Nightmare’s Call

“The Paragon of Destiny is the convergence of the essence of everything, the embodiment of the world, the manifestation of powers.”

At the Tower of Desires, the Moon Basin.

The six pure-white leaves that looked like six little wings slowly opened on the massive crystal blue tower. Under the blue tower, the red-haired old man looked up, walking stick in hand, gazing at the golden cage that lit up on top of the blue tower. Inside the not so big cage was the Prophecy Crystal, the Sacred Vessel of Destiny that illuminated the fate of this world.

“Some holy ones call this Paragon the Sacred Vessel,” the old man slowly said. “The Sacred Vessel is the marrow of the world. It will only appear during the doomsday catastrophe and choose its trustee.”

A group of men and women dressed in fine costumes stood quietly behind the old man. Standing in front of them was a man and a woman, whose heights were in stark contrast to one another. The tall one was a male leader from the Moon Basin, Yuanxing. The short one was a female leader from the Moon Basin, Mayuko.

“Great Sage, what revelation have you seen again?” Mayuko stood at only 1.3 meters, but her words always carried the most weight among the people at the scene—she was even more influential than Yuanxing. Her stature came from her strength. She was the most powerful Astral Warrior, the top dog in the Moon Basin, unmatched by others.

The Great Sage sighed, turned around, and looked at the warriors he had gathered before him.

“I have seen catastrophe and hope, the coming of the Sacred Vessel, the Paragon of Destiny. The last hope is waking up, and it is the turning point of the fate of the world.”

“What should we do, then? Keep collecting the Paragons of Destiny?” the male leader, Yuanxing asked in a low voice. “Please guide us.”

The Great Sage shook his head from side to side.

“Find the trustees of the Sacred Vessel, assist and protect them, so they could grow rapidly. The evil and darkness will not be happy to see them grow. As to how to find them; when darkness comes, the trustees of the Sacred Vessel of Destiny will stick out.”

Yuanxing’s face looked solemn. “Understood.”

“Now, go to the observation towers. Darkness is arriving, make preparation for the assault,” the Great Sage instructed.

“Aye!” everyone responded in unison.

…

Lin Sheng left the dark spirit tunnel and returned to the isolation room.

The fourth dark spirit cave was practically a wasteland, completely a sterile world. The Dark Lord had killed every intelligent being in there. Fortunately, dark spirit caves had one obvious characteristic: new dark spirits would automatically grow in the caves. It was not a long process. Usually, it took just a few days, and newborn dark spirits would appear. Dark spirits would devour each other, evolved into great dark spirits, Darkspirit Generals, and even Darkspirit Commanders.

This would happen naturally in the dark spirit caves if Lin Sheng did not intervene. But he had stepped in, turning the fourth dark spirit cave into his support base where he could nurture his subordinates. When a massive amount of dark spirits were born, Lin Sheng would send dark spirits to brainwash and educate them. The aim was to instill the belief that Lin Sheng was the king of dark spirits in their minds.

After sorting out all these, Lin Sheng left the cave and was back to Henricqal in the real world. After having a short rest in the underground research center, he needed to work on those things that were waiting for his attention, and read the intel reports. Browsing the intel reports was how he could quickly get a grasp of the situation in the world.

“The Sevenlocks Tower, as the representative of the dark forces, has started on a massive sacrificial altar based on the Three-phased Dark Ritual. They have completed the first one. Once they finished the remaining two, they would be able to establish a large passage to the Ashen World, from where a more powerful existence will come.”

Lin Sheng sat before his computer, staring at the message with his brows knitted together. He could not make much sense of the Sevenlocks Tower. This most powerful dark group might have enmity with him, but all along, he found no trouble dealing with them. Instead, it was the Sevenlocks Tower that was beaten several times.

“If the Sevenlocks Tower is only as good as they look, then there is nothing to worry about them. However, as the most powerful symbol of the dark forces, it is impossible that there are so few Palatinates in the Sevenlocks Tower. If they really want a showdown with me, I may not be able to withstand their assault even with the current situation in Henricqal.” Lin Sheng thought to himself.

“Latest update: Mi Yue, the leader of the Sevenlocks Tower, has cut off the relationship with the three mysterious realms. His whereabouts were now unknown. Probably he was working on the Three-phased Dark Ritual.

“Defense cities have formed in Miga. There are eleven of them now. But Henricqal is not one of them.

“Xylond has also built the same defensive city system. The Sanctum has played a central role in this.

“Redwin has completely pulled out from Xilin and was back to where they came from. Probably they had found a safe maritime route. It is liberation for Xilin, but the Blacktide problem is going to get worse.

“The big five clans of Olro have built their defensive cities and joined forces to set up a Dawn Frontline.” 

He browsed through all the intel coming in from different parts of the world and got a good grasp of the latest situation of the world. What happened in Xilin was within his expectations. Since the Blacktide outbreak, Redwin already had a problem looking after its own backyard. They could not afford to divert more resources in invading Xilin. But what surprised Lin Sheng was that Redwin had found a way to retreat safely to their home base.

“It seems the three mysterious realms still have something unique up their sleeves. They must not be underestimated.”

After finishing on the external information, Lin Sheng turned its eyes to the internal intel of Henricqal.

As people from other places were moving into Henricqal, the population had grown from 1.7 million to 1.9 million, and the size of the city had expanded by one third. The influx of immigrants was filling up the abandoned houses. When there were people, there were needs. And when there were needs, there were markets and transactions. Henricqal had become prosperous again. New industries sprung up like mushrooms after the rain in a very short time. Some industries had caught Lin Sheng’s attention—messengers and security companies, for example, entirely comprised of the Transcendents.

Lin Sheng drafted his instructions for the Sanctum management to compile statistics of the security companies, and at the same time, he asked them to propose laws and regulations on emerging industries. So that when there was a dispute or turmoil, everyone would follow the laws.

The key to order was justice. And in a civilized society, justice had to depend on the judicial system. Lin Sheng needed to build a large and peaceful settlement. Only such a settlement could attract more people. Only with more people could he accumulate more holy power.

“The just upgraded Great Holy Power Font should be reaching its maximum capacity soon. It’s time for another upgrade,” he told himself.

After finishing reading all the intel reports and replying to all the applications, he got to his feet and left the research center.