"Your Highness, Baba is talking again, and quite loudly this time! You should come and see what she has to say!" An attendant suddenly rushed inside Prince Bai's office to announce the irregular occurrence.
No, that was wrong, he wasn't Prince Bai anymore...He was now Emperor Bai of the Han Dynasty, the sole surviving Rightful Heir to the Jade throne, and he needed to properly wrap his mind around that entire notion.
With the help of the attendant, he immediately began pushing his wooden wheelchair in the direction of Baba's room, and he could already hear her screaming through the wooden walls.
Baba Ranga was a weird old blind lady who apparently had “real” prophetic powers that Bai had discovered by mere accident a few years ago, and so far none of her visions had proven to be wrong, even though they still could be intentionally circumvented, so the futures that she saw were not always set in stone.
She was usually mute during her daily life, yet whenever a vision came to her, she always suddenly started talking quite a lot, and she immediately kept trying to depict whatever she had “seen” to everybody around her, even though sometimes she made very little sense. As a result, she now had a few Scribe-Guardians who tended to all of her needs around the clock and who also had been tasked with the duty of writing down any and all gibberish that came out of her mouth.
Today, on the other hand, Baba had been screaming weird stuff over and over again while clutching her head ever since the early hours of the morning, a display that had left all of her attendants completely baffled.
As Bai also entered the room, Baba Ranga suddenly jumped out of her bed, ran right up to him, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and then gazed at him with her white blind eyes, almost like she was peering right into his soul.
"I SEE THE DARKENED SKY AS IT RAINS HELLFIRE!
"THE FLAMES COME TO CONSUME THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD!
"ALL BECOMES ASH AND RUIN!
"THE GIANT CLAY MAN DANCES WITH THE FIRE ITSELF!
"THE EMPRESS PERFORMS THE DANCE OF DEATH UNDER THE MOONLIGHT TOGETHER WITH THE BLOOD-GOD!
"THE HEART OF THE MOTHER SHATTERS INTO A MILLION PIECES!
"THEY ARE COMING! THE SHATTERED FRAGMENTS OF THE MOTHER'S HEART!
"THEY ARE COMING FROM THE SKY, WREATH IN FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, AND THEY ALL BRING TOGETHER WITH THEM THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!
"EVEN THE GODS SHOULD TREMBLE, AS NOBODY IS GOING TO BE SPARED FROM THEIR WRATH!
"AAARGH! THE HORRORS! WAAARGHLBLARGHL!" *Puke*Pass out*
After witnessing that particular outburst from Baba Ranga by himself, Bai suddenly became even more worried about the state of the Three Empires, because if Baba's words were to be believed, then some sort of a world-shattering apocalyptic event was about to happen in the nearby future.
He had no idea who the giant Clay-Man or The Empress dancing under the Moonlight could be, but he most certainly knew who the “Fire Itself” entity was, and also probably who the “Blood-God” could be as well.
Clay-Man was such a weird description though, as it could point out towards any powerful Earth Magic practitioner, or towards someone who had been specifically “molded like clay” for a specific purpose. Heck, it could even be an actual giant clay golem for all Bai knew. Baba’s visions were all weird like that, as they always left room for some interpretation. Yet one thing was certain, Clay-Man did not like the “Fire Itself” entity, and both would come to clash, which currently suited Prince Bai just fine. He knew that someone needed to put Ifritt back into his place sooner or later, as that creature was one of the most dangerous beings that had ever walked upon the face of the world.
On the other hand, “Empress” was usually a title that was usually only given to the “official” first wife of the Emperor and would belong only to the Queen-Mother, but the way Baba Ranga had talked about that particular person, it had not seemed to be the case.
Yet he could not think of any other person that could fit that particular description, as he was currently celibate, Hongmu from the Qin most definitely did not have any solid female partner that he had settled upon, even though he had hundreds of floozies which usually chased after him, and the Mings were right out of the question from the start, since their remaining Child-Emperor was only 4 years old.
And “Empress” was too broad of a term to consider as an actual description. Heck, there was even a Heroic Maiden out there named the “Empress of Songs”, but she had retired from her adventuring days a few years back. Still, he could not discount her as a likely suspect, so he had added her to the list of persons that needed to be watched, and put some of his BC’s on the job.
Because as meek and unassuming Prince Bai always seemed to be during his daily life as he kept playing the role of the “poor crippled Prince” and now of the “Confused and easy-to-manipulate unforeseen Emperor”, he was unexpectedly fierce when it came to dealing with the currents of the shadowy Underworld that made up the Sects and the Cults which was his true and real “playground”.
When Bai had first come into this world, those many weird voices who had spoken to him, who he now assumed had been some sort of trapped Ancient Gods, had indeed warned him that not everything is as it seems inside of this world, but he had ignored them at that particular point in time and had chosen to act just like every other spoiled Isekai Protagonist by going on a power-trip when he had discovered that this world had actual magic.
When he had woken up next, it had been inside the body of the youngest Prince of the Han Dynasty, a 10-year-old boy who had taken a tumble off a tree, had fallen on his head, and had been stuck in a coma for the last 3 days.
Apparently, the poor soul who had been the “previous” owner of this particular body before Bai had arrived in this world had already “vacated the premises”, leaving only an empty shell that had been just ripe for the taking.
All of the previous soul's memories had also been contained within a single “package” somewhere in a corner of his mind that he could easily access at will, but he still consciously knew that all of those memories were not his own.
Yet being reborn into a new world was every Earth Nerd's wet dream, so he had sworn to himself that he would make the best of this second chance. Therefore, after he had woken up and had healed back up to full health, he had fully embraced his new life as the Han Princeling.
After that, he had begun to thoroughly hit the books to increase his knowledge database about this new world and had also thoroughly begun training his new body in combat techniques extensively. As a result of his hard work, he had suddenly found himself being hailed as a prodigy of magic and combat, which had then caused him to become one of the most cherished Princes among his Brothers at the Imperial Court, at least before the accident which had claimed his legs had come about.
Unfortunately, at about 15 years of age, as he had become drunk on the constant praises of his teachers and the extensive [Skills] which he now seemed to possess, he had gone on a power-trip and had decided to go on a wild hunt for Monsters near one of the Qi infested Danger Zones, to prove once and for all in the eyes of the family how high his combat prowess and leadership ability truly was, especially since he had been constantly compared to his Elder Brothers ever since he had taken over the body of the 10-year-old Han Princeling after being transmigrated over here.
The entire Monster Hunt had turned out to be quite a resounding success, with zero casualties and barely a few wounded, with the Prince's own contributions during the fights being quite crucial for taking down the over-leveled and incredibly strong Monsters, at least until the Princeling had discharged one of his spells at what he had assumed was simply a giant rock who had instead proven to be the naked camouflaged body of one of the local humanoid tribesmen, a giant who had turned out to be some sort of a hybrid between an ogre and a forest troll and who had also grown, as you might imagine, quite displeased at being attacked with a magical fireball while taking a dump.
The excruciating pain which had followed still burned quite vividly inside of Bai's memory even to this day, as the Trogre or the Ogroll (he still wasn't sure of the actual denomination for that half-breed) had proceeded to crack every bone in his body including his spine by smashing him into the ground like a ragged doll.
Even though the rest of his Monster Hunting party had intervened quite rapidly and had pried him away from the hands of the angry tribesman before it had gained the chance to kill him, the damage to his spinal nerves had already been done, and the Princeling had suddenly found himself unable to feel the lower part of his entire body below the waist anymore.
The sudden accident had taken the entire Imperial Court by surprise, and his Mother the Queen had even spared no expenses in trying to find a cure for his ailment, but even the few Immortal Doctors who had come to take a look at him had all said the same thing, that his spinal nerves had been completely severed above the coccyx bone, and there was no way that anybody would be able to repair such heavy damage short of a miracle from the Earthmother, or the procurement of an ancient Regeneration Pill, which was rarer than a Qilin’s Horn or an Ancient Phoenix's Feather.
Even though both his intellect and talent for magic were still there, most of the Court had slowly but surely begun to think of him as a wastrel, and many of his former friends and comrades had also suddenly started drifting away from him.
The only beacon of joy in his life who had held him together throughout the entire period when he had become thoroughly depressed and had even contemplated taking his own life had been his little half-sister, who had absolutely refused to give up on him and had kept on trying to find a cure for his ailment even while everybody else, even the Queen herself, had ceased to have any sort of hopes for him.
Since he was generally a smart fellow and had realized that his combat ability had basically been reduced to zero, he had instead switched his focus on the other aspects of rulership like provincial economics and troop combat tactics, then had also begun delving deeper and deeper into to the dark secrets of the Noble Houses who were behind the politics that allowed the entire Court to function.
Oh, and how many secrets were there available to be found once he had started digging! In retrospect, there wasn't even a single person out there around the entire Court that could be considered “innocent” anymore, except maybe for his own little sister, as everybody else had tainted their own hands with a certain amount of blood when they had been climbing their ascension paths of power by stepping over the pile of corpses, as it were.
The dirty and deviant behaviors of the Nobles had initially disgusted the young Princeling when he had found out about them, and he had sworn to the Gods above and below that he would never let any of those Noble fuckers lay even one of their hands on a single hair of his little sister's body, but after a while, he had also realized that being in the possession of such a large array of “dirty” secrets was also a type of “power” in-it-of-itself and quite a dangerous one at that.
While everybody at Court still considered him a wastrel, he had slowly and carefully begun to build in secret his own private information network composed of people from all the walks of life, starting from the most basic peasants, beggars or orphans, to even on some of the household retainers that belonged to some of the Nobles, persons who were all quite discontent at the way things were currently progressing around the Empire.
He had also discovered slowly but steadily from observing all of the “Heroes” who ran rampant all across the globe that all of the “magic” which occurred inside of this world wasn't that “magical” after all, but rather it was a byproduct of a highly advanced level of technology employed by a world-dominating Artificial Intelligence which seemed to constantly be playing favorites for only a particular handful of people.
Those people he had labeled as “Pay2Win” accounts and the whole world seemed to dance according to their very whims. While a bunch of those “Players” were indeed outright Heroic and helped all of the inhabitants of the planet, attitudes that Bai could truly admire, there were also a whole bunch of other “Pay2Win” accounts which were basically unrestrained walking disasters who usually caused so much suffering for the entire mapamond, be it through their stupid ignorance of the effects of their unbalanced powers, or outright intentional Malice, that he could only wish for their immediate demise.
By observing over a longer period of time a bunch of people who he suspected were “Players”, he had pretty much figured out the rules of the entire “game”, and had also become able to approximate how strong each person's “plot armor” seemed to be at every given moment of their “narratives”, as only a “Player” was seemingly able to kill another “Player” without any penalties from the System which governed the whole world, while any and all other efforts that came from the inhabitants of this world seemed to get wasted if they ever tried to do something against a “Player” because the System seemed to adjust the threads of “Fate” to output some incredibly favorable outcomes for the “Players” as long as another “Player” wasn’t nearby, or involved in the narrative as a counter-effect to the “plot armor”.
Tall tales about Heroes breaking away from a siege of 100,000 people with only a handful of companions, or soloing an Ancient Dragon to rescue a helpless maiden were rather abundant inside of the Imperial Library which he often visited, and were obviously such outlandish feats that no person could have ever been able to perform them by themselves unless they had the biased favor of the System.
And such a cruel Overlord of Narratives the System seemed to be at all times! All of the “Players” seemed to receive all of the bonuses, and none of the drawbacks! And that made Bai unsure if he could even count himself as a “Player”, since all of his life's story had only been a series of ups and downs, especially after he had lost his legs. He had been ground down into the dust face down over and over again, only to pick himself back up by sheer willpower, and because of the love that he held for his little sister who he had sworn to protect.
In some sort of a twisted way, she had become the sole reason for his continued existence. As long as she was fine, anything could be allowed to happen to him. But to let the cruel world governed by the System use her as a pawn in someone else’s narrative? He would never allow that, so he had sworn that he would do something about this whole shitty little planet!
Therefore, in the darkness and between the poisoned daggers of the Underworld, a dark entity had been born. At first, he had manifested himself as only a series of letters, informing certain people of certain facts that they shouldn’t have known about. That had resulted in a surprising amount of chaos which even the young Princeling at that time had not predicted.
A series of assassinations and some Imperial Court-Trials later, a series of Noble houses had suddenly been completely wiped off the map. And as a bonus cherry-on-the-cake, the Emperor had also seen it fit to assign the territories that had previously belonged to the demolished Noble houses under Bai's authority, as he had found himself assigned as the regional Magistrate for those currently-leaderless provinces because of his well-know management skills, and because he kept being an eyesore around the Imperial Palace with his squeaky little wheelchair.
Suddenly separated from the “strings” that had held him firmly tied to the Imperial Court until that very moment, he had immediately moved all of his assets and intelligence network to his new provinces and had begun amassing a new force of arms that would respond only to his beckoning.
He had also realized at that certain point in time that he needed a “separate” entity for his Underworld self, and so, “The Father” had come into existence. That particular persona of his seemed to be a shadowy glib-tongued mysterious figure that had suddenly spawned within the provinces and had begun to spread messages that were borderline seditious throughout the masses.
After a few confrontations with the former Noble houses who were still stubbornly trying to get their old positions back, he had gained a decently-large following of common-born people and merchants, all who had been affected by the ongoing conflicts around the provinces and seemed to hate the old Nobles’ guts profoundly.
Rescuing peasants and orphans had become a decently common occurrence during that certain period, with those people always swearing a vow of fealty and pledging their own lives to their “Savior”, and there was nothing more powerful-of-a-bond than one who had been created out of sincere feelings.
The “Saviour” image of The Father was all fine and dandy, and he had been rejoicing at the “good work” that he had been achieving within his provinces, but that had only been the first step of his plan.
After he had “screened out” from the masses a few “chosen ones”, he had suddenly called a meeting of all of those specific followers and had given them the option to find out the “truth” of the world or to back out and leave. Of course, none of them had backed out, but unknown to them, that had been a foregone conclusion even before they had even stepped inside of the building.
And then, he had told them everything. Well, almost everything. The best way to manipulate people wasn’t to lie, but rather to say half-truths, or truths that could be interpreted, and he had done exactly that.
And so, among the unbelieving gasps of his followers, the foundations of what later would become the Blood Cult had come into being. At first, nothing major had changed, except for the meetings which had seemed to occur more and more often and had become increasingly more organized. The people within the “Brotherhood of Blood”, as they had begun calling themselves back then because they had all spilled their own “blood” for the many righteous causes, had continued to assist the oppressed common-born and to expand their own powerbase.
And just because of that, many opportunities had suddenly arisen. Secrets long forgotten to the world had suddenly been found in some poor folk’s rickety basement, or an ancient map that pointed to a Cultivator’s tomb had been found among the pickle jars of somebody else, and many other weird items like that just simply kept popping up and were being “donated” to the Brotherhood by the rescued volunteers, but it was something to be expected when a bunch of people began working together with a purpose.
A major turning point had also been the discovery of an ancient Tome of Forbidden Blood Magic, who half of the “Inner Council” that represented the “Brotherhood of Blood” saw as a dangerous thing to dabble into, and the other half saw it as “destiny” falling right into their hands, given their already established name.
The main advantage of the “Blood” type of magic was that it used the Hp and Bodily Integrity of the caster to “fuel” the magic instead of Qi, which basically allowed even the unawakened to cast certain types of magics while damaging themselves in the process, but also giving them a rather unfair advantage over any other Qi-less or Magic-less types of targets, which composed the majority of the population.
The tipping vote in the debate had come from The Founding Father himself, who explained to everybody that it is not the tools who are inherently evil, but rather the people who wield them, and swore to everybody that he would never let The Brotherhood fall into corruption because of that.
Of course, Bai had been talking out of his ass, because as soon as he had gotten his hands on that Tome of Blood Magic, he had also found the solution to his crippling problem of the missing legs. Sacrificial magic was depicted within the Tome which could allow for a person to restore their whole body to a pristine condition, removing any and all ailments or debilitating conditions like his own, for the price of somebody else's life.
So of course, after a couple of “test runs” where a bunch of Noble-scion-douchebags got “righteously” sacrificed and the people that they had previously crippled for life had been restored to a fully-functioning body, Bai had performed the ritual for himself.
As he had been staring at the bloodied corpses of the Noble sacrificial victims who had been used to fuel his ritual while standing up on his newfound two legs, he had suddenly realized that he had also been having problems with feeling any sorts of strong emotions outside of the strange obsessive love for his younger sister until this very moment, which he immediately concluded had been some sort of traumatic brain damage that he had also obtained during his Trogre bashing event. The fixation with his younger sister wasn't even some sort of a twisted form of lust, as his general sexual desires had gone out the window together with the loss of his lower half, but it had obviously been over the top. Still, he couldn’t help but still feel extremely attached to her innocence and naivety, and that wasn’t something that felt “wrong” in any way.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Therefore, after getting this newly-healed clearer mind, he had also realized that he had been slipping down a path of no-return, so he had again sworn to himself to protect her from all of the Evils of the world, including himself, no matter what costs he had to pay.
The new introduction of the Blood Magic among the Brotherhood’s members had immediately shifted the balance of power within the small provinces that he ruled, as all of the “regular” Underworld gangs had suddenly found themselves swiftly exterminated by his “Blood Boys” hit-squads, and all of the “key” positions in the “darkness” had suddenly shifted to his underlings. As a result, he now had all of the five provinces dancing right into the palm of his hand, but he did not simply stop right there.
No, now that the Brotherhood of Blood had a base of power and places they could retreat to, it was time to expand. And oh boy, expand they did. All of the lurkers of the Underworld in the surrounding provinces had suddenly found themselves under a constant assault from an unknown and mysterious new power that seemed just hell-bent on exterminating all of them.
The new boogeymen did not even leave any corpses behind, but blood seemed to be found everywhere where a shadowy conflict had occurred. The authorities had also become also absolutely baffled about the disappearances, but it hadn’t been a surprise to anyone that they had proven to be incompetent once again.
The voices of the commoners on the street had somewhat become split into two factions, with many people complaining about the constant gang fights, but many others congratulating the shadowy forces for getting rid of all the thieves, ruffians, and assassins that usually plagued the Han Empire. So as a result, sometimes some of those more vocal defenders of the newly-risen shadowy force “accidentally” found a “letter” of invite to a closed-off meeting, where they usually found themselves “conscripted” into the Brotherhood and then given a purpose in life.
Because in truth, everything that people ever seemed to crave in their lives was to have a purpose, to feel that their everyday existence was significant in some way even if it was painful, and the secretive organization of the Brotherhood offered them exactly that. The “initiated” members within the Brotherhood who had passed beyond all of the induction tests all thought about themselves that they truly were “the special chosen ones”, privy to information that could shake the convictions of any other “mere mortal”, and it worked wonders.
Actually, it seemed to work TOO well, because “The Founding Father” had suddenly been upgraded from a mere leadership figure to an outright saintly “Prophet” that would “lead his people” onto the right path, and it was obvious that the Brotherhood was quickly devolving away from an association of people based on interest towards a borderline Cult and Religious organization, as the level of fanaticism kept increasing.
But that did not bother Bai even a little bit, because in the end, they were all just a bunch of tools at his disposal, even if he had to act like some sort of a “Prophet” to get them to function properly. After the whole Han Empire’s Underworld had come under his jurisdiction, he had suddenly found himself at a crossroads once again, as he had begun pondering whether he should remain satisfied with only ruling the Han Empire, where he had everything under control, or to continue on expanding his “Blood Cult” operations into the other Empires as well?
As he was hesitating, the answer to that question had come strolling-in right by itself, as he had suddenly found out that his little sister had been involved in a minor incident with another Foreign Noble Dignitary who had come for some economic negotiations, and she had gotten hurt in the small scuffle which had resulted. Of course, it had been only a minor bruise, as the Princess had tried to defend a commoner from the wrath of the Foreign Dignitary and had gotten hit instead, but it had been enough to trigger Bai severely.
Of course, nothing had happened to the Dignitary while he had remained within the Han’s Empire borders, but once he had gone back where he had come from and had “turned in” his negotiation papers, he had become “available” for the vengeance which Bai had planned for him. As the Noble had been heading back towards his own province within the Ming Empire after having successfully performed his job, the Foreign Dignitary had “suddenly” found himself assaulted by “highway robbers”, and then skinned alive and left hanging upside-down in the middle of the road for every passer-by to observe.
After that particular event, small enclaves of the Blood Cult had suddenly started emerging everywhere within both the Ming and the Qin Empires, as more and more people dissatisfied with the current rulership seemingly got recruited and “converted” to the “truth”.
Of course, the Cult had already grown too big for Bai to manage all by himself a long time ago, so he only did some sporadic appearances as “The Founding Father” every now and then to give rousing speeches that kept the masses “faithful”, but to also increase his own “mysteriousness”, as nobody really knew who The Father’s real identity was, or what he was doing while he wasn’t present within the Brotherhood.
The running of the daily operations had been left into the hands of some of his most trusted underlings, those who had been together with him from almost day one and were loyal to a fault, since most of them had been just destitute peasants or orphans who had been rescued by Bai when they had first met and they owed their very lives to him, but they had also become very skilled in the management of “personnel” and “unforeseen troubles” as they had grown through the experiences they had gained while facing against the entire Han’s Empire Underworld and were now basically Mini-Boss type of Elites from both a combat point of view, as well as that of the Skills which they possessed.
The drawbacks of basically becoming “The Kingpin” of the entire Han Empire had unfortunately come in the form of clashes against some real Cultivators, who had become rather displeased by the new uppity newcomer who now seemed to think that he could control the entire Underworld.
The problem was that in the end, no matter how well-leveled and powerful his “Blood Boys” shock-troops had become, they were still made-up mostly from mere mortals, so they paled in comparison to any other awakened and well-trained Cultivators. Sure, he had the advantage in numbers, but his generally-available troops were of “poor quality” if he were to compare himself with the Sects that he was currently clashing against.
The most amiable of all of the Sects had actually proven to be the “Black Hand” Big Sect, who kept its main headquarters within the Han Empire around the Bloodspring Mountains and was one of the “Big Nine” most powerful Sects within all three Empires. Usually, they specialized in assassinations, spying, and infiltration jobs, but those attacks or sabotages were usually targeted only against other Cultivators or Sects, not against the “common rabble” that made up most of the “mere mortals” below.
After a swift meeting between a few shadowy figures from both sides, a pact had been made which basically stated that “If you don't bother us, then we won't bother you”. That meant that the Black Hand had become generally OK with the Brotherhood ruling the mortal’s side of the Underworld, just as long as they did not intervene in the conflicts involving Cultivators. Bai had actually been quite OK with that particular side of the arrangement, as he knew that he did not have the strength to oppose any of the Big Sects if it came down to an actual full-blown conflict.
But the other “obstacle” that Bai had hit his head against had come in the form of the Demonic Sects which ruled the “other part” of the Cultivator’s Underworld besides the Black Hand, and they had turned out to be quite a pain in the ass to deal with, because most of them were outright insane, even if they were quite powerful in their own right.
A bunch of unfortunate altercations had occurred between the “retrieval” teams of the Blood Brotherhood and certain teams from the Demonic Sects when it had come down to the procurement of certain “forbidden” objects of power, resulting in quite a few unfortunate casualties even among the “old” followers who had been together with Bai ever since the beginning, so seeing that such a conflict was getting him nowhere, Bai had begun petitioning the Demonic Sects for open negotiations and had finally found an “entry” with one of the Sects when Master Fury Bone had finally agreed to meet up with him.
The Sect Master of the Moon-Devouring Demonic Sect had turned out to be the most level-headed out of all of the Demonic Cultists, even though Bai was sure that the man wasn’t right in the head when it came to certain issues. In a similar fashion, Fury Bone had also laughed his ass-off when Bai had revealed the “truth” of the world to the Demonic Cultist, as the man had simply told Bai that each person had their own “truths”, and that everybody should pursue those certain “truths” to their finalities. He also told Bai that all of the other Demonic Sects and Cults also had their own ideologies and purposes and that it would be almost impossible to change their minds about anything. After that, he had basically handed Bai a list of demands from the other organizations, which the Prince had swiftly browsed through.
After reading the whole proposal, Bai had decided to make some concessions and give the Demonic Sects their own space, but in a similar fashion, the Demoniacs had also agreed to “stay off his turf and avoid stepping on his toes”, as any fights between the Cults and the Sects would benefit nobody. Some of the demands written down on the list were things that Bai could ignore or turn a blind eye to, so a certain level of neutrality had been established among the shadowy organizations which usually plagued the Underworld of the Han Empire as a result.
Unfortunately, the same thing could not be said about the Demonic Sects who had made their homes in the other Empires, as those had turned out to be even more insane and reticent than the Sects from the Han Empire. A surprising change in the conflicts between his Blood Cult’s “external branches” and the Demonic Sects had occurred when a message had arrived from the fifth Prince of the Qin dynasty himself, addressed specifically to The Founding Father, a letter which basically proposed an alliance of convenience between the two forces, as they would deal with the annoying Demonic Cultists within the Qin Empire by taking out certain priority targets, then splitting the profits.
Hongmu Qin had written that he would provide his own “special forces” and if the Blood Brotherhood would also send their best men as well, then they would subsequently try to put a swift end to any-and-all opposition from the Qin's Demonic Sects, even if that meant taking out some of the more stubborn, old, and powerful Cultivators who were usually the pillars that propped up the Demonic Sects in the first place.
Much to the surprise of Bai, Hongmu had turned out to be quite a highly efficient but insidious person, an extremely smart troop commander who was quite good at foresight and who had managed to lead the joint attack groups towards some astounding successes that nobody could have ever predicted, rocking the entire Underworld of the Qin Empire, as some of the “Old Immortals” had suddenly found themselves poisoned, blown up into pieces, or simply brutally murdered when at their weakest, like when taking a dump.
Of course, Hongmu had immediately capitalized on the disappearance of those old goats and had basically taken over all of the organizations that had been left behind, including some of the Demonic Sects. Other cumbersome organizations had simply been torn into pieces, and then the “spoils” had been divided, or some Sects had even been outright wiped-out from the map when the Demoniacs had been too stubborn and intolerable that neither Bai nor Hongmu had been able to put up with their shit anymore.
As a result of those series of victories, the Blood Cult had also been given free rein by Hongmu to recruit even more people within the Qin Empire and had even “directed” the ire of the Cult towards some of his Noble rival Houses, as the Brotherhood still perceived itself as somewhat of a “righteous” Cult who existed to “save the world” from itself, no matter what sacrifices had to be made.
Once the Qin’s Empire Underworld had been “cleaned up” of the undesirables and a lot of the power had been shifted into the hands of Hongmu or the Blood Cult, both had switched their attention towards the Ming Empire, which had basically become “ripe for the taking”.
Just as they had done within the Qin Empire, the two forces had then decided to join up, until a “surprising” third party had also volunteered its own assistance, in the form of the Moon Devouring Sect plus a few other smart-enough Demonic Sects who had all smelled the blood in the water, and now suddenly wanted a piece of the cake as well. Since the attacks would be directed towards the Ming Empire's territories, none of the parties had anything to quarrel about, so they had simply decided to split any gains evenly.
With that certain “Unholy Alliance” being set up, all three forces had joined up and they had swiftly destroyed all of the leadership belonging to the Ming’s Empire Demonic Sects, then had taken over all of the assets and organizations that were still standing after all of the fighting had died down.
The Moon-Devouring Sect was then given certain territories where it would be able to expand its base of operations, the Blood Cult was given free rein to “recruit” even more people to their own “cause and truth” once again, and Hongmu had “confiscated” all of the Underground's smuggling routes and illegal operations as his own “spoils of war”.
By the end of the “Demonic Sects War”, only about five major Demonic Sects were still standing, with the Blood Cult also getting “labeled” as one of those Sects because of all of the conflicts that they had brought across the Empires, their terrifying use of blood-spells, their dubious morals when it came to using human sacrifices, and their generally secretive nature.
Sadly, that bout of “peace” lasted for only about two years until rumors that the Hero of the Sun had suddenly died together with Sect Master Fury Bone had started spreading, and that the assets of the Moon-Devouring Sect had suddenly become “ripe for the taking”. A second wave of Underworld conflicts had immediately broken out, but this time around Hongmu did not seem to be willing to make any sorts of concessions, and it looked like he had suddenly become starved for resources for whatever strange reason.
Bai had even expressed a strong disapproval against the other young Princeling’s newfound methods of using the Demonic Cultists as cannon fodder and as scapegoats, because it really wasn't so easy to create a large secret following that was the size of a Sect or a Cult, as people who were angry or desperate enough to be willing to join a Cult weren’t exactly growing on trees.
Yet all of the pleas that “The Founding Father” had sent towards Hongmu had landed on deaf ears, and it was only after the recent devastations that it had become obvious why Hongmu had adopted such an attitude. Apparently, the Princeling, and the now Emperor-to-be of the Qin Empire had finished “playing nice”, and was now outright putting down on the table all of his “big game” cards with some devastatingly strong effects all across the Three Empires.
Bai had also realized that he had also escaped from the jaws of death by a hair’s breadth because of his “cripple” status which he had still maintained publicly, as he had fortunately been “abandoned” during the entire evacuation of the Imperial family due to the Ancient Evil alarm, as everybody had forgotten about him and his five little provinces back then, which had, in turn, allowed him to survive past the entire blast-event together with his little sister and then become the first person in-line for the Emperor’s Throne from the Han Empire.
On the other hand, it also meant that he was now the target of the ire for more than half of all existing Noble Houses who still had any legitimate claim to the Throne after the death of the former Emperor. Becoming the actual new Emperor was something that he had not expected would occur during his entire lifetime, even though it had been one of his grander dreams, so he was now still struggling with the new position.
In fact, he would have settled for ruling only the Underworld as “The Founding Father”, but now he had become the de-facto ruler of both the “surface” world and that of the Underworld at the same time, something that had not occurred in thousands of years.
But after the latest event, where Hongmu had wrecked the entire Han Capital-City and seemed to be rather poised to take over all of the Three Empires, it seemed that the conflict had reached a point where any sort of reconciliation between the two parties had become impossible.
Fortunately, his BC’s had also managed to retrieve the extraordinary Bloodgem which had been created from the essences of every person who had died within the Han’s Empire Capital-City limits. The unholy gem could be socketed onto an item and then be worn, or it could be outright embedded straight into the flesh of the receiver, allowing for the wearer to tap into the energies of the Bloodgem and then become almost immortal for as long as any power still resided within of the gem, as the damn thing would restore even the most grievous of wounds with the Hit and Body Integrity Points that had been compressed inside of it, which amounted to an entire city's worth.
Bai had also managed to get his hands onto the Ming Empire's Emperor-to-be 4-year-old child, which had been swiftly kidnapped and then transferred-away to one of his hidden safehouses for safekeeping, and was being watched 24/7. He most definitely did not want to see Hongmu lay his hands on the Ming throne that rapidly, and the Emperor-Child could still be used as a counter-card for that particular purpose.
Yet Bai could not shake the strange feeling that he was missing something even more alarming and that he was not seeing all of the cards that were currently being played upon the table, as Baba’s vision had most certainly pointed out. Was that feeling somehow related to that Ancient Evil that had supposedly been released upon the world? Why had he not heard any news about any rampaging monster as of yet, if the Ancient Evil was seemingly free?
As he pushed his wheelchair away from Baba Ranga’s room and back into his own dormitory, he told all of his attendants that he did not want to be disturbed for any reason during the next few hours, and then latched the door.
Once he was certain that the coast was clear, he got up from his wheelchair, pulled out a book from the nearby bookcase which then caused the whole object to slide to one side with a mechanical screech and then reveal a secret exit passage that led to another darkened room at the bottom. Even to this day, he was still amazed at how easy it had been to restore his own legs after he had learned Blood Magic, while all of the other “regular” healing magics that had been cast upon him had been incapable of inducing even a single change, even those that had been cast by the so-called Cultivator Healers and Immortal Doctors.
Once he got into the darkened room at the bottom, he lit up the few oil lamps that had been left within the proximity, then sat down to face himself in the mirror of a lady’s make-up dresser. Pulling up from the drawers a pre-existing black mask that had a couple of terrifyingly looking ruby-colored eye sockets, he then placed the object on top of his face, immediately causing the magical mask to mold itself after the shape of his own skin and then cause him to look like some sort of an escaped demon from hell.
After putting another pendant around his neck which contained an enchantment that made his voice sound darker, more brooding, and more somber, he picked up a black silk robe embroidered with blood-like red-strings in complicated patterns and then he put it on, cloaking his head with the hood and then making himself look like some sort of a veritable Sith Lord. Of course, all of these were all mere parlor tricks, but they all seemed to work wonders on the unsuspecting masses of followers who usually looked up to him, and also hid his true identity quite efficiently.
After leaving his residence through the secret passages and going on a rather long trip through the sewers, he finally got to the secret meeting place of the “Blood Brotherhood” Cult and Sect.
Once he entered the main meeting room, he spotted once again his oldest and most devout followers who were all waiting for him with eager eyes while surrounding the giant round table that lay in the middle of the room, each and every one of them looking like they were ready to even jump into the jaws of death if he ordered them to do so.
*Deep modified scary voice*
"My Dear Children. We have not seen each other in many moons, but I now come bearing both excellent and dire news.
"First, let’s get the good ones out of the way, so we can focus on the problematic ones better.
"The good news is that we now have inside of our pocket Emperor Bai of the Han Empire himself. The explosion which claimed the lives of all the three Emperors and all of the major Sect Leaders was indeed out of our expectations, but the end result has been quite a good outcome for all of us.
"Many groups and factions have been left in disarray after that whole debacle, which has fortunately allowed some of our Sect members to infiltrate or even take-over a decently large number of organizations, including the Han Imperial Court itself.
"Young Emperor Bai is a staunch believer in our cause, and he will aid us greatly from now on. Therefore, any daggers that you may find pointed against him or his younger sister in the dark must be disposed-of immediately and without mercy. There are still plenty of Noble factions that do not want to bow to the legitimacy of his rulership, and we are going to focus on getting rid of them for the next few months and then solidify our grip over the entire Imperial Court. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Great Founder! We shall all carry out your will!"
"Good. And now, for the bad news. As you might have all heard, a series of attacks of an unprecedented scale have occurred in all three of the Imperial Capitals, with one of them being thwarted by an intrepid group of adventurers in the Ming Capital, while the other two have unfortunately managed to destroy both our Han and Qin's Capital-Cities.
"I want to state this out loud so that everybody can understand it. Our Blood Brotherhood Sect DID NOT have any INTENTIONAL involvement in any of those horrible acts, but we now know with certainty who is at fault for the whole event.
"Any sacrifices of the living that our own Blood Sect has ever performed throughout its own history have always possessed a defined purpose, as we have always tried to counter the machinations of the Earthmother by doing so.
"But the wanton massacre and the absurd loss of life which has occurred as a result of those strange formations going off has been an act of sheer greed with only a totally selfish purpose in mind that got instigated by Hongmu, the Qin Prince and Emperor-to-be of our Eastern neighboring country.
"The purpose of those three formations had turned out to be the creation of a few crystallized Bloodgems which are made-up from the condensed life-essences who got drained away from all of the people that were present inside of the Capital-Cities at that particular moment, and each is an incredibly valuable artifact, as even a single one of those gems can allow the wearer to become nigh-immortal because such a gem can heal back to full health even the most grievous of wounds when equipped.
"Fortunately, our Sect Brothers have been able to intercept and confiscate the Bloodgem which got created from the lives of our Han people, and the object is now safely within our grasp, but the other Gem that got created from the lives of the Qin people now resides within the hands of that bastard Hongmu, which is very bad.
"It is with great sorrow that I have to report to you that our Sister-Sects from both the Ming Empire and the Qin Empire have fallen under the deep influence of Hongmu, and are probably the actual people behind the formation disasters."
*SHOCKED MURMURS OF DISAPPROVAL FROM THE WHOLE CROWD*
"I know, I know, but this is the price that we paid for our secrecy.
"The fact that we have been unable to continuously communicate with our Sister-Sects has led to this disaster, and I solely blame myself for not being able to predict that such a drift in loyalties could even occur amongst our enlightened selves."
"No, Founder, please don't say that!"
"Why shouldn't I? You should all get it out of your heads that I'm some sort of a perfect Saint-like figure who can do no wrong! I'm just another powerless humanoid, similar to everybody else that resides within this room! It is the sole reason why we all have to STICK TOGETHER at all times! A single branch is weak and can snap immediately, but a myriad of branches bundled up together can never be broken!
"The World Itself shuns us for the knowledge which we possess, and it will try to end our lives as cruelly as possible! The Earthmother knows no Mercy, so do not expect any! The only help that you will ever get in this life is going to be from one of your Blood Brothers, therefore it is an immense tragedy that certain members of our family have been led astray!
"I do not know what sort of lies Hongmu has told our Sister-Sects, but they have all been thoroughly brainwashed by his forked tongue. The fact that they had been willing to sacrifice even their own lives to protect those dreadful formations simply meant that they had been told such a convincing lie that it had caused them to think that their own lives were less important than the execution of that plan.
"The lie has been strong enough that they had even dared to infiltrate our Han Capital right beneath our noses and deploy that awful formation. Yes, we have been blindsided by Hongmu’s ruthlessness, but NO MORE! Today, I declare the Murdering-Emperor Hongmu Qin as our Blood Brotherhood’s life-and-death enemy, and issue a 100.000 gold bounty for anyone who can bring me back his head! Double that, if you can somehow get rid of Ifritt as well, but I doubt that such a task is going to be similarly easy."