The last Selection Tournament had been three years ago.
It had also been the last one to date, suspended ever since the Patient Association's invasion.
Back then, Chang Ji, the chief representative of the Vacuum Theocracy, had not actually been a member of the Vacuum Theocracy's royal family.
Yet a year ago, Chang Ji had undergone a Plague Extermination Art [Paternity Test] jointly administered by the Vacuum Theocracy and the Religious Inquisition, which confirmed that he was a member of the Vacuum Theocracy's royal family, ranked twenty-first in succession.
Over the past year, Chang Ji had relied on his own abilities and the royal family's resources to smoothly advance into the ranks of the Dragon Among Men. He had become the only Human Dragon-level Plague Exterminator among the frail younger generation of the Vacuum royal family, leaving virtually no suspense over the competition for the next emperor.
Inside the carriage.
Chang Ji looked at his right hand.
He closed his eyes.
He thought of the scene from ten years ago, when his friend, a deformed child, had died during illnessification.
That friend had claimed to be an abandoned prince of the Vacuum Theocracy, cast aside because of his congenital deformity.
To save his friend, Chang Ji had lost his own right hand. By a twist of fate, he had also inherited his friend's right hand.
He had never expected that friend to truly have been a prince of the Theocracy.
"The Theocracy's royal family has long since become a vassal of the Religious Inquisition. Whether it is the king or the various princes, they are all the same..."
Chang Ji spoke calmly. "I heard that when the Crimson Family learned their opponent in the Millennial Blood War was the Vacuum Theocracy, every one of them was overjoyed—apparently, they think they