Chapter 395: Building a Salvation Organization

Afterward, Su Mu spent a long time experimenting until he grasped the current limits of the Heaven-Deceiving Bagua.

In terms of pure combat power, the Heaven-Deceiving Bagua could only exert Bronze Tier strength. Aside from making his abilities look flashy, it didn't enhance his lethality much at all.

But through these tests, he discovered the technique's true purpose. Imitating other abilities was just a secondary feature; its real power lay in Illusion Techniques!

By definition, Illusion Techniques wove the illusory. No matter how powerful an illusion was, it remained fake. Even if one used an illusion to create an entire world, that world would be false.

If a created world was real, it wouldn't be an Illusion Technique anymore—it would be a world-creation Divine Art.

The Heaven-Deceiving Bagua's greatest function was enhancing Illusion Techniques by layering them with reality.

For example, if Su Mu used an illusion to conjure a tornado, it might look lifelike, but it was ultimately a phantom with zero destructive power. But when augmented by the Heaven-Deceiving Bagua, that tornado became real.

The Heaven-Deceiving Bagua directly deceived the wind itself, forcing the air currents to accelerate and spiral until a genuine tornado formed!

Simply put, the technique applied tangible, real-world effects to his illusions, rendering them absolutely flawless.

Previously, Su Mu's illusions could only fool Gold-tier experts. Now, armed with the Heaven-Deceiving Bagua, not even a Gold King could see through them.

"An illusion capable of deceiving a Gold King..." A crystalline blue light flashed in his eyes as a plan gradually took shape in his mind.

If he wanted the Heaven-Deceiving Bagua to reach perfection as quickly as possible, deceiving the masses directly was the fastest route. But fabricating a lie from scratch to fool the entire world was too slow. The best approach was to stack a new lie on top of an existing one.

And what was the best existing lie?

The Seven Deadly Sins, of course!

What was the most fundamental element of weaving a story?

A protagonist and a villain. The clash between the two was what drew an audience.

He already had the villains—the Seven Deadly Sins. But what about the protagonist? Who in the modern world was qualified to stand as the hero against them?

Not even the Seven Kings were worthy. Thus, he could only fabricate a fictional figure. And this... was where the lie would begin.

The more Su Mu considered it, the more viable it seemed. The Seven Deadly Sins were simply too terrifying right now—terrifying to the point of absolute despair. Even the Seven Kings feared Pride. Because of this, an immense wave of hopelessness had washed over the world's populace.

Many believed that even if they survived this Nightmare Invasion, it wouldn't matter. The Seven Deadly Sins and Pride would still be out there.

If Pride could trigger one Nightmare Invasion, why couldn't he trigger a second? If the world was doomed to be destroyed and humanity destined for extinction, what was the point of fighting back?

Therefore, a salvation organization capable of contending with Pride and the Seven Deadly Sins had to step onto the stage to give people hope.

This salvation organization absolutely could not originate from the Divine Dream World. Pride was a God, which meant the only opponent capable of matching him had to be another God!

A God from the Nightmare World!

As a deity himself, it seemed perfectly reasonable for Pride to have a few hostile divine rivals back in the Nightmare World, didn't it?

Having made his decision, Su Mu traveled straight to Holy Brilliance City in the Nightmare World.

He planned to scout out some members for his salvation organization first. Just like the Seven Deadly Sins—whose Leader was a divine avatar leading a few subordinates—this salvation organization needed the same structure. Since the leader would be a divine avatar unable to personally descend in their true body, they would need a few mortal subordinates to act on their behalf.

Holy Brilliance City.

Su Mu descended directly into the city's Primal Church. Inside the grand hall, Red-robed Archbishop Hongye was leading a flock of believers in worship before the Primal Divine Statue. They chanted the Primal Doctrine, performing the mandatory daily prayers of true zealots.

Su Mu's sudden appearance out of thin air instantly drew everyone's attention.

Upon recognizing him, Hongye was overjoyed. "Greetings, Lord Divine Envoy."

"We greet the Lord Divine Envoy!"

The congregation of Primal believers prostrated themselves with even greater fanaticism, mistakenly assuming their absolute devotion had summoned the Divine Envoy.

"Has the Blasphemer been found?" Su Mu asked coldly.

He never bothered to show a pleasant face to these zealots because they ate this demeanor up. In their minds, a Divine Envoy was supposed to be exactly like this—lofty, untouchable, and disdainful of mortals.

A look of deep guilt washed over Hongye's face, and he dropped to his knees with a heavy thud.

"Your servant is incompetent. We have not yet located the Blasphemer. Please punish me, Lord Divine Envoy."

Thump, thump, thump...

He continually kowtowed, desperately trying to ease his inner guilt through the punishment.

"Rise. The Blasphemer is exceptionally cunning. I cannot place all the blame on you."

Su Mu wasn't surprised that they couldn't track down the First Red King. The First Red King was a completely different beast from the modern Seven Kings. As an old monster who had survived since the era of turmoil, he wouldn't be easy to deal with even while heavily injured.

Even someone as overwhelmingly powerful as the Pope had been plotted to death by the First Red King, which spoke volumes about the man's ruthless temperament and lethal methods.

Furthermore, Hell was vast. Since humanity's sphere of activity was confined entirely to the Middle Prison, the First Red King only needed to flee to another prison to render his tracks virtually untraceable.

"Thank you, Lord Divine Envoy." Hongye hurriedly scrambled to his feet.

"I have come today to issue instructions."

Hongye's expression turned solemn. "Please command us, Lord Divine Envoy."

"How many Gold Grade and Half-Step Saint Grade transcendents do we currently have in the cult?"

Hongye thought for a moment before replying, "Lord Divine Envoy, the Primal Divine Cult has over a hundred Gold Grade experts and five at the Half-Step Saint Grade."

Su Mu was mildly surprised. He hadn't expected the Primal Divine Cult's foundation to be so staggeringly deep. Even without a Saint Grade Pope, possessing over a hundred Gold experts and five Gold Kings made them fully deserving of the title of the Nightmare World's largest religious faction.

"Of these people, how many dual-cultivate the Law?"

Su Mu knew that the vast majority of these powerhouses followed the Divine Art system rather than the Law system, which was why he needed to ask.

"This..." Hongye hesitated, looking troubled. "Forgive me, Lord Divine Envoy. It is true that a fraction within the cult dual-cultivates the Law, but it was purely unintentional on their part. Some awakened it naturally, while others connected to the Law before they ever joined the cult. Your servant can guarantee that their faith in the Primal Angel is absolutely devout. It's impossible for them to..."

"Stop." Su Mu frowned slightly. Hongye had completely misunderstood his intent.

"I am not questioning their faith. I intend to recruit a group of people to enter a specific nightmare and clear out the Nightmare Creatures within. The absolute requirement is that they cannot use Primal Divine Magic."

Hongye was stunned. "May I ask why, Lord Divine Envoy?"

"I have my reasons," Su Mu said coldly. Naturally, he imposed this restriction because all Seven Kings knew the Primal Divine Cult was a branch of the Seven Deadly Sins. If he was going to create an organization hostile to the Seven Deadly Sins, its members obviously couldn't go around using Primal Divine Magic.

Hongye hastily lowered his head. "Your servant understands. Lord Divine Envoy, if we only count those who have reached the Gold Tier relying solely on the Law, there are a total of twenty-two people in the cult, plus one Half-Step Saint Grade."

"Select the five strongest from those twenty-two. Have them, along with that Half-Step Saint Grade, come see me."

"Yes, Lord Divine Envoy!"

Treating the order like an imperial decree, Hongye didn't dare delay for even a second and immediately rushed off to carry it out.

Watching the archbishop's retreating back, Su Mu calculated silently. Five Gold experts who dual-cultivated the Law—even if they were barred from using Primal Divine Magic, their overall strength would far surpass ordinary Gold-tier experts. Paired with a Gold King, this roster was more than enough to serve as the foundation of his salvation organization.

As long as he firmly established the persona of their Leader, the plan would be a total success.

He had actually considered using the Primal Divine Cult's massive influence to help clear the nightmares from the Divine Dream World earlier, but ultimately abandoned the idea because the drawbacks far outweighed the benefits.

The members of the Primal Divine Cult were real people. If they flooded into the Divine Dream World on a massive scale, it would inevitably cause a massive spike in the Divine Dream World's reality. That would strengthen the Gods' ability to interfere with the Divine Dream World. At that point, the Gods wouldn't even need to drive Nightmare Creatures to destroy the world; they would just step in and do it themselves.