"Later, someone in the clan accidentally fused with the Insect Scripture, an Evil Weapon from the earliest age, and became the first Mist Man. That began the history of clearing territory and establishing settlements for humankind."
"Mist Men wielded incomparable power, but their lives were limited. The descendants of the first Mist Man were called Primordial Blood, but that blood did not last forever. When the ancestral Mist Man died, Primordial Blood would degenerate, and the aristocrats would become ordinary people again. So people built the Inner City to sustain and extend Primordial Blood's rule."
"But I've heard humans aren't the only ones with Mist Men. Is that true?" Lin Hui asked.
"Yes." Han Xiaoyue nodded. "Other peoples have Mist Men too, but not as many as humans overall."
"Back to what you said earlier: how does building the Inner City extend their rule?" Lin Hui asked.
"Mist Men's greatest drain comes from constantly resisting the Mist outside. The Inner City was built with special materials to keep most of it out, reducing that drain as much as possible. Of course, there are other ways to prolong their lives, such as imitating the Insect Scripture to create imitation Mist Men that can share the burden. But on the whole, those methods aren't particularly effective."
Han Xiaoyue paused, then continued.
"The Primal Blood Aristocrats discovered that, besides Mist Man bloodlines, there was another way to resist the Mist: Invocation."
"Invocation?"
"Yes. Invocation is a kind of activation, a lesser ritual modeled on the creation of imitation Mist Men. Summoners can shoulder some of the pressure of resisting the Mist. So the Inner City began increasing its population on a massive scale and screening people for Invocation."
"I think I understand." Lin Hui nodded in realization. "Then what were those Seal Fortresses