"Replying to the Holy Mother, your subordinate dared to do so."
"First, tell me in detail about this... hungry ghost."
Yu Ziqing looked at the dense information on the long table in front of him, the light flashing in his eyes. He felt that a bold guess he had made earlier was becoming more and more like the truth.
With Su Li, the efficiency of handling matters had increased by an unknown amount. Finding intelligence, where to find it, organizing information, and a series of other professional tasks – Yu Ziqing, Cècè, and Wu Shuangge combined were no match for Su Li.
After days of rushing around, dozens of cities, a large amount of information, and a large amount of oral accounts, the entire process was extremely tedious, but Su Li could handle it all in an orderly and highly efficient manner.
Yu Ziqing naturally had some other ideas; he wanted to poach Su Li to their side.
Of course, it wasn't appropriate now, and he didn't have the conditions. Yu Ziqing could only suppress this thought for the time being, and making friends first was also good.
He now had to focus on the matter at hand. He felt that his approach of investigating from the bottom-level commoners, whom even the higher-ups didn't pay much attention to, seemed to have hit the vital point, and he was about to catch the White Sun Evil Sacrifice by the tail.
Over these past few days, after investigating dozens of thatched hut districts, the information Yu Ziqing gathered increasingly convinced him that his bold speculation might actually be true.
Previously, Yu Ziqing had already felt that the screening process these heretics were conducting was more than just a simple selection of devout followers.
Now, he was even more certain.
They seemed to be selecting furnace cauldrons, or perhaps, bodies that had lost their sense of self but were willing to be devoted.
This had a significant similarity to the parasitic route he had previously theorized.
And without exception, all the families they took away had women as the heads of households. The children ranged from two or three to as many as four or five, but there were always both sons and daughters.
Furthermore, in previous records, these heretics had always favored harming entire families; this was no secret.
To study a heretical organization, one must understand their history. Some ingrained behaviors are not easily changed through generational iteration.
Yu Ziqing found some of these overlooked ingrained behaviors of this heretical organization within the complex history Old Yang recounted.
Just like how a dynasty, even after a change in reign, remains a dynasty, this ingrained behavior would be habitually and naturally overlooked by the people here, including scholars like Old Yang.
But Yu Ziqing knew that after a dynasty falls, it doesn't necessarily mean another dynasty with an emperor on the throne will replace it.
Similar ingrained behaviors were present in the White Sun Evil Sacrifice.
The perspective from which one views things determines what one sees.
He noticed that in historical records, each generation of the White Sun Holy Mother shared certain commonalities that people took for granted.
Exquisite beauty, inviolable sanctity, a voice with a natural allure, and while their methods varied each time, there were still some commonalities.
Let's get to the controversial part.
He had a bold speculation: the current White Sun Holy Mother might not have appeared yet.
These heretics were selecting vessels for their Holy Mother.
And each generation of the White Sun Holy Mother might, in reality, be the same person.
If this weren't the case, Yu Ziqing couldn't explain many things.
Why did so many experts, one after another, strive to expand and strengthen the White Sun Evil Sacrifice?
Even after the current White Sun Evil Sacrifice was annihilated, experts would still lie in wait and continue its development.
He didn't believe that a single scripture could have brainwashed all the high-ranking members of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice.
If everyone was brainwashed into losing their sense of self and becoming absolutely devout, who would handle the development and decision-making?
Only if the White Sun Holy Mothers across generations were all the same person could the high-ranking members of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice, while fully lucid, maintain their loyalty.
And it must be that they couldn't achieve their goals through usurpation; only by maintaining loyalty could they obtain the benefits they desired.
This also explained why the White Sun Holy Mothers of each generation only made public appearances after the White Sun Evil Sacrifice had been established and grown for some time.
Similarly, it explained why those cultists cared so much about devout female believers, giving them extra attention even when they weren't particularly devout. When male believers died, their bodies were simply discarded. However, if a devout female believer died, they would immediately fly into a rage. This naturally related to their mission.
Moreover, after traversing dozens of thatched hut districts, there hadn't been a single incident of women being harmed. Some cultists in these districts even preferred to visit brothels outside.
He never believed that these cultists, who clearly hadn't lost their sense of self, were all good people.
Coupled with repeated historical records, not a single generation's White Sun Holy Mother had been promoted from within the ranks of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice's high command. Instead, after a period of emergence and growth, a new, unfamiliar White Sun Holy Mother would suddenly appear publicly.
All of this was too much to ignore.
Of course, Yu Ziqing understood that he wasn't the only one who had made such speculations.
Even among those high-and-mighty lords who were too lazy to look down at the common folk in the mud, there were certainly many intelligent individuals.
His speculation had a significant flaw.
For instance, there were quite a few instances where the White Sun Holy Mothers of past generations were completely obliterated.
And what about the time when an Academy Head from Langya Academy personally intervened? That must have been the most meticulously planned operation. How could the White Sun Holy Mother still have left a sliver of life?
Despite this, Yu Ziqing remained quite firm in his judgment and intuition. After all, even someone like Old Yang didn't know or see everything.
He was naturally not one to blindly trust the Langya Academy Head.
Now, he needed to figure out a way to find out where those devout believers who were taken away had gone.
If his speculation was true...
No, he didn't have the leisure to prove his speculation true, announce it to the world, and then painstakingly make everyone believe it.
The current intelligence was sufficient.
He only needed to make people believe it was true, or have someone be half-convinced and go to investigate. That would be enough.
His goal was to kill the White Sun Holy Mother and all their high-ranking members, not to write a thesis.
See, the connection he maintained with Great Li previously had come in handy.
Su Li could also compile the raw clues from the investigation and submit them without drawing any conclusions. As long as the people in the Shadow Division weren't blind, they would arrive at the conclusion themselves. At the very least, they would send experts to investigate.
Thus, Cècè began writing letters again.
The conclusion came first, with no process or clues.
"My Young Master asked me to inform you that the White Sun Holy Mothers of all generations are the same person. The White Sun Holy Mother of this generation will descend during the Great Zhen, with their vessel obtained through the sacrifice of believers."
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