"Wilbur!!"
"Come out!"
As he pondered, a faint voice came from outside. Wilbur's hand paused as he caressed the maid, and his expression turned wary.
"Who's there?"
Wilbur's figure flickered and vanished from the room. After a few leaps, he appeared outside a pavilion within the palace grounds.
At the center of a lakeside pavilion sat a figure in a black robe.
Wilbur sized up the unfamiliar figure, then compared Lynn's face with those of the Saint Domain experts he knew. Not one of them matched.
This was an unfamiliar Saint Domain expert, and a powerful one at that. Wilbur had only noticed him after he'd entered the palace and called out.
Wilbur might not have had much talent, but he'd lived for tens of thousands of years, just like a Heavenly God, and had even grasped a little of the Flame Law. With an offensive Lowgod Artifact made for him by a Heavenly God, his strength was close to that of a second-tier Saint Domain expert.
Unless his opponent was a Saint Domain expert at the limit, Wilbur feared no one—not even the two Popes. So although he didn't recognize Lynn, he wasn't too worried. Confident in his own strength, he demanded coldly, "Who are you, sir? How dare you trespass in my empire's palace? Are you one of the two Churches?"
"Just an ordinary man. Lynn." His expression indifferent, Lynn sat on a stone chair and leisurely poured himself a cup of tea.
"I've come to have your Zhongyuan Empire do something for me."
"Ridiculous!!" Wilbur let out an angry laugh at Lynn's words.
His aura surged, and he glared at Lynn with hostility.
"What do you take this empire for? What do you take us Saint Domain experts for? You think one sentence is enough to make us do your bidding? You must have lost your mi—"
Thud!!
Before Wilbur could finish, Lynn flipped one hand and tossed a bloody head toward him.
It was Abraham, the Pope of Light.
"..."
Wilbur caught the head, his expression shifting uncertainly.
Damn, I spoke too soon. Wilbur suddenly wished his grandfather were here.
Lynn calmly sipped his tea.
"Submit... or die."
...Zhongyuan Empire, Central Palace.
Inside the magnificent throne hall, Lynn sat on the dragon throne.
"Lord Lynn, the order has been sent. The vanguard should reach Rivas Province by tomorrow morning at the latest to search for Lord Kasa."
"Focus on Rivas Province, but don't overlook anywhere else," Lynn said.
"Yes!" Choba, the current emperor of the Zhongyuan Empire, nodded respectfully.
When Choba looked up again, Lynn had already vanished from the throne.
In a side hall, eleven Saint Domain experts from the Imperial Family, led by Wilbur, waited.
"Are these all the Saint Domain experts the empire has now?" Lynn suddenly appeared inside the hall, looking at the people before him with puzzlement.
The three great empires had all been established for at least five thousand years, even the latest-founded Roland Empire.
The Zhongyuan Empire was the oldest, with a history stretching back ten thousand years. Eleven Saint Domain experts was far too few; the number didn't match the empire's legacy at all.
Noticing Lynn's confusion, Wilbur stepped forward to explain.
"There used to be more Saint Domain experts in the empire, but... thirty-four years ago, when my grandfather, the Heavenly God, went to the Supreme God Realm, quite a few of them decided to venture there too and vie for supremacy in the God Realm."
"It was much the same with the other two empires. All told, nearly a hundred Saint Domain experts left." Wilbur sounded wistful. He glanced at Lynn, his expression guarded.
If the empire's Saint Domain experts hadn't left in such numbers for the Supreme God Realm, how would the two Churches have dared to act so brazenly? And how would this unfamiliar Saint Domain expert have dared to storm the palace?
A few decades ago, the Zhongyuan Empire alone had as many as fifty Saint Domain experts.
There had been several second-tier experts among them. Together, they had feared no one, not even a Saint Domain expert at the limit.
If Lynn had attacked back then, he wouldn't even have made it to the palace gates. He would have been stopped outside the imperial capital.
"...Maybe I should have gone to the Supreme God Realm with my grandfather back then."
Three Lowgods leading a hundred Saint Domain experts to vie for supremacy in the Supreme God Realm???
Was this even Chinese? Lynn found the words coming out of Wilbur's mouth utterly unfamiliar.
"Are you all that brave? Saint Domain experts actually dare to go to the Supreme God Realm?" Lynn's tone was hard to read.
Wilbur was taken aback, then replied as if it were obvious, "Isn't it perfectly normal for Saint Domain experts to go to the Supreme God Realm?"
"Over the past ten thousand years, only the three divine beings went to the Supreme God Realm in their divine forms. Everyone else who went was a Saint Domain expert."
"Quite a few went and came back, too. As far as I know, a Saint Domain Black Dragon went to the Supreme God Realm a thousand years ago and returned as a Lowgod after just forty or fifty years!"
What! Saint Domain experts could go to the Supreme God Realm and come back a few decades later—and that was normal?
Listening to Wilbur, Lynn furrowed his brow.
Could I have crossed over during the dawn of creation? Could Saint Domain experts survive in the God Realm and travel back and forth at will?
But that didn't make sense. If this really were the dawn of creation, there shouldn't be any Chief Gods—or Plane Guardians sent by Chief Gods.
The Church of Light and the Church of Darkness shouldn't exist either.
Something's wrong. Nine times out of ten, someone's behind this.
Lynn remained on guard, but didn't let it show.
"The priority is still finding Kasa. Let me know as soon as you hear anything."
"Hyah! Hyah!"
While Lynn was storming the Zhongyuan Empire, a large procession dressed in black armor and black robes galloped along a desolate road outside Rivas Province.
In a jolting carriage at the rear of the procession, Kasa lay with his hands and feet shackled and Anti-Magic Stone wrapped around him. He groggily opened his eyes.
"Where am I?"
Kasa's memories still ended with the moment before he'd passed out. He'd fled Qingli City with his cousin, and as they passed a mountain range, everything had suddenly gone black. Then he'd lost consciousness.
"Right, bro!" Kasa hurriedly looked around.
He spotted his cousin beside him, still unconscious.
"Wake up! Wake up!"
Kasa kicked his cousin until he finally came around.
Only then did Kasa look around.
"Looks like those two are awake."
Noticing movement in the carriage, the black-clad soldier driving it spoke to the guard beside him.
The soldier lifted the curtain with his spear and glanced coldly at Kasa and his cousin.
"Behave yourselves, or... you'll end up like that one."
The soldier pointed to the front of the procession, where a gaunt corpse was hoisted on a spear.
It was a horrifying sight. The body had no skin, only dark brown flesh. Countless wounds covered it, its flesh torn open. It was barely recognizable as a human corpse.
"Ugh..."
Even though he'd already seen the horrors of war, Kasa couldn't stop himself from vomiting when he saw the corpse.
"Who are you? Where are you taking us?" Kasa's cousin looked pale too, but unlike Kasa, he managed to keep his composure.
"Shut up!" The black-clad soldier was a man of few words. Without hesitation, he swung his spear and slammed it into Kasa's cousin.
"Ah!"
Before you continue