Looking at Wotton, Gates, and Cecil standing before him, Lin Lei actually felt a trace of worry deep down.
Before he had entered seclusion, he had made it clear that this period of closed-door cultivation was extremely important, and that no one should disturb him unless it was absolutely necessary. Yet here they were, coming to fetch him anyway, which meant the situation had to be dire.
"Could it be that the danger lurking in this continental war has finally surfaced?" Lin Lei's mind churned uneasily. He remembered Lord Beirut's warning all too well.
Wotton, Gates, and Cecil exchanged glances. After a moment of silence, Cecil spoke up: "Lord Lin Lei, you have been in seclusion for over five years. In those five years, since the war began, a great many things have happened on the Yulan Continent. It would take too long to explain everything here. Perhaps we should head outside first, and then discuss it at length."
Lin Lei nodded slightly.
On the way back to the surface, Wotton quietly asked, "Brother, have you reached the Saint Realm?"
Gates and Cecil immediately looked at Lin Lei as well.
After all, Lin Lei had once estimated he could become a god within ten years, and nearly six of those years had already passed.
"Not quite yet." Lin Lei smiled faintly and shook his head. "If you hadn't come to interrupt my cultivation, I expect another half year would have been enough." In his heart, Lin Lei harbored an intense desire to ascend to godhood. Having cultivated the profound mystery of Speed to its current level, he could clearly feel it…
The Saint Realm was tantalizingly close.
All that remained was the final sliver of a breakthrough, because the profound mystery of Speed was formed by the fusion and corroboration of two great states: "fast" and "slow." Reaching perfection in either the "fast" or "slow" state alone was enough to become a low-tier god. And once the profound mystery of Speed reached true completion, Lin Lei would be a mid-tier god.
When cultivating the profound mystery of Speed, a bottleneck would only appear before reaching mid-tier godhood. Becoming a low-tier god carried no bottleneck at all.
Those like Desilu, Fain, Rosalie, and Tulier were all stuck at the final step precisely because the profound mysteries they comprehended were relatively low-level among the elemental laws. Across the infinite universe and its countless planes, most Saint-level powerhouses had only grasped relatively low-grade mysteries.
That Lin Lei had been able to comprehend the profound mystery of Speed owed a bit to sheer luck.
Though he could have become a god in roughly half a year, the fact that Wotton and the others had come to find him meant Lin Lei naturally had to emerge. After all, between cultivation and family, family came first. If his friends and relatives were in trouble, how could he just carry on cultivating in blissful indifference?
In the great hall of Dragonblood Castle.
A large crowd had gathered. Lin Lei sat quietly in the seat of honor, listening intently as Wotton recounted the many events of the past five years.
"A flood of extraordinary Saint-level powerhouses appeared?" As Wotton described how terrifyingly powerful figures had emerged during the war, Lin Lei couldn't help but grow puzzled. "The way Wotton tells it, most of these powerhouses are stronger than Saint-level Ultimate Warriors — they may even rival Desilu and Tulier."
Lin Lei could make that judgment easily.
Under normal circumstances, a Saint-level Ultimate Warrior was considered the second tier of power among Saint-level experts, just below the Saint-level peak. They stood on the same level as the now-dead Haitins and Wusenuo.
"Keeping pace with a Saint-level Lightning Dragon, and defeating it in a single move." Lin Lei was alarmed by the strength of the two Saint-level powerhouses in the Rohr Empire.
"A wave of fighters comparable to Desilu and Latherford has appeared. This is…" Lin Lei was deeply confused.
Over these five years, a whole host of mysterious Saint-level powerhouses had surfaced, and every single one of them was formidable.
It seemed each one possessed Saint-level peak strength.
"That can't be right." Lin Lei frowned. "These fighters definitely didn't exist before. If they had, the War God and the others would never have missed them." Lin Lei was absolutely certain of that. So if they hadn't existed in the past, then…
Evidently, these powerhouses must have arrived on the Yulan Continent's plane sometime within these five-plus years.
"Powerhouses from other planes?" Lin Lei was shaken by his own deduction.
"That doesn't quite fit either." He immediately dismissed the thought. "So what if they're from another plane? Is every fighter from another plane necessarily at the Saint-level peak?"
The Yulan Continent was itself an "other plane" from someone else's perspective.
It was natural that visitors from other planes might be strong, but it shouldn't be possible that every single one of them was this powerful!
"Brother, there's more," Wotton continued with a frown. "During this time, a mysterious religion has appeared within our Baruch Empire. They worship a god called 'Muba.' Brother, you said long ago that no other religions were to be allowed within our borders. We tried hard to suppress and eliminate this one. But we couldn't." Wotton shook his head.
Lin Lei's expression changed the moment he heard this.
A mysterious religion?
Who needed the power of faith? The answer was unmistakable —
A god.
"Go on," Lin Lei said immediately, fixing his gaze on Wotton. "How could you fail to wipe out a religion?"
Wotton nodded and continued: "First, this mysterious religion has hidden powerful fighters within its ranks. Second… this religion genuinely has some ability. It can actually produce divine miracles! Because of these miracles, quite a few people within our empire have come to truly believe in and worship this god 'Muba.'"
"Divine miracles?"
Lin Lei's face went pale.
"What's wrong, brother?" Wotton, Gates, Anko, and the rest of the crowd all looked at Lin Lei in confusion.
Because Lin Lei had been cultivating to become a god, he had once discussed many aspects of godhood in detail with Desilu and the others. He knew full well how beneficial the power of faith was to a god. That was precisely why, for example, the War God only allowed the citizens of the O'Brien Empire to worship him. All other religions were strictly forbidden.
And divine miracles…
Most of them could only be performed by a god utilizing the profound mysteries of the laws.
"An unknown religion can produce divine miracles, which means…" Lin Lei's heart trembled. "Behind this religion within our Baruch Empire, there stands a god-level powerhouse!"
"Wotton, Xini." Lin Lei issued his orders at once. "Listen to me carefully. Continue suppressing this religion as before, but remember — do not increase the pressure. Whatever you do, don't push them into open conflict with our empire. At least… not now."
The entire hall buzzed with confusion.
After all, aside from Lin Lei himself, how long had Wotton, Gates, and the others been at the Saint level? Even Cecil, though he had some experience, it was merely worldly experience — a bit of knowledge about necromancy. His understanding of the god realm was far inferior to Lin Lei's.