Demon Bible

Chapter 216: Open Cards

As soon as Nemus spoke, one thing became abundantly clear to everyone present: Roman's current maneuver was highly likely to end in failure.

Bringing up Gotthard at a time like this proved that Nemus's actions had already been officially endorsed.

The biggest problem was that Roman himself belonged to the Governance Faction. He was in no position to contradict Gotthard, the local leader of that very faction.

Soon after, the crowd's attention shifted to the term "Historical Number."

"The so-called Historical Number is a resource required to achieve the Legend Rank. It can only be acquired by controlling the trajectory of history," Nemus revealed without a moment of hesitation.

A wave of shock washed over the audience upon hearing this. Some even leaped from their seats, staring at Nemus and Zoven in utter disbelief.

"Lilian's family possesses the Fae Bloodline, which grants them the ability to extract Historical Numbers," Nemus continued, exposing the root of the entire situation.

"Before Westbin died, he entrusted the secret of Lilian's family to me. Zoven has also awakened the Fae Bloodline. His blood is the key to unlocking the Historical Number."

"This is the very reason his family has managed to live in peace until now," Nemus declared earnestly. "Our transaction was proceeding normally. I regularly collected Zoven's blood. However, just over a month ago, Zoven broke the restrictions I placed on him and vanished. Aside from him, his entire family was found dead."

"I suspect that Zoven, resentful of having his blood drawn continuously, murdered his family and fled...""You are lying!"

"You are lying! Nels, do you dare to speak the truth?!"

Zoven's eyes practically bulged from their sockets. His face was flushed crimson, veins pulsing violently against his skin as if his blood might burst through. He glared fiercely at Nemus and roared at the top of his lungs.

He never imagined that Nemus could be so utterly shameless, turning the tables on him at a moment like this.

To actually pin the slaughter of his entire family on him, framing him as the murderer!

"Of course, this is merely my suspicion." Faced with Zoven's furious outburst, Nemus showed little emotional reaction. He simply waited for the young man to stop shouting before continuing, "Furthermore, wanting to keep the matter of the Historical Number a secret, I did not immediately issue a warrant for his arrest. Instead, I put out a private commission to have him brought back."

"As for whether the individuals who accepted the commission were those two men, I cannot say for sure."

"However, during this process, I received intelligence from the commissioned party. They reported that just as they were about to capture Zoven, they encountered interference from a mysterious external force, which prevented them from bringing him in."

"And that very night, I received this secret message attached to an arrow." Nemus produced the anonymous tip-off letter, the one suspected to have been sent by Baiter.

"I arranged for a covert investigation into the matter, a fact many here can attest to." The moment Nemus finished speaking, several clerics in the room immediately nodded in confirmation.

This was, in truth, a cunning psychological trick. People tend to simplify things. If you embed a universally acknowledged truth among a series of claims, the surrounding lies are far more likely to be accepted as facts.

"Therefore, I believe there might be another possibility. A mysterious third party is pulling the strings from the shadows. They, too, covet the Historical Number, so they incited Zoven to run away, slaughtered his family, and completely severed the ties between Zoven and myself."

Hearing Nemus's calm and rational deduction, even the highly agitated Zoven paused for a brief moment, wondering if the truth really aligned with what Nemus had just outlined.

After all, when the Desperate Duo had been hunting him down, there truly had been an assist from a spatial power, which triggered a new transformation in his Sword of Polaris.

Moreover, he hadn't actually witnessed Nemus murdering his family. He had only learned of their deaths from Lilian, and he had naturally assumed Nemus was the culprit.

But this flicker of doubt lasted only a second before Zoven fiercely banished it from his mind.

Nemus was absolutely not innocent. The man's relationship with Opper alone was inexplicably shady. Beneath that facade of justice, there wasn't a single drop of righteousness!

Yet, Zoven snapping back to his senses wasn't enough. The vast majority of the clerics present now firmly believed that the massacre of Zoven's family had nothing to do with Nemus.

Of course, to some others in the room, it did not matter anyway. So what if he was involved?

Westbin had committed a grave crime back in the day, yet he hoarded immense wealth and controlled the Fae Bloodline—a vital resource linked to the Legend Rank.

Since Westbin had fallen, his family deserved to die.

Who pulled the trigger was entirely irrelevant.

The only thing that mattered now was the Historical Number!

"I have now reached the most critical phase before extracting the Historical Number," Nemus continued. "During this period, history will experience turbulence, leading to many incidents that are unfavorable to me."

"Only now do I realize the wisdom behind Lord Gotthard's words."

"For the time being, I will minimize my activities outside."

"I ask that all of you maintain order."

Nemus spoke these words, yet his gaze was locked directly onto Zoven.

It was as if he were silently declaring, 'I welcome all of you who harbor hostility toward me to try and cause trouble during this time.'

"Oh no, this is bad!" Lilian fluttered anxiously beside Zoven, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "This Nels is truly different from the usual fools who covet the Historical Number."

"His state, the way he is drawing upon history... it has already surpassed the bounds of normalcy. A historical trajectory centered around Tail Fin Town should only affect the region on the back of a single Azure Sky Whale. How could it..."

Lilian darted about in agitation, a lingering dread telling her that things were spiraling wildly out of control.

Generally speaking, since everyone now lived on the backs of the Floating Whales, the flow of history would naturally be confined to a single Whaleback, unless a catastrophic event occurred.

Lilian had initially assumed that the current shifts would yield, at most, two or three tenths of a complete Historical Number. Anything less than a full portion was entirely insufficient to forge a being of the Legend Rank.

In other words, the historical alterations here would peak at the Gold Grade, capable of creating a hero of the Golden Rank.

Even if the ripples spread further, increasing historical influence and dragging the entire future of the Azure Sky Whale into the mix, the extracted Historical Number would only reach five or six tenths at best.

The worst-case scenario should have merely been a brawl between a few Golden Rank combatants, ending with one or two of them dead.

But the current historical fluctuations felt deeply, terrifyingly wrong.

Nemus's brazen attitude of facing a historical challenge head-on was absolutely not something an ordinary person could possess.

And yet, despite entering a Historical Transition Period, no Golden Rank beings had intervened. It still appeared as though it were just a localized historical shift.

In her thousands of years of existence, Lilian had never witnessed such a paradoxical historical anomaly.

Just as Lilian was wracking her brain for an answer, she suddenly sensed something amiss.

She snapped her head up toward Nemus, only to find his eyes—glinting with a faint, chilling smile—locked dead upon her!